“Thank goodness I lowered my head while working. Otherwise, the result would be unthinkable,” says an elderly farmer surnamed Liu, who was working in a bamboo grove when a scrap tire fell from the sky. Liu says his farmland is right next to an expressway and a highway. A wide variety of garbage often appears in his fields, and he begs road users to stop dumping trash.
Secretary Chang Yu-chou of Tiansin Village in Gukeng Township says the vacant land and industrial road adjacent to the junction of Provincial Highway No. 3 and Expressway 78 are usually full of plastic bags, beverage bottles, paper and plastic cups and other kinds of garbage. Local residents and the cleaning team have to clean the area twice a week, taking away a big load of junk each time.
Chang says that a few days ago she was picking up garbage on the vacant land next to the highway junction when, to her astonishment, a driver threw a big load of trash out of a car. Dumbfounded, she could not help but give the driver a nasty stare. Another time, she was bending over by the road, picking up garbage, when a diaper filled with baby’s feces suddengly fell from above, almost hitting her in the face.
Photo copied by Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
照片:自由時報記者黃淑莉
Even more outrageously, when 80-year-old farmer Liu was working in his bamboo grove next to Expressway 78 last month, a tire suddenly fell from the sky, giving him a terrible shock. After going home and discussing the incident with his family and friends he said, still with fear in his heart, “Thank goodness I lowered my head while working. If I had raised my head, I would certainly have been hit.”
(Liberty Times, translated by Ethan Zhan)
「好加在(好險),我低頭在工作,否則後果不堪設想!」劉姓老農日前在筍園工作,一個廢輪胎從天而降,劉姓老農說,其農田緊鄰快速道路及國道,田間常冒出各式各樣垃圾,拜託用路人「別再丟了」。
古坑鄉田心村幹事張玉宙表示,台三線接台七十八線快速道路的匝道口旁空地及匝道旁產業道路,經常滿地都是塑膠袋、飲料空瓶、紙杯、塑膠杯等垃圾。里民或清潔隊一個星期打掃二次,每次都掃出一大堆垃圾。
張玉宙指出,前幾天她在匝道旁空地撿垃圾,沒想到有駕駛從車內丟出一大袋垃圾,她看了傻眼,忍不住瞪了駕駛一眼。有次在路旁彎腰撿垃圾,突然一團包著寶寶糞便的尿布竟從天而降,差點打中她的臉。
最誇張的是,村內一名八十歲劉姓老農,上月在緊鄰台七十八線快速道路的筍園工作時,突然從天上掉落一個落在眼前,老翁被嚇一大跳。回家向親友談及此事,仍心有餘悸說,「『好加在』那時低頭工作,若是抬頭一定被砸中」。
(自由時報記者黃淑莉)
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
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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