Green Party Taiwan Taoyuan City Councilor Xavier Wang has posted a picture of a dirty pillow on Facebook, saying that it was a military pillow shot by a friend of his when he was serving his short-term reserve training duty at the Armor Training Command And Armor School in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township. The picture has provoked heated discussions among netizens. Having just offered help in a case involving Jian Chih-lung, a rookie soldier in a military police training center in Taoyuan who was infected with Leptospirosis and died as a result of sepsis, Wang asked, “How can rookie soldiers avoid getting sick in an environments of this sanitary standard? What’s the matter with the military?”
A netizen commented that, “when I did my military service in the past it was this filthy.” Others said that, “Items for the short-term reserve training are kept for years in a warehouse” and that “Filthy is normal. If they give you brand new stuff, then something really is wrong.” Someone else asked, “Do you expect to be welcome as if you were at a five star hotel? You are here to fulfill your military duty, not to take a vacation.” However, one also said, “Pathetic. So many people take it for granted and think that it is normal for soldiers to use filthy and defective things.” They think the public should stop regarding abnormalities as the normal state of affairs and stop taking unreasonable things for granted if they want the military to make improvements.
(Liberty Times, translated by Ethan Zhan)
Photo from Xavier Wang’s Facebook profile
照片取材自王浩宇臉書
綠黨桃園市議員王浩宇在臉書貼出一張髒枕頭的照片,指出是朋友到新竹湖口裝甲兵學校教召時所拍下的國軍枕頭,引起網友熱議。才剛協助處理桃園市憲兵訓練中心新兵簡志龍感染「細鉤端螺旋體病」導致敗血症不治的案例,他感慨質疑:「如此衛生環境,新兵怎麼可能不生病?國軍,你怎麼了?」
有網友留言「以前當兵都這樣髒髒臭臭的」,「教召的物品都是長年放在倉庫的」, 「有髒兮兮這正常的,全新的給你才有鬼」,「不然要像住五星級飯店歡迎住宿嗎?進來當兵不是進來度假的」。不過也有網友認為「好慘,大家都把軍人使用髒東西、爛東西視為理所當然和正常。」他們認為不應該把不正常視為正常,也不該把不合理視為理所當然,才能夠慢慢地改進讓軍隊更好。
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
照片:自由時報記者簡榮豐攝
(自由時報記者李容萍)
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
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110