WEATHER
Cooler temperatures coming
Beginning today, temperatures in northern Taiwan could drop to 21°C because of stronger northeast winds, the Central Weather Bureau said on Sunday. Bureau forecaster Chiang Li-hung (姜禮鴻) said lows in northern and central areas could hit 21°C or 22°C, and 24°C or 25°C in the south. Starting tomorrow, highs will drop to 29°C in the north, while highs in central and southern regions will be 31°C or 32°C, he said. The bureau’s forecast showed relatively cooler weather would continue from tomorrow through Saturday. Chiang said chances of showers are still high in the northern and northeastern regions.
DESIGN
Taiwanese nabs gold at IDEA
Industrial designer Hsieh Jung-ya (謝榮雅) won a gold medal at this year’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday for packaging he designed for a limited edition of the Tatung electric cooker. The packaging for the cooker’s 50th anniversary is made of gold-colored ecofriendly pulp, based on the concept of a golden anniversary for marriage, according to the GIXIA Group headed by Hsieh. It was the second IDEA gold medal Hsieh has won. His previous medal was in 2006 in the environment category for a fence. Organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America, IDEA is among the world’s four major design awards, along with iF and Red Dot of Germany and Japan’s G-Mark.
HEALTH
Taiwanese don’t exercise
Taiwanese exercise the least of anybody in the world, contributing to non--communicable diseases (NCD) in the country, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said in a speech at an APEC meeting in San Francisco on Saturday. Speaking at the Health System Innovation Policy Dialogue, Chiu said the lack of exercise was one of the four major reasons for NCDs and the most serious factor in Taiwan. Based on a standard of exercising at least three times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time, Chiu said Taiwanese exercised less than people in most other countries. Chiu said the situation needed to be improved to lower Taiwan’s cancer rates — one of the four major NCDs along with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease — by 10 percent. Chiu also shared Taiwan’s experiences in cancer prevention and treatment. He said more widespread breast cancer screenings, pap smears and oral cancer screenings had helped to lower their incidence rates. Taiwan was also the first country to prevent incidences of hepatitis B and liver cancer through vaccinations, he said.
SOCIETY
Centenarians to get gold
The Ministry of the Interior has decided to give each centenarian in the country a gold plaque as a commemorative gift. The ministry said there were 1,509 centenarians in Taiwan as of Wednesday, up from 1,399 the previous year. Taipei had the most, at 297, followed by New Taipei City (新北市) at 229 and Greater Taichung with 114. Taoyuan County, Greater Tainan and Greater Kao-hsiung also had more than 100 centenarians. Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said centenarians were “treasures of the country,” because they had witnessed the Republic of China’s birth, growth and democratization. Jiang said the ministry would give the plaques, each weighing about 10.2g, to individuals 100 or older for the Double Ninth Festival — the traditional senior citizens’ day on the lunar calendar — as a gift symbolizing longevity and good fortune.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai