■ ENVIRONMENT
Volunteers clean beaches
More than 3,000 volunteers collected 60 tonnes of garbage from an 18.5km stretch of Taipei County beaches yesterday to mark Earth Day, which falls on Tuesday. Some 3,091 volunteers scoured northern beaches for two hours looking for trash and recovered 14 tonnes of recyclable resources. The activity was organized by the Environmental Protection Administration, the Taipei County government and eight townships along the northern coast, including Jinshan (金山), Bali (八里) and Tamsui (淡水). The local activity drew foreign guests, such as Panamanian Ambassador Julio Mock Cardenas, Saint Kitts and Nevis Charge d’Affairs Jasmine Elise Huggins, American Institute in Taipei Deputy Director Robert Wang and German Trade Office Deputy Director Andy Gursch. More than 600 employees from Hotai Motor Co also participated.
■ TRANSPORT
Taxi quota needed: official
The Taipei City Government should impose a quota on the number of taxis operating in the city to resolve the problem of low occupancy rates, a city councilor said on Friday. Taipei City Councilor Chen Yung-te (陳永德) said during a question-and-answer session at the council that seven out of 10 cabs are regularly unoccupied. Citing statistics for 2004 to 2006, Chen said that local taxi drivers picked up an average of 14.53 passengers a day and that drivers worked about 24 days per month. Chen also said that 1,984 cases involving unregistered taxi drivers were reported last year. Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢), head of the city’s Department of Transportation, attributed the city’s oversupply of cabs to an inflow of taxis from Taipei County, Keelung City and Ilan County. There are more than 60,000 taxis in the four cities and counties, Luo said. The city government has suspended issuing business licenses to cab drivers, Luo said.
■ SCIENCE
Virtual animal lab planned
A government-run lab is developing an imagery database of guinea pigs that will allow “virtual animal testing,” reducing the cost of drug development and the demand for live laboratory animals, sources at the National Applied Research Laboratories said yesterday. The 3D virtual guinea pig system was developed by the National Laboratory Animal Center, which used true-color image algorithms to reconstruct guinea pigs in a digitized environment. Researchers said they have finished establishing the image data and that the system is almost ready for practical applications. Researchers said that after parameters are entered, the system projects the interaction between a drug and the animal based on the guinea pigs’ sectional images, physical information and biological characteristics. Researchers said such a process would allow labs to replace some live animal experiments, saving the lives of laboratory animals and the cost of buying guinea pigs.
■ CULTURE
Taipei theme contest open
The Taiwan Design Center launched a promotional theme design contest yesterday for the 2011 International Design Alliance Congress to be held in Taipei. The promotional theme design should reflect the city’s uniqueness and culture and be representative of the times, the center said. The first, second and third-place winners will receive NT$30,000, NT$20,000 and NT$10,000, the center said. The theme of the congress will be “fusion,” blending East and West as well as technology and tradition, the organizers said.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
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