ENVIRONMENT
Wild bird index launched
The first index of wild birds in Taiwan consisting of sketches by a local artist was launched recently and could become the new authority on the subject, the Forestry Bureau said. The index, which includes introductions of 658 bird species spotted in the nation, is seen as the most comprehensive compilation of its kind, the bureau said earlier this month at the book’s launch ceremony. Drawn by 33-year-old Lee Cheng-lin (李政霖), the book features color sketches of about 2,500 birds — including male and female birds of each species — in different movements and living in different habitats. The book was a collaborative effort between the bureau and the Wild Bird Society of Taipei. Taiwanese bird expert Hsiao Mu-ji (蕭木吉) was the editor-in-chief of the book, which took six years to complete.
EDUCATION
Taipei No. 25 student city
Taipei ranked 25th in a survey of the best cities for international students, up three notches from last year, according to a survey published by a British higher education institution on Monday last week. Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) lists the world’s 50 top cities for students in its annual “QS Best Student Cities” rankings. Taipei was ahead of Beijing (26th) and Shanghai (32nd). Paris topped the list, followed by Melbourne, London and Sydney, in that order, with Boston and Hong Kong tied for fifth. Hong Kong was listed seventh last year. Rounding out the top 10 are Tokyo, Montreal, Toronto and Seoul. The survey draws on data on five key areas: universities, affordability, lifestyle, employment prospects and student community. To be included, a city must have a population of more than 250,000 and at least two institutes of higher education featured in the QS university rankings. A total of 116 cities and territories meet these criteria, 50 of which are ranked.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater