SEISMOLOGY
Temblor strikes off Hualien
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck off Hualien County at 4:26pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was at sea, 8.5km southeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.9km, CWA data showed. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, was highest in Hualien and parts of Nantou County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured 3 in parts of Yilan County, Taichung and Changhua County, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries following the quake, which the CWA said was an aftershock of the earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale that rocked the Hualien area on April 3.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei Kings
SPORTS
Lin re-signs with Kings
Former NBA star Jeremy Lin (林書豪) has exercised a one-year option with the New Taipei Kings and would play with the team in the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) inaugural 2024-2025 season. Lin made the announcement yesterday via his Instagram account, saying he was “re-signing with the Kings” and excited to play alongside his younger brother and other teammates. Last year, Lin signed a one-year deal with the Kings with an option for a second year. “As the saying goes, getting to the top isn’t easy, staying there’s even harder. It won’t be easy defending the title, but we’re excited for the challenge,” Lin wrote.
EDUCATION
Youth phone use high: poll
More than 85 percent of Taiwanese senior-high school students use social media, while cellphone and computer games were the most popular devices for Internet use by students at lower levels, a survey released yesterday showed. The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Education and conducted in March to April last year by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Research Center of Humanities and Social Sciences, was based on 4,937 responses from students in elementary school grades 4 to 6, junior-high school (grades 7 to 9) and senior-high school (grades 10 to 12). It found that 59.7 percent of elementary-school students had a smartphone, compared with 87 percent of junior-high students and 91.8 percent of senior-high school students. In response to the survey results, the ministry said it had developed a program in 2019 to promote media and digital literacy education for elementary and junior-high school students. The program — a subsidized three-year pilot version of which was launched at 18 schools in 2022 — aims to help young students evaluate sources of information, develop healthy social media habits and avoid online fraud and bullying, it said.
CULTURE
‘Sounding Light’ premieres
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre held an overseas premiere of the nature-inspired 2020 work Sounding Light (定光) during a tour in Germany, which concluded in Dresden on Saturday evening, local time. Sounding Light, one of four works by Cloud Gate artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍) that the dance troupe plans to present to overseas audiences this year, was staged at the Hellerau-European Centre for the Arts in Dresden. The acclaimed dance troupe first performed Sounding Light at the Festival Kunstfest Weimar on Aug. 24. The two-city tour in Germany marked Cloud Gate’s first performance in Weimar in 21 years.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
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