The combination of polar bears and melting ice is heady mix－so much so that the animal's plight as become a rallying cry in the fight against climate change
By Simon Garfield
Not so long ago polar bears were a symbol of cold, but these days they are a symbol of warmth. In the past few weeks it has become difficult to open a newspaper or web page without seeing photographs of the beautiful yellowy-white animals leaping, or lying on sea ice in the Arctic, the newly helpless emblem of climate change. The traditional threats to the polar bear — hunting, toxic waste, offshore drilling — have been overshadowed by a new one: the ice around them is melting, and we are to blame.

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Peter Townshend is a rock star, tech head, tabloid fodder and weary veteran
By Sean Daly
"We stay sane by counting our money."

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A tough job with low profit margins, Wang Fen-chi continues a tradition of tofu making that has been in his family for over a century
By Noah Buchan
Wang Fen-chi (王鈖基) gently stacks pallets of soft tofu (嫩豆腐) into a square metal frame that is bolted into the ground out front of his small factory in Shiding (石碇), a small village located about a 40-minute drive from Taipei. The tofu is so fresh that steam wafts off from the side of the wooden skids as water trickles down onto the cement floor. Beside the metal rack used for stacking and pressing soft tofu is a large circular stone that Wang's great-great grandfather once used to grind yellow soybeans, a testament to his family's long tradition of making tofu by hand.

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Forget wealth and health: love is the best way to ensure you'll be alive in 10 years' time, says David Halpen
By Gaby Hinsliff
It is a simple question, but it may just reveal whether or not you will live to a ripe old age: does somebody love you?

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`Vignettes of Taiwan' may be slightly dated, but it does offer some witty insights of life on the island for foreign visitors and locals alike
By Bradley Winterton
Vignettes of Taiwan is a collection of anecdotes, travel impressions and photos put together by an American who's currently 36, but was only 24 when he arrived in Taiwan in 1994. He relates how he spent some time teaching English without a work permit, took a three-year break, part of it in China, then returned to Taiwan to embark on life as a freelance writer.

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`Tales From the Torrid Zone' is a travel writer's meanderings through tropical climes with their strange sights, bad food, comic scenes and forgotten history
By William Grimes
It's the heat and the humidity. Alexander Frater settles that question early on in Tales From the Torrid Zone as he wanders, in seven-league boots, across the earth's fat, sweaty midsection, swatting flies and mosquitoes all the way. That's not even the half of it. Along with the palm trees and the beaches and the relentless heat, the tropics also feature "extreme weather, geological instability and a whole host of ghastly afflictions," Frater writes.

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FICTION
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