你還記得4月伊朗扣押英國海軍….

Iran

Sets Free 15 Britons Seized at Sea in March

Migrants Face Harsher

U.S.

Tactics at Sea

這兩例是AT SEA字面義

Flagging Standards
Globalization and Environmental, Safety, and Labor Regulations at Sea
By Elizabeth R. DeSombre

The semantic web

Start making sense

Apr 9th 2008
From Economist.com

Big and small companies are getting into the business of building an intelligent web of linked data

SOME new ideas take wing spontaneously. Others struggle to be born. The “semantic web” is definitely in the latter category. But it may have found its midwife in Reuters, a business-information company.

midwife Show phonetics
noun [C] plural midwives
a person, usually a woman, who is trained to help women when they are giving birth

midwifery Show phonetics
noun [U]
At nursing college, she specialized in midwifery.

mid・wife

━━ n. 助産婦.
mid・wife・ry
, 　━━ n. 助産術.

n., pl. -wives (-wīvz').

A person, usually a woman, who is trained to assist women in childbirth. Also called regionally granny, granny woman.
One who assists in or takes a part in bringing about a result: “In the Renaissance, artists and writers start to serve as midwives of fame” (Carlin Romano).

tr.v., -wifed or -wived (-wīvd'), -wif·ing or -wiv·ing (-wī'vĭng), -wifes or -wives (-wīvz').

To assist in the birth of (a baby).
To assist in bringing forth or about: “Washington's efforts to midwife a Mideast settlement” (Newsweek).

[Middle English midwif : probably mid, with (from Old English) + wif, woman (from Old English wīf).]

WORD HISTORY The word midwife is the sort of word whose etymology seems perfectly clear until one tries to figure it out. Wife would seem to refer to the woman giving birth, who is usually a wife, but mid?

A knowledge of older senses of words helps us with this puzzle. Wife in its earlier history meant “woman,” as it still did when the compound midwife was formed in Middle English (first recorded around 1300).

Mid is probably a preposition, meaning “together with.” Thus a midwife was literally a “with woman” or “a woman who assists other women in childbirth.”

Even though obstetrics has been rather resistant to midwifery until fairly recently, the etymology of obstetric is rather similar, going back to the Latin word obstetrīx, “a midwife,” from the verb obstāre, “to stand in front of,” and the feminine suffix –trīx; the obstetrīx would thus literally stand in front of the baby.

at sea
confused:
I'm all/completely at sea with the new coins.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

News analysis: top story

All at sea

John McCain’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination looks desperate, but not quite over
大家都暈船啦.....
BBC "
共和黨總統競選參選人少有地同民主黨的希拉裡﹒克林頓形成一致立場，譴責民主黨的另外一位參選人奧巴馬。《每日電訊報》頭版報道說，他們一起批評奧巴馬不夠謹慎，因為奧巴馬似乎說過可能要轟炸巴基斯坦。共和黨人甚至取笑奧巴馬說，他就像一夜間就從一個和平主義者變成了好戰分子，剛說完要和美國的敵人坐下來喝茶，然後馬上又說要轟炸美國的盟友。
報道說，奧巴馬在爭取民主黨提名的競選中，目前在支持率上落後於希拉裡，但是他在幾個關鍵的州領先。他在競選中說，在巴基斯坦和阿富汗在任何情況下都不會考慮使用核武器，因為那樣會造成平民傷亡。但是支持伊拉克戰爭的共和黨參選人麥凱因說，聲明絕不使用核武器很天真，但沒有仔細思考就說要攻擊巴基斯坦也很天真。
在《國際先驅論壇報》的報道中，奧巴馬說他當總統會果斷地對付壞蛋，比如伊朗，敘利亞，朝鮮，古巴或委內瑞拉。
但是希拉裡則不以為然，認為奧巴馬坦率，但幼稚。報道說，目前世界反美情緒空前高漲，就是因為布什一意孤行的外交政策，今後美國不能再搞單邊主義外交。

亞太峰會在即台灣人選仍未定案

蔡英文曾為李登輝構思“兩國論”

台灣的媒體報導說，由于兩岸氣氛冰冷，導致中國政府向APEC亞太經濟合作組織表示，反對台灣總統陳水扁屬意的與會人選。
先前台灣的媒體說，陳水扁決定以前行政院副院長蔡英文代表台灣參加在澳大利亞悉尼（雪梨）舉行的2007年APEC領袖會議。
但是中國業已通過APEC資深官員會議等場合表態，反對蔡英文代表台灣出席本年度的會議。
蔡英文在1999年為前總統李登輝構思“兩國論”而聲名大噪，但是也令蔡英文成為了相當為北京所不喜的人物。
雖然陳水扁沒有証實他的確屬意蔡英文參加APEC 峰會，但是他說如果中國反對的消息屬實的話，就証明中國打壓台灣是不分男女。
台灣的媒體說，當初陳水扁看中蔡英文擔任代表，就是因為蔡英文曾經主管財經事務，但是官方則否認已經敲定蔡英文，總統府代理秘書長卓榮泰說，現在還在評估適當的人選。
台灣反對黨國民黨方面則表示，雖然蔡英文的確是民進黨政府當中優秀的財經專家，但是北京的反應并不令人意外。
國民黨說，由于陳水扁致函聯合國秘書長、推動以台灣為名加入聯合國、引發美國和中國的不滿，雖然蔡英文是優秀的人才，但是遺憾地成為了陳水扁的代罪羔羊（替罪羊）。
由于在各方自有默契的情況下，以往台灣參加APEC峰會的人選很少引起爭議。如今這種秘而不宣的默契被打破之后，后續發展尚有待觀察。
有的分析人士則認為，由于台灣將在明年舉行立法委員和總統選舉，目前正是備戰階段，許多陳水扁派系人物已經在統獨問題上明白表態。
而顯出了偏獨的態度之后，便很難說服中國接受其代表出席。所以分析人士認為，要在大約一個月的時間之內確定既能為中國接受又可以為陳水扁信賴的人選，恐怕不太容易。