Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Ryan Drillsma…
And I'm Nancy Sun.
In today's news:
Taiwan's working population shrinks, octopuses are throwing things, and a rock band hits an online milestone.
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣的青壯年人口首次下降 Taiwan's Working Age Population Shrinks for the First Time
Taiwan's working population has shrunk for the first time.
As the number of people living in our country gets bigger each year, the number of people who are the right age to work usually also grows.
But this year, the number of people who are able to work has gone down.
Why has this happened?
It's because Taiwan has an aging population.
台灣有人口老化的問題。
That means slowly but surely, the number of old people in Taiwan is becoming higher than the number of young people.
And that's because there are less babies being born.
This could be a big problem for Taiwan in the future.
Because old people need a lot of support (支援) from the government, and once they retire (退休), they do not earn money themselves.
And if there are not enough young people to work, there may not be enough money to support these old people.
People are choosing to have less children for different reasons.
Perhaps some just want more freedom (自由).
Others say that the living expenses (生活費) in Taiwan are now too high, and even if they wanted children, they could not earn enough money to support them.
The government has been thinking of different ways to solve this problem.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je last year suggested (建議) the government gives people money for getting married, and this would encourage them (鼓勵他們) to have children.
But many think this would not be enough to cover the cost of raising children.
Can you think of any ways Taiwan could solve its aging population problem?
台北市長柯文哲去年提議說，政府可以提供結婚補助金，好鼓勵人們結婚生子，不過很多人覺得這不夠彌補生養小孩的花費。
你認為台灣要如何解決人口老化的問題呢？
章魚會互相扔東西嗎？ Can octopuses throw things at each other?
Octopuses are very smart creatures.
Scientists have found they can solve mazes (解開迷宮) and complete difficult tasks to get food.
And researchers (研究者) at the University of Sydney in Australia have discovered that octopuses can "throw" things by pushing them with water.
澳洲雪梨大學研究者發現，章魚會用推水的方式來扔東西。
But these researchers made another surprising discovery.
Naughty octopuses were throwing things at each other!
This is something we do as humans, but we do not often see it in animals.
The researchers said the way octopuses throw things at each other is complicated (複雜).
They use all their arms together and make a force (力量) to push water, and they also take water in then spit it out (吐出來) at objects to "throw" them at other octopuses.
But why do they throw stuff?
It could be for the same reasons humans do.
Some of the scientists thought the octopuses were throwing things at stuff they found annoying.
有些科學家認為，章魚會對牠討厭的東西推水。
This included a female octopus that was getting annoyed at a male one!
And when the scientists put a camera underwater to watch the octopuses, they threw things at that, too!
But other scientists thought they could just be cleaning their homes.
And if they hit another octopus, it is probably a mistake (意外，錯誤).
But as we said before, octopuses are very smart, and we still have a lot to learn about them.
章魚確實是非常聰明的動物，科學家還需要多多觀察，才會更了解這種生物。
金屬製品MV超越十億點擊率 Metallica Music Video Hits 1 Billion Views
Another classic rock band has hit an online milestone.
The music video for Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" has now been watched one billion (十億) times on YouTube.
The video reached that number as the album it came out on marks its 30th anniversary.
The Black Album was released in August of 1991.
過了三十年，金屬製品樂團的Nothing Else Matters MV在YouTube上達到十億點擊率。
To celebrate the big anniversary, Metallica came out with an updated (升級) version of the album.
It includes other celebrities singing covers of the songs.
Nothing Else Matters is only the 6th music video from the 90s to reach one billion views.
The other bands that hit that mark are Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, The Cranberries, Whitney Houston, and 4 Non Blondes.
Nothing Else Matters是第六部1990年代的MV達到這個里程碑。
So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan's working population has shrunk for the first time. . It's because Taiwan has an aging population.
People are choosing to have less children for different reasons, and some think raising a child is too expensive.
And,
Octopuses can "throw" things by pushing water.
Some scientists think they throw things at each other.
But others think they could just be cleaning their homes.
And,
A classic rock band has hit an online milestone.
The music video for Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" has now been watched one billion times on YouTube.
Nothing Else Matters is only the 6th music video from the 90s to reach one billion views.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!