A special report on the sea
Troubled waters海洋问题堪忧
Dec 30th 2008
From The Economist print edition
The sea is suffering, mostly at the hand of man, says John Grimond
约翰•格里蒙德：海洋状态堪忧，罪魁祸首就是人类。
[2008.12.18] A very European hero 欧式英雄丁丁
TinTin
丁丁
A very European hero
一个很“欧洲”的英雄
Dec 18th 2008 | BRUSSELS
From The Economist print edition
A Tintin blockbuster is on the way. Baffled Americans hoping to understand him should look at him through the prism of post-war Europe.
一个以丁丁为题材的大片正在制作中。那些想要了解他而又感到困惑的美国人应该透过战后的欧洲这个历史的三棱镜来看待他。
[2008.11.15] 特别报道：新兴市场的汽车工业
Special report
特别报道
CARS IN EMERGING MARKETS
新兴市场的汽车
A global love affair
全球热恋
Nov 13th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Emerging markets are the car industry’s big hope. But it won’t be an easy ride, says Matthew Symonds (interviewed here)
新兴市场是汽车工业的一大希望，但Matthew Symonds说这并非易事。
AFP
[2007.12.19]When Japan was a secret
序
这篇文章是sparker、pyxf和我合作完成的翻译，sparker和pyxf都很快完成了他们负责的部分，而我因为有些急办的私事，耽误了翻译的进度，而且这篇文章对我的确有些难，我的那一部分迟迟未能脱稿，知道今天我们三个的工作才能整和到一起，贴到论坛上。本来是我牵的头，却搞成这样，在这里向sparker和pyxf表示道歉。
我们是这样分派的，Ocean streams一节是由pyxf翻译的，Manjiro, who made it back和A secret no more是由sparker完成的，其余的部分是由我翻译的。
这篇文章的历史或许很少人了解——我们自己的历史尚且很粗糙，何况是日本的历史呢？文章所覆盖的时间大约是十八世纪中期，在倒幕运动和明治维新之前，我们现在讲中国近代史都是从中英鸦片战争起算，古代史一般是讲到康乾盛世，二者之间的历史很少提到。嘉庆在位是从1796年到1820年，道光在位从1821年到1851年，所以，文中提到的日本史，几乎可以和道光年间对应。
年谱
1825年，外国船打弗令颁布
1848年，麦克唐纳到达日本
1851年，《白鲸记》出版
1853年，黑船事件
Christmas Specials
Japanese sea-drifters
When Japan was a secret
那时，日本还是个秘密
Dec 19th 2007 | NAKANOHAMA ANDRISHIRI ISLAND
Long before Commodore Perry gotthere, Japanese castaways and American whalers were prising Japan open
远早于佩里准将到那儿，日本漂流者和美国捕鲸人已经撬开了日本的大门
IF THAT double-bolted land,Japan, is ever to become hospitable, it is the whale-ship alone to whom thecredit will be due; for already she is on the threshold.
Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”,1851
就说那一向闭关锁国的日本吧，它的开放可以说应该完全归功于捕鲸船，是捕鲸船开到了它的大门口，把外面世界的文明带给了它。
赫尔曼·梅尔维尔，《白鲸记》，1851
The first English-languageteacher to come to Japan landed in a tiny skiff, but before he did so, RanaldMacDonald pulled the bung from his boat in order to half-swamp her, in the hopeof winning over locals with a story that he had come as someone who had fledthe cruel tyrannies of a whale-ship captain and then been shipwrecked. The fourlocals who approached by boat, though certainly amazed, were also courteous,for they bowed low, stroked their huge beards and emitted a throaty rumbling.“How do you do?” MacDonald cheerily replied. This meeting took place in tinyNutsuka Cove on Rishiri Island off Hokkaido on July 1st 1848, and a darkbasaltic pebble from the cove sits on this correspondent’s desk as he writes,picked up from between the narrow fishing skiffs that even today are pulled upon the beach.
乘着小型帆船，第一位来到日本的英文老师登上这片土地，但在这之前，Ranald MacDonald从他的船上拔出塞子，造成船半沉的假象，希望通过他编造的故事——他从一个残暴专治的捕鲸船长手中逃出来又遇到了海难——来赢得当地人的信任。4个当地人驾船靠过来，尽管他们理所当然的感到惊奇，却还是彬彬有礼，他们深深的鞠躬，捋着长长的胡子，吐着嘶哑的喉音。“How do you do?”MacDonald爽快的回答。这次相见发生在1848年7月1日，北海道利尻岛的Nutsuka湾上，这位通信者从小捕鱼船之间挑选了一块深黑色的玄武岩作为他书写时的桌子，至今，这块岩石仍在海湾的岸上。
[2007.12.22][Christmas Specials]Downstairs Upstairs
Christmas Specials
Kitchens
Downstairs Upstairs
厨房：楼上楼下
Dec 19th 2007
Women have not escaped the kitchen; it has come after them
妇女们未能逃离厨房；它如影随形。
MEPL
THESE days, nobody needs to cook. Families graze on cholesterol-sodden take-aways and microwaved ready-meals. Cooking is an occasional hobby and a vehicle for celebrity chefs. Which makes it odd that, at the same time, the kitchen has become the heart of the modern house: what the great hall was to the medieval castle and the parlour was to the Victorian terrace, the kitchen is to the 21st-century home.
今天，人们无需下厨。家家户户都在吃富含胆固醇的外卖和微波热化的现成食品。烹饪成了一种偶尔嗜好以及名厨们的一种表演。奇怪的是，同一时间，厨房业已成为现代家居的核心：厨房之于21世纪的家园的地位就犹如大厅之于中世纪的城堡，以及客厅则之于维多利亚时代的庭院。
[2007.12.19]Birth, death and shopping 生死与“购”
Retailing
零售业
Birth, death and shopping
生死与“购”
Dec 19th 2007
2007年12月19日
The rise and fall of the shopping mall
大型购物商场的兴衰
THE Southdale shopping centre in Minnesota has an atrium, a food court, fountains and acres of parking. Its shops include a Dairy Queen, a Victoria’s Secret and a purveyor of comic T-shirts. It may not seem like a landmark, as important to architectural history as the Louvre or New York’s Woolworth Building. But it is. “Ohmigod!” chimes a group of teenage girls, on learning that they are standing in the world’s first true shopping mall. “That is the coolest thing anybody has said to us all day.”
坐落于明尼苏达州的南谷购物中心，拥有大型的核心店、美食广场、喷泉和宽广的停车场。其中点缀着诸如奶品皇后、维多利亚的秘密和无厘头风格T恤衫代理等品牌店面。它看上去不像是一座具有里程碑意义的历史性建筑，与卢浮宫和伍尔沃斯大厦比较更是相形见绌。但是，如果让一群妙龄少女得知矗立在她们面前的就是世界上首家正宗购物商城的话，她们不但会尖语“Oh，My God！”，而且还会告诉你“这是我们今天听到的最酷的事情！”
继续阅读“[2007.12.19]Birth, death and shopping 生死与“购””