Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Trevor Tortomasi…
And I'm Ryan Drillsma.
In today's news:
Gender equality in Taiwan, a volcano in the Pacific Ocean, and thoughts on the internet.
All that and more, coming up next.
立院女性出頭天 42.5%立法委員是女性 Taiwan's 42.5% Female Legislature Sets Record
For a lot of human history, the leaders (領袖) of many countries have been men.
But nowadays, many countries around the world are seeing a lot more gender equality (男女平等)…
Especially Taiwan! 尤其是台灣！
Last month, a woman named Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) won an election to join Taiwan's Legislative Yuan (立法院).
With her joining, the Legislative Yuan is now 42.5% women.
That means Taiwan has broken its own record for gender equality in its legislature! 這代表台灣破了它自己的男女平等紀錄。
We call people working in the Legislative Yuan "lawmakers", because they make laws (法律) for everyone in the country.
And if all the people making laws are the same, it can make life harder for people who are different.
So the proportion of men to women is very important in government! 所以，政府裡面的男女比例的確很重要！
Of course, there is still a lot of inequality (不平等) around the world.
We need to work together on making sure all kinds of people are represented (代表) in governments and society.
The good news is, starting with Taiwan's Legislative Yuan is a great first step!
東加火山爆發 Tonga Volcano Erupts
Last month, our planet Earth saw its biggest volcanic eruption (火山爆發) in more than 30 years.
The volcano is on a small island in the country of Tonga (東加), which is an archipelago (群島).
Okay… here's the bad news first.
Because the volcano is surrounded (被包圍) by water, it caused a lot more problems than just a loud noise.
The eruption caused an earthquake so big that it caused a giant tidal wave to move out in all directions. 火山爆發造成地震，大到海嘯往四面八方推進。
The tidal wave moved for thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean (海嘯掃過太平洋).
And it hit the beaches of countries all around the Pacific, like Japan, New Zealand, and Peru.
But most importantly, it hit the islands of Tonga, and destroyed (摧毀) many people's houses.
It even washed mud (泥土) into Tonga's clean water, so many people didn't have enough to drink.
After the tidal wave's waters were gone, the volcano's smoke came back down and filled the air with ash (火山灰).
On top of all these problems… the volcanic earthquake broke a very important internet cable (網路海底電纜), deep under the ocean.
That cable was one of the only things letting many people in Tonga connect to the rest of the world! 那條電纜是讓東加跟外面世界聯繫的唯一方式！
Okay, finally… here's some good news!
Many countries moved quickly to help Tonga recover (恢復).
Planes flew and ships sailed to Tonga from all around the world, bringing clean water, food, and medical supplies (醫療設備) to help as many people as possible.
And this month, even more people are going to Tonga, to fix the cable and connect its islands to the world again!
If we can learn anything from this story, it's that we can't control how dangerous Earth can be…
But we can control how many people we help!
癱瘓男子動動腦 推特留言傳心聲 Paralyzed Man Makes Post With His Thoughts
Have you ever wanted to talk to someone using only your mind?
It might be possible sooner than you think!
One man from Australia has recently made a "tweet" (推特網站上留言), using only his brain!
This man is paralyzed (癱瘓), so he can't move very much of his body.
That's why scientists wanted to create something for people like him, to help them communicate (溝通) more easily.
Thanks to science, this man can now use a "brain chip" to send signals to a computer, and write words on the internet. 這個人現在可以經由裝在腦袋裡面的晶片，傳訊號給電腦來寫字。
The brain chip is only about the size of a paperclip (迴紋針), but took four hours to carefully put into the man's head.
And we may see even more tests with brain chips later this year!
It may sound weird or scary, but this man can now communicate more easily with his family, and even play some simple games. 這種作法聽起來也許有點恐怖，但是他現在能夠跟家人溝通，還能玩一些簡單的遊戲。
Let's be happy for him, and hope this is a step in the right direction for the rest of us, too!
So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan's Legislative Yuan is now 42.5% women.
That means Taiwan has broken its own record for gender equality in its legislature!
If all the people making laws are the same, it can make life harder for people who are different, so the proportion of men to women is very important in government!
And,
Last month, an island in Tonga had Earth's biggest volcanic eruption in more than 30 years.
The eruption created an earthquake, a giant tidal wave, and clouds of ash, and even cut Tonga off from the internet.
Thankfully, countries all around the world have already started to help Tonga recover.
And,
One paralyzed man in Australia can now use a brain chip to send signals to a computer, and write words on the internet.
The brain chip is only about the size of a paperclip, but took four hours to carefully put into the man's head.
Scientists wanted to create something for people like him, to help them communicate more easily.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!