The China Post
Date: June 27, 2017
By: The China Post

Working out in the heat has its risks, including dehydration, heat stroke, dizziness and even death if body

temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius.

Heat stroke specialist Dr. Chu Po-ling of Tri-Service General Hospital said that five major causes of heatstroke for road runners include heat, physical exertion beyond personal limits, obesity, and dehydration and lack of sleep.

To keep heat stroke at bay, Chu recommends regular training, ample hydration, awareness about what puts an individual at risk, and understanding one’s physical limits.

He said that many patients register for a half marathon (21.095 km) but complete only about 9 km.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan InternationalDate: 2017-06-26
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je is featured in this CNA file photo.

Taipei’s annual twin-cities forum with Shanghai is scheduled to take place this coming weekend. The

forum, which will take place this year in Shanghai, has garnered special attention in the face of stalled relations between Taiwan and China.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je has called for “mutual understanding” between the two sides. At an event on Monday morning he said that each side has its own difficulties, and that under the current impasse, nothing can be accomplished. Ko said that continuing to criticize the other side only makes it harder to find common ground. He called for each side to take a step back in order to create a space in which change can occur.

The recent break in ties with Panama, which opted to establish formal ties with China instead, has added to cross-strait tensions. When asked whether attending the forum was tantamount to handing control of the situation over to China, Ko responded by saying that a bad strategy is the best strategy when there are no other options.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Twenty amusement parks in Taiwan have joined hands to hold a charity event that aims to help the needy and boost visits to the parks at the same time, according to the country’s Tourism Bureau.

From now on until August 15, members of the public are encouraged to visit one of the 20 amusement parks, take a photo with a finger heart pose at a place where the park is recognizable, and then upload the photo to the Taiwan amusement parks website’s photo uploading web page (Chinese), the bureau said.

However, membership of the website is required to upload such a photo, so don’t forget to register for the membership (Chinese), the bureau said, adding that a member can only upload a photo for the event.

For every photo uploaded, the amusement park where the photo was taken will be responsible for donating an item to charity, the bureau said. In the end, all the uploaded photos will be counted and a corresponding number of items contributed by the amusement parks will be donated to suitable charitable organizations, the bureau added.    [FULL  STORY]

‘PEACE AND PROSPERITY’:The mutual recognition of the ‘1992 consensus’ led to eight years of cross-strait diplomatic truce, former president Ma Ying-jeou said

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 27, 2017
By Lin Liang-sheng and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, staff writer, with CNA

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the official recognition of the so-called “1992

consensus” by his administration did not damage national sovereignty, but resulted in “diplomatic room” and a “diplomatic truce” with China.

Ma made the remarks in his opening speech to an economic forum in Taipei held by the China Cross-Strait Culture and Trade Development Association.

The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

Ma said the mutual recognition of the “1992 consensus” led to eight years of diplomatic truce under his administration, allowing the nation’s participation in the World Health Assembly and the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as visa-free travel with 164 nations.    [FULL  STORY]

Dao Khanong/ดาวคะนอง (By the Time It Gets Dark). Electric Eel Films, 2016. Directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong. In Thai. 105 minutes.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/06/25
By: Andrew Alan Johnson

Anocha “Mai” Suwichakornpong’s “By the Time it Gets Dark” is not a typical narrative. One might place it into the category of avant-garde Thai film in the vein of Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, but Anocha’s sensibilities are not quite Apichatpong’s. Rather than descend into Apichatpong’s surreal Isan dreamscapes, Anocha’s camera is more modern art.

Repetition – like those meerkats – is central theme of “By the Time it Gets Dark” — we repeat the same conversations (but with different characters in slightly different relationships), the same relationships repeat (a bland-looking film star, walking with his new lover, meets his ex arm-in-arm with a man who looks oddly similar). History repeats, Anocha tells us, and we are caught in it. As one of her characters, a former Thammasat student activist from the 1970s, says, we are not heroes of history, but rather those who have simply survived it. History washes over us in its cycles, and we simply ride it out until we can no longer.

Watching “Dark” is hypnotic. Part of this is Anocha’s loving attention to texture: be it the swirl of grey hair on the back of a nun’s head, or the rough wood of a rural house’s walls, part of the viewing involves getting lost in these rich details. But as we lose ourselves in these details, like a mushroom trip, once Anocha’s camera begins to reveal how these patterns repeat, one sees fractal-like repetition everywhere: a cloud of bubbles presents endless mirrored surfaces, a loaf of bread shows lines and lines of identically-shaped slices, the young woman (now a janitor) empties toilet stall after mirrored toilet stall.    [FULL  STORY]

Protesters demand revocation of the extension to a controversial mine and revision of the current mining law.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/25
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Angered by the 20-year mining rights extension awarded by the Taiwanese government to Asia Cement Corporation (ACC，亞泥) in Taroko National Park in Hualien, environmental groups took to the streets to protest against the government in front of the Executive Yuan, reports said Sunday afternoon.

Environmental groups said that there were about 5,000 people on site. Protesters set smoke bombs on the street, mimicking the smoke produced by explosions in the mine.

Far Eastern Groups (遠東集團), which owns ACC, has been mining in Taroko for four decades without permission of local residents and an environmental impact assessment (EIA), said Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳), consultant at the Citizens of the Earth (地球公民基金會), adding that an extension of another 20 years of the mining rights is unacceptable.

The environmental groups are demanding that the extension be revoked and the current mining law revised.    [FULL  STORY]