Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Nancy Sun…
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
Pui Pui, pekapeka, and Ed's hot sauce.
All that and more, coming up next.
Pui Pui天竺鼠車車造型一卡通萌登場 Pui Pui iPass to Go On Sale
Are you a fan of Pui Pui?
Pui Pui Molcar is a Japanese show about guinea pig cars.
Lots of children like the cute characters and sounds.
And many adults like them too.
And now iPass users can take a guinea pig car with them onto public transportation (公共交通工具).
The iPass Corporation has made special iPasses that look like two characters from the Pui Pui Molcar show.
One is Potato, a molcar with brown patches (塊、色塊), who likes to eat carrots.
The other is Shiromo, a white molcar with a lot of bad luck.
Pui Pui 天竺鼠車車 iPass 有兩款，是人氣角色馬鈴薯 和 西羅摩 的造型。
The soft furry (毛茸茸的) iPasses can be used like a normal iPass when you get on or off the MRT or bus.
When you swipe (刷卡、嗶卡) them, the guinea pig car will vibrate and play the Pui Pui Molcar theme song.
一卡通公司說這兩款iPass除了可愛的絨毛造型以外，嗶卡時還有「音樂＋震動」的功能。
This is not the first time electronic tickets have come in fun new shapes (形狀、樣式).
Last year, the EasyCard Corporation came out with EasyCards shaped like a poke ball.
Poke balls are used to catch and hold creatures (生物、動物) in the Pokemon cartoon and game.
The Poke ball EasyCards light up when used to pay for a ride.
紐西蘭「年度最佳鳥類」票選比賽 竟是蝙蝠奪冠 New Zealand Bat Flies Away with Bird of the Year Award
Every year, New Zealand holds a contest (比賽).
People vote online and by mail to choose a "Bird of the Year".
The contest helps people learn more about birds found in New Zealand.
But this year, the winner of the contest was a surprise.
This year's New Zealand "Bird of the Year"… is a bat!
Say hello to the pekapeka-tou-roa (長尾蝙蝠).
It is also called the "long tailed bat".
The pekapeka-tou-roa is one of the rarest mammals (哺乳類動物) in the world.
It is the size of a thumb (大拇指).
It weighs about as much as a tablespoon of sugar.
And when the pekapeka is born, it is just the size of a bee.
The pekapkea-tou-roa won the Bird of the Year contest, after around 58,000 people voted online from around the world.
Officials say they put the bat in the contest, because the bats are very important to the environment.
They eat flying bugs, like flies, moths, and beetles.
And they face a lot of the same dangers that birds face.
The population of the pekapeka-tou-roa is falling by about 5 percent every year.
Many of these bats get killed or eaten by rats, possums, and cats.
And they like to live in big, old trees.
Many trees that could be a home for the pekapeka-tou-roa and other birds are cut down each year in New Zealand.
長尾蝙蝠是紐西蘭特有的蝙蝠，只有人類拇指大小，因為棲息地遭到人類破壞，每年數量下降程度達到5%之多。
Officials say they hope the contest can help people learn more about the pekapeka-tou-roa and other New Zealand birds.
紐西蘭保育團體每年會舉辦鳥類比賽，不過今年投票中選的竟然不是鳥類，而是屬於哺乳動物的紐西蘭長尾蝙蝠。
紅髮艾德坦承有偷東西 Ed Sheeran Admits to Theft
A musical star has a slightly dirty past.
Ed Sheeran has admitted (坦承) to have committed a crime before.
Specifically, he stole something.
Even more specifically, he stole a bottle of restaurant hot sauce.
紅髮艾德坦承他剛開始表演的時候，他有偷一家餐廳的一瓶辣椒醬。
Ed says this happened when he was first starting out as a musician.
He stole the bottle from a popular restaurant chain, and immediately felt guilty.
However, karma (果報) soon caught up with him, and the bottle broke over his equipment.
Ed says his gear smelled like the sauce for a full year.
這瓶辣椒醬很快就打碎，醬都淋到他的裝備上，一年都是辣椒的氣味。
So, in today's News Bites:
The iPass Corporation has made special iPasses that look like characters from the Pui Pui Molcar show.
The soft furry iPasses can be used like a normal iPass when you get on or off the MRT or bus.
When you swipe them, the guinea pig car will vibrate and play the Pui Pui Molcar theme song.
This year's New Zealand "Bird of the Year" is the pekapeka-tou-roa, also called the "long-tailed bat".
Officials say they put the bat in the contest, because the bats are very important to the environment.
And they face a lot of the same dangers that birds face.
And,
Ed Sheeran admitted to stealing a bottle of hot sauce when he was first starting out as a musician.
He said he immediately felt guilty, and the bottle broke over his equipment.
Ed says his gear smelled like the sauce for a full year.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!