The mother of Lin Chun-wu, director of Nantou County Government’s Department of Social Welfare, is 93 years old. She recently received a penalty ticket relating to scooter fuel charges. The problem is, Lin’s mother does not know how to ride a scooter, nor has she ever bought one.
Lin says that his mother has suffered from dementia since 10 years ago and, although she lives under the same roof with him, she occasionally forgets that her son exists. Recently she received a penalty ticket from the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, stating that she had failed to pay a total of NT$450 for her heavy-duty scooter fuel charges in 2014 and, because she had failed to pay it before the deadline, she now had to pay a fine of NT$600. The name of the person being penalized on the ticket was precisely that of Lin’s mother, so it caused Lin a great deal of worry.
Lin said that his mother cannot even ride a bicycle, much less a scooter. He figured that if this was not a trick by a scam gang, it had probably occurred when she was not very clear about what she was doing and let her name be used by relatives or friends to buy a scooter.
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者李雅雯
After Lin inquired into the matter with the DGH, it was discovered that when someone was keying in the scooter’s ownership data, they accidently entered a zero in place of one of the digits in the identity card number of the scooter’s real owner, a woman surnamed Yen, and that is how the wrong person got fined by accident.
(Liberty Times, translated by Ethan Zhan)
南投縣政府社會處長林俊梧高齡九十三歲的媽媽最近收到積欠機車燃料費罰單,問題是他媽媽不會騎機車,也未曾買過機車。
林俊梧指出,他媽媽十多年前,便罹患失智症,雖然與他同住在一個屋簷下,但有時還會忘了他這個兒子的存在。最近接到一張交通部公路總局開出的罰單,裡頭載明積欠一○三年重機燃料費四百五十元,因逾期未繳,處六百元罰鍰,受處分人的姓名就是他媽媽,害他擔憂不已。
他說,他媽媽連腳踏車都不會騎,更遑論機車,心想若不是詐騙集團手法,說不定是其媽媽在神智不清楚情況下,淪為親友購買機車的人頭戶?
經向公路總局反映後才發現,原來是在輸入車籍資料時,將真正車主顏姓婦人身分證字號其中一個數字誤植為「○」,才衍生罰錯對象的烏龍事件。
〔自由時報記者謝介裕〕
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