翻译Zine
以下文章皆为鄙人亲手翻译
Riders on a storm
Aug 10th 2006
From The Economist print edition
How to detect thunderstorms before they happen
怎样提前探测到雷暴
THUNDERSTORMS are notoriously unpredictable, as many a drenched picnicker can attest. Although meteorologists know what conditions favour their formation, they are hard-pressed to say exactly where a storm will occur until it is almost late.
雷暴真是人所共知的难以预料，正如许多湿透了的野餐者证实的那样。尽管气象学家知道什么样的条件促进它们的形成，但往往到了基本上晚了的时候他们才艰难的说出雷暴到底什么时候发生。
One reason is that radars used to track storms can detect water in the atmosphere only once it has condensed into clouds or raindrops, and thus reflects the beam. By the time that happens, a storm is imminent. It would be better if there were some way to see atmospheric water while it is still vapour, before raindrops form.
一个原因是被用来追踪雷暴的雷达只可以发现大气中凝结成云或雨滴的水，因为水能以这样的形态反射波束。当这些情况发生的时候，一场风暴已迫在眉睫了。如果我们能找到一些能在雨滴形成以前的蒸汽状态下就观察到大气水方法，情况会变的好一些。
Rita Roberts, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, and Frederic Fabry, of McGill University in Canada, think they have found out how to do this. Their method exploits the fact that water vapour changes the speed at which radar waves travel though air. That enables use to be made of what was previously just irritating noise—the part of a radar beam that is reflected not from raindrops, but from fixed objects such as buildings.
来自科罗拉多的国家大气研究中心的丽塔·罗伯茨，和来自加拿大的麦基尔大学的弗雷德里克·法布里认为他们找到了解决办法。他们的方法是对水蒸汽改变雷达波穿过空气速度的实际情况加以运用。这种方法使运用那些原先被认为只是由恼人的噪声组成的东西成为可能——这一部分的雷达波不是从雨滴反射来得，而是来自诸如建筑物那样的固定物体。
Since the distance from any given radar to each of these reflective surfaces (which may be as much as 50km, or 30 miles, away) is known precisely, the time it takes a beam to get there and back is a measure of how much water vapour it contains. With only one radar, this measure is not very informative, but the researchers’ method uses four, pointing in different directions through the same airmass.
知道了从特定的雷达到可反射的表面的距离，波束到那达和返回所花费的时间就确定为一个衡量包含多少水蒸汽的尺度。如果只使用一台雷达，这个尺度的提供的信息不会太多，但是研究者的想法是使用四台从不同方向指向同一气团的雷达。
Combining the signals from all four radars using some newly designed software means that the water content of the atmosphere can be sampled at points 4km apart. The existing system in American, which relies on weather ballons, samples points about 150km apart. The result is that incipient storms can be detected several hours before they burst, and picnicker need never be drenched again.
能综合从四个拥有新软件的雷达得到的信号意味着大气中水的含量可以在相隔4km远的点取样。位于美国的现有系统采用的是气象气球，取样点大约相隔150km远。最初的雷暴可以在它爆发前几个小时被发现，这样野餐者就不会再被淋湿了
Holistic health
Yoga with a prescription
Feb 5th 2004 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA From The Economist print edition
带药方的瑜珈
A revolution in the pharmacy business?
药店业的一场革命？
WHAT happens to groovy, outraged, pierced but ageing radicals as they get creaky and discover that holistic health is more interesting than Che Guevara? Stuart Skorman, an entrepreneur in Berkeley, California, realised this screamed for a new paradigm in the pharmacy industry. Since his chemist, the Elephant Pharmacy, opened a year ago it has become a regular destination for many of Berkeley's greying hippies, as well as a number of (mostly female) fanatics from other parts of the San Francisco Bay area. Few come just to get their prescription pills. Most also stroll through the Chinese medicine section, take a free class on “Nutriculture” or “Cultivating Daily Enlightenment”, or read up on meditation in the library.
当那些时髦，横，有耳洞却日益变老的激进分子们上了年纪，而且发现了整体的健康比切·格瓦拉更加有趣时，会发生什么呢？加州伯克利市的企业家斯图尔特•司考曼认识到了这个问题，并强烈要求把它作为药剂学的一个新范例。他的药店——一年前开张金象药店已经成为许多人经常光顾的地方，比如那些伯克利市的头发渐白的嬉皮士和别的一大批（多数是女性）来自旧金山湾地区对此入迷的人。只有极少数的人仅仅为了拿到处方药片而来。大多数的人也是从中医区开始闲逛，顺便去听几堂关于＂营养液栽培＂或＂每日耕作启迪＂的免费讲座，又或者就在图书馆研读有关医学方面的书籍。
“It's like a community centre,” says a customer who came in to have her doshas analysed by the Ayurvedic consultant who drops in on Sundays. “I never thought that I would go to a pharmacy just for fun,” says another, socialising in the aisle for Yoga mats. What customers love about Elephant, says Mr Skorman, is that they can learn about health from both the eastern and western traditions. They “trust us to tell them the truth,” he says. “That's the brand.”
一位来这里的顾客让星期天顺便来拜访的Ayurvedic顾问帮她分析了她的三大生命能量时说：“这就像是一个社区中心。”在走廊的垫子上练着瑜珈的一个人说：“我以前从没想过我到药房仅仅会是为了娱乐。”Mr Skorman说顾客们钟爱于Elephant是是因为他们能同时学到东西方传统的健康知识，并且他们相信我们所说的一切真实的想法。他说“那就是他的牌子。”
There is a hitch, however. “There are businesses that customers love that don't make money,” says Mr Skorman, who sometimes wonders if his might be one of them. As a business model, something like a “green Walgreens” is implausible, he now realises. To make money from selling pills, a company needs to be big to haggle for bulk rates, but Elephant Pharmacy is a tiny start-up. Worse, it has elephant-sized costs, because the whole point is to have expert staff.
然而还有一个问题。Mr Skorman说：“顾客们希望很多生意不要赚钱。”他有时侯也在怀疑他的问题可能会是他们当中的一个。他现在认识到，作为一个商业模特，有几分像是“绿色的Walgreens”令人难以置信。为了从出售药品中赚钱，一个公司需要变得强大以致于可以为了大批的费用而讨价还价，但是Elephant Pharmacy是一个刚刚启动的小公司。更糟的是，它有着巨大的成本，因为他们请的员工都是些专家。
Hoping to get some scale into the business, Mr Skorman is now negotiating with several nationwide department stores and chemists to operate Elephant kiosks inside their shops. If he can just avoid going bust, he reckons his business will have a future. Starbucks, after all, brought Italian-style coffee from Seattle to the world because it was the first firm to see that the world was ready. In a similar way, Mr Skorman hopes that he is the first to spot the need for a new kind of pharmacy. “We have the name Elephant trademarked in pretty much every country except Norway,” he adds. He may be about to make history by launching a new global trend. All the Elephant fans in Berkeley are hoping that he stays in business.
为了扩大规模进入商业领域，Mr Skorman现在正在与一些全国的百货商店和药店的负责人商议在他们的店铺里开一金象的窗口。如果他刚好能避免破产，那么他估计他的生意就会有一个美好的未来。毕竟Starbucks从西雅图到世界各国买到了意大利风格的咖啡，因为这是第一家看到它的发展前景的公司。用类似的方法，Mr Skorman希望他是第一个发现一种新药品需求的人。他补充说道：“我们的商标金象在除了挪威外的任何一个国家注册了”他有可能会着手于通过创造一个新的全球趋势来开创一个伟大的事业。所有的伯克利的Elephant狂热者都希望他能够一直留在商业界。
