■ Weather
CWB issues sea warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea warning for typhoon Damrey yesterday, anticipating rough seas in the Bashih Channel and torrential rain for southern and southeastern Taiwan for the next several days. The tropical storm, with a radius of 200km, was centered 340km south-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at 5pm yesterday, moving in a west-northwest direction toward Taiwan at a speed of 12kph, CWB meteorologists reported. Damrey, the 18th typhoon reported in the Pacific this year, is forecast to continue moving toward the South China Sea over the following two days and to directly affect the Bashih Channel area. The eastern part of Taiwan as well as the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at the southernmost tip of Taiwan were expected to begin experiencing heavy rain by nightfall yesterday when these areas came under the influence of the typhoon, while the northern and northeastern parts of the country are forecast to see rain starting today.
■ Society
Women upset with figures
Nearly 75 percent of Taiwan's career women are unsatisfied with their figure, but only 12 percent regularly exercise to improve their figure and health, a poll showed yesterday. According to the poll of 1,782 career women by the E-Woman Weekly, 74.6 percent are unsatisfied with their figure. Of those, 55 percent are unhappy about their thighs, and the rest don't like their abdomen or their behind. However, only 12 percent of Taiwan's career women regularly exercise, 31 percent occasionally exercise and 57 percent never exercise. Reasons for not doing exercise were laziness (65 percent) as well as being too busy and lacking an exercise partner. When asked what kind of exercise they do, 42 percent said window shopping, 21 percent mentioned using Hula Hoops and 10 percent said walking and hiking.
■ Religion
Religious terms suggested
A civic group yesterday resurrected its call for the government and media to support a campaign to change what they say are discriminatory Chinese translations for terms related to Islam and Judaism. The Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan yesterday requested the government and media replace the commonly-used Chinese translation for the religion of Islam, hui chiao (回教), with yisilan chiao (伊斯蘭教) and Muslim, hui chiao tu (回教徒), with muslin (穆斯林) because hui has a connotation of paganism. The foundation also called for substituting the Chinese characters 尤太 (you tai) for the currently used characters for "Jew", 猶太 (also you tai). The foundation said that you (猶) with the "dog" radical refers to a type of monkey and has the connotation of stinginess.
■ Education
More students study abroad
More than 30,000 Taiwanese students went abroad to study last year, nearly 80 percent of whom opted to go to English-speaking countries, according to tallies made public yesterday by the government. A total of 32,525 Taiwanese students applied for visas for academic purposes with foreign representative offices in Taiwan last year, up 23.6 percent over the 2003 figure, but down by 3.7 percent from the peak number posted in 2002, statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show. The US attracted the largest number of students -- 14,054 -- while the UK and Australia came second and third, luring 9,207 and 2,246 students from Taiwan, respectively.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
RSS