Clarinase is the OTC allergy drug of choice for many allergy sufferers in Taiwan. I have used Clarinase regularly (a couple times a month) over the years because it’s a wonderful product. Anybody who has any sort of acute sinus or allergy symptoms knows that this drug is a good thing. But apparently it has been targeted for control for the same reasons that it has been restricted in the US, it’s high content of pseudoephedrine. One tablet of Clarinase has 120 mg of pseudoephedrine, albeit in a time-released formula. The other, the only other, ingredient is 5mg of loratadine, an antihistimine. It should be noted that you can still easily buy products with 60mg of pseudoephedrine/tablet in a non-time-released formula, so it’s hard to understand why this product is being targeted for restriction.

A few months ago, I found Clarinase increasingly difficult to buy. In Taitung I can’t buy it at all. I was recently back in Kaohsiung, and I went to a couple pharmacies and inquired as to what was going on. The guy in the first pharmacy gave me a line of nonsense that I’d heard before – something about it simply not being sold in Taiwan anymore. I even asked him if I went to a doctor and asked for it if I could get it, and he said no. As I later learned, he was wrong.

A woman in the second pharmacy finally spilled the beans. What’s happening is that these pharmacies are being required to register or account for everything they are selling due to what the government perceives as abuse of this product by what the laoban called teenagers. So, she, as a pharmacy owner, has to, as she put it, ‘pai4 dui4′ or line up or wait for this product. Furthermore, she has to account for what she has sold. That is, she has to sign off on it all.

I should mention that I had to press the issue on this product for her to finally pull it out from behind the counter. It’s being hoarded, apparently.

http://blog.udn.com/JTLAI/2821313

有幾首傳唱黃鸝鳥的歌曲，曲裏旋律之間描述該鳥具有美妙的聲音。今年初傳出台灣東部又發現難得一見的黃鸝鳥蹤跡，但個人百尋不著，卻巧遇朱鸝鳥兩次。算很幸運了。

在偏遠山區碰見的兩回，朱鸝都成對出現，紅黑對比的色澤，美麗不在話下。牠們發出的聲音，是可以說很有特色，但若形容為天籟，那麼我絕對是不同意的。

黃鸝也是，雖然但現在為止都還沒有看過牠，但據說牠的聲音聽來「很恐怖」。有人笑稱如「勾魂使者」，連狗聽了都會加以呼應。自然界是公平的，就這兩種「麗鳥」來說。牠們有著美艷的外型，但只能有「不對稱的聲音」。

如果自然界之上，還有所謂上帝的話，那麼「上帝是公平的」，這樣的說法，就朱鸝和黃鸝鳥來說，我認為也算是。

Taipei Times ran the story below about NCTU’s OpenCourseware site which recently won an award. It’s too bad they didn’t remember to include the URL of NCTU’s site.

Here it is: http://ocw.nctu.edu.tw/en/support.php.

Sometimes the URL for the English version of such sites changes often. If the above link doesn’t work, simply try http://ocw.nctu.edu.tw/.

NCTU’s Web site wins global award

FREE CHINESE COURSE: The global OpenCourseWare Consortium gave an award to National Chiao Tung University for its pioneering Mandarin-teaching videos

Staff writer, with CNA

National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) was given an award earlier this week by the global OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC) for its pioneering free Chinese-language course Web site.

According to an OCWC statement, the univeristy’s OpenCourseWare Web site, as the world’s first such site in Chinese run by a member of the consortium, stood out from more than 100 sites to win the Landmark Site Award, which was presented at the consortium’s annual conference, held on Monday in Cambridge, England.

This might be something to keep an eye out for while wandering around the various beaches of Taitung County. It will probably wash ashore somewhere, or at least parts of it will.

Army searches for missing unmanned aircraft
2012/03/07 13:24:24
Taipei, March 7 (CNA) Taiwan’s Army is searching for an unmanned aerial vehicle that went missing off the eastern coast of the country Wednesday morning during a routine training mission, according to the Defense Ministry.

The unmanned aircraft went missing at 7:30 a.m., the ministry said.

The aircraft was locally developed and manufactured by the Taoyuan-based Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, the ministry’s main research and development institute, spokesman Maj. Gen. Luo Shou-he said.

The institute is assisting the Army in trying to identify the reason why the aircraft went missing, Luo said.

(By Elaine Hou)

Kaohsiung mayor arrives in U.S. after rejection by Cuba

2012/02/23 12:47:52

Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu has arrived in Los Angeles after being denied entry to Cuba, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Thursday.

Officials from the Republic of China Embassy in the Dominican Republic and Taiwan’s representative office in Mexico have helped Chen’s delegation transit to the United States after being denied entry to the Caribbean country, said MOFA spokesman James Chang.

The ministry has expressed its concern about the case to the Cuban authorities and is awaiting a reply, he said.

Taiwanese passport holders are granted visa-free entry to Cuba for up to 30 days, according to the ministry’s website.

It was reported in the Chinese-language Liberty Times that same day that the Kaohsiung mayor was stopped at Cuban Customs for unconfirmed reasons.

Chen and a group of government officials flew to the Caribbean country Feb. 20 to look at the country’s organic agriculture. All of the delegation members were allowed entry except for Chen, it said.

(By Nancy Liu)

This edible wild plant can be cooked in many different ways and has medicinal properties. We usually fry it with a generous amount of garlic and add salt to taste. The ripe, purple berries are delicious.

Heitiancai on the right

A view from above

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Find the official announcement at http://english.etax.nat.gov.tw/wSite/ct?xItem=78568&ctNode=11647.

http://chinese-linguipedia.org/ (Taiwan site)
http://www.zhonghuayuwen.org/ (Chinese site)

These links have also been added to the Formosahut wiki.

Dictionary compiled by Taiwan, China talents released in Beijing

Beijing, Feb. 8 (CNA) A new dictionary jointly compiled by scholars and experts from Taiwan and China made its first public appearance in Beijing Wednesday, highlighting the expansion of cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The dictionary, which includes common Mandarin Chinese words and phrases used in Taiwan and China, is part of a cross-strait cooperation project aimed at compiling and publishing Chinese language reference books and setting up a website that incorporates a database in the languages used in Taiwan and China.