■ On-line to the throne
Flushing out the secrets of America's Web surfers, a new survey of Internet use has found that more and more people are logging on -- in the bathroom. The snapshot of how the Internet has changed American life, concluded that home wireless connections were allowing people to stay connected everywhere -- even in the smallest room in the house. "A significant number of Americans use the computer connection in the bathroom," said Jeffrey Cole, of the University of Southern California Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. Since people were unlikely to be surfing in the bath, or while brushing their teeth, Cole said he had concluded that many of them went off into cyberspace while on the throne. "Over half of those who used Wi-fi had used it in the bathroom," said Cole, remarking that he believed some people in busy homes retreated there for some privacy.
■ Cyprus counts cost of Viagra
The Cyprus government is proposing that condoms and the anti-impotency drug Viagra be included among a raft of new items being added to the monthly consumer price index that tracks inflation. The state statistics department is preparing a list of 153 more goods and services to be added in the first change to the cost of living index since 2000, according to the Greek-language Phileleftheros newspaper. The proposed list reflects the change in the eastern Mediterranean island's lifestyle trends by including the average price of hair waxing, contact lenses, hair gel, hands-free mobile phone accessories, vodka, pay-TV subscriptions, hunting licenses, blank CDs and a visit to the osteopath.
■ `12 days of Christmas' index up
One partridge in a pear tree: US$104.99, up 12.9 percent. Seven swans-a-swimming: US$4,200, up 20 percent. Overall, the cost of the items cited in the holiday song The Twelve Days of Christmas is US$18,348, up 6.1 percent over last year, according to the annual Christmas Price Index released this week by PNC Bank. "The Christmas Price Index reflects the economic trends that we have witnessed during the past year," said Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for PNC Advisors. The bank said high energy costs and the impact of avian flu on imported bird prices was the main driver of Christmas inflation. Costs for domestic birds (four French hens and two turtledoves) were unchanged from a year ago.
■ Norway makes Santa its own
Norway will call in extra air traffic controllers for the Christmas rush as hundreds of thousands of tourists, primarily from Britain, take to the skies to visit Santa in Finland's far north, Norwegian officials said this week. Each year during the holiday season dozens of special daily flights link the European continent to the Arctic village of Rovaniemi, the official home of Father Christmas, creating headaches for air controllers in the countries the planes fly over, such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Some 400,000 tourists visit Rovaniemi each year, 90 percent of whom hail from Britain.
■ Seattle sound for literacy
Seattle, the west coast haven of coffee, culture and the Arts has been named America's most literate city. A study put Seattle directly ahead of Minneapolis, Washington, Atlanta and San Francisco in terms of literacy, which researchers said was critical to a city's long term economic and social success. Researchers at Central Connecticut State University surveyed the literacy of 69 of America's largest cities in terms of newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet use.
■ Monkeys have neutral accents too
To the untrained ear monkeys of a certain species may all sound the same, but Japanese researchers have found that, like human beings, they actually have an accent depending on where they live. The finding, the first of its kind, will appear in the December edition of a German scientific journal Ethology that was published yesterday, the primate researchers said this week. The research team analyzed voice tones of two groups of the same species of primates, the Japanese Yakushima macaque also known as Macaca fuscata yakui, between 1990 and 2000.
■ Caps off to Belgian office workers
The ever-efficient Belgian postal service wants to know how long it takes mailmen and women to put on and take off their motorbike helmets, a report said this week. At present, the people delivering mail have to put on their helmets when they leave or return from a trip, but are not obliged to wear them during the trip itself, the Flemish Het Nieuwsblad op Zondag newspaper reported, citing the Belga press agency. The impetus for this helmets on-off calculation is an increase in accidents among the 4,000 motorized mail carriers.
Nothing like the spectacular, dramatic unraveling of a political party in Taiwan has unfolded before as has hit the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over recent weeks. The meltdown of the New Power Party (NPP) and the self-implosion of the New Party (NP) were nothing compared to the drama playing out now involving the TPP. This ongoing saga is so interesting, this is the fifth straight column on the subject. To catch up on this train wreck of a story up to Aug. 20, search for “Donovan’s Deep Dives Ko Wen-je” in a search engine. ANN KAO SENTENCED TO PRISON YET AGAIN,
Despite her well-paying tech job, Li Daijing didn’t hesitate when her cousin asked for help running a restaurant in Mexico City. She packed up and left China for the Mexican capital last year, with dreams of a new adventure. The 30-year-old woman from Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, hopes one day to start an online business importing furniture from her home country. “I want more,” Li said. “I want to be a strong woman. I want independence.” Li is among a new wave of Chinese migrants who are leaving their country in search of opportunities, more freedom or better financial prospects at a
When the Dutch began interacting with the indigenous people of Taiwan, they found that their hunters classified deer hide quality for trade using the Portuguese terms for “head,” “belly,” and “foot.” The Portuguese must have stopped here more than once to trade, but those visits have all been lost to history. They already had a colony on Macao, and did not need Taiwan to gain access to southern China or to the trade corridor that connected Japan with Manila. They were, however, the last to look at Taiwan that way. The geostrategic relationship between Taiwan and the Philippines was established
Sept. 9 to Sept. 15 The upgrading of sugarcane processing equipment at Ciaozaitou Sugar Factory (橋仔頭) in 1904 had an unintended but long-lasting impact on Taiwan’s transportation and rural development. The newly imported press machine more than doubled production, leading to an expansion of the factory’s fields beyond what its original handcarts and oxcarts could handle. In 1905, factory manager Tejiro Yamamoto headed to Hawaii to observe how sugarcane transportation was handled there. They had trouble finding something suitable for Taiwan until they discovered a 762mm-gauge “miniature” railroad at a small refinery in the island of Maui. On
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