Jonathan Franzen: what's wrong with the modern world While we are busy tweeting, texting and spending, the world is drifting towards disaster, believes Jonathan Franzen, whose despair at our insatiable technoconsumerism echoes the apocalyptic essays of the satirist Karl Kraus – 'the Great Hater' News: Amazon model favours yakkers and braggers, says Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Franzen The Guardian, Friday 13 September 2013 14.35 BST
Vienna in 1910 was, thus, a special case. And yet you could argue that America in 2013 is a similarly special case: another weakened empire telling itself stories of its exceptionalism while it drifts towards apocalypse of some sort, fiscal or epidemiological, climatic-environmental or thermonuclear. Our far left may hate religion and think we coddle Israel, our far right may hate illegal immigrants and think we coddle black people, and nobody may know how the economy is supposed to work now that markets have gone global, but the actual substance of our daily lives is total distraction. We can't face the real problems; we spent a trillion dollars not really solving a problem in Iraq that wasn't really a problem; we can't even agree on how to keep healthcare costs from devouring the GNP. What we can all agree to do instead is to deliver ourselves to the cool new media and technologies, to Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, and to let them profit at our expense. Our situation looks quite a bit like Vienna's in 1910, except that newspaper technology has been replaced by digital technology and Viennese charm by American coolness.
まあ正直、このエッセイで書かれている内容はありがちな図式で、fine with Twitterと語っているSalman RushdieにYutaの立場は近いです。ユーガットメールでは、大型チェーン店vs地元本屋でしたが、フランゼンによればアマゾン・SNSvs地元本屋なのでしょう。
It's not clear that Kraus's shrill, ex cathedra denunciations were the most effective way to change hearts and minds. But I confess to feeling some version of his disappointment when a novelist who I believe ought to have known better, Salman Rushdie, succumbs to Twitter. Or when a politically committed print magazine that I respect, N+1, denigrates print magazines as terminally "male," celebrates the internet as "female," and somehow neglects to consider the internet's accelerating pauperisation of freelance writers. Or when good lefty professors who once resisted alienation – who criticised capitalism for its restless assault on every tradition and every community that gets in its way – start calling the corporatised internet "revolutionary."
EDGAR [aside] O gods! Who is’t can say ‘I am at the worst’? I am worse than e’er I was. Old Man ‘Tis poor mad Tom. EDGAR [aside] And worse I may be yet. The worst is not So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’
英国大手のTescoがタブレットを9月30日から英国で発売するようですね。Hudlと書いてハドルと読むようです。Tesco launches 7 inch Hudl tabletとTOEICではおなじみの動詞launchが使われていますね。
23 September, 2013 Tesco launches 7 inch Hudl tablet Tesco today launches Hudl, a new 7 inch HD tablet that aims to open up a world of entertainment and connectivity to all. It has been designed by Tesco for its 20 million customers and more, focusing on accessibility and convenience.
With super-fast 1.5GHz quad-core processor and dual-band Wi-Fi, users will find Hudl a great companion for their needs, from films, music and TV through to staying in touch, learning new things, shopping and playing games. The scratch-resistant HD display screen is beautifully clear and with 243 pixels per inch, it’s perfect for enjoying HD movies in 16:9 widescreen. It has up to 9 hour video battery life and 16GB of memory which can be extended to 48GB.
Hudl combines the best of Tesco with the Android Jellybean 4.2.2 operating system meaning that customers can access everything on Google and over a million apps. Tesco designed and built the tablet from scratch, tailoring it around customer needs and ease of use. Hudl users can enjoy instant access to Tesco’s full range of digital services, all in one place, through a convenient, dedicated launcher button. These include blinkbox movies and TV, music and Clubcard TV (which offers free films and TV programmes exclusively for Clubcard holders), banking and of course shopping for groceries, clothing, homeware and more.
The move is part of Tesco’s multichannel strategy, ensuring that customers can shop whenever, however and wherever they want. It recognises the increasingly important role that smart phones and tablets are playing in people’s lives and how they can make things easier.
In the digital age, customers are communicating, working, learning, browsing and consuming differently and Tesco, always an innovator, has been transforming its business accordingly. Tesco was first to introduce grocery home shopping and supermarket drive-thrus in the UK and built the world’s first virtual store where commuters buy groceries via their mobile phones in South Korea. In its latest multichannel launch, Tesco wants to ensure as many customers as possible can access the benefits of a tablet, in a world that is increasingly online.
It's a place you might go to for tomatoes, tea or tinned tuna - but would you really go to Tesco in search of a tablet computer? The supermarket chain is confident that its shoppers will see the attractions of getting into the tablet game via a well-known brand. But what does the arrival of the Hudl - for that is the name of the product the company is launching this morning - mean for the overall market? What is immediately clear is that Tesco is taking its tablet very seriously. Unlike some cheap Android tablets launched by other unlikely firms - remember Next's attempt? - this looks a competitive and reasonably high-spec offering. It runs the latest version of Android, has a 1.5 GHz processor, an HD screen and expandable storage.
Burning through about a billion dollars, the company built its own e-reading devices, which were well-received, and then its own tablet computers, which weren’t. Barnes & Noble sold so few tablets over the holidays last year that it actually lost money during the one time retailers can count on profits. “We are not going to continue doing what we’re doing,” Lynch said in February.
By then it was too late. In June, Lynch made another grim announcement: The Nook business had an operating loss of $475 million for the fiscal year ended in April, more than it lost in the previous 12 months. Two weeks later he was out of a job. Lynch’s resignation on July 8 was effective immediately. Leonard Riggio, the company’s chairman and largest shareholder, who’d plotted with Lynch to create a digital future for Barnes & Noble, issued a 30-word statement thanking him. Most book blurbs are longer.
With that, the 43-year-old Lynch became the latest casualty in Barnes & Noble’s battle against two of the most creative, disciplined, and well-funded companies around: Amazon.com (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL). He was a victim, too, of his own ambition and enthusiasm. “He is exceptionally smart and optimistic to a fault. He drank too much digital Kool-Aid,” says Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba Information. Many people at Barnes & Noble worried about Amazon killing the bookstore; it sometimes seemed as if Lynch wanted to do it himself. He was a Silicon Valley dreamer in charge of a bookstore chain. As he said on Bloomberg TV in late 2012, “I don’t really read physical books that much anymore.”
退任するマイクロソフトのバルマーCEOのスピーチが話題になっています。Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve BallmerやSoon-to-be-former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmerとこれから退任する場合にはoutgoingとかsoon-to-formerいう言葉が使われています。
Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has always been a speaker and performer like no other — his absolute enthusiasm for his company is electric in person, turning ordinary corporate events into raw displays of emotion that are often criticized but never forgotten.
It's impossible not to be moved: This video of Steve Ballmer's final speech to 13,000 Microsoft employees in the Key Arena in Seattle shows him crying as he says farewell after 13 years as CEO of the company and another 20 years by founder Bill Gates' side before that.
The atmosphere is like a rock concert:
"Soak it in all of you. You work for the greatest company in the world. And I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," Ballmer says.
********
Ballmer's last Ballmeresque video moment? Perhaps. Soak it in Soon-to-be-former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer -- never one to hide his feelings for the firm he's worked at for decades -- once again gives us a video moment to remember. by Edward Moyer September 28, 2013 10:06 AM PDT The initial reaction to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's imminent exit from the company may have been one of relief (at least as far as Wall Street and various critics were concerned). But where on Earth, some may've fretted, are we gonna find another chief executive who can deliver memorable video moments like Ballmer could?
There have been more than one of those over the years, and now Ballmer has provided another.
Say what you will about Steve Ballmer as a CEO. But you can’t deny that the longtime Microsoft chief has got heart.
In an emotional send-off to the company he was a part of for more than three decades, Ballmer delivered a tearful goodbye speech at Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, held in Seattle’s KeyArena and attended by more than 13,000 staff (with another 25,000 tuning in via Webcast).
“Soak it in,” Ballmer said in his heartfelt speech to employees. “You work for the greatest company in the world.”
21. Decides, in the event of non-compliance with this resolution, including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in the Syrian Arab Republic, to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter;
The resolution does not allow for automatic punitive action in the form of military strikes or sanctions if Syria does not comply. At Russia’s insistence, Friday’s resolution makes clear a second council decision would be needed for that.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Security Council would be prepared to take punitive steps in the event of confirmed violations of the resolution by either side in the conflict. “The United Nations Security Council ... will stand ready to take action under Chapter 7 of the (U.N.) charter, quite clearly,” he said. A major sticking point to the resolution had been Russia’s opposition to writing it under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which covers the council’s authority to enforce its decisions with measures such as sanctions or military force.
Russia has made clear, however, it would not support the use of force against Assad’s government, a major importer of Russian weapons.
同じく英国のガーディアンも確認しておきます。こちらもAny such measures would require a further resolution.と説明しています。
The biggest question mark over the plan is what happens if Syria is caught cheating or dragging its heels. The west lost the battle to have the UN resolution implementing the plan under chapter seven of the UN charter, involving automatic punitive measures. Any such measures would require a further resolution.
But a senior US administration official argued that the wording of the draft resolution due to be voted on was tough, and implied serious consequences for noncompliance. "I think you'll see in the final language that, in fact, for the first time, we have said that the use of chemical weapons is a threat to international peace and security," the official said.
国連憲章7章についてはどちらも簡単な説明を加えてくれています。
(テレグラフ)Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which covers the council’s authority to enforce its decisions with measures such as sanctions or military force.
(ガーディアン)chapter seven of the UN charter, involving automatic punitive measures.
しかしせっかくだから、国連憲章も確認しておきます。
CHAPTER VII: ACTION WITH RESPECT TO THREATS TO THE PEACE, BREACHES OF THE PEACE, AND ACTS OF AGGRESSION 第7章 平和に対する脅威、平和の破壊及び侵略行為に関する行動
measures such as sanctions or military forceと説明がありましたが、41条がsanctions、42条がmilitary forceについて書いてあり、段階的に措置をとるようになっているのですね。
Article 41 The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations. 安全保障理事会は、その決定を実施するために、兵力の使用を伴わないいかなる措置を使用すべきかを決定することができ、且つ、この措置を適用するように国際連合加盟国に要請することができる。この措置は、経済関係及び鉄道、航海、航空、郵便、電信、無線通信その他の運輸通信の手段の全部又は一部の中断並びに外交関係の断絶を含むことができる。 Article 42 Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations. 安全保障理事会は、第41条に定める措置では不充分であろうと認め、又は不充分なことが判明したと認めるときは、国際の平和及び安全の維持又は回復に必要な空軍、海軍または陸軍の行動をとることができる。この行動は、国際連合加盟国の空軍、海軍又は陸軍による示威、封鎖その他の行動を含むことができる。
CHAPTER VII: ACTION WITH RESPECT TO THREATS TO THE PEACE, BREACHES OF THE PEACE, AND ACTS OF AGGRESSION 第7章 平和に対する脅威、平和の破壊及び侵略行為に関する行動 Article 39 The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security. 安全保障理事会は、平和に対する脅威、平和の破壊又は侵略行為の存在を決定し、並びに、国際の平和及び安全を維持し又は回復するために、勧告をし、又は第41条及び第42条に従っていかなる措置をとるかを決定する。 Article 40 In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Security Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in Article 39, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Security Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures. 事態の悪化を防ぐため、第39条の規定により勧告をし、又は措置を決定する前に、安全保障理事会は、必要又は望ましいと認める暫定措置に従うように関係当事者に要請することができる。この暫定措置は、関係当事者の権利、請求権又は地位を害するものではない。安全保障理事会は、関係当時者がこの暫定措置に従わなかったときは、そのことに妥当な考慮を払わなければならない。
Article 41 The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations. 安全保障理事会は、その決定を実施するために、兵力の使用を伴わないいかなる措置を使用すべきかを決定することができ、且つ、この措置を適用するように国際連合加盟国に要請することができる。この措置は、経済関係及び鉄道、航海、航空、郵便、電信、無線通信その他の運輸通信の手段の全部又は一部の中断並びに外交関係の断絶を含むことができる。 Article 42 Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations. 安全保障理事会は、第41条に定める措置では不充分であろうと認め、又は不充分なことが判明したと認めるときは、国際の平和及び安全の維持又は回復に必要な空軍、海軍または陸軍の行動をとることができる。この行動は、国際連合加盟国の空軍、海軍又は陸軍による示威、封鎖その他の行動を含むことができる。
Article 43 1. All Members of the United Nations, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security, undertake to make available to the Security Council, on its call and in accordance with a special agreement or agreements, armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security. 国際の平和及び安全の維持に貢献するため、すべての国際連合加盟国は、安全保障理事会の要請に基き且つ1又は2以上の特別協定に従って、国際の平和及び安全の維持に必要な兵力、援助及び便益を安全保障理事会に利用させることを約束する。この便益には、通過の権利が含まれる。 2. Such agreement or agreements shall govern the numbers and types of forces, their degree of readiness and general location, and the nature of the facilities and assistance to be provided. 前記の協定は、兵力の数及び種類、その出動準備程度及び一般的配置並びに提供されるべき便益及び援助の性質を規定する。
3. The agreement or agreements shall be negotiated as soon as possible on the initiative of the Security Council. They shall be concluded between the Security Council and Members or between the Security Council and groups of Members and shall be subject to ratification by the signatory states in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. 前記の協定は、安全保障理事会の発議によって、なるべくすみやかに交渉する。この協定は、安全保障理事会と加盟国との間又は安全保障理事会と加盟国群との間に締結され、且つ、署名国によって各自の憲法上の手続に従って批准されなければならない。
Article 44 When the Security Council has decided to use force it shall, before calling upon a Member not represented on it to provide armed forces in fulfilment of the obligations assumed under Article 43, invite that Member, if the Member so desires, to participate in the decisions of the Security Council concerning the employment of contingents of that Member's armed forces. 安全保障理事会は、兵力を用いることに決定したときは、理事会に代表されていない加盟国に対して第43条に基いて負った義務の履行として兵力を提供するように要請する前に、その加盟国が希望すれば、その加盟国の兵力中の割当部隊の使用に関する安全保障理事会の決定に参加するようにその加盟国を勧誘しなければならない。
Article 45 In order to enable the United Nations to take urgent military measures, Members shall hold immediately available national air-force contingents for combined international enforcement action. The strength and degree of readiness of these contingents and plans for their combined action shall be determined within the limits laid down in the special agreement or agreements referred to in Article 43, by the Security Council with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee. 国際連合が緊急の軍事措置をとることができるようにするために、加盟国は、合同の国際的強制行動のため国内空軍割当部隊を直ちに利用に供することができるように保持しなければならない。これらの割当部隊の数量及び出動準備程度並びにその合同行動の計画は、第43条に掲げる1又は2以上の特別協定の定める範囲内で、軍事参謀委員会の援助を得て安全保障理事会が決定する。
Article 46 Plans for the application of armed force shall be made by the Security Council with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee. 兵力使用の計画は、軍事参謀委員会の援助を得て安全保障理事会が作成する。
Article 47 1. There shall be established a Military Staff Committee to advise and assist the Security Council on all questions relating to the Security Council's military requirements for the maintenance of international peace and security, the employment and command of forces placed at its disposal, the regulation of armaments, and possible disarmament. 国際の平和及び安全の維持のための安全保障理事会の軍事的要求、理事会の自由に任された兵力の使用及び指揮、軍備規制並びに可能な軍備縮小に関するすべての問題について理事会に助言及び援助を与えるために、軍事参謀委員会を設ける。
2. The Military Staff Committee shall consist of the Chiefs of Staff of the permanent members of the Security Council or their representatives. Any Member of the United Nations not permanently represented on the Committee shall be invited by the Committee to be associated with it when the efficient discharge of the Committee's responsibilities requires the participation of that Member in its work. 軍事参謀委員会は、安全保障理事会の常任理事国の参謀総長又はその代表者で構成する。この委員会に常任委員として代表されていない国際連合加盟国は、委員会の責任の有効な遂行のため委員会の事業へのその国の参加が必要であるときは、委員会によってこれと提携するように勧誘されなければならない。
3. The Military Staff Committee shall be responsible under the Security Council for the strategic direction of any armed forces placed at the disposal of the Security Council. Questions relating to the command of such forces shall be worked out subsequently. 軍事参謀委員会は、安全保障理事会の下で、理事会の自由に任された兵力の戦略的指導について責任を負う。この兵力の指揮に関する問題は、後に解決する。
4. The Military Staff Committee, with the authorization of the Security Council and after consultation with appropriate regional agencies, may establish regional sub-committees. 軍事参謀委員会は、安全保障理事会の許可を得て、且つ、適当な地域的機関と協議した後に、地域的小委員会を設けることができる。
Article 48 1. The action required to carry out the decisions of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security shall be taken by all the Members of the United Nations or by some of them, as the Security Council may determine. 国際の平和及び安全の維持のための安全保障理事会の決定を履行するのに必要な行動は、安全保障理事会が定めるところに従って国際連合加盟国の全部または一部によってとられる。
2. Such decisions shall be carried out by the Members of the United Nations directly and through their action in the appropriate international agencies of which they are members. 前記の決定は、国際連合加盟国によって直接に、また、国際連合加盟国が参加している適当な国際機関におけるこの加盟国の行動によって履行される。
Article 49 The Members of the United Nations shall join in affording mutual assistance in carrying out the measures decided upon by the Security Council. 国際連合加盟国は、安全保障理事会が決定した措置を履行するに当って、共同して相互援助を与えなければならない。
Article 50 If preventive or enforcement measures against any state are taken by the Security Council, any other state, whether a Member of the United Nations or not, which finds itself confronted with special economic problems arising from the carrying out of those measures shall have the right to consult the Security Council with regard to a solution of those problems. 安全保障理事会がある国に対して防止措置又は強制措置をとったときは、他の国でこの措置の履行から生ずる特別の経済問題に自国が当面したと認めるものは、国際連合加盟国であるかどうかを問わず、この問題の解決について安全保障理事会と協議する権利を有する。
Article 51 Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. この憲章のいかなる規定も、国際連合加盟国に対して武力攻撃が発生した場合には、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持に必要な措置をとるまでの間、個別的又は集団的自衛の固有の権利を害するものではない。この自衛権の行使に当って加盟国がとった措置は、直ちに安全保障理事会に報告しなければならない。また、この措置は、安全保障理事会が国際の平和及び安全の維持または回復のために必要と認める行動をいつでもとるこの憲章に基く権能及び責任に対しては、いかなる影響も及ぼすものではない。
UN Security Council agrees to rid Syria of chemical weapons, endorses peace process 27 September 2013 – In the wake of an August chemical attack in Syria which a United Nations team later confirmed had killed hundreds of civilians, the Security Council today called for the elimination of the country’s chemical weapons, while endorsing a diplomatic plan for Syrian-led negotiations toward peace.
Through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2118 (2013), the Council called for the speedy implementation of procedures drawn up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “for the expeditious destruction of the Syrian Arab Republic’s chemical weapons programme and stringent verification thereof.”
In the text, the Council underscored “that no party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer chemical weapons.”
Defiance of the resolution, including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria, would bring about measures under the UN Charter’s binding Chapter VII, which can include sanctions or stronger coercive action, the Council said.
Underscoring that Member States are obligated under Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations to accept and carry out the Council's decisions,
1. Determines that the use of chemical weapons anywhere constitutes a threat to international peace and security; 2. Condemns in the strongest terms any use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, in particular the attack on 21 August 2013, in violation of international law; 3. Endorses the decision of the OPCW Executive Council [XX September 2013], which contains special procedures for the expeditious destruction of the Syrian Arab Republic's chemical weapons program and stringent verification thereof and calls for its full implementation in the most expedient and safest manner; 4. Decides that the Syrian Arab Republic shall not use, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to other States or non-State actors; 5. Underscores that no party in Syria should use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain, or transfer chemical weapons; 6. Decides that the Syrian Arab Republic shall comply with all aspects of the decision of the OPCW Executive Council of [XX September 2013] (Annex I);
盛り込むかどうか争点になった国連憲章7章については最後から2番目のところで言及されています。
21. Decides, in the event of non-compliance with this resolution, including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in the Syrian Arab Republic, to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter;
22. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
読売新聞が「(武力行使や経済制裁を可能とする)国連憲章7章に基づく措置を科す」とかっこをつけて説明してくれていましたが、国連憲章7章がどんなものか知らないとmeasures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charterの意味もわかりませんね。
高級ホテルのRosewoodホテルがブランド再構築のキャンペーンをしているそうで、そこでのプレスリリースに使われていました。 Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® relaunches today with a comprehensive, new brand identity inspired by its highly regarded A Sense of Place® philosophy.
以下がそのプレスリリースの書き出しです。
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® Relaunches Brand September 23, 2013 Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® relaunches today with a comprehensive, new brand identity inspired by its highly regarded A Sense of Place® philosophy. Communicating this evolution, the group has unveiled an original, holistic marketing campaign titled Living Canvas which includes a new visual language, an emotive print and online advertising campaign, a reimagined website with multimedia destination guides and creative hotel initiatives. The launch comes as the company embarks upon a global expansion with openings planned in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
A Sense of Place® is a registered trademark of Rosewood and since its inception over 30 years ago, the company has held to the philosophy that each property should not stand alone but be a reflection of its location’s history, geography and culture. The new campaign gives this a fresh interpretation designed to appeal to today’s tribe of “affluential explorers” and is an illustration of Rosewood’s unique take on modern hospitality.
A company that operates high-end hotels and resorts is joining the ranks of marketers in the lodging and travel categories that seek to sell potential customers on accumulating rich experiences rather than expensive possessions.
The company, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, is introducing a campaign that carries the theme, “A sense of place,” which is complemented with another phrase, “A true journey never ends.” The budget for the campaign — including print and digital ads, online video and a redesigned Web site — is estimated at $8 million.
The campaign arrives as the company proceeds with expansion plans that involve doubling the number of properties under the Rosewood brand umbrella within five years. In the short term, in addition to the new hotel in Beijing, a Rosewood hotel is scheduled to open in London next month.
Beyond that, the company has proposed opening seven additional hotels, in markets like Bali, Indonesia; Chongquing, China; Nassau, the Bahamas; and Phukut, Thailand.
この話題を記事にしようとしたのはsense of placeという表現がピンとこなかったからです。Yahooの質問でも出ていたので、意味がはっきりしている表現ではないようです。
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters A feeling of belonging, of fitting in and the feeling that people actually understand me. Feeling at home and at peace with myself
英辞郎には以下のようにありました。
sense of place 1. 《a ~》場所の特徴[ユニークさ] 2. 《a ~》場所に対する特別な思い 3. 《a ~》その町らしさが感じられること
今回はどのように使われているか、該当部分を抜粋したものです。
(プレスリリース) A Sense of Place® is a registered trademark of Rosewood and since its inception over 30 years ago, the company has held to the philosophy that each property should not stand alone but be a reflection of its location’s history, geography and culture.
(NYT記事) Introducing “A sense of place” as the new theme for Rosewood speaks to the desire to “create experiences for the guests,” Ms. Cheng says, in a “living canvas” approach.
「《a ~》場所に対する特別な思い」に近い感じでしょうか。Sense of placeには学術的な用語の意味としてもあるようで。。。
(ウィキペディア) The term sense of place has been defined and used in many different ways by many different people. To some, it is a characteristic that some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a feeling or perception held by people (not by the place itself). It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging. Others, such as geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, have pointed to senses of place that are not inherently "positive," such as fear.[1] Some students and educators engage in "place-based education" in order to improve their "sense(s) of place," as well as to use various aspects of place as educational tools in general. The term is used in urban and rural studies in relation to place-making and place-attachment of communities to their environment or homeland.
場所の感覚[sense of place / place-sense] 場所の感覚とは、身体的、社会的、歴史的に構築された、人と場所との関係性を表す用語である。エコクリティシズムにおける「場所の感覚」の参照枠と考えられるものに、地理学者Y・トゥアン(Yi-fu Tuan)の場所論がある。トゥアンによれば、「空間」は「自由性」を意味し、そこに種々の経験が作用することで「安全性」を示す「場所」が生み出される(トゥアン 11)。言い換えれば、「最初はまだ不分明な空間は、われわれがそれをもっと知り、それに価値をあたえていくにつれて次第に場所になっていく」(トゥアン 17)。つまり単純化するなら、<空間+経験=場所>と定式化される。例えば、「幼い子供にとって、親はまず第一の『場所』」であり、そこで「適切な栄養と保護をあたえられて健康に生きていく」(トゥアン 241-43)。人間や動物は、成長するにつれて、視覚をはじめ、聴覚、嗅覚、触覚などの感覚や身体性、記憶、学習を通して、世界を分節化していく。そしてトゥアンは「文学がもつ一つの機能」として、「親密な経験に可視性をあたえること」を挙げ、「文学は、われわれが気づかずにすごしてしまうかもしれない経験の領域に注目する」と指摘している(トゥアン 290)。この点に「場所の感覚」という概念と文学との密接な関係性、さらには環境文学というジャンルのひとつの意義が見出される。
Now Ms. Power, a former senior aide on the National Security Council and a former war reporter who emigrated from Ireland, must negotiate for peace in a new public role as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations. The president’s abrupt decision not to use force in Syria has thrust her into the middle of contentious talks to create a United Nations Security Council resolution mandating the elimination of Mr. Assad’s chemical arsenal by the middle of next year.
She will be on the spot on Monday, her diplomatic debut, as Mr. Obama arrives in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. A woman known for her closeness to the president and the soaring prose of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide, “A Problem From Hell,” Ms. Power is the lead American negotiator in the difficult, gritty business of arguing with the Russians, Syria’s patrons, who have already rejected the notion of using force if Mr. Assad does not comply.
Even her supporters wonder if the untested Ms. Power will be tough enough, a question with big implications. Secretary of State John Kerry will work with her on the resolution, but her role is so central that her performance — in her first weeks on the job — will help determine America’s future course in Syria.
Over the past two and a half years, Ms. Power — who in her role in the White House in 2011 helped orchestrate the American intervention in Libya — was unable to persuade the president to do the same in Syria, even after evidence of small-scale chemical weapons attacks emerged this year.
One person close to Ms. Power said she had been advocating military action at least since then, and as far back as December of last year. The Aug. 21 sarin gas attack, which American intelligence agencies say killed more than 1,400 Syrians, nearly a third of them children, forced the issue onto Mr. Obama’s agenda.
“I don’t think she ever expected that every issue would be decided her way,” the person said, insisting on anonymity to share private conversations. “But she did want to be working for a president who was fully engaged, wrestling with this problem of how to respond to mass atrocities.”
今回、どのような方向でまとまるようになるかが注目されているようです。
Ms. Power, who aides say has been in daily negotiations on Syria, has described the United Nations process she is facing as “a rare moment of promise at the Security Council after two and a half years of deadlock and paralysis.” If she can help break that deadlock with a vote that results in Syria giving up its chemical weapons, foreign policy analysts say it could help lay the groundwork for broader talks on ending Syria’s bloody civil war.
But if she winds up with a toothless resolution, it could be an embarrassment, setting the tone for the rest of her ambassadorship. Of all people, she does not want to be the ambassador who becomes bogged down in a drawn-out diplomatic negotiation while thousands of Syrians remain at risk.
“She is facing the same dilemma that many diplomats face,” said Vali Nasr, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “Except for most of them, their convictions and ideals are not in the public domain in the form of a Pulitzer-Prize winning book.”
(ウエブサイト) The Somaly Mam Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to ending modern slavery and empowering its survivors as part of the solution. Human trafficking, a multi-billion dollar industry, is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world. With an estimated two million women and children sold into sexual slavery each year, it is a global crisis that must be stopped.
Co-founded by sex slavery survivor Somaly Mam, the Foundation works to eradicate sex slavery, liberate its victims, and empower survivors to create and sustain lives of dignity and as agents of next-generation change. The Foundation supports rescue operations, shelter services, and rehabilitation programs in Southeast Asia, where the trafficking of women and young girls is widespread.
The Somaly Mam Foundation also runs awareness and advocacy campaigns that shed light on the crime of human trafficking, spotlight its brave survivors as living examples of change, and engage the public, business sectors, and governments in the fight to abolish modern slavery.
Our Vision: A world where women and children are safe from slavery. Our Mission: To give victims and survivors a voice in their lives, liberate victims, end slavery, and empower survivors as they create and sustain lives of dignity.
The Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in the USA and is incorporated in Canada. EIN: 26-0392207 BN: 838742864RR0001
(前略) But Mam was able to escape. With the help of an aid worker from France, she fled Cambodia in 1993. The fact that she escaped makes her unique, but what makes her truly extraordinary is that she went back. While, understandably, most people would spend the rest of their lives quietly recovering from their wounds, Mam decided to confront the system that continues to victimize Cambodian girls.
In 1996, Mam created a nonprofit organization called AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire, or Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances) that works with local law enforcement to raid brothels and reintegrate the trafficked women into society. It is estimated that between 1.2 million and 2 million people are currently being held as sex slaves around the world. Mam, now 38 or 39 (she does not know her birthday), has established a model for addressing this issue and has already helped more than 4,000 women escape the brothels.
She has paid a terrible personal price for doing so, enduring death threats and assaults. In an effort to deter her work, brothel owners even kidnapped, drugged and raped Mam's then 14-year-old daughter in 2006. Most people would have walked away. Mam continues to fight back so that others can be spared the pain she once suffered.
8月にプレスリリースを出していたようですが、ジャパンタイムズがニューヨークタイムズと提携してThe Japan Times / International New York Timesを10月16日から発行するのを今知りました。
新紙面 「The Japan Times / International New York Times」の価格設定と その他商品ラインアップについてのお知らせ AUG 7, 2013 ARTICLE HISTORY 株式会社ジャパンタイムズ(本社:東京都港区、代表取締役社長:堤丈晴、以下ジャパンタイムズ)は本年3月、New York Times Companyと日本国内での新聞発行に関する業務提携を発表いたしました。 本提携により、The Japan Timesは2013年10月16日からInternational New York Timesとセットで発行され、「The Japan Times / International New York Times」という名称の一つの商品になります。
New pricing plans for The Japan Times / International New York Times; details of renewed product lineup AUG 7, 2013 ARTICLE HISTORY In March this year, The Japan Times announced a publishing agreement with the New York Times Company that will see its daily newspaper, “The Japan Times” packaged with the “International New York Times” in the Japan market commencing with the Oct. 16 issue. The new combined newspaper will be called “The Japan Times / International New York Times.” Today, The Japan Times makes several key announcements regarding “The Japan Times / International New York Times” and several related products.
「The Japan Times / International New York Times」の創刊に関連する発行物およびサービスの変更につきまして、以下の3点をご案内申し上げます。 1. 「The Japan Times / International New York Times」の発行要領と価格 2. 「The Japan Times Weekly」から「The Japan Times On Sunday」へのリニューアル創刊 3. ジャパンタイムズウェブサイトのデジタル購読サービスの開始
The announcements, detailed below, are as follows: 1. Pricing plans and other details of “The Japan Times / International New York Times” 2. “The Japan Times Weekly” to be relaunched as “The Japan Times On Sunday” 3. Launch of digital subscriptions for The Japan Times website
② 「The Japan Times Weekly」から 「The Japan Times On Sunday」へのリニューアル創刊 1961年の創刊以来、多くの熱心な読者に支えられ、国内外の厳選されたニュースを提供してまいりました「The Japan Times Weekly」は、2013年10月20日号より「The Japan Times On Sunday」として生まれ変わります。 リニューアル後の紙面では、現在の「The Japan Times Weekly」の人気ページViewpointsやJapan/World in Briefを引き続き掲載いたします。国内外のニュースおよびスポーツのほか、The Japan Timesで日曜日に掲載されているTimeout特集面も「The Japan Times On Sunday」で継承します。 「The Japan Times On Sunday」は「The Japan Times / International New York Times」(月曜日から土曜日発行。詳細はリリース①をご参照ください)の購読者に配布されますが、日曜日版「The Japan Times On Sunday」単独の定期購読プランもご用意いたします。 「The Japan Times On Sunday」の詳細 1. 発行日: 日曜日 2. 体裁: タブロイド版28ページ(カラー12ページ) 3. 1部売り価格:250円(税込) 4. 単独定期購読プラン: 1号250円として計算されます。1ヶ月に4号発行された場合は1,000円、5号発行された場合は1,250円になります。
I have no idea who first coined the word "Abenomics." It was not my original term for the set of anti-deflation, growth-promotion policies I am now pursuing. 誰が「アベノミクス」という言葉を作ったのか、私にはわからない。それは私が現在取り組んでいる一連の反デフレ、成長促進政策の元々の呼び名ではなかった。
I do know, however, who first promoted one concept that is a vital component of Abenomics: "Womenomics." In 1999, Kathy Matsui and her colleagues at Goldman Sachs GS -0.41% first advocated that Japan could increase its gross domestic product by as much as 15% simply by tapping further its most underutilized resource—Japanese women. しかし、アベノミクスの重要な要素である1つの概念、「ウーマノミクス」を最初に推進したのが誰かは知っている。日本の女性という最も活用されていない資源をさらに開発するだけで、日本の国内総生産(GDP)は最大で15%も増加し得ると最初に主張したのは、ゴールドマン・サックスのキャシー松井氏とその同僚たちで、1999年のことだった。
Fourteen years have elapsed since then, and the idea has finally entered Japan's political lexicon. Womenomics will feature prominently in my address on Thursday at the United Nations General Assembly. Unleashing the potential of Womenomics is an absolute must if Japan's growth is to continue. Womenomics also holds the key to enhancing growth in Africa, an economic powerhouse in the making. それから14年が経過し、この考え方がついに日本の政界でも知られるようになった。ウーマノミクスは9月26日に予定されている私の国連総会での演説で大きく取り上げるつもりだ。日本が成長を続けるには、ウーマノミクスの可能性を解き放つことが至上命題である。ウーマノミクスは大経済圏になろうとしているアフリカの成長を促進するカギも握っている。
Japan is a country with a shrinking population caused by a seemingly intractable decline in its birthrate. But Womenomics offers a solution with its core tenet that a country that hires and promotes more women grows economically, and no less important, demographically as well. 解決困難に思える出生率の低下により、日本の人口は減少している。しかし、ウーマノミクスはより多くの女性を雇い、出世させる国は、経済的にも、それに引けをとらず重要な人口統計的にも成長するという原則に沿って解決策を提供してくれる。
Best Foot Forward By Nilanjana Bhowmick / Kalchini Monday, Sept. 30, 2013
Words checked = [926] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [86%]
A slight figure in jeans, backpack slung over her shoulder, runs up and down the touchline, shouting instructions to 11 girls chasing a ball. Loud Bollywood music wafts from the edges of the pitch, where cheering spectators have taken shelter under tents in the late monsoon rain. It is Aug. 15, 2013 — the 66th anniversary of India's independence. The theme for the local celebration is women's empowerment, and that's what Dooars XI, a women's soccer team from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal state, is playing for. "When I see they are struggling, I join the game," says Bhabani Munda, the team's player-coach. "Otherwise, I like to cheer them from the sidelines."
Munda is not one to seek the spotlight. But this 24-year-old has been quietly challenging the social norms in West Bengal's hilly tea estates since the 1990s, when she got together with a few friends to form the area's first women's soccer team. A player since she was 7, Munda wanted to do something uplifting for local girls who, as often is the case in India, lag behind males economically and socially. UNICEF estimates that nearly 55% of women in West Bengal are married off before they turn 18, higher than the national average of 43%. Female literacy in Munda's Jalpaiguri district, one of India's most backward, is 52%, compared with 73% for men. "Women's place in society in these areas has always been shaky," says Munda. "[The team] is trying to bring about a change in this attitude through our example."
Finding money to keep the team going is getting harder. In addition to covering daily expenses, Munda has to repay a $900 loan that she took out to build a clubhouse, where she also sells tea and snacks to supplement the team's income. That's why her day doesn't end with the closing of the clubhouse shutters. Munda lives in a small, thatched two-room cottage with three teammates. From 9 p.m. until midnight, amid the trophies Dooars XI has won, Munda makes snacks to sell the next day. If she sells them all, she can make about $2. "Every little thing counts," she says. "I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how long I can run. But I am never giving up."
最後にあった彼女の言葉にはぐっときますね。
"Every little thing counts," she says. "I don't know what the future holds. I don't know how long I can run. But I am never giving up." (こつこつやることが大切。将来がどうなるか分からないし、いつまで走れるかわからないけど、絶対あきらめないから)
(ロングマン) Elysium also the Elysian Fields literary a place of complete happiness. According to ancient Greek stories, Elysium is the place where good people go after their death. [= paradise]
(ケンブリッジ) Elysium noun [U] a state of great happiness: Everything was perfect. She was in Elysium.
The year 2154 is somewhat arbitrary, but Blomkamp believes that Earth will someday look a lot like his movie’s dystopian portrayal. He currently places humanity’s odds of survival at 50-50: “The dice are going to be rolled, and either we’re going to end up coming out of this through technological innovation”—leaps in genetic engineering, say, or artificial intelligence—”or we’re going to go down the road of a Malthusian catastrophe.” That path leads to human extinction or, on the sunnier side, a return to the Dark Ages.
Recently Blomkamp has been leaning toward Malthusian catastrophe. As the car rolls west along LA’s Miracle Mile, he holds forth on just a few of the topics that engross him: overpopulation, pathogens, nukes; how America’s hegemony is slowly eroding en route to a “third world deathbed.” All this without a hint of gloom. He is capable of compartmentalizing these bleak visions, and right now he’s in his default mood: “slightly upbeat,” as he puts it.
But Blomkamp insists Elysium isn’t some sort of filmic Paul Krugman op-ed piece. It’s important for him that his movies grapple with things that matter, in this case economic disparity, immigration, health care, corporate greed. But he disdains prescription-happy “message” movies—that’s what documentaries are for, he says—and intends Elysium to be first and foremost a mass-appeal, summer popcorn flick. Allegory, satire, and dark humor interest him; providing pat answers to society’s woes does not. “Anybody who thinks they can change the world by making films,” he says, “is sorely mistaken.”
(ロングマン) Malthus, Thomas (1766-1834) a British economist who studied population growth. He is famous for his opinion that, if the world's population was not controlled by disease, wars, or by sexual restraint, it would grow faster than the world's food supply. —Malthusian adjective
(オックスフォード) Malthusian ADJECTIVE related to the theory of Thomas Malthus that, since populations naturally grow faster than the supply of food, failure to control their growth leads to disaster
Resolving this problem requires a new approach. On September 25th governments will meet at a special event at the United Nations. Part of their task will be to establish a road map that will lead, by 2015, to a set of “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs). Sceptics will scoff that a UN framework will make no difference to the problems of the world economy. They are wrong.
It is not clear how much the pledge itself caused the fall in poverty—arguably not much, since China, where the biggest decline took place, took no notice of the goal. Still, the correlation has been strong enough for almost all countries to want a new set of global development aims after the current lot expires in 2015. On September 25th their delegations will gather at the United Nations in New York to refine the list of proposed “Sustainable Development Goals”. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, says rather grandly that these “have the potential to open up a new era of technological and organisational breakthroughs” (see article). Barack Obama has committed the American administration to the aim of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030, meaning to reduce the percentage of people in the world on $1.25 or less to 3%. Britain’s prime minister, the World Bank and a series of international charities have signed up to that goal, as well.
Yet as Nepal shows, cutting poverty is not just about boosting incomes. Deprivation takes many forms, including the lack of schools, clean water, medicines and family planning. Using her MPI measure, Ms Alkire finds that about one-sixth of Vietnam’s population is poor by income, and one-sixth is “multidimensionally poor”. But they are not the same people: only about a third of the groups overlap. Emma Samman of ODI says, “It is not clear that the $1.25-a-day poverty line, the measure upon which this vision of a poverty-free world exists, is necessarily the best way to think about and measure poverty.”
MDGの結果からも収入という経済面では目標を達成したが、乳幼児死亡率の改善や教育、衛生の向上などは未達成だと、その難しさを指摘しています。But if there were a trade-off between growth and equity, growth would be more important.なんて部分を見ると、経済成長を優先させているとアンチEconomistの人たちはすぐに批判したがるでしょう。
Globally, it has been much harder to improve the social aspects of poverty than the purely economic one (income). Look at the current set of UN development goals. The income target was met five years early. But the world is nowhere near meeting its goals of cutting child mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters in 1990-2015. Both are down by less than half. The targets on sanitation and education will be missed, too.
(中略) The trouble is that inequality is extremely hard to change. The rich and powerful have an incentive not to change it too much. And the benefit of doing so may anyway be marginal. A new study by David Dollar, Aart Kraay and Tatjana Kleineberg of the World Bank finds that almost four-fifths of the improvement in the incomes of the poorest 40% in 118 countries is attributable to improvements in average incomes—ie, it comes from general economic growth, not redistribution.
That still leaves a fifth that might be perked up by policies tailored specifically for the poor, and these would be required to get extreme poverty to zero. But if there were a trade-off between growth and equity, growth would be more important. And as the report concludes, “historical experience in a large sample of countries does not provide much guidance on which combinations of macroeconomic policies and institutions might be particularly beneficial for promoting ‘shared prosperity’ [a buzzword of the World Bank] as distinct from simply ‘prosperity’.”
A similar point can be made about calls for better governance. Improving accountability, transparency and effectiveness would be an excellent idea. But setting targets for those is difficult. Moreover, as extreme poverty falls, more of the core of deprivation will be in fragile and failing states such as Congo and Afghanistan—the very ones whose governments will be hardest to improve because they barely exist.
None of this means those gathering in New York next week are doomed to fail. The goal of eradicating extreme poverty is closer than ever; Nepal shows what can be done. But defining extreme poverty beyond the simple $1.25 a day is hard and deciding how to target social problems harder still. It will be an uphill struggle.
Free exchange The next frontier In a guest article, Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, outlines his vision for sustainable development Sep 21st 2013
CLIMATE science tells us unequivocally that we need to “decarbonise” much of the energy system by the middle of this century. Yet advanced techniques for extracting fossil fuels—fracking, new deep-ocean drilling and the like—dominate today’s economic and political discussion. These measures may temporarily boost the economy but they would end up crowding out investments in low-carbon technologies. A boomlet in fossil fuels is bound to be a dead end. Short-term priorities and long-term needs are at odds.
This disconnect also exists in the realm of jobs policy. Youth unemployment is stuck in the stratosphere in part because conventional jobs have succumbed to advances in information technology, robotics and outsourcing, leading to lower employment and a decline in earnings among unskilled youth in particular. In response economists obsess about policies to manage demand. But that will not address these structural changes. New strategies in education and training, and in smoothing the tricky school-to-work transition, are also needed.
ちょっと脱線しますがCLIMATE science tells us unequivocally that …という書き出しにピンときた方は、本物英語に触れている方ではないでしょうか。IPCCの第5次報告書が今週末からでるそうですが、第4次報告書で"warming of the climate system is unequivocal"と表現しニュースになりましたね。ウィキペディアでも説明がありました。
(ロングマン) unequivocal formal completely clear and without any possibility of doubt: His answer was an unequivocal 'No.'
(ウィキペディア) The headline findings of the report were: "warming of the climate system is unequivocal", and "most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations."
サックス教授の提言は是非リンク先で読んでいただきたいのですが、論点を簡潔にあげる方法は学びたいですね。to identify three elements of successとあって、各要素を一語で言い切っています。
Setting goals is one thing; achieving them quite another. All of these SDGs would require an overhaul of technology systems, whether for health, energy, transport, food supplies or safer cities. Target-driven technological change of this sort is very different from the normal evolutionary path of established industries competing through incremental changes in products and processes. We are perhaps more familiar with targeted technological change in the military context (the Manhattan Project, to take an obvious example) but there are enough civilian cases (the Moon landing, the Human Genome Project, the eradication of smallpox) to identify three elements of success.
The first is “backcasting”.
The second element is “road-mapping”.
The third step is global co-operation,
「目標設定と実行は別物だ」ということは我々も痛感していますが、そんな時はSetting goals is one thing; achieving them quite another.とでも言えばいいのですね。
We are in the private dining room of Azure 45, one of dozens of high-end French restaurants in Tokyo, this most culinary of cities. This one is spectacularly located on the 45th floor of a skyscraper with sweeping views of Tokyo Tower and the city beneath. A cluster of different-sized glass balls dangles above the table, giving the otherwise haute-chic room the air of a 1980s disco. Yanai starts work at 7am and likes to be home by 4pm to spend time with his wife and to practise golf, so the whole company has shunted its schedule forward. Our 11.30am encounter is early even by Japanese standards, where lunch at noon is the norm.
“Just by looking at your face I can tell you’re English,” Yanai announces as we take our seats at the long dining table. “There’s an Englishness about you.” He is almost imperceptibly leaning back in his chair and, as he speaks, his mouth moves less than you might expect, as if he were a ventriloquist minus a dummy. His face is stern, though beneath is a hint of amusement. Every so often, he bears his teeth as he erupts into laughter.
What, I ask, is so English about me? “The whole package. The air of the English is down-to-earth,” he says. “They care about details, there’s a tradition but there’s also a counter-culture, the younger generation versus the older generation and so on. But then that’s well blended into a happy balance and crystallised into common sense.”
It’s not where I would have started the conversation but it’s a fairly typical line of discourse in Japan, where perceived national characteristics remain an important prism through which to view the world. Seeing as we’ve set off down this road, I ask whether the Japanese are similar. One commonly hears Tokyo cab drivers pontificate on the parallels: both Britain and Japan are islands stuck off the edge of a great continental landmass. Yanai focuses on the differences. “I’m afraid Japanese people tend to collective hysteria,” he offers.
生い立ちからユニクロの現状など幅広く聞いていて、ブラック企業と呼ばれている事やバングラディシュの事件での対応も扱っています。“But in my opinion, unless each one of those labourers and all the people in Bangladesh can stand on their own feet they will have no future.”と語っているところを見ると、やはり厳しい人なんだと思います。
In the case of Bangladesh, it also brought death, I press. Although Uniqlo clothes were not being made in the collapsed Rana Plaza building, Fast Retailing has subsequently responded anyway by joining a European-led initiative to improve factory conditions. “Some European people tend to believe that these labourers are being exploited and deprived of their human rights and that, therefore, what they need is a strong union,” he says, waving away imaginary agitators. “But in my opinion, unless each one of those labourers and all the people in Bangladesh can stand on their own feet they will have no future.”
Even at home, Uniqlo is sometimes labelled as a “black company” because of a high, by Japanese standards, staff turnover rate that sees half of all new recruits leave the company within three years. In Japan, too, the brand has become a victim of its own ubiquity. There is a slang term, unibare, meaning to be caught wearing Uniqlo clothes. Part of Yanai’s global push is aimed at reflecting a better international image of the company’s products back into its home market.
In Japan, Yanai is famous for his prodigious wealth, not always a compliment in a country where money can be held in suspicion. His enormous house in central Tokyo has a mini-golfing range in the garden. In a previous interview, Yanai has said he is not interested in money, though he confesses to liking the idea of being Japan’s richest man. How does he square the two? “I would describe myself as a very average man,” he says. “I’m not extraordinary. I don’t think I was cut out to be making all this money. I have long prioritised being fair, doing something good for society.” Surely he has a Van Gogh or two tucked away at home, I goad. In answer he shows me his wrist to reveal a humble Swatch timepiece. “This is the watch I wear every day,” he says. I’ve seen this before, the classic gesture of a billionaire keen to prove that wealth has not erased his down-to-earth origins.
“I don’t feel euphoric on the up, and I don’t slit my wrists when it goes down,” he says. “I have ridden the roller coaster too many times for that.” (上がったからって浮かれるわけでもないし、下がったからって手首を切るわけでもありません。ジェットコースターの体験は何度もしているんです。)
クックが話しているのはアップルの株価についてですが。。。 None of this rattles Tim Cook. Oh, he’s heard it, of course, but his soft-spoken, deliberate manner in interviews is not cover for how, say, Apple’s share price affects his mood. “I don’t feel euphoric on the up, and I don’t slit my wrists when it goes down,” he says. “I have ridden the roller coaster too many times for that.” When asked about the rise of low-cost manufacturers, he’s equally even-tempered. “It happens in every market I’ve seen,” he says. “It happens in all consumer electronics, from cameras to PCs to tablets to phones to—in the old world—VCRs and DVDs. I can’t think of a single consumer electronics market it doesn’t happen in.”
さて、クックCEOの話に戻りますが、特集の最後に“You have to bring yourself back to, ‘Are you doing the right things?’ And so that’s what I focus on, instead of letting somebody else or a thing like the market define how I should feel.”と語っていました。自分を取り戻す、自分らしくある、そんな場合にはYou have to bring yourself back toと言えばいいのですね。
“Innovate or die” is no longer just a mantra for Cook; it’s a common refrain from Apple’s fans and critics. Since Jobs’s return to Apple in 1996, the company has grown not by inventing devices, but by perfecting them and creating markets. Apple didn’t make the first music player. It didn’t make the first smartphone or tablet, but it did turn them into things that people are willing to camp out overnight to buy.
Apple has set a pace for itself that can be hard to keep up. Like it or not, every time Cook walks onstage and unveils anything less than a mind-blower, the world—or at least the stock market—reacts with disappointment. Apple shares dropped 5 percent the day after the new iPhones were introduced and are down about 10 percent for the year. “Am I happy about that? No, I’m not,” Cook says. “You have to bring yourself back to, ‘Are you doing the right things?’ And so that’s what I focus on, instead of letting somebody else or a thing like the market define how I should feel.”
So far, grand ideas about mobile payments and coupons have not been backed up by consumer adoption, so there’s reason to be skeptical about the potential for some new features from one phone maker to change things. But Apple’s new phone does seem to be banging another nail into the coffin of near-field communications, a technology that allows phones to exchange information when brought into close proximity. NFC, which has been integrated into many Android phone and stores’ point-of-sale machines, was once heralded as the way to drive mobile payments and other commerce-based functions. NFC backers often cited the inevitability of an iPhone with NFC as a tipping point for the technology’s adoption. But increasingly it seems like Apple may never do so, despite a trickle of patents hinting otherwise.
“Apple has effectively killed NFC by refusing to support it,” said Evans.
The first working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will deliver its assessment of the science of global warming at a meeting in Stockholm next week. This will be the fifth time that the IPCC has delivered such an assessment; some 23 years have passed since the first effort. Many things have changed in that time; others have not. Regardless, it is time to rethink the IPCC. The organization deserves thanks and respect from all who care about the principle of evidence-based policy-making, but the current report should be its last mega-assessment.
この報告書の意義に関しては、Yes, greenhouse gases are changing the climate. Yes, we are already seeing substantial impacts, and more are on the way. And yes, this adds up to a problem for society that is significant and warrants immediate attention.と否定していません。ただ、今更報告書に出して言うべきことでもないだろうと手厳しいです。今必要なのは総花的なものではないというのです。
But none of this is news, and that is the problem. The IPCC’s fifth assessment will provide a comprehensive analysis of policy options and the scientific basis for the next round of climate negotiations, which are scheduled to come to a head in 2015. What is missing from these talks is not science but political ambition, which is ultimately a reflection of public support. The IPCC has a crucial role in this process and must remain the central authority on global warming. It is not clear, however, that to immediately launch into yet another comprehensive assessment — which would consume immeasurable time and energy, and would probably come to the same bottom-line conclusions — represents the best use of our scientific resources.
Instead, climate scientists should focus on smaller and more rapid assessments of more pressing questions that have a particular political interest and for which science is evolving quickly. These reports could look more like the panel’s recent special report on extreme weather; longer and more detailed assessments could be performed as needed, when there is sufficient interest from the governments that the IPCC serves.
確かに「今こそ実行の時だ」と2007年から言い続けていますもんねえ。The final assessmentというタイトルはこのような報告書は最後にして欲しいというNatureの立場のあらわれかもしれません。
社説以外の記事はまだ読めていませんが、週末に全部目を通していきたいと思います。
Global warming: Outlook for Earth As the IPCC finalizes its next big climate-science assessment, Nature looks at the past and future of the planet's watchdog.
Climate assessments: 25 years of the IPCC A graphical tour through the history of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the science that underlies it. Nicola Jones
Climate science: Rising tide Researchers struggle to project how fast, how high and how far the oceans will rise. Nicola Jones
IPCC: The climate chairman Getting hundreds of experts to agree is never easy. Ottmar Edenhofer takes a firm, philosophical approach to the task. Quirin Schiermeier
SADNESS is an emotion we usually try to avoid. So why do we choose to listen to sad music?
Musicologists and philosophers have wondered about this. Sad music can induce intense emotions, yet the type of sadness evoked by music also seems pleasing in its own way. Why? Aristotle famously suggested the idea of catharsis: that by overwhelming us with an undesirable emotion, music (or drama) somehow purges us of it.
But what if, despite their apparent similarity, sadness in the realm of artistic appreciation is not the same thing as sadness in everyday life?
In a study published this summer in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, my colleagues and I explored the idea that “musical emotion” encompasses both the felt emotion that the music induces in the listener and the perceived emotion that the listener judges the music to express. By isolating these two overlapping sets of emotions and observing how they related to each other, we hoped to gain a better understanding of sad music.
Forty-four people served as participants in our experiment. We asked them to listen to one of three musical excerpts of approximately 30 seconds each. The excerpts were from Mikhail Glinka’s “La Séparation” (F minor), Felix Blumenfeld’s “Sur Mer” (G minor) and Enrique Granados’s “Allegro de Concierto” (C sharp major, though the excerpt was in G major, which we transposed to G minor).
We were interested in the minor key because it is canonically associated with sad music, and we steered clear of well-known compositions to avoid interference from any personal memories related to the pieces.
「問題設定→検証」ときたので、さしあたっての考えを表明しているところが以下です。 When listening to sad music, then, there is a tension, or slippage, between the two types of emotions. How are we to understand this gap?
One answer might be that in everyday life we typically experience emotions that have a direct connection to whatever object or situation gives rise to them. But when we listen to sad music (or watch a sad movie, or read a sad novel), we are inoculated from any real threat or danger that the music (or movie or novel) represents.
If this is true, what we experience when we listen to sad music might be thought of as “vicarious emotions.” Here, there is no object or situation that induces emotion directly, as in regular life. Instead, the vicarious emotions are free from the essential unpleasantness of their genuine counterparts, while still drawing force from the similarity between the two.
We need to study vicarious emotions further. In doing so, we may be able to improve our understanding of a neglected feature of our emotional system — namely, its sensitivity to something other than palpable needs or threats. When we weep at the beauty of sad music, we experience a profound aspect of our emotional selves that may contain insights about the meaning and significance of artistic experience — and also about ourselves as human beings.
vicariousについては自分も辞書で調べました(汗)
(オックスフォード) vicarious felt or experienced by watching or reading about someone else doing something, rather than by doing it yourself He got a vicarious thrill out of watching his son score the winning goal.
(ロングマン) vicarious experienced by watching or reading about someone else doing something, rather than by doing it yourself vicarious pleasure/satisfaction/excitement etc the vicarious pleasure that parents get from their children's success
MIT Technology Reviewとう雑誌恒例の35 Innovators under 35という特集で日本人が選ばれていました。
35 Innovators under 35 For our 13th annual celebration of people who are driving the next generation of technological breakthroughs, we’re presenting the stories in a new way. We’ve grouped them by categories that reflect the variety of approaches that people can take to solving big problems. The Inventors, for instance, are creating new technologies. The Entrepreneurs are turning technologies into viable businesses. The Visionaries are anticipating how technologies can make life better, while Humanitarians are concentrating on expanding opportunities. And the Pioneers are exploring new frontiers, setting the stage for future innovations.
This project takes months of effort. It begins with nominations from the public and MIT Technology Review editors. People who have been selected by our publishing partners as local Innovators Under 35 in several regions worldwide are also considered. The editors go through the hundreds of candidates and select fewer than 100 finalists, all of whom will be younger than 35 on October 1. A panel of judges rates the finalists on the originality and impact of their work. Finally, the editors take the judges’ scores into account to select the group.
Kuniharu Takei is exploring new ways of printing different kinds of nano devices. An early prototype of electronic skin uses a plastic substrate and carbon nanotubes.
自分の音楽感性は、U2、スティング、レデオヘッドぐらいしかありません。その中で、King of Painという曲があります。高校生の時はいろいろ悩む時期ですので、「苦悩の王者」なんて歌詞はかっちょええと思ってしまったわけです。今ではこちらのブログにあるような方のように落ち着いて理解できるようになっているわけですが。。。(リンク先のブログでは歌詞の訳や裏話も紹介してくださっています)
K. Rich. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown; Here cousin, On this side my hand and on that side thine. Now is this golden crown like a deep well That owes two buckets filling one another; The emptier ever dancing in the air, The other down, unseen and full of water: That bucket down and full of tears am I, Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. Boling. I thought you had been willing to resign. K. Rich. My crown, I am; but still my griefs are mine. You may my glories and my state depose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those. Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your crown.
スティングは読書家だそうですから、シェークスピアのこの台詞をどっかでみかけて作ったんじゃないでしょうか。他にもTea in the Sahara(サハラ砂漠でお茶を)なんて曲があって、これまた高校生の時にタイトルを見ただけですごそうに思えたんですけど、ポールボウルズのシェルタリングスカイという本の第一章のタイトルそのままだったりしますから。。。紛らわしいですが、動画の映像は映画『シェルタリングスカイ』じゃなくて、『イングリッシュペイシェント』のようです(苦笑)
Fast Food Nationという本が有名なEric Schlosserの新刊は核兵器についてのようです。The situation is under control.という言葉をとやかくいうつもりはありませんが、大事には至らなかったものの、ちょっとして不注意で起きた事件から核兵器管理の問題を検討していっているようなのです。(発売前でまだ購入できていません)。
A little over 50 years ago a South Carolina doctor (and the grandfather of this reviewer) treated a family for injuries sustained when a sudden, inexplicable explosion tore through their backyard. The injuries were not serious, and after spending the night at the doctor’s house they returned home to discover that the object in the 50-foot crater left behind their house was an atomic bomb that had fallen from a passing Air Force plane. The bomb had not been “armed” with its nuclear core; the blast came from the explosives intended to trigger a chain reaction. The crater can still be seen today.
That incident, which led to an anti-nuclear movement in Britain, where the plane was bound, is one of many stories Eric Schlosser, the author of “Fast Food Nation,” tells in “Command and Control.” During the cold war, nuclear bombs fell out of the sky, burned up in plane crashes and were lost at sea. In the incident Schlosser describes in greatest detail, “the Damascus accident” of Sept. 18, 1980, the warhead from a Titan II missile was ejected after a series of mishaps that began when a repairman dropped a socket wrench and pierced a fuel tank. Tactical nuclear weapons scattered across Europe had minimal security; misplaced tools and failed repairs triggered serious accidents; inadequate safety procedures and poor oversight led to dozens of close brushes with nuclear explosions. People have died in these accidents, sometimes as a result of their own carelessness or bad luck, but often while doing their best to protect the rest of us from an accidental nuclear blast.
Shortly after sunset one day last week, a maintenance worker on the third level of a silo housing a 103-ft. Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile near Damascus, in the Arkansas hills north of Little Rock, dropped the socket of a wrench. The 3-lb. tool plummeted 70 ft. and punctured a fuel tank. As flammable vapors escaped, officials urged the 1,400 people living in a five-mile radius of the silo to flee. The instructions: "Don't take time to close your doors—just get out."
And with good reason. At 3:01 a.m., as technicians gave up trying to plug the leak and began climbing from the silo, the mixture of fuel and oxygen exploded. Orange flames and smoke spewed out, lighting up the sky over Damascus. The blast blew off a 750-ton concrete cover. One worker was killed; 21 others were hurt.
September 18, 1980 – At about 6:30 p.m., an airman conducting maintenance on a USAF Titan-II missile at Little Rock Air Force Base's Launch Complex 374-7 in Southside (Van Buren County), just north of Damascus, Arkansas, dropped a socket from a socket wrench, which fell about 80 feet (24 m) before hitting and piercing the skin on the rocket's first-stage fuel tank, causing it to leak. The area was evacuated. At about 3:00 a.m., on September 19, 1980, the hypergolic fuel exploded. The W53 warhead landed about 100 feet (30 m) from the launch complex's entry gate; its safety features operated correctly and prevented any loss of radioactive material. An Air Force airman was killed and the launch complex was destroyed.[59]
• June, 1999 — INES Level 2[35] - Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan - Control rod malfunction • Operators attempting to insert one control rod during an inspection neglected procedure and instead withdrew three causing a 15 minute uncontrolled sustained reaction at the number 1 reactor of Shika Nuclear Power Plant. The Hokuriku Electric Power Company who owned the reactor did not report this incident and falsified records, covering it up until March, 2007.[36]
• September 30, 1999 — INES Level 4 - Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan - Accidental criticality • Inadequately trained part-time workers prepared a uranyl nitrate solution containing about 16.6 kg of uranium, which exceeded the critical mass, into a precipitation tank at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai-mura northeast of Tokyo, Japan. The tank was not designed to dissolve this type of solution and was not configured to prevent eventual criticality. Three workers were exposed to (neutron) radiation doses in excess of allowable limits. Two of these workers died. 116 other workers received lesser doses of 1 mSv or greater though not in excess of the allowable limit.[37][38][39][40] See also: Tokaimura nuclear accident
日常業務もそうだし、英語学習もそうですが、理想的なシナリオで進むことはほとんどないですよね。ついついうっかりミスなんてしないと想定しがちですが、恥ずかしいほどの思い違いをしやすいことはTOEIC受験でもしたことがある人には思い当たりますよね。この書評の最後にあったThe human race was smart enough to build these bombs. So far we appear to lack the intelligence needed either to get rid of them or to store them safely.という言葉が身にしみます。
Over all, Schlosser is a better reporter than policy analyst, and his discussion of what we should do about the problem he so grippingly describes is disappointingly thin. Nevertheless, his core recommendation that the United States explore the possibilities of operating a minimal deterrent, the smallest number of nuclear weapons needed to prevent adversaries from contemplating a nuclear attack on us, may be the most hopeful direction in which we can look. But as technological progress makes nuclear weapons cheaper and easier to build, and creates new and ever more dangerous weapons of mass destruction, the intractable problems of safe storage and nuclear war-fighting doctrine are likely to remain with us for the long term.
The human race was smart enough to build these bombs. So far we appear to lack the intelligence needed either to get rid of them or to store them safely. Schlosser’s readers (and he deserves a great many) will be struck by how frequently the people he cites attribute the absence of accidental explosions and nuclear war to divine intervention or sheer luck rather than to human wisdom and skill. Whatever was responsible, we will clearly need more of it in the years to come.
Some actors are so mesmerizing. You want to see them twice. Ian McAllen, Patrick Stewart, Billy Crudup, and Schuller Hensley on Broadway in no man's land and waiting for Gotot Two plays in Rep.
(オックスフォード) mesmerizing Her performance was mesmerizing.
(ケンブリッジ) mesmerize to hold completely the attention or interest of someone: Her beautiful voice mesmerized the audience.
mesmerizing ›a mesmerizing performance
下記がサイトにあった案内です。動画の最後の部分でtwo plays in repとありましたが、 This fall, four great actors return to Broadway in two great plays, performed in repertory.という案内を見る限りin repはin repertoryのようですね。
This fall, four great actors return to Broadway in two great plays, performed in repertory. IAN McKELLEN, PATRICK STEWART, BILLY CRUDUP and SHULER HENSLEY star in Harold Pinter’s comedy NO MAN’S LAND and Samuel Beckett’s classic WAITING FOR GODOT. Sean Mathias' productions present a startling new look at these two theatrical masterpieces.
In NO MAN’S LAND, two elderly writers, having met in a London pub, continue drinking and talking into the night. All might be well, until the return home of two younger men. Their relationships are exposed, with menace and hilarity, in one of Pinter's most entertaining plays.
In WAITING FOR GODOT, two wanderers wait by a lonely tree, to meet up with Mr. Godot, who they hope will change their lives for the better. Instead, two eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other's rope. The results are both funny and dangerous.
Beckett and Pinter have fascinated and delighted theatergoers worldwide for decades. Don’t miss this limited engagement of four great actors in eight great parts in two of the theater’s greatest plays.
今週のEconomistの特集はBiodiversit(生物多様性)でした。表紙のサブタイトルにHow economic growth will help prevent extinctions.(どのように経済成長が絶滅防止に貢献するのか)とあるように、経済成長や自由貿易を支持するこの雑誌らしい立場が反映されたものになっています。
Over the past few centuries mankind’s economic growth has caused many of the problems that other species face. But as our special report this week argues, greater human prosperity now offers other species their best chance of hanging on.
What did for the dinosaurs There have been five great extinctions in the history of Earth. One killed off the dinosaurs; another wiped out up to 96% of species on Earth. All were probably caused by geological events or asteroids. Many scientists think a sixth is under way, this one caused by man.
Yet when people start to reach middle-income level, other species start to benefit. That is partly because as people get richer, their interests begin to extend beyond necessities towards luxuries: for some people that means expensive shoes, for others a day’s bird-watching. Green pressure groups start leaning on government, and governments pass laws to constrain companies from damaging the environment. In the West, a posse of pressure groups such as Greenpeace and the Environmental Defence Fund started up in the 1960s and helped bring about legislation in the 1970s and 1980s.
This is not just because rich countries export their growth to emerging markets. Look, for instance, at the fate of the forests on the Korean peninsula: in South Korea, one of the world’s fastest-growing countries in recent decades, forest cover is stable, whereas North Korea has lost a third of its forests in the past 20 years. Nobody exported their growth to North Korea.
もちろん経済成長だけを考えればいいとノーテンキなことを言っているのではありません。気候変動と土地利用を今後の課題としてあげています。Whether or not they tip over depends in large part on two factors. One is climate change.といって、論点をあげる書き方は真似したいところですね。
Gee up GM But the problem is by no means solved. Thousands of species are teetering on the edge of extinction. Whether or not they tip over depends in large part on two factors. One is climate change. If the temperature increase is at the medium to high end of the estimated range, then a biodiversity catastrophe is very likely. If it remains at the lower end—which the current hiatus in warming suggests is possible—then most species should not be too badly affected. The second is the demand for land. Habitat loss is the biggest threat to biodiversity. Mankind already cultivates around 40% of Earth’s land surface, and the demand for food is expected to double by 2050. If that demand is to be met without much more land being ploughed, yields will have to increase sharply. That means more fertiliser, pesticide and genetically modified (GM) seeds.
For this to happen, the green movement needs to change its attitude. It has helped other species by pressing governments for change, but some greens want growth to slow and most oppose intensive farming. They have made Europe a no-go zone for new GM crops, and have exported their damaging prejudices to Africa and Asia, to the detriment of biodiversity.
ここを読むとこの雑誌はGM(遺伝子組み換え)食品を支持していることが分かりますし、For this to happen, the green movement needs to change its attitude.と環境保護の運動家を露骨に批判していますね。
Protecting the Air, Water, Soil and Biodiversity The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report issued in 2005 concluded that the ecosystem services evaluated had degraded over the past 50 years. Many scientists believe that humans have changed the Earth’s ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in history. Humankind depends on a number of ecosystem services, including provision of food and fresh water, climate regulation and protection from natural disasters. Industry must recognize not just its impact on ecosystems but also its dependence on these services. Companies today face the pressing need to balance environmental preservation and economic progress as they pursue their business activities. Using the methods identified in the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review,* Nissan has evaluated its value chain from the extraction of material resources to vehicle production and operation. Based on the results, we have identified three priority areas for us as an automobile manufacturer: energy sourcing, mineral material sourcing and water usage. We have since been working to position the business risks and opportunities, reevaluating and further developing our traditional environmental initiatives.
Film is an important medium to introduce the many aspects of the lives and circumstances of refugees across the world, and through this entertainment vehicle, create better awareness and understanding.
開催によせてのメッセージは以下ですが、こういう定型表現はTOEICでも出題されますし、英語を実生活で使えるようになりたい方にとっても自分から使えるようになっておきたいですよね。「皆さんが何かを感じ、自分に出来ることを考えるきっかけになれば幸いです。」のような場合、英語ではI hope that they will inspire you to reach out and assist in any way possible.のように言えばいいのかと勉強にもなります。
About the 8th UNHCR Refugee Film Festival Johan Cels UNHCR Representative in Japan
UNHCR Representation in Japan is pleased to present the 8th edition of the UNHCR Refugee Film Festival. Today, more than 45 million people have been forcibly displaced outside or inside their own country around the world. Last year, about 7.6 million people became newly displaced. One person every 4 seconds.
The Syria conflict is the most complex humanitarian crisis at present. By June 2013, more than 1.6 million Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries. An estimated 6.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, of which 4.2 million are internally displaced. In the absence of any political solutions, we fear that some 3.5 million people will flee to neighboring countries by the end of 2013.
These figures are mind boggling and difficult to comprehend. Therefore, it is important to share and tell the human stories, often unheard, behind these numbers. Every number represents an individual, who has been forced to flee due to conflict or persecution, with his or her own story.
The 8th UNHCR Refugee Film Festival aims to tell these personal stories and appeals for greater understanding for the difficulties they have faced, especially those who are forced to keep silent. These are stories not only of fear, loss and trauma, but also of courage, hope and success.
Film is a potent tool to share these human stories and I hope that they will inspire you to reach out and assist in any way possible.
Tina Brown announced today that she will be leaving her position as editor in chief of The Daily Beast to launch Tina Brown Live Media, a new company that will merge Brown's lifelong commitment to journalistic inquiry with her innate ability to dramatically stage storytelling. Devoted to sponsor-supported summits, salons and flash debates, with special emphasis on expanding the annual Women in the World summit she launched in 2010, the company's mission will be to bring compelling narratives to life for a global audience.
“Creating the Daily Beast at the original instigation of Barry Diller in 2008,” she said, “has given me some of the most exciting and fulfilling years of my professional life. I am enormously proud of what our brilliant editorial team has achieved at the Beast. And I am proud, too, of what we did with Newsweek in the battle we waged to save it from the overwhelming forces of media change.”
An executive with direct knowledge of the negotiations said her split with Mr. Diller was friendly, and that she had been saying for more than a month that she did not want to continue in such a stressful position into the new year.
Ms. Brown and Mr. Diller expressed great enthusiasm when they started The Daily Beast in 2008. But their relationship was put to the test in 2010 when Ms. Brown persuaded Mr. Diller to help support the storied but struggling Newsweek magazine and merge it with The Daily Beast. Even Ms. Brown’s best efforts to save Newsweek were soured by the struggling market for newsmagazines, and Newsweek lost tens of millions of dollars.
Mr. Diller complained publicly for months about his frustrations with Newsweek, and referred to the acquisition of it as a “mistake.” Late in 2012, Ms. Brown announced that Newsweek would cease publishing a print edition. In May, Ms. Brown confirmed that the magazine was for sale, and in early August Newsweek was sold to the digital news company International Business Times.
新しく立ち上げるTina Live Brownというのは講演会のようなイベントを実施したりするようです。情報過剰な時代に直接会ってじっくり話し合う機会を設けることが重要ではないかとみているようです。 Ms Brown argues that, in a world of rapid information flow, people value social interaction and being in the audience for live debates. “There is such an attention deficit disorder culture today. It is all about the traffic and the quick hit. We’ll have 45-minute discussions and we’ll really get into it.”
パワフルな女性だと感じたのは、このコラムの最後の部分です。“The older you get, the faster you must move. You have to reverse your metabolism to your chronological age. “とおっしゃっています。還暦を迎えようとする方の発言とは思えませんね(苦笑)
It would be a simpler life. Her husband, Sir Harold Evans, former editor of The Sunday Times and The Times, is 85; their two children are adults. Her 2008 biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, was a bestseller and she has another book to write. Is it time for a change of pace?
“Where do you get the idea that I will slow down?” she responds indignantly. “The older you get, the faster you must move. You have to reverse your metabolism to your chronological age. I don’t know what I did when my children were young but, now that they are gone, I am more energised than ever.”
Tina Brown is still big. It is the media that got small.
さっそくそのThe Back CountryをKindleで買ってみました。思い立ったらすぐ買える電子書籍のいいところですよね。やっぱり紙の書籍が一番だという人はすぐに本を読みたいという衝動に対してどう対処しているのか気になるところです。
宮沢賢治の紹介なのですが、東北地方を日本のチベットと紹介しています(汗)
MIYAZAWA Kenji (1896- 1933) ... was born and lived most his life in Iwate prefecture in northern Japan. This area, sometimes called the Tibet of Japan, is known for poverty, cold, and heavy winter snows. His poems are all from there.
He was born and lived his life among the farmers: a school-teacher (Chemistry, Natural Sciences, Agriculture) and a Buddhist. His poems have many Buddhist allusions, as well as scientific vocabulary.
The bulk of his work is colloquial and metrically free. His complete work, published after his death, contains seven hundred free-verse poems, nine hundred tanka poems, and ninety children's stories.
THE POLITICIANS Running around here & there stirring up trouble and bothering people a bunch of lushes - fern leaves and cloud: the world was so chilly and dark
Before long that sort will up and rot all by themselves and be washed away by the rain and afterwards, only green fern.
And when humanity is laid out like coal somewhere some earnest geologist will note them in his notebook.
(オックスフォード) Vanity Fair 1 a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. It contrasts the lives of two characters who first meet at school: Becky Sharp, who is intelligent, ambitious and poor, and Amelia Sedley, who is gentle, pretty and rich. The book contains many humorous characters and was published in parts between 1847 and 1848. 2 a magazine published every month both in Britain and the US, with articles about politics, society, culture and other subjects.
(ロングマン) Vanity Fair 1 trademark a magazine sold in the US and UK that has articles on fashion, some news articles, and some articles or stories by well-known writers
2 (1847-48) a novel by William Thackeray about upper class English society at the time of the war against Napoleon. The characters in the book, who include Becky Sharp, are often shown to be stupid or to have no moral principles.
3 literary a place where people have no serious thoughts or beliefs, and where only money, fashion, and entertainment are considered to be important. The name comes from an imaginary place like this in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
100 Years of Vanity Fair Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair was founded in 1913 with the goal of recording “truthfully and entertainingly the progress of American life.” Since then, the title has featured the highest-quality journalism, photography, and commentary on all aspects of culture. On our 100th birthday, see the highlights of our history in slide shows, films, essays, articles, and full issues. Use the navigation above to focus in on a particular era, or scroll down to see century-spanning coverage.
(ウィキペディア) Vanity Fair is a magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title whose last title publication was February 1936 after a run from 1913. The current editor is Graydon Carter.
Modern revival Condé Nast Publications, under the ownership of S.I. Newhouse, announced in June 1981 that it was reviving the magazine.[4] The first issue was published in February 1983 (cover date March), edited by Richard Locke, formerly of The New York Times Book Review.[5] After three issues, Locke was replaced by Leo Lerman, veteran features editor of Vogue.[6] He was followed by editors Tina Brown (1984–1992) and Graydon Carter (since 1992). Regular columnists have included Sebastian Junger, Michael Wolff, Maureen Orth and Christopher Hitchens. Famous contributing photographers for the magazine include Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino and Herb Ritts, all who have provided the magazine with a string of lavish covers and full-page portraits of current celebrities. Amongst the most famous of these was the August 1991 Leibovitz cover featuring a naked, pregnant Demi Moore, an image entitled More Demi Moore that to this day holds a spot in pop culture.
World Economic Forumのウエブサイトでトランスクリプトがないか確認してみましたが、残念ながら公開してませんでした。この動画だけで理解できる人はそもそも英語学習雑誌や英語資格の勉強など不要でしょう。ですから、この動画を見て興味を持った方は、今月のEJは買ってみてもいいのではないでしょうか。
Kristen Stewart Reads Marcel Proust: ON THE ROAD Pic Kristen Stewart reads — or pretends to read — Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way in this photo on the On the Road "set." Based on Jack Kerouac’s classic novel, On the Road was directed by Walter Salles from a screenplay by José Rivera (Salles’ collaborator on The Motorcycle Diaries).
冒頭の電話の一声、Winter of discontentというところから文学好きの主人公であることがうかがえます。ちょっと強引な展開ですが、ジェネレーションYを代表する映画と言われたReality BitesがTVシリーズでリメイクされると最近ニュースになりましたね。
Reality Bites set for TV remake Ben Stiller, director of 1994 slacker drama starring Winona Ryder, approves plan for spin-off series Ben Child theguardian.com, Friday 23 August 2013 12.46 BST
Amazon.com Review An Amazon Best Book of the Month, June 2013: McCann’s stunning sixth novel is a brilliant tribute to his loamy, lyrical and complicated Irish homeland, and an ode to the ties that, across time and space, bind Ireland and America. The book begins with three transatlantic crossings, each a novella within a novel: Frederick Douglas’s 1845 visit to Ireland; the 1919 flight of British aviators Alcock and Brown; and former US senator George Mitchell’s 1998 attempt to mediate peace in Northern Ireland. McCann then loops back to 1863 to launch the saga of the women we’ve briefly met throughout Book One, beginning with Irish housemaid Lily Duggan, whose bold escape from her troubled homeland cracks open the world for her daughter and granddaughter. The language is lush, urgent, chiseled and precise; sometimes languid, sometimes kinetic. At times, it reads like poetry, or a dream. Choppy sentences. Two-word declaratives. Arranged into stunning, jagged tableaux. Bleak, yet hopeful. (Describing Lily’s first view of America: “New York appeared like a cough of blood.”) The finale is a melancholy set piece that ties it all together--an unopened letter, “passed from daughter to daughter, and through a succession of lives,” becomes the book’s mysterious token, an emblem of a world grown smaller. McCann reminds us that life is hard, and it is a wonder, and there is hope. --Neal Thompson
24分あたりから学生にI can’t teach you a thingとまず伝えるというくだりはいいですね。Creative writingのクラスですから、いろいろと試行錯誤することが大事なんでしょう。以前取り上げたYou’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.について彼もボネガットの言葉だと紹介しています(彼の引用した言葉は少し違いますが。。。)以前記事にしましたが、Ray Bradburyの言葉のようです。
分かっていることを書くのではなく、知りたいこと、分からないことこそに書くべきことがあると言っている部分です。別の場所ではI want to write toward others.とも言っています。
26分40秒あたりから People say you should write about what you know about. I say “No”. Write about what you want to know. Even better writer about what you don’t know, which seems sort of logically and philosophically impossible but it’s not. (知っていることについて書くべきだと言われますが、私は「違う」と答えます。知りたいと思うことについて書くのです。もっと良いのは知らないことについて書くことです。これは論理的にも哲学的にも不可能のような感じがしますが、そうではないのです)
After 15 years, the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland still occasionally quivers, sometimes abruptly, and yet it holds. It is one of the great stories of the second half of the 20th century, and by the nature of its refusal to topple, it is one of the continuing marvels of the 21st as well. While rockets fizzle across the Israeli border, and funeral chants sound along the streets of Aleppo in Syria, and drones cut coordinates in the blue over Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Irish peace process reaffirms the possibility that — despite the weight of evidence against human nature — we are all still capable of small moments of resurrection, no matter where we happen to be.
This is the Easter narrative: that the stone can be rolled away from the cave.
Hundred of years of arterial bitterness, in Ireland and elsewhere, are never easy to ignore. They cannot be whisked away with a series of signatures. It takes time and struggle to maintain even the remotest sense of calm. Peace is indeed harder than war, and its constant fragility is part of its beauty. A bullet need happen only once, but for peace to work we need to be reminded of its existence again and again and again.
Tokyo Tower is doing its part to get the city into the spirit of the Games. Check it out after dark to see it lit up in the Olympic colours of green, yellow, blue and red, with the shut-off observatory lights representing black to complete the set. Catch it while you can – the lights will only be on until the announce date (September 7).
Despite the efforts of the Japanese government, the Cool Japan project – which aims to promote and celebrate Japanese culture outside Japan – continues to have a low profile. How do you think Japan should promote its culture to the world? Reports in the media are, of course, very important. And I want to do my part by continuing to make presentations. A UK consultant once told me my speeches were unlike those of most other politicians – through my presentations, people can get to know me as a governor, and know that I come from a creative standpoint. I think that that's important, and I consider myself to be an official of Tokyo rather than a politician. To govern a city like Tokyo, you need to have the inspiration of a writer and the capability to get on with practical businesses, as well as the ability to correctly compare the culture of Tokyo with those of other nations. I try hard in my presentations to get the audience to understand Tokyo and how they'd feel about the city if they visited. I guess I should keep talking to people face to face to share with them the beauty of Japan and Tokyo.
A lot of foreigners are visiting Tokyo nowadays. People can now use their cell phones in subways, and 24-hour bus services are to be introduced soon. As the infrastructure of the city is upgrading, how do you plan to upgrade the services? I think the two aspects you mentioned will combine. We've suggested 24-hour bus services between Shibuya and Roppongi, and the service is expected to start in December. What's important when considering public transport is that the trains are punctual. During the early Meiji Period, Japan imported steam trains from the UK and acquired its own technology to draw train diagrams. Accordingly, Japanese train diagrams were precise and extremely meticulous, and the basics of Japanese train operations were already firmly in place by 1930. Japan has enhanced its manufacturing technology and is now providing infrastructure on a global basis – the train cars travelling to the Olympic Village in London were manufactured by Hitachi – but technology used to draw train diagrams hasn't really improved since the last century. I believe Japan can make major improvements in this area. If a society sticks to a system that was created more than 80 years ago, it will always be limited. If we eased time constraints on public transport, people would be able to enjoy art, sports, and other after-work activities more freely. More than 20 years have passed since Japan's economic bubble burst, and the country's GDP has hovered around ¥500 trillion since then. Economic measures introduced by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, so-called 'Abenomics', have helped the Japanese economy to bottom out, but it doesn't matter how much money we print, Japan will not be able to fight deflation until people start spending it. We have to recognise that people should be to able to spend their time the way they want to, without worrying about transport. The introduction of 24-hour services would change the concept of work and time in Tokyo, leading to improved quality of life for its citizens. I hope that if Tokyo wins the bid for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games it will trigger these changes. By getting rid of unnecessary constraints and broadening options for spending, I think well be able to open up a new world.
The British Embassy highlights 5 top tips that people might find useful to stay your safest during the Big One:
Pack a ‘Grab Bag’ This bag of essential provisions should be kept somewhere convenient and in easy reach. Key items to pack include water, food, seasonal clothing, a first aid kit and copies of important documents like passports and ID cards.
Make a note of key phone numbers In the Tokyo metro area this includes the police (110), fire & ambulance services (119), British Embassy (03 5211 1100), or British Consulate-General in Osaka (06 6120 5600).
Familiarise yourself with your local evacuation area In addition to knowing how to get around your own neighbourhood, grab a map and be sure that you know your route home from work on foot. You can also check whether your local ward office is running any activities to help you familiarise yourself with local evacuation procedures.
Read through the online guidance The British Embassy website (ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/) is a veritable treasure trove of information, including what to do during and after an earthquake.
Register with the British Embassy Registration for British citizens can be done using their online system, LOCATE, allowing officials to contact you in the event of a crisis. Registration can be done by visiting: ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-japan/registering-with-us
内容もそうですが、Make a note of key phone numbersとかFamiliarise yourself with your local evacuation areaとかいう英語表現は、TOEIC対策をしている方にはおなじみですよね。