ENTERTAINMENT
True Love Harbor hosts show
The Greater Kaohsiung Government has invited the public to attend the Rainbow Bay Music Festival at the True Love Harbor, where more than 50 performers will take the stage from Saturday to Monday to celebrate the Double Ten National Day. The line-up features local singers, such as Bobby Chen (陳昇), Hebe Tien (田馥甄), Aboriginal rockers the Sun Eagles, singer-songwriter Deserts Chang (張懸), along with Tanya Chua (蔡健雅) of Singapore and Japanese rock band 9mm Parabellum Bullet. The 5 hectare venue includes four stages, a bazaar and a food section. To entice people from northern Taiwan to attend, Da Da Arts — one of the event organizers — has launched a ticket package in cooperation with the Taiwan High Speed Rail that includes a 20 percent discount for a round-trip ticket and entry to the festival.
TECHNOLOGY
‘Invisible key’ developed
Researchers have developed an “invisible key” technology that allows users to unlock their doors by means of simple hand gestures, the head of the team said on Monday. “In the future, you won’t have to worry about losing or forgetting your keys,” said Tsai Yao-pin (蔡耀斌) of the Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan. At the heart of the technology is a chip that can detect movement in 3D, as used in Nintendo’s Wii video game console, he said. The technology allows users to easily unlock their doors by repeating a gesture preset in the sensor, he said. The “invisible key” won him a gold medal at the four-day Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart, which ended on Sunday. He said several interested companies have approached him about producing the technology, but he estimated that it could take about six months for the technology to go commercial.
TRANSPORTATION
Volkswagen top auto seller
German automaker Volkswagen AG was the largest supplier of imported cars last month as the company recorded its highest-ever monthly sales in the country, Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics released yesterday showed. Volkswagen sold 1,509 cars last month, up 100 percent over August and 40 percent from a year earlier. Mercedes-Benz took second place with sales totaling 1,175 units, up 20 percent from August and 58 percent from a year earlier. BMW came in third with 1,137 units last month, up 65 percent from August and 35 percent from a year earlier. Total sales of locally made cars and imported ones last month reached 32,600 units, up 40 percent from August and 14.9 percent from a year earlier. Market observers said last month’s sales growth showed that consumers resumed buying following Ghost Month, which fell mostly in August this year and is traditionally a slow period for big-ticket sales.
DIPLOMACY
Lien named APEC envoy
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has named former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) his special envoy to this year’s leaders’ summit at the APEC forum. Lien was designated as Ma’s APEC envoy for the fourth consecutive year. The forum will take place on Nov. 12 and 13 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Presidential Office said in a press release that Lien was an “ideal choice” to attend the summit on Ma’s behalf because of his rich political experience and “outstanding performance” in engaging with global leaders over the past three years. Lien has accepted the request and would spare no effort in fulfilling the task, Lien’s office spokesperson Ting Yuan-chao (丁遠超) said.
POLITICS
Councilor loses seat
The Taiwan High Court yesterday nullified Pai Min-chieh’s (白閔傑) election to the Changhua County Council after several of his campaign staff were found guilty of vote-buying. The ruling effectively stripped Pai of his position as vice speaker of the council. Pai said he found the ruling — which is final — regrettable. Pai entered politics after his father, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Changhua County Council speaker Pai Hung-shen (白鴻森), started serving a 46-month prison term. Pai Hung-shen was convicted of misappropriating NT$890,000 (US$30,000) to pay off friends and supporters.
LEISURE
Kaohsiung zoo may move
The Greater Kaohsiung Government is considering moving Shou Shan Zoo to a bigger site that can provide a better environment for the animals in its care, zoo officials said on Sunday. Fongshan (鳳山), Neimen (內門), Yanchao (燕巢) and Maolin (茂林) districts are four of the sites under consideration, the Zoo Management Center under Kaohsiung’s Tourism Bureau said. All four proposed sites are larger than the 12.89-hectare Shou Shan Zoo, the center said, adding that no timetable has been set for the move. One proposed site, in Fongshan District near Phoenix Mountain (鳳凰山) and the Republic of China Military Academy, covers 102 hectares of public land, Fongshan District chief Hu Chun-hsiung (胡俊雄) said. Hu welcomed the relocation plan, saying that if Fongshan were chosen, it would benefit the area’s development. Neimen District Office chief secretary Cheng Yung-chen (鄭永辰) also said his district would welcome the zoo. Founded in 1978 in Kaohsiung’s Sitzihwan (西子灣), the zoo moved to its current location in Shoushan (壽山) in 1986 to make room for the National Sun Yat-sen University.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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