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The top story from this past week involved a former chairman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lin Yi-hsiung, who went on a hunger strike on Tuesday to protest against the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant.
Lin said he was doing something meaningful for Taiwan and that the fast will last indefinitely. He said that had it not been what he called the government’s blatant disregard for public opinion, he would not have begun fasting. The 73-year-old politician also said if anything bad happens to him, those who are in power should be held accountable.
This is not the first time that Lin has gone on a hunger strike. He fasted in 1994 for the same cause. He said he felt ashamed about not being able to change the mindset of those in power after working hard for 20 years.
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Also this past week, an Apache helicopter crashed on top of a residential building in Taoyuan on Friday morning during training. The pilot and co-pilot are in stable condition.
The army command headquarters said that they would halt all flight plans for apache helicopters and have them inspected. The military also said they would compensate for the damaged home.
The AH-64E Apache was made in the US and recently delivered to Taiwan.
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And finally this past week, researchers have developed probiotics that relieve depression, chronic fatigue and anxiety disorders.
Researchers at Yang Ming University plan to have the organisms called PS 128 on the market within a year and are applying for a patent.
Researcher Tsai Ying-jie explains the lab results after PS128 was tested on mice for two weeks. "When you throw mice with depression into the water, they usually don’t swim," Tsai said. "They just float and are quiet for a long time. But if you feed them PS128 for two weeks, they act more normal and jump around in the water.
Dopamine, the brain’s neurotransmitter which helps control its pleasure center, increases after two weeks of PS128. It becomes twice as strong in regular mice and three times as strong in mice with depression.
At least two or three types of probiotics have also been discovered in Europe that aid mental health.