ASTRONOMY
Bright comet on Saturday
Comet C/2023 A3, the brightest this year, is anticipated to reach its peak luminosity on Saturday, as it reaches its closest point to Earth, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The window of time to view the comet — discovered in January last year by the Tsuchinshan Observatory in China — is to last until the end of this month, it said. Stargazers should look out to the western horizon after sunset if they want to catch a glimpse, it said. While the comet is visible to the naked eye, using binoculars or a small telescope can improve a person’s viewing experience, it said. The comet could post an apparent magnitude of minus-2, equivalent to Mercury, it said. Since the comet has an orbital period of several tens of thousands of years, its upcoming appearance makes it a once-in-a-lifetime viewing opportunity, the museum said, citing data from NASA. Astronomical buffs can also look forward to the year’s largest full moon on Thursday next week, the museum said. The supermoon would be at its fullest at 7:26pm, when it would be about 357,000km from Earth, it said.
FOOD
One more dies of poisoning
A food poisoning incident in Taitung County has left one more person dead, bringing the death toll to four, the Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital confirmed on Saturday. The victim was a 59-year-old woman surnamed Yang (楊), who fell into a coma on Sept. 18, the hospital said. Before her death, she had been treated with tracheal intubation to keep her alive. However, Yang’s family had a meeting with doctors on Friday and decided to take her off life support as she had not shown signs of improvement, the hospital said. The food poisoning incident was traced back to the death of an 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾), who died on Sept. 17 after eating glutinous millet dumplings that she had made. That evening, several relatives and friends, including Yang, who came to her wake, and ate leftover dumplings and other items in Tseng’s kitchen later exhibited symptoms such as vomiting and convulsions. Three more people subsequently died, while nearly a dozen people were hospitalized for treatment. The dumplings were later discovered to contain a high level of terbufos — a hazardous chemical compound found in some pesticides. Only Yang’s younger sister, 53, remains hospitalized for treatment, the hospital said. Taitung prosecutors on Saturday said they were still investigating the case, without disclosing any further details.
ENTERTAINMENT
Ariel Lin wins in Busan
Taiwanese actress Ariel Lin (林依晨) on Sunday won best actress in a leading role at this year’s Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards in Busan, South Korea. Lin won the award for her performance in the Taiwanese television drama Imperfect Us (不夠善良的我們). Lin gave a teary speech in Korean, saying the award was “a great motivation for both me and the work.” She added in English that: “I truly believe that a good script can let people feel understood, it can be very inspirational, and it can show people what truly important things” are. The theme song for the series, Learn to Live Again (善良的我們), composed by Singaporean singer Tanya Chua (蔡健雅), won best original song. Having won the award with her first composition for a drama series, Chua said the award “means so much to me.” Imperfect Us had been nominated for five awards — the most for this year’s event, including best Asian contents, best male supporting actor and best writer. The awards, now in its sixth year, is organized by the Busan International Film Festival and South Korea’s National IT Industry Promotion Agency, according to its official Web site. The event aims to “increase audience engagement and showcase a diverse range of audiovisual content,” it says.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents