■SOCIETY
Trained dogs available
While puppies may be fluffy and cute, grown dogs may not be so to some people. The canine halfway home at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s (NPUST) Innovation and Practical Training Center recently began a stray dog training program, with the hope that strays with good behavior could attract adopters. The 10-year home presently hosts about 200 dogs monthly depending on adoption rates. The training program began after the director of the halfway home Shia Liang-chou (夏良宙) observed that while puppies had adoption rates over 80 percent, dogs over a year old had less than 20 percent adoption rates, which meant that they may face being put down. The home picked out 15 strays as a launch program, and, within two weeks had successfully trained them to sit, shake hands, change hands, lay, stand and stay, Shia said. Trained dogs go up for adoption starting today. Free microchips, neutering and some shots would be included. To adopt, call 08-774-0348.
■SOCIETY
Taipei goes under the lens
A 24-hour photography contest was held in Taipei onSaturday, with 460 amateur photographers from around the country competing to tell the best story of Taiwan’s capital city with their digital cameras. The contest is being held for the seventh consecutive year. The organizers said that amateur photographers of all ages, ranging from elementary school students to retirees, and from all walks of life, from medical professionals to IT industry workers, are competing in this year’s event. According to contest rules, the participants must take photos of several of Taipei’s major sites — including the 228 Peace Memorial Park, the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, Ximending’s Red House and the Taipei Film House — and process the photos on computers set up by the event organizers within 24 hours of the start of the contest. The contest results and winners are to be announced on Sept. 16, the organizers said.
■ARTS
Hu concerts start on Friday
The National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO) on Friday will present concerts featuring symphonies based on renowned Aboriginal musician Kimbo Hu’s (胡德夫) musical works and other pieces with an Aboriginal touch. Having been devoted to US oldies and participated in social movements in the 1980s, Hu’s music is a blend of western and Taiwanese Aboriginal elements, with lyrics describing local scenes. He will also perform as a pianist and a vocalist at the concerts. For more information, visit www.ntso.gov.tw
■EDUCATION
Periodical wins award
An English-learning periodical publisher in Taiwan, Studio Classroom, has won the Asian Publishing Award, a prize that recognizes best publishing practices in Asia, for its creative Internet marketing, Studio Classroom General Manager Simon Hung (洪善群) said yesterday. Hung said the magazine won the award for content delivery and audience-building activities, including the development of multimedia channels, in the category of Asian Magazine Management Awards. The publishing company, founded in 1962 by Doris Brougham, also known by her Chinese name Peng Meng-huei (彭蒙惠), won another award in the same category last year. A total of 203 projects from 22 countries competed for 11 awards in the program this year, Hung said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching