SOCIETY
Pingsi to hold Yuan Zai party
With the first birthday of Taipei Zoo’s giant panda cub Yuan Zai (圓仔) around the corner, New Taipei City’s Tourism and Travel Department is to release a raft of panda-shaped sky lanterns at a party in Pingsi (平溪) on July 5 to celebrate the bear turning one. A 4.5m-tall sky lantern in the shape of a giant panda and 150 smaller lanterns measuring 1.2m each are to be released from an elementary school to mark the milestone of the first giant panda born in Taiwan, department officials said. Yuan Zai fans who want to take part in the release can apply to do so on the department’s Web site starting on Wednesday next week, they said. There are 150 slots available for NT$399 each, which covers the cost of a small lantern. Participants will also receive souvenirs, including two panda-shaped meal boxes and a travel book featuring 12 stories about New Taipei City. The meal box has been designed by the New Pingsi Coal Mine Museum and will contain popular local dishes, the department said.
TECHNOLOGY
Unlicensed software popular
In the Asia-Pacific area, Taiwan ranks joint fifth with South Korea in terms of prevalence of unlicensed software use, with an average of 38 percent of software installed on personal computers not properly licensed, a poll published on Tuesday showed. The Business Software Alliance Global Software Survey found that 43 percent of PC software worldwide last year was not properly licensed, representing a commercial value totaling US$62.7 billion. Japan had an unlicensed usage rate of 19 percent, New Zealand had 20 percent, Australia had 21 percent and Singapore had 32 percent, the poll showed. For the region, the rate was 62 percent last year — a commercial value of US$21 billion.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
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