■ 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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and