Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Ryan Drillsma…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

A festival celebrates street performers, cow poop makes sea water drinkable, and Billie Eilish will headline a major music festival.

All that and more, coming up next.

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台北首場街頭藝人節

Taipei's First Buskers Festival

Taipei held its first ever buskers festival on Saturday, October 23rd.

What is a busker?

A busker is a street performer (街頭藝人) - someone who does something entertaining at the side of the road.

Buskers can be musicians or artists, or do things like circus tricks (像馬戲團的表演).

There were over 90 performers and performance groups at the festival.

And they all put on shows at five different locations across Taipei's Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.

One of the festival's organizers is a yo-yo performer (表演溜溜球的人), who does lots of impressive (很不簡單的) tricks with just a yo-yo.

But there were also clowns, violinists, acrobats, and handicraft makers.

其他還有小丑、小提琴手、雜技演員，以及手工藝師傅。

A lot of buskers have had a difficult time this summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New rules meant people could not gather (聚集) in crowds to see shows, and lots of people chose to stay indoors, meaning it was difficult for buskers to make money.

A Japanese kendama (日本劍玉) performer told news reporters that the festival was the first time he had performed in four months.

A kendama is like a wooden hammer with a ball attached by a string.

Buskers had a reason to celebrate (慶祝) at this year's festival.

The government recently changed the law (修法) to make it easier for them to perform.

Buskers used to have to pass an exam so they could perform on the street, but now they only have to fill in some paperwork (填寫一些資料).

And the organizers said they think this will allow performances to be more creative (更有創意).

Being a street performer requires a lot of skill, hard-work and dedication.

Do you think you have any skills you could show off to people on the street?

當街頭藝人要很認真，願意投入，還要很有本領。你有什麼技巧想要表演給別人看的嗎?

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科學家用牛屎製作飲用水

Scientists Make Drinkable Water Using Cow Poop

How do you feel when you're swimming in the ocean and you accidentally (意外的) swallow a big gulp of sea water?

Yuck… sea water is so salty.

Actually, humans cannot drink it, because our bodies cannot get rid of all the salt quickly enough.

That's a shame (很可惜), because a lot of people around the world find it difficult to get clean water to drink.

Global aid provider UNICEF (提供全球援助的聯合國兒童基金會) says 1.42 billion people live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.

And there is so much sea water! 世界上有14億人居住在水源稀少的地方，但是海水卻有那麼多。

But what if there was a way we could make sea water drinkable (可以喝)?

Well, what if I told you there is… using cow poop!

Researchers at Northeastern University in the U.S. have developed a way to make sea water drinkable by using cow poop as a filter (過濾).

Cow poop is rich in nutrients (營養); it contains digested grass and grains, and lots of farmers use it as a fertilizer (肥料).

First, people heat the poop to 1,700 degrees Celsius to kill any bacteria (細菌).

This also turns the poop into a carbon powder (碳粉).

The carbon powder is then made into a foam.

The foam floats on the surface (平面) of the seawater, and when sunlight hits it, the water turns into steam. Once it passes through the carbon powder foam, it becomes drinkable water!

利用牛糞製作飲用水，需要先把它加熱到攝氏1700度，變成碳粉。再把這些碳粉泡沫鋪在海面，陽光照射下，海水會變成蒸氣，蒸氣通過碳粉之後凝結的水就可以喝了!

Experts say not only is using cow poop to make water low-cost, but it is environmentally friendly.

And it could one day help reduce water vulnerability in people that live in poorer places.

用這個方法來造水，不但價錢便宜而且對環境友善，有一天也可以對貧窮國家的居民幫上忙。

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怪奇比莉將當藝術節主秀

Billie Eilish to Headline Music Fest

One of the hottest young singers will lead a major music event.

Billie Eilish will be the headliner (主秀) of next year's Glastonbury Festival.

She will be the youngest-ever solo artist to headline the show.

Billie already performed at the show once, in 2019.

怪奇比莉將當明年的格拉斯頓柏立當代表演藝術節的主秀。

Back then, Billie did not know how important the festival was.

She says she was an uncultured (蒙昧無知) baby then, and only realized later what an honor it was.

The Glastonbury Festival was canceled this year and last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Next year's event will take place in late June.

怪奇比莉2019年已經在藝術節表演過，但這兩年的都因為疫情被取消。

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So, in today's News Bites:

Taipei held its first ever buskers festival on Saturday, October 23rd.

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And,

Researchers in the U.S. have developed a way to make sea water drinkable, by using cow poop as a filter.

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And,

Billie Eilish will be the headliner of next year's Glastonbury Festival.

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!