通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日跟讀#684: Artificial Intelligence Takes Over the Boss’s Role

 

When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom-right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, A.I. tells him how he’s doing.

 

康納·史普爾斯是保險業巨擘大都會人壽電話客服中心的客戶服務代表，當他透過電話跟客戶談話時，一隻眼緊盯電腦屏幕右下角一個藍色方塊，人工智慧會告知他表現如何。

 

Talking too fast? The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down.

 

講話太快？程式會跳出一個速度表的圖示，告訴他該放慢速度。

 

Sound sleepy? The software displays an “energy cue,” with a picture of a coffee cup. Not empathetic enough? A heart icon pops up.

 

聲音顯得睏倦？軟體會以一個咖啡杯的圖案作為“能量提示”。不夠有同理心？愛心圖案就會跳出。

 

For decades, people have fearfully imagined armies of hyper-efficient robots invading offices and factories, gobbling up jobs once done by humans. But in all of the worry about the potential of artificial intelligence to replace rank-and-file workers, we may have overlooked the possibility it will replace the bosses, too.

 

數十年來，人們一直害怕地想像著高效率機器人入侵辦公室與工廠，把原屬人類的工作大舉搶去，然而在有關人工智慧可能取代基層人員的種種憂慮中，我們可能忽略了它也會取代上司的可能性。

 

Sprouls and the other call center workers at his office in Warwick, Rhode Island, still have plenty of human supervisors. But the software on their screens — made by Cogito, an A.I. company in Boston — has become a kind of adjunct manager, always watching them. At the end of every call, Sprouls’ Cogito notifications are tallied and added to a statistics dashboard that his supervisor can view. If he hides the Cogito window by minimizing it, the program notifies his supervisor.

 

史普爾斯跟羅德島沃維克市客服中心辦公室內其他同事的工作，目前仍有不少上級主管在監督，但他們螢幕上由波士頓人工智慧公司Cogito製作的軟體，已成為兼職管理人員，不斷監督著他們。每次通話結束時，史普爾斯的Cogito通知就會被統計，並加到他主管可查看的統計板中。若他透過最小化方式將Cogito視窗隱藏，該程式會通知他的主管。

 

Cogito is one of several A.I. programs used in call centers and other workplaces. The goal, according to Joshua Feast, Cogito’s chief executive, is to make workers more effective by giving them real-time feedback.

 

Cogito是數個用於客服中心及其他工作場所的人工智慧程式之一。Cogito執行長約書亞．菲斯特指出，目的是透過即時反饋來提高員工的效率。

 

“There is variability in human performance,” Feast said. “We can infer from the way people are speaking with each other whether things are going well or not.”

 

菲斯特說：「人的表現是具有變化性的。我們可從人們相互交談的方式來推斷事情是否進展順利。」

 

The goal of automation has always been efficiency, but in this new kind of workplace, A.I. sees humanity itself as the thing to be optimized. Amazon uses complex algorithms to track worker productivity in its fulfillment centers, and can automatically generate the paperwork to fire workers who don’t meet their targets, as The Verge uncovered this year.

 

效率一直是自動化的目標，但在這種新型工作場所中，人工智慧把人性本身看作是需要優化的事物。一如The Verge今年所揭露的，亞馬遜使用複雜演算法追蹤履行中心員工的生產力，且可自動製成文件用以開除未達目標的員工。

 

(Amazon has disputed that it fires workers without human input, saying that managers can intervene in the process.) IBM has used Watson, its A.I. platform, during employee reviews to predict future performance and claims it has a 96% accuracy rate.

 

（亞馬遜一直辯稱不會在沒有真人介入的情況下開除員工，表示管理人員可在過程中進行干預。）IBM曾在員工評估期間使用旗下人工智慧平台Watson預測未來績效，並聲稱有96%準確率。

 

Then there are the startups. Cogito, which works with large insurance companies like MetLife and Humana as well as financial and retail firms, says it has 20,000 users. Percolata, a Silicon Valley company that counts Uniqlo and 7-Eleven among its clients, uses in-store sensors to calculate a “true productivity” score for each worker, and rank workers from most to least productive.

 

其次是新創公司。跟大都會人壽、Humana等大型保險公司及金融和零售業者合作的Cogito表示，該公司有2萬個用戶。客戶包括優衣庫和7-Eleven的矽谷公司Percolata，使用店內感應器來計算每個員工的「真實生產力」分數，並將員工依生產力從最高到最低加以排列。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/344431/web/

 

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每日跟讀#683: About UK - Amazon Echo link could be turning UK parents off the name

 

The number of parents in Britain calling their baby girls Alexa dropped by more than half last year, statistics showed on Thursday, possibly due to the link with Amazon Echo voice-controlled gadgets.

 

週四呈現的統計資料顯示，英國父母叫女嬰為「Alexa」的人數，在去年少了一半以上，可能與亞馬遜公司智慧音箱「Echo」聲控裝置有所關聯。

 

The smart speaker that can perform household tasks such as adjusting lights, responds to the name Alexa.

 

這個可執行諸如調整燈光等家中任務的智慧音箱，對「Alexa」這個名字起反應。

 

"The growth in the use of technology assistants in our homes may help to explain why the number of baby girls named Alexa has more than halved compared with 2017," said Nick Stripe of the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).

 

英國國家統計局尼克‧史崔卜說，「家庭中增加的科技助理，可能有助於解釋為什麼名為『Alexa』的女寶寶與2017年相比減少超過一半。」

 

Alexa was the 380th most popular name for girls in England and Wales last year, with 118 newborns given the name - a sharp fall from 2017, when there were 301 Alexas.

 

在英格蘭和威爾斯最受歡迎的女孩名排行中，「Alexa」去年位居第380名，有118個新生兒以此命名—比2017年大幅滑落，當時曾有301個「Alexa」。

 

Oliver and Olivia remained the most popular names for boys and girls, for the sixth and third year running.

 

奧利佛和奧利薇亞依舊是取給男孩和女孩最受歡迎的名字，分別六連冠及三連霸。

 

Next

 

More than half of UK parents think sunglasses should be part of school uniform, survey claims 調查聲稱，英國逾半數家長認為校服裝備應包括太陽眼鏡

 

More than half of UK parents believe sunglasses should become an official part of school uniform, a study has found.

 

一項研究發現，逾半數英國家長認為，太陽眼鏡應該成為標準校服裝備的一部分。

 

A study of 1,000 parents with children aged 4-12 found 72 percent worried about protecting their child’s eyes from the sun.

 

一項針對1000名子女年齡在4歲到12歲之間的家長的研究發現，72%的家長擔心孩子的眼睛沒有受到防曬保護。

 

However, only three in 10 send their child to school with sunglasses every time it was sunny.

 

然而，只有10分之3的家長讓孩子在晴天時戴太陽眼鏡上學。

 

One-quarter even said their child was forbidden by their school from wearing sunglasses on school grounds.

 

4分之1的家長甚至表示，學校禁止孩子在校園配戴太陽眼鏡。

 

A spokesperson for Monkey Monkey Sunglasses, which commissioned the study, said: "Parents are consistently telling us that their children are more likely to wear sunglasses on holiday or to leisure activities than at school."

 

委託進行這項研究的「猴猴太陽鏡」發言人說：「家長一直告訴我們，孩子一般都是在度假或參加休閒活動時較可能配戴太陽眼鏡，在學校的時候不怎麼戴。」

 

"We just want parents to be aware that the midday and afternoon sun can be equally strong in the school playground, or on the walk home from school, as it is on the beach."

 

「我們只是想讓父母們意識到，中午和下午在學校操場，以及放學回家路上的陽光，和海灘上的陽光一樣強烈。」

 

Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1317099 ; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1314525

 

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每日跟讀#682: About Vietnam - Hop-on and hop-off round Hà Nội

 

越南首都河內從去年開始開設了兩條雙層觀光巴士路線，為河內帶來了更多元便利的旅遊選擇。

 

Two open-topped bus routes have been serving tourists and locals in Ha Noi over the last year or so, providing exciting and flexible tours of Viet Nam’s capital.

 

紅色巴士是由Hanoi Transerco營運，而綠色及黃色巴士則是由Vietnam Sightseeing營運。兩家公司在國定假日都沒有歇息。

 

The red buses are run by Hanoi Transerco and the green and yellow ones are run by Vietnam Sightseeing. Both are operational during national holidays, including this long weekend.

 

去年五月，Hanoi Transerco首先祭出雙層巴士觀光路線 – 「河內城市行」（Hanoi City Tour）。

 

The Hanoi City Tour bus route run by Hanoi Transerco was the first route to be launched in May 2018.

 

河內城市行的巴士上有各種語言的語音導覽，包括越南語、中文、英文、法文、韓文、日文及俄文。

 

There are headphones with audio guides in Vietnamese, Chinese, English, French, Korean, Japanese and Russian.

 

河內人民議會副主席表示，「河內城市行」是城市第一個雙層觀光巴士，附有現代化設施，也強調這為河內帶來了更高品質的旅遊方式。

 

“Hanoi City Tour bus by Hanoi Transerco is the first of its kind in Hà Nội using two-decked buses and various modern facilities,” said Nguyễn Thế Hùng, deputy chairman of the city’s People’s Committee. “The bus has brought tourists one more high quality tourism product.”

 

而去年十一月另一條雙層巴士觀光路線：「越南觀光 – 昇龍河內城市行」（Vietnam Sightseeing – Thăng Long Hà Nội City Tour）開始運行，巴士顏色是綠色或黃色。

 

Since November 2018, another open-topped hop on hop off bus route marked ‘Vietnam Sightseeing – Thăng Long Hà Nội City Tour’, painted green and yellow, has been spotted around the city.

 

乘客多是外國人，車上有免費飲料、雨衣及斗笠。

 

The passengers are mostly foreigners. Free drinks, raincoats, bamboo hats are offered on the bus.

 

Next

 

台灣旅客赴越南成長15.9% 長榮、越捷12月開航峴港

Growing tourism between Taiwan and Vietnam

 

越南是近期相當熱門的旅遊目的地，根據越南旅遊總局統計，2018 年造訪越南的台灣旅客較去年成長15.9% ，達 71 萬 4112 人次，為第 4 大客源。

 

Recently, Vietnam has become one of the most popular travel destinations for Taiwanese. According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the country had approximately 710,000 visitors from Taiwan in 2018, which is a 15.9 percent growth as compared to the year before that, becoming the fourth country that sent the largest number of tourists to Vietnam.

 

越南旅客赴台觀光人次也逐年成長，2018 年達 49 萬人次，交通部觀光局也於今年成立駐胡志明市辦事處，加強宣傳活動招攬當地潛力客源。

 

The number of visitors from Vietnam to Taiwan has been on the rise as well, reaching 490,000 in 2018. Therefore, the year the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications established an office in Ho Chi Minh City to further promote tourism in Taiwan.

 

看好台灣旅客赴越南旅遊熱潮，除了胡志明市、河內兩大城市外，近期越來越多航空公司朝二線城市發展，遠東、捷星、越竹等航空公司已陸續開闢峴港直飛航線。另外，首次進軍台灣的越竹航空9月預備再開航下龍灣；捷星太平洋航空除台北－峴港，8 月 10 日也開始營運高雄－峴港航線。

 

Beside popular cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, many airlines have been targeting second-tier cities, where new business opportunities are. For instance, Far Eastern Air Transport, Jetstar Airways and Bamboo Airways have all launched direct flights to Da Nang. Starting from Aug. 10, Jetstar Airways opened direct flights from Kaohsiung to Da Nang, so travelers don’t always have to fly from Taipei. Meanwhile, Bamboo Airways will be launching flights to Ha Long Bay this September.

 

長榮及越捷也宣布，12 月將開航峴港，即將於明年初開航的星宇航空，已向民航局申請峴港、芽莊、下龍灣直飛航線，另有台中－胡志明市包機。

 

EVA Air and VietJet Air have both also announced to start flying between Taiwan and Da Nang, starting in December. The new StarLux Airlines, which will start operating in the beginning of 2020, had already applied for air routes to Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Ha Long Bay, as well as charter flights from Taichung to Ho Chi Ming City.

 

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20190823-707332 ; https://chinapost.nownews.com/20190905-726858

 

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每日跟讀#681: Indonesia to move capital from Jakarta to Borneo

 

Indonesia’s president says the country’s capital will move from overcrowded, sinking and polluted Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, known for rainforests and orangutans.

 

印尼總統表示，將把首都從雅加達這過度擁擠、地層不斷下陷和受污染的城市，遷移到婆羅洲島上人口稀少的東加里曼丹省。婆羅洲以熱帶雨林和紅毛猩猩聞名。

 

President Joko Widodo said on Aug. 26 intense studies over the past three years had resulted in the choice of the location on the eastern side of Borneo island. The new capital city, which has not yet been named, will be in the middle of the vast archipelago nation and already has relatively complete infrastructure because it is near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, Widodo said.

 

印尼總統佐科威上月二十六日表示，經過三年的仔細研究，最後敲定這位於婆羅洲島東部的地點。他說，這尚未命名的新首都，位於印尼這幅員廣大的群島國中部，且已具備相對完整的基礎設施，因為它鄰近巴里巴伴及沙馬林達市。

 

He said the burden has been become too heavy on Jakarta on Java island as the center of government, finance, business, trade and services as well as the location of the country’s largest airport and seaport.

 

他說，爪哇島上的雅加達作為政府、金融、商業、貿易和服務業中心，以及該國最大的機場與海港所在地，負擔過重。

 

Widodo said the decision was made not to move the capital elsewhere on Java because the country’s wealth and people are highly concentrated there and should be spread out.

 

佐科威表示，之所以不在爪哇島上另覓他處作為新首都地點，是因為印尼的財富和人口已高度集中在爪哇島，而這些應該要分散開來。

 

Currently 54 percent of the country’s 270 million people live on Java, Indonesia’s most densely populated area.

“We couldn’t continue to allow the burden on Jakarta and Java island to increase in terms of population density,” Widodo said at a news conference in the presidential palace. “Economic disparities between Java and elsewhere would also increase.” In an interview last month, Widodo said he wants to separate the center of government from the country’s business and economic center in Jakarta.

 

目前該國近二點七億人口中，有百分之五十四居於爪哇島，該島為全印尼人口最稠密之地區。

「我們不能讓雅加達和爪哇島再繼續承擔不斷增加的人口密度」，佐科威在總統府的記者會上說道，「不然爪哇島和其他地方之間的經濟差距也會加大」。佐科威上個月受訪時表示，他希望把政府中心和在雅加達的商業與經濟中心分開來。

 

Jakarta is an archetypical Asian mega-city with 10 million people, or 30 million including those in its greater metropolitan area. It is prone to earthquakes and flooding and is rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of ground water. The ground water and rivers are highly contaminated. Congestion is estimated to cost the economy US$6.5 billion a year.

 

雅加達是個典型的亞洲巨型城市，人口有一千萬；若將大都會區算進來，則有三千萬人口。雅加達易受地震和洪水侵襲，且因無節制抽取地下水，地層正快速下陷。地下水和河流受到嚴重污染。每年因擁擠與交通阻塞所造成的經濟損失，據估計為六十五億美元。

 

Mineral-rich East Kalimantan was once almost completely covered by rainforests, but illegal logging has removed many of its original growth. It is home to only 3.5 million people and is surrounded by Kutai National Park, known for orangutans and other primates and mammals.

 

礦藏豐富的東加里曼丹省過去幾乎都被雨林覆蓋，但由於非法伐木，許多原生林木已消失。該省有居民三百五十萬人，周圍是以紅毛猩猩及其他靈長類與哺乳動物而聞名的庫泰國家公園。

 

Widodo said the relocation of the capital to a 180,000-hectare site will take up a decade and cost as much as 466 trillion rupiah (US$32.5 billion), of which 19 percent will come from the state budget and the rest funded by cooperation between the government and business entities and by direct investment by state-run companies and the private sector.

 

佐科威表示，將首都搬遷到這佔地十八萬公頃的土地，需要十年的時間，耗資高達四百六十六兆印尼盾（三百二十五億美元），其中百分之十九來自國家預算，其餘資金將來自政府與企業間之合作，以及國營公司與私營企業的直接投資。

 

He said the studies determined that the best site is between two districts, North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kertanegara, an area that has minimal risk of disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, volcanic eruptions or landslides in the seismically active nation.

 

他說，經研究，新首都最佳地點位於北佩納揚巴塞爾縣、庫台卡塔內加拉縣這兩地之間，此地區的災害風險最小，洪水、地震、海嘯、森林火災、火山爆發，或地震活躍國家常發生的山崩等風險可以降到最低。

 

Indonesia’s founding father and first president, Sukarno, once planned to relocate the capital to Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan province. Infrastructure improvement has been Widodo’s signature policy and helped him win a second term in April elections.

 

印尼開國元勳及第一任總統蘇卡諾曾計劃將首都遷到中加里曼丹省的帕朗卡拉亞。基礎設施的改善是佐科威所標榜的政見，這讓他在今年四月的總統大選中獲勝，得以連任。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/09/03/2003721576/1

 

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每日跟讀#680: High levels of exhaust pollutants may raise risk for degenerative eye disease

 

Exposure to high levels of exhaust may raise the risk of the vision-robbing disease called age-related macular degeneration (AMD) a new study suggests. In a study of nearly 40,000 people in Taiwan, researchers found that high levels of exhaust could nearly double the risk of the age-related eye condition, which damages the macula, the part of the eye needed for sharp, central vision. People with AMD have trouble seeing straight ahead.

 

新研究指出，曝露在大量廢氣中可能會提高罹患「老年性黃斑部退化」的風險，該疾病會使人喪失視力。在這份對將近四萬名台灣民眾進行調查的研究中，研究人員發現，大量廢氣恐怕會使這種老年性眼疾的罹患風險增加一倍。「老年性黃斑部退化」會損害黃斑部，也就是眼睛敏銳中心視野不可或缺的部分，罹患此疾的病人會難以看清前方物體。

 

Only people with the highest exposure to exhaust had an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), meaning that “if we can reduce exposure and try not to be in the highest exposure group, the risk can be significantly reduced,” said study coauthor Dr. Suh-Hang Hank Juo, a distinguished professor at the China Medical University in Taiwan. “Therefore, do not go jogging on the road side when there are lots of cars and try not to go outside during the heavy traffic hours,” Juo said in an email.

 

台灣的中國醫藥大學特聘教授卓夙航醫師是這份研究的共同作者，他表示只有廢氣曝露程度最高的人們會增加老年性黃斑部退化的風險，也就是說：「如果我們可以減少曝露，並且盡量不要成為曝露程度最高的群體，風險就會顯著地降低。」卓醫師在電子郵件中指出：「也因此，不要在車輛很多的時候去路邊慢跑，也盡量不要在交通尖峰時段出門。」

 

To investigate whether vehicle pollution, which has previously been tied to increased risks for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, also impacts the risk for AMD, Juo and his colleagues turned to two large data sets: The Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) and the Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Database (TAQMD) in the National Health Insurance Research Database. From the insurance database, the researchers selected patients who were aged 50 or older when they were enrolled, who did not have signs of AMD at that point, and who lived in areas where there were air-quality monitoring stations.

 

車輛排放的廢氣污染先前被視為與呼吸道和心血管疾病風險增加密切相關，為了調查這類污染是否也會影響老年性黃斑部退化的風險，卓醫師與同事們向兩個大型資料集尋求協助：全民健保的「承保抽樣歸人檔」以及「台灣空氣品質監測資料庫」。從健保的資料庫中，研究人員挑選在保時已達五十歲或以上、尚未出現老年性黃斑部退化徵兆，並且居住在空氣品質監測站設置區域的病人。

 

As reported in the Journal of Investigative Medicine, the researchers divided the patients into four groups depending on the level of pollutant exposure. Of the 39,819 patients in the study, 1,442 developed AMD during 11 years of follow-up. After accounting for other factors that might influence the risk of AMD, such as age, gender, household income and underlying illnesses, the researchers determined that people living in areas with the highest levels of vehicle-generated pollution were 84 percent more likely to develop AMD compared to those exposed to the lowest levels.

 

在這份刊載於《調查醫學期刊》的研究中，研究人員按照汙染物的曝露程度將病人分為四個群體。經過十一年的追蹤檢查，研究所調查的三萬九千八百一十九名病人中，有一千四百四十二名罹患老年性黃斑部退化。排除掉其他可能影響老年性黃斑部退化風險的因素──包括年齡、性別、家庭收入，以及潛在疾病──之後，研究人員判斷，生活在車輛污染程度最高區域的人們，比起那些曝露程度最低的人，罹患老年性黃斑部退化的比例增加了百分之八十四。

 

The new research is interesting but “it is a longitudinal observational study and can only show an association but not prove a cause-effect relationship,” said Dr. Fernando Arevalo, a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chairman of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, both in Baltimore, Maryland. “AMD is multifactorial and many genetic as well as environmental factors play a role in its development and that may confound the results. Further studies are needed.”

 

約翰‧霍普金斯大學醫學院的眼科學教授費南多‧阿雷瓦洛，是同樣位於馬里蘭州巴爾的摩的約翰‧霍普金斯海灣區醫療中心的眼科主任，他認為這項新研究很有意思，然而「這是一項縱貫性觀察型研究，只能夠顯示關聯，並無法證明因果關係。」阿雷瓦洛醫師解釋說：「老年性黃斑部退化是由多重因素造成，許多遺傳和環境因素都會參與此疾病的發展，可能會混淆結果。我們還需要進一步的研究。」

 

Dr. Joseph Martel, an assistant professsor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, suspects that, as with smoking, air pollution may lead to oxidative damage, which “in the eye is known to be associated with macular degeneration.” That’s why doctors often prescribe an antioxidant concoction of vitamins and minerals to help slow AMD, Martel said. It’s also suggested that people with AMD consume lots of green, leafy vegetables, like spinach, he added.

 

匹茲堡大學的眼科助理教授喬瑟夫‧馬特爾醫師懷疑空氣汙染如同抽菸一樣，會導致氧化的傷害，「在眼部則被認為和黃斑部退化有關」。馬特爾指出，這也是為什麼醫生經常會開立抗氧化的維他命和礦物質調製藥物，以協助減緩老年性黃斑部退化。他也建議，患有該疾病的人宜攝取大量的綠色葉菜類蔬菜，例如菠菜。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/09/01/2003721465/2

 

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每日跟讀#679: How YouTube Radicalized Brazil

 

When Matheus Dominguez was 16, YouTube recommended a video that changed his life.

 

He was in a band in Niterói, a beach-ringed city in Brazil, and practiced guitar by watching tutorials online.

 

當麥修斯·多明格茲16歲時，YouTube推薦了一段改變他人生的影片。他當時在巴西濱海城市尼泰羅伊的一個樂隊裡，觀看網路講解影片練吉他。

 

YouTube had recently installed a powerful new artificial intelligence system that learned from user behavior and paired videos with recommendations for others. One day, it directed him to an amateur guitar teacher named Nando Moura, who had gained a wide following by posting videos about heavy metal, video games and, most of all, politics.

 

當時YouTube剛安裝了一個強大的新人工智慧系統，可從用戶行為學習並跟推薦給他人的影片配對。某一天，它將多明格茲引導至名叫南多·莫拉的業餘吉他老師，此人上傳有關重金屬、電玩遊戲，特別是政治的影片，從而擁有廣大追隨者。

 

In colorful and paranoid far-right rants, Moura accused feminists, teachers and mainstream politicians of waging vast conspiracies. Dominguez was hooked.

 

莫拉用生動、偏執的極右翼言論指責女性主義者、教師及政客大搞陰謀，這讓多明格茲著了迷。

 

As his time on the site grew, YouTube recommended videos from other far-right figures. One was a lawmaker named Jair Bolsonaro, then a marginal figure in national politics — but a star in YouTube’s far-right community in Brazil, where the platform has become more widely watched than all but one TV channel.

 

隨著他使用該網站的時間愈來愈長，YouTube推薦了其他極右派人物的影片，其中一位是名叫波索納洛的國會議員，當時他僅是全國政壇的邊緣人物，但在巴西YouTube的極右派社群中卻是個明星，而巴西所有電視頻道只有一個收視率超過這個平台。

 

Last year, he became President Bolsonaro.

 

去年，波索納洛成了總統。

 

“YouTube became the social media platform of the Brazilian right,” said Dominguez, now a lanky 17-year-old who says he, too, plans to seek political office.

 

現年17歲、身材瘦高的多明格茲說：「YouTube成了巴西右派的社群媒體平台」，他表示自己也打算從政。

 

Members of the nation’s newly empowered far right — from grassroots organizers to federal lawmakers — say their movement would not have risen so far, so fast, without YouTube’s recommendation engine.

 

從基層組織者到聯邦國會議員，該國新近獲得權力的極右派成員表示，如果沒有YouTube的推薦工具，他們的運動不會崛起得這麼高、這麼快。

 

New research has found they may be correct. YouTube’s search and recommendation system appears to have systematically diverted users to far-right and conspiracy channels in Brazil.

 

新研究發現他們可能說對了。YouTube的搜索和推薦系統似乎有系統地將用戶轉移到巴西的極右派和陰謀頻道。

 

A New York Times investigation in Brazil found that, time and again, videos promoted by the site have upended central elements of daily life.

 

紐約時報在巴西的一項調查發現，該網站推廣的影片一再顛覆日常生活的核心要素。

 

Teachers describe classrooms made unruly by students who quote from YouTube conspiracy videos or who, encouraged by right-wing YouTube stars, secretly record their instructors.

 

教師們表示，學生引用YouTube陰謀論影片的內容，或者受右派YouTube明星鼓勵偷錄自己老師，使得教室秩序失控。

 

Some parents look to “Dr. YouTube” for health advice but get dangerous misinformation instead, hampering the nation’s efforts to fight diseases like Zika. Viral videos have incited death threats against public health advocates.

 

一些家長向「YouTube醫生」尋求健康建議，卻得到危險的錯誤資訊，阻礙了全國對抗茲卡病毒等疾病的行動。網路瘋傳的影片曾激起人們對公共衛生倡導者發出性命威脅.

 

And in politics, a wave of right-wing YouTube stars ran for office alongside Bolsonaro, some winning by historic margins. Most still use the platform, governing the world’s fourth-largest democracy through internet-honed trolling and provocation.

 

而在政壇，一批右派YouTube明星與波索納洛一起競選公職，其中有些人以創紀錄的差距勝出。多數人仍使用這個平台，透過在網路上磨練出來的酸言酸語跟挑釁來治理這個全球第四大的民主國家。

 

YouTube’s recommendation system is engineered to maximize watchtime, among other factors, the company says, but not to favor any political ideology. The system suggests what to watch next, often playing the videos automatically, in a never-ending quest to keep us glued to our screens.

 

YouTube表示，該公司的推薦系統是為了將觀看時間極大化等因素而設計的，並非為了支持任何政治意識形態。該系統推薦接下來可觀看的影片，經常自動播放這些影片，無止境地要讓我們緊盯螢幕。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/344176/web/

 

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每日跟讀#678: Reducing your fashion footprint: tips to help save the world

 

Under the guidance of French president Emmanuel Macron at the recent G7 summit in Biarritz, 32 fashion companies signed a “fashion pact” to emphasize sustainability in the industry. They included some of the largest luxury brands in the market — Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Prada — as well as “fast fashion” producers, including H&M Group and Zara.

 

在法國總統艾曼紐‧馬克宏的倡議下，三十二家時裝公司最近在比亞里茲舉行的G7峰會簽署了一項「時尚協議」，以強調時裝業永續發展的重要性。這些公司包括市面上最大的幾個奢侈品牌──香奈兒（Chanel）、拉夫勞倫（Ralph Lauren）和普拉達（Prada）──以及「快時尚」製造商，包括H&M集團和Zara。

 

According to a UN study, the fashion industry is responsible for about 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions and 20 percent of all waste water and consumes more energy than the airline and shipping industries combined.

The figures are disputed but the message is clear: fashion is a major polluter, and in an industry that depends on human desire for the new, questions hang over it like a dead weight.

 

根據聯合國一項研究，時裝業所排放的溫室氣體佔總量的百分之十、廢水佔百分之二十，所消耗的能源比航空公司及航運業的總和還多。雖然這些數字有所爭議，但訊息很明確：時尚是大宗污染源。時尚是依賴人類對新事物之慾望而生存的產業，這些汙染問題對時尚業來說都是不能承受之重。

 

Fast fashion is a phrase coined to describe inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. Critics say that the industry has a large carbon footprint, and creates water and air pollution. Clothes are often manufactured in poor working conditions.

 

「快時尚」（fast fashion）一詞，是指大眾市場零售商為反映最新流行趨勢而快速生產的廉價服裝。批評者指出，快時尚產業的碳足跡量很大，並汙染了水和空氣，且製造這些衣服的工作環境通常很惡劣。

 

Garments are manufactured cheaply, and are expected to have a short life. One in three young women, the biggest segment of consumers, consider garments worn once or twice to be old. In the UK alone, consumers sent 300,000 metric tonnes of textiles to be burned or dumped in landfill in 2018.

 

這些服裝的製造成本低廉、預期使用壽命短。快時尚的最大消費族群為年輕女性，而有三分之一的年輕女性認為，衣服穿過一兩次便算是舊衣了。二○一八年，光是在英國，消費者就丟棄了三十萬噸紡織品，這些衣物最後都被送進焚化爐或掩埋場。

 

Without rapid reform, the fashion industry — of which fast fashion is the dominant player — could be responsible for a quarter of the Earth’s carbon budget by 2050.

 

 

若不趕快進行改革，到了二○五○年，時尚產業──其中「快時尚」佔主要部分──所造成的碳排放，將佔地球總碳排放量的四分之一。

 

Things you can do to reduce your fashion footprint:

■ Commit to wearing every piece 30 times. If we doubled the amount of time we kept clothes for, we would cut our fashion emissions by 44 percent.

 

我們每個人也可從自身做起，降低我們衣著習慣所造成的碳足跡：

■ 每件衣服都要穿過三十次。若我們把衣服留在身邊的時間拉長一倍，將會減少百分之四十四的服裝碳排放量。

 

■ Get smart about fibers. Cheap cotton and synthetics come with huge environmental footprints. Cotton uses unsustainable amounts of water and pesticide. Go for hemp blended with organic cotton and silk and lyocel/modal.

 

■ 聰明選擇服裝質料纖維。廉價的棉及合成纖維對環境造成的傷害極大。棉花的種植使用大量的水和殺蟲劑，不利環境永續發展。應選擇混合有機棉的麻纖維、蠶絲，以及lyocel或modal天然纖維。

 

■ Treat cotton as a luxury fiber. Buy products certified as organic to be free of the pesticide burden and plan to keep them for years.

 

■ 將棉視為高級纖維。購買有機認證的棉製品──有機棉不施農藥、不造成環境負擔──並打算穿它好幾年。

 

■ Wash clothes less often. The average laundry cycle releases hundreds of thousands of tiny fragments of plastic from synthetic fibers into waterways. Put jeans in the freezer and remove dirt when frozen. Fleeces have been shown to release the most plastic fibers.

 

■ 別太常洗衣服。一般洗衣行程會讓合成纖維釋出成千上萬個微小塑膠碎片，然後排到水道中。把牛仔褲放進冰箱冷凍庫，在冷凍狀態下去除污垢。已發現抓毛絨（fleece）所釋出的塑膠纖維最多。

 

■ Use a clothes and accessories rental service.

 

■ 服裝及配件用租的，可利用市面上的租借商家。

 

■ Delete shopping apps from your phone and swear off insta-shopping for fashion. Go shopping for clothes in a shop. Feel the fiber, interrogate the structure — especially the seams — and make sure it fits.

 

■ 刪除手機裡的購物應用程式，並發誓戒除在Instagram網購衣服的習慣。若要治裝，到店裡去買。去實際感受衣服的質料纖維和做工──特別是接縫的部份──並確保衣服穿起來合身。

 

■ If dry cleaning is a must, use an eco-friendly process: conventional dry cleaning harms the soil, air and water.

 

■ 如果衣服必須乾洗，請使用環保工序，因為傳統的乾洗會汙染土壤、空氣和水。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/09/10/2003721988/2

 

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每日跟讀#677: Chernobyl, With Helping Hand From TV, Becomes an Unlikely Tourism Magnet

 

When a nuclear plant exploded in northern Ukraine in April 1986, Soviet authorities went to great lengths to control information about the disaster — even cutting off private telephone conversations when the word Chernobyl was used.

 

當1986年4月烏克蘭北部一座核電廠發生爆炸時，蘇聯當局竭盡全力管制災難相關消息，甚至在私人電話交談中提及車諾比一詞時，電話都會被切斷。

 

Now, in a strange turn more than three decades after the meltdown, the exclusion area around Chernobyl is gaining a following as a tourism destination, apparently propelled by the popularity of a TV miniseries about the blast that was broadcast in the United States and Britain last month.

 

而如今，在這起核爐心熔毀事故發生30多年之後，情況卻有了奇特的轉變，車諾比周圍的隔離區正成為吸引大批遊客的觀光勝地，顯然是拜上月在美英兩國播出、有關此一核爆事件的迷你電視劇集大受歡迎所賜.

 

The miniseries, HBO’s “Chernobyl,” fictionalizes the events in the aftermath of the explosion and fire at the plant’s Unit 4 nuclear reactor. It has been one of the highest-rated shows on the IMDB charts.

 

HBO的迷你電視劇集《核爆家園》虛構了第4號核子反應爐爆炸起火後發生的事情，而該劇也是IMDB（網路電影資料庫）排行榜上收視率最高的節目之一。

 

“The number of visitors increases every day, every week, by 30, 40, now almost 50 percent,” said Victor Korol, the head of SoloEast, a company that gives tours of the site. “People watch TV, and they want to go there and see the place, how it looks.”

 

“In May 2018, we had 1,251 visitors. Last month, we had 1,860 — a 48 percent increase,” Korol said.

 

提供參觀該地點行程的SoloEast公司負責人維克多．科洛爾說：「遊客數量每天、每個禮拜都在增加，增加30%、40%，目前幾乎是50％。人們看了電視後，想去實地看看、看它長得啥個樣。」科洛爾說：「我們2018年5月時有1251名遊客，上月有1860人，增加了48％。」

 

According to figures from the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, tourism to Chernobyl has been growing quickly over the past five years. In 2014, a spokeswoman said, the site had 8,404 visitors; in 2018, that number was 71,862. In May 2019 alone, she added, the site had 12,591.

 

根據烏克蘭國家隔離區管理局的數據，車諾比的觀光在過去五年裡迅速成長。一位女發言人表示，造訪該地的人在2014年有8404人，此一數字在2018年變為7萬1862人。她並稱光2019年5月，就有1萬2591人造訪該地。

 

Joe Ponte, managing director of Explore, a company that focuses on adventure travel, said that passenger numbers for the firm’s five-day Discover Chernobyl tour had increased fourfold since the miniseries aired in May.

 

主打冒險旅遊的Explore公司的董事總經理喬．彭特表示，該公司「發現車諾比」5日遊的遊客數量，從迷你電視劇集5月播出以來增加了4倍。

 

But as tourist numbers increase, so has concern about the behavior of visitors to the site of a disaster that was blamed for thousands of deaths in the following years and whose dire consequences for the environment linger decades later.

 

但隨著遊客數量增加，人們也開始擔心在災難現場的遊客行為，而這場災難發生後在接下來的年歲裡造成了成千上萬人死亡，而且它對環境的可怕影響幾十年後仍然存在。

 

Those misgivings burst onto social media this week when photographs emerged that were criticized for disrespecting the victims and the solemnity of the site.

 

在遭批不尊重受害者與該地點嚴肅性的照片出現後，這些疑慮也隨之在社交媒體上爆發。

 

One example widely cited was of a woman who shed most of a hazmat suit to pose provocatively in the ghost city of Pripyat, which was evacuated after the accident.

 

一個被廣泛引用的例子是，一名女性在事故發生後因撤離而成鬼城的普里皮亞季內脫掉大部分的防護衣，擺出具性挑逗意味的姿勢拍照。

 

The photographs prompted Craig Mazin, the writer and producer of “Chernobyl,” to call on tourists to be considerate to the memory of those who lost their lives or livelihoods.

 

這些照片促使《核爆家園》編劇兼製片人克雷格·馬欣呼籲遊客，要顧念那些失去生命或生計的人。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/342480/web/#2L-15162928L

 

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每日跟讀#676: Group launches ‘Write in Taiwanese’ campaign for US Census

 

The 2020 US Census is to take place in April. As required by the US Constitution, the results of the decennial US Census will determine the number of each state’s seats in the House of Representatives, and how federal funding is allocated to states and communities yearly.

 

美國2020人口普查預計在明年四月登場，因應美國憲法的要求，十年一度的普查結果，將會決定各州在眾議院的席次，及聯邦政府每年如何分配各州或社群的經費。

 

Since there is no racial category of “Taiwanese” on the survey’s race question, the US-based Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL) has launched the “Write in Taiwanese Census 2020 Campaign,” encouraging all Taiwanese-Americans to check the box for “Other Asian” and then write in “Taiwanese” on the form, instead of checking the “Chinese” box.

 

而在調查中關於種族的問題上，其選項並沒有「台灣人」，因此在美國的「台美公民協會」發起一項填寫台灣人活動，以鼓勵所有台裔人士勾選「其他亞洲人」，並在表格寫上「台灣人」，而非直接勾選「中國人」。

 

The Census 2010 recorded 215,441 Taiwanese living in the US at that time, accounting for only 1.46 percent of the Asian population of 14.7 million. “There is strength and power in numbers, in being noticed by the government,” said the TACL. To give an accurate reflection of the demographic situation, the Liberty Times has uploaded a video promoting the campaign at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfxNWn5bQiE.

 

根據2010人口普查紀錄，當時有二十一萬五千名台裔住在美國，在一千四百七十萬亞裔人口中，僅占百分之一‧四六。該公民協會說︰「人口的數量就代表實力與能量，代表可以被政府看見。」為了精確反映人口統計的全貌，自由時報亦上傳一支影片宣傳該活動︰www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfxNWn5bQiE。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/08/15/2003720482

 

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每日跟讀#675: Thailand to set up center to combat ‘fake news’

 

上週三（21），泰國政府宣布將會成立中心反擊社交媒體上流竄的假新聞，並否認使用該中心來壓制言論自由。

 

Thailand’s government on Wednesday announced a plan to set up a center to combat unverified news on social media platforms, rejecting concerns that it might be used to suppress free speech.

 

數字經濟及社會部部長Buddhipongse Punnakanta表示，該中心的設立宗旨是要打擊各種假新聞，但會特別針對災難及金融的相關錯誤訊息。

 

The planned center’s goal would be to fight all kinds of fake news, with a focus on misinformation about disasters and financial matters, Minister of Digital Economy and Society Buddhipongse Punnakanta said.

 

Punnakanta說道，該中心也會教導大眾媒體識讀，並成立網站檢視遭民眾檢舉、有假新聞疑慮之新聞。

 

He said the center would also teach media literacy and launch a website that would act as a digital verifier of news that people suspected of being fake.

 

Punnakanta說：「民眾可以提交任何他們懷疑未經證實的、或可能引發恐懼及混淆的新聞，網站及我們的官員會在兩個小時內檢視它的真實性。」

 

“People can submit any news they’re suspicious of being unauthenticated, or that could incite fear and confusion to the public, to the website and our officials would verify its authenticity within two hours,” he said.

 

該中心及網站預計在十月推出。

 

The center and the website are expected to be launched by October.

 

然而此計畫已經收到了許多批評。在野的未來前進黨（Future Forward Party）發言人在上月曾表示，他們都在憂心假新聞的影響，並指責政府利用假新聞來打擊政敵，但是發言人表示對於成立這樣一個打擊假新聞的中心仍然保有疑慮。

 

The plan has already drawn criticism. A spokeswoman for the opposition Future Forward Party said last month that it shared concerns about fake news, which it said has been used to attack the government’s opponents, but was skeptical about setting up such a center.

 

「一旦反假新聞中心成立，我們害怕的是它並不是真的用來反擊假新聞或停止扭曲資訊，反而被用來更進一步打擊政府的反對者。假新聞是全球每個國家都面臨的問題，我們認為最有效的方法是精進大眾的媒體識讀能力，而非壓制言論。」未來前進黨發言人說道。

 

“If the anti-fake news center is officially founded, we are afraid that it won’t truly combat fake news or stop distorting information, but rather aid the destruction of the government’s opponents. Because this is a global issue that every country is facing, we think that the most effective method would be encouraging people to have more media literacy, not suppressing content.”

 

Buddhipongse則表示該中心不會干涉言論自由。

 

Buddhipongse said the center would not interfere with freedom of speech.

 

「我們並沒有要成為自衛隊，也不會被特定群體利用去合理化他們或是其他人的行為。」Buddhipongse說道。

 

“We’re not trying to act as a vigilante, and will not be used as a tool by some group of people to justify their action, or someone else’s actions,” he said.

 

許多東南亞國家都被假新聞問題所困擾。有專家表示社交媒體上帶有仇恨言論的假訊息，助長了緬甸境內對穆斯林少數的暴力攻擊。假新聞也為最近正在選舉的印尼及菲律賓帶來不少麻煩。

 

The issue of fake news has become a major concern in several Southeast Asian nations. Critics have said misinformation circulated on social media, often with malicious intent, helped stir up communal violence in Myanmar, especially toward the Muslim minority. It also plagued recent elections in Indonesia and the Philippines.

 

反擊假新聞的同時，民眾也憂心政府會利用此機會遏止言論自由並打擊政敵。

 

At the same time there are concerns that government efforts against fake news may curb free speech and be used as a weapon against political opponents.

 

泰國已經有電腦犯罪法條管理電子媒體，政治活動及批評政府等相關案件也引用過該法條。

 

Thailand already has a Computer Crime Act that polices online media. It has often been used in cases involving politics and critics of the government.

 

Buddhipongse表示，為了抵抗假新聞問題，該中心需要與泰國境內廣泛使用的社交媒體包含Facebook及LINE合作。Buddhipongse指出，他的部門已經在與這些平台聯繫。

 

Buddhipongse said that in order for the center to counter the fake news problem, it needs cooperation from widely used social media platforms in Thailand such as Facebook or the Line messaging app. He said his ministry was already in touch with these media platforms.

 

Source article: https://chinapost.nownews.com/20190827-713016

 

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