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.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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