2009年3月18日 星期三

flow, chieftain, in/out of print, shutter

The shift in sentiment should surprise no one. As the management sage Peter Drucker once predicted, "In the next economic downturn there will be an outbreak of bitterness and contempt for the super-corporate chieftains who pay themselves millions. In every major economic downturn in U.S. history the 'villains' have been the 'heroes' during the preceding boom." Drucker was speaking in 1997, two downturns ago.



The “Citiboobs” — as The New York Post, which broke the news, calls them — watched as the car chieftains got in trouble for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, and the A.I.G. moguls got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. But the boobs still didn’t get the message.


「倪匡今年七十一歲了,最後一部作品是《只限老友》,封筆的原因是他說自己寫作配額用完了,寫最後一部作品沒有順暢的感覺,還時常寫到作惡夢,所以知道老天給他的寫作靈思已用盡,才把這部小說當作最後的作品。」
http://www.chieftain.idv.tw/archives/category/literature/feed/

引文的「順暢的感覺」,近年來有專門名詞:flow
A psychological state of extreme well being sometimes felt when exercising. A person experiencing flow has feelings of great pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment. To many competitive sports people, this subjective experience is often more important than the actual outcome of the activity. Flow tends to occur when there is a perfect match between the challenge of an exercise and the capability of a performer to complete it successfully. Some sport psychologists believe that flow may be related to the secretion of endorphins in the brain, although others think that this is unlikely.
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An apparent ease or effortlessness of performance: “An athlete must learn to forget the details of his or her training to achieve the instinctive sense of flow that characterizes a champion” (Frederick Turner).

By MOTOKO RICH
The Washington Post has decided to shutter the print version of its Sunday stand-alone book review section and shift reviews to space inside two other sections of the paper.

ntel to Shift China Workers
Intel will move its Shanghai chip-testing operations to Chengdu, affecting 2,000 workers, as part of its effort to shutter plants world wide.




out of print 絕版 可應用在報刊專區


in/out of print
If a book is in print, it is possible to buy a new copy of it, and if it is out of print, it is not now possible:
Is her work still in print?
Classic literature never goes out of print.



shutter
n.
  1. One that shuts, as:
    1. A hinged cover or screen for a window, usually fitted with louvers.
    2. A mechanical device of a camera that controls the duration of a photographic exposure, as by opening and closing to allow light coming through the lens to expose a plate or film.
  2. shutters Music. The movable louvers on a pipe organ, controlled by pedals, that open and close the swell box.
tr.v.-tered-ter·ing-ters.
  1. To furnish or close with shutters: locked the doors and shuttered the windows.
  2. To cause to cease operations; close down: shuttered the store for the holiday.
chieftain Show phonetics
noun [C]
the leader of a tribe

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