During a freshmen orientation session on Monday, National Taiwan University (NTU) president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) gave some advice to the new students, including avoiding parking their bicycles randomly.
The other three bits of advice Lee gave the NTU students were: Don’t cheat on exams; don’t copy other students’ assignments and don’t skip classes.
Bicycle parking has long been a problem at NTU, with an average of 2,000 bikes impounded per year because of “illegal parking.”
When Lee told students not to park bicycles at random, some students who had been dozing off snapped to attention and burst out laughing.
Lee said a person’s moral character could be assessed by minor behaviors, adding that “parking bikes anywhere one likes is like running a red traffic light. It’s a matter of one’s moral standard.”
University administrative officials said the school’s Shuiyuan campus, where impounded bikes are held, had 1,000 bikes waiting to be claimed. Because of the large number of bikes impounded there, the campus had to turn 800 into scrap iron this year.
Lee said students should avoid skipping classes unless they had a good reason.
As an example of one case in which skipping class was warranted, Lee cited a student who left school to go on a tour of Europe, returning to Taiwan a new man who was able to focus on studying after he found his “life goals.”
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS