The quiet community of boutique wineries and upmarket guesthouses of Lovedale in Australia’s Hunter Valley has been gripped by mysterious goings-on in its olive groves at night.
Around eight tonnes of olives disappeared without a trace from hundreds of trees on five properties in the popular tourist destination virtually overnight last month, residents said.
PHOTO: AFP
The first Quentin von Essen heard about it was when a neighbor telephoned to say that when pickers turned up to strip his 120 trees, they found them bare of olives.
“We promptly went and checked our larger grove of 400 trees around a boutique guest house,” von Essen said. “All except two, which had a spotlight on them, had been stripped of their olives.”
What made the disappearance particularly strange was its thoroughness.
“It takes six people about three days to pick our groves, and we don’t bother with the top of some of the higher trees, but these guys stripped the trees from top to bottom and they even took the olives off the ground.
“That I really just don’t understand — I find it incredibly bizarre, it’s like they just vacuumed them off the trees and vacuumed them off the ground at night,” he said.
Ruling out birds, bats and any other creature — “no droppings, you’d need a helluva lot of them and why would they leave two trees” — von Essen describes the event as “a bit extraterrestrial.”
Pressed for the most likely explanation, von Essen said he guesses that it was a “very, very large team” of thieves.
“The police were called, came and looked and scratched their heads and are on the case and taking it seriously,” von Essen said.
(AFP)
澳洲獵人谷的「愛之谷」是個以精緻葡萄酒莊及高檔民宿為主的寧靜社區,最近這裡的居民都對橄欖園晚上發生的神秘事件議論紛紛。
這處熱門觀光景點的居民表示,上個月五座橄欖園內的數百棵橄欖樹,竟在一夜之間憑空消失了八公噸左右的橄欖。
昆丁.艾森是直到一個鄰居打電話來說,他發現有小偷摘光了他一百二十棵樹上的橄欖後,才知道這件事。
艾森說:「我們立刻跑到我們位在某豪華民宿附近的大橄欖園去檢查,結果我們種的四百棵橄欖樹中,除了被路燈照到的兩棵倖免外,其餘樹上的橄欖全都被摘走了。」
這樁橄欖消失事件最離奇的地方就在於,樹上的橄欖「一顆不剩」。
「我們需要六名人力花三天的時間才能採收完這些橄欖園,而且有些較高樹叢的頂端我們會放著不摘。但這些小偷除了把每棵樹從上到下都摘個精光外,連掉到地上的橄欖也不放過。」
他說:「我實在是搞不懂—我覺得這實在是太不可思議了,好像他們趁夜把樹上和地上的橄欖全都吸走了似的。」
排除鳥類、蝙蝠和其他生物的可能性,艾森形容這是一起「超自然」事件。「一顆不剩!既然需要這麼多橄欖,那為什麼又獨漏兩棵樹?」
被問及最有可能的解釋時,艾森說他猜這是個「非常非常大的竊盜集團」所為。
艾森說:「我們報了警,警察來檢查後搔了搔頭,然後就開始認真辦案。」
(法新社�翻譯:袁星塵)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
A: As well as Eid al-Fitr, Southeast Asia is celebrating the Water Festival this week. B: And this year, Thailand is expanding the celebration between April 12 and 16 for the event, officially known as the Songkran Festival, expecting to make 24.3 billion Thai baht in tourism revenue. A: Does Taiwan celebrate the Water Festival? B: Some local cities and counties do have similar activities. A: Let’s go experience the festival then. A: 除了「開齋節」外,東南亞「潑水節」本週也盛大登場! B: 泰國今年從4月12日到16日擴大「宋干節」連假,預估觀光收入可高達243億泰銖。 A: 台灣會慶祝「潑水節」嗎? B: 有些縣市會舉辦類似活動。 A: 那我們也去體驗一下吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)