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Whaling

捕鲸

Salty shepherds

海上守护者

Jan 24th 2008 | SYDNEY
From The Economist print edition

A row between Australia and Japan

日澳龃龉

 

THE Southern Ocean is usually one of the world’s loneliest shipping lanes.This month it has turned into an unseemly battleground over a bid byAustralia’s government and various environmental groups to stop Japan huntingand slaughtering whales. Japan aims to kill more than 900 minke and 50 finwhales from a region bordering Antarctica by mid-April. It claims the hunt isfor scientific research; its critics say this is a brazen front for acommercial whale-meat harvest. As images of the protesters’ antics inflameanti-Japanese feeling in Australia, the clash is also threatening the stabilityof one of Australia’s strongest regional ties.

南太平洋原本是世界上最孤单的航线之一。在这个月却变成了澳洲政府和几个环保组织试图阻止日本猎杀鲸鱼的不适宜的战场。日本计划到四月中旬前，在邻近南极洲的一块区域内捕杀超过900头小须鲸和50头长须鲸。日本方面声称这些都是为了科学研究；它的批评者称这是商业捕鲸的“遮羞布”。抗议者做出滑稽的动作，这一印象点燃了澳洲的反日情绪，因此，这次冲突也威胁着澳洲的一个最强大的地域联系的稳定。

继续阅读“[2008.01.24]Salty shepherds 海上守护者”

Evidence-based ethics
循证伦理学

Logical endings
逻辑终端
Mar 15th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Computers may soon be better than kin at predicting the wishes of the dying
也许不久之后，计算机将比亲属更了解人临死时的愿望

IN 1947 a psychologist called Theodore Sarbin made a controversial suggestion to a medical conference. He proposed that a doctor is really just a machine whose purpose is to make actuarial judgments about the best treatment for a patient. And not a very good machine, at that, for Sarbin also suggested that medicine would benefit if “we could replace [the doctor’s] eyes and brain with a Hollerith machine”.
在1947年的一次医学大会上，心理学家西奥多•沙宾（Theodore Sarbin）的意见引起了争论。他提出，医生不过是一台机器，其目的是为了对患者获得最优治疗方案作出保险精算的判断，而且还不是一台很好的机器。沙宾指出，如果“我们能够用一台霍勒里斯机器换掉（医生的）眼睛和大脑”，医学才会让人获益。

继续阅读“[2007.3.15]Evidence-based ethics: Logical endings”

Seeing is not always relieving
眼不见心不烦

Mar 8th 2007
From The Economist print edition Screening for lung cancer may do more harm than good
肺癌筛查可能弊大于利

SOMETIMES you can know too much. The aim of screening healthy people for cancer is to discover tumours when they are small and treatable. It sounds laudable and often it is. But it sometimes leads to unnecessary treatment. The body has a battery of mechanisms for stopping small tumours from becoming large ones. Treating those that would have been suppressed anyway does no good and can often be harmful.
有时候你可能知道得太多了。健康人群癌症筛查的目的是发现可治疗的小肿瘤，这似乎是值得称赞的，而事实常常也是如此。不过，有时它会导致不必要的治疗。机体自身有一套阻止小肿瘤生长的机制，对那些可用自身机制加以抑制的肿瘤采取治疗非但无益，反而可能造成危害。

继续阅读“[2007.3.8]Cancer screening: Seeing is not always relieving”

Acknowledgement
鸣谢

  In translating this lengthy article, The author received formidable help and support from many pals on the forum, hence the author would like to take this opportunity to express his sincere gratitude to them. They have generously offered valuable advice by which the author’s burden has been shouldered and from which his inspiration stems. In particular, the author wants to thank nEo, Zhuanggong, Epicure, Sparker,to name just a few. He benefits a great deal from them no matter when, in the past, at present or even in future. Any inappropriate part in his translation must not be to blame on them, but on the author himself. On the contrary, considering that they unselfishly offer their backup when they themselves have their hands full, any gratefulness rendered them should not be considered as flattery.
  For those who comment on this banal work, the author hopes as ever that they speek freely and present their opinions, positions and critique regarding this translation without any reservation . That is the same thing with which the author is once preoccupied.
  Thanks again to those pals for taking their precious time to read the author’s work.
  
  在完成这篇冗长译文的过程中，作者得到了许多论坛网友的鼎立襄助，在此衷心地向他们表示感谢，他们慷慨提供的宝贵建议给予翻译此文的作者巨大的慰藉和灵感。作者特别要感谢nEo,庄公，Epicure，Sparker等一些人，他们过去或现在以及将来都将使作者收益非浅。而译文中任何不当之处都与他们毫无关系，一概由作者自己负责。相反，对于他们在百忙中能抽出空来支援作者翻译工作的无私精神，作者的任何感谢之辞都绝非恭维奉承。
  对于点评拙作的网友，作者也一如既往地希望他们能毫无保留地阐述自己的意见、立场和批评。这与作者当初曾热衷于的事情如出一辙。
  再次感谢那些花宝贵时间阅读作者拙作的朋友。

                                                   
Special Report

Russia

Richer, bolder—and sliding back
更富庶、更大胆——但倒行逆施
Jul 13th 2006 | NALCHIK
From The Economist print edition

The G8 leaders meeting in St Petersburg this weekend will find Vladimir Putin’s Russia assertive, oil-fired and authoritarian
本周在圣彼德堡举行的G8首脑会晤将昭示出弗拉基米尔·普京统治下的俄罗斯是个刚愎自用、石油驱动和独裁专制 [1] 的国度

  SHOES from Lobb’s, the poshest boot-maker in London, were not available in Yekaterinburg until Igor Markin opened his shop last year. It sits on the edge of a park that once belonged to the tsars, not far from where the last of them was murdered. Because of its defence industries, Yekaterinburg was a closed city for much of the Soviet era. In the 1990s it was notorious, even by Russian standards, for its gangsters. These days, says Mr Markin, Yekaterinburg’s highest-rollers often spend $50,000 or more in his store.
  总部位于伦敦的制靴商Lobb’s [2] ，是专做奢侈型鞋子的品牌，过去从未在俄罗斯的叶卡特琳堡开辟销路（或者可以翻成过去从未涉足俄罗斯的叶卡特琳堡的市场），直到伊格尔·马尔金（Igor Markin）去年在该市开店，这种局面才得以改观。该店坐落在一家公园的周边地带，过去这里是属于罗曼诺夫家族（沙皇家族）的领地，离末代沙皇被谋杀的地点不远。由于叶卡特琳堡的国防工业是其一大特色，因此在苏联时期的大半岁月中该城与外界接触寥寥。上世纪90年代，即便是按照俄罗斯的标准来看，该城也因为其猖獗的黑帮活动而名声狼籍。据马尔金称，如今叶卡特琳堡的大款们经常来他的店消费，而且出手阔绰，营业额时常能超过50，000美圆。  

  继续阅读“[2006.07.13][Special]Russia: Richer, bolder—and sliding back”

The Search for Talent
求贤若渴

The world’s most valuable commodity is getting harder to find
世界上最珍贵的商品，正变得越发难觅

THESE are heady days for most companies. Profits are up. Capital is footloose and fancy-free. Trade unions are getting weaker. India and China are adding billions of new cheap workers and consumers to the world economy. This week the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new high.
这是个令许多公司如痴如醉、欢欣鼓舞的年代。利润增长，资本自由流动，工会势力也日渐衰微。印度和中国为世界经济贡献了数以亿计的廉价劳动力和消费者。本周的道琼斯指数更是再创新高。

继续阅读“[2006.10.08][Leaders]The Search for Talent”

Obituary讣告Zhang Chunqiao 张春桥
May 19th 2005
From The Economist print editionZhang Chunqiao, a member of the Gang of Four, died on April 21st, aged 88
张春桥，“四人帮”成员之一，死于4月21日，终年88岁

IT TOOK almost three weeks for China’s state news agency to announce the death of Zhang Chunqiao. When it came, a mere four sentences described his career as “one of the culprits of the Lin Bao and Jiang Qing Counter-revolutionary Clique”. And that, indeed, was how most Chinese had last seen him, at his televised show-trial in 1981. Manacled, rumpled, with his spectacles askew, he had looked both pathetic and desperate. And no wonder. With the other members of the Gang of Four, Mao Zedong’s chief henchmen (only one of whom now survives), he had faced charges of ultimate responsibility for the persecution of 729,511 people, and the deaths of 34,800 of them, during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.
中国官方媒体在张春桥去世的三个星期后，才对外发布了消息。在这仅有四句话的新闻中，将他说成是“林彪江青反革命集团的主犯之一”。事实上，绝大多数中国人对他的最后印象是在1981年电视上的法庭公审。在那次审判中，他手带镣铐，衣着凌乱，眼镜歪斜，神情看起来既可怜又绝望。作为毛泽东的主要追随者，他和四人帮的其他成员（尚有一人还活着）不得不面临着审判，被指控的罪名是在66-76年的“文革”期间，对729，511人的迫害及34，800人的死亡负有完全的责任。

继续阅读“[2005.05.19]Zhang chunqiao张春桥”

Fear of flying飞行恐惧

Welcome aboard
欢迎乘坐本次航班
Sep 7th 2006
From The Economist print edition
 

In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like? 

机舱广播未必都可当真。一个诚实的版本会是什么样的呢？

“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

“女士们，先生们，早上好。感谢您搭乘真相航空公司的航班，我们的服务正如公司名称一样，只讲真话。请您系好安全带，将座椅靠背调直，收起小桌板。在真相航班上，您的安全是我们的首要考虑。说实在的，没那回事儿。如果真是安全第一的话，我们的座椅应该和军机一样是背对背的，那样，在紧急迫降时才比较安全。当然，如果我们的座椅真的改成了那样，就没人会买我们的票，我们也就关门大吉了。”

继续阅读“[2006.09.09] Fear of flying：Welcome aboard”

China’s fear of inflation
闻“胀”色变
Jan  31st 2008
From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

Efforts to cool the economy may undo crucial reforms进退维谷！

Faced with rising consumer prices and signs of runaway growth, the Chinese Communist Party in November issued a strongly worded statement vowing to stem inflation and slow investment. At the time market players paid scant attention to it. But as the State Council’s increasingly stringent policies show no signs of letting up even in the face of global financial turmoil, players in China’s property and equity markets are at last waking up to the harsher reality. In recent weeks both housing and stock prices have started to retreat from their irrationally exuberant highs. Chinese policymakers, however, should be careful of what they wish for. Falling asset prices could bring back an old problem that many thought had been conquered: bad debts in the banking system. Meanwhile, inflation is reviving throwback elements of state economic planning.
面对不断攀升的物价水平和增长失控的迹象，中国政府于去年11月份发布了一份措辞“强硬”的通告，指出务必要抑制通货膨胀，防止投资过热。当时，市场并没有太过在意。不过，随着国务院再三从紧（即使面临全球性金融恐慌时也未见松动）的政策，中国房地产和证券市场终于觉醒。近几周，中国的房价和股价已开始从“非理性繁荣”向合理区间调整。不过，中国的当局者还应该小心谨慎。资产价格下跌说不好会让许多人认为业已医好的旧病―银行系统呆坏账―复发。同时，通货膨胀也正在“抵消”中央的经济政策。
继续阅读“[2008.01.31]China’s fear of inflation闻“胀”色变”

Trade talks collapse

The future of globalization
全球化的未来
Jul 27th 2006
From The Economist print edition

The wrecking of the world trade talks was senseless and short-sighted
世贸谈判的破裂是何等的愚蠢与短见。

WHEN the Middle East is ablaze, oil prices near record highs, the American economy cooling and the climate warming, it is hard to get excited about the beaching of trade talks. After all, globalisation is unstoppable: so what if a few technocrats in Switzerland packed up their briefcases and went home?
时值中东烽火通明、油价几近历史最高、美国经济趋冷以及气候变暖之际，贸易谈判的搁浅已很难激起人们的兴趣。毕竟，全球化是不可阻挡的：所以在瑞士与会的各国部长拍屁股走人又有何妨呢？

继续阅读“[2006.07.27] The future of globalization”