UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY
Only female mosquitoes, which have a life span of six to 10 weeks, feed on human blood. They usually prefer a damp, dark and warm environment
FIGHTING MOSQUITOES EVERYWHERE
Outdoors
Take the fight outdoors as mosquitoes often lurk in vegetation, before they get the chance to venture indoors. Mosquito repellent incense made from pyrethrum, a chrysanthemum-derived insecticide, can be nauseating when inhaled for long periods of time, so it is better suited for outdoor usage.
An effective alternative is photo-catalytic mosquito repellents, which use ultraviolet light and heat to produce carbon dioxide. The CO2 draws mosquitoes near the machine, which then uses its fan to suck them in.
Indoors
Liquid mosquito repellent and electronic repellents are similar in effectiveness. Both are mildly scented or odorless, but still shouldn’t be inhaled over a long period of time. Neither requires a flame, which makes them safer for indoor use. Bug-catching lights and mosquito-zapping bats are also convenient to have in the
Portable
For protection on the go, there
are portable
mini-fans that release repellent and form an invisible protective shield around users. They are light and don’t require a plug, but can irritate the eyes. Another option is repellent devices that produce a high-frequency sound resembling that of a male mosquito’s. As pregnant females avoid males, they stay away from the wearer.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby