Archive for 4月, 2008

4月 22 2008

Buzzword: food miles, water miles, book miles

Published by under Buzzword

Food miles 是前两年提出的概念,指食物从出产地到你饭桌上所经过的距离,用以量化食物的运输带来的二氧化碳排放和对原油的依赖。有时候,food miles 确实是离奇,而且从能源消耗和大气污染上看,真的是浪费。比如苏格兰渔民捕获的“小龙虾”(crayfish),会先横跨地中海印度洋运到泰国,人工剥壳,然后在原路运回欧洲销售。再比如在有些在近北极的巴伦支海捕获的鳕鱼,会先在船上冻上,运到天津分割包装,然后运回欧洲。实在是全球化下的怪相。

从 food miles 引申出来的 water miles,是指矿泉水、瓶装水的泛滥。饮用水从提取、包装、运输、销售,同样有二氧化碳排放和能源上的副作用。所以英国有鼓励引用自来水的运动。

最近从BBC Radio 4 的 Open Book 节目上,听到一个 book miles 的说法,印书本身需要木材,现在英国书架上的书,可能还是在亚洲某处印刷,再长途运到这里,里程上和对地球资源的浪费上,可能不亚于 food miles 和 water miles。

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4月 20 2008

Daily Quote: Father and son

Published by under Daily Quote

Giles Coren 是 The Times 的餐馆评论员和专栏作者,我很喜欢他的幽默笔锋。星期六在 The Times 上看到他写的文章,说自他父亲最近去世后,他一度觉得没有再写的必要,因为已经 no one to impress。他的父亲是幽默作家 Alan Coren。文章中的一段写道:

As I pushed his mower up and down his lawn I realised my mother was watching me. I dropped the lever and called to her, over the whiz of the fading blades: “I can hear him now shouting, You call that a f****** stripe?’.” And she said, “No, he’d be very pleased.”

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4月 02 2008

Daily Quote: hellfire preacher

Published by under Daily Quote

Michael White uses the analogy to tell us what they are like:

If Mrs Thatcher was matron and John Major that nice bus conductor on the No 63, Tony Blair was an upmarket estate agent. But Brown is a hellfire preacher whose media handlers have told him to go easy on the hellfire stuff because it reduces the Sunday collection.

matron: A woman who acts as a supervisor or monitor in a public institution, such as a school, hospital, or prison.

hellfire: Portending future disaster

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4月 01 2008

Lost in Translation: Avril de Poisson

Published by under Lost in Translation

今天在中国新闻网上看到这则来自星岛日报网的消息:
据称英首相布朗拟邀法国第一夫人任英形象顾问
其中说“英国传媒透露”,Carla Bruni 已经应英国首相布朗邀请,到英国指导英国人生活时尚。这里的“英国传媒”,其实是来自今天《卫报》上的一则新闻。

而这篇标题为 Calling Carla: Brown enlists first lady to give Britain style 的新闻,实际上是《卫报》炮制的愚人节新闻。

Avril de Poisson

这篇文章的虚构的作者 Avril de Poisson 在法国就是用来指愚人节的。文章不仅拿首相布朗开玩笑,还拿与新工党关系密切的智囊团 Demos 开玩笑,最后还没忘记调侃一下法国人的工作态度。文章引用法国大使馆文化参赞助理(还有名有姓的,不知道这个名字是否有来头)的话,说自法国总统夫妇访英后,他们忙于接待世界媒体访问:

We have been working absolutely round the clock, from 9am to 3pm, just to
keep up.

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