Hello and welcome to an exciting new episode of News Bites!

I'm Kelly Kimura.

And I'm Jacob Ingram.

Coming up next in today's news: Taiwan's Presidential Hackathon winners help
society, and a village in Kenya gets a 500-kilogram ring... that's space
junk!

And in today's Tasty Tidbit…words for snow!

Stay tuned for more on those stories!
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台灣總統黑客松得獎者 幫助社會
Taiwan's Presidential Hackathon Winners Help Society

What is a hackathon (黑客松)?

It's an event where people work together to write software code (軟體程式) to
make a new product or service (產品或服務).

Taiwan has a hackathon every year.

It's also a contest (競賽).

It's the Presidential Hackathon.

Teams of young people work together to find answers for social (社會的)
problems.

They use technology (科技).

The contest has two parts.

One is for Taiwanese teams.

The other is for international (國際的) teams.

The theme for Taiwan's teams was helping older people in Taiwan to have lives
that are healthy and sustainable (可持續的).

Five Taiwanese teams won.

Two teams made websites (網站) that older people and doctors use.

The websites help people get better healthcare (醫療服務).

One team's idea was to use drones (無人機).

The drones send medicine to some older people.

They live in places that are hard to go to.

Another team made a sound monitor (噪音監測器).

It helps local areas make sure noise levels are safe.

This is important for a healthy life.

And one team made an app (應用程式) to help farmers use recycled (回收的)
water to grow better grains (糧食).

The theme for international teams was about making sustainable digital
systems (永續數位系統).

Taiwan is aiming (目標) for net-zero emissions (淨零排放) by 2050.

So these systems aim at a future with net-zero emissions.

There were seventy-seven teams from forty-four countries!

The winning team had people from Taiwan and the U.S.

They wanted to make a system that turns Earth-friendly actions
(對地球友善的行為) into a kind of money.

This would make people want to do things to help the Earth.

The second-place team was from Indonesia (印尼).

They made an app that helps dairy farmers (酪農) make sure their cows are
healthy.

總統黑客松比賽 提供機會給具備專業技術的年輕人改善社會。
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肯亞村莊獲得500公斤太空垃圾環
Village in Kenya Gets a 500-Kilogram Space Junk Ring

A village (村莊) in Kenya (肯亞) is very, very lucky.

People in the village heard a loud sound. Bang!

They didn't know what had made the noise.

Was it a car accident (車禍)?

Was it a bomb (炸彈)?

They looked up, but they didn't see any smoke.

But they did see a big red ring slowly falling (落下) from the sky to the
village.

What?? What was it?

It was a very hot piece of space junk (太空垃圾)!

After the red ring landed, it turned gray as it became cool.

The police and people from the Kenya Space Agency (肯亞航太局) came.

The space agency says the ring is from a rocket (火箭).

It is heavy.

It weighs 500 kilograms (公斤)!

The diameter (直徑) of the ring is about two and a half meters (公尺).

So why is the village lucky?

They're lucky because no one was hurt.

The ring only hit some trees and other plants.

The space agency said that space junk usually burns up (燃燒) as it comes
back to Earth.

Countries and companies (公司) also try to make their space junk fall where
no people live.

The space agency is trying to find out who owns the rocket.

They want to know why this piece fell to the village.

The space agency told the people in the village that the ring was not
dangerous.

There's a lot of space junk going around and around the Earth.

And more rockets are going up, so more space junk is being made.

More pieces have been falling to Earth without burning up.

Last year, a 45-kilogram piece fell onto a hiking path (步道) in the U.S.

Scientists want countries and companies to make less space junk.

They also want them to clean up some of the bigger space junk.

不論是國家或是公司，都應該減少太空垃圾，並且清除比較大的廢棄物。
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So in today's News Bites:

Taiwan's Presidential Hackathon winners can help society with their ideas.

This year's themes were helping older people have healthy and sustainable
lives and making sustainable digital systems.

The hackathon gives young people with technology skills a chance to work
together and with Taiwan's government.
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And...

A heavy piece of space junk fell from the sky to a village in Kenya.

The village was lucky because no one was hurt.

Space junk usually burns up as it comes back to Earth, but more pieces are
not burning up.

Scientists want countries and companies to make less space junk and clean up
some too.
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit

And in today's Tasty Tidbit...

How many words for snow are there in Chinese?

We don't know - do you?

Some countries that get a lot of snow have lots of words for the cold white
stuff.

In Sweden (瑞典), there are 25.

One is "sn?."

Hey, that sounds a lot like English!.

In Iceland (冰島), there are 46... or more.

One is "snj?r."

In Scotland, there are 421 words for snow, according to a university there.

Jacob is from Scotland, and he's going to say a few of these words for us.

Okay. "Flindrikin" - a short snow shower!

"Spitters" - small wind-driven snowflakes!

Or you could just say "snae" - snow!

Thanks, Jacob!
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And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!

If you have a fun fact (about snae or anything else), a joke, or interesting
news (about helping society, space junk, or anything else!) that you'd like
to share with us, record your message and send your Tasty Tidbit to us at
newsbites@icrt.com.tw.

You might hear it at the end of an episode!

We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!