2021年11月27日 星期六

terrarium, manicured, faff and volatility,



Culture and Lifestyle

Inside a Terrarium, It’s Always Gardening Season



As winter closes in, there’s at least one place where plants will still grow: a terrarium. Here’s how to get started on yours.






With technical faff and volatility, Bitcoin is still far from being a digital alternative to ordinary money










ECONOMIST.COM

The third cryptocurrency bubble is deflating
How low can it go?



Inside each glass orb, Aki Murase has curated a miniature manicured landscape.



CNN.COM


Kyoto 'gardener' builds space-like terrariums




terrarium
/tɛˈrɛːrɪəm/
noun
  1. a vivarium for smaller land animals, especially reptiles, amphibians, or terrestrial invertebrates, typically in the form of a glass-fronted case.
    • a sealed transparent globe or similar container in which plants are grown.


faff


VERB

[NO OBJECT]British 
informal 
  • Spend time in ineffectual activity.
    ‘we can't faff around forever’


NOUN

British 
informal 
  • A great deal of ineffectual activity.
    ‘there was the usual faff of getting back to the plane’

Origin

Late 18th century (originally dialect in the sense ‘blow in puffs’, describing the wind): imitative. The current sense may have been influenced by dialect faffle ‘stammer, stutter’, later ‘flap in the wind’, which came to mean ‘fuss, dither’ at about the same time as faff (late 19th century).

2021年11月26日 星期五

expropriation, excercise, spiritual exercise, carat, posh, chav, unexercised



Berlin tried to cap rents for five years, but Germany's constitutional court threw out the law earlier this year on the grounds that the city-state could not override federal regulation. In response, a grassroots movement succeeded in passing a nonbinding referendum that calls for expropriating the largest property firms.

No such expropriation is on the table at the federal level. Aside from constitutional issues regarding the protection of private property, opponents say it arbitrarily picks winners and losers and would cost billions of euros in compensation.



It's fully functional. And you can use it if you visit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum


Guggenheim Museum's 18-carat gold toilet to open to public

BBC.CO.UK
A decade after Russian oil company Yukos was expropriated and broken up by the state, an international legal battle still rages.
“We don’t want the Chinese”: On December 22nd, Chinese construction will begin in Nicaragua of a $50 billion inter-oceanic canal to rival Panama’s. But peasants fearful of their land being expropriated have taken to the streets 16 times. The government has spoken of an end to poverty, but so far, it has brought as much fear as hopehttp://econ.st/1zyMsha

ON DECEMBER 22nd an odd couple—Nicaragua’s left-wing government and a Chinese-born telecoms magnate—say they will begin the realisation of a dream that has...
ECON.ST



Most people assume that tulipmania, big increases in tulip prices during the 1600s, was the result of financial market irrationality. That idea was popularised by Charles Mackay, a mid-19th century Scottish writer. Most modern-day references to tulipmania draw on Mackay's work. But economic historians provide better explanations for what happened http://econ.st/1942jXF


Still, whether one does it through quotas or more informally, ensuring a diversity of the nice and nasty seems a better way of achieving diversity of thought (which is the object of the exercise) than to use the proxy of male and female. The latter has never struck me as obviously better than insisting on a mixture of black and white, old and young, rich and poor, or posh and chav.
不過,要想實現思想的多樣性(這是搞董事會多樣性的目的所在),無論是以配額還是以更加非正式的形式來確保董事會裡好人和爛人混搭,似乎都比通過控制董事會男女比例的做法更有效。我從來都沒覺得,後者比堅持讓黑人和白人混搭、老的和少的混搭、窮的和富的混搭、雅的和俗的混搭明顯更有道理。



Medical Nemesis, the Expropriation of Health (1975)



Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expropriate Toyota Motor Corp.'s local assembly plant if it doesn't produce more vehicles designed for rural areas and increase technology transfer.

In Britain (orig the south of England): a young person of a type characterized by brash or loutish behaviour and the wearing of designer-style clothes, esp. sportswear; usu. with connotations of lower-class status. (1998 —) .

Sunday Times Older children desire nothing more than to dress, talk and behave like chavs, that is, a youth tribe that prides itself on council-estate chic—man-made fabrics, fake labels and lots of eight-carat gold: think Vicky Pollard in Little Britain (2004).

[Prob. either from Romani čhavo unmarried Romani male, male Romani child, or shortened from chavvy noun (the notion that it is connected with Chatham, the name of a Kent town associated in the popular imagination with chav culture, is almost certainly a post hoc rationalization).]

Ellison Exercises Options on Oracle Stock
Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison exercised options on 36 million shares of Oracle stock in the company's fiscal year ending May 31, realizing a profit of $544 million, according to a filing with the SEC.

expropriate
verb [T] FORMAL
to take away money or property especially for public use without payment to the owner, or for personal use illegally:
He was discovered to have been expropriating company funds.





ex|pro¦pri|ate
Pronunciation: /ɪksˈprəʊprɪeɪt, ɛks-/

Definition of expropriate in English:

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]
1(Of the state or an authority) take (property) from itsowner for public use or benefit:their assets were expropriated by the government
1.1Dispossess (someone) of property:the measures expropriated the landlords

Origin

late 16th century: from medieval Latin expropriat- 'taken from the owner', from the verb expropriare, from ex-'out, from' + proprium 'property', neuter singular ofproprius 'own'.
expropriator
noun [C]

expropriation
noun [C or U]

chav
noun
noun


exercise (USE)
verb [T] FORMAL
to use something:
I exercised my democratic right by not voting in the election.
Always exercise caution when handling radioactive substances.
We've decided to exercise the option (= use the part of a legal agreement) to buy the house we now lease.

exercise 
noun [U]
The exercise of (= use of) restraint may well be difficult.


excercise
  • [éksərsàiz]
[名]
1 [U][C]運動;(知的)訓練
bending exercises
屈伸運動
gymnastic [physical] exercises
体操, 体育
reading as a mental exercise
知的訓練としての読書
give exercise to ...
…を訓練する
do [have, get, take] exercise
運動する.
2 ((しばしば〜s))けいこ, 練習, 実習;(軍隊の)教練, 演習
exercises for the piano
ピアノのけいこ
a field exercise
野戦演習
do vocal exercises
発声練習をする.
3 (…の)練習問題, 課題;(課題による)勉強, 学習;練習曲((in ...))
an exercise in composition
作文練習問題
an exercise book
練習帳
do [work at] one's exercises
課題を勉強する;練習曲をひく.
[類語]技術・能力の向上を目的としての練習・訓練の意味ではpracticeがもっとも一般的. スポーツや演奏などに使うことが多い. trainingは団体として, 特にスポーツ関係での場合. exerciseは学習の場合も含め, 一般的に用いる語. drillは反復練習という点を強調.
4 [U]((通例the 〜))((形式))(精神・能力・注意力などを)働かせること;(職権の)行使;(徳などの)実行, 実践((of ...))
the exercise of caution
用心すること
the exercise of one's civil rights [authority, office]
市民権[権力, 職務]の行使
the exercise of one's hospitality
親切にすること.
5 (…の結果をもたらす)行為, 行動;営為((in ...)). ▼ふつう望ましくない結果がinのあとにくる
an exercise in futility
むだに終わったこと.
6
(1) ((〜s))((米))式, 儀式, 式典
graduation [commencement] exercises
卒業式.
(2) 宗教的儀式, 礼拝
exercises of devotion
祈祷(きとう)式.
7 ((〜s))修業課程:学位取得のための公開の口頭[論文]試験.
━━[動](他)[III[名]([副])]
1 〈人を〉運動[体操]させる, 訓練する, 練習させる;〈兵隊を〉教練する
exercise the dog
犬を訓練する
exercise the soldiers in marching
兵隊に行進の練習をさせる.
2 ((形式))〈精神・能力・注意力・判断力などを〉働かせる, 用いる, 発揮する, 使う;〈権力・権利などを〉行使する, ふるう;…を果たす, 遂行する
exercise one's strength [imagination]
力[想像力]を発揮する
exercise restraint
抑制力を働かせる
exercise one's rights
自分の権利を行使する
exercise one's duties
義務を遂行する
exercise a function
機能を果たす.
3 〈影響などを〉及ぼす, 与える
exercise influence among [upon, on, over] one's friends
友人たちに感化[影響]を及ぼす.
4 ((受身または〜 -self))(…のことで)心配させる;(…のことで)悩ませる((about, over, by ...))
He exercised himself greatly [much] over the labor disputes.
彼は労働争議のことで心身をすり減らしていた.
━━(自)練習[けいこ]する, 運動する, 鍛える.



 spiritual exercise,:(1) 靈修功夫;熱心神工;神業。(2) 退省;避靜;神操。


"聖依納爵 神操" (The Spiritual Excercises of St. Ignatitus) 台北:光啟文化事業 1978/2003 三版

神修三階段
煉路 明路 合路
始修者 進修者 成全者

如此 "戴明修煉"似乎應改成"戴明煉修全"

聖依納爵書信選集 (聖依納爵專輯) Selected Letters of St. Ignatius Loyola



   聖依納爵雖然誕生在公元一四九一年 , 但堪當稱得上是一位現代聖人。他創立的耶穌會至今仍站在教會的最前線,做她的前鋒與哨兵;他的靈修方法透過著名的「神操」至今在全教會仍有深刻廣遠的影 響。他為耶穌會士所寫的會憲對後期的修會發展奠下了重要的基石。可以說即使在今天,他還很活躍地生活在教會中。一般人都曉得聖依納爵出身軍人,文學根柢有 限,晚年體弱多病,對會務又異常忙碌,講的道理固然不少,著作料想不會很多。殊不知他寫的東西實在不少;除了「神操」、「會憲」以及呈遞教宗請求批准耶穌 會的「會典綱要」等重要文獻外;尚有留傳至今的書信六千八百一十三封之多,失落者尚不知凡幾。
  那麼,這些信都是他親筆寫的嗎?有些 是他親筆寫的,大部分則是假手祕書寫的。不過讀者不要誤會,所謂由祕書寫,也是經聖祖口授;或者至少授以大意,寫後又必須交他審閱,仔細修改,然後才請人 繕寫寄出。十分慎重,絕不馬虎,每封信幾乎都由他親筆簽字,所以真正都算是他寫的信。
  至於書信往還的對象,可說各階層的人都有;上至教 宗、國王、樞機、主教,下至修士、修女以及普通教友,不過大多數則是耶穌會會士。自一五二四至一五四 0 年只有三十來封信。但自耶穌會奠定之後,發展極速,事務自然日繁,來往的書信也就更多了;這裡建立會院,那邊辦學校,或要求派遣會士去印度等地傳教等事 宜,幾乎每日有書信來往,可說是應接不暇。此外,最使他關心的是選擇適當的會士擔任省長、院長、初學神師及學校教職員,用心栽培熱心而堅強的會士,因此大 部分書信旨在解決困難,指示方針、安慰憂苦、責備怠惰者、節制狂熱者;總之一句,答覆問題的信佔大多數。
  耶穌會初興,好似剛栽種的小樹,需要常灌溉施肥或剪削駢枝,因此每日都有書信寄出,而且所談之事皆甚重要,絕非空泛應酬的辭令;每封信他必細心閱覽修改,字斟句酌,甚至有時修改膳本數次方始寄出。
   這些書信無論是指引正途、解釋問題、糾正錯誤、鼓勵精神 ...... 都是為天主的「 愈大光榮」。天主首先是「我們的造主和救主」,全能全知,至公至義 ...... 這都是公教傳統的信條;但在依納爵的筆下,卻按所談問題的不同,常顯示不同的意味和反響。對氣餒的傳教士,他便強調天主是「萬善的根源」;對患病者,他便 稱天主是「健康和生命,富於仁慈,緩於發怒」;總之一句:他堅固弱者,安慰憂者,開敢愚蒙,隨機應變,一切都是為了使人更加愛慕侍奉天主。所以書信雖然是 針對個人、各個不同問題而寫,雖然已事過境遷,但為現在的讀者仍具有同樣的益處。
  從本書所選的這六十一封書信中,我們可以感覺到依納爵榮主救靈的熾熱心火。他的明智灼見,他對屬下的愛護,他對人的熱誠等等,在本書中流露無遺;他的諄諄訓誨,值得我們玩味再三。
作者簡介
聖依納爵(St. Ignatius of Loyola)
   1491年生於西班牙羅耀拉,出身貴族,先後充當朝臣,然後從軍。1521年在邦布羅納對抗法國軍隊戰役中受傷,臥床療養期間,經歷了深度的皈依,熱切 期望追隨基督芳表,退隱茫萊撒,生活於神修體驗中,感受靈性與神秘的恩寵,並將其中精華部分加以記錄,就是《神操》的初稿。前往聖地朝聖,及先後在西班牙 及巴黎潛心讀書時,召集初期同伴,特別在巴黎研讀神學,奠定耶穌會的第一塊基石。1537年在威尼斯晉鐸;同年前往羅馬,1540年與同伴創立耶穌 會,1541年被選為第一任總會長。為重整十六世紀的天主教會,為革新教會福傳活動,在各種使徒工作中,提供了大力的援助,1556年在羅馬逝世。 1622年與聖方濟?沙勿略(薩威)同被列入聖人行列。依納爵以他對教會的忠誠與革新,福傳工作的推動,對社會邊緣者的牧民關懷,教育上的投入,及獻身於 「愈顯主榮」,受人景仰。


聖依納爵畫傳
Ignace De Loyola 


光啟編輯部 (Miguel Berzosa ) 編譯

1991 年 6 月 初版

書號 20765

定價 90 元 / 48 頁 / 平裝 / 16 開 / ISBN:957-546-029-4

本書簡介

此畫冊介紹依納爵從被召選、建立修會的生平事蹟。以輕鬆易讀的方式向讀者介紹耶穌會的始祖。

unexercised

Pronunciation: /ʌnˈɛksəsʌɪzd/

adjective

  • 1not made use of or put into practice:unexercised stock options
2(of a person) not taking exercise; unfit: he worried about Catherine’s delicate, unexercised constitution



undeterred, Rest on one's laurels, look to one's laurels, impromptu fig leaf


 
Undeterred by Channel’s Perils, Desperate Migrants Still Plan to Cross

Undeterred by Channel’s Perils, Desperate Migrants Still Plan to Cross

By Constant Méheut and Norimitsu Onishi

The number of migrants setting off into the English Channel by boat has soared in recent months. The deaths Wednesday of at least 27 people trying to make the crossing illustrate how dangerous it is.





No visitors were complaining as they filed past that photo and even more graphic examples of male nudity. Not so in the city. Posters of the three men were given impromptu fig-leafs _ lines of red tape covering their private parts.
當參觀民眾排隊經過這張照片或其他更寫實的男性裸體範例前面時,沒有任何人抱怨。但在市區其他地方就並非如此。這3名男子的海報正被臨時貼上無花果葉,也就是用數條紅色膠帶遮住他們的重要部位。




fig leaf:名詞,原指無花果葉,基督教聖經中的亞當與夏娃在發現自己裸體後即用無花果葉遮住自己的性器官,引申為指僅可蔽體之衣服,或指用來掩蓋尷尬問題 的事物,如Are the peace talks simply providing a fig leaf for the continuing aggression between the two countries?(和談是否只是為了掩飾這兩國之間的持續衝突?)


laurel (lôr'əl, lŏr'-) pronunciation
n.
  1. A Mediterranean evergreen tree (Laurus nobilis) having aromatic, simple leaves and small blackish berries. Also called bay, bay laurel, Also called sweet bay.
  2. A shrub or tree, such as the mountain laurel, having a similar aroma or leaf shape.
    1. A wreath of laurel conferred as a mark of honor in ancient times upon poets, heroes, and victors in athletic contests. Often used in the plural.
    2. Honor and glory won for great achievement. Often used in the plural.
tr.v., -reled, also -relled, -rel·ing, -rel·ling, -rels, -rels.
  1. To crown with laurel.
  2. To honor, especially with an award or a prize.
idiom:
rest on (one's) laurels
  1. To rely on one's past achievements instead of working to maintain or advance one's status or reputation.
[Middle English, from Old French laureole, from Latin laureola, diminutive of laurea, laurel tree. See laureate.]
look to one's laurels Protect one's preeminent reputation or position, especially against a threat of being surpassed.

laurel[lau・rel]

  • 発音記号[lɔ'ːrəl | lɔ'r-]
[名]
1 [U][C]ゲッケイジュ(月桂樹).
2 [U][C]1に似た葉をもつ木の総称(アメリカシャクナゲなど).
3 ((集合的に単数・複数扱い))月桂樹の枝[冠];(勝利・栄誉の象徴としての)月桂樹の葉飾り, 月桂冠.
4 ((通例〜s))栄誉, 名誉(honor)
win laurels
栄誉を得る, 賞賛を博す
look to one's laurels
(ライバルとの競争で)名誉を失わないように気をつける;油断なく気を遣う



rest [sit] on one's laurels
今までの実績に満足してあぐらをかいている.
━━[動](〜ed, 〜・ing or((英))〜led, 〜・ling)(他)
1 …を月桂冠で飾る.
2 …に栄誉[名誉]を与える.
[古フランス語lorier(lor月桂樹+-ier -ER2=月桂樹の木)]





undeterred
/ʌndɪˈtəːd/
adjective
  1. persevering with something despite setbacks.
    "he was undeterred by these disasters"


Rest on one's laurels

Meaning

To be satisfied with one's past success and to consider further effort unnecessary.

Origin

Bay treeThe laurels that are being referred to when someone is said to 'rest on his laurels' are the aromatically scented Laurus Nobilis trees or, more specifically, their leaves. The trees are known colloquially as Sweet Bay and are commonly grown as culinary or ornamental plants.
Rest on his laurelsThe origins of the phrase lie in ancient Greece, where laurel wreaths were symbols of victory and status. Of course, ancient Greece is where history and mythology were frequently mixed, so we need to tread carefully. The pre-Christian Greeks associated their god Apollo with laurel - that much is historical fact, as this image of Apollo wearing a laurel wreath on a 2nd century BC coin indicates. The reason for that association takes us into the myth of Apollo's love for the nymph Daphne, who turned into a Bay tree just as Apollo approached her (anything could happen if you were a Greek god). Undeterred, Apollo embraced the tree, cut off a branch to wear as a wreath and declared the plant sacred. Their belief in the myth caused the Greeks to present laurel wreaths to winners in the Pythian Games, which were held at Delphi in honour of Apollo every four years from the 6th century BC.
Following the decline of the Greek Empire, the use of wreaths of laurel as emblems of victory seems to have taken a long holiday and didn't re-emerge until the Middle Ages. Geoffrey Chaucer referred to laurels in that context in The Knight's Tale, circa 1385:
With laurer corouned as a conquerour
And there he lyueth in ioye and in honour .
[With laurel crowned as conqueror
There he lived in joy and honour
]
A 'laureate' was originally a person crowned with a laurel wreath. We continue to call those who are especially honoured laureates although the laurel leaves are usually kept for the kitchen these days. Nevertheless, laureates benefit in other ways; Nobel Laureates get a nice medal and 10 million Swedish Krona and Poets Laureate (in the UK at least) get a useful salary and a butt of sack (barrel of sherry).
As to the phrase's meaning, to 'rest on one's laurels' isn't considered at all a praiseworthy strategy - it suggests a decline into laziness and lack of application. That's not the original meaning. When 'rest on one's laurels' or, as it was initially, 'repose on one's laurels' was coined it was invariably part of a valedictory speech for some old soldier or retiring official. An early example of that usage is found inThe Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, 1723:
The Duke [of Orleans] was old enough to take his Repose under the Shadow of his Laurels.
Of course, the 'repose' was figurative - no one was imagining someone sleeping on a bed of laurel leaves, although the citation above could be construed as referring to laurel trees rather than laurel wreaths. No such doubts with a slightly later citation from the London-based Gentleman's Magazine, 1733, on the retirement of a schoolmaster of Westminster School:
So thou, paternal Sage, may'st now repose.
Nor seek new Laurels to adorn thy Brows.
As soon as we move into the energetic Victorian era, the meaning changes and the phrase is used with a distinctly disapproving tone. Victoria had barely gained the throne when we find this piece in the review magazine The Literary Chronicle, 1825, which praises the work of Maria Edgeworth:
We do not affect to wish she should repose on her laurels and rest satisfied; on the contrary, we believe that genius is inexhaustible... For Miss Edgeworth there must be no rest on this side the grave.
Tough audience the Victorians. We are hardly any more charitable these days. 'One-hit wonders' are sneered at and, with proper Anglo-Saxon earnestness, Anthony Burgess dismissed his fellow author Joseph Heller's inability to write a second book for 13 years following the success of Catch-22 by sniping that "Heller suffers from that fashionable American disease, writer's block".


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outermost, heyday, spinal disc herniation







Treating Disc Herniation without Surgery – Dr. Thomas Hartmann is our Guest in the in good shape Studio

A spinal disc herniation (prolapsus disci intervertebralis), informally and misleadingly called a "slipped disc", is a medical condition affecting the spine due to trauma, lifting injuries, or idiopathic, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring (annulus fibrosus) of an intervertebral disc (discus intervertebralis) allows the soft, central portion (nucleus pulposus) to bulge out. Tears are almost always postero-lateral in nature owing to the presence of the posterior longitudinal ligament in the spinal canal. This tear in the disc ring may result in the release of inflammatory chemical mediators which may directly cause severe pain, even in the absence of nerve root compression (see pathophysiology below). This is the rationale for the use of anti-inflammatory treatments for pain associated with disc herniation, protrusion, bulge, or disc tear.

It is normally a further development of a previously existing disc protrusion, a condition in which the outermost layers of the annulus fibrosus are still intact, but can bulge when the disc is under pressure.

herniate Abnormal protrusion of an organ or other body structure through a defect or natural opening in a covering membrane, muscle or bone. See also hernia and individual anatomical sites for hernia.

herniate[her・ni・ate]

  • 発音記号[hə'ːrnièit]
[動](自)ヘルニアになる.




outermost
/ˈaʊtəməʊst/
adjective
  1. furthest from the centre.
    "the outermost layer of the earth"
pronoun
  1. the one that is furthest from the centre.
    "the orbit of the outermost of these eight planets"