BUSINESS
Trend Micro breaks record
Trend Micro, a major global content security provider, has successfully released 865 mousetraps in a domino circle, a feat expected to set a new Guinness World Record. The Tokyo-headquartered, Taiwanese-founded multinational said it broke the previous record of 200 mousetraps and would submit its claim to the Guinness World Records organization for formal confirmation. The mousetrap game, which was organized in Hsinchu City this year, was part of the company’s annual engineering camp aimed at enhancing the team spirit of its 700 engineers from around the world.
AGRICULTURE
Sweet dumpling prices rise
Prices of sweet rice dumplings, traditionally eaten on the winter solstice in Taiwan, have risen by between 10 and 30 percent this year, but the Council of Agriculture said yesterday that prices are still under control. The statement was made by Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) cited complaints from the public about the price increase, which are a result of a rise in the price of glutinous rice. Taiwan produced more than 58,000 tonnes of glutinous rice this year, more than 15,000 tonnes short of the amount required to meet demand, Ting said, adding the council should have responded to the situation earlier. Part of the glutinous rice sold in Taiwan in the past years was imported, Chen said, adding that global prices have gone up because a drought in Thailand has caused a shortage.
BUSINESS
Gou voted most charismatic
Terry Gou (郭台銘), chairman of the Foxconn Group, was voted the most charismatic boss by Taiwanese workers, according to the results of a recent online survey. Twenty-one percent of the respondents in the Yes123 job bank poll said they hoped to work with 60-year-old Gou, head of the world’s largest computer and electronic components contract manufacturer, whose major clients include Apple and Dell. Yulong Group chairman Kenneth Yen (嚴凱泰) was second, with 10.9 percent of the votes, and Yu Mei-ren (于美人), an entertainment agent who is a former TV host, was third. Although Gou is known as a tough boss, his company was voted as the second most attractive corporation in Taiwan because of the generous prize money it gives away at its year-end party, said Chiu Wen-jen (邱文仁), the job bank’s deputy CEO. Last year the top prize was 200,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at NT$26.9 million (US$900,000). Gou’s personal fame has also helped the company’s ranking, Chiu added. The survey was conducted online from Nov. 29 through Dec. 6, collecting 2,219 valid samples.
TRANSPORTATION
CAL to launch Wuhan service
China Airlines (CAL) will begin regularly scheduled flights between Taipei and Wuhan, China, on Jan. 26 the company said yesterday. The carrier will operate two round-trip flights a week to Wuhan, which will become its 17th destination in China. CAL said the new route reflected its interest in adding flights to second-tier Chinese cities, such as Wuhan, and in taking advantage of growing demand from the tourism sector for flights between Taiwan and China. It sees Wuhan, one of China’s ancient cities, as an attractive destination because it has long been a tourism center.
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