ENTERTAINMENT
Music awards set for fall
This year’s Golden Melody Awards ceremony is to be held on Oct. 3 at the soon-to-be inaugurated Taipei Music Center, the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development said yesterday. The ceremony, which had been scheduled for this month, was postponed in April due to disease prevention measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The bureau said that it chose the newly constructed venue for the awards because it would provide for exciting ceremony content. The center, which would hold its official opening ceremony on Sept. 5, can hold up to 6,000 people, its Web site shows. The nominees for the 31st Golden Melody Awards are to be announced in the middle of next month, the bureau said.
TRAVEL
Taipei again best destination
Taipei has won the “best leisure destination in Asia” Leisure Lifestyle Award from the US-based Global Traveler magazine for the third consecutive year, the Tourism Bureau’s Los Angeles office said on Friday. Singapore and Seoul were second and third, followed by Tokyo, Phuket in Thailand, Hong Kong and Bangkok. The magazine also ranked Taiwan second in “best adventure destination, international,” and ranked Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport fourth in “best airport for layovers,” behind Miami International Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport and Doha’s Hamad International Airport. Brad Shih (施照輝), director of the bureau’s Los Angeles office, said the best leisure award represents an important recognition for Taiwan’s tourism industry. The award was determined by a survey conducted from Oct. 1 last year to Jan. 31.
ENTERTAINMENT
Film festival begins
The Taipei Film Festival on Friday began screening a dozen full-length feature films from new and emerging international filmmakers. The annual festival this year accepted 12 films by filmmakers from Taiwan, Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, Kosovo, Lesotho, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay for its International New Talent Competition category. It is on Monday to announce the winner of its grand prize and special jury prize, worth NT$600,000 and NT$300,000 respectively. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival would not hold an award ceremony, as international filmmakers would be unable to attend, festival organizers said. This year’s festival, which opened on Thursday, runs until July 11. Screening times and ticket information are available on the Taipei Film Festival’s Web site, taipeiff.taipei.
SCIENCE
Researchers make discovery
A team of Academia Sinica scientists have discovered how phosphatidic acid (PA), a molecule that influences the growth of pollen tubes, is produced in plants, it said on Tuesday. The team, led by associate research fellow Yuki Nakamura, found that PA was produced by the enzymes DGK2 and DGK4, which convert diacylglycerol into PA in pollen grains. Scientists have long known that PA plays an important role in the growth of pollen tubes, which enable fertilization, but how PA forms in plants was not known, the team said. The study was conducted using thale cress, a small flowering plant commonly used in scientific studies. Because DGK2 and DGK4 are also found in rice, wheat and corn, the same mechanism could also exist in those crops, and could help improve scientists’ understanding of crop fertility, the team said. Their research paper on the discovery was published on May 29 in the journal The Plant Cell.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
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