EDUCATION
MOE rolls out study subsidy
The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday called on young people to apply for subsidies to study in Southeast Asian countries. The subsidy scheme was launched in support of the government’s “new southbound policy” to strengthen exchanges with countries in South and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand, the ministry said, adding that it is aimed at encouraging young Taiwanese to study in international and non-governmental organizations in those countries. The deadline for applications for the latest phase of the program, which offers a living subsidy of up to NT$150,000 for each two-month course between July and November, is April 30, with citizens aged 18 to 30 eligible to apply, the ministry said. Additional information is available on the ministry’s Youth Department Administration Web site at www.yda.gov.tw.
COMPETITIONS
Inventors win nine medals
Taiwanese inventors have won four gold, four silver and one bronze medal at one of Asia’s biggest invention competitions, Thailand Inventors’ Day. The four gold medal-winning inventions were a drinking fountain that produces negative ion hydrogen, a photoelectric quantum wafer, a software control system and a wire saw. Among the four gold medal recipients, three were also accorded special honors for their inventions, said World Invention Intellectual Property Associations secretary-general Hsieh Man-li (謝曼麗), who led the nation’s team at the five-day event in Thailand. The team, composed of participants from local universities and private companies, had a total of nine entries to the competition this year. The event featured more than 1,300 inventions submitted by inventors from 21 nations.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
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