2023年8月31日 星期四

niche, overspill, well knit, spill, spillover effect, niche market, amenities, budget CHEAP, spill the b


這裏隱含一個成語To spill the beans 
意為「(有意或無意) 洩漏秘密」
爆發於中國的新型冠狀病毒疫情打擊了原油、銅和大豆的需求,但正在推動一些利基(niche)大宗商品市場反彈。
對動力煤或釩鉬合金等原材料來說,中國產量的下滑超過了需求下降的影響,錳也如是。動力煤可用於發電,釩鉬合金可用於增強鋼鐵韌性,而錳是鋼鐵廠和化肥廠使用的一種特殊金屬。


By JENNIFER CONLIN
Hostels are leaving their backpacker image behind, adding upscale locations, stylish furnishings and family-friendly amenities to attract a new generation of budget travelers.



Can urban amenities -- like ballparks, aquariums and river walks -- help stabilize U.S. cities and improve their economic outlooks? A new paper by Wharton real estate professor Albert Saiz and a colleague quantifies the importance of leisure amenities but also provides evidence that spending public dollars on leisure and cultural activities may offer more long-range benefit than traditional economic development focused on job creation. "For the last 50 years, we have been trying to bring businesses to cities," says Saiz, "but maybe it makes more sense to get people in there -- and the businesses will follow."

Niche Between Business and Economy


Jin Lee/Associated Press
The prem-plus section on a plane flown by OpenSkies, a unit of British Airways, offers more legroom.

Published: July 1, 2008

There is a new class of service emerging in the aircraft cabin. It fits between economy and business class, both in amenities and price. It offers a better seat, more legroom, priority boarding and fancier meal service than coach.




As buyout firms cast an eye over Gap and the retailer's interim chief executive, Robert Fisher, passes out memos on to improve business, The New York Times looks at at the anachronism that is the Gap: a single chain, selling only its own brand, with one point of view, chasing shoppers from birth to death.

In an era of niches, when exclusion is as vital as inclusion, Gap has become an anachronism: a single chain, selling only its own brand.

overspill, spill, spillover effect

更多中國日誌的文章 »
You might think that the plunge in global trade since November would have handily settled the long-running debate among economists over how much China depends on exports for its growth. After all, the country's headline economic growth rate has been cut almost in half, from 13% in 2007 to 6.8% in the last quarter of 2008.

But since the collapse in exports also coincided with a sharp slump in the domestic property market -- a crucial driver of investment -- there is still debate over just how much of China's current slowdown is externally driven, and how much is homegrown.

In a new paper, 'How Much Do Exports Matter For China's Growth?', three researchers at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority revisit this question. It's a live issue, as new data show that while exports continued to contract for a fifth straight month in March, the housing market has started to show signs of life.

The paper builds on previous work by one of the authors, Li Cui, who in a 2007 working paper for the International Monetary Fund presented evidence that China was becoming more dependent on external demand over time. Indeed, net exports contributed about 20% of China's economic growth from 2005 to 2007, compared to less than 10% in the previous five years.

But the authors try to go beyond that number to capture the total effect of the export manufacturing sector on the economy, including investment in new factories by exporters, and spending by people employed in those factories. That leads them to conclude that the spill-over effects from the export sector are in fact quite large.

The authors estimate that a decline of 10 percentage points in export growth would be associated with a decline of about 2.5 percentage points in GDP growth. 'This is about at least twice as large as what could have been expected if only the direct impact of exports is considered,' they write.

Part of the explanation, they say, is that exports are extremely important to a group of Chinese coastal provinces, which themselves account for the majority of the national economy. So changes in export demand can cause dramatic fluctuations in those regional economies, even while the inland provinces are less affected.

But of course, China's exports have recently slowed by a lot more than 10 percentage points. In volume terms, export growth rates have swung from around positive 20% in 2007 to nearly negative 20% in the first part of this year.

The biggest effect of a decline in exports, the authors find, is on corporate investment, as companies scale back expansion plans. And since the sharp drop in exports is just a few months old, the full magnitude of the subsequent drop in capital spending may not yet be evident.

Andrew Batson



The Tennessee Valley Authority has played down the risks of what may be the nation’s largest spill of coal ash, but there are questions about its potential toxicity.
Insurgents in the Russian province of Ingushetia have killed at least two Russian interior ministry troops and wounded five more. The militants ambushed a convoy on Saturday in the Caucasus region. An opposition Web site said the death toll was much higher and that numerous vehicles were destroyed in the attack. Russian officials in Moscow and in Ingushetia could not be reached for comment about the claim. Ingushetia is a poor, mainly Muslim republic that has experienced an overspill of violence from neighbouring
You stupid jerk! You've just spilled beer all down my new shirt!

knitting, niche, collectibles, niche market,



In the past decade, Japanese cars from the 1970s have joined the ranks of respectable collectibles.

The company said its website aims to exploit a market niche between internet sales sites such as eBay, which are available to the general public, and auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s for fine art and collectibles.
這家公司表示,他們網站目標是在提供如一般大眾的銷售網站eBay,和蘇富比、佳士得等精緻藝術和收藏品拍賣公司之間,開創出市場商機。



1. Enesco Recalls Shelly's Diner Collectible Due to Fire Hazard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml13/13067.html
Hazard: The diner's power adapter can overheat and melt the adapter's plastic housing, posing a fire hazard.
Shelly's Diner Collectible



News Trends Tilt Toward Niche Sites
By DAVID CARR

As news surges on the Web, news giants are being outmaneuvered by smaller sites that have passionate audiences and sharply focused information.

Knitters Click Needles for Sexy Undergarments

Knitting is a favourite past time for many, but for some, it’s a serious business. And for others, a passion.

In mall regional town near Hannover, a husband and wife team have put together a knitting circle, to cater for a very specific niche market – the ‘Wool Fetishist’.
With their label "Wolltraum", the couple is providing a unique range of hand-knitted products for people with a taste for personal woolen wares around the world.




niche:名詞,利基、商機;(人或物)適當位置。She has found her niche in this business.(她已經找到她在這行的利基。)

ニッチ【niche】

     西洋建築で、厚みのある壁をえぐって作ったくぼみ部分。彫像や花瓶などを置く。壁龕(へきがん)
     ある生物が生態系の中で占める位置。生態的地位。ニッチェ。
     橋・トンネルなどのわきに設けられる非常用の退避空間。
     すきま。「―産業」
ニッチさんぎょう【ニッチ産業】
niche industry》「すき間産業」に同じ。
 
[名]
1 (人・物に)適した地位, 適所((for, in ...)).
2 壁がん:像・花瓶などを置くための壁などのくぼみ.
3 ニッチ, 市場のすき間
a niche market
ニッチマーケット, すきま市場
a niche product
ニッチプロダクト, すきま製品(niche marketで売られる製品).
4 《生態学》生態的地位.
5 《医学》ニッシェ:胃などの内壁のX線像に見えるくぼみ.
━━[動](他)
1 ((通例受身または〜 -self))…を(適所に)置く, 安置する
keep one's niche
住み分けの場所を確保する.
2 〈像を〉壁がんに収める.
[中フランス語←俗ラテン語nidiculāre (nidus巣+-cul指小辞+-āre不定詞語尾=小さな巣を作る)]

above all else:副詞片語,最重要的。例句:He loves his family above all else.(他最愛他的家庭。)

knit

 

━━ vt. (~ted, ~; -tt-) 編む, 編んで作る ((out of; into)); 編んでやる ((for)); …目分を表編みする; 密着させる, 団結させる ((together)); (眉を)ひそめる; (筋肉を)引き締める.
━━ vi. 編物をする; 接合する ((together)).
 knit up 編んでつくろう; 編み上げる; (毛糸などが)編める.
 well-knit (frame) 引きしまった(体格).
━━ n. ニット, 編んだ衣料, 織物.

well knit
adjective
  1. (of a person) strongly and compactly built.
    "the well-knit, athletic type"

 knit・ter 編む人; 編み機.
 knit・ting 編むこと, 編物, 編み細工.
 tend [stick] to one's knitting 他人事に干渉しない, 自分のことに専念する.
knitting machine 編み機.
knitting needle 編み針.
 knit・wear ━━ n. ニットウェア ((衣料)).

collectable[col・lect・a・ble]

  • 発音記号[kəléktəbl]
[形]集められる, 収集可能な;趣味の収集品となり得る.
━━[名]((通例〜s))趣味の収集品.

spill 
verb [I or T; usually + adverb or preposition] spilled or UK ALSO spiltspilled or UK ALSO spilt
to (cause to) flow, move, fall or spread over the edge or beyond the limits of something:
I spilt coffee on my silk shirt.
You've spilt something down your tie.
Let's see if I can pour the juice into the glass without spilling it.
He dropped a bag of sugar and it spilt all over the floor.
Crowds of football fans spilled onto the field at the end of the game.

spill 
noun [C]
an amount of something which has come out of a container:
a fuel spill on the road
Could you wipe up that spill, please?
In 1989, there was a massive oil spill in Alaska.

spillage 
noun [C or U] FORMAL
a spill:
oil spillages 

overspill
 

ntr.v.-spilled or -spilt (-spĭlt), -spill·ing-spills.
To spill over.
n. (ō'vər-spĭl')
  1. The act of spilling over.
  2. Something that spills over: an overspill of milk.
  3. Chiefly British. Movement of people from overcrowded cities to less populated areas.

noun [U] UK
people who move out of a crowded city and into other towns or villages near the city:
the overspill from London/the London overspill
an overspill housing estate.
Spillover effects are externalities of economic activity or processes upon those who are not directly involved in it. Odors from a rendering plant are negative spillover effects upon its neighbors; the beauty of a homeowner's flower garden is a positive spillover effect upon neighbors.
In the same way, the economic benefits of increased trade are the spill over effects anticipated in the formation of multilateral alliances of many of the regional nation states: e.g SARC (South Asian Regional Cooperation), ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
In reference to psychology, the spillover effect is when other peoples emotions effect the emotions of those around them. For example if one is happy, other people emotions alter as well

budget (CHEAP)
adjective [before noun]
very cheap:
a budget holiday/hotel/price

niche market noun [C]
a small area of trade within the economy, often involving specialized products:
Lotus make luxury cars for a small but significant niche market.

amenity 
noun [C usually plural]
1 something, such as a swimming pool or shopping centre, that is intended to make life more pleasant or comfortable for the people in a town, hotel or other place:
The council has some spare cash which it proposes to spend on public amenities.

2 basic amenities things considered to be necessary to live comfortably such as hot water:
The 200-year-old jail is overcrowded, understaffed and lacking in basic amenities.
a・me・ni・ty



,
━━ n. (人柄の)感じのよさ; (環境・建物の)心地よさ, 快適; (pl.) 楽しみ, 快適な設備; (pl.) 礼儀.

2023年8月30日 星期三

myrrh, balm, tincture, incense burner, quackery of homeopathy



“Why value philosophy? The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. As soon as we begin to philosophize, on the contrary, we find that even the most everyday things lead to problems to which only very incomplete answers can be given.“

— Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912), Ch. XV: The Value of Philosophy, p. 141 

━━
Background: The Problems of Philosophy (1912) by Bertrand Russell 

Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy has never been out of print and is often considered essential reading for philosophy students. Russell introduces philosophy as a repeating series of (failed) attempts to answer the same questions: Can we prove that there is an external world? Can we prove cause and effect? Can we validate any of our generalizations? Can we objectively justify morality? 

Russell asserts that philosophy cannot answer any of these questions and that any value of philosophy must lie elsewhere than in offering proofs to such issues. Focusing on problems he believes will provoke positive and constructive discussion, Russell concentrates on knowledge rather than metaphysics: If it is uncertain that external objects exist, how can we then have knowledge of them but by probability? Russell finds there is no reason to doubt the existence of external objects simply because of sense data.

Russell guides the reader through his famous 1910 distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. He introduces the theories of Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, David Hume, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and others to lay the foundation for philosophical inquiry all the while considering general readers and scholars alike.

“In the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those problems of philosophy in regard to which I thought it possible to say something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism seemed out of place. For this reason, theory of knowledge occupies a larger space than metaphysics in the present volume, some topics much discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly, if at all.”

— Bertrand Russell, Preface of The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

Image right: Bertrand Russell (5 May 1912). 

Image left: The Problems of Philosophy, 1912 title page. First edition.

In times as uncertain as these, returning to a classic book can be a balm. We’ve rounded up suggestions from the Books department and elsewhere in the newsroom, spanning everything from Henry James to Tolstoy, with plenty in between. (My suggestion? M.F.K. Fisher’s “How to Cook a Wolf.”)

Germany gives homeopathy a privileged legal status. A tincture of rationality would be welcome
Many upper-class Germans swear by homeopathy
ECONOMIST.COM


Anyone, it seems, can get into the poet's head. When Samuel Taylor Coleridge died—on July 25th 1834—he left behind magnificently sprawling notebooks in which he recorded almost minute by minute his insights, raptures, conversations, longings and opium-tinctured dreams

The poet and critic died on this day in 1834
ECON.ST

The sweet smell of success? Today’s ‪#‎MysteryObject‬ is an incense burner from Iran. Incense was used to sweeten the smells of houses, temples, palaces and tombs. This magnificent object is cast from copper alloy and was used as a portable incense burner. It probably dates to about the 1st–3rd centuries AD http://ow.ly/4nuzcN


Really?


By ANAHAD O’CONNOR A cup of hot tea is an age-old balm for sniffles, sneezing and stuffiness.

myrrh :植物名。橄欖科密兒拉屬。樹脂黏而有香味,多產於印度﹑阿拉伯及東非洲等地。可供做藥劑及香料。


紐約時報這首詩看不懂又有何妨
A Poem

Myrrh

Published: December 25, 2007

Now the water in the saucepan was off the boil
my mother would turn, spluttering, from the can of kaolin
she was about to apply to a boil
on the back of my neck to clean
the surrounding area. The icing on the cake. These tears of gum
on the Christmas tree the closest we'd as yet come to myrrh,
though tincture of myrrh was still prescribed for gum
and mouth disorders. Christmas Eve. A mere
two days till the hunters would raise the puss,
a pack of hounds starting it from its form
and following it through the surrounding area till, jingle-jangle,
its nozzle would fill with blood. As yet, a little bloody pus
on this morning's poultice-gauze the closest we'd come to the form
of a star halted in a sky of china-clay.

Paul Muldoon is the author, most recently, of the collection “Horse Latitudes.”






tincture 

Pronunciation: /ˈtɪŋ(k)tʃə/ 

NOUNmedicine made by dissolving a drug in alcohol:
the remedies can be administered in form of tinctures[MASS NOUN]: bottle containing tincture of iodine
1.1British informal An alcoholic drink:he’s a rough diamond, especially after a tincture or two

2slight trace of something:she could not keep a tincture of bitterness out of her voice
3Heraldry Any of the conventional colours (including the metals and stains, and often thefurs) used in coats of arms.

VERB

(be tinctured)
Be tinged or imbued with a slight amount of:Arthur’s affability was tinctured with faint sarcasm


Origin

Late Middle English (denoting a dye or pigment): from Latin tinctura 'dyeing', from tingere 'to dye or colour'. sense 2 of the noun (early 17th century) comes from the obsolete sense 'imparted quality', likened to a tint imparted by a dye.

myrrh(mûr) pronunciation

━━ n. 没薬(もつやく) ((香料・薬剤にする熱帯樹脂)).n.
  1. An aromatic gum resin obtained from several trees and shrubs of the genus Commiphora of India, Arabia, and eastern Africa, used in perfume and incense. Also called balm of Gilead.
  2. See sweet cicely (sense 2).
[Middle English mirre, from Old English myrrha, from Latin, from Greek murrha, of Semitic origin.]


balm 
noun [C or U]
1 an oil that is obtained from particular tropical trees and used especially to treat injuries or reduce pain:
a new skin balm

2 something that gives comfort:
Her gentle words were a balm to me.

2023年8月29日 星期二

double down, doublespeak 雙言巧語, irony, Bluetongue disease



What's your number?

In 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, fight inequality, and stop climate change by 2030.

We’re halfway there—it’s time to double down on our commitment to achieving the Global Goals. #Goalkeepers2030

More than 850 cows that have spent two months at sea on a ship crossing the Mediterranean are facing slaughter, following a report from Spanish vets





NEWS.SKY.COM
Over 850 cows on pariah ship in Mediterranean facing slaughter after bluetongue fears


HKFP_Voices: "Who would have thought that George Orwell’s definition of doublespeak in his famous novel, 1984, would seem so inadequate? But then he could not have known the new heights to which the Chinese Communist Party regime would take irony," writes the UK's Lord Shinkwin.


If you hate: loft living; bar-clubs; Tony Blair; chick lit; global warming sceptics; Keane; loyalty cards; IKEA; Kabbalah; bling and Richard Curtis...
... then you need IS IT JUST ME OR IS EVERYTHING SHIT? - an encylopedic attack on modern culture and the standard reference work for everyone who believes everything is shit. Which it is. This book is for the large percentage of the population interested in saying NO to the phoney ideas, cretinous people, useless products and doublespeak that increasingly dominate our lives. This book is designed for everyone who thinks they may have mislaid their soul in a Coffee Republic. Never before has there been a book so completely full of shit.
This very funny, well-informed, belligerent rant of a book adds up to an excoriating broadside against consumer capitalism that the authors hope will sell loads of copies.


----

Bluetongue disease is a noncontagiousinsect-borneviral disease of ruminants, mainly sheep and less frequently cattle,[1] yaks,[2] goatsbuffalodeerdromedaries, and antelope. It is caused by Bluetongue virus (BTV). The virus is transmitted by the midges Culicoides imicolaCulicoides variipennis, and other culicoids.

ブルータングBluetongue disease)は、ウシヒツジシカバッファローカモシカなどの反芻動物に感染するウイルス性の病気。日本では直訳で「青舌病」とも呼ばれる。

---

Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs and "servicing the target" for bombing),[1] in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth.

Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language.[2][3]

The word is comparable to George Orwell's Newspeak and Doublethink as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four, though the term Doublespeak does not appear there.[4]


雙言巧語doublespeak)是一種故意扭轉或隱藏原意的修辭法,常為政治組織軍隊企業或公關宣傳領域使用,有時候可以視為一種委婉政治正確的表達方式,但在用於政治組織、軍隊或企業的場合,現代通常稱為「雙言巧語」。

其出現歷史極度悠久幾乎與人類文字史同等,孔子於西元前480年左右編纂《春秋》就出現春秋筆法微言大義的作法,可以視為雙言巧語典型,到了宋朝宋歐陽修組織編修的《新唐書》、《新五代史》全篇大量運用春秋筆法。


雙言巧語在1950年代開始出現於美國,許多人誤認為雙言巧語這個詞出於喬治·奧威爾反烏托邦小說《一九八四》,但雙言巧語從未出現在該小說中。雖然如此,奧威爾倒是在小說中使用了形容政府試圖顛倒是非的「新語」(Newspeak)、「舊語」(Oldspeak)及雙重思考(Doublethink)等幾個詞,當《一九八四》風行之後,在英文名詞後加上speak(例如Irakspeak)一時開始流行,而在社會語言的演進過程中產生了「雙言巧語」這個用法。依照奧威爾式辭書學的定義,就如同「新說法」的反義B詞彙一樣,雙言巧語的目的是蓄意為政治用途創造新的字彙,這不但具有政治的意圖,同時也試圖影響字彙使用者的態度。

範例[編輯]

政治[編輯]

軍事[編輯]

社會[編輯]

用法[編輯]

雙言巧語常見於政治外交方面。