■ SCIENCE
Festival teaches about life
The National Science Council yesterday launched the ninth annual Science Festival, which will run through Feb. 28. This year’s festival theme is “Science in Life,” with seven exhibitions planned at science museums in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taitung. “Knowledge gained from life experience is in fact a kind of science and we want to link the two in the exhibition to teach the public about its surroundings,” Department of Science Education director Lin Chen-yung (林陳涌) said. Museum-goers can learn about subjects ranging from Aboriginal cultures, the vision of animals and how bats have inspired scientific developments to wireless technology, robots and artificial intelligence.
■ MEDICINE
Doctors remove rare tumor
A man who was diagnosed with a rare form of tracheal tumor — the first known case in Taiwan — is in good health after having the life-threatening growth removed earlier this year, a hospital said yesterday. Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital said the patient, a 56-year-old man surnamed Chen, was suffering from myoepithelial carcinoma, a cancer so rare that there are fewer than 10 known cases worldwide. Surgeons removed the tumor in April and Chen has been undergoing radiation therapy since then, the hospital said. Chen has left the hospital and is recovering well. The patient’s problems began early this year, when he developed a persistent cough that often lasted for an hour at a time and left him breathless, forcing him to use an oxygen mask. A series of tests conducted at the hospital found the tumor, which almost completely blocked Chen’s tracheal tract and was making it difficult for him to breathe. Doctors operated immediately after determining that the tumor was life-threatening.
■ CULTURE
Tainan readies for festival
The Tainan City Government announced yesterday that this year’s Tainan International Chihsi Arts Festival (府城七夕16歲藝術節) will take place in Tainan’s Confucius Temple Cultural Zone from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7. The festival celebrates the traditional coming-of-age. This age acquired significance at a time when children aged 16 or older received full pay while younger people were paid only half-wages. Traditionally, to symbolize adulthood, girls are given makeup while boys are given betel nuts or cigarettes. Tainan has celebrated this coming-of-age festival for over 200 years, and the Tainan City Government began holding the annual arts festival in 1999.
■ HEALTH
Ma calls for blood
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday encouraged the public to donate blood and help correct the traditional notion that giving blood was bad for the health. Ma yesterday donated 500ml of blood, his 178th bag since he began giving blood some 20 years ago. Staffers at the Presidential Office have the opportunity to donate blood every six months as the Taipei Blood Center will dispatch personnel to the office. Ma said it was wrong to think that giving blood was bad for the health. During his stint as justice minister, Ma said he was awarded by the government for giving blood 30 times. Ma joked that there were no longer “blood cows” who sold blood to make money, but there was a “blood horse,” referring to his last name, which means “horse” in Mandarin.
■ TRAFFIC
Minivan falls down slope
A minivan swerved off the road and fell down a slope in Wufong Township (五峰) in Hsinchu County yesterday, injuring the driver and six Malaysian tourists on board. The Central News Agency reported that the driver and five of the tourists were sent to Chutung Hospital with minor injuries after the accident, which occurred near Wufong Bridge. The sixth tourist was sent to Chutung Veterans Hospital with more serious injuries. A statement from the fire department in Hsinchu County said the accident happened after the tourists left a church event in Wufong Township. The minivan rolled 15m down a slope, the fire department said. The police were still investigating the cause of accident, the report said. None of the seven people were in critical condition, the report said.
■ HEALTH
Free counseling for teens
Teens can log on to a government-run Web site for free counseling about problems they feel they cannot discuss with family and friends, a health official said yesterday. Tseng Yun-teh (曾德運), a section chief at the Bureau of Health Promotion, said youths could contact trustworthy, professional psychologists on the Web site to talk via streaming video about any private issues, such as relationship problems. Statistics compiled through the bureau’s Web site, webcounsel.young.gov.tw, showed that about 40 percent of teenagers who seek professional counseling do so to discuss issues involving emotional and physical relationships, Tseng said. About 40 percent of teenagers who have used the Web site to seek help since its launch in January had questions concerning intimacy, pregnancy and abortion, he 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
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