ANALYTICAL ENGLISH 解析英語(常春藤)
ANALYTICAL ENGLISH 解析英語(常春藤)Study Finds Your Breath Can Identify You (2/2)呼吸模式如指紋 可精準辨識身分（下）By 常春藤解析英語 Ivy EnglishContinued from yesterday（延續自昨日)The study also uncovered a correlation between breathing patterns and mental well-being. Participants with higher scores on anxiety questionnaires exhibited shorter inhalation periods and more frequent breath pauses during sleep. “We intuitively assume that how depressed or anxious you are changes the way you breathe,” says one researcher involved in the study. What problem did scientists previously face when trying to measure breathing patterns? The way you breathe affects how depressed or anxious you are.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:54 UTC
Zabystran claims Czech men’s first World Cup win
Zabystran claims Czech men’s first World Cup winReuters, PARISJan Zabystran on Friday stunned prerace favorite Marco Odermatt in the Val Gardena super-G to become the first male skier representing the Czech Republic to win a FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup race. Czech-born Jan Hudec won two World Cup races, in 2008 and 2012, but was then competing for Canada. Czech Republic’s Jan Zabystran celebrates after his run at the men’s super-G event of the FIS Alpine skiing World Cup in Val Gardena, Italy, on Friday. Photo: Reuters“I was hoping that some day I could make it to a World Cup podium, but before that I was just hoping to take part in a World Cup race. Odermatt, now on 685 points, extended his overall World Cup lead over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen to 383 points and snatched the lead in the super-G standings from Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr with 225 points.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:54 UTC
Hong Kongers celebrate once-in-a-decade festival
Hong Kongers celebrate once-in-a-decade festivalAFP, HONG KONGChanting villagers parade a giant effigy through the alleys of rural Hong Kong before setting it ablaze in a once-in-a-decade ceremony to ward off bad luck and appease their ancestors. Residents of Kam Tin decked out their northern corner of the city with towering flower boards and a vast bamboo stage for the Taoist Jiao festival which dates back over 300 years. People burn a paper effigy of the Ghost King during the decennial Jiao Festival of Kam Tin in Hong Kong on Friday. Lai Chi-ming, center, a bamboo scaffolding worker who coplanned the theater altar for Jiao Festival in Kam Tin, Hong Kong, works on the bamboo structure on Thursday Photo: AFPThe multi-day festival is one of Hong Kong’s longest-running traditional events, and features lion and dragon dances, Cantonese opera, and puppet shows. The netting was hung from bamboo scaffolding encasing several tower blocks.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:54 UTC
Honduran vote officials have US visas revoked
Honduran vote officials have US visas revokedAP, TEGUCIGALPAThe administration of US President Donald Trump restricted visas for two Honduran election officials, citing interference in the Central American country’s special vote count. The US Department of State in a statement on Friday said it revoked the visa of Mario Morazan, a magistrate of the Honduran Electoral Justice Tribunal, and denied a visa application from Marlon Ochoa, a member of the Honduran National Electoral Council. Due to the narrow margin between the two leading candidates, electoral officials have carried out a special revision of 2,792 ballot boxes that show alleged inconsistencies and errors. Officials began the special vote count on Thursday after more than a week of the count being paralyzed. This is the latest example of the Trump administration weighing in on Honduran affairs throughout the election.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:54 UTC
US launches strikes on targets in Syria
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said that at least five Islamic State group members including a cell leader were killed in the strikes overnight. Trump also has taken pains to emphasize the attack was the work of the Islamic State — not Syria’s new government. Palmyra is outside the control of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has promised to join a US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State. During his first term, Trump ordered strikes on Syria twice in a bid to take out then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program. It also marked the first time a Syrian president has visited the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:54 UTC
How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in chips
It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold War. Until now, only one company has mastered EUV technology: ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands. ASML built its first working prototype of EUV technology in 2001. No EUV system has ever been sold to a customer in China, ASML told Reuters.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Israeli fire kills at least five, including baby
The five died in Tuffah, an eastern neighborhood in Gaza City, said Rami Mhanna, managing director of Shifa Hospital. Displaced Palestinians stand next to destroyed houses in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. Also on Friday, US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff was planning to host in Florida top officials from Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire, according to a US official. In the worst-case scenario, including renewed conflict and a halt of aid, the whole Gaza Strip is at risk of famine. The Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, known as COGAT, on Friday said that it strongly rejected the findings.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
EDITORIAL: Processing problematic poll results
The poll also looked at the public’s evaluation of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), and perceptions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the political intentions of KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文). That is, the trend is less a symptom of her victory than her victory was a symptom of the trend. If the trend Yang identified is real, then the CCP and the KMT are doing their job well, while Lai and the government are not. In Taiwan, one manifestation of this “high emotion” aspect is the fracture of resolve that Yang identified. Lo warns that Lai and the DPP have “fallen short in speaking to the emotions of these voters.”
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
What factors will channel the AI boom?
What factors will channel the AI boom? Larger models, trillion-token training runs and record-breaking capex (capital expenditure) cycles have reinforced a sense of uninterrupted acceleration. As AI moves from experimentation to real-world applications, the limits imposed by the physical world, capital markets and political systems clearly matter more than its theoretical potential. The third constraint, capital, operates in a more subtle way. The constraint comes not from weak investor sentiment, but from the strategic pressure enthusiasm creates: different firms pursue different conceptions of value because their business models and cost structures demand it.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Concerning polling on Taiwanese identity
Concerning polling on Taiwanese identityBy Yang Chih-chiang 楊智強According to the most recent My Formosa poll released on Dec. 1, 26.4 percent of respondents agreed that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong under one China,” up from 17.4 percent in March from the same pollster. Cross-analysis suggests that the shift was primarily driven by supporters of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The fear is that these shifts in polling numbers are just the beginning. If the crisis is ignored, it is Taiwanese who will pay the price. Civil society must remain vigilant and come together to defend Taiwanese agency.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Uninformed, high emotion voters
Specifically, an important question concerns how to engage “low information, high emotion” voters. While analytically useful, the label “low information” risks sounding dismissive and missing mechanisms for change. As contemporary policy debates have become too complex for many ordinary citizens to decipher, voters are, in effect, not merely low information, but often high emotion. Who must the Lai administration reach if it is to engage “low information, high emotion” voters? Former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) widely circulated “Iron Cat Lady” image humanized political leadership and reached audiences far beyond policy-engaged voters.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Seven elephants killed, calf injured in India train crash
Seven elephants killed, calf injured in India train crashAP, GUWAHATI, IndiaSeven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. Train passengers take photographs of a dead elephant after it was hit by a train in Hojai district in Assam, India, yesterday. Around 200 passengers who were in the five derailed coaches have been moved to Guwahati in a different train,” Sharma said. Speeding trains hitting wild elephants is not rare in Assam, which is home to an estimated 7,000 wild Asiatic elephants, one of the highest concentrations of the pachyderm in India. Wild elephants often stray into human habitations this time of year, when rice fields are ready for harvesting.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Ministry to require EIA for carbon storage projects
Ministry to require EIA for carbon storage projectsBy Esme Yeh / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Environment said it is planning to require carbon storage projects to undergo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) regardless of size. The ministry on Friday announced draft amendments to articles 29, 42 and 46 of the Standards for Determining Specific Items and Scope of Environmental Impact Assessments for Development Activities (開發行為應實施環境影響評估細目及範圍認定標準). Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei TimesArticles 29 and 46 of the standards were revised to specify the clauses of the act relevant to the EIA review criteria for solar facility projects, while Article 42 was revised to include carbon storage as one of the construction project types subject to EIA review. Given that carbon storage could result in environmental impacts, such as leakages, groundwater pollution or geological safety risks, EIA reviews are indispensable to preventing adverse impacts caused by such development behaviors, she said. Therefore, carbon storage projects must be subject to EIA review, regardless of the size of each project, she added.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Famous faces, blacked-out pages in new Epstein files
Famous faces, blacked-out pages in new Epstein filesAFP, WASHINGTONThe US Department of Justice on Friday began releasing a long-awaited cache of records from its investigations into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — although much of the material remained heavily redacted. Others show Epstein and companions, their faces obscured, posing with firearms. Democrats voiced frustration that the release fell far short of what was mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. “Simply releasing a mountain of blacked-out pages violates the spirit of transparency and the letter of the law. He severed ties years before Epstein’s 2019 arrest and faces no accusations of wrongdoing in the case.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC
Will Nvidia turbocharge China’s military AI?
Will Nvidia turbocharge China’s military AI? Chinese military documents said that future warfare hinges on using AI to determine precision and lethality of military operations. A review of records by researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) shows the Chinese military purchasing Nvidia GPUs to develop AI-enabled systems. Allowing China access to chips such as the H200 risks accelerating Beijing’s military AI capabilities at a pivotal moment, said the Atlantic Council. Officials might try to manage access carefully so that neither Nvidia nor any other form of US tech leads to strategic military dependency.
Source:Taipei Times
December 20, 2025 16:10 UTC