■ EVENTS
NCA seeks best pop songs
The National Cultural Association (NCA) launched an online poll yesterday to determine the popular songs that best represent Taiwan, NCA chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) said. Visitors to the association's Web site (www.ncatw.org.tw/musicmit) can choose their favorite pop songs from a list of approximately 100, Tchen said. NCA will announce the results on Oct. 31, along with the names of 10 participants selected randomly for prizes. Meanwhile, the National Experimental Chorus has accepted an invitation to perform at a Taiwanese pop music concert on Nov. 24 at Taipei's National Concert Hall, Tchen said.
■ SOCIETY
Scrotum freed from buckle
A 50 year-old man from Shulin City (樹林), Taipei County, surnamed Hsiao (蕭) narrowly avoided having his testicles surgically removed after he was unable to take off a metal buckle he previously slipped over them. "His testicles and scrotum had swollen to about 10cm in diameter, about the size of a softball," said Far Eastern Memorial Hospital's chief urologist Chan Pei-hwei (陳沛輝), who treated the man early on Wednesday afternoon. Surgical implements were useless against the metal buckle. Firefighters armed with hydraulic shears were unable to cut through the buckle because it was too close to the flesh. It wasn't until Chan found a power grinder tool that he was able to slowly grind through the ring, freeing the man from the buckle around midnight on Wednesday. Chan said the man's swelling went down and he was able to leave the hospital yesterday morning.
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