SOCIETY
Charities seek banquet funds
The Genesis Social Welfare Foundation is appealing to the public for donations to help fund year-end banquets it plans to hold for the homeless and the poor this month. Genesis, which is staging the events along with the Huashan Social Welfare Foundation and the Zenan Social Welfare Foundation, on Sunday said it is missing more than 50 percent of the funds the organizations need to host the 15 banquets they have planned for Jan. 23. The banquets are expected to provide meals for 26,000 homeless, elderly people living alone and impoverished single-parent families. About 1,000 additional volunteers are also needed to serve the people attending the Taipei banquet, the groups said. The groups are also asking people to donate sleeping bags and winter clothes for the homeless and the needy. Members of the public can call (02)2835-7700 to make donations or register to become volunteers.
SOCIETY
Tainan to host drum fest
Greater Tainan is gearing up to once again host a five-day international drum festival that will enable the public to enjoy a boisterous Lunar New Year holiday, the organizers said. The festival will feature seven percussion groups from Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, according to Taiwan’s Grammy-nominated Ten Drum Art Percussion Group (十鼓擊樂團), which is organizing the festival along with the Greater Tainan Cultural Affairs Bureau. Nobushi of Japan, NADI Singapura from Singapore and the South Korean traditional percussion group SLAP are among those slated to perform at the event. The drumming expo will be held from Jan. 31 until Feb. 4 at the historic Eternal Golden Castle.
ASTRONOMY
Sunspots to stay till Sunday
A large group of sunspots are expected to remain visible to the naked eye until Sunday as solar activity peaks, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said yesterday. The sunspots are to be one of the most noticeable solar events since mid-2012, museum official Chang Kuei-lan (張桂蘭) said. Coded AR 1944, the sunspots are spread over an area 25 times bigger than the Earth’s surface and should remain visible for the rest of the week, before rotating away from the planet, Chang said. The emergence of large sunspot populations occurs when the sun enters a period of increasing magnetic field turbulence, which can lead to large eruptions of charged particles that form dark dots as seen from Earth. The best times to see the spots are early morning and late evening when there is not much sunlight. Sungazers should use solar filters instead of ordinary sunglasses to protect their eyes, she said.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Battling shrimp disease
A university yesterday unveiled a technology that allows shrimp farmers to identify a deadly bacterium. Co-developed by National Cheng Kung University in Greater Tainan, the technology enables farmers to test within a day for the bacterial disease that has swept several Asian countries since 2009, causing huge losses. Baby shrimps with the disease, dubbed “early mortality syndrome,” display symptoms about 10 days after being released into aquaculture ponds and soon afterward die in large numbers, said Lo Chu-fang (羅竹芳), head of the university’s College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, who led the research team. The research team said it is offering the technology free to shrimp farmers around the world.
EDUCATION
Students set for US trip
Twelve students are set to depart for the US next week, where they are set to interact with their US counterparts and discuss the science of coral reefs. The “coral reef ambassadors” and their 13 chaperones were chosen by the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung County to represent Taiwan. They are set to visit San Diego, California, from Jan. 17 to Jan. 29. Teachers and students said they hope the visit will equip the young ambassadors with knowledge of different cultures and inspire them to boost awareness of marine conservation in the future. This is the second year the museum has been selected under the Museums Connect grant program, an international collaboration scheme administered by the American Alliance of Museums.
SOCIETY
Condoms, tampons going online
Taipei-based shopping Web sites will be able to sell condoms, tampons and body fat monitors online for the first time by the end of the week following revisions to national regulations, Taipei Food and Drug Office official Chiu Hsiu-yi (邱秀儀) said yesterday. Changes were announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to the Classification and Registration Requirements of Mail-Order Purchase for Medical Devices (藥商得於郵購買賣通路販賣之醫療器材及應行登記事項) on Thursday last week. The new regulations allow pharmacists to sell the items, classified as class II medical devices, online and via mail-order. Online shopping sites said they are waiting for the green light after sending in their applications to the Taipei City Government following the announcement.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition