TRAVEL
Wuling Farm lifts controls
Wuling Farm in Taichung lifted its cherry blossom season traffic controls yesterday, making it more accessible for people who want to view the stunning flora at the farm, which is home to more than 20,000 cherry blossom trees. The farm typically imposes traffic controls during peak bloom periods, which this year began on Feb. 13 and ended yesterday, as the trees typically bloom in February. The farm said some species which blossomed on time have already begun to wilt, painting a scene of falling pink. The sight is further accentuated by late bloomers whose flowers have just opened. The farm said it saw an increase in visitors over the extended weekend.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsun, Taipei Times
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Rain Horse’ to join festival
Paper Windmill Theatre’s children’s play Rain Horse (雨馬) would be staged six times at this year’s Lantern Festival in Chiayi County, accompanied by a 10m-tall, 13m-long horse-shaped installation of the same name, organizers said. The installation would also join the Team Taiwan parade on Saturday, the county’s Culture and Tourism Bureau said. Rain Horse, a collaboration between the Hakka Affairs Council and Paper Windmill Theatre, was adapted from a picture book by writer Hsiao Yeh (小野), and was first performed in 2021. Created against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many children were unable to go outside and lost out on the joys of daily life, the production carries themes of comfort, companionship and growing up in difficult times, the bureau said. The festival begins tomorrow and would run until March 15.
WEATHER
Rain to bring in cold
Brief showers are forecast across Taiwan beginning today as a cold front approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The rain is expected to bring cooler temperatures tomorrow and on Wednesday, with daytime highs of 19°C to 20°C in the north, 25°C to 27°C in the south and about 24°C in central Taiwan, the CWA said. Northern areas could see overnight lows of about 16°C, and 16°C to 19°C for central and southern areas, it said. Temperatures are forecast to rebound on Thursday, with rain receding to the north, mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan, and the Hengchun Peninsula, the CWA said. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said northeasterly winds would strengthen again on Friday, bringing localized brief showers and lower temperatures to the north and the east.
SOCIETY
Worker found dead in tank
A worker at a Taichung company was found dead in a sewage tank yesterday, the Taichung Fire Bureau said. The bureau said it received a report at 10:50am from a company in Wuci District (梧棲) that it had lost contact with a 64-year-old worker, surnamed Chen (陳), during a chemical feeding operation. Rescue personnel dispatched to the scene found Chen dead in the tank after partially draining the wastewater. Police said there were no visible external injuries on his body, and a preliminary forensic examination found no signs of foul play. Taichung’s Department of Labor Inspection said it sent people to conduct an occupational accident investigation and ordered the company to suspend operations pending improvements to workplace safety conditions. If the company is found to have contravened the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), the case could be referred to judicial authorities, it said.
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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