The Stapel case was an outlier, an extreme example of scientific fraud. But this and several other high-profile cases of misconduct resonated in the scientific community because of a much broader, more pernicious problem: Too often, experimental results can’t be reproduced.
That doesn’t mean the results are fraudulent or even wrong. But in science, a result is supposed to be verifiable by a subsequent experiment. An irreproducible result is inherently squishy.
And so there’s a movement afoot, and building momentum rapidly. Roughly four centuries after the invention of the scientific method, the leaders of the scientific community are recalibrating their requirements, pushing for the sharing of data and greater experimental transparency.
Top-tier journals, such as Science and Nature, have announced new guidelines for the research they publish.
ここでリンクが貼られたのが雑誌Scienceの社説でした。
Science 2 January 2015: EDITORIAL Data, eternal Marcia McNutt
During 2014, Science worked with members of the research community, other publishers, and representatives of funding agencies on many initiatives to increase transparency and promote reproducibility in the published research literature. Those efforts will continue in 2015. Connected to that progress, and an essential element to its success, an additional focus will be on making data more open, easier to access, more discoverable, and more thoroughly documented. My own commitment to these goals is deeply held, for I learned early in my career that interpretations come and go, but data are forever.
ワシントンポストの記事ではデータ共有については製薬会社の試みを紹介しています。
The pharmaceutical companies are part of this movement. Big Pharma has massive amounts of money at stake and wants to see more rigorous pre-clinical results from outside laboratories. The academic laboratories act as lead-generators for companies that make drugs and put them into clinical trials. Too often these leads turn out to be dead ends.
Some pharmaceutical companies are now even willing to share data with each other, a major change in policy in a competitive business.
But Ivan Oransky, founder of the blog Retraction Watch, says data-sharing isn’t enough. The incentive structure in science remains a problem, because there is too much emphasis on getting published in top journals, he said. Science is competitive, funding is hard to get and tenure harder, and so even an honest researcher may wind up stretching the data to fit a publishable conclusion.
“Everything in science is based on publishing a peer-reviewed paper in a high-ranking journal. Absolutely everything,” Oransky said. “You want to get a grant, you want to get promoted, you want to get tenure. That’s how you do it. That’s the currency of the realm.”
そこで紹介されているのは再現性を担保してくれる組織Center for Open Science。Youtubeにも動画がありました。
A core scientific principle Reproducibility is a core scientific principle. A result that can’t be reproduced is not necessarily erroneous: Perhaps there were simply variables in the experiment that no one detected or accounted for. Still, science sets high standards for itself, and if experimental results can’t be reproduced, it’s hard to know what to make of them.
“The whole point of science, the way we know something, is not that I trust Isaac Newton because I think he was a great guy. The whole point is that I can do it myself,” said Brian Nosek, the founder of a start-up in Charlottesville, Va., called the Center for Open Science. “Show me the data, show me the process, show me the method, and then if I want to, I can reproduce it.”
STAP騒動は以下の２パラグラフで触れらていています。
In early 2014, the scientific world was rocked by a tragic case in Japan. A young scientist, Haruko Obokata, claimed to have found evidence for a phenomenon called “STAP,” stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency — a way to manipulate ordinary cells to turn them into stem cells capable of growing into a variety of tissues.
But no one else could reproduce the experiment. An investigation found Obokata guilty of misconduct, and she later resigned from her institute. The journal Nature retracted the STAP papers, and then the case took a horrific turn in August, when Obokata’s mentor, the highly respected scientist Yoshiki Sasai, hanged himself.
Perry didn’t stop there, later declaring, “I think I can assure everyone in here that nothing in my performance will be deflated.”
This was yet another jab at the stars of the Sunday, Feb. 1 game. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is in the middle of his “Deflategate” scandal. Brady has been accused of deflating footballs to his advantage prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts, which secured the Patriots a spot in the Super Bowl.
もうひとつは、I'm here so I won't get finedのくだり。これも元ネタを知らないと面白くもなく不快な応答と感じてしまうでしょうね。NFLジャパンの記事は以下のように説明してくれています。
Katy Perry and her fireworks inflicted some burns on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the Super Bowl press conference. Clad in a long-sleeve royal blue crop top and skirt ensemble with an orange football print, the halftime performer, 30, kicked off the conference, answering the first question, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
Perry was poking fun at the Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who gave the same answer — “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” — at Tuesday’s NFL Media Day for 30 different reporters’ questions.
Lynch’s media boycott has been widely covered in the sports world. He later declared in a different press conference that he only cares what his family thinks about him, saying, “All week I done told y’all what’s up. I don’t know what story y’all trying to get out of me.”
It was such an extraordinary story. It was the first time I’ve ever read a story about the disease from the point of view of the patient, you know, the person who’s struggling with it. You know, generally when you tell the story, it’s about caregivers and their perspective. This story is completely subjective and very, very unusual.
Next Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where more than one million European Jews were murdered in gas chambers. British survivors of the Holocaust are expected to gather in central London for an event themed around the phrase ‘keep the memory alive’. The BBC is marking the anniversary, commemorated annually around the world as Holocaust memorial day, with a series of programmes including a screening of Shoah, Claude Lanzmann’s acclaimed 10-hour documentary from 1985. Other events are taking place around the world in countries such as Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.
For most members of Europe’s Jewish community, whose family and friends endured the horrors of the second world war, memories are never too distant. Since then, for the most part, Europe has been a safe place to live but events in Paris two weeks ago have significantly raised concerns for some Jewish communities.
Since the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices and the subsequent targeting of a kosher supermarket which left four Jewish shoppers dead, there have been heightened security measures for Jewish communities in Europe. Following the killings the French government has deployed several thousand troops and gendarmes to protect Jewish sites, in Belgium soldiers and police have been deployed too after a suspected terrorist plot was thwarted there, and in the UK the Home secretary Theresa May has ordered increased police patrols in Jewish areas.
イギリスでもHolocaust Memorial Day 2015としてイベントが開催されるようですが、資料なんかも揃っているようです。
Events are already taking place around the UK to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2015: Keep the memory alive. Our free resources will help you to hold an activity and engage your community in the powerful messages of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Keep the memory alive is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 27 January 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. 2015 will also be the 20th anniversary of the Genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia. It is particularly appropriate that the theme for this major anniversary year focuses on memory. To find out more about the theme, read the 2015 theme vision.
70 years after the Holocaust, new app brings its voices to modern devices 70 Voices will enable Android and iOS owners to hear from ‘victims, perpetrators and bystanders’ to commemorate anniversary The 70 Voices app will offer first-hand Holocaust memories. Stuart Dredge Monday 19 January 2015 12.12 GMT
Seventy years after the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, an Android and iOS application is aiming to provide new insights into the Holocaust for modern-day smartphone and tablet users. 70 Voices: Victims, Perpetrators and Bystanders is the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust, which has made it available as a free download through Google, Amazon and Apple’s app stores. The app will offer 70 different perspectives on the Holocaust from people who were alive at the time, at a time when the number of people able to give firsthand accounts continues to dwindle. The app will provide a different “voice” each day for the next 70 days, with a weekly podcast also exploring the material’s themes and implications. The app’s content will also be published on the 70 Voices website.
At 87, Claude Lanzmann is still capable of enforcing his film-making personality on European cinema: he is a landmark in the shadow of his great subject, the Holocaust. His film, Shoah, is now best seen not merely as an incomparable record, but as an intervention in history, an insistence on eyewitness testimony and compelling truth. This new film is a remarkable companion to his masterpiece Shoah: a fascinating encounter, recorded in Rome in the 1970s, while working on his great film but not used at the time, for reasons that Lanzmann leaves us to ponder.
It is an interview with Benjamin Murmelstein, an Austrian Jew and last surviving “chairman” of the Theresienstadt ghetto, near Prague, a supposedly comfortable Potemkin-style arrangement that was part of a sickening pantomime of ostensible good faith after the Anschluss. Murmelstein explains that their inhabitants, and the world, were distracted with the fatuous fantasy of being shipped over to Madagascar: a cynical euphemism for the death marches and extermination, in which Murmelstein was held to be complicit. The Nazis coerced leading Jews to be their administrative “elders” there, a queasy use of Judeophobe-propagandist terminology, and Murmelstein was the last surviving example (his predecessors were murdered by the Nazis).
Words checked = [2958] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [81%]
女性による戦争ものやイラク人による小説も紹介してくれています。確かに“You join the infantry to become a man”という表現はAmerican Sniperにもありました（笑）
More than a decade into these wars, books representing a growing array of perspectives are being published. There are still far more war books by men — and not only because they outnumber women in the military. As Kayla Williams, a former Arabic linguist and intelligence specialist in the Army and the author of two tough, funny and affecting memoirs (“Love My Rifle More Than You” and “Plenty of Time When We Get Home”) observes, people frequently say, “You join the infantry to become a man,” but no one says, “You go to war to become a woman.”
As for Iraqi-born writers, Hassan Blasim (“The Corpse Exhibition”) and Ahmed Saadawi (“Frankenstein in Baghdad”) — who have used Kafka-esque scenarios and magic realism to convey just how surreal and nightmarish day-to-day life for Iraqis has become — are gaining recognition in the West.
So far, fiction about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has tended to have a chamber music quality, using short stories, fable-like allegories or keyhole views (from individuals and platoons) to open small windows on those conflicts.
Why has there been no big, symphonic Iraq or Afghanistan novel? For one thing, “War and Peace"-like epics take time: Tolstoy published that novel some five decades after the French invasion of Russia, and Denis Johnson’s Vietnam novel, “Tree of Smoke,” appeared more than three decades after that war. With Vietnam — as well as with the AIDS crisis and the Holocaust — there has been a distinct trajectory, with reportage, personal testimony and more documentary works leading the way, followed by fiction that grows increasingly panoramic and experimental as the event recedes in time.
アメリカの議会で、No Child Left Behindに代わる教育方針の法律が話し合われるようです。標準テストを基に補助金の額が変わるという方針がどうなるのか、注目ですね。それに合わせてのインタビューがPBS Newshourにありました。
Is ‘The Test’ failing American schools? January 22, 2015 at 6:05 PM EST GWEN IFILL: As Congress begins to tackle a new federal education law that would succeed No Child Left Behind, one of the major dividing lines is already clear. What is the proper role and use of testing? It’s a question that has long touched a raw nerve among parents and educators. A new book explores that controversy and testing’s possible future. Hari Sreenivasan has our conversation from our New York studios. HARI SREENIVASAN: On the one hand, parents know their children’s talents can’t be quantified by multiple choice tests. At the same time, they often want their children to do well on high-stakes exams. A new book explores those issues and a growing backlash against testing in many circles. It’s called “The Test: Why Our Schools are Obsessed with Standardized Testing, But You Don’t Have to Be.”
HARI SREENIVASAN: There’s also this philosophical question on, is testing a good indicator of future outcomes, right? So colleges are basing their entrance of certain applicants on two things, usually, a grade-point average and an SAT or ACT test score, maybe some other extracurricular activities. But they’re saying based on that, I kind of have an idea of whether you will do well here and then on in the working world. ANYA KAMENETZ: Right. Well, one of the most interesting kind of emerging factors in the realm of assessment is the idea that half or more of what we need for success is not determined by academic measures at all. It’s these noncognitive measures, right, grit, perseverance, right? And these things actually can be — they can be assessed through surveys, low-stakes surveys. And the types of surveys that these organizations are doing, in fact, are quite predictive of people’s success later on in life, even more so than GPA alone.
Don’t Teach to the Test Journalist Ron Berler explains how standardized testing is preventing students from learning. By Brooke Berger April 11, 2013 | 10:30 a.m. EDT What is the effect of excessive testing on elementary-school curriculums? From September until Christmas vacation, [Brookside] was like any school you would imagine. Then, once they got back from Christmas break, for the next nine weeks until testing began, it was a different animal. What they did was drop their curriculum, drop their texts, and instead study exclusively from a standardized-test prep book. Kids weren't getting a liberal arts education, but prepping to a very narrowly drawn standardized test in primarily language arts and math. Because they were interested in passing the test more than anything else, for that 22 percent of the school year, they taught primarily to the broad middle section of kids that were going to pass. Plus, the school went and reached out to those kids who they thought were on the cusp of possibly passing. So who gets left out? The kids at the bottom and the kids at the top.
もちろんこれらは忘れてはならないとても重要な話ですが、今回の件でYutaが個人的に興味深く感じたのは、e-learningが発達することで定期テストが不要になるとピアソンやETSも考えているというI talked to chief research scientist at Pearson and ETS who said you know, we believe that this invisible integrated assessment is really the future because stopping and testing is this clunky kind of a way of going about it.ところです。現在のテストをstopping and testingと表現しているところが面白いですね。
The Past, Present And Future Of High-Stakes Testing JANUARY 22, 2015 3:39 AM ET INSKEEP: So now, Anya, you're talking about something that will remind people of what Google does with your search data or Facebook might do with information that it gathers on you. It's just quietly gathering information about you and acting accordingly, and you never even know the information is being gathered about you. KAMENETZ: Well, exactly. So on an individual basis every single day, more and more students in schools are using software to learn. And while the software is, you know, giving them the math problems or the English problems to answer, it's getting incredibly fine-grained information about the students' performances, how they think, how they approach difficult problems. Do they try really hard? Do they give up easily? And many people who, you know, run testing companies and software companies believe that that kind of information could replace the activity of stopping and testing. INSKEEP: Wait, even the people who are making money creating the tests think there might be a better way to measure school performance than their own tests? KAMENETZ: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I talked to chief research scientist at Pearson and ETS who said you know, we believe that this invisible integrated assessment is really the future because stopping and testing is this clunky kind of a way of going about it. Businesses in the 1970s used to have to shut down at the end of the year and do inventory for three weeks. And that's kind of how we do it in schools today. We spend eight days taking tests. And so how could schools possibly use data in that same sort of agile, just-in-time way?
最近、iPhoneに標準装備されていたヘルスケアのアプリを見てビックリしたのですが、歩数や上った階数などがデータとしてすでに集計されているのですね。（今頃の話ですみません。。。）同じように教育ソフトウェアで学習するのが普通になると、日頃の集計データで成績は測定できるようになるので、現在のTOEICのようなstopping and testingは不要になるというのです。このヘルスケアアプリを考えると、遠い将来の話ではないと感じてしまいました。
映画『アメリカンスナイパー』の興行成績が好調のようで、いろいろな意味で話題になっているようです。そのあたりを今週のTIMEは取り上げていました。洋書の方は読みやすいので、映画公開まで我慢できない方は是非。自分は海兵隊とNavy Sealの違いもよくわからなかったのですが（汗）、奥さんのコメントがいたるところに登場しているので、映画では奥さんの協力が不可欠だった理由がわかりました。 また、本を読んでいれば、共和党支持者の多い地域で受けるだろうとRed meat for the red statesとした部分が理解しやすくなると思います。映画boyhoodでも、お父さんが熱心なキリスト教徒で、銃を子供にプレゼントするような親を持つ女性と再婚するシーンが出てきますね。
Drawing huge audiences from both coastal cities and the heartland, Sniper can be seen as red meat for the red states. This stirred prominent movie-doc leftie Michael Moore to tweet his disapproval of Kyle’s job. “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2,” Moore wrote. “We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse. … But if you’re on the roof of your home defending it from invaders who’ve come 7K miles, you are not a sniper, u are brave, u are a neighbor.” Translation: Hail to the Iraqi insurgent snipers, boo to American Sniper.
Moore then disingenuously claimed he hadn’t been referring to the movie. But he had fired the first shot in a Twitter war that brought Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin to the film’s defense. If Sniper took a step toward the Oscars with its mammoth opening, it took two steps back in its adoption by Fox News.
'American Sniper' Exposes Unresolved Issues About The Iraq War JANUARY 23, 2015 4:13 PM ET Another reason for the backlash against American Sniper is the fantastical stories Kyle told about himself after he left the Navy. He said he killed two men who tried to carjack him in Texas. He said he went to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and shot people from the roof of the Superdome. On the radio Opie & Anthony Show, he claimed to have punched former Minnesota governor (and Navy veteran) Jesse Ventura at a bar after Ventura supposedly made disparaging remarks about soldiers.
It never happened, and Ventura won a defamation suit against Kyle. The other stories have also never been proved. Actor and producer Bradley Cooper has said that American Sniper is a "character study," but there's no mention of this part of Kyle's character in the movie.
ザ・オーディエンスは好評のようで「サラの鍵」のKristin Scott Thomasのバージョンが５月に上演されるようです。一方で、ヘレンミレンは来月からブロードウェイ上演を予定しています。
Kristin Scott Thomas to star as the Queen in return of The Audience New version of Peter Morgan’s play to open in London as Helen Mirren, lauded for portrayal of Elizabeth II, stars in Broadway run Frances Perraudin Friday 31 October 2014 13.22 GMT Kristin Scott Thomas will play the role of the Queen in a new version of Peter Morgan’s West End hit The Audience next year.
The role was originally played by Helen Mirren at the Gielgud Theatre in 2013 and won her an Olivier award for best actress. Scott Thomas’s version will open at the Apollo theatre on 5 May 2015, while Mirren stars in the role on Broadway.
Kristin Scott Thomas is receiving enthusiastic reviews for her performance in the Sophocles tragedy Electra at the Old Vic. Her career across stage and screen has spanned three decades, with memorable roles in Richard Curtis’s Four Weddings and a Funeral and Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient.
ブロードウェイ上演ではMorgan is apparently contemplating adding Tony Blair, who didn’t feature in London, to the New York line-up.とTony Blairを付け足される可能性があるようです。
Her Majesty is coming to Broadway! As previously speculated, Oscar winner Helen Mirren, who reprised the role of Queen Elizabeth II in the acclaimed 2013 West End production of The Audience, will star in a New York mounting of Peter Morgan's new play. The Daily Mail reports that Mirren has confirmed that she will begin rehearsals in mid-January next year, with the show starting previews in February. The drama will officially open at a Shubert theater to be confirmed in March.
The Audience follows the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to the Diamond Jubilee in 2012. For 50 years the Queen has sat with all of England’s Prime Ministers for private, weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace. The Audience breaks the silence on these highly secretive meetings. Morgan is apparently contemplating adding Tony Blair, who didn’t feature in London, to the New York line-up.
彼のインタビューがありました。先の記事でFor 50 years the Queen has sat with all of England’s Prime Ministers for private, weekly meetings at Buckingham Palace.とあるようにprivateのため公式記録は残っておらず、このやり取りは彼が取材を元に想像で描いたもののようです。
JEREMY GERARD: Let’s talk about The Audience, in which real people — Helen Mirren’s Queen Elizabeth and the various Prime Ministers — had real conversations which you know absolutely nothing about.
PETER MORGAN: These meetings that the Queen has with her Prime Minister every week, everybody knows they happen and nobody knows what’s said. I thought, Great, and then you’ve got to piece it together — well, I know that this Prime Minister at this point in his term was feeling this and if I were to set The Audience at that point, it’s reasonable to assume he would be euphoric or defeated or crushed or paranoid. And then, Well, I know what she was doing in her life then and, Oh, that’s an interesting intersect. Stephen Daldry sort of weaved it together.
JEREMY GERARD: How does it feel to pry open the conscience of the Queen? PETER MORGAN: Oh, God I have no idea! I don’t know if she’s anything like the version of her that I write. She’s so unknowable. I’m only guessing.
テレビドラマとしてThe Crownを準備しているとも語っています。
JEREMY GERARD: Will you adapt The Audience for film? PETER MORGAN: No. But I’m creating a big television show, The Crown, which was inspired by it, for Netflix. We start shooting this year and I’ve written the first 10 episodes. It’s the story of the two houses, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, and the intersection between the two through this weekly meeting. But in essence, it’s about that family of hers, starting in 1947 on the eve of her wedding. At the heart of it I suppose it’s a story of marriage. and how difficult it must be to be a young woman and how much of you is the Queen and how much of you is Elizabeth Windsor and to what degree do the two things blend and blur into one another? JEREMY GERARD: There’s that fog you like so much. “A truth like fiction…” PETER MORGAN: And that is so pertinent to the area that I find myself working in. I’m constantly having to check my conscience about what I’m writing and the responsibility of what I’m saying.
What a great if faintly guilty pleasure this play proves. In times past, the dramatist Peter Morgan would have been locked up in the tower for such impudent lese-majesty, and might have counted himself lucky to have kept his head on his shoulders.
But as he showed in his screenplay for The Queen about the crisis that engulfed the Royal Family following the death of Princess Diana, Morgan admires his monarch. And in this marvellous piece, with Helen Mirren once again giving a magnificent performance as the Queen, he penetrates at least some her mystery, with compassion, grace, affection and humour.
この作品でのaudienceの意味は、国王との正式会見・謁見です。動画の予告編ではEvery Tuesday at approximately 6:30 pm the queen of the United Kingdom has a Private audience with her prime minister.と説明してくれていますね。
（ロングマン） audience [countable] a formal meeting with a very important person audience with He was granted an audience with the Pope.
（COBUILD） audience 5. countable noun [usu sing] If you have an audience with someone important, you have a formal meeting with them. ⇒ [+ with] The Prime Minister will seek an audience with the Queen later this morning.
Audienceと聞けば観客を連想するのが普通でしょうから、そのあたりは以下の記事ではキャッチとしてIt is called The Audience - and the West End play has broken an audience record.と始めていました。とても好評だったようです。
It is called The Audience - and the West End play has broken an audience record.
A live broadcast of Helen Mirren starring as the Queen in The Audience has attracted the largest audience so far for National Theatre Live (NT Live), which broadcasts stage shows from England to cinema screens worldwide.
Peter Morgan's play, performed at London's Gielgud Theatre, was seen by nearly 80,000 people in the UK and 30,000 people in North America on June 13 - a record for the four-year-old programme.
Dame Helen, whose views have softened after being a republican in her youth, said she was now a “constitutional monarchist” though she added: “I don’t know that the scale of the monarchy in Britain will survive, the monumental scale of it.”
"If my good friend Dr. Gasbarri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch," Francis said half-jokingly, throwing a mock punch his way. "It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others."
社説の始まりは、自国では弾圧的な立場の指導者がパリのデモに檀家していることをit was a pageant more of hypocrisy than of principle.と指摘するところから始めています。本当に、この指導者たちにテロ弾圧の口実を与えてしまった感じです。
Freedom of speech First—and last—do no harm Speech should be freer than it is in many Western countries Jan 24th 2015 | From the print edition THE march in Paris after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo was supposed to display international solidarity over the right of free expression. In retrospect, it was a pageant more of hypocrisy than of principle. The Russian foreign minister’s attendance did not stop two of his countrymen being prosecuted in Moscow for holding Je Suis Charlie placards. His Saudi Arabian counterpart apparently saw no contradiction between the parade and the public flogging of a blogger in Jeddah two days before. Turkey is a champion locker-up of journalists, but its shameless prime minister turned up all the same. Meanwhile, somewhat misconstruing the point, in the name of modesty an Israeli ultra-Orthodox publication photoshopped the female leaders from its coverage.
Terrorism was the main issue in the Paris attacks, which targeted a kosher shop as well as a magazine. But the subsidiary row they ignited—about the parameters of free speech—has been stoked rather than soothed by their aftermath, and continues to roil the world (see article). The Economist believes the right to free speech should be almost absolute.
また、世界の表現の自由についての現状をまとめた記事も勉強になります。
Freedom of speech The sound of silence Reactions to the Paris attacks highlight threats to free expression around the world Jan 24th 2015 | AMSTERDAM, ISLAMABAD, LAGOS, NAIROBI AND PARIS | From the print edition
Publish and Perish in Afghanistan The Taliban is targeting journalists as part of an ongoing insurgency against the government. But militants are not the only threat to media freedom in Afghanistan. BY PHELIM KINE Phelim Kine is deputy director in the Asia division at New York-base Human Rights Watch. JANUARY 23, 2015
KABUL — There are no walk-ins at the Kabul office of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee. Visitors to the media advocacy group are screened through a slit in a heavy iron door, submit their belongings to careful inspection, and undergo a pat-down body-search for concealed weapons or suicide vests under the steely gaze of an assault rifle-wielding guard. The new security measures are a response to a warning issued by the Taliban in December that it would specifically target journalists and nongovernmental organizations as part of its ongoing insurgency against the Afghan government.
That’s no empty threat. Insurgent attacks, including suicide bombings, killed a total of eight journalists, including two foreign correspondents, in 2014, an increase from three such killings in 2013. And the body count continues to rise. On January 16, radio journalist Mohammad Aqil Wiqar became the first journalist to be killed in 2015 when two unidentified men with AK-47 assault rifles shot him at close range at a wedding celebration in eastern Nangarhar province. Police have not arrested any suspects and there have been no claims of responsibility for Wiqar’s killing.
But Afghan journalists have more to fear than attacks by Taliban insurgents. A Human Rights Watch report this week documents how reporters and media outlets are also increasingly subject to harassment, threats, and violence from government officials, Afghan security forces, and pro-government warlords. Their targets are journalists whose reporting exposes official links to issues including land grabbing, corruption, and human rights abuses.
Confronted by a corrosive combination of intimidation, violence, and government complicity with such abuses, Afghan journalists are resorting to self-censorship to protect themselves. Well aware of their government’s willingness to turn a blind eye to abuses against them, or worse, to side with the perpetrators, journalists now must weigh the personal risks of covering issues that might incur violent reprisals. A Kabul-based senior newspaper editor told Human Rights Watch that reporting on certain politically connected mujahidin warlords — veterans of the conflicts against both the Soviet occupation and the Taliban — were effectively off limits for his reporters. “We censor ourselves for the security of our staff. These people don’t file a complaint — they might kill us.”
このForeign Policyの記事は人権団体のHuman Rights Watchが発表した報告書の紹介記事で、この報告書自体はHuman Rights Watchのサイトで全文が読めます。プレスリリースの最初が以下です。
(Kabul) – Violence and threats against Afghanistan’s journalists by the government and security forces are increasing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These attacks put at risk the gains in media freedom in Afghanistan since 2001.
The 48-page report, “‘Stop Reporting or We’ll Kill Your Family’: Threats to Media Freedom in Afghanistan,” documents harassment, intimidation, and attacks on journalists and the Afghan government’s failure to investigate and prosecute those responsible. The failure to protect journalistic freedom has emboldened those determined to suppress criticism of the government, the security forces, and other powerful entities in Afghan society. The Taliban insurgency has greatly contributed to the climate of fear by explicitly targeting journalists for reporting deemed unfavorable. The government should act decisively to end the violence and intimidation, and the Taliban should end its attacks on civilian organizations, including the media.
こういう状況を考えると、まず表現の自由、報道の自由を絶対の権利として認めないといけないと思います。
長くなってしまいますが、Publish and Perish in Afghanistanという記事タイトルは、学界で言われることのあるPublish or perishからきているのでしょう。アフガニスタンの状況は、記事を発表しても、命を危険にさらすことを指してることを”and”で示しているようです。
(Wikipedia) Publish or perish "Publish or perish" is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia in the United States to rapidly and continually publish academic work to sustain or further one's career.[1][2][3]
Frequent publication is one of the few methods at scholars' disposal to demonstrate academic talent. Successful publications bring attention to scholars and their sponsoring institutions, which can facilitate continued funding and an individual's progress through a chosen field. In popular academic perception, scholars who publish infrequently, or who focus on activities that do not result in publications, such as instructing undergraduates, may lose ground in competition for available tenure-track positions.[citation needed] The pressure to publish has been cited as a cause of poor work being submitted to academic journals.[4]
Publish or perishはあまりいい文脈で使われないようで、以下の記事なんかも粗製濫造になっている状況を批判的に紹介しています。
Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science Pressure on scientists to publish has led to a situation where any paper, however bad, can now be printed in a journal that claims to be peer-reviewed David Colquhoun Monday 5 September 2011 13.59 BST
Peer review is the process that decides whether your work gets published in an academic journal. It doesn't work very well any more, mainly as a result of the enormous number of papers that are being published (an estimated 1.3 million papers in 23,750 journals in 2006). There simply aren't enough competent people to do the job. The overwhelming effect of the huge (and unpaid) effort that is put into reviewing papers is to maintain a status hierarchy of journals. Any paper, however bad, can now get published in a journal that claims to be peer-reviewed.
The blame for this sad situation lies with the people who have imposed a publish-or-perish culture, namely research funders and senior people in universities. To have "written" 800 papers is regarded as something to boast about rather than being rather shameful. University PR departments encourage exaggerated claims, and hard-pressed authors go along with them.
Zero to Oneを図書館から借りて読み始めてみました。ゼロから生み出すことの難しさを語ることは素晴らしいと思うのですが、Googleが突然ゼロからすごいことを始めたというのはちょっと違和感を感じてしまします。当時検索サイトはすでにいくつかありましたらねえ。単なる都合の悪いことを捨象した自画自賛本になっていないか気をつけて読みたいと思います。
このブログでdisruptorについて取り上げましたが、この著者はDisruptionをdisruption has recently transmogrified into a self‐congratulatory buzzword for anything posing as trendy and new.と批判的に捉えています。確かに自分がStart-up企業だったら気をつけて行動した方がよさそうですね。
Don’t disrupt Silicon Valley has become obsessed with “disruption.” Originally, “disruption” was a term of art to describe how a firm can use new technology to introduce a low‐end product at low prices, improve the product over time, and eventually overtake even the premium products offered by incumbent companies using older technology. This is roughly what happened when the advent of PCs disrupted the market for mainframe computers: at first PCs seemed irrelevant, then they became dominant. Today mobile devices may be doing the same thing to PCs.
However, disruption has recently transmogrified into a self‐congratulatory buzzword for anything posing as trendy and new. This seemingly trivial fad matters because it dis‐ torts an entrepreneur’s self‐understanding in an inherently competitive way. The concept was coined to describe threats to incumbent companies, so startups’ obsession with disruption means they see themselves through older firms’ eyes. If you think of yourself as an insurgent battling dark forces, it’s easy to become unduly fixated on the obstacles in your path. But if you truly want to make something new, the act of creation is far more important than the old industries that might not like what you create. Indeed, if your company can be summed up by its opposition to already existing firms, it can’t be completely new and it’s probably not going to be‐ come a monopoly.
適度に教養的なことを混ぜているのも人気が出ている要因の一つでしょうか。例えば、3章のタイトル All Happy Companies Are Differentなんかはすぐにトルストイを意識しているとわかりますね。
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
それに以下のハムレットなんかも引用していました。日本語は河合先生の本からです。
Act 4 Scene 4 Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honor’s at the stake.
For Hamlet, greatness means willingness to fight for reasons as thin as an eggshell: anyone would fight for things that matter; true heroes take their personal honor so seriously they will fight for things that don’t matter. This twisted logic is part of human nature, but it’s disastrous in business. If you can recognize competition as a destructive force instead of a sign of value, you’re already more sane than most.
February 6–May 3, 2015 Through radically restricted means, On Kawara’s work engages the personal and historical consciousness of place and time. Kawara’s practice is often associated with the rise of Conceptual art, yet in its complex wit and philosophical reach, it stands well apart.
Organized with the cooperation of the artist, On Kawara—Silence will be the first full representation of Kawara’s output, beginning in 1964 and including every category of work, much of it produced during his travels across the globe: date paintings (the Today series); postcards (the I Got Up series); telegrams (the I Am Still Alive series); maps (the I Went series); lists of names (the I Met series); newspaper cuttings (the I Read series); the inventory of paintings (Journals); and calendars (One Hundred Years and One Million Years). The exhibition will also present numerous drawings produced in Paris in 1964, which are fascinating proposals for unrealized works; and Kawara’s only two extant paintings of 1965, Location and Title, which herald the Today series. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Guggenheim will organize a continuous live reading of the artist’s One Million Years, the steady recitation of numbers from a vast ledger, which will be performed on the ground floor of the Guggenheim rotunda.
Oprah Winfrey and fellow actors from the movie "Selma" marched with hundreds Sunday ahead of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, recalling one of the bloodiest chapters of the civil rights struggle.
When Maajid Nawaz was growing up in Essex, England, in the 1990s, the son of Pakistani parents, he first found his voice of rebellion through American hip-hop. "It gave me a feeling that my identity could matter — and did matter — growing up as a British Pakistani who was facing racism from whiter society," Nawaz tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "but also confusion about where my family was from and not really fitting into either culture."
At age 16, Nawaz was transformed from a disaffected British teenager to an Islamist recruiter when he joined the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Nawaz continued his college studies and spent a year abroad in Egypt, where he continued his recruiting. As a result, he was imprisoned for four years, starting in 2002.
It was while in prison, surrounded by several prominent jihadist leaders, that Nawaz realized he wanted to take a different path. He was reading George Orwell's Animal Farm and came to a new understanding of "what happens when somebody tries to create a utopia."
On aging in the film and as an actress in Hollywood Arquette: As an actress, for me, I think there's such a pressure in the world for women to look a certain way, especially if you have success at a certain moment in your life in the ingenue age group — that you're supposed to hold onto that. And I really wanted to move away from that status as quickly as possible.
It's true for human beings that a lot of the story of life is the mating story, is the falling in love story, is the having children story; so it does make sense that a large percentage of the stories are told in that age group, I think. But Hollywood tells the actresses what they need to look like to continue working, and I don't believe that of human beings. I don't believe that's true of many stories, and I do think as an actress it gives you a very short shelf life if you buy into that. ...
If you look at paintings throughout history of female beauty, the one that we're creating right now is a really weird one.
FOREIGN POLICY LAUNCHES A BOLD REDESIGN WITH JANUARY/FEBRUARY ISSUE
January 16, 2014 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — A stark, wordless, black and white cover heralds the bold redesign of Foreign Policy magazine, the publication’s first cover-to-cover makeover since it became a glossy in 2000. The new look is the result of months of intense collaboration among editors and designers. The January/February 2015 issue’s cover image, a wilting, bleeding earth, stunningly foretells the timely theme of the long-form stories inside: climate change.
The FP Group’s CEO and Editor David Rothkopf noted in a letter to readers, “We’re confident that you will find the new FP to be both fresher and more engaging than it has ever been; and we are certain that, as you explore the magazine, you will be struck by the intelligent, fresh, and rule-breaking graphic design.” Rothkopf said the magazine’s key mandate remains “To provide perspectives on important global trends that are available nowhere else and ensure that each issue covers technology, economics, national security, energy, and overlooked cultural issues.”
FOREIGN POLICY ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW ADDITIONS TO THE EDITORIAL AND DESIGN STAFF TEAM January 12, 2015 — Washington, DC — David Rothkopf, CEO and Editor of The FP Group, announced today that the editorial and design team for Foreign Policy will be growing once again. Joining the ranks are Josef Reyes as FP’s newest Creative Director; Sean D. Naylor as a Senior Reporter; Amanda Silverman as the Story Editor, Print; and Ilya Lozovsky as Assistant Editor for Democracy Lab.
Rothkopf said, “These latest hires, in addition to our recent announcement of Lara Jakes joining us from the AP as Deputy Managing Editor, News, are just the latest signs of both our growth and our commitment to bringing the very best talent to Foreign Policy. These are not separate ideas. Hiring great people is just the one best way we know to ensure we provide our readers with the kind of great coverage they have come to expect from us.”
Josef Reyes has been named FP’s new Creative Director, succeeding Lindsay Ballant, who is leaving to pursue personal creative projects. Reyes is currently Art Director at Wired, based in San Francisco. Previously he was the Deputy Art Director at New York magazine. He became involved in magazines at the New York Times, where he worked on the launch of Key, the newspaper’s real estate magazine. Josef has won awards from the Society of Publication Designers, D&AD and I.D. Magazine. In 2009 he was included in Print Magazine's annual New Visual Artists issue as one of the 20 best designers under 30 years old. He has a BFA in Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
まずプレスリリースのタイトルFOREIGN POLICY ANNOUNCES FOUR NEW ADDITIONS TO THE EDITORIAL AND DESIGN STAFF TEAMを見ます。FOUR NEW ADDITIONSと４名のスタッフが新たに加入したことを伝えています。
I believe Frank would be an excellent addition to your library staff.
もちろん、人ではなくモノに対しても使われます。Our Friends in the Skyという本を図書館に勧めているところでは以下のようになっていました。
Our Friends in the Sky will be a valuable addition to your library.
第２パラグラフでは、four new additionsがthese latest hiresと表現されていました。recruitが「新入社員」を指すことを迷った受験者がいたようですが、additionやhireなどが人を指すことがあることは慣れておきたいですね。
These latest hires, in addition to our recent announcement of Lara Jakes joining us from the AP as Deputy Managing Editor, News, are just the latest signs of both our growth and our commitment to bringing the very best talent to Foreign Policy.
additionが人を指すのはaddition of a new staff memberというような表現が念頭にあるからでしょう。これをもっとポジティブにan excellent additionとかa valuable additionの意味になる表現がassetでしょうか。こちらもモノではなく人を指すことがあります。
（ロングマン） asset [usually singular] something or someone that is useful because they help you succeed or deal with problems [≠ liability]: A sense of humor is a great asset in this business. be an asset to somebody/something I think Rachel would be an asset to the department.
第３パラグラフ以降でfour new additionsの経歴を一人一人説明しています。どれもTOEIC的に慣れておきたい表現ばかりです。
Josef Reyes has been named FP’s new Creative Director, succeeding Lindsay Ballant, who is leaving to pursue personal creative projects. Reyes is currently Art Director at Wired, based in San Francisco. Previously he was the Deputy Art Director at New York magazine.
At times, it seems as if the choice Rebecca faces is straightforward enough: She can be a good photographer or a good mother, but not both. As the film presents it, that agonizing if simplistic dilemma is made all the more terrible when Rebecca suddenly realizes — with stomach-churning clarity — that Steph, a budding photographer, is heading down a path that may one day cause her to pick up a camera herself and point it in harm’s way.
紛争写真家に関してHeroic messenger or adrenaline addict? Truth teller or vulture?という問いに対して、この映画は随分と突き放した終わり方をしていました。
Heroic messenger or adrenaline addict? Truth teller or vulture? In “1,000 Times Good Night,” Rebecca (Juliette Binoche), a celebrated, morally self-righteous war photographer hooked on risk-taking, leads two lives that are in continual conflict.
Between grueling assignments in which she faces death by venturing into the heart of the fray, camera in hand, Rebecca returns to a picture-perfect existence at her home on the Irish seacoast. She is married to Marcus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, from “Game of Thrones”), a dashing marine biologist who frets every time she departs for a war front. They have two daughters; the elder, Stephanie (Lauryn Canny), is a teenager and a precociously talented artist.
These glossily photographed domestic interludes resemble a high-end magazine spread in which the camera slavers over images of virtuous, beautiful people savoring the good life. You have the impression that, to a degree, Rebecca’s hazardous work is a form of atonement for good fortune that she feels she doesn’t deserve.
Day-to-day life is banal, and her experiences haunt her. Sadly, this gorgeous-looking adult movie plays out the same theme over and over, never going anywhere surprising. At least we have Binoche to guide us to hell and back.
日曜日のゴールデングローブ賞のスピーチでは占めのところのJe Suis Charlieが注目を集めました。
JE SUIS CHARLIE01.11.15 George Clooney’s Powerful Golden Globes Speech on His Love For Amal and Je Suis Charlie 2015 edition of the Golden Globes featured plenty of laughs, but also a beautiful lifetime achievement award speech by the one and only George Clooney.
“And one last thing: To reiterate what we’ve all been talking about, today was an extraordinary day,” said Clooney. “There were millions of people who marched not just in Paris, but around the world. And they were Christians and Jews and Muslims. They were leaders of countries all over the world. And they didn’t march in protest; they marched in support of the idea that we will not walk in fear. We won’t do it. So, Je Suis Charlie. Thank you.”
“For the record: If you are in this room, you’ve caught the brass ring,” said Clooney. “You get to do what you’ve always dreamed to do and be celebrated for it, and that just... it ain’t losing. I don’t remember what awards Lauren Bacall won. I just remember her saying, ‘You know how to whistle, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow.’ And I have no idea what kind of hardware Robin Williams took home. But I sure remember “carpe diem” and, ‘Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.’ I never forget that.”
まあちょっと強引でありますが、Carpe Diemに反応してしまったのは今週のEconomistの表紙と社説がまさにSeize the dayだっからです。エネルギーの現状と最新動向をSpecial report: Energy and technologyで取り上げているからのようですが、補助金行政からの脱却を社説で求めてます。ここでは現在の原油安というチャンスを生かすことをSeize the dayというフレーズに込めているようです。
The most straightforward piece of reform, pretty much everywhere, is simply to remove all the subsidies for producing or consuming fossil fuels. Last year governments around the world threw $550 billion down that rathole—on everything from holding down the price of petrol in poor countries to encouraging companies to search for oil. By one count, such handouts led to extra consumption that was responsible for 36% of global carbon emissions in 1980-2010.
Falling prices provide an opportunity to rethink this nonsense. Cash-strapped developing countries such as India and Indonesia have bravely begun to cut fuel subsidies, freeing up money to spend on hospitals and schools (see article). But the big oil exporters in the poor world, which tend to be the most egregious subsidisers of domestic fuel prices, have not followed their lead. Venezuela is close to default, yet petrol still costs a few cents a litre in Caracas. And rich countries still underwrite the production of oil and gas. Why should American taxpayers pay for Exxon to find hydrocarbons? All these subsidies should be binned.
下記の記事は世界のエネルギー事情をざっくり理解できます。
Energy and technology Let there be light Thanks to better technology and improved efficiency, energy is becoming cleaner and more plentiful—whatever the price of oil, says Edward Lucas Jan 17th 2015 | From the print edition
Many in Hollywood and on social media were struck by the lack of racial or ethnic diversity among the Oscar nominees. Though there were, in fact, very few contenders that featured diverse casts, “Selma” star David Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King, Jr., and the movie’s director, Ava DuVernay, were both snubbed despite the film’s best-picture nomination. That means that the Academy Awards are without a person of color or a Hispanic nominated in the acting categories for the first time since 1999.
The Oscars are often a focal point for complaints about diversity in the movie industry, which studies have found remains less racially diverse on-screen and behind-the-scenes than the nation as a whole. Exacerbating that is the fact that 94% of the Academy’s 6,000-plus voting members were white as of 2012, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.
Since then, the Academy appears to have made efforts to diversify its membership, inviting Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson and Kerry Washington, among others, to join. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an African-American marketing executive, has been president of the Academy since 2013.
How the Oscars’ lack of diversity reflects who runs Hollywood January 15, 2015 at 6:25 PM EST For the first time in 20 years, all of the Academy Award nominees for leading and supporting acting roles are white. Gwen Ifill asks Mike Sargent of Pacifica Radio and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post about the surprises and snubs of the 2015 Oscar nominations, and what it says about power and diversity in Hollywood.
GWEN IFILL: Mike Sargent, a lot of the debate about “Selma” in particular was about its accuracy, about its historical fidelity. Do you think that hurt it? MIKE SARGENT: Well, I think it definitely hurt it. And I also feel it is kind of a load of malarkey. I mean, let’s face it. Historical films and a number of the films nominated are historical films based on real people. Historical films in general always have a certain amount of elements that are not specifically historically accurate. And I won’t — whether disagreeing or not agreeing, that campaign effectively allows the PGA to not get behind her — that’s the Producers Guild — the Directors Guild to not get behind her, and then, ultimately, the Academy can’t back a film that is — quote, unquote — “has a controversy” over its inaccuracy. Meanwhile, a film like “Argo” won for best screenplay and best picture. Not only was it historically inaccurate, but the main character is a Latino played by Ben Affleck.
The film Selma—in wide release Jan. 9—tells one of the most dramatic stories in modern American history, of Martin Luther King Jr.’s successful crusade for voting rights in Alabama in 1965. It triggered a smaller drama of its own when former Lyndon Johnson aide Joseph Califano attacked its portrayal of his old boss in the Washington Post. The film is a well-produced and well-acted drama that will draw a lot of Oscar attention. In many respects—but not all—it was well-researched. Some have argued that the inaccuracies are not important to the purpose of the film, or that accuracy is beside the point when it comes to movies that aren’t documentaries. But Califano was right: its portrayal of Lyndon Johnson and his role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act could hardly be more wrong. And this is important not merely for the sake of fidelity to the past, but because of continuing implications for how we see our racial problems and how they could be solved.
３分あたりから JUDY WOODRUFF: Amid such appeals for harmony, Charlie Hebdo went to press again, with a defiant cartoon cover of the Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying “Je suis Charlie.” The cartoonist defended the choice. RENALD LUZIER, Cartoonist, Charlie Hebdo (through interpreter): Then there was nothing else but that, this idea of drawing Mohammed, “I am Charlie.” And I looked at him, he was crying, I cried. And it was the front page. We had found the front page. We had finally found that bloody front page. JUDY WOODRUFF: Many news organizations, including the PBS NewsHour, have decided not to show the cover. The paper is printing up to three million copies. French Muslim leaders today criticized the showing of representations of Mohammed, an act considered blasphemy by most Muslims. But they urged their followers to respect the right to free expression.
THE RISKS 1 The Politics of Europe 2 Russia 3 The Effects of China Slowdown 4 Weaponization of Finance 5 ISIS, Beyond Iraq and Syria 6 Weak Incumbents 7 The Rise of Strategic Sectors 8 Saudi Arabia vs. Iran 9 Taiwan/China 10 Turkey * Red Herrings
1位はThe Politics of Europe 。Charlie Hebdo襲撃事件の直前に発表されたものですが、European leaders, therefore, must manage domestic dissent, squabbling among governments, and external threats. We'll see bigger headline crises in a geopolitically tumultuous 2015.と恐ろしいほど予言的なものになっています。外側からみると「表現の自由」とか「イスラムvsヨーロッパ」の問題をまず考えてしまいがちですが、政治・経済の緊張状況が前提条件としてあったのですね。
1 - The Politics of Europe Europe's economics are in substantially better shape than at the height of the Eurozone crisis. But the politics is now much worse. That's true on three different levels: bottom-up, intra-EU, and outside-in.
At the grass roots, it's a surge of public anger across Europe. While there's a level of social instability attached to that, the immediate problem is a range of political movements that are developing momentum. Some are far left; others are far right. All are euroskeptic, and all are challenging establishment parties that have lost political legitimacy. Their rise has been dramatic, shows little sign of slowing, and will become politically meaningful in 2015. In particular, Syriza is likely to win snap elections in Greece and join a governing coalition, and Podemos could actually win in Spain's general elections at the end of the year.
More broadly, this populist surge requires a move by the establishment parties toward more euroskeptic positions to ensure they remain in power. This trend is clear both in Europe's periphery and its core. In France, the rising popularity of the National Front (FN) means the Union for a Popular Movement will have to tack to the right to improve its chances of regaining power in 2017. In the UK, a challenge from the UK Independence Party has moved Prime Minister David Cameron toward a much tougher line on immigration and toward support for an in/out referendum on EU membership in order to win national elections in May. Even in Germany, the rise of the Alternatives for Germany party has limited Chancellor Angela Merkel's ability to support deeper European integration and Eurozone stabilization.
Friction among EU states is worsening. The best case for Europe would be Germany, France, and the UK working together to provide leadership. But that's far less likely in this environment; France can't temper German insistence on austerity over stimulus because France won't meet its deficit targets--and because President Francois Hollande's unpopularity (ratings have dipped as low as 13%, the lowest number for any French president ever!) is only encouraging the FN. The Brits are likely to remain disengaged given their own unresolved questions of EU membership. And new, more populist, peripheral governments will work to unwind the pension reforms, fiscal balances, and other hard-fought pieces of legislation that the Eurozone crisis made possible. This year, conflicts over fiscal balances between and among Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Rome, and a host of other European capitals will make America's Democrats and Republicans look like one big happy family.
The external political environment is more challenging, as well. The Russia crisis is set to escalate, and worries over potential security incidents between Europe and the Russian military--far higher than at any point between China and its Asian neighbors--leave Europe in no condition to handle the resulting economic consequences. Terrorist threats from Islamist militants are much greater than in any region outside the Middle East, given the number of European citizens fighting in Iraq and Syria, and the size of Muslim communities inside these countries. Perhaps most importantly, the transatlantic relationship is deteriorating. American unilateralism is a challenge for Europe on most every level. Washington has more interest in punishing Moscow and less interest in safeguarding Europe's economic wellbeing. Spying and the use of drones are poisoning European public attitudes toward Washington. The US-Britain relationship is closer on these issues, but relations between Americans and Germans--far more important for Europe's future--are further apart.
European leaders, therefore, must manage domestic dissent, squabbling among governments, and external threats. We'll see bigger headline crises in a geopolitically tumultuous 2015. Europe will bear the cost of most of them. And so, this year, the politics of Europe is our top risk.
A lack of global leadership--what we call the G-Zero world--has created considerable geopolitical instability in recent years. But in Asia, leadership at the national level is now having the opposite effect. Four of Asia's key economies benefit from strong, charismatic, and popular leaders (especially in contrast to their predecessors): China's Xi, India's Narendra Modi, Japan's Shinzo Abe, and even Indonesia's Joko. All four are prioritizing sweeping domestic economic reform that's well overdue in their countries and, at least thus far, are enjoying some success. Most importantly, all four are pursuing these policies without their hands being forced by immediate crisis (unlike the American response to the financial crisis or the European response to the Eurozone crisis). This affords them more flexibility when challenges to their policy priorities arise, and greater likelihood of success--or at the least, significant progress before their efforts diminish.
And so despite plenty of domestic support for nationalism in Asia, these four critical actors have good reason to avoid foreign distractions, improve their regional economic ties, and keep security relations in balance. We'll surely see headlines around military confrontation in the South and East China Seas, Indian assertiveness (and Chinese concern) over Arunachal Pradesh, and talk of military buildup across the region. China's assertiveness won't disappear, though it's much more likely to remain focused on smaller states without ties to the West, such as Vietnam. Serious tensions are a longer-term concern. For 2015 at least, there's going to be a pragmatic restraint among Asia's powers, and an immediate move toward cooler heads in the event of any accidental incident.
Immigration figures, unemployment numbers and an unpopular President all offer context to a terrorism attack
Wednesday’s attack on magazine Charlie Hebdo shocked France, but tensions with the country’s Muslim immigrant population have been building for years. It looks like these attacks were motivated by anger among Muslim militants that the newspaper had published cartoon images that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. There is no political or demographic trend that can explain such a cold-blooded murder, but the statistics below tell a disturbing story about how this crime will exacerbate already high tensions in France and across Europe, making life still more difficult for Muslim immigrants.
1. All-time highs for migration 2. Painful economic realities … and misconceptions 3. Anti-immigration goes mainstream 4. All-time lows for a French President 5. Passports — and lack thereof
“Business Adventures” by John Brooks “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty “How Asia Works” by Joe Studwell “The Rosie Effect” by Graeme Simsion “Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization” by Vaclav Smil.
If we get it right, it will be a good example of how philanthropy can provide seed money that draws bright people to work on big problems, eventually creating a self-supporting industry. Our foundation is funding Janicki to do the development. It’s really amazing to see how they’ve embraced the work; founder Peter Janicki and his family have traveled to Africa and India multiple times so they can see the scope of the problem. Our goal is to make the processors cheap enough that entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries will want to invest in them and then start profitable waste-treatment businesses.
We still have a lot to learn before we get to that point. The next step is the pilot project; later this year, Janicki will set up an Omniprocessor in Dakar, Senegal, where they’ll study everything from how you connect with the local community (the team is already working with leaders there) to how you pick the most convenient location. They will also test one of the coolest things I saw on my tour: a system of sensors and webcams that will let Janicki’s engineers control the processor remotely and communicate with the team in Dakar so they can diagnose any problems that come up.
The history of philanthropy is littered with well-intentioned inventions that never deliver on their promise. Hopefully, these early steps will help us make sure the Omniprocessor doesn’t join the list. If things go well in Senegal, we’ll start looking for partners in the developing world. For example I think it could be a great fit in India, where there are lots of entrepreneurs who could own and operate the processors, as well as companies with the skill to manufacture many of the parts.
It might be many years before the processor is being used widely. But I was really impressed with Janicki’s engineering. And I’m excited about the business model. The processor wouldn’t just keep human waste out of the drinking water; it would turn waste into a commodity with real value in the marketplace. It’s the ultimate example of that old expression: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
ゲイツのブログの最後の言葉one man’s trash is another man’s treasureはtrashとtreasureでリズミカルになっていますね。
(Free Dictionary） One man's trash is another man's treasure. Prov. Something that one person considers worthless may be considered valuable by someone else. Q: Why would anyone want to hang a picture like that on the wall? A: One man's trash is another man's treasure.
A: Bob's uncle is always going through people's garbage, looking for old stuff. B: One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Each year, about 6 million people die from diseases that are preventable with vaccines. And about 1 in 5 children around the world don't have access to life-saving vaccines.
But those are cold and dry statistics.
The Art of Saving A Life enlisted more than 30 artists to create images that bring those numbers to life — to spark conversations, interest and, ultimately, funding for vaccines.
There is also the tragedy that, in the middle of the development of the project, Kyle—a national hero and military legend who had had a bounty placed on him by insurgents—was shot to death on February 2, 2013, along with another man, on a shooting range near Stephenville, Texas. Kyle had co-founded a nonprofit called FITCO Cares Foundation, which supplied at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans. He was 38 years old. The alleged shooter, an ex-Marine named Eddie Ray Routh, who had served several deployments and was said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, has been charged with capital murder. Kyle, according to reports, had taken Routh to the range at Rough Creek Lodge as a show of camaraderie. It was something he had done before.
Cooper had talked to Kyle on the phone, but he never had a chance to meet him in person. “The terrible beauty of the story is how he died and his death,” Cooper tells me. “If you take that away, it’s a much different story.”
COVER STORY Bradley Cooper Ventures Far Outside His Comfort Zone in American Sniper With Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Bradley Cooper earned star status, now on display in the Broadway revival of The Elephant Man. But with American Sniper, opening this month, Cooper reaches a whole new dimension, playing Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who was murdered in 2013. Buzz Bissinger discovers what a huge challenge the role represented. BY BUZZ BISSINGER JANUARY 2015
Every day before going on location Bradley Cooper recited the six pages of exercises. They had been pieced together by his speech coach, Tim Monich, to further reinforce a Texas accent and dialect that Cooper knew, if it didn’t come to him automatically, would rob all credibility. In a film such as this, and a role such as this, the most challenging of Bradley Cooper’s career, there was no margin for error. Don’t get it right, don’t do the movie. There are many Texas accents in Texas. This particular one, because of all the places the real-life character once lived, had parts West Texas and country Texas and home-on-the-range Texas, a little bit southern, a little bit western, a little bit shitkicker, with idiosyncratic inconsistencies, and yet poetic in its truncation.
Chris Kyle himself was excited when he sold the rights and learned that Cooper was going to play him, although he did have a caveat: “I’m going to have to tie him to my truck, drag him down the street, and knock some of the pretty off of him.”
Bradley Cooper Ventures Far Outside His Comfort Zone in American Sniperという記事タイトルにもあったように、今までのイメージに果敢に挑戦しKyleに少しでも近づけるよういろいろ取り組んで映画に挑んだようです。
During his workouts, Cooper listened to the exact playlist that Kyle had when he worked out as a navy SEAL in Iraq in between shifts, sometimes as long as eight hours, enveloped in his own urine because there was no opportunity to take a break when they were targeting insurgents bent on killing American soldiers and suspected collaborators. Kyle is credited with at least 160 confirmed kills. Cooper bulked up from 185 to around 225. He started eating 5,000 calories a day. He was able at the end to do dead lifts of 415 pounds, five sets of eight reps each.
Former navy SEALs Rick Wallace and Kevin Lacz (he had served two deployments with Kyle) also trained him on how to hold and shoot the various weapons that Kyle utilized. Cooper never equaled the shot from 2,100 yards Kyle once made in Iraq, but he was able to hit targets from 600 yards. Lacz responded the way navy SEALs often respond to superb performance: he said nothing.
Cooper kept in character during the entirety of the shoot. He talked to his girlfriend, the 22-year-old British actress and model Suki Waterhouse, in character. He ordered food at a restaurant one night with dinner companions Miller and Eastwood in character: “Y’all got any red meat?” He argued over another film with producer Harvey Weinstein in character: Harvey, I just gotta tell ya, man, there’s no way that it’s gonna be possible for me to do this.
But it still doesn’t necessarily add up to a great performance. Maybe the expectations are too high. Maybe Bradley Cooper really is fucked.
I find that when I listen to a story, instead of reading it on a page, my memory of the book does change. I remember more of the action and less of the language, although sometimes when I listen a sentence will drop into my mind and shock me into attention in a way that is less common when I read. (Mind you, it helps to have a good reader.) You don’t check back on previous paragraphs or read the last page first when you listen. You move forward, and what you carry with you is person and event.
I listen the way I read books as a child, as if I were there watching. The author becomes more transparent, the characters more real. Listening to “Bring Up the Bodies,” I don’t think, what is the author, Hilary Mantel, up to? I feel the threat of death damp on my skin. And when I have listened to a book in a particular place — the ferns beneath the oak trees — I remember the book when I come back to that place, as if my hands in the soil were digging up the words.
THE thriller writer Jeffery Deaver has released an original work called “The Starling Project” as an audiobook — only it’s not what we think of as an audiobook: a printed book read aloud that you can listen to on your laptop or phone. Featuring 29 actors in more than 80 speaking roles combined with “state-of-the-art sound and music design,” Mr. Deaver’s “book” was conceived as an audio drama for Audible. There are no plans to turn it into a traditional text-based book, either on paper or digitally.
That was fast. First we went from books to e-books, and now we’re going from e-books to no-books. What’s next? Books embedded in a chip that delivers “content” directly into our brains?
Is such an innovation even necessary? When you think about it, that’s what audio does now. Listening is more efficient than reading: When we read, we absorb print with our eyes and translate it into “meaning,” a cumbersome process that requires us first to see the words, then to make sense of them, and finally to employ our imaginations to conjure up events and sounds and characters that aren’t there. Reception by aural means is more direct: All you have to do is listen. Not only that, you can multitask, driving to work or walking the dog.
The Starling Project (2014) An aborted raid targeting a major arms dealer. A hostage standoff at a bank that may not be what it seems. A plot to spring a former African dictator from prison. What is the threat that connects them all? And just who is the mysterious mastermind, The Starling? From Mexico to Washington – from London to Marseille to Prague – war crimes investigator Harold Middleton and his team of Volunteers risk their lives to follow the trail of clues. But how can they stop The Starling – when he always seems one step ahead? With more than 80 speaking roles and state-of-the-art sound and music design, The Starling Project is an immersive listening experience written by Jeffery Deaver.
“The Starling Project,” which came out in mid-November, will test the appetite for an emerging art form that blends the immersive charm of old-time radio drama with digital technology. It’s also the latest sign that audiobooks, which have long been regarded as a quaint backwater of the publishing industry and an appendage to print, are coming into their own as a creative medium. Continue reading the main story
Just as original TV series like “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black” transformed Netflix into a content creator as well as a distributor, Audible is aiming to distinguish itself in the booming audiobook market with original audio dramas that are written specifically for the form.
So far, Audible has commissioned and produced around 30 original works, as varied as a serialized thriller about a conspiracy that drives India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war, and original short stories set in the world of Charlaine Harris’s vampire novels.
Next year, the audiobook producer GraphicAudio will release its first two original series, including a Western crime drama and a full-cast epic fantasy that’s complete with elaborate sound effects and recorded in surround sound.
Some see the current audio renaissance as a modern version of the Golden Age of radio drama — a rare instance when technology is driving the evolution of an art form, rather than quashing it. Along with the surge in audiobooks, podcasts have become a surprising new form of popular entertainment, with some programs drawing audiences that rival those of cable shows. One standout example, “Serial,” a true-crime saga that re-examines the 1999 murder of a teenage girl in Maryland, unfolds in weekly episodes and has been streamed or downloaded more than five million times since its introduction in October.
It’s no surprise that authors are eager to make their mark in the medium. As the print business stagnates, digital audiobooks are booming. In the first eight months of this year, sales were up 28 percent over the same period last year, far outstripping the growth of e-books, which rose 6 percent, according to the Association of American Publishers. Meanwhile, hardcover print sales for adult fiction and nonfiction fell by nearly 2 percent.
Audiobook publishers, scrambling to meet rising demand, released nearly 36,000 titles in 2013, up from 6,200 in 2010, according to the Audio Publishers Association. Audible, which Mr. Katz founded nearly 20 years ago and sold to Amazon in 2008 for a reported $300 million, still dominates the market, with more than 170,000 works, including 18,000 produced this year alone.
But the company faces growing competition as more companies seek a foothold in this fast-growing corner of the digital media marketplace. This month, Penguin Random House’s audio division introduced its first app, Volumes, which allows listeners to sample free content, play audiobooks from their digital libraries and buy audiobooks with one click from the iBooks Store. Barnes & Noble just released an audiobooks app for its Nook tablets and Android devices, with more than 50,000 titles.
Other newcomers jostling for a slice of the audiobook market include the e-book subscription platform Scribd, which recently added 30,000 audiobooks to its digital subscription plan, and Skybrite, a new streaming audio service that has 10,000 titles and an all-you-can-listen to membership for $10 a month.
First, he created a flow chart outlining a plot about a retired army intelligence officer, Harold Middleton, who is recruited to stop a shadowy mass-murder plot called “The Starling Project.” The action spans the globe, with scenes in Mexico, Washington, London, Marseille and central Africa.
Mr. Deaver quickly ran into problems, though. It was tricky to establish geographic locations through dialogue in a way that didn’t seem hokey (he opted for a flight attendant’s announcement in one scene, welcoming travelers to France). He struggled to incorporate sound effects without muddying characters’ conversations with blaring motorcycle engines and machine gun fire. Without an omniscient narrator, he had to find new ways to establish relationships between the characters.
“You don’t want to write too on the head and say, ‘I don’t like you, you did something bad back then,’ ” he said.
A sex scene also proved challenging. “I didn’t have a clue how to handle that,” he said. “Do we have a zipper sound? Two shoes falling to the floor?” (They went with swelling music instead of sound effects for that scene.) But Mr. Deaver adjusted his writing style to the medium, and he finished the book in about five months.
Audiobookブームはスマホが一人一台になってきた流れの現象でしょうか。新たなテクノロジー、メディアの出現によって我々の楽しみのあり方、消費の仕方が変わってくるのは面白いですね。そもそも小説が１９世紀に流行するまでは、演劇や詩が王道だったのですから。。。Hearing is belivingでは以下のように語っています。口承文学はむしろ原点回帰なのかもしれません。
The aural/oral revolution won’t mean the end of the book any more than the e-book did. Besides, the “non-text-based” work of literature has a long tradition. “In the history of mankind, words were heard before they were seen,” wrote Albert B. Lord, the author of “The Singer of Tales,” a classic work of scholarship that traced oral literature from Homer through “Beowulf” and the tales, still recited today, of Balkan poets capable of reciting thousands of lines of verse by heart.
31 What time does the conference begin? (A) When the main speakers arrive. (B) We’ll be through by nine o’clock. (C) The conference began on time last year.
133 Jogging has become the favorite from ------- regular exercise for a lot of people. (A) as (B) to (C) in (D) of
Questions 97-98 are based on the following announcement?
There is no location providing easier access to Vancouver’s main business and financial district than the International Hotel. The International offers spacious air-conditioned rooms and suites, all with bath and shower.
97. What makes the International Hotel a good choice? (A) Its location (B) Its size (C) Its rates (D) Its restaurants
98. Who would most likely use the hotel? (A) Tour groups (B) Businessman (C) Families (D) College students
Questions 197-198 are based on the following memorandum?
TO: All Staff FROM: Tom Jones, General Manager
Because Friday is a holiday, it will be necessary to complete the standard weekly reports early. Please have all necessary information ready at noon on Thursday.
197. What is the purpose of the memo? (A) To request special information (B) To cancel the weekly report (C) To describe plans for the holiday (D) To announce a change in schedule
198. The staff will include information on their activities from Monday morning through (A) Tuesday afternoon (B) Wednesday morning (C) Thursday morning (D) Friday afternoon
紙を復刊させても、まだいたの？という（失礼！）印象しか持たなかったのですが、久しぶりにカバーストーリを読みました。The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.（悪魔も自分勝手な目的のために聖書を引く）な状態になっている、アメリカのキリスト教原理主義批判が主な目的ですが、もともとの聖書がどんなものだったのか、英語にどのように翻訳されたのか、初期のキリスト教の歴史がどうだったのか、丁寧に説明してくれている記事になっています。８０００語を超える長いものですが、聖書が歴史的にどういったものかよくわかるのでオススメです。
Words checked = [8669] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [81%]
They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals. They fall on their knees, worshipping at the base of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments while demanding prayer in school. They appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats. They gather in football stadiums by the thousands to pray for the country’s salvation.
They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch. They are joined by religious rationalizers — fundamentalists who, unable to find Scripture supporting their biases and beliefs, twist phrases and modify translations to prove they are honoring the Bible’s words.
This is no longer a matter of personal or private faith. With politicians, social leaders and even some clergy invoking a book they seem to have never read and whose phrases they don’t understand, America is being besieged by Biblical illiteracy. Climate change is said to be impossible because of promises God made to Noah; Mosaic law from the Old Testament directs American government; creationism should be taught in schools; helping Syrians resist chemical weapons attacks is a sign of the end times—all of these arguments have been advanced by modern evangelical politicians and their brethren, yet none of them are supported in the Scriptures as they were originally written.
英語への翻訳について触れているところです。
Translation Transubstantiation Then comes the problem of accurate translation. Many words in New Testament Greek don’t have clear English equivalents. Sentence structure, idioms, stylistic differences—all of these are challenges when converting versions of the New Testament books into English. And this can’t be solved with a Berlitz course: Koiné is ancient Greek and not spoken anymore. This is why English translations differ, with many having been revised to reflect the views and guesses of the modern translators.
The gold standard of English Bibles is the King James Version, completed in 1611, but that was not a translation of the original Greek. Instead, a Church of England committee relied primarily on Latin manuscripts translated from Greek. According to Jason David BeDuhn, a professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University and author of Truth in Translation, it was often very hard for the committee to find the correct English words. The committee sometimes compared Latin translations with the earlier Greek copies, found discrepancies and decided that the Latin version—the later version—was correct and the earlier Greek manuscripts were wrong.
The goal of the translators was to create a Bible that was a gorgeous work that was very accurate in its translation and clear in its meaning, but that didn’t happen. “The King James Bible is a beautiful piece of English literature,’’ says BeDuhn. “In terms of the other two goals, however, this translation falls short.”
Some of the contradictions are conflicts between what evangelicals consider absolute and what Jesus actually said. For example, evangelicals are always talking about family values. But to Jesus, family was an impediment to reaching God. In the Gospel of Matthew, he states, “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”
The Bible is a very human book. It was written, assembled, copied and translated by people. That explains the flaws, the contradictions, and the theological disagreements in its pages. Once that is understood, it is possible to find out which parts of the Bible were not in the earliest Greek manuscripts, which are the bad translations, and what one book says in comparison to another, and then try to discern the message for yourself.
And embrace what modern Bible experts know to be the true sections of the New Testament. Jesus said, Don’t judge. He condemned those who pointed out the faults of others while ignoring their own. And he proclaimed, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
来月の100分 de 名著は、メアリ・シェリー『フランケンシュタイン』だそうです。19世紀の古典を今更というなかれ、昨年新たに注目を受ける機会があったのです。International Prize for Arabic Fictionというアラブ文学の賞でFrankenstein in Baghdadという作品が受賞しました。ちょうど今週のNewsweekも本を読む文化を絶やさないための試みをこの作品に絡めて書いていました。
Sadek’s concern is that writers here are cut off from the international writing community and ISIS will alienate them more. “Fifty percent of the population here is under 20 years old,” he said. “We cannot isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. Baghdad produced the first literary document on this planet. I don’t want us to be lost.”
He insists that despite great adversity, Iraqis keep writing. Last year Frankenstein in Baghdad, a novel by Ahmed Saadawi, won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in Abu Dhabi, the equivalent of the Booker Prize in the Arab world. It was a proud moment for Iraq. Frankenstein in Baghdad is a modern, wartime version of Mary Shelley’s 1818 horror-fantasy, with the plot focusing on a character who stitches together body parts of those killed in explosions throughout Baghdad. The monster he creates comes to life and begins a hideous campaign of revenge against those responsible for the deaths. One review said Frankenstein in Baghdad reflected “the general feeling of helplessness toward violence witnessed in Iraq.”
There have been attempts to connect Iraqi artists to the world, including some success stories. Tamara Chalabi, daughter of former Iraqi deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi, triumphantly brought a group of Iraqi artists to the Venice Biennale in 2012. So why not make Baghdad a “City of Literature”?
Oneworld, Penguin to Publish English Translation of ‘Frankenstein in Baghdad’ BY MLYNXQUALEY on JANUARY 9, 2015 • ( 1 ) Just days before the announcement of the 2015 International Prize for Arabic Fiction longlist, OneWorld and Penguin announce that they’ve bought English-language rights to the 2014 winner:
Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad will be published in both the US and the UK next autumn, by Penguin Books in the US and Oneworld in the UK. Although a contract is yet to be signed, the book will in all likelihood be translated by the Banipal-prize-winning Jonathan Wright and edited by the same Penguin team that brought out Hassan Blasim’s The Corpse Exhibition.
![Atlantic Monthly [US] January - February 2015 (単号)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EjHgKPGYL._SL160_.jpg)
