■ TRANSPORTATION
Bike program under way
Kaohsiung City has begun to accept applications for membership in its automatic bike rental system, the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau said yesterday. Anyone interested in taking advantage of the public bike system can apply for a full-year membership for NT$1,200, a six-month membership for NT$750 or a one-month membership at NT$200, the bureau said. Applicants must also pay a deposit fee of NT$2,000, the bureau said, adding that applications could be filed online, mailed in or faxed. A discount will be offered to those who apply by May 18, the bureau said. There are 20 rental spots throughout the city, including Lotus Pond and Sizihwan (西子灣). Thirty more spots will be opened by the end of May.
■ EDUCATION
Fewer students go to Europe
There has been a slight decrease in the number of students studying abroad in Europe over the past eight years, the latest figures from the Ministry of Education showed. The figure dropped by 249 students from 9,251 people in 2001 to 9,002 last year, statistics showed. The majority of students went to Britain, with 5,885 people last year, down from 7,583 students in 2001, the ministry said. The number of students studying in France and Germany last year came in second and third, with 983 people in France and 558 students in Germany. Only a small number of students — fewer than 100 — were in Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic for studies last year, the data showed.
■ CULTURE
Outdoor exhibits planned
Eight outdoor art installations with the theme of “Wetlands and Culture” will be on display in Taipei County’s Guandu Eco-park from June to Sept. 27, park authorities said yesterday. The Guandu park includes a 7 hectare constructed wetland, which is home to dozens of protected animal and plant species. The eight artists, who submitted drafts of their projects, were selected by the park from 238 entries from 48 countries. The artists will begin to create their installations on June 2. Two artists are Taiwanese, while the other six are from countries including India, South Korea, the US, the Netherlands and Norway. To give the public an opportunity to interact with the artists, anyone interested in participating in the art projects by lending the artists a hand can sign up by calling (02) 2858-7417 ext. 219. Volunteers must be high school age or older.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Butterfly festival begins
An annual festival that celebrates the migration of purple milkweed butterflies from the south of the island to the north began in Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內) on Saturday. Pingding Village in Linnei is one of the best-known rest stops along the butterflies’ biannual migration route in the spring and late fall. After Linnei, the butterflies fly over National Freeway No. 3 on their way to breeding grounds in the north. Linnei is considered the best place to view the dazzling display of milkweed butterflies. The festival, which is in its third year, features a range of activities designed by the township, including a tour of Pingding ecology, hiking on the Lungkuomai trail, a steel sculpture exhibit and a food festival. The activities run every weekend until April 5. The peak migration period is between March 22 and April 7. The largest number of butterflies last year was seen on April 5, when more than 1,000 butterflies per minute flew over a road in Pingding.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
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