通勤學英語 15Mins Today

每日跟讀#567: Meteor blast over Bering Sea was 10 times size of Hiroshima

 

A meteor explosion over the Bering Sea late last year unleashed 10 times as much energy as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, scientists have revealed. The fireball tore across the sky off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Dec. 18 and released energy equivalent to 173 kilotonnes of TNT. It was the largest air blast since another meteor hurtled into the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, in Russia’s south-west, six years ago, and the second largest in the past 30 years.

 

科學家透露，白令海上空去年底發生一起流星爆炸，釋放出相當於摧毀廣島原子彈的十倍能量。這顆火球在去年十二月十八日劃過俄羅斯的堪察加半島上空，釋放出的能量相當於十七萬三千噸的黃色炸藥。這起事件是繼六年前另一顆流星猛烈衝進俄國西南部車里雅賓斯克上空的大氣層以來，最大的一場空中爆炸，同時也是過去三十年來第二大的爆炸事件。

 

Unlike the Chelyabinsk meteor, which was captured on CCTV, mobile phones and car dashboard cameras, the December arrival from outer space went largely unnoticed at the time because it exploded in such a remote location. NASA received information about the blast from the US air force after military satellites detected visible and infrared light from the fireball.

 

不同於車里雅賓斯克那顆流星，被閉路電視、手機以及行車記錄器廣泛拍攝到，這位外太空訪客去年十二月抵達時幾乎無人察覺，原因在於爆炸地點實在是人跡罕至。後來因為軍用衛星在十二月偵測到這顆火球發出可見光和紅外線，美國國家航空暨太空總署（NASA）才從美國空軍方面獲得爆炸的相關資訊。

 

Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA, told BBC News that blasts of this size were expected only two or three times a century. The space agency’s analysis shows that the meteor, probably a few meters wide, barreled into Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 32km per second and exploded at an altitude of around 26km. The blast released about 40 percent of the energy of the meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, according to Kelly Fast, NASA’s near-Earth objects observations program manager, who spoke at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science conference near Houston.

 

美國太空總署的行星防禦官員林德里‧約翰遜向英國廣播公司新聞網表示，這個規模的爆炸每一百年預期只會發生兩到三次。根據太空總署分析顯示，該顆流星約數公尺寬，以每秒約三十二公里的速度衝進地球的大氣層，並在大約二十六公里的高空中爆炸。美國太空總署的近地天體觀測計畫主管凱莉‧法斯特，近日於休士頓附近召開的第五十屆月球與行星科學研討會中表示，這次爆炸釋放的能量約為車里雅賓斯克上空流星爆炸的百分之四十。

 

Since the event came to light, meteor researchers have been asking airlines for any sightings of the fireball, which came in close to routes used by commercial carriers flying between North America and Asia. Peter Brown, a meteor specialist at Western University in Canada, spotted the blast independently in measurements made by global monitoring stations. The explosion left its mark in data recorded by a network of sensors that detect infrasound, which has a frequency too low for the human ear to pick up. The network was set up to detect covert nuclear bomb tests.

 

自從這起事件曝光後，流星學者紛紛向航空公司詢問是否有任何這顆火球的目擊記錄，畢竟火球相當接近商用客機往來於北美洲和亞洲使用的飛行路徑。加拿大西安大略大學的流星專家彼得‧布朗，在全球多個監測中心測量到的數值中，獨立發現這起爆炸。它留下的痕跡，可見於一組感應器網路記錄到的數據，這些感應器可偵測頻率太低而無法被人耳接收到的超低頻音，而該網路是被設置用來偵測暗中進行的核彈試爆。

 

The Bering Sea event is another reminder that, despite efforts to identify and track space rocks that could pose a threat to Earth, sizable meteors can still arrive without warning. NASA is working to identify 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than 140m by 2020, but the task could take another 30 years to complete.

 

這起白令海爆炸事件再度提醒我們，儘管人類致力於找出並追蹤可能對地球造成威脅的太空巨石，大尺寸的流星仍然會毫無預警地來到地球。美國太空總署目前正努力在二○二○年之前，對大於一百四十公尺的近地小行星完成百分之九十的辨識，但這項任務可能需要再花三十年才能全部完成。

 

The 20m-wide meteor that detonated over Chelyabinsk lit up the morning sky on Feb. 15, 2013. At its most intense, the fireball burned 30 times brighter than the sun. The flash quickly gave way to a shockwave that knocked people off their feet and shattered windows in thousands of apartments. No one was killed but more than 1,200 people were injured, many by flying glass. Some sustained retinal burns from watching the spectacle.

 

二○一三年二月十五日，二十公尺寬的流星在車里雅賓斯克上空爆炸，點亮早晨的天空。在燃燒最劇烈的時候，整顆火球的亮度比太陽高出三十倍。眩目的閃光很快就被衝擊波所取代，直接震倒民眾，並震碎數千棟公寓窗戶。雖然無人身亡，這起事件仍造成超過一千兩百名民眾受傷，許多人遭到飛散的玻璃割傷。有些民眾則因為觀看這場奇觀過久而導致視網膜灼傷。

 

In 1908, the most powerful meteor blast in modern times shook the ground in Russia. The rock exploded over Tunguska, a sparsely populated region in Siberia, and flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,000 square kilometers.

 

現代歷史上威力最強大的流星爆炸在一九○八年撼動俄國土地。那顆石頭在通古斯加──西伯利亞一處人煙稀少的區域──上空爆炸，夷平兩千平方公里土地上的八千萬棵樹。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/03/24/2003712045/2

 

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每日跟讀#566: ‘English-only’ policy not necessarily ideal: The Economist

 

To promote the “bilingual country” policy, the Ministry of Education proposed late last year that certain subjects be taught in English only, to boost students’ English ability. According to a report recently published in the Economist, however, an “English-only” policy for all subjects may not necessarily benefit children’s learning, and may sometimes even be detrimental to it.

 

為推行「雙語國家」政策，教育部去年底提議部分學科要用英語來授課，以增進學生英文能力。然而根據《經濟學人》近日的報導，所有科目都採用「全英語」方式對孩子的學習不見得有利，有時反而有害。

 

“Teaching children in English is fine if that is what they speak at home and their parents are fluent in it,” said the report. “But that is not the case in most public and low-cost private schools. Children are taught in a language they don’t understand by teachers whose English is poor. The children learn neither English nor anything else.”

 

「如果孩童在家都是說英語，家長的英語也很流利，用英語上課就不成問題」，《經濟學人》說。「但大多數公立學校和低成本私立學校的情況並非如此，孩童以不了解的語言接受教育，老師本身英文又不好，既學不到英文，也學不到其它東西。」

 

The magazine reported that in a study conducted in 12 schools in Cameroon, those taught in their mother tongue did better than those taught in English in all subjects. As it suggested, English should indeed be seen as an important subject, but not necessarily the language of instruction at school.

 

該雜誌還報導，一項在喀麥隆十二所學校所進行的研究顯示，以母語來上課的學生，所有科目的表現皆優於以英語來上課的學生。該雜誌並建議，英語的確應被視為重要的科目，但學校不見得要用它教學授課。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/03/21/2003711848

 

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每日跟讀#566: ‘English-only’ policy not necessarily ideal: The Economist

 

To promote the “bilingual country” policy, the Ministry of Education proposed late last year that certain subjects be taught in English only, to boost students’ English ability. According to a report recently published in the Economist, however, an “English-only” policy for all subjects may not necessarily benefit children’s learning, and may sometimes even be detrimental to it.

 

為推行「雙語國家」政策，教育部去年底提議部分學科要用英語來授課，以增進學生英文能力。然而根據《經濟學人》近日的報導，所有科目都採用「全英語」方式對孩子的學習不見得有利，有時反而有害。

 

“Teaching children in English is fine if that is what they speak at home and their parents are fluent in it,” said the report. “But that is not the case in most public and low-cost private schools. Children are taught in a language they don’t understand by teachers whose English is poor. The children learn neither English nor anything else.”

 

「如果孩童在家都是說英語，家長的英語也很流利，用英語上課就不成問題」，《經濟學人》說。「但大多數公立學校和低成本私立學校的情況並非如此，孩童以不了解的語言接受教育，老師本身英文又不好，既學不到英文，也學不到其它東西。」

 

The magazine reported that in a study conducted in 12 schools in Cameroon, those taught in their mother tongue did better than those taught in English in all subjects. As it suggested, English should indeed be seen as an important subject, but not necessarily the language of instruction at school.

 

該雜誌還報導，一項在喀麥隆十二所學校所進行的研究顯示，以母語來上課的學生，所有科目的表現皆優於以英語來上課的學生。該雜誌並建議，英語的確應被視為重要的科目，但學校不見得要用它教學授課。

 

Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2019/03/21/2003711848

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/daily-shadowing

 

用email訂閱就可以收到所有15mins.Today最新節目通知。

Welcome to 15mins.today, the home of English Shadowing. I am your host Gavin and this is InTense Episode 2.

 

Well guys welcome to the first real episode with regards to practicing grammar and in today's episode we going to be looking at the present tense.

 

Now for a brief introduction, we use the present tense for things that are generally true, ‘’It is a sunny day. It is a cloudy day.’’ We use it for things that happen every day, ‘’I brush my teeth every morning,’’ and we also use it for things that are facts, ’’The sun is a star.’’

And that basically covers when we use the present tense. Now in this format we not going to be really so interested in “why and how.” We are more interested in examples, so let's get started.

Now before we start, I would like to remind you, we going to be doing a ‘’yes question’’ and a ‘’no question.’’ Sometimes it'll be just one, there are some things we can’t do as a ‘’yes or no’’ and sometimes we will just ask a question and hope that you can just follow it and try and put in some information for yourself.

 

跟讀練習：

 

Okay so let's, start question one:

Do you like YouTube? Yes, I like YouTube.

Do you like YouTube? No, I do not like YouTube.

Is it sunny today? Yes, it is sunny today.

Is it sunny today? No, it is not sunny today.

What is 7 * 3? It is 21.

Is it Friday? Yes, it is Friday.

Is it Friday? No, it is not Friday.

Is Mary a happy person? Yes, she is a happy person.

Is Mary a happy person? No, she is not a happy person.

Is the dog brown? Yes, it is brown.

Is the dog brown? No, it is not brown.

 

And there you go, just keep repeating over and over and congratulations! You finished your first episode. Thank you for listening guys take care and keep practicing bye!

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today

Welcome to 15mins.today, the home of English Shadowing. I am your host Gavin and this is InTense Episode 2.

 

Well guys welcome to the first real episode with regards to practicing grammar and in today's episode we going to be looking at the present tense.

 

Now for a brief introduction, we use the present tense for things that are generally true, ‘’It is a sunny day. It is a cloudy day.’’ We use it for things that happen every day, ‘’I brush my teeth every morning,’’ and we also use it for things that are facts, ’’The sun is a star.’’

And that basically covers when we use the present tense. Now in this format we not going to be really so interested in “why and how.” We are more interested in examples, so let's get started.

Now before we start, I would like to remind you, we going to be doing a ‘’yes question’’ and a ‘’no question.’’ Sometimes it'll be just one, there are some things we can’t do as a ‘’yes or no’’ and sometimes we will just ask a question and hope that you can just follow it and try and put in some information for yourself.

 

跟讀練習：

 

Okay so let's, start question one:

Do you like YouTube? Yes, I like YouTube.

Do you like YouTube? No, I do not like YouTube.

Is it sunny today? Yes, it is sunny today.

Is it sunny today? No, it is not sunny today.

What is 7 * 3? It is 21.

Is it Friday? Yes, it is Friday.

Is it Friday? No, it is not Friday.

Is Mary a happy person? Yes, she is a happy person.

Is Mary a happy person? No, she is not a happy person.

Is the dog brown? Yes, it is brown.

Is the dog brown? No, it is not brown.

 

And there you go, just keep repeating over and over and congratulations! You finished your first episode. Thank you for listening guys take care and keep practicing bye!

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today

每日跟讀#565: In Bhutan, Happiness Index as Gauge for Social Ills

 

As a downpour settled into a thick fog outside, Dasho Karma Ura let his eyes flicker at the ceiling of a wood-paneled conference room and began expounding on the nature of happiness.

 

“People feel happy when they see something ethical,” he said. “When you think you have done something right and brave and courageous, when you can constantly recharge yourself as a meaningful actor.”

 

屋外的傾盆大雨轉為濃霧，達修．卡瑪．烏拉向鑲了木板的會議室的天花板瞥了一眼，開始闡述幸福的本質。

 

他說：「當人們看到某件合乎道德的事時，幸福感油然而生。還有當你認為你做對了某件事，而且勇敢和勇氣可嘉時，當你可以持續不斷自我充實，成為有意義的行動者時。」

 

“And lastly,” he added, thumbing Buddhist prayer beads, “something which makes you pause and think, ‘Ah, this is beautiful. Beautiful, meaningful, ethical.'”

 

Ura, 55, is perhaps one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, at least as seen through the lens of development economics. It has been something of a preoccupation for more than two decades as he has developed and fine-tuned Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator, a supplementary, sometimes alternative, yardstick to the conventional measure of development, gross domestic product.

 

他撥著佛教念珠，接著說：「最後，某件事讓你停下來想，喔，好美。美麗、有意義、合乎道德。」

 

55歲的烏拉也許是世上最頂尖的幸福問題專家之一，至少從發展經濟學的眼光來看是如此。20多年來他全心投入，致力發展並仔細修訂不丹的國民幸福總值指數，作為傳統上用來測量發展的國內生產毛額指數的補充或替代標準。

 

As the president of the Center for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, Ura has spent much of his time asking Bhutanese questions about interactions with neighbors, quality of sleep and physical vigor in an attempt to understand and measure subjective well-being. Over the years, he has watched the idea catch on far beyond Bhutan, a remote kingdom in the Himalayas.

 

When Denmark repeatedly came in first on the World Happiness Report, which looks at the science of measuring quality of life, more people became aware of both the report, and the concept behind it.

 

身為「不丹研究與幸福指數研究中心」主席，他花費許多時間來問不丹國民一些問題，包括與鄰居的互動，睡眠品質，以及體力，試圖了解和測量他們的主觀幸福感。多年來，他觀察到這個想法已在不丹這個喜馬拉雅山區偏遠王國之外流行起來。

 

隨著丹麥一再在世界幸福報告上名列第一，也讓更多人注意到這項報告和它所秉持的觀念。這項報告檢視測量生活品質的科學。

 

As nations struggle with what Ura called more “guns, bullets and bombs” than at any other time in history, he said it was imperative that many more countries devise indicators that look beyond economics.

 

“We have to find new ways of organizing our drives and energies toward peace and harmony,” he said. “We have to sincerely find a way out of it, out of this mutual insecurity. Because you have more guns, I have to have a little more guns. The long-term collapse is facing us.”

 

當各國努力與烏拉所謂多過既往任何時代的「槍、子彈和炸彈」奮戰時，他說，勢必會有更多國家設計出放眼於經濟之外的指數。

 

他說：「我們必須找出新方法來組織我們邁向和平與和諧的動力與精力。我們必須真誠的找出擺脫之道，擺脫這種相互不安全感。因為你的槍比較多，所以我必須比你更多一些。我們面臨長期的崩潰。」

 

While Gross National Happiness has become a political tool around election time, Ura believes the index has drawn greater attention to social problems. And the results appear to be positive, he said.

 

In 2015, his staff members released a study that showed 91.2 percent of Bhutanese reporting that they were narrowly, extensively or deeply happy, with a 1.8 percent increase in aggregate happiness between 2010 and 2015.

 

Those who were educated and lived in urban areas reported higher levels of contentment than their rural counterparts. Men reported feeling happier than women.

 

雖然國民幸福總值指數在選舉期間變成了政治工具，但烏拉認為這個指數讓人們更加注意社會問題。他說，結果顯然是正面的。

 

在2015年，他的屬下公布了一項研究結果，顯示有91.2%的不丹人表示他們略感幸福、很幸福和非常幸福，比2010年到2015年間的總體幸福增加1.8個百分比。

 

受過教育和住在都會區的人的滿意度比住在鄉村的人高。男人比女人感到更幸福

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/310478/web/

 

更多跟讀練習單元，就在http://www.15mins.today/daily-shadowing

 

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每日跟讀#565: In Bhutan, Happiness Index as Gauge for Social Ills

 

As a downpour settled into a thick fog outside, Dasho Karma Ura let his eyes flicker at the ceiling of a wood-paneled conference room and began expounding on the nature of happiness.

 

“People feel happy when they see something ethical,” he said. “When you think you have done something right and brave and courageous, when you can constantly recharge yourself as a meaningful actor.”

 

屋外的傾盆大雨轉為濃霧，達修．卡瑪．烏拉向鑲了木板的會議室的天花板瞥了一眼，開始闡述幸福的本質。

 

他說：「當人們看到某件合乎道德的事時，幸福感油然而生。還有當你認為你做對了某件事，而且勇敢和勇氣可嘉時，當你可以持續不斷自我充實，成為有意義的行動者時。」

 

“And lastly,” he added, thumbing Buddhist prayer beads, “something which makes you pause and think, ‘Ah, this is beautiful. Beautiful, meaningful, ethical.'”

 

Ura, 55, is perhaps one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, at least as seen through the lens of development economics. It has been something of a preoccupation for more than two decades as he has developed and fine-tuned Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator, a supplementary, sometimes alternative, yardstick to the conventional measure of development, gross domestic product.

 

他撥著佛教念珠，接著說：「最後，某件事讓你停下來想，喔，好美。美麗、有意義、合乎道德。」

 

55歲的烏拉也許是世上最頂尖的幸福問題專家之一，至少從發展經濟學的眼光來看是如此。20多年來他全心投入，致力發展並仔細修訂不丹的國民幸福總值指數，作為傳統上用來測量發展的國內生產毛額指數的補充或替代標準。

 

As the president of the Center for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, Ura has spent much of his time asking Bhutanese questions about interactions with neighbors, quality of sleep and physical vigor in an attempt to understand and measure subjective well-being. Over the years, he has watched the idea catch on far beyond Bhutan, a remote kingdom in the Himalayas.

 

When Denmark repeatedly came in first on the World Happiness Report, which looks at the science of measuring quality of life, more people became aware of both the report, and the concept behind it.

 

身為「不丹研究與幸福指數研究中心」主席，他花費許多時間來問不丹國民一些問題，包括與鄰居的互動，睡眠品質，以及體力，試圖了解和測量他們的主觀幸福感。多年來，他觀察到這個想法已在不丹這個喜馬拉雅山區偏遠王國之外流行起來。

 

隨著丹麥一再在世界幸福報告上名列第一，也讓更多人注意到這項報告和它所秉持的觀念。這項報告檢視測量生活品質的科學。

 

As nations struggle with what Ura called more “guns, bullets and bombs” than at any other time in history, he said it was imperative that many more countries devise indicators that look beyond economics.

 

“We have to find new ways of organizing our drives and energies toward peace and harmony,” he said. “We have to sincerely find a way out of it, out of this mutual insecurity. Because you have more guns, I have to have a little more guns. The long-term collapse is facing us.”

 

當各國努力與烏拉所謂多過既往任何時代的「槍、子彈和炸彈」奮戰時，他說，勢必會有更多國家設計出放眼於經濟之外的指數。

 

他說：「我們必須找出新方法來組織我們邁向和平與和諧的動力與精力。我們必須真誠的找出擺脫之道，擺脫這種相互不安全感。因為你的槍比較多，所以我必須比你更多一些。我們面臨長期的崩潰。」

 

While Gross National Happiness has become a political tool around election time, Ura believes the index has drawn greater attention to social problems. And the results appear to be positive, he said.

 

In 2015, his staff members released a study that showed 91.2 percent of Bhutanese reporting that they were narrowly, extensively or deeply happy, with a 1.8 percent increase in aggregate happiness between 2010 and 2015.

 

Those who were educated and lived in urban areas reported higher levels of contentment than their rural counterparts. Men reported feeling happier than women.

 

雖然國民幸福總值指數在選舉期間變成了政治工具，但烏拉認為這個指數讓人們更加注意社會問題。他說，結果顯然是正面的。

 

在2015年，他的屬下公布了一項研究結果，顯示有91.2%的不丹人表示他們略感幸福、很幸福和非常幸福，比2010年到2015年間的總體幸福增加1.8個百分比。

 

受過教育和住在都會區的人的滿意度比住在鄉村的人高。男人比女人感到更幸福

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/310478/web/

 

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每日跟讀#564: The Teenage Life, Streamed Live and for Profit

 

On a recent afternoon in Los Angeles, 15-year-old Bryce Xavier went to the Olive Garden with his mom, pulled out his phone and broadcast lunch. Across the country, teenagers’ phones lit up with a push notification: Bryce was live.

 

The phone framed Bryce in close-up. His mom sat off-camera across the table; her son had really come to eat with his fans. Tens of thousands of them poured into a virtual chat room that layered over his image. A bright stream of emoji floated up the side of Bryce’s face, the product of hundreds of fingers tapping the “like” button at the same time.

 

洛杉磯近日一個下午，15歲的布萊斯．札維耶與母親一起去到「橄欖園」，他掏出手機，直播午餐實況。全國各地青少年的手機亮起推播通知：布萊斯上線直播。

 

手機框出布萊斯的特寫鏡頭。他的母親坐在同桌的對面，沒有入鏡；她的兒子實際上是前來與粉絲一起用餐。數以萬計的粉絲湧入與他的影像重疊的實境聊天室。一串明亮的表情符號浮現在布萊斯臉的旁邊，這是數以百計的手指同時按「讚」的產物。

 

Bryce is a star on Live.ly, a year-old live-streaming platform with a core audience of teenage girls. Within three months of its release, according to the mobile app data firm SurveyMonkey Intelligence, Live.ly had unseated Periscope as the iPhone’s top live-streaming app.

 

Bryce is a budding multihyphenate — he identifies as a singer, actor, model and violinist — but he has recently distinguished himself as a Live.ly personality, spending nearly every day wading through a virtual crowd of anonymous fans. Since joining Live.ly last summer, he’s accumulated over 33 million bits of “emoji-love,” the platform’s main metric of success. His most dedicated fans also ship him physical emblems like teddy bears, packets of Sour Patch Kids and posters inscribed with their internet handles and notes like: “I love you. Follow me.” A few months ago, he stopped attending school and started home schooling to accommodate the demands of his social media and entertainment work.

 

布萊斯是直播平台Live.ly的明星，這個成立一年的直播平台有一群青少女死忠觀眾。根據行動app資料公司SurveyMonkey情報公司的資料，Live.ly在上線3個月內就把Periscope擠下iPhone的直播app冠軍寶座。

 

布萊斯是初露鋒芒的多角明星─他以歌手、演員、模特兒和小提琴家自居─最近卻成為表現亮眼的Live.ly名人，幾乎每天都為一群虛擬的匿名粉絲賣力演出。去年夏天加入Live.ly至今，他已累積超過3300萬個「愛的表情符號」，亦即這個平台衡量成功的主要工具。他的最死忠粉絲也寄給他實體的象徵，像是泰迪熊、一包包的「小人兒酸軟糖」，以及寫上他們的網路別名和留言的海報，像是：「我愛你。跟隨我。」幾個月前，他不再上學，開始在家自學，以因應他的社群媒體和娛樂工作的需求。

 

In the streaming of Bryce’s life, lunch is a recurring event. He calls it “A Bite With Bryce.” “It’s like we’re going on a lunch date,” Bryce told me later. “I go to my favorite places, and then they can become my fans’ favorite places, too, through the phone screen.”

 

Live streaming has been hailed as an “authentic” respite from the artificial projections of other social platforms.

 

在布萊斯的直播中，午餐是不斷重複的場景。他稱為「與布萊斯一起大快朵頤」。「這好像我們有個午餐約會」，他後來對我說。「我去我最喜愛的地方，然後這些地方透過手機螢幕，也成為我的粉絲最喜愛的地方。」

 

串流直播被譽為「真品」，讓人暫時擺脫其他社群平台的人造播出內容。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/316288/web/

 

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每日跟讀#564: The Teenage Life, Streamed Live and for Profit

 

On a recent afternoon in Los Angeles, 15-year-old Bryce Xavier went to the Olive Garden with his mom, pulled out his phone and broadcast lunch. Across the country, teenagers’ phones lit up with a push notification: Bryce was live.

 

The phone framed Bryce in close-up. His mom sat off-camera across the table; her son had really come to eat with his fans. Tens of thousands of them poured into a virtual chat room that layered over his image. A bright stream of emoji floated up the side of Bryce’s face, the product of hundreds of fingers tapping the “like” button at the same time.

 

洛杉磯近日一個下午，15歲的布萊斯．札維耶與母親一起去到「橄欖園」，他掏出手機，直播午餐實況。全國各地青少年的手機亮起推播通知：布萊斯上線直播。

 

手機框出布萊斯的特寫鏡頭。他的母親坐在同桌的對面，沒有入鏡；她的兒子實際上是前來與粉絲一起用餐。數以萬計的粉絲湧入與他的影像重疊的實境聊天室。一串明亮的表情符號浮現在布萊斯臉的旁邊，這是數以百計的手指同時按「讚」的產物。

 

Bryce is a star on Live.ly, a year-old live-streaming platform with a core audience of teenage girls. Within three months of its release, according to the mobile app data firm SurveyMonkey Intelligence, Live.ly had unseated Periscope as the iPhone’s top live-streaming app.

 

Bryce is a budding multihyphenate — he identifies as a singer, actor, model and violinist — but he has recently distinguished himself as a Live.ly personality, spending nearly every day wading through a virtual crowd of anonymous fans. Since joining Live.ly last summer, he’s accumulated over 33 million bits of “emoji-love,” the platform’s main metric of success. His most dedicated fans also ship him physical emblems like teddy bears, packets of Sour Patch Kids and posters inscribed with their internet handles and notes like: “I love you. Follow me.” A few months ago, he stopped attending school and started home schooling to accommodate the demands of his social media and entertainment work.

 

布萊斯是直播平台Live.ly的明星，這個成立一年的直播平台有一群青少女死忠觀眾。根據行動app資料公司SurveyMonkey情報公司的資料，Live.ly在上線3個月內就把Periscope擠下iPhone的直播app冠軍寶座。

 

布萊斯是初露鋒芒的多角明星─他以歌手、演員、模特兒和小提琴家自居─最近卻成為表現亮眼的Live.ly名人，幾乎每天都為一群虛擬的匿名粉絲賣力演出。去年夏天加入Live.ly至今，他已累積超過3300萬個「愛的表情符號」，亦即這個平台衡量成功的主要工具。他的最死忠粉絲也寄給他實體的象徵，像是泰迪熊、一包包的「小人兒酸軟糖」，以及寫上他們的網路別名和留言的海報，像是：「我愛你。跟隨我。」幾個月前，他不再上學，開始在家自學，以因應他的社群媒體和娛樂工作的需求。

 

In the streaming of Bryce’s life, lunch is a recurring event. He calls it “A Bite With Bryce.” “It’s like we’re going on a lunch date,” Bryce told me later. “I go to my favorite places, and then they can become my fans’ favorite places, too, through the phone screen.”

 

Live streaming has been hailed as an “authentic” respite from the artificial projections of other social platforms.

 

在布萊斯的直播中，午餐是不斷重複的場景。他稱為「與布萊斯一起大快朵頤」。「這好像我們有個午餐約會」，他後來對我說。「我去我最喜愛的地方，然後這些地方透過手機螢幕，也成為我的粉絲最喜愛的地方。」

 

串流直播被譽為「真品」，讓人暫時擺脫其他社群平台的人造播出內容。

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/316288/web/

 

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每日跟讀#563: Take a Load Off. The Robots That Fold Laundry Are Coming

 

Cars can now drive themselves. Cellphones talk to us. How long will it be until the dreams of every college student and overworked parent come true — and laundry can fold itself?

 

At least two companies are promising to bring laundry-folding robots for the home to market by the end of 2017. Known as Laundroid and FoldiMate, both machines work by analyzing each garment they take in, figuring out its ideal folding shape and delivering a drawer-ready stack of smoothly folded clothes.

 

汽車現在會自駕。手機可以對我們說話。每個大學生和過勞父母的美夢─洗淨的衣物會自動摺疊，何時才能成真？

 

至少有兩家公司承諾在2017年年底前讓家用型洗衣摺疊機器人問世。這兩項名為Laundroid和FoldiMate的機器，運作的方式都是分析它們收進來的每件衣服，找出理想的摺疊形狀，再送出一疊摺疊平整，可放進抽屜的衣服。

 

Laundroid is slightly smaller than a typical refrigerator and looks like the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” except with drawers. The robot arms are inside.

 

The FoldiMate, more compact, has large clips dangling outside, making it look like a mashup of a clothesline and a plastic oven.

 

A working prototype of Laundroid — backed by about $90 million in investment capital, including funds from George Roberts and Henry Kravis of the buyout firm KKR — is set to be publicly demonstrated at the end of this month in Tokyo. It will retail — only in Japan, at first — for about $16,000. Seven Dreamers, the company introducing Laundroid, aims to bring the cost down to $2,000 a unit and begin international sales by next year.

 

Laundroid比典型的冰箱略小，外表類似電影《2001：太空漫遊》中那個巨型碑石，除了它多出數個抽屜。機器手臂藏在裡面。

 

FoldiMate更小些，有大夾子掛在外面，使它看起來像一個晾衣繩和塑膠烤箱的混合物。

 

Laundroid的一個工作原型機，預計本月底在東京公開展示，初期，將只在日本零售，每台訂價約1萬6千美元。

 

Laundroid約有9000萬美元投資資金撐腰，包括來自美國買斷公司KKR的喬治．羅伯茲和亨利．克拉維斯的資金。推出Laundroid的公司「七個夢想家」的目標是將成本降至每台2000美元，預計明年展開國際銷售。

 

Judging from the intensity of the entrepreneurship going on in the field of laundry, most people would rather watch a video of Marie Kondo, author of the book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,”folding a T-shirt so well it stands on its own than to actually do it with their own hands.

 

There’s the iBasket, a laundry hamper that automatically washes clothes when full; EcoWasher, promising “detergent-free laundry”; and DashLocker, an app-based urban laundry service.

 

從洗衣界正在發生的創業強度觀察，大多數人寧可只觀賞近藤麻里繪的影片，她也是《怦然心動的人生整理魔法》一書作者，也不願以自己的雙手實際實踐一下。她把Ｔ恤折疊得太好，好到讓人覺得事不關己地步。

 

還有iBasket這項產品，它是個洗衣籃，衣物滿時會自動洗衣；EcoWasher則保證讓你「零洗衣精洗衣」；DashLocker是以應用程式為基礎的城市洗衣服務。

 

The Whirlpool Corp., owner of the Maytag brand, is also aggressively tinkering. The company plans to introduce in January an all-in-one $1,700 washer/dryer hybrid featuring a detergent reservoir that decides on the proper portion per load, squirts it into the basin unassisted and wirelessly reorders from Amazon when empty.

 

“There is a high level of excitement around innovating in laundry,” said Danielle Whah, Whirlpool’s North America product director for laundry.

 

擁有「美泰克」品牌洗衣機的惠而浦公司也在積極改進中。該公司計畫明年1月推出一款訂價1700美元，一體化的的洗衣／烘乾混合機，特點是具有一個會自動決定每次洗衣適當用量的洗衣精槽，將洗衣精射入洗衣槽，洗衣精用罄時還會以無線方式向亞馬遜叫貨。

 

惠而浦洗衣部門北美產品主管丹尼艾爾．華說：「一股濃濃的興奮感正圍繞著洗衣的創新。」

 

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/314016/web/

 

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