I think this is only possible in Western societies such as Italy. It sometimes makes one wonder where this is going to stop if it was allowed to go on. The true identity of the pornstar in fact was blown back in 2002 by her students. She travelled to Germany last month to attend an international porn fair there. She's also posted stark naked on YouTube.
If a teacher can double up as a pornstar on the Web, why can't he/she double up as a prostitute after school?
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Lost in Translation
I've decided not to trust the Chinese translation of English books any more.
I tried to read Chapter 1 of the Chinese translation of Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist first and found it very difficult to follow.
I then decided to check the English original and discovered some blatant errors in translation. They reflect on the quality of Chinese translators.
Example One:
"... It's easy to see the difference between nineteenth-century farming and twenty-first-century frothing, but not so easy to see the similarity before it is pointed out to us. Economics is partly about modelling, about articulating basic principles and patterns that operate behind seemingly complex subjects like the rent on farms or coffee bars."
Here the author is making use of David Ricardo's rent theory for farmlands to explain the high price of a cup of Starbucks coffee and the scarcity of prime spots for coffee shops and thus their high rent.
The Chinese translation《卧底经济学》translated by 赵恒 published by 中信出版社 tranlated the first sentence as:
"… 19世纪的农业生产和21世纪的经济泡沫之间的差别是显而已见的，但在未言明之前，两者之间的相似性却难以察觉。…"
Frothing as in "twenty-first-century frothing" means coffee-making but it was translated as 经济泡沫。 What an imagination!
Example Two:
"... Ricardo treated the whole agricultural sector as if it were one vast farm with a single landlord. A unified agricultural sector had nothing to gain from improving the land's productivity with roads or irrigation, because those improvements would also reduce the scarcity of good land. But an individual landlord in competition with the others would have plenty of incentive to make improvements. ... Ricardo failed to realise that thousands of landlords competing with each other would make different decisions than a single one."
Here the Chinese translator came up with a translation that's the very opposite of what the author means. The translator failed to understand that by REDUCING the SCARCITY of good land, MORE good land will become available. Instead it's translated that good land will DECREASE as a result of better roads or irrigation.
So the Chinese translation goes:
"… 如果农业部门是统一的，那么提高土地生产率（如改进道路或灌溉系统）就不能增加收益，因为这些改进措施还会减少本已稀缺的优质土地。…"
This kind of shoddy translations do not help Chinese readers orstudents at all. 这类急就章中文翻译不知害了多少中文读者和学生。
I tried to read Chapter 1 of the Chinese translation of Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist first and found it very difficult to follow.
I then decided to check the English original and discovered some blatant errors in translation. They reflect on the quality of Chinese translators.
Example One:
"... It's easy to see the difference between nineteenth-century farming and twenty-first-century frothing, but not so easy to see the similarity before it is pointed out to us. Economics is partly about modelling, about articulating basic principles and patterns that operate behind seemingly complex subjects like the rent on farms or coffee bars."
Here the author is making use of David Ricardo's rent theory for farmlands to explain the high price of a cup of Starbucks coffee and the scarcity of prime spots for coffee shops and thus their high rent.
The Chinese translation《卧底经济学》translated by 赵恒 published by 中信出版社 tranlated the first sentence as:
"… 19世纪的农业生产和21世纪的经济泡沫之间的差别是显而已见的，但在未言明之前，两者之间的相似性却难以察觉。…"
Frothing as in "twenty-first-century frothing" means coffee-making but it was translated as 经济泡沫。 What an imagination!
Example Two:
"... Ricardo treated the whole agricultural sector as if it were one vast farm with a single landlord. A unified agricultural sector had nothing to gain from improving the land's productivity with roads or irrigation, because those improvements would also reduce the scarcity of good land. But an individual landlord in competition with the others would have plenty of incentive to make improvements. ... Ricardo failed to realise that thousands of landlords competing with each other would make different decisions than a single one."
Here the Chinese translator came up with a translation that's the very opposite of what the author means. The translator failed to understand that by REDUCING the SCARCITY of good land, MORE good land will become available. Instead it's translated that good land will DECREASE as a result of better roads or irrigation.
So the Chinese translation goes:
"… 如果农业部门是统一的，那么提高土地生产率（如改进道路或灌溉系统）就不能增加收益，因为这些改进措施还会减少本已稀缺的优质土地。…"
This kind of shoddy translations do not help Chinese readers orstudents at all. 这类急就章中文翻译不知害了多少中文读者和学生。
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
"Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?"
The Internet and pornography have been going hand in hand ever since the advent of the World Wide Web.
Enter the Webcam and YouTube. Everybody started to dance or strip in front of their PC's.
As always, like everything else, the World Wide Web is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways.
Enter the Webcam and YouTube. Everybody started to dance or strip in front of their PC's.
As always, like everything else, the World Wide Web is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Our Tiny Ancestor
Copyright - The Times, May 15, 2007Let's take a hard look at our family tree. We're Africans, after all.
PS: I think there's a typo in The Times article: "Aegyptopithecus zeuxis, which probably resembles the common ancestor of New World monkeys and apes, lived about 29 million years ago." The correct version ought to be: "Aegyptopithecus zeuxis, which probably resembles the common ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes, ..."
Monday, May 14, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
Goddess of Mercy aka Avalokiteśvara
I'm trying to post a photo here. Isn't that obvious?
It's Bodhisattva Guan Yin in Mount Pu Tuo in China.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
NATO Air Raid Killed 21 in Southern Afghanistan
An air strike commissioned by NATO killed 21 civilians, including women and children, in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan on 8 May 2007.
"The air strike late on Tuesday night hit houses in a village of the Sangin district, where NATO forces have been hunting Taliban militants in recent weeks." (Reuters)
Smart bombs aren't that smart, after all. These unarmed people were sitting ducks awaiting their doom.
"The air strike late on Tuesday night hit houses in a village of the Sangin district, where NATO forces have been hunting Taliban militants in recent weeks." (Reuters)
Smart bombs aren't that smart, after all. These unarmed people were sitting ducks awaiting their doom.
Graffiti with a Mission
"I want to be a non-comformist. Just like everybody else." (Banksy)
I wonder the graffiti of Banksy can still be called "graffiti". At least they're graffito with a message.
I certainly don't mind Banksy doing his graffiti in the streets of Hong Kong.
More Banksy's work on the New Yorker.
I wonder the graffiti of Banksy can still be called "graffiti". At least they're graffito with a message.
I certainly don't mind Banksy doing his graffiti in the streets of Hong Kong.
More Banksy's work on the New Yorker.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Gangsters in Voluntary Dissolution
Can you believe this? A bunch of gangsters in Japan went to a police station to tell the cops there that they've decided to dissolve their own branch of an infamous underworld organisation because their boss had murdered Mayor Iccho Ito of Nagasaki, Japan, and they did not approved of what he did.
Police said the gunman was Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, head of an underworld faction that is part of a national criminal syndicate called the Yamaguchi-gumi. The gunman was tackled by bystanders and police after firing the shots. Japanese crime syndicates have ties to some nationalist political organistions, and there was immediate speculation that the shooting may have been politically motivated.
I don't think this is going to happen anywhere in the world other than Japan.
Police said the gunman was Tetsuya Shiroo, 59, head of an underworld faction that is part of a national criminal syndicate called the Yamaguchi-gumi. The gunman was tackled by bystanders and police after firing the shots. Japanese crime syndicates have ties to some nationalist political organistions, and there was immediate speculation that the shooting may have been politically motivated.
I don't think this is going to happen anywhere in the world other than Japan.
Virginia Tech Massacre
The thing that amazes me most is that a mental patient (Cho was institutionalised in a mental institution for a short period of time) was able to buy guns and ammo (500 rounds) so easily in Virginia.
If you haven't seen Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, I think it's worth watching if you can get hold of a copy.
Virginia is one of the states in the US where one can buy guns in a most convenient way. One bank put up an ad that said come and open an account with us and we'll give you a rifle of your choice for free. Guns there are like credit card gifts in Hong Kong.
I think the politicians in the US should give that some thoughts.
If you haven't seen Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, I think it's worth watching if you can get hold of a copy.
Virginia is one of the states in the US where one can buy guns in a most convenient way. One bank put up an ad that said come and open an account with us and we'll give you a rifle of your choice for free. Guns there are like credit card gifts in Hong Kong.
I think the politicians in the US should give that some thoughts.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Electronic Arts is Giving Away Video Game FIFA 07 for Free
Software companies finally buckle and recognise the universal truth that consumers want to play but don't want to pay. One such company - Electronic Arts - has decided to give South Korean gamers FIFA07 free of charge online. If you think Electronic Arts is dumb, think again. Once gamers got hooked to the game, they started to buy enhancements or add-ons to the game for a small price of about US$1 in order to gain an upper hand over fellow-gamers. The company has managed to sell 700,000 enhancements since May 2006.
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