Hi there.

It's time for an all-new episode of News Bites.

I'm Jacob Ingram.

And I'm Brody Halverson.

In today's news: The Nantou County Government is cracking down on noise from modified vehicle exhaust pipes, and Japan's first ever moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night.

And in today's Tasty Tidbit: Have you ever wondered how many books there are in the world?

Stay tuned for those stories, coming up next.

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改裝排氣管噪音免費檢測 南投規劃每月一天

Nantou County Government Cranking Down on Noise From Modified Exhaust Pipes

Normally when cars zoom past, they don't make a lot noise.

This is because manufacturers design them to be quiet.

But there are those in society that for some reason or other like to make their cars super loud.

They do this my modifying exhaust pipes (改裝排氣管).

Why do they do this?

Don't know.

Modifying exhaust pipes doesn't actually make cars faster.

All it does it make them a lot louder.

In fact, it's illegal not just in Taiwan, but in many countries around the world.

However, police often don't often go after exhaust pipe modifiers.

警方通常不會逮捕改裝排氣管的人。

So the problem of loud, annoying cars and motorcycles persists, like a buzzing fly that just doesn't go away.

Thankfully, that might be about to change soon in Nantou.

The county government there is looking to crack down (取締) on this problem.

Nantou officials say residents complained about the noise from modified exhaust pipes, especially at nighttime.

當地居民抱怨汽機車改裝排氣管的噪音，晚上特別擾人。

They said they investigated around 800 cases of vehicles with modified exhausts and found 10 percent of them to be too loud.

According to traffic regulations, all vehicles - cars, scooters and motorcycles -- that have modified exhausts have to meet noise level standards.

That basically means they can't be overly loud.

Nantou county officials announced that starting from the last Monday of each month, they're offering free checks for noisy exhausts.

Now, why all this fuss about noise, you ask?

Environment and transport officials want to make sure that when exhausts are modified, engine noise is still kept down to a reasonable level.

So, they've brought in new rules.

From 2025, it will be mandatory for modified exhausts to be checked.

If it's too loud, car owners could be fined up to 5400 NT!

Let's keep the streets peaceful and the nights quiet.

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無人探測器ＳＬＩＭ成功登陸月球表面

Japan's first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night

Japan recently send its first ever lander to the moon.

It's called SLIM…

No, not "Slim Shady"!

Just SLIM.

"S - L - I - M".

It's an acronym (縮寫) for "Smart Lander for Investigating Moon".

SLIM had a bit of a rough start.

It landed on the Moon awkwardly back in January, with its solar panels (太陽能板) facing the wrong way.

That meant it couldn't soak up any sunlight to power itself up.

這意味著它無法吸收任何陽光來為自己供電。

This little guy still managed to send back some pictures.

But later on, it had to shut down, as a freezing cold lunar night was approaching.

Surviving a night on the Moon is no easy feat.

在月球上過夜並沒那麼簡單。

Lunar nights last for 14 Earth days, and temperatures can drop to as low as -173 degrees Celsius!

Just for comparison, the coldest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 degrees Celsius.

Imagine enduring extremely cold temperatures and pitch darkness for 14 days!

That's what SLIM had to do.

In fact, it managed to do it twice.

Poor thing.

As you can imagine, there were probably some who were worried that SLIM wouldn't survive a third.

But when J-A-X-A, Japan's space agency, sent a command …

… SLIM responded!

It woke up, emerging victorious!

Dr. Simeon Barber from the UK's Open University says this is a big deal.

這個教授說這很了不起。

He says that surviving the lunar night is a major challenge for missions on the Moon, whether they're run by robots or humans.

不論是機器人還是人類，要在月球上執行任務，平安度過夜晚都是一大挑戰。

This is not only because the moon gets really cold, but also because during the daytime, it gets very hot - as hot as 130 degrees Celsius!

That's hot enough to fry eggs on the lunar rocks.

白天的氣溫，足夠把月球岩石上的雞蛋煎熟！

And here's me thinking Taiwan was bad enough with its temperature changes.

JAXA shared a picture taken by SLIM while it was up and running again.

Let's hope SLIM keeps working smoothly!

加油！

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So in today's News Bites,

Some people like to make their cars loud by changing the exhaust pipes, even though it's against the law in many places.

Nantou County in Taiwan is trying to stop this because residents complain about the noise, especially at night.

They're offering free checks for loud exhausts, and starting in 2025, it will be mandatory for vehicles with modified exhausts to be checked.

If they're too loud, owners could be fined, so it's important to follow the rules.

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And,

Japan's SLIM lunar lander survived its third freezing lunar night!

It successfully reactivates after shutting down.

Lunar missions are difficult due to extreme temperature changes.

Japan's space agency, J-A-X-A, shared pictures SLIM captured.

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趣味小點

Tasty Tidbit

And in today's Tasty Tidbit,

Did you know there are almost 130,000,000 books in the world?

That's according to Google.

Google has been making digital copies of books for a while now.

So it has a rough idea how many there are.

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

If you have a fun fact, a joke or interesting news story you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty tidbit to [email protected], and you might hear it at the end of an episode.

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