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

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Ryan Drillsma.

In today's news:

Fireworks over a river, poetry from a robot, and no Elf movies for this actor.

All that and more, coming up next.

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新北舉辦跨河煙火秀

New Taipei New Year's Fireworks on River

More New Year's fireworks shows are coming!

New Taipei City will have a fireworks show on a river.

The city government says the show will happen on December 31st, starting at 8:22 PM.

They say it will be 13 minutes and 14 seconds long.

They chose to make the show this long, because 1, 3, 1, 4 sounds like "for a lifetime" in Chinese.

And the theme (主題) of the show is "love you for a lifetime".

In total, the show will use more than 10,000 fireworks!

跨河煙火秀會在12月31日晚間8點22分登場，今年煙火施放時間會長達13分14秒。

The fireworks will be over Dan-jiang Bridge, between Danshui District and Ba-li District.

The bridge is being built right now, and will be finished in the year 2024.

The show will have nine parts, and the fireworks will be 1 kilometer wide in the sky.

The city government says because the fireworks will be very wide, people can see it both in Danshui and in Bali.

Officials say everyone who wants to watch the show near the river should wear face masks.

They should also avoid walking and eating at the same time.

And the show will be livestreamed online.

So if you plan on staying home that night, you can still enjoy the beautiful fireworks!

新北市政府說施放煙火的範圍很大，所以淡水和八里河岸都可以觀賞，到時候也會有直播，可以在家輕鬆觀賞煙火秀。

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機器詩人分享作品

Robot Artist Shares Poetry

We often think of robots as machines that help us.

Robots can do jobs that are too hard, or too dangerous for people.

And sometimes in movies, they are shown as super strong, and sometimes even scary.

But did you know robots can make art too?

Ai-Da is a robot artist.

She was made by British inventor (發明者) Aidan Meller.

Ai-Da has skin made of silicone, and real-looking hair.

Her teeth are 3D-printed.

She also has eyes with cameras inside.

Ai-Da has legs, but she can't walk.

And her head, arms, and upper body move.

And last month, Ai-Da read a poem she wrote at Oxford University.

To write the poem, Ai-Da first read Dante's "Divine Comedy" (意大利詩人但丁的長詩"神曲").

Then she used algorithms (計算程式) to find patterns (句型).

Ai-Da then used the patterns and the words she knows, to make a new poem.

Here is a little bit of Ai-Da's poem.

Is that what you thought it would sound like?

Ai-Da's inventor Aidan says very soon, poems and sentences made by robots will sound the same as ones made by people.

Aidan says we won't be able to tell the difference.

He says he finds it a little "unsettling" (令人不安).

But Aidan says Ai-Da also helps us learn a lot about ourselves, and how we think.

機器詩人Ai-Da用人工智慧寫詩，她的發明者說Ai-Da的作品可以讓我們更了解自己。

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威爾·法洛回絕電影續集

Will Ferrel Turns Down Movie Sequel

A comedian has said no to playing an old character.

Will Ferrell starred in the Christmas movie Elf back in 2003.

He was recently approached about doing a sequel, but Will turned it down (回絕).

He says the script for the second movie wasn't good enough.

威爾·法洛決定不參與精靈總動員續集電影，因為劇本不夠好。

Will felt the script was too similar (相近) to the original movie.

He was offered 29 million dollars for the role, but he still refused.

He said he wouldn't be able to honestly promote the movie because he didn't think it would be good.

The original Elf movie made 220 million dollars worldwide.

雖然他可以賺兩千九百萬美金，威爾說他無法老實的宣導一部他覺得不夠好的電影。

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So, in today's News Bites:

New Taipei City will have a New Year's fireworks show on a river.

The show will be 13 minutes and 14 seconds long.

In total, the show will use more than 10,000 fireworks!

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Ai-Da is a robot artist.

Last month, Ai-Da read a poem she wrote at Oxford University.

Ai-Da then used patterns from a famous poem and the words she knows, to make a new poem.

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And,

Will Ferrell starred in the Christmas movie Elf back in 2003.

He was recently approached about doing a sequel, but Will turned it down.

He was offered $29 million dollars to do it, but says the script for the second movie wasn't good enough.

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