Tainan launched its “beautiful clear sky” plan in 2014. According to figures compiled by the Tainan City Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau, Tainan’s air quality index — the pollutant standards index (PSI) — now has zero occurrences of a “poor” status and has a record-high number of “good” air days. Tainan’s PM2.5 concentration has also improved markedly, showing that the “beautiful clear sky” action plan is having an effect. This year the municipality is going a step further by launching its “beautiful clear sky 2.0” plan, and at the same time getting down to the task of researching and discussing autonomous regulations. It is considering a complete ban on the use of two-stroke scooters in 2019.
The Environmental Protection Bureau says that exhaust fumes from cars, scooters and diesel vehicles are a major source of fine suspended particulate matter (PM2.5). At present, there are still about 160,000 two-stroke scooters in Tainan. The task of speeding up the elimination of old, highly polluting scooters and popularizing low-carbon means of transport such as buses and electric vehicles has all along been an important orientation for the city government. The bureau is currently considering how to formulate autonomous regulations to phase out two-stroke scooters, and it plans to eliminate them completely within Mayor William Lai’s tenure. That would mean that from 2019 onward there would be no more two-stroke scooters on Tainan’s streets.
The Environmental Protection Bureau stresses that the plan is still on the drawing board. The bureau will hold public hearings to solicit the opinions of people from all walks of life, and it will also propose subsidies and other complementary measures with the aim of achieving a consensus among various sectors. If the plan proves to be achievable, the bureau will send the draft autonomous regulations to the city council to get the council’s support.
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者蔡文居
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
台南市於二○一四年推出「亮麗晴空」計畫。根據台南市政府環保局統計，台南空氣品質指標（PSI）不良率為百分之零，空氣良好日數是歷年最高，PM2.5濃度也明顯改善，顯示亮麗晴空行動計畫已發揮成效。今年將續推「亮麗晴空2.0計畫」，同時也著手研議自治條例，研擬自二○一九年起全面禁用二行程機車。
環保局表示，汽機車及柴油車排煙是細懸浮微粒（PM2.5）的很大來源，目前台南市仍有約十六萬輛的二行程機車，如何加速汰舊高污染機車，推廣公車、電動機車等低碳交通運具，一直是市府努力的方向。目前也正研議制訂自治條例來逐漸禁用二行程機車，計畫在市長賴清德任內全面完成汰舊，也就是自一○八年起台南市街道不再有二行程機車。
環保局強調，目前這項計畫仍在草擬研議階段，未來將會舉辦公聽會聽取各界的意見，同時也會提出補助等相關配套措施，希望取得各界的共識。如果可行，再將自治條例送議會爭取議會的支持。
(自由時報記者蔡文居)
In an effort to fight phone scams, British mobile phone company O2 has introduced Daisy, an AI designed to engage phone con artists in time-wasting conversations. Daisy is portrayed as a kindly British granny, exploiting scammers’ tendency to target the elderly. Her voice, based on a real grandmother’s for authenticity, adds to her credibility in the role. “O2” has distributed several dedicated phone numbers online to direct scammers to Daisy instead of actual customers. When Daisy receives a call, she translates the scammers’ spoken words into text and then responds to them accordingly through a text-to-speech system. Remarkably, Daisy
Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 Emma had reviewed 41 resumes that morning. While the ATS screened out 288 unqualified, she screened for AI slop. She could spot it a mile away. She muttered AI buzzwords like curses under her breath. “Team player.” “Results-driven.” “Stakeholder alignment.” “Leveraging core competencies.” Each resume reeked of AI modeling: a cemetery of cliches, tombstones of personality. AI wasn’t just changing hiring. It was draining the humanity from it. Then she found it: a plain PDF cover letter. No template. No design flourishes. The first line read: “I once tried to automate my
Every May 1, Hawaii comes alive with Lei Day, a festival celebrating the rich culture and spirit of the islands. Initiated in 1927 by the poet Don Blanding, Lei Day began as a tribute to the Hawaiian custom of making and wearing leis. The idea was quickly adopted and officially recognized as a holiday in 1929, and leis have since become a symbol of local pride and cultural preservation. In Hawaiian culture, leis are more than decorative garlands made from flowers, shells or feathers. For Hawaiians, giving a lei is as natural as saying “aloha.” It shows love and
1. 他走出門，左右看一下，就過了馬路。 ˇ He walked outside, looked left and right, and crossed the road. χ He walked outside and looked left and right, crossed the road. 註︰並列連接詞 and 在這句中連接三個述語。一般的結構是 x, y, and z。x and y and z 是加強語氣的結構，x and y, z 則不可以。 2. 他們知道自己的弱點以及如何趕上其他競爭者。 ˇ They saw where their weak points lay and how they could catch up with the other competitors. χ They saw where their weak points lay and how to catch up with the other competitors. 註：and 一般連接同等成分，結構相等的單詞、片語或子句。誤句中 and 的前面是子句，後面是不定詞片語，不能用 and 連接，必須把不定詞片語改為子句，and 前後的結構才相等。 3. 她坐上計程車，直接到機場。 ˇ She took a cab, which took her straight to the airport. ˇ She took a cab and it took her straight
RSS