EARTHQUAKES
Quake hits eastern Taiwan
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake jolted eastern Taiwan at 3:38pm yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said. The earthquake’s epicenter was 44.2km southwest of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 9.1km, on the border between Hualien and Nantou counties, bureau officials said. The strongest tremor, with an intensity of 4, was felt in Hong-ye Village (紅葉) in Hualien. Three moderate quakes shook the east earlier in the day, with the strongest one occurring at 4:29am. It measured 4.7, with the epicenter 57.8km beneath the sea, 15.5km southeast of the Taitung County Government, the bureau said. Before that, a magnitude 4 earthquake hit at 00:50am, with the epicenter 22.1km beneath the sea, 39km southeast of the Yilan County Government building, it said. An earthquake measuring 3.4 in magnitude also occurred at 3:14am, with its epicenter 22.1km beneath the surface, the bureau said.
DOCUMENTARY
Show highlights innovation
The nation’s achievements in industrial, agricultural and medical innovations are highlighted in a three-part documentary titled Taiwan Revealed produced by the Discovery Channel. The first episode focuses on industrial innovation and highlights examples such as the development of the world’s first transparent smartphone. It premiered in Taiwan on Monday and is to be replayed on Saturday. The second episode features agricultural innovation, including the use of coffee grounds to produce clothes that can remove odors and a water filtering device that can filter seriously polluted water, the channel said, adding that it would air on Monday. The third episode, which is still being filmed, will focus on issues such as minimally invasive surgery, Discovery said, and is set to air next year.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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