At the intersection of Chienkuo Rd and Wenhua St in Yunlin County’s Dounan Township, you will see a yellow real estate sign which, upon a closer gander, one will notice is a sign for a haunted house for sale. On the sign, it also says that in the area where the house is located there is a hypermarket and other convenient facilities, and the asking price is NT$1.88 million
(US$63,596), making the house a local topic of discussion.
The real estate agent trying to sell the house, surnamed Wu, says that it is located behind the Dounan Train Station and that the current owner purchased the house at a bargain during a public auction four years ago. No one has lived in the house since the owner renovated it, and after trying to sell the house himself for more than a year he decided to hire the real estate agency to sell it. The agency conducted an investigation of the property rights of the house, including searching haunted house Web sites and police records, but never found any criminal record that mentioned the house.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者黃淑莉
Wu says that even though the house is located behind the train station, transportation is convenient and it is close to the town center. With around 30 ping (99m2), the multistory housing complex is approximately 30 years old, and the living environment is good, but has still not been sold. Everyone spoke evasively when he asked people living in the neighborhood what was going on, but he finally learned that more than a decade ago a man committed suicide in the house. The owner of the house was also shocked to learn that the house was haunted after the real estate agent told him.
People living in the area said that more than 10 years ago the owner of the house rented it to a mother and her son, who was serving in the military and for reasons unknown killed himself in the house one day while on furlough. After the heartbroken mother moved out, the owner leased the house to a father and son, who did not live there very long before moving out. For unknown reasons, the house was eventually put to public auction and remained empty for quite a while. The current owner apparently bought the house several years ago in a public auction.
Haunted houses are a taboo for most people, Wu says, but some people actually go out of their way to buy haunted houses. As a broker, Wu must let potential buyers know that the house is allegedly haunted, so he decided to be forthright, doing the opposite of what is usually done, and write that the house was haunted on the for-sale signage, letting potential buyers know that the house for sale is haunted, honing in on a target market and saving a lot of trouble in the process.
Photo: Huang Shu-li, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者黃淑莉
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
雲林縣斗南鎮外環道建國路、文化街路口,最近懸掛一幅黃色招牌的賣屋廣告,仔細看竟是出售「鬼屋」;看板還寫著鄰近大賣場、機能佳,售價一百八十八萬元,引起地方議論。
吳姓房仲業者說,該屋位在斗南後火車站,現任屋主四年多前透過法拍低價購得,整理後迄今沒人入住,自售一年多也沒賣出,最近委託該公司出售;房仲人員調查產權,包括凶宅網、派出所資料,都沒有刑事紀錄。
吳指出,該屋雖在斗南後火車站,但交通便利、距市區近,約三十坪三層樓透天厝、屋齡約三十年,生活機能很好,卻一直賣不出去。詢問鄰居到底怎麼回事,大家都支吾其詞,後來才說,十多年前有名男子在屋內自殺;經由房仲人員轉告,屋主才知是凶宅,也嚇一跳。
附近住戶說,十多年前屋主出租給一對母子,兒子當兵後有一天放假回家,不知何故在房內自殺死亡,母親傷心搬離;屋主之後又租給一對父子,住沒多久就搬走;後來,不知何故,房子被法拍,空了好長一段日子,聽說現任屋主是好幾年前法拍購得。
吳說民眾忌諱「凶宅」,但也有人專買「凶宅」;身為業者,既知是凶宅,就有義務告知買方,於是乾脆逆向操作,直接在售屋看板寫出售「鬼屋」,讓買方知道這就是「凶宅」,鎖定客源,也可以節省許多麻煩。
(自由時報記者黃淑莉)
South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 degrees Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. “We
It’s widely recognized that there are far more right-handed people than left-handed people in the world. Being right-handed simply means preferring to use one’s right hand for tasks that involve only one hand, such as writing and eating. But have you ever wondered about the possible reasons behind the global dominance of the right hand over the left? As with many complex biological questions, multiple factors appear to be at play. First, one reason seems to be genetics. __1__ Therefore, the global dominance of right-handedness is something that has been passed down through many generations of humans. Next,
A: What’s even more horrible is that the five suspects who purposely supplied ketamine to actor Matthew Perry were all his “friends.” B: Who exactly are the five suspects? A: They include Matthew’s two doctors, a broker, a drug dealer, and even his live-in assistant. B: Those scumbags should go to jail. A: Yeah, one of the doctors may be sentenced to up to 120 years in prison. A: 更可怕的是,提供男星馬修派瑞「K他命」的5人全是他的「朋友」。 B: 嫌犯是誰啊? A: 其中包括他的2位醫生、1位仲介、1位毒販、甚至他的同居助理! B: 那些人渣真該去坐牢。 A: 對啊,其中1位醫生可能面臨120年徒刑。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Continued from yesterday(延續自昨日) https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Finally, cultural influence also plays a role in which hand people prefer. Historically, items that require physical manipulation have been designed for right-handed use. For example, tools like scissors and musical instruments are often constructed with right-handers in mind, making it difficult for left-handers to use them. __4__ While these factors offer some explanation, they remain speculative. The precise reasons for the global prevalence of right-handed people continue to be debated. Nevertheless, left-handedness will remain a phenomenon of great curiosity among scientists and researchers for many years to come. 最後,文化影響也在人們偏好哪一隻手上扮演一角。歷史上,需要用到肢體操作的物品都被設計來供右手使用。舉例來說,像是剪刀、樂器等工具常常就是考慮到右撇子而打造的,造成左撇子難以使用這些工具。因此,許多天生就是左撇子的人可能就必須透過學習使用右手來適應。 雖然這些因素都提供了一些解釋,但它們仍是推測而已。全球右撇子如此普及,確切的原因仍持續被爭論著。不過,在未來的許多年裡,左撇子依然會是科學家和研究人員相當好奇的一個現象。 What Did You Learn? (A) Specifically, different areas of