Desert Race & AI Photo Contest

News Bites

Hi everybody, it's time for a new episode of News Bites. I'm Jacob Ingram. And I'm Nancy Sun. In today's stories: A man from Hsinchu spends a week in the desert, and a photo of a bird surprises people. Let's go! ________________________________ 台灣人徒步穿越非洲沙漠 Taiwanese Man Walks Across African Desert Could you walk across the desert (沙漠)? I don't know. If I tried to do that, I might just die. The desert is so hot and dry (乾燥). It sounds really difficult. But it's not impossible. Some people still do it. In fact, a guy from Taiwan recently finished a race (比賽) across the desert. It was a man from Hsinchu County named Gao Yu-jin (高玉金). He travelled all the way to Africa, to the country of Namibia, to join a race across the Namib Desert. The Namib Desert is not an easy place to survive. It is the oldest desert in the world, and one of the driest. Gao went there to join a 7-day race across the desert. It was an ultramarathon, meaning Gao had to go on foot 250 kilometers to finish the race. 高玉金從台灣新竹前往非洲納米比亞參加超級馬拉松。 Gao knew it would be very hard. The desert was harsh, and temperatures sometimes got up to 50 degrees Celsius during the day. What's more, Gao is already 60 years old. Many of the other racers were younger and fitter. But Gao was determined to do it (決心這麼做). He carried a heavy backpack with lots of water to drink. He also had protective clothing to ward off the sun, and walking poles (登山杖) to help him keep his balance as he trekked across the desert dunes. It was really tough (辛苦). Gao said he felt mixed emotions during the race, such as resentment, helplessness, and pain. He said he often thought about giving up, but still he kept on going. 他說比賽時心情很複雜，有怨恨、茫然、痛苦等等。他說他途中多次想要放棄，但是他堅持了下來。 Finally, after a week in the desert, he finished the race, getting 74th place. After the race, he got on social media to say he was proud of himself. Gao thanked his family for supporting him. He said the race made him believe that every person has unlimited potential (無限的潛力). So how about it? Do you want to try walking across the desert? The race happens every year. Maybe one day, it will be you out there, testing your strength and endurance. ________________________________ 攝影師贏得人工智慧攝影比賽獎項 Photographer Wins AI Photo Contest Have you ever seen picture made by AI? Yes. Some of them are super weird (超奇怪). If you ask AI to make a photo of an animal, it might show you an animal with two faces! That's scary. On the other hand, lots of AI photos are super cool. Sometimes, you can't even tell (看不出來) the photo was made by AI. You know, some people use AI photos to win photography contests (攝影比賽), even if that is against the rules. When the judges find out the photos come from AI, the photos get disqualified (被取消了比賽資格). That makes sense, as people worry about AI replacing human artists. But now one human artist is fighting back. In a recent contest, the photographer (攝影師) Miles Astray broke the rules, but in the opposite way. He took a real photo, but made it look like an AI photo. Then he entered it in a contest for AI photos, and he won! What was the photo? It was a photo of a pink bird - a flamingo (紅鶴) - standing on the beach. The flamingo looks like it has no head, like a lot of creepy AI photos do. But it was actually a real photo of a flamingo. The bird was hiding its head in its feathers, which is what real flamingos do when they sleep. 照片看起來像一隻沒有頭的鳥，但實際上是一隻正在睡覺的紅鶴。 The judges thought it was a weird and cool AI photo, and they gave it a prize. Imagine their surprise (驚訝) when the photographer told them it was a real photo he took with his camera. Of course, the photographer was disqualified from the contest. But he feels his project was a success, because he made people think. 他讓大家思考。 He says he wants people to question (質疑) the pictures they see. People should always ask themselves: Could that be real, or was it created with AI? ________________________________ So, in today's News Bites: A Taiwanese guy raced across the African desert. Gao Yu-jin traveled from Hsinchu to Namibia to join the 7-day ultramarathon. It wasn't easy, but after 250 kilometers, Gao finally walked across the finish line. ________________________________ And, A photographer surprised people when he won an AI photo contest using a real photo. His photo of a flamingo looks weird enough to be made by a computer, but it's totally real. ________________________________ 趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit For today's Tasty Tidbit, Did you know the Earth isn't perfectly round? While the Earth may appear round, it's actually slightly flat at the top and bottom, which are called the poles. It's also a bit wider in the middle - the equator (赤道). This is because the Earth spins (旋轉) very fast, which causes a bulge (凸出) at the equator. ________________________________ 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 [e-mail], 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!