女囚选美

　　Lithuania Has Inmate Beauty Contest

　　Move over Miss Universe, make room for Miss Captivity, a contest to pick the most attractive female inmate serving jail time in Lithuania. The organizer of the event, television producer Arunas Valinskas, announced that he finalized a deal with the Baltic country's sole female prison and already had accepted applications from 36 contestants. "We'll attempt to find beauty \where\ you might think there is none," he said at a news conference. "The prisoners are, after all, women first and foremost." The prison, the Panevezys Penal Labor Colony, holds more than 1,000 inmates, including convicted murders. It's in the city of Panevezys, some 90 miles north of Vilnius, the capital of this nation. The competition, which organizers said was the first of its kind in Europe, will be shown live on the private LNK TV. Top Lithuanian fashion designers will make the contestants' clothes and local dignitaries would serve as the judges, selecting a winner based on "beauty and elegance," Valinskas said. In addition to what many might see as the dubious honor of being crowned Miss Captivity, the winner and runners-up will qualify for 10,000 litas ($2,500) in prizes though they'd only receive them after completing their jail terms. Prison officials said participating detainees would be excused from working in the penitentiary's sewing factory during the week of the contest.

　　一边去，环球小姐，给“在押小姐”腾个地方——立陶宛即将举办比赛以选出最有魅力的在押女犯。赛事主办者、电视制片人阿朗纳斯-瓦林斯卡宣布他已经同这个波罗的海国家惟一的女子监狱达成了协议，并已接受了36人的参赛申请。“我们想在人们认为美不存在的地方找到美，”他在记者招待会上说。“不管怎样，这些囚犯首先是女人。”帕尼维泽斯劳改营位于立陶宛首都维尔纽斯以北大约90英里的帕尼维泽斯市，里面关押着包括谋杀犯在内的1000多名囚犯。主办者称这种比赛在欧洲还是第一次，私人的LNK电视台将对此进行直播。瓦林斯卡说，立陶宛最优秀的时装设计师将为选手们设计服装，获胜者由当地名流根据“美丽及优雅”的标准选出。除去“在押小姐”这一许多人眼里的暧昧荣誉外，获胜者及亚军还将得到1万里特(2500美元)的奖金——不过她们要到服刑期满后才能得到这笔钱。监狱官员说，参赛的女囚在一周的比赛期间可以不到监狱的缝纫厂做工。

　　Remarks：因为她们“首先是女人”，所以应当享有“选美权”与“被选美权”——我们可以这样来理解主办者炒作之外的善意。

　　战时沉船环境隐患

　　Wartime Wrecks Could Cause Ecological Disaster

　　Shipwrecks from the Second World War could cause catastrophic damage to the environment, scientists have warned. Oil spills from 1,080 ships on the Pacific floor could equate to the damage caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster in 19891. Researchers for the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme believe the greatest dangers are from sunken oil tankers which will continue to corrode. After a typhoon two years ago the USS2 Mississinewa, a fuel tanker sunk by a Japanese human torpedo in 1944, suffered a ruptured hull. The Mississinewa, located at Ulithi Atoll near the Philippines, could still contain millions of litres of oil, as could another tanker, the USS Neosho, which lies near Australia's Great Barrier Reef and was sunk in 1942. Trevor Gilbert, who advised the Programme, told New Scientist magazine: "With every year that passes, these vessels deteriorate more and the risk of significant oil release becomes more likely." Another adviser, Sefania Nawadra, said: "In tropical conditions, oil remains fluid even at depth. For example, the oil on the Mississinewa is as fluid as the day it came out of the refinery." The researchers, yet to receive funding for their work, have produced a map of the wrecks and hope governments will act on their work.

　　1. 1989年3月24日，埃克森-瓦尔迪兹号(Exxon Valdez)油轮搁浅并泄出267,000桶共1,100万加仑的油，油污进入阿拉斯加威廉王子海峡，对环境造成严重破坏。此次意外是美国有史以来最严重的漏油事件。

　　2. USS：美国船，United States Ship的缩写。

　　科学家们警告，二战时期的沉船可能对环境造成灾难性的破坏。从太平洋底1080艘沉船中漏出的油对环境的损害可与1989年“埃克森-瓦尔迪兹号”油轮泄漏事件相提并论。南太平洋地区环境项目的研究者们认为，最大的危险来自那些还在继续朽坏的油轮。美国燃油运输船“密西西尼瓦号”于1944年被一枚日本“人体鱼雷”击沉，两年前的一次台风使它的船体出现了裂缝。“密西西尼瓦号”沉没在菲律宾附近的尤利斯环礁，船上可能还有数百万升油，1942年沉没在澳洲大堡礁附近的另一艘美国油轮“纽硕号”情况与此类似。这一项目顾问特鲁弗-吉尔伯特对《新科学家》杂志说：“这些沉船的状况逐年恶化，发生重大漏油事故的风险也越来越大。”另一位顾问瑟法尼亚-娜瓦德拉说：“在热带气候条件下，即使在深海中油也保持着流动性。举例来说，‘密西西尼瓦号’上的油的流动性一如当初它们从炼油厂新鲜出炉之时。”目前还没有人为这些研究者的工作提供资金支持，他们已经制作了一份沉船分布图，并希望有关国家政府据此采取行动。

　　Remarks：这样的报道总让我觉得我们正走在自我毁灭的道路上——与核武器和生化武器带来的严重生态隐患相比，漏点油也只是小事一桩了。

　　英国的最佳居所

　　Harry Potter Town Is Britain's Best

　　The Dukes of Northumberland have known it for 700 years, but it is now official the small Northumberland town of Alnwick is the best place to live in Britain. In a survey measuring quality of life, Country Life magazine chose Alnwick home to the Dukes of Northumberland since 1309 ahead of second-placed Midhurst in West Sussex and Cornwall's Fowey, which tied with Gloucestershire's Tetbury in third place. "It's just a beautiful place to live in," the 12th Duke of Northumberland said when asked what made the market town, population 8,000, so special. "There's fantastic scenery, good beaches, great fishing and the traffic is not as bad as London." The imposing presence of Alnwick castle used as Hogwarts wizardry school in the Harry Potter films also helped secure the town's victory. Despite the northeast's inclement climate "the town scored no marks for that," said Country Life editor Clive Aslet Alnwick also beat its southern rivals in its low crime rates, provision of affordable housing and a variety of local shops. "We've got one of the best second-hand bookshops in the country," said the Duke. The survey did not measure economic prosperity. According to Aslet, a mix of beauty and communal spirit was considered more important than income. "It's about quality of life and if you want that, then a high income doesn't matter," he said. Alnwick is also just a 30-minute drive from Newcastle. "If I drive half-an-hour from my London office I'm still stuck in the Edgware Road," said Aslet.

　　诺森伯兰公爵们在700年前就知道了这件事情，不过它现在得到了正式认可——诺森伯兰郡的阿尼克小镇是英国最适宜居住的地方。《田园生活》杂志举办了一次关于生活质量的调查，将1309年以来历任诺森伯兰公爵的家乡阿尼克选为英国的最佳居住地点，西萨塞克斯的米德赫斯特名列第二，并列第三的是康沃尔郡的福伊和格洛斯特郡的泰特伯里。在被问及是什么使这个8000人的集镇如此不同凡响时，第12代诺森伯兰公爵说：“它就是一处美丽的居所。这里有绝佳的风景、美丽的海滩和上好的钓鱼场所，交通也不像伦敦那样糟糕。”壮丽的阿尼克城堡——哈利-波特电影中的霍格维茨魔法学校就是它——也为它的获胜助了一臂之力。尽管阿尼克小镇所处的东北部气候恶劣——《田园生活》的编辑克里夫-埃斯莱特说：“它在这上面得了零分。”——它还是凭借低犯罪率、相宜的房价以及种类齐全的商铺击败了南方的对手。公爵说：“全国最好的二手书店有一个就在这里。”调查没有涉及经济的繁荣程度。根据埃斯莱特的说法，他们认为美景与公众信念的结合比收入水平更加重要。他说：“调查着眼于生活质量以及你个人的期望，因此高收入水平不算什么优势。”阿尼克离纽卡斯尔也只有半小时的车程。埃斯莱特说：“要是我开车从伦敦的办公室出发，半小时后我还堵在埃奇韦尔路上。”

　　Remarks：尽管有这样的结果，相信这个小镇还是可以保有先前的宁静——毕竟，对很多人来说，繁华与热闹的生活才是“有质量的生活”。

　　外星人的度假胜地

　　Scotland Aliens' Favorite Holiday Destination

　　Want to see a flying saucer? Then come to Scotland. The country better known as the home of legendary Loch Ness monster has the highest concentration of UFO sightings on the planet, according to figures released recently. Around 300 "Unidentified Flying Objects" are spotted in Scotland each year, the most per square kilometer and per head of population of anywhere in the world, figures compiled by Scotland's official tourist body found. VisitScotland said 0.004 UFOs were spotted for every square kilometer of Scotland a rate four times as high as in France or Italy, this planet's other UFO hotspots. The 2,000 UFOs are spotted every year in the United States represent just 0.0002 sightings per square kilometer. "This confirms that Scotland is the nearest thing there is to the Costa del Sol* for aliens," a VisitScotland spokesman said. The figures' release coincided with what aficionados celebrate as International UFO day, the anniversary of June 24, 1947. On that date, a U.S. air force pilot claimed to have spotted nine mysterious disc-shaped objects over the Cascade Mountains in Washington, leading to the term "flying saucer."

　　*Costa del Sol：太阳海岸，西班牙南部旅游胜地。

　　想看飞碟吗？来苏格兰吧。根据最近公布的数字，主要因传奇的尼斯湖怪兽而知名的苏格兰是我们星球上不明飞行物目击率最高的地区。苏格兰官方旅游机构编制的数据显示，在苏格兰每年大约有300宗不明飞行物目击事件，按平方公里或按人口平均的目击率均为全球之冠。“畅游苏格兰”宣称苏格兰的飞碟目击率达到了每平方公里0.004起，是另两个飞碟目击热点法国和意大利的4倍。而美国每年的2000宗飞碟目击事件平均到每平方公里只有0.0002起。“畅游苏格兰”的发言人说：“这证明了苏格兰最可能是外星人在地球上的度假胜地。”数字公布的这天正好是6月24日，这一天是飞碟迷们的国际飞碟日，是对1947年6月24日的周年纪念。在这一天，一个美国空军飞行员声称在华盛顿的喀斯喀特山上空看到了9个神秘的碟形物体，“飞碟”一词由此而生。

　　Remarks：读过彭斯(Robert Burns)讴歌苏格兰的美妙诗篇，谁会不向往那里优美的高地风情？何必弄这样的玄虚来倒人胃口呢？

　　离婚的传染性

　　Divorce at Work Is Contagious?

　　The likelihood that you will get divorced increases if several of your colleagues at work break up with their partners, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported, quoting a sociological study. ''The study shows that divorce is contagious,'' Aftonbladet said. This was more true for men than for women, according to sociologist Yvonne Aberg, who surveyed the marital records of 37,000 people at 1,500 places of work over a seven-year period. A wave of divorces at work can trigger another wave of separations as those parting companies often find a new partner among their colleagues, the study said.

　　瑞典小报《今晚报》援引一篇社会学论文说，如果你的同事里有几位和伴侣分道扬镳，那么你自己离婚的可能性也会增大。该报说：“论文显示离婚具有传染性。”按社会学家伊沃尼-阿伯格的看法，这一点对男人尤其适用。阿伯格在7年里调查了1500个工作场所中3万7千人的婚姻记录。论文指出，一轮办公室离婚浪潮会引发另一轮分居浪潮，因为婚姻解体的人们经常会在同事中寻找新的伴侣。

　　Remarks：好像结婚也可以传染的，现代的“爱情”真是相见轻松别更易啊！

　　奖品：免费离婚

　　Fundraiser Could Get You Divorced

　　An Australian law firm has offered up a free divorce as a prize in a Red Cross auction to raise funds for victims of the Bali bombings. The divorce is just one of 100 prizes up for the auction to raise funds for the Australian Red Cross which is helping victims of the October 12 blasts on the Indonesian resort island that killed more than 180 people and wounded hundreds. Teena Gilbert, co-organizer of the charity auction at the Tracy Village Social and Sports Club in the northern city of Darwin, said the A$1,000 ($560) prize was being donated by a legal practice. "When my assistant first told me I thought, 'Oh God', I wouldn't like my husband to see me bidding for a divorce," Gilbert told reporters. "We hope to raise a lot of money for Bali. It's a horrific tragedy and it's touched a lot of hearts." Law firm owner Vanessa Farmer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp she did not necessarily expect the highest bidder for the prize to want a divorce. "But I've indicated we're going to honor it," she said.

　　在红十字会举办的一次旨在为巴厘岛爆炸案受害者筹款的拍卖会上，澳大利亚一家律师事务所提供了一份特别的奖品：一场免费的离婚官司。(2002年)10月12日印尼度假胜地巴厘岛发生爆炸事件，180人死亡，数百人受伤。澳洲红十字会为帮助受害者举办了这次筹款拍卖，拍卖会上有100份奖品，免费离婚只是其中之一。此次慈善拍卖地点在澳洲北部城市达尔文的特蕾西乡村社交及运动俱乐部，组织者之一蒂娜-吉尔伯特称这一价值1000澳元(560美元)的奖品来自一家法律服务机构。“当助手刚告诉我这件事情时，我想：‘噢，天啊！’我可不想让丈夫看见我竞买离婚，”吉尔伯特对记者说。“我们想为巴厘岛受害者筹一大笔钱。这是场可怕的悲剧，触动了许多人的心。”律师事务所业主瓦内萨-法默尔对澳洲广播公司说，她并不认为出价最高的竞买者就一定希望离婚，“但我已经说了，我们会兑现承诺。”

　　Remarks：离婚虽然不是必需品，先买来备着也好。看看前一篇文章就知道了——就算你不想离，万一被传染了呢？

　　拍卖监狱

　　Indiana Jail Is for Sale

　　Looking for a cozy, 132-bed home with no view and plenty of locks on the doors? Porter County may have a deal for you, as county commissioners plan to sell the old Porter County Jail at auction. "A jail is obviously a very unusual real estate offering," said Steven L. Good, chief executive officer of Sheldon Good & Co. Auctions. Sheriff's officers and inmates are moving from the 30-year-old jail in downtown Valparaiso to a new jail, but demolishing the 35,272-square-foot jail could cost as much as $300,000, county officials said. The minimum bid will be $25,000, though Good said it was difficult to determine an asking price for the jail because so few are on the market. Paul Galanis, senior project manager at Good, said the four-story, brick-and-concrete building could be redeveloped as an office building or medical center, or the property could be used for a private prison.

　　想找一个有132个床位、门上有重重大锁、没有任何景色可看的安乐窝吗？波特县也许可以满足你的要求，县议会委员们计划拍卖老旧的波特县监狱。谢尔登-古德拍卖行首席执行官斯蒂文-L-古德说：“显然，监狱是一种非常特别的不动产拍品。”县府官员说，狱政人员和囚犯正准备从位于瓦尔帕莱索(印第安那州西北部城市——译者注)市中心的这座有30年历史的监狱迁往新的监狱，但摧毁这座占地35272平方英尺的监狱却需要花费30万美元巨资。这座监狱的拍卖底价是2万5千美元，尽管古德说给它定出一个合适的底价不太容易，因为市场上同类拍品实在是太少。古德拍卖行的高级项目经理保罗-加兰尼斯说，这座4层的砖混建筑可以改建为办公楼或医疗中心，也可用作私人监狱。

　　Remarks：其实改建成旅馆最好，因为铁窗风味对喜欢新奇刺激的人们无疑颇具吸引力(北京有一家设计得类似监房的餐馆，据说也风光了一阵)。

　　一机在手，不怕儿啼

　　Inventor Says No More Tears with Baby-Cry Gadget

　　A Spanish inventor, intrigued by his son's incessant crying, has designed a detector that he says will tell harassed parents within 20 seconds if their baby is hungry, bored, tired, stressed or uncomfortable. Electronic engineer Pedro Monagas said the gadget called "Why Cry" would soon go on sale at pharmacies in Spain. "I started (studying) the different kinds of cries of my son. Then I continued on 100 babies," Monagas told a local radio station. He said he identified five distinct crying types, which the noise-sensitive gadget is able to recognize. The device, the size of a calculator and powered by batteries, has five faces on a screen on the back representing the possible reasons why a baby is crying. "When the baby cries, it sets off the Why Cry and in 20 seconds the little faces light up," Monagas said. The Catalan inventor, who plans to give a share of any profits to a baby charity, is already working on a more advanced model to "make the family environment a little easier."

　　儿子不停的哭闹促使一位西班牙发明家设计了一种哭闹探测器，据他说，这种装置能在20秒内告诉穷于应付的父母孩子是饿了、烦了、累了、紧张了还是不舒服了。电子工程师佩德罗-莫纳加斯说，这种名为“哭啥”的装置很快就会在西班牙的药店里上市。他对当地一家电台说：“我从研究儿子的不同哭闹类型着手，然后又对100个婴孩进行了研究。”莫纳加斯说，他识别出了5种不同的哭闹类型，而他发明的这种声敏装置能够分辨它们。这种计算器大小的装置以电池为能源，背面有一个显示屏。显示屏上的5张脸代表着可能引起婴儿哭闹的各种原因。莫纳加斯说：“孩子的哭闹会触发‘哭啥’，显示屏上的小脸在20秒之内就会亮起来。”这位加泰罗尼亚发明家打算将一部分由此获得的利润捐给一家儿童慈善机构，目前已开始研制更先进的换代产品以便“让家庭气氛轻松一点”。

　　Remarks：我想他的换代产品大概是能根据哭闹的不同原因自动喂食和哄孩子的装置，这样家庭气氛就可以轻松得像自动化养鸡场一样了。

　　红头发的特质

　　News for Redheads

　　Redheads may actually have another trait that makes them stand out sensitivity to pain, specialists reported. People with natural red hair need about 20 percent more anesthesia than people with other hair colors, they told a meeting of anesthesiologists. The unexpected finding not only suggests that redheads are more sensitive to pain, but offers insights \into\ how anesthesia works in people. "Red hair is the first visible human trait, or phenotype, that is linked to anesthetic requirement," Dr. Edwin Liem of the University of Louisville in Kentucky said in a statement. "In a nutshell*, redheads are likely to experience more pain from a given stimulus and therefore require more anesthesia to alleviate that pain." Liem said the finding is important news for specialists who monitor patients during surgery. "The art and science of anesthesiology is choosing the right dose," he said. "There is very little difference between the effective dose and the toxic dose of most anesthetics. Patients can awaken during surgery if they are given insufficient anesthesia or suffer cardiac and pulmonary complications when they are given too much." Scientists do not fully understand how anesthesia works, but the findings offers clues, as people with red hair have a certain genetic variant.

　　* in a nutshell：简单地说，简而言之。

　　专家们说，(除去发色以外)红头发的人也许还有一个使他们卓然于群的特征——敏锐的痛感。他们在一次麻醉学专家会议上说，天然红发的人需要的麻醉剂量要比其他发色的人多20%。这一意外发现不仅意味着红头发的人对痛楚更敏感，而且让人们对麻醉剂对人的作用有了更多的了解。“红发是第一个与麻醉剂量发生关联的可见人体特性或称显型，”肯塔基州路易斯维尔大学的埃德温-列姆博士在报告中说。“简单地说，在给定的刺激条件下，红头发的人会有更强的痛感，因此需要更多的麻醉剂来减轻痛苦。”列姆认为这一发现对负责在手术过程中监控患者状况的专科医生来说十分重要。“麻醉学的奥妙在于选择合适的剂量，”他说。“大多数麻醉剂的有效剂量和中毒剂量之间只有细微的差别。如果剂量不足，患者会在手术过程中醒来，而过多的麻醉剂会引起心肺并发症。”科学家们还不完全了解麻醉剂的作用机理，而这一发现为此提供了线索，因为红头发的人具有一种特定的遗传性变型。

　　Remarks：看来以后麻醉师在手术台上得先问一句：“染过头发没有？”