INTERNET
‘Taipei’ domain announced
The creation of a “.taipei” domain was announced yesterday by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), with Taipei joining the ranks of cities such as Tokyo, New York and Paris in having its own domain. The domain name has been approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Internet’s domain name system, with registration for Web addresses using the new domain to open to holders of internationally registered business trademarks on Dec. 1. The first wave of registrants is set to include Taipei 101, the National Palace Museum and corporations such as Din Tai Fung, China Airlines and Asus, with registration to be opened to all applicants at an unspecified date.
TRANSPORTATION
YouBike hits 30m riders
Taipei’s YouBike system reached 30 million total users on Oct. 22 following the doubling of its ridership with more than 2.6 million newly registered EasyCards in the prior six months, officials said. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and Giant Co president Liu Chin-piao (劉金標) personally initialed first and second-generation YouBikes to commemorate the record. Hau said the system’s success — garnering 99 percent approval ratings across the municipality — was due to tireless negotiation by the city administration and other units, adding that initial difficulties had paid off significantly. With 176 stations in Taipei, the system is rapidly growing into a symbol of the ease of travel within the municipality, Hau said. The useful nature of the system has also encouraged its implementation elsewhere, with a total of 86 stations spread across New Taipei City, Taichung and Changhua, regional transportation officials have said.
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