Taiwanese Election

w00t! The KMT (國民黨) and its "Blue Coalition" Won Big (link in Chinese) in the local election on December 3rd. Of the 23 administrative seats up for grabs in counties (縣) and provincial cities (省轄市) [those :: Taiwan = states :: US], the KMT took 14, the rest of the coalition took 3, while the DPP (民主進步黨) took only 6. On a even more local level, the municipal elections also showed that the KMT is gaining influence beyond its traditional power-base of North Taiwan and urban areas. Many traditionally Green (i.e. DPP-controlled) areas have fallen to KMT in this election.

Interesting to note that many, including KMT chair Ma Ying-Jio (馬英九), consider this more as the Green camp losing rather than the Blue camp winning. Prior to the election, politicians affiliated with the DPP were involved in multiple scandals. From bribery in the construction of of the High Speed Rail system, to insider trading in the stock market, up through being caught red-handed in an attempt to buy votes, the confidence of the Taiwanese people in the ruling party of president Chen Shui-Bian (陳水扁) kept falling. And then the DPP decided to play dirty during the election including an incident of Chen cursing one of the KMT candidates to death, and attempted to "buy votes" with policy^* during the last few days of the campaign period.

Furthermore, Ma (and KMT experts) realized that even though citizens might be disheartened by the DPP, it would be no use unless they voice their displeasure in a vote. So Ma used his own popularity (he is probably the most popular politician in Taiwan at the moment): he publicly proclaimed that if KMT does not take over half of the county-level seats, he will resign as KMT chairman. His wager worked to a great success as many people, in effort to "save Chairman Ma" showed up to vote, ending up with over 67% voter turnout in the entire country^**. (Interestingly, rather than having the DPP's proverbial figurehead, President Chen, step up to put in his own wager, the DPP sent in party chair Su Zhen Chang (蘇貞昌) to put in the same wager as Ma. One might wonder that perhaps the DPP had already foreseen the loss. With Su already on the line when he vouched his political future for a candidate now under investigation of vote-buying, he became the logical scapegoat for the DPP's answer to the KMT challenge.)

A side effect of this election is that Chen has now entered his lame-duck period of his presidency. He also got into verbal scuffles with his Secretary of State, Sie Chang Ting (謝長廷), over some of the corruption charges. With Sie eying the presidential nomination in the next election, this should prove to give some interesting development.

Chinese Space Canines

The PRC recently revealed that in the 1960s, they tried to replicate Soviet and US efforts in sending live animals into space to examine the physiological changes thus induced. In 1966, the program sent two dogs to 70km in succession. (Note, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale set 100km as the boundary between the atmosphere and Outer Space, and NASA designates humans traveling above 80km as astronauts. So the doggies fell a little bit short.) The first spent 29 minutes in space. TaKungPao carries a Chinese report, which I briefly translate below:

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently unveiled part of history: the Space Biology Research group of the CAS Biophysics Research Center, on July 15th, 1966, sent a dog named "Leopard" into the outer atmosphere using a rocket launched from AnHui Province, Guang De county. After 29 minutes of high-altitude flight, the capsule safely landed 40 kilometers from the launch site in the mountains.

According to a local news paper, researcher Gong Wen Yao, 66 years old, revealed that there were over 100 puppies kept in the research center. In a process much like how astronauts are chosen today, the dogs underwent detailed scrutiny and testing. After being chosen as astro-dogs, Leopard and Shan-Shan underwent various training to prepare for high-altitude flight.

The modified S2 rocket the dogs flew on were designed after the S1 rocket, which delivered 8 white mice total into high altitudes on July 19, 1964.

Part of the missions was to observe physiological changes for a living creature at high altitude flight. The researchers measured the electro-cardiograms, blood pressure, breathing, and body temperature through the entire flight. To measure the blood pressure, it is required to surgically relocate arteries in Leopard's neck to just under the skin. By playing with the skin and periodically pumping in air underneath the skin, the researchers were able to obtain primitive blood pressure measurements. At that time, it was also difficult to tell when the capsule entered free fall. The solution they came up with is to lay a ping-pong ball in the capsule, and if the ball bounces up and doesn't fall, they've entered free fall. They videoed the entire process, and judging from the footage, Leopard was extremely nervous in free fall. For landing, the capsule deploys a 58 squared-meter parachute. It was also the first time the Chinese Air Force participated in capsule retrieval.

The dog and 4 companion white mice were safe and alive upon landing. 13 days later, Shan-Shan also flew.

Compared to the Russian space and sub-orbital dogs, the journeys of these two seemed rather insignificant....

However, it was also revealed that the dogs did not meet good ends (well, better than Laika...). From ETToday (translated):

Shan-Shan died because of natural illness 2 or 3 years after mission. One year after the mission, Leopard got into a fight with other dogs, and was bitten to death.

Which raises two questions: 1) Did the Chinese train special assassin dogs to prevent Leopard from speaking out and leaking research information? and 2) Were they instructed to go for the neck because not only was there the jugular, but also an artery artificially moved to directly under the skin for easy biting?

I kid, I kid.

---

(*) For instance, Taichung City signed a contract to build a Guggenheim museum with the central government promising aid. And then, after the city raised enough funds to match the total required to began construction, the central government reneged on its promise and caused the construction to hang in limbo. In a campaign speech, Chen promised to resume the construction if the DPP won the Taichung mayoral race, and to withhold funding indefinitely otherwise. Similarly, after KMT chair Ma spoke about a desire to improve peaceful relations with the Mainland, Chen threatened that a win by the Pan-Blue coalition in the election will result in tightening control and relationship with the PRC, and only with a Green win will the relations be improved. Personally I am glad the Taiwanese people called the bluff on him.

(**) The KMT succeeded in where the Democrats failed in 04. The situation is similar, both parties enjoyed wide-spread grass-root support, especially among intellectuals. And much of the support were gathered from a displeasure at the current administration rather than actual support for them. And the opponents (the DPP in Taiwan, Republicans in the US) have a voting base very fervent about their cause (the Taiwanese-independent crowd and the Christian fundies/anti-gay/anti-abortion groups respectively). Both were in a situation where high voter turnout would be likely to result in a win for the challenging parties. The Save-Ma crowd voted in Taiwan. The young Dems didn't.