naphtha cracker/ steam cracker. crackers in bed. JD Vance, Purr-fectly Dreadful. looks enlightened about women. Sure, he’s in a 1959 time warp, like some spray-tanned, comb-over swinger in a Vegas lounge, talking about skirts and broads.

Suddenly, Donald Trump looks enlightened about women.

Sure, he’s in a 1959 time warp, like some spray-tanned, comb-over swinger in a Vegas lounge, talking about skirts and broads.

Sure, he filled the Supreme Court with religious zealots ending women’s rights.

GOOGLE: 突然之間，唐納德·川普看起來對女性有了開明的認識。

當然，他正處於 1959 年的時間扭曲中>，就像維加斯休息室裡某個曬黑了、梳著梳子的浪蕩公子，談論著裙子和背心。

當然，他在最高法院裡擠滿了終止婦女權利的宗教狂熱分子。

Japan Mitsubishi Chem shuts Mizushima naphtha cracker
Reuters - USA
SINGAPORE, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Japan's largest petrochemical firm Mitsubishi Chemical Corp shut a 450000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracker in Mizushima in ...

把一百多度提煉出的輕油加以裂解成 乙烯等石化品

“And Every Lad May Be Aladdin (Crackers in Bed)” by Norman Rockwell (1920)

“Here’s a story for you.

Very early one morning, I couldn’t sleep so I went on Facebook. I was scanning the feed, looking for something to connect to, hold on to, perhaps transport me.

I happened upon a friend’s post of this painting depicting a boy in bed. It immediately drew me in. It’s evening, and he’s sitting up in bed, intently reading. Completely absorbed. So focused on his book that he tilts the lamp to directly shine its light so no text is obscured, and shuts out all distractions. Who painted this? I wondered.

I had somehow overlooked the signature. It was so early in the morning; my experience was one of falling into the reality of the painting — I was as absorbed by it as the boy was with his book. There seemed to be all these secrets in that room waiting to be revealed.

I started to explore all the details. I noticed the subtle, gentle way the view outside his window was painted; the welcoming lights of the next-door neighbor’s, the first stars peaking out of the sky. The cord of the window shade inexplicably caught in the drapes — this detail fascinated me. A quiet, off-kilter wink that directs your attention back to the boy instead of out the window. I noticed the hilt of the sword stuck behind the painting on the wall above him, difficult to make out at first. An indication of adventure. Some sort of animal and a man are pictured in the painting — the man appears to be backing away from the beast. Deep shadows against the wall create a powerful silhouette of the boy and contrast with the very strong light of the lamp. I almost missed the dog, sleeping contentedly, one with the quilt and the line of the boy’s propped up legs. Then I noticed the worn shoes, one resting on the other, mirroring the dog resting on the boy’s feet.

Those look like Pop’s shoes, the kind he would draw. Pop loved careworn shoes of all kinds. I was puzzled. Again I thought, Who painted this?

I noticed the books on the side table, and the lamp cord falling into shadow beyond the light’s reach. The dog’s markings reflect the pattern in the quilt mirroring the pattern of the glass lampshade. And what is the boy eating – is that a box of crackers?

The magic of the painting held me for quite a while. I didn’t want to leave the comfort and safety of that room, the boy’s world and that private moment.

I went back to my friend’s page and saw that he had credited the image in another post. It was a Norman Rockwell! How could I not have known?! It was an epiphany. Never before had I seen my grandfather’s work with fresh eyes — for the first time I didn’t bring my history into viewing it. I had complete purity of vision, and I now understood what people have always said to me — that to enter into the magic of one of his paintings, the world he created, is to be truly transported.

This painting is part of the Edison Mazda series that my grandfather painted from 1920 to 1927. I mentioned this series in my last post on Young Valedictorian. I particularly love this series — it speaks to the adventure, enchantment, and safety of childhood.”

-Abigail Rockwell (Granddaughter of Norman Rockwell)

PURRINGLY definition: 1. in a way that is similar to or sounds like purring (= making a quiet, continuous, soft sound…. 

It is a silly way of saying 'perfect' but using 'purr' like the sound a cat makes. You might use it among friends when saying how purrfect( ..

naphtha
n. 輕油

1. Any of several highly volatile, flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons distilled from petroleum, coal tar, and natural gas and used as fuel, as solvents, and in making various chemicals.
2. Obsolete. Petroleum.

[Latin, from Greek, liquid bitumen, of Semitic origin.]

CRACKER

n.

1. A thin crisp wafer or biscuit, usually made of unsweetened dough.
2. One that cracks, especially:
   1. A firecracker.
   2. A small cardboard cylinder covered with decorative paper that holds candy or a party favor and pops when a paper strip is pulled at one or both ends and torn.
   3. The apparatus used in the cracking of petroleum. 煉解
      
   4. One who makes unauthorized use of a computer, especially to tamper with data or programs.
3. Offensive.
   1. Used as a disparaging term for a poor white person of the rural, especially southeast United States.
   2. Used as a disparaging term for a white person.

crack ━━ v. 割る［れる］; ひびを入らす［が入る］; ぱちっ［ぴしゃり］と鳴る［らす］; （声の）調子を急に変える, 声変りする; ぽかりとなぐる; （抵抗力などを）くじく, 参る, だめにする; （車などを）とばす ((on)); （冗談・しゃれを）言う (～ a joke); （金庫などを）こじ開ける, 押入る; 〔話〕 （酒のびんを）あける, 一杯やる; 解決［読］する, 読む; 【化】（石油を）分留する.n. - 餅乾, 胡桃夾, 爆竹, 解密高手

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - クラッカー, かんしゃく玉, 爆竹, 破砕器

naphtha
n. - 揮發油, 石腦油

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ナフサ, 石油(廢)

foil, foiling, Wedding Veil, tip-off, propitious jingles, breathed a sigh of relief. How Ozempic Turned a 1974 Hit Into an Inescapable Jingle. semifinal bout of the women’s individual foil tournament

BREAKING: Lauren S. Scruggs ’25 will be the first Harvard Olympian at the 2024 Paris Games to win a medal after she defeated Canadian 12th-seed Eleanor Harvey in the semifinal bout of the women’s individual foil tournament on Sunday.

Thomas Harris reports.

How Ozempic Turned a 1974 Hit Into an Inescapable Jingle

The diabetes drug has become a phenomenon, and “Oh, oh, oh, Ozempic!” — a takeoff of the Pilot song “Magic” — has played a big part in its story.

Meghan Markle's 16-foot-long veil included flowers to represent each of the 53 British Commonwealth countries, sparking debate and controversy in India. "The flowers, though beautiful, represent colonial amnesia at its worst," a classical and contemporary dancer in Chennai says.

Not Everybody Was A Fan Of Meghan Markle's Wedding Veil

The veil depicted 53 flowers representing the nations of the Commonwealth. And that has prompted a backlash in India.

NPR.ORG

As Catalans Voted, 'Dying With Fear' at High School Turned Polling Place

By ELLEN BARRY

Students at the Moisès Broggi school created barricades to foil the police and used diversions to sneak ballot boxes to safety.

A writer uses superheroes as foils for communicating science.

U.S. Lawmaker Calls for New Debate Over Patriot Act

By BRIAN KNOWLTON 24 minutes ago

A critic of the government’s electronic surveillance programs, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, said he was not convinced that a program to collect huge amounts of information about Americans’ phone calls had led to the foiling of any terror plots.

Organizers of a traveling exhibition about the human body breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after an anonymous telephone tip-off led to the recovery of a stolen lung.
一個人體巡迴展的主辦單位，在一通匿名電話透露消息，而使失竊的肺臟失而復得後，寬慰地鬆了口氣。魏國金


Oracle Snatches Sun, Foiling IBM

Oracle struck a surprise deal to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.38 billion, swooping in after talks between Sun and IBM stalled.

German Marines Foil Pirate Attack on Bremen-Based Ship Off Somalia

The German navy detained nine people Tuesday following a dramatic action to
head off a pirate attack on a German merchant vessel off the coast of
Somalia.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew0cyiI44va89pI8


foil (PREVENT)
verb [T]
to prevent someone or something from being successful:
The prisoners' attempt to escape was foiled at the last minute when police received a tip-off.A former partner at Ernst &Young was charged with insider trading on Thursday, accused of tipping off a friend about pending deals involving the firm's clients, including the $17.6 billion buyout of Freescale Semiconductor led by the Blackstone Group.

foil

4 of 5

noun (2)

1

: a light fencing sword having a usually circular guard and a flexible blade of rectangular section tapering to a blunted point compare épée, saber

2

: the art or sport of fencing with the foil 

—often used in plural

foil

5 of 5

noun (3)

1

archaic : defeat

2

archaic : the track or trail of an animal

tip sb off phrasal verb [M]
to warn someone secretly about something that will happen, so that they can take action or prevent it from happening:
[+ that] Somebody must have tipped the burglars off that the house would be empty.
The robber was caught when someone tipped off the police.

tip-off 
noun [C usually singular] INFORMAL
a secret warning or piece of secret information:
Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested the drug dealers.
Following a tip-off from a friend, we sold all our shares in the company.
breathe a sigh of relief︰寬慰的（或如釋重負的）鬆口氣。例句︰We all breathed a sigh of relief when she left.（當她離開時，我們全都如釋重負地鬆了口氣。）
tip-off︰密報、透露消息。例句︰Police, acting on a tip-off, foiled attemtps to blow up the building.（警方根據密報採取行動，挫敗了炸毀這棟建築物的陰謀。）





In the race to build a national defense against chemical and biological weapons, Annapolis-based PharmAthene is putting its money on an unlikely horse.
Or goat, actually, one with unique properties to enable researchers' development of a drug that would foil the neurological effects of chemical weapons.

━━ n. （金属の）箔(はく), （料理用）アルミ箔, ホイル; （鏡の）裏箔; （宝石の光沢を増すための下敷箔）; 他を引立てるもの［人］; 【建】弁.
serve as a foil　引立て役になる.
━━ vt. 箔を着せる［で裏打ちする］; 引き立たせる.foil (COMPARISON) noun [C]

something or someone that makes another's good or bad qualities more noticeable:
The older, cynical character in the play is the perfect foil for the innocent William.


The bride had only one sure ally on her wedding day. This ally was not a relative or a best friend, but a bridesmaid her parents had hired to give her protection. The bridesmaid was, by training, a professional talker; she said clever things and was able to churn out propitious jingles. She was a foil for the bride, and her chatter was the shield she created for her young mistress at the time it was most needed.
新娘過門那天，身邊只有一個體己人。這體己人不是她的至親好友，而是父母雇來照應她的伴娘。伴娘專習此業，伶牙俐齒，口彩連篇。她把新娘烘托得更出色，又施展口才，在新娘最尷尬的時刻滔滔不絕，及時替她解圍。

propitious
adjective FORMAL
likely to result in or showing signs of success:
With the economy in the worst recession for thirty years, it was scarcely the most propitious time to start up a company.

summit. prominence, bring sb or something into prominence. attend summit in Taiwan

Queen City News

Lawmakers from 6 countries say Beijing is pressuring them not to attend summit in Taiwan

He was lauded for his role in elevating Hong Kong gangster films to international prominence.k

Samsung Revamps, Names New CEO

Samsung's latest reorganization puts its most successful manager in charge of the whole company and brings to prominence the grandson of the company's founder.

Elevation	14,032 ft (4,277 m) NAVD 88[1]
Prominence	1,165 ft (355 m)[1]
Parent peak	Mount Whitney[1]

海拔14032英尺（4277米）NAVD88[1]
突出1165英尺（357 M）[1]
母峰惠特尼山[1]


bring someone or something into prominence

to cause someone or something to become famous or renowned. The award brought Mike into national prominence. The current national need for engineers brought our school into prominence.
A terrible scandal brought Lily into prominence.

See also: bring, prominence

summit.

a

: the highest level of officials

especially : the diplomatic level of heads of government

b

: a conference of highest-level officials (such as heads of government)

an economic summit

summit 越用越鬆

 prominence

Line breaks: prom¦in|ence

Pronunciation: /ˈprɒmɪnəns/ 

Definition of prominence in English:

noun

[MASS NOUN]

1The state of being important, famous, or noticeable:she came to prominence as an artist in the 1960s[IN SINGULAR]: the commission gave the case a prominence which it might otherwise have escaped

2The fact or state of projecting from something:radiographs showed enlargement of the right heart with prominence of the pulmonary outflow tract

2.1[COUNT NOUN] A thing that projects from something, such as a projecting feature of the landscape or aprotuberance on a part of the body:the steep, rocky prominence resembled a snow-capped mountain

2.2[COUNT NOUN] Astronomy A stream of incandescentgas projecting above the sun’s chromosphere.

Derivatives

prominency

1

noun

Origin

Late 16th century (denoting something that juts out): from obsolete French, from Latin prominentia 'jutting out', from the verb prominere (see prominent).

decadent, virility, dreadnought, Decency plays second fiddle to decadence, scheming and emotional blackmail. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present

Women's Wisdom Hour - Simone de Beauvoir

...was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. (Wikipedia)

所有心情：

1.4 萬1.4 萬

Decency plays second fiddle to decadence, scheming and emotional blackmail in murky, satirical Korean thriller Mine, writes Stephen McCarty.

In the old days, countries used to measure their virility by the size of their fleets. If tech giants are the new dreadnoughts, Britain and Europe were long ago blown out of the water.

Virginia Woolf called his "self-conscious virility ."

"Les Fleurs du Mal" was published on June 25th 1857. A collection of poetry dedicated to exploring eroticism and decadence, it was categorised by themes such as "wine", "death" and "revolt". It was deemed "an insult to public decency"; Baudelaire was fined and dissemination of the volume was prohibited until 1949

The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century.


dec·a·dent (dĕk'ə-dənt, dĭ-kād'nt) 
adj. Being in a state of decline or decay. Marked by or providing unrestrained gratification; self-indulgent.often Decadent Of or relating to literary Decadence. 
(簡單介紹Huysmans（于斯曼）
He was born in Paris. Huysmans（于 斯曼）started his literary career as a Naturalist writer with texts such as Marthe, Histoire d'une fille (1876). His novel À rebours (Against the Grain 逆反1884) broke from Naturalism and became the ultimate example of "decadent" literature【因此，有人說，這本該是O. Wilde（1854–1900）的聖經】.)


n.周作人似乎翻譯為"狄卡耽"

1. A person in a condition or process of mental or moral decay.
2. often Decadent A member of the Decadence movement.

[French décadent, back-formation from décadence, decadence. See decadence.]

dec・a・dent

━━ a., n. 衰微［退廃］の; （時にD-） (19世紀末フランスの）退廃［デカダン］派の（芸術家）; 退廃的な人.

衰頹、倒塌。
精神萎靡不振。如：他自從雙親過世後，精神就一直頹廢不振。


The Player: The wild, brief life of a surfing legend and international playboy ... on his decadent life.

名著名譯　A more recent, and very widely acclaimed, bestseller is From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000).

鄭明萱
巨大的挑戰
謝謝金鼎獎設置翻譯人獎，這是對所有譯者的肯定與鼓勵。
《從黎明到衰頹》是一項巨大的挑戰，原著作者的知識高度

，高不可及。但是他也表明：這本書──「是為喜歡閱讀藝術、思想、風俗、道德、宗教，以及其社會背景的讀者而寫」。
譯者便是將自己定位成這樣一位「普通讀者」，享受其中每一分閱讀與知識的樂趣，更藉由身為譯者之便，向作者直接請益，盡力將同樣的樂趣分享給每一位這樣的讀者。
但是文本「可譯」，譯本也永遠「可議」，文本的真相，常常Lost in Translation。翻譯，永遠有改正與進步的空間。
謝謝巴森先生寫了這部巨著，謝謝余英時先生推薦這部巨著，謝謝陳穎青先生的勇氣與信任，謝謝貓頭鷹編輯團隊，謝謝家人友人永遠做我後盾，謝謝評審。這個獎，獻給母親。

... "衰" （ 《從黎明到衰頹》台北：貓頭鷹，2004。對照：《從黎明到衰落》北京：世界知識，2002），對於其他人或許只是淡淡之"哀 "，甚或是一種盛之 "質變" 。換成另外史家H氏，如『中世紀之秋』，現在為『現代之秋』，或許都還沒過去（
POST-MODERN）呢 ….

【「 作者於decadence 一字特作解釋, 是指爛熟, 而非衰徵.
當初譯書名大費躊躇, 最後只能就了個不甚滿意的譯法

原書名還押了頭韻, 不知是巧合還是特意
試譯了好幾名想反映這個頭韻特色
可是力有不逮, 能力欠佳, 只能將將就就」

The study found African elephants reacted with fear when they detected the scent of garments previously worn by men of the Maasai tribe.
這份研究發現，非洲象發現馬賽族人穿過的衣服氣味時，會表現出害怕的樣子。
Maasai men are known to demonstrate their virility by spearing elephants.
馬賽族人以刺戳大象展現男性氣概聞名。

《中英對照讀新聞》Elephants sense ’danger’ clothes大象可以意識到「危險」衣著
◎鄭寺音

Vanity, Vitality, and Virility :The Science Behind the Products You Love to Buy by John Emsley
{ 口紅、鑽石、威而剛-商品背後的科學}In Vanity, Vitality, and Virility , award-winning science writer John Emsley offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of 30 chemicals that we use everyday to make ourselves more beautiful, to improve our diet and sexual pleasure, to kill germs, and to ward off depression
and other mental illnesses.


virility
 ━━ n. 男らしさ; 力強さ, 精力; 生殖力.
n.

1. The quality or state of being virile; manly character.
2. Masculine vigor; potency.

virile (POWER)
adjective LITERARY APPROVING
powerful, strong and energetic:
In this role, Durante is able to give full expression to that wonderfully virile voice.

virility 
noun [U] APPROVING
strength or power:
If a country's foreign trade is a measure of its economic virility, this country looks sadly impotent.