In today's news, with Nancy and Paz:
Lucky scratch cards, gaming misinformation, and a vaccine for bees.
All that and more, coming up next!
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兔年刮刮樂頭獎史上最多
Year of Rabbit Lottery Scratch Cards Come with Big Prizes
The Lunar New Year is around the corner.
It is believed that the beginning of the Lunar (農曆) New Year is supposed to bring good luck.
That's why many people like to try their luck at lottery tickets.
There are many kinds of lottery tickets in Taiwan.
And scratch cards are really popular.
They are popular because scratching off the paint and revealing the prize can be exciting.
This year, Taiwan Lottery (台灣彩卷) has announced six new scratch cards.
One of them is the "$20 million NT Super Red Envelope".
This card gives a total of seven $20 million NT top prizes.
There are other big prizes too.
And this year's prizes are some of the biggest ever.
兔年2000元刮刮樂加碼，獎項與數量比以往更加倍。
But buying these scratch cards can cost a lot of money.
And only adults 18 years or older are allowed to buy them.
Scratch cards can be a fun part of the Lunar New Year.
But make sure to play responsibly!
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電玩被當成新聞
Video Games and Misinformation
Do you play video games?
Many of us do.
It's fun and those CGI graphics (電腦特效) are so awesome.
Over the years, CGI has improved a lot.
Sometimes, it can be hard to tell the difference between what's real and what's CGI.
And this makes some researchers worried.
They worry that graphics in gaming could spread misinformation.
有些專家擔心遊戲裡逼真的特效有可能散波假的或是不準確的資訊。
Recently, some people thought CGI from a video game was real video footage (一段影片).
They thought it was footage of the Russia Ukraine war.
Some of this footage even had a "live" or "breaking news" logo (標誌) on it.
Something like this also happened last month, during the FIFA World Cup.
Around 40,000 fans thought they were watching the game live.
But it was just edited (編輯) video from a soccer video game.
Video game footage has been easily accessible (容易取得).
And researchers are worried that in a few years, it would be almost impossible to tell CGI from the real thing.
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全球第一款蜜蜂疫苗
World's First Vaccine for Honeybees
It has been about 200 years since the world's first vaccine was produced.
Nowadays, we have vaccines for many diseases.
Babies get many vaccines after they are born.
Even animals have vaccines for contagious (傳染性的) diseases like rabies (狂犬病).
Vaccines can help stop serious diseases.
Recently, the US approved a vaccine for honeybees.
This vaccine aims to curb (抑制) a disease called "foulbrood".
Foulbrood can weaken and kill bees.
This disease has no cure and beekeepers have to destroy and burn any infected colonies (蜂群).
The bee vaccine is mixed into the royal jelly (蜂王漿) fed to the queen by worker bees.
When the queen lays eggs, the larvae (幼蟲) will then have immunity (免疫) to the disease.
If all goes well, bee vaccines for other diseases will also be developed.
Bees are very important for pollination (授粉).
Without pollination, we wouldn't have flowers and fruits.
But the number of wild bees is falling.
This is because of habitat loss, pesticide (農藥) use and the climate crisis.
It is therefore important to protect farmed honeybees.
一個沒有花朵和水果的世界真的令人難以想像。
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So, in today's News Bites:
This year, Taiwan Lottery has announced six new scratch cards
And this year's prizes are some of the biggest ever.
Scratch cards can be a fun part of the Lunar New Year.
But make sure to play responsibly!
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Some researchers worry that graphics in gaming could spread misinformation.
Recently, some people thought CGI from a video game was real video footage of the Russia Ukraine war.
Researchers are worried that in a few years, it would be almost impossible to tell CGI from the real thing.
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And,
The US approved a vaccine for honeybees, to curb a disease called "foulbrood", which weakens and kills bees.
This disease has no cure and beekeepers have to destroy and burn any infected colonies.
Bees are very important for pollination, but the number of wild bees is falling.
It is therefore important to protect farmed honeybees.
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And that's today's episode of News Bites!