【2017-06-27】 @Ent_evo 读到一个低配版的脑机接口：一个帮盲人产生视力的装置叫Brainport，一边是摄像头，另一边是400个微小电极矩阵连在……舌头上。摄像头把拍摄到的东西转化成电流强弱，让舌头感知。一开始患者只会觉得在吃跳跳糖，但是经过训练慢慢就能把这种刺激想象成400像素的二维黑白图像。人脑的可塑性真是厉害啊 ​​​​ @Ent_evo:说类似这样的东西可能是未来人机交互的一个路线：现在电脑显示信息太依赖视觉，但是人脑很难同时看两个不同的东西。躯体就不同了，多任务家常便饭，光是维持坐姿就要监控上百条肌肉的状态。如果把身体感受器用上，那人能同时处理多得多的信息 @whigzhou: 实现背后视觉是我多年来的愿望 @whigzhou: 突然想到，通过此类技术所创造出的新型感觉，是为感质（qualia）迷信者解毒的一剂良药  

两年前，在一次因我的上一本书出版而安排的访谈中，我曾擅自为哲学家指派了一个任务——描绘一幅世界图景。之所以会冒出这个念头，是因为我逐渐发现，缺乏这样一幅图景已对我构成了障碍，让我难以深入细致的谈论一些更为具体的事情；特别是当你的假想听众为数众多时，脱离一幅可供方便参考的世界图景，要说清楚一件事情就变得越来越麻烦了。 常有人说，哲学家的工作是思考最基本的问题，或者（听上去更吓人的）所谓终极问题；那些基本问题当然是重要的，甚至重要到值得你花上一辈子去思考，但执着于基本问题的倾向有时也会将人引入歧途，它带给人这样一种感觉：仿佛我们对世界和生活的探索就是一个寻宝游戏，那把（或少数几把）可用来解开我们全部困惑的金钥匙，就藏在某个幽深角落里，一旦找到它们，以往困扰我们的种种问题，就都迎刃而解了；事实上，许多被哲学话题所吸引的年轻人，或多或少都以为自己能找到这把钥匙。 这一倾向也让人们热衷于作各种单链条的追问：人和动物究竟有何不同？人有语言，动物没有。为何人类会说话？人类大脑新皮层上有个语言区，那里运行着心智的语言模块。这个模块怎么来的？FOXP2，这个基因的新版本让那个脑区升级成了语言模块。Eureka！原来人之为人的奥秘就隐藏在FOXP2里！ 人为何有自由意志？因为我们的选择是不可预知的。为何不可预知？因为运行我们心智的神经系统，有着物理上的不确定性。这个不确定性又是哪儿来的？来自神经工作中的量子效应。Duang！量子神经学挽救了我们的自由意志！ 欧洲人为何能如此轻易征服美洲？因为欧洲入侵者拥有压倒性的技术优势。他们的技术优势哪儿来的？因为欧亚旧大陆文明远比美洲发达。那又是为什么？因为欧亚大陆的地区间多样性更高，交流互动更多，所以文化进化更快。为何欧亚文化更丰富多样？因为欧亚大陆是横的，有着辽阔而畅通的宜农宜牧温带区，而美洲大陆是竖的。Bingo！一个历史大难题就这么简洁漂亮的解决了！ 这些单链条的追问和探索当然会产生有益的结果，至少让我们注意到了FOXP2在语言机能中扮演的角色，对神经过程的物理基础也有了更多了解，也提醒我们关注地理条件对文明发展的影响，然而对于最初的问题，它们并未构成有效的解答，因为现实世界并非像弹球游戏或多米诺骨牌那样，由一根根独立的线状因果链组成，而是一张张因果网络。 每当你沿着线状追问链条往前跨出一步，就抛掉了许多相关因素，而专注于你挑中的那个，这样的探索可能得到一些很有价值的局部认识，却不能产生一幅完整的图景，对改善探索者个人的已有图景也毫无助益，甚至更糟糕，过分高估自己所关注问题的重要性常常将一个人在现实事务上的判断力拉低到不可救药的水平，“有些话荒唐得只有哲学家才说得出来”——这绝不仅仅是句笑话。 专业研究可以成为学者据以安身立命的事业，它们本身也可能充满乐趣，但作为俗人的我们，若要从这些探索、洞见和知识中获益，借此更好的认识我们身处其中的这个世界，则必须将其置于一个完整图景之中，为此我们需要考虑：当我打算接纳一个听上去不错的见解——大至一套理论，小至一个概念或一个数字——时，那对我当前已持有的世界图景将意味着什么。 是稀松平常波澜不惊，还是会引发一场大地震？是照亮了一个此前朦胧晦暗的小角落，还是豁然打开了一片新天地？是解除了一个长久以来的困惑，还是动摇了你向来以为坚固牢靠的信念？只有在这个问题上保持适度的警惕和敏锐，我们才可能在听取各种不断涌来的新观念时，对自己的世界图景作适当调整，或将其安放到适宜位置，而不是像观赏科幻电影时那样无动于衷，超然事外，或者更糟：在对如何建立新图景尚无头绪之际，过于急切的抛弃常识，拥抱革命。 描绘一幅世界图景，这听起来是件令人生畏的任务，然而在我看来，拒绝它并不是一种谦逊，而只是心智上的顽固或懒惰，因为我们既然能够作为一种波普式造物（Popperian Creatures）而存在并行动于这个世界之中，就必定已经各自拥有了一幅属于自己的图景——无论多么粗略、模糊和残缺——，只是通常人们都懒得加以审视和表述，或者不愿将其袒露在阳光下，接受理性的批判。 所以我只是不想让自己在这一点上过于懒惰而已，当然，这也可以视为一个借口，用来回答对我写作方式的一种常见批评：你竟然可以毫无羞耻的跨越如此多学科，谈论如此庞杂广泛的话题，其中任何一个都不是你的专业，如果只是转述或科普也就算了，竟然还处处夹带自己的私货，却没有做过任何实证研究，请问这么厚的脸皮是怎么磨出来的？ 自从为自己戴上“哲学家”这顶安全帽之后，我就有能力抵御这种抨击了：和俗人一样，哲学家历来享有无视专业边界和免于实证研究的特权，一个领域一旦专业化之后，便大可以从哲学中分离出去，人人都有且必须有一个世界图景，哲学家只是在维护这一图景上特别勤快一点，时时审查和调整它，以便容纳和组织不断涌入的新经验，并且愿意多花些功夫将它描绘出来，与人分享。 在这么做时，我会尽可能多的参考相关专业的见解，但如果这些见解无法让我满意，或者它们处于我的阅读视野之外，我就会尝试用“估摸起来大概是那样”的私货将缺口补上，这是无奈之举，就好比一部古装片的导演，无论多么苛求历史真实性，也总不能因为对某个时代某类人物的典型服饰应是何种样子尚不存在专业见解，就让这个角色光着身子吧？ 世界很大，可以从不同侧面去描绘它，而我选择将注意力放在人类和他们所创造的文化与社会上；这项工作不可能在一本书之内完成，在我的上一本书里，我曾试图勾勒人性与文化的某些局部，在本书中，我将焦点集中在社会结构上，并努力阐明，在我心目中，如今我们所见到的大型社会是如何组织起来的，是哪些元素在维系着它。   辉格 2017年5月  

两周前刚交出修订后的书稿，估计下月初可以印出来。

New Study: Millennials Don’t Deserve to Be Called the Hookup Generation 最新研究：千禧一代配不上『勾搭世代』的盛名 作者:Jessie Geoffray @ 2016-08-02 翻译:Drunkplane(@Drunkplane-zny) 校对:Drunkplane(@Drunkplane-zny),龟海海 来源:PLAYBOY,http://www.playboy.com/articles/millennials-the-hookup-generation Remember when Vanity Fair published an article last year gleefully proclaiming we were at the dawn of a “dating apocalypse” and promiscuous millennials and their newfangled internet-enabled devices were on their way to destroying sex and romance as we know it? And remember when Tinder, affronted by this suggestion of base crassness, took to Twitter to unleash a savage, epic rant directed at the magazine and its indelicate fingering of the app as a prime catalyst of our rude new world? 还记得《名利场》去年发表的文章吗？它兴高采烈地宣称我们正迎来“约炮盛世”，谁都知道，性关系混乱的千禧一代和他们时髦的互联网设备正在破坏着性和浪漫。Tinder【译注：一款流行的交友软件】认为文章暗示自己粗俗不堪，大为光火，在推特上火力全开，大骂《名利场》毫不客气地将Tinder斥为粗鲁新世界的主要催化剂。这些你都还记得吧？

-@VanityFair Little known fact: sex was invented in 2012 when Tinder was launched. — Tinder (@Tinder) August 11, 2015 -《名利场》知道个屁：性是在2012年Tinder面市时被发明的。 —Tinder (@Tinder) 在2015年8月11号的推文

Tinder wasn’t the only collateral damage in journalist Nancy Jo Sales’s nearly 7,000-word piece: a widely circulated paper from Archives of Sexual Behavior claiming millennials have fewer sex partners than previous generations was bizarrely relegated to a dismissive parenthetical. Now, roughly a year later, the authors of that study are back and re-inviting us to the lively party that is speculating about millennials, and their perceived failings, on the internet. Tinder不是Nancy Jo Sales那篇7000字文章的唯一受害者：《性行为档案》上一篇广为转载的论文也莫名其妙地被她在文章注释里轻蔑地嘲讽了一番。论文宣称比起前面几代人，千禧一代的性伴侣更少。现在，大概一年之后，这项研究的作者再次站出来，邀请我们加入这场网上大讨论，审视千禧一代和他们的堕落。 The new Archives of Sexual Behavior study uses data from the General Social Survey—a nationally representative sample of American adults aged 18 to 96, conducted biannually since 1989—to examine patterns of sexual inactivity over time. The analysis shows that not only are people born in the 1980s and 1990s reporting fewer sexual partners than GenX’ers or Baby Boomers, but also that the marked change in sexual inactivity is independent of the effects of age or time period. In other words, it can be attributed to a generation alone. 《性行为档案》的这项新研究采用了“综合大调查”——一项自1989年以来每两年举行一次的调查，其样本代表了全美范围内18至96岁的成人——的数据来研究性行为不活跃程度（sexual inactivity）随时间的变化。研究发现，不只是80后和90后们比起X一代【译注：约略指1965年至1980年出生的人】和婴儿潮一代【译注：约略指1946年至1964年出生的人】拥有更少的性伴侣，而且这种性行为不活跃程度的显著变化同年龄和时代没有关系。换句话说，原因可能仅仅出在这一代人身上。 “Americans born in the 1990s were more likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s.” “出生于1990年代的美国人更可能在20岁出头时表现得性行为不活跃。” The numbers are significant: Fifteen percent of millennials born in the 1990s and between 20 and 24 years old reported having no sexual partners since the age of 18. That’s more than double the six percent of GenX’ers born in the 1960s who reported having no sexual partners during the same age ranges. 数字颇能说明问题：出生于90年代且年龄在20至24岁之间的千禧一代中，有15%的人报告说他们从18岁起就没有性伙伴。这个数字同出生在60年代的X一代相比翻了一倍——相比之下，只有6%的X一代在这个年龄段报告自己没有性伙伴。 These comparisons are purely descriptive in the sense that they give us clues about what, exactly, defines the millennial generation: Americans born in the 1990s were more likely to be sexually inactive in their early 20s; women were more likely to be sexually inactive than men; and people who did not attend college were more likely to be sexually inactive compared to those who did. 到底是什么定义了千禧一代，这些对比给出的线索是纯粹描述性的：90年代出生的美国人在他们20多岁时性活跃程度可能更低；女性性活跃程度低于男性；没有上大学的人性活跃程度低于那些上过大学的人。 “We can say ‘Here’s the trend’ and isolate it down to saying it’s a generational thing, but we can’t exactly say why,” says Ryne Sherman, co-author of the study and associate professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University. “我们可以说‘趋势便是如此’，然后孤立地看待这个问题并认为这是年代更替的自然结果，但我们却说不出来原因何在。”Ryne Sherman说道，她是该研究报告的共同作者，佛罗里达大西洋大学查理•施密特科学学院的心理学副教授。 Potential explanations explored in the paper include the rise of internet pornography, the economic downturn and its role in delaying millennials’ independence from their parents (think less independent lodgings to help facilitate sex), and the possibility that millennials are indeed hooking up with more partners, but engaging in penetrative sex less often. The explanation Sherman favors is that apps like Tinder—and the rise of the internet itself—provide an outlet for people to connect and be social without needing to pursue sex in real life. 论文讨论过的可能解释包括：网络色情的泛滥，经济下滑及其在推迟年轻人与父母分居上的作用（想想没有自己的房子多么不利于“房事”吧），以及这样一种可能：千禧一代确实有更多鬼混的伙伴，但更少进行插入式的性交。Sherman偏爱的一种解释是，像Tinder这样的应用软件以及互联网的兴起让人们能够相互联系和交往，却不必在真实生活中追求性关系。 Of course, another possible explanation is that different generations interpreted the survey’s key question—“Since the age of 18, how many sexual partners have you had?”—differently. 当然，另一个可能的解释是：不同年代的人对调查的核心问题——“从你18岁起，你有过多少性伙伴”——有着不同的理解。 Sherman thinks this is highly unlikely, saying that if interpretation of the phrase “sexual partners” was changing, it would show up in the period effect (i.e., everybody living in that time would experience a change in the meaning of the term) and not just the generational effect. It didn’t. Sherman 认为这几乎不可能，他说如果对“性伙伴”这个词的理解一直在变，那它就会体现在时间效应上（比如，生活在某一时间段的每个人都会感受到词意的变化），而不仅仅体现在代际效应上。实际上并没有。 But, I’d challenge Sherman to have a conversation with my grandmother about “sexual partners” and see if he still feels we’re all still on the same page about words and what they mean. 但是，我倒想请Sherman同我的奶奶谈谈“性伙伴”，看看到时候他是否仍坚持认为人们对该词的理解并未改变。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

Analysis of 5,000 forgotten rape kits reveals unexpectedly high number of serial rapists 对被遗忘的五千套强奸取证套件的分析显示连环强奸犯的数目远超预期 Kits are used in hospitals to collect forensic and other evidence from vicims of sexual assaults 取证套件是医务人员从性侵受害者身上提取法医学或其他证据时所使用的一套工具。 作者:Will Worley @ 2016-6-7 译者:Eartha(@王小贰_Eartha) 校对:Drunkplane(@Drunkplane-zny) 来源:The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/analysis-5000-forgotten-rape-kits-serial-rapists-a7068761.html Serial rapists are far more common than previously thought, analysis of 5,000 rape kits dating back more than 20 years has revealed. 专家对过去二十多年的5000套取证套件进行了研究，结果显示连环强奸犯的存在比人们过去想象的远为普遍。 Scientists in Ohio, United States, announced their findings after testing the backlog of rape kits, which were used between 1993 and 2010. 1993-2010年间使用过的一些强奸案取证套件一直积压着，美国俄亥俄州的科学家们对它们进行测试之后，公布了他们的研究结果。 Analysis of the kits – used to collect evidence from the victims of sexual attacks - has given the researchers greater insight into the behaviour of sexual predators. 这些取证套件用于从性侵犯受害者那里收集证据，对它们进行分析可以使研究者们进一步加深对性犯罪者行为的理解。 More than 250 people have already been convicted of sexual offences as a result of the tests and investigators expect the prosecutions to continue. 测试结果已经使得超过250人因性侵犯被定罪，调查人员希望对案件的起诉能够持续下去。 The Cuyahoga County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force – a multidisciplinary body dedicated to following up sexual assault cases stemming from the untested kits – worked with the Begun Centre for Violence Prevention Research and Education at Case Western Reserve University, who study violence and its prevention, to gain an insight into patterns revealed by the kits. 俄亥俄州凯霍加县性侵犯取证套件工作组是一个涵盖多学科的组织，致力于追踪由未测试的取证套件所牵连出的性侵犯案件。他们与研究暴力行为及其预防的凯斯西储大学贝贡犯罪预防研究与教育中心合作，希望能对取证套件披露出的犯罪行为模式有所发现。 Starting in 2014, the task force say the discovery that serial rapists are much more common than previous studies have suggested could change the way sexual assaults are investigated. 自2014年起，工作组开始公布他们的发现，连环强奸犯远比过往研究认为的更加普遍。这可能会改变性侵犯案件的调查方式。 Of 243 sexual assaults studied, 51 per cent were tied to serial offenders, who tended to have more extensive and violent criminal histories than one-off sexual offenders. 在被研究的243起性侵犯案件中，51%的案件涉及连环犯罪者。相比于单次作案者，他们往往会有更为严重和暴力的犯罪历史。 “Our findings suggest it is very likely that a sexual offender has either previously sexually assaulted or will offend again in the future,” said Rachel Lovell, senior research associate at the Begun Centre. “我们的发现表明，一名性犯罪者非常有可能不是曾经实施过性侵犯，就是会在将来重犯。”贝贡中心的高级研究员Rachel Lovell这样说到。 “Investigating each sexual assault as possibly perpetrated by a serial offender has the potential to reduce the number of sexual assaults if investigations focus more on the offender than on single incidents.” “调查一起性侵犯案件时，如果将犯罪者当作潜在的连环作案者来考虑，并将重点集中于侵害者而非将之作为单一事件调查，这有可能会减少性侵犯案件的数量。” The researchers also found many rapists have long criminal histories, often beginning before their first documented sexual assault and continuing after it. Seventy-four per cent of serial rapists were found to have been arrested before the sexual attack and 95 per cent had been arrested afterwards. In contrast, for one-off rapists, the figures were 51 per cent and 78 per cent respectively. 研究者还发现，很多的强奸犯有很长的犯罪历史，通常在他们第一次登记在案的性侵犯发生之前就已开始，并且在之后继续犯下罪行。74%的连环强奸犯曾在实施性侵之前（因犯罪而）被捕，而有95%的人在此之后又被逮捕。相比之下，单次作案的强奸犯对应的两个比例分别是51%与78%。【译注：他们之前或之后被捕的原因可能不是性侵犯，或者相隔时间较长，所以他们仍被归为“单次作案者”。】 The different types of offenders were also found to behave differently during the course of their crimes, the researchers said. 不同类型的犯罪者在犯罪过程中的行为表现亦不相同，研究者们说。 Sexual assaults committed by serial offenders more frequently involved kidnapping victims and threatening them, the researchers found. Serial offenders were also less likely to be known to their victim. 研究者发现，连环作案者实施的性侵犯案件中更频繁地出现绑架与威胁受害者的情况，并且他们更可能不太与受害者相熟。 But sexual assaults committed by serial offenders less frequently involved restraining victims and injuring them in order to complete the attack. However, one-off offenders were more likely to punch, slap, hold down or restrain a victim. 但是连环作案者实施的性侵犯案件中较少涉及控制受害者以及为了完成侵犯而实施的伤害行为。而单次作案者更可能会殴打、掌掴、压制或控制受害者。 One-off offenders were more likely to attack in their own house or the house of the victim. However, 58 per cent of serial offenders committed all of their crimes in the same type of setting, such as a vehicle. 单次作案者更可能在他们自己或受害者的家里作案，而58%的连环作案者选择在同样的环境下实施犯罪，比如在车里。 The researchers also said one-off offenders were more likely than serial offenders to commit sexual assaults with others, such as participating in gang rapes. 研究者还说，单次作案者比连环作案者更可能与他人一起实施性侵犯，比如参与轮奸。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

Europe’s “Green” Power Fueled by Burning Wood 欧洲的“绿色”能源——烧木头 作者:Jamie @ 2017-02-24 译者:eGregius (@eGregius) 校对:龙泉 来源:The American Interest,http://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/02/23/europes-green-power-fueled-by-burning-wood/ Nearly two-thirds of the Europe’s renewable energy comes from burning wood. No, this isn’t some time capsule report from 500 years ago—that’s actually what the European Union is doing to meet its vaunted climate targets. The BBC reports: 欧洲近三分之二的可再生能量来自于木材燃烧——这可不是出自500年前时间胶囊中的记述，而是欧盟为了达到它吹嘘的气候目标所正在做的。据BBC报道：

While much of the discussion has focused on wind and solar power, across Europe the biggest source of green energy is biomass. It supplies around 65% of renewable power – usually electricity generated from burning wood pellets. EU Governments, under pressure to meet tough carbon cutting targets, have been encouraging electricity producers to use more of this form of energy by providing substantial subsidies for biomass burning. 尽管有大量的议题集中在风能和太阳能，生物质能仍然是目前整个欧洲最主要的绿色能源。它提供了约65%的可再生能量——以木屑颗粒燃烧发电为主。在严苛的减碳目标压力之下，欧盟各国政府为电力生产商制定了大量的补贴政策以激励他们采用此类能源。

If cutting down trees and burning them doesn’t sound green to you, that’s because, well, it’s not. It only becomes “climate neutral” when you include some clever accounting: if foresters replant a tree for every one they cut down, then from a “life-cycle” perspective, the emissions involved in burning that wood is offset by the carbon captured by the new forests. 如果你觉得伐木烧柴听起来并不那么“绿色”的话，那是因为，它确实不。哪怕你引入一些精明的算计：如果每伐一株木，护林人都会进行再种植，那么从“生命循环”的角度来看，烧柴所导致的碳排放会被新种树木的光合作用抵消，这也仅仅导致“气候中和”。 But a new report from Chatham House scrutinizes that calculus as little more than fuzzy math: 但来自Chatham House的一项最新报道仔细审视了上述算计，发现那仅仅是含糊的数学：

“It doesn’t make sense,” said [Duncan Brack, the report’s author], who is also a former special adviser at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. “The fact that forests have grown over the previous 20 or 100 years means they are storing large amounts of carbon, you can’t pretend it doesn’t make an impact on the atmosphere if you cut them down and burn them…You could fix them in wood products or in furniture or you could burn them, but the impact on the climate is very different.” “那说不通，”报道的作者Duncan Brack表示——他同时也是英国能源与气候变化部的前任特别顾问——“无论过去20还是过去100年，森林面积都在增长，这一事实表明森林存储了大量的碳，你没有办法假装砍伐和燃烧它们对气候不会产生任何影响……你可以把这些碳继续固定闸木制品或家具里，你也可以把它们烧掉，但两种做法对气候的影响是很不同的。” Mr Brack says the assumption of carbon neutrality misses out on some crucial issues, including the fact that young trees planted as replacements absorb and store less carbon than the ones that have been burned. Brack先生表示碳中和的设想遗漏了一些重要的问题，包括新种植小树苗的贮碳能力并不及那些被烧掉的树。

This dodgy carbon accounting has come under fire (no pun intended) before, and for good reason: it doesn’t pass the common sense test. Even if you claim that the carbon capturing abilities of felled trees are offset by new forests, you need to consider that those new trees will take decades to reach full maturity—decades in which they won’t be sequestering carbon. Then too, consider that every step of the biomass production process—cutting trees down, trucking them out, machining them into pellets, and then shipping those pellets to the power plants where they’ll be burned—all entail emissions of their own. 这种鸡贼的碳核算方法此前就曾经受舆论炙烤（无意双关），这也理所应当，因为它并不符合常识。即使你声称新种植的木头会替代被伐木贮碳，你也需要考虑到这些替代者需要几十年的时间才能完全成熟——而在这几十年间，它们不怎么会吸碳。此外，想想生物质能生产的各个环节——伐木、运输、加工成颗粒再被运到发电厂（燃烧它们的地方）——都会产生排放。 There’s another big problem here, too. Europe buys much of their wood pellets from outside the bloc, and there’s little in the way of regulatory oversight to ensure felled trees are replanted, opening the door to opportunists looking to make a quick buck. And, as the BBC explains, the vagaries of international carbon accounting are producing some odd numbers for Europe: 还有一个不小的问题。欧洲大量的木屑颗粒采购于欧洲之外，没有多少监管措施去保证被伐木材会有新的树木取代，这为只想着快速捞一笔的机会主义者敞开了大门。正如BBC所解释的，国际间碳核算领域的奇招妙术正在给欧洲制造一些奇怪的数据：

[U]nder UN climate rules, emissions from trees are only counted when they are harvested. However the US, Canada and Russia do not use this method of accounting so if wood pellets are imported from these countries into the EU, which doesn’t count emissions from burning, the carbon simply goes “missing”. 根据联合国制定的气候规则，燃烧木材的排放只在被砍伐时记录一次，然而美国、加拿大和俄罗斯并不采取这样的计算方法，这样一来从这些国家进口到欧盟的木屑颗粒所导致的碳排放便不会被记录，就这么消失了。

With 65 percent of Europe’s renewable energy coming from biomass, you’d think this would be a bigger scandal. Perhaps the Eurocrats in Brussels are unwilling to examine the problem too closely, fearful that an in-depth investigation might kill the region’s best chance at meeting the climate targets it set for itself. Countries in Europe seem to be doubling down on biomass, too, a decision some observers say is “disastrous” for the environment. The longer this goes on, the more apparent it is that the EU cares more about appearing to be green than it does about actually tackling the issues it makes such a big to-do about on the international stage. 若再考虑到欧洲65%的可再生能源由生物质能组成，你会愈发觉得这是一桩丑闻。也许布鲁塞尔的欧盟官员们更愿意与这些调查保持距离，他们害怕深入的调查会让他们达到为自己设定的气候目标的希望落空。同时，欧洲各国在生物质能使用上似乎正在变本加利，一些观察家认为，对生态环境来说，这是“灾难性”的决定。这样的局面持续越久，欧盟的心思就愈发明显——相比应对让他们真正费力的气候问题，他们更在意台面上的“绿色”。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

The Power of Taxes To Bend Behavior, Often in Unexpected Ways 税收扭曲行为——以你意想不到的方式 时间:2017-02-12 译者:Luis Rightcon 校对:龙泉 来源:http://www.coyoteblog.com,http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2017/02/the-power-of-taxes-to-bend-behavior-often-in-unexpected-ways.html Taxes are incredibly powerful things.  Tax something and you will get less of it.  But you might also get more of something you did not expect.  Taxes are the king of generating unintended consequences.  A huge part of human ingenuity (unfortunately) seems to be constantly geared towards evading taxes.  This is one reason I favor completely eliminating the corporate income tax -- way too many otherwise productive resources are marshaled towards managing the consequences of these taxes. 税收具有无穷魔力。如果你向某物征税，那么它就会变少。不过你也会得到一些意外收获。税收是非意图后果的制造之王。人类的很大一部分聪明才智看起来都（很不幸的）用在了逃避税收上。这是我为什么倾向于完全废除公司所得税的一个原因。太多生产性资源被配置于对付这些税收造成的后果了。 Last weekend I was in Cabo visiting a few friends and practicing my Spanish.  Many of the buildings in town (at least away from the resort areas) look like this: 上周末我去Cabo城【译注：位于墨西哥下加利福尼亚半岛的一座城市】拜访一帮朋友顺便练习西班牙语。许多建筑（至少远离度假村的地方）看起来像这样： This is a small retail commercial building with going concerns on the first floor (actually finished pretty nicely) but rebar and stuff sticking up from what looks like an unfinished second floor.   This is just one of many, many buildings that look like this.  My friend, who has run a resort in Cabo for decades, asked me what I thought was going on.  I said I assumed it was some sort of third world thing, perhaps a lack of financing that meant the first floor has to operate to generate cash flow for the second floor. 这是一栋一楼正在营业的小商业建筑（实际上一楼做的很棒），但是屋顶朝天戳着的钢筋和其他建筑材料使得二楼看起来没有完成。这只是许许多多同类建筑中的一个。我那位在Cabo开了几十年零售店的朋友问我：你觉得这是怎么回事？。我说我觉得这像一个第三世界的产物，资金短缺使得需要用一楼产生的现金流来支持二楼的工程。 He answered that yes, there was very little financing for small business and real estate development so that sort of thing did happen.  But what was really going on here is tax management.  Until construction is completed, this structure is taxed as raw land rather than as a valuable commercial building.  It was typical practice to get approved for a two story building in the original plans, then stop construction after completing the first floor (which was all that was wanted anyway) and act like the building is still under construction.   Voila (ed: lol, oops) -- ugly building but hefty tax reduction. 他答道，小型企业和小房地产开发商的很少融资，所以这种事情确实会发生。但是在这里，真正的原因是避税。直到完工之前，这个地块都会被当作未开发土地而不是按有价值商业建筑征税。这栋建筑是个典型案例：最初获批时规划了两层，在完成第一层后停工（本来就是这么打算的），这栋建筑就像是仍然在施工一样。啊哈，丑陋但是可以躲掉很多税负的建筑。 For those of you who want to write this off as a third world phenomenon, I will offer a similar example from personal experience.  Some years ago, because I did not have enough value-destroying investments in my life, I bought some raw land in Hawaii.  It is actually in a gated community, about half-built-out, but if you drive past my land you will likely see a cow on it. 假如你认为这是第三世界特有现象，那我再举个相似的例子。若干年前，在我还没做那么多亏本投资之前，我在夏威夷买了一块荒地。它实际上位于一个封闭社区内，大概建好了一半，但是如果你开车经过我那块地，你会发现上边有一头奶牛。 What is a cow doing in a gated community on residential land?  Well, that is the point.  Without the cow, the land gets taxed as residential land.  With the cow, the land gets taxed as ranch land at perhaps a tenth the rate.  The homeowners association helps those of us with raw land to split the cost of the cows. 在建于住宅用地之上的封闭社区里放一头奶牛干啥呢？嗯，这个才是重点。如果没有这头奶牛的话，我这块荒地会被当成住宅用地征税。而有了这头奶牛，这块地则会被当成税率只有住宅用地十分之一的牧场征税。业主协会帮助我们这样的业主分担奶牛养殖的费用。 Update:  Here are the Hawaiian cows, next to one of my neighbor's front gate.  While they are more attractive than the exposed rebar on the building in Cabo, they serve the same purpose. 更新：这些就是夏威夷的奶牛，旁边是我邻居的前门。虽然这些牛比Cabo城里那些裸露钢筋要好看一点，但是它们的作用却是一样的。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

【2017-04-13】 Bannon出局将是川普上台以来最大转折，他可能就此被拉回保守派正轨。川普看似彪悍，其实耳朵根挺软，Bannon被除掉后，剩下的几位基本靠谱。 ​​​​  

【2017-03-10】 有一种求职广告很奇葩，常见于豆瓣文青，刚刚又看到一个，结尾都是『随便干啥，钱无所谓』，这两句看似宽松普适又便宜，其实是吓退雇主的杀手锏，『随便干啥』=『没有任何专业热情』，『钱无所谓』=『金钱根本不能激励我』，一个既没任何专业热情又无法被金钱激励的人，谁敢要啊？ ​​​​  

MINIMUM WAGE AND DISCRIMINATION 最低工资与歧视 A look at the racist history of the minimum wage. 最低工资中的种族歧视历史一瞥 作者:Walter Williams @ 2017-02-08 译者:龟海海 校对:龙泉 来源:Frontpage Mag,http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265734/minimum-wage-and-discrimination-walter-williams There is little question in most academic research that increases in the minimum wage lead to increases in unemployment. The debatable issue is the magnitude of the increase. An issue not often included in minimum wage debates is the substitution effects of minimum wage increases. The substitution effect might explain why Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national network of business owners and executives, argues for higher minimum wages. Let's look at substitution effects in general. 提高最低工资会引起失业率上升，这一观点在大多数学术研究中都没多大争议。争议在于提高最低工资所能引起的失业率增加的幅度。一项最低工资辩论中不怎么讨论的议题是其增长所引发的“替代效应”。“替代效应”解释了为什么“商界支持合理最低工资”这个全国性企业主和管理者网站，也会主张更高的最低工资。那我们今天就讲一讲什么是“替代效应”。 When the price of anything rises, people seek substitutes and measures to economize. When gasoline prices rise, people seek to economize on the usage of gas by buying smaller cars. If the price of sugar rises, people seek cheaper sugar substitutes. If prices of goods in one store rise, people search for other stores. This last example helps explain why some businessmen support higher minimum wages. If they could impose higher labor costs on their less efficient competition, it might help drive them out of business. That would enable firms that survive to charge higher prices and earn greater profits. 当任何东西的价格上涨时，人们会寻求其他更实惠的替代品。当汽油价格上涨时，人们通过购买小型汽车（小排量）来节省油耗。如果一种糖的价格上涨，人们寻求更便宜的糖来替代。如果一家商店的商品价格上涨，人们寻找其他商店。最后一个例子有助于解释为什么有些商人支持更高的最低工资。如果可以对低效率的竞争对手施以更高的劳动力成本，这就可能使这些企业歇业。之后存活下来的公司可以提高产品价格并赚得更多利润。 There's a more insidious substitution effect of higher minimum wages. You see it by putting yourself in the place of a businessman who has to pay at least the minimum wage to anyone he hires. Say that you are hiring typists. There are some who can type 40 words per minute and others, equal in every other respect, who can type 80 words per minute. Whom would you hire? I'm guessing you'd hire the more highly skilled. 更高的最低工资线还有隐蔽的“替代效应”。你从商人的角度就不难看出，无论如何他必须支付最低工资给所有他雇用的人。假如：你正在招聘打字员。有些人可以每分钟输入40个单词，在其他方面条件相同的情况下，有人每分钟可以输入80个单词。你会雇佣谁？ 我猜你会雇佣技艺精湛的那个。 Thus, one effect of the minimum wage is discrimination against the employment of lower-skilled workers. In some places, the minimum wage is $15 an hour. But if a lower-skilled worker could offer to work for, say, $8 an hour, you might hire him. In addition to discrimination against lower-skilled workers, the minimum wage denies them the chance of sharpening their skills and ultimately earning higher wages. The most effective form of training for most of us is on-the-job training. 因此，最低工资的影响之一是对低技能工人的歧视。在某些地方，最低工资是每小时15美元。但是，例如一个低技能工人愿意以每小时8美元为你工作，你可能会雇用他。除了对低技能工人的歧视外，最低工资阻碍了他们提升自己的技能并最终获得更高的工资的机会。对我们大多数人来说，最有效的培训形式是在工作中学习。 An even more insidious substitution effect of minimum wages can be seen from a few quotations. During South Africa's apartheid era, racist unions, which would never accept a black member, were the major supporters of minimum wages for blacks. In 1925, the South African Economic and Wage Commission said, "The method would be to fix a minimum rate for an occupation or craft so high that no Native would be likely to be employed." 最低工资更隐蔽的“替代效应”可以从几个引证中看出。在南非的种族隔离时代，种族主义者的工会绝对不会接受黑人成员，而这些人正是黑人最低工资的主要支持者。在1925年，南非经济和工资委员会说，“该方法将为某些职业（低技能）固定最低工资，技艺精湛者工资非常高，以至于土著几乎找不到工作。” Gert Beetge, secretary of the racist Building Workers' Union, complained, "There is no job reservation left in the building industry, and in the circumstances, I support the rate for the job (minimum wage) as the second-best way of protecting our white artisans." "Equal pay for equal work" became the rallying slogan of the South African white labor movement. These laborers knew that if employers were forced to pay black workers the same wages as white workers, there'd be reduced incentive to hire blacks. 种族主义的建筑工人联盟秘书Gert Beetge抱怨：“建筑业没有工作职位空缺，在这种情况下，我支持建筑业施行（最低工资），作为对白人工匠们最好的保护措施。“同工同酬”成为南非白人工人运动的口号。这些工人知道，如果雇主被迫向黑人工匠支付与白人工匠相同的工资，那么就会减少雇用黑人的动机。 South Africans were not alone in their minimum wage conspiracy against blacks. After a bitter 1909 strike by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen in the U.S., an arbitration board decreed that blacks and whites were to be paid equal wages. Union members expressed their delight, saying, "If this course of action is followed by the company and the incentive for employing the Negro thus removed, the strike will not have been in vain." 南非人用最低工资对付黑人的阴谋并非孤例。在经历了美国火车司炉工与引擎师兄弟会1909年一次罢工所带来的痛苦之后，仲裁委员会颁布仲裁令：黑人和白人应支付同等水平工资。工会成员表达了他们的喜悦，说：“如果公司遵循这一仲裁令，并且雇用黑人的动机便不复存在，罢工就没有白费。” Our nation's first minimum wage law, the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, had racist motivation. During its legislative debate, its congressional supporters made such statements as, "That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and he puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country." During hearings, American Federation of Labor President William Green complained, "Colored labor is being sought to demoralize wage rates." 我国第一个最低工资法，1931年《戴維斯-培根法》，也有种族主义动机。在其立法辩论期间，国会中的支持者发表了如下声明：“承包商运送廉价的有色人种劳动力，把他们安置在小棚屋里，正是这类劳动力在与全国各地的白人劳动者竞争。”在听证会上，美国劳工联合会主席威廉·格林抱怨说：“有色人种的劳动力正在谋求将工资率拉低到令人沮丧的水平。” Today's stated intentions behind the support of minimum wages are nothing like yesteryear's. However, intentions are irrelevant. In the name of decency, we must examine the effects. 如今的支持最低工资背后的意图与往昔截然不同。 然而，意图是无关紧要的。为体面起见，我们必须仔细考虑其影响。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

The schools that Katrina built 飓风建起来的学校 作者:Robert Colvile @ 2016-04-15 译者:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 校对:pathto(@pathto) 来源:CapX,http://capx.co/the-schools-that-katrina-built/ “Hey, guy, tuck your shirt in, yeah?” The boy scurrying across the cafeteria of Samuel J Green Charter School mumbles an apology, and tidies away the trailing flap of his white shirt. Jay Altman gives a satisfied nod, bends to pick up a stray piece of litter on the floor, and then continues on his way. “嘿，伙计，把衣服束起来好吗？”在塞缪尔格林特许学校，一个小男生匆匆穿过餐厅，一边嘴上嘟哝着道了个歉，一边整理好白衬衫松出来的衣角。Jay Altman满意地点了点头，弯下腰捡起了地下的一片垃圾，然后继续往前走。 Samuel J Green feels like the kind of place you’d want to send your own children to. The pupils – ranging from the five-year-olds in kindergarten to 14-year-olds about to head off to high school – are bright, enthusiastic, neatly turned out in their dark green uniforms. The school’s red-brick facade is gleamingly clean. 塞缪尔格林让人感觉就是那种你想把自己孩子送去的地方。那里穿着墨绿色校服的学生——无论是那些才5岁的幼儿园学生，还是那些已经14岁快要上高中的学生——都显得那么聪明、整洁，而且充满活力。学校的那些红砖建筑外表都干净得发亮。 In the cafeteria, there are plastic compost buckets on every table, which will shortly be taken out to the “living playground” – the large garden that takes up much of the space behind the school, where the pupils learn to grow herbs and plants, or take lessons about nutrition in the shade of a vine-strewn canopy under the Louisiana sun. 餐厅里，每个餐桌旁都放着塑料有机堆肥桶，它们很快会被搬到“生活乐园”上去清空。“生活乐园”是一个占去学校后面大部分面积的大花园，学生在那儿学习种植各种香草和植物，在路易斯安那的阳光下藤曼遮蔽的树荫里了解植物营养学。 But there are several startling things about this school, one of five that Altman’s chain, FirstLine Schools, oversees. For one thing, there this used to be one of the worst schools, in one of the worst neighbourhoods, in one of the worst cities, in one of the worst states, in America. For another, 10 years ago Samuel J Green was underwater not just metaphorically but literally: on the cafeteria wall is a shoulder-high line, painted on to show where the waters reached their height in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And its remarkable recovery – and that of the New Orleans school system as a whole – took place not despite that disaster, but largely because of it. 这所学校是Altman名为“前线学校”的学校联盟所监督的五所学校之一，在这里发生了一些令人惊讶的事。例如，它位于全美最糟糕的州里最糟糕的城市，曾经是全市最糟糕地段里最糟糕的学校之一。 另外，十年前这所学校还遭受了灭顶之灾，这不是一个比喻，而是一个事实——在学校餐厅的墙上，画了一条齐肩高的线，标示着在卡特里娜飓风肆虐后洪水达到的高度。而它令人瞩目的复兴——和整个新奥尔良校网的复兴——不仅是因为克服了巨大的困难，而且很大程度上是得益于这次灾难。

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The story starts back in 1992, when Altman and his friend Tony Recasner, along with a group of other teachers, parents and activists, founded the James Lewis Extension school – a charter school (the equivalent of the UK’s free schools and academies) before such a thing even existed. It wasn’t meant to be the start of a movement: they just wanted to prove you could run a decent school without cherry-picking the pupils, and increase the life chances of some of the poorest families in New Orleans in the process. The key, Altman says, was to focus on the “middle school” years between 11 and 14, “because that’s where the big dip comes”, as rich students start to pull away from poor ones. 事情要回溯到1992年，那时Altman和朋友Tony Recasner联合了一班教师、家长和社会活动家，创立了詹姆斯刘易斯附属学校。这是一所特许学校（相当于英国的自由学校或自由学院），只是当时还没有这种说法。他们并没想开启一场运动，只是想证明，就算不对学生精挑细选，也一样可以办一所像样的学校，同时也可以为新奥尔良穷困家庭的孩子增加改变命运的机会。Altman说，其中的关键在于狠抓11岁到14岁这一段初中时期，“因为这是开始沉沦的年纪”，家庭富裕的学生开始甩下贫困的同学。 James Lewis was an enormous success: six years later, it became the first official charter school in New Orleans. In 2005, their group – then called Middle School Advocates, but now known as FirstLine Schools – was asked by the state to take over Samuel J Green. “It was out of control, it was chaotic,” recalls Altman. He actually advised Recasner to say no: “Don’t take over that school, that school will kill you.” But Recasner, who’d grown up in the neighbourhood, wanted to give something back. 詹姆斯刘易斯学校取得了巨大的成功，六年之后，它成为了新奥尔良第一所正式的特许学校。2005年，州政府邀请他们当时名为“剑指初中”的学校联盟（如今已更名为“前线学校”）， 接手萨缪尔格林。Altman回忆道，“那时候这学校失去了控制，简直乱作一团。”他实际上还建议Recasner回绝这一请求：“不要接那所学校，它会害死你的。”但在那一区长大的Rescasner，希望能对那里有所回馈。 By this stage, Altman was a hot commodity in education – and was recruited by the ARK charity to help bring the charter school ethos to its nascent network in the UK. But then fate intervened. “We moved in June 2005, and the levees broke here in August.” New Orleans essentially shut down: schools were boarded up with no idea of when, or whether, they would be reopened. James Lewis, by now renamed the New Orleans Charter Middle School, never was, because there was no longer a neighbourhood for it to serve. 那时候，Altman在教育界炙手可热——无保留援助儿童基金会邀请他，希望他能将特许学校的经验带到他们在英国的新兴校网去。但天意难料，“我们2005年6月进驻学校，洪水8月就来了。”新奥尔良基本上陷于瘫痪：学校被木板封门，也不知道何时能够重开，甚至还会否重开。当时已更名为新奥尔良特许初中的詹姆斯刘易斯中学，就再没有重开过，因为它所服务的社区已不复存在。 But amid this disaster, there was an opportunity. Back in 2003, Louisiana had passed a controversial law declaring New Orleans into a Recovery School District – essentially, an admission that the city’s education system was not fit for purpose. There were too many bad schools, bumping along at the bottom, and letting down their pupils in the process. 但灾难之中也有转机。在之前的2003年，路易斯安那州通过了一条有争议的法案，宣布新奥尔良为“学校重建区”——这实际上承认了该市的教育系统不如人意。糟糕的学校实在是太多了，它们把学生也拉进了泥潭，一同在底层挣扎。 Under the legislation, any school that did not meet basic standards could be taken over by those promising to do a better job: exactly what happened at Samuel J Green. Yet progress was glacial – until Katrina. 在这条法案下，那些达不到基本要求的学校，可以由那些承诺做得更好的人来接管：塞缪尔格林正是案例之一。但事情的进展极其缓慢，直到飓风卡特里娜的出现。 As it rebuilt, New Orleans decided to break with tradition. Instead of rebuilding the school system, it decided to set up what Altman calls “a system of schools”. Now, more than 95 per cent of public schools in the city are charter schools. Each has the freedom to specialise; each is open to any pupil in the city, with long yellow school buses ferrying them back and forth; and each is accountable for meeting those minimum standards. FirstLine now has 3,000 pupils at its four schools. 新奥尔良决定在重建中打破常规。与其重建单独的一所所学校，政府决定要像Altman所说的那样，重建一个有机结合的学校网络。如今，该市超过95%的公立学校是特许学校，每个学校都可以决定各自的特色，也可以在全市范围内招生，由黄色校巴负责每日接送，每个学校都需要就是否达到基本标准而接受问责。如今在“前线学校”属下的四所学校里已经有3,000学生。 If this sounds familiar to British readers, it’s because this was – consciously – the same recipe of choice, autonomy and accountability that powered the free schools and academies reforms in the UK, as well as other charter school movements in the US. The move was bitterly contested – but the results are impossible to argue with. 这对英国读者来说也许并不陌生，因为这有意识地借鉴了催生了自由学校与学院的英国教育改革的自由择校、自主办学与可问责三原则，而且同样的原则也推动了美国其他地方的特许学校热潮。这一举措本身充满争议，但其效果却无可辩驳。 As we sit in the shade of Samuel J Green’s “Living Playground” – on the exact spot where a powerboat washed up in the wake of Katrina – Altman shows me the figures. In 2005, 62 per cent of New Orleans schools were judged to be “failing”. Now, the figure is 7 per cent – even though the benchmarks for failure are tougher. A decade ago, 35 per cent of pupils were reaching basic standards, 23 per cent below the average across Louisiana as a whole. Now the figure is 62 per cent, and the gap is just six points. The proportion of disabled students hitting the same benchmarks has gone from 11 per cent to 39 per cent – and the gap with the state average has gone from 23 points to two. New Orleans has, in short, seen the most significant educational improvements of any city in America. 我们坐在塞缪尔格林那“生活乐园”的树荫下——当年有一艘快艇被卡特里娜一直冲到了这里——Altman让我看了一组数字。2005年，新奥尔良的学校里有62%被评定为“不及格”。现在，尽管标准比以前更严格，该百分比仍然降到了7%。十年前，只有35%的学生达到基本标准，比路易斯安那州整体平均水平要低23个百分点。如今达标的比例是62%，与全州差距仅剩6个百分点。残疾学生达到同样标准的比例从11%上升到39%，与全州平均水平的差距也从23个百分点降到了2个百分点。简而言之，新奥尔良的教育改善幅度在全美的城市中首屈一指。

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The lessons of Samuel J Green are not just about exam results, however. What shines through above all is its devotion to character. Since 95 per cent of the pupils are African-American – and 95 per cent are on free school meals – the hallways are festooned with inspirational pictures of pioneering figures: the first black president, the first black senator, the first black ballet superstar. Banners dangle from the roof containing inspirational quotes, stressing the virtues of manners, self-discipline, ambition. The walls are decorated with the pennants of universities from across America, after which the classrooms are named. 塞缪尔格林的经验并不仅仅体现在考试成绩，其亮点在于对品格的追求。由于95%的学生是非洲裔——由学校提供免费膳食的学生也达到了95%——走廊上挂着前辈们的励志照片：第一位黑人总统、第一位黑人参议员、第一位黑人芭蕾巨星。屋顶上悬挂的标语也是励志的名言，宣扬着美德、自律与梦想。墙壁上点缀着全美各所大学的校旗，教室也以这些大学来命名。 Most pointedly, the year groups are labelled “2024”, “2025”, “2026” – the years that these children will graduate not from high school, but university. Everything about the place is designed to ram home the message that going to college is not a rarity for these kids (as, statistically, it still is) but their natural and inevitable destiny. 最引人瞩目的是，学校特意用“2024”、“2025”、“2026”来标识年级——那不是孩子们从高中毕业的年份，而是从大学毕业的年份。这里的所有东西都旨在让这些孩子们明白，上大学对于他们来说并不是小概率事件（尽管目前的统计数据仍然如此），而是很自然的，甚至是理所应当的。 So what can others – such as the UK – learn from New Orleans? There are, obviously, special factors at play, from changes in the city’s demographics after Katrina to the determination, not just in New Orleans but more broadly, to build something better after the disaster. When FirstLine decided to tear up Samuel J Green’s concrete playground, Alice Waters, the gastro-goddess who created California’s Chez Panisse restaurant, helped plan the garden. The New Orleans Saints, the local football team, helped pay for the all-weather sports pitch in the other corner of the playground – and their star quarterback, Drew Brees, chipped in towards the kitchen classroom, as did celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse. 那么其他地方，比如英国，可以从新奥尔良学到什么呢？当然，很多特别的因素在这里起作用，从卡特里娜后这个城市的人口结构变化，到这城市内外希望灾后重建更胜以前的决心。当“前线学校”决定敲开塞缪尔格林的混凝土操场时，创建了加州Chez Panisse餐厅的女厨神Alice Waters帮忙规划花园。当地橄榄球队新奥尔良圣徒队捐助操场另一角的全天候运动场，而他们的明星四分卫Drew Brees则与名厨Emeril Lagasse共同资助了烹饪教室。 Some of the more general lessons have already been learned. For school reformers in the UK, New Orleans is further proof of the importance of autonomy, accountability and diversity: of giving schools the freedom to build themselves around a particular vision or specialism, but forcing them to meet certain standards at the same time. 人们已经从中得到某些更有普遍性的经验教训。对于英国的学校改革者来说，新奥尔良再次证明了自主权、问责制和多样性的重要性——给学校予自由空间，根据各自的愿景和特点建校，但同时要求他们达到某些标准。 FirstLine, for example, uses its Living Playground to teach kids about nutrition, biology and stewardship of the natural world, but other charters have another focus: the Bricolage Academy, says its head Josh Densen, is built around “creating innovators and creative problem solvers” – it has “an innovation classroom where we teach engineering and design and computer coding and electrical circuitry and robotics”, growing in complexity as the children advance from kindergarten. Teaching practices also vary: where FirstLine uses a split classroom, in which some kids talk to the teacher, others work on problems, and others work on computers to the side, Bricolage takes a workshop approach, “which we find drives learning better than traditional instruction”. 例如，前线学校利用生活乐园来向学生们教授营养学、生物学和园艺，但其它特许学校有别的侧重点：Bricolage 学院的校长Josh Densen说，他们学校的建校宗旨是“培养创造性解决问题的创新者”——学校“有一个创意课堂，在那里我们教授工程、设计、计算机编程、电子电路和机器人技术”，随着孩子们从幼儿园一路升学，课程的难度也随之加深。学校的教学方法也多种多样：前线学校采用分组学习的形式，一部分孩子与老师讨论，一部分孩子做题，其余的就可以使用旁边的电脑。而Bricolage 学院则采用讨论会的形式，“我们发现这种方式比传统授课更有助于学习。” Another lesson is the importance of finding – and developing – teaching talent. While he was in the UK, Altman worked with Sir Iain Hall, founder of the King’s Leadership Academy in Warrington, to set up Future Leaders, in order to train and promote the very best teachers, including those who have come in via direct-entry programmes such as Teach First, Schools Direct or Teach for America. Altman explains that “one of the things we’re trying this year – and this is really experimental – is giving our lead teachers a four-day week, so they can come together one day a week for shared planning and professional development”. 另一个经验是发掘和培养教育人才的重要性。当年在英国的时候，Altman就和沃灵顿英皇领导学院的创办人Iain Hall爵士共同设立了公益组织“未来领袖”，旨在培训和选拔最出色的教师，当中包括来自直接衔接项目“教育第一”“名校指导”以及“教育为美国”的教师。Altman解释道，“我们今年尝试的事情之一——这还只是实验性的——是让我们的骨干教师一周工作四天，以令他们每周能有一天聚在一起，学习共同规划，接受专业培训” The growth of diversity in the education system will also, its architects hope, lead to cross-fertilisation, as experiments such as Altman’s four-day week are evaluated by others. Even just spending a morning at Samuel J Green, it is easy to see ideas that could be profitably employed elsewhere: assessing the performance of each class every week, not every term, to enable regular course-correction and adapt to their needs; letting parents access their children’s computerised learning programmes from home; getting each class to do 10 minutes of exercise every few hours (done, as I see when I tour the classrooms, by getting them to dance along with pop videos); using education technology, which is finally starting to live up to its promise after years of wildly overstated claims for its effects. 它的设计者们希望，随着像Altman的每周四天授课的这类实验接受他人的评估，这个教育体系日趋多样，能够促进相互学习。哪怕只是在塞缪尔格林呆一个上午，也很容易观察到那些可以推广到别处的理念：每周评估各班的表现，而不是每个学期一次，以确保能及时纠正偏差，根据需要进行调整；让家长在家就可以了解孩子的电脑化的课程设置；让各个班级每几个小时就活动十分钟（确有做到，当我参观教室时，就看到学生们跟着流行曲的录像跳舞）；使用电子教学，这些高科技手段的效果多年来被过分地夸大，如今终于开始达到预期效果了。 Above all, however, Samuel J Green is tribute to the power of a single idea. 然而最重要的是，萨缪尔格林体现了一种简单理念的力量。 “People, whether they’re conscious of it or not, have these biases around low-income students and students from deprived areas,” says Altman. The guiding principle of FirstLine is “this real belief in the potential of all young people… a real sense of shared moral purpose”. “不管他们自己是否意识到，人们对低收入与来自贫困地区的学生总是存在着各种的偏见，”Altman说道。“前线学校”的办学原则就是“坚信所有年轻人的潜力……和共同的道德追求”。 In New Orleans, those problems are usually linked to race – but in Britain, the culprit is more often class, especially in the former industrial areas of the North. 在新奥尔良，那些问题通常会与种族联系起来。但在英国，问题的根源更多是社会阶层，尤其在北部的老工业区。 “In the whole of the OECD, there’s a bigger correlation between parental income and child aspiration and success in the UK than anywhere else,” says Sir Iain Hall, who is now CEO of the Great Schools Trust. “If you’re a young child in a three-generation household, where there’s been no employment for a long time, aspiration’s died. You have to break through that aspirational poverty to get the child to say ‘I can succeed despite these circumstances’.” “在经合组织内，英国的父母收入与子女的抱负和成就的相关性比其他国家更强，”现在担任伟大学校慈善信托CEO的 Iain Hall爵士说。“如果一个小孩子家里三代同堂，家人长期没有工作，他的志向就会消沉。你必须打破这种胸无大志，让孩子相信‘我能在逆境中成功’。” His work, like Altman’s, is driven by “an emerging understanding that if you can improve the character of young children, you can actually improve their educational outcomes. That’s what Jay and I have been doing, either side of the Atlantic – working on motivational messages and strong values that motivate these children and build resilience into them.” 他的事业，和Altman的一样，都被一个新兴理念驱动：“如果你能提升孩子们的品格，你就能改善他们受教育的效果。这就是我和Jay (Altman)在大西洋两岸一直做的——向孩子们灌输励志的信息和强大的信念，以激励他们奋发向上，坚韧不拔。” Hall claims that Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, is beginning to pick up on this. “She started to see, through the KIPP schools in US [another chain of charters], that a greater emphasis on character is starting to produce quite amazing outcomes,” he says. The concept of “high expectations and no excuses”, which was at the heart of Future Leaders, is now, he says, “on the website of almost every school. Whether they apply it or not is another matter…” Hall声称教育大臣Nicky Morgan已开始接受这一理念。“通过美国的KIPP【另一个特许学校联盟】，她开始发现对品格培养的重视会带来令人惊讶的收获，”他说。“未来领袖”的核心理念——“目标远大，不找借口”，如今已经“出现在几乎所有学校的官方网站上，至于他们是否真正实践这一理念是另一回事……” In many ways, Britain’s education reforms put it well ahead of the United States: the old New Orleans system was, says Altman, not just pre-Blair but pre-Thatcher in its lack of standards, inspection and accountability. But in other ways, says Hall, we have still much to learn. “There are more and more schools [in the UK] naming their classrooms after universities. But you’ve got to get it into teachers’ vocabularies – all day long they’ve got to talk about aspiration and endeavour.” That can come more naturally to Americans, with their can-do spirit and sense of manifest destiny, than hidebound Brits. 英国的教育改革在很多方面都领先于美国：如Altman所说，新奥尔良过去的教育系统，缺乏标准、监督和问责制度，不仅仅落后于英国的布莱尔时代，甚至是落后于撒切尔时代。但在另一些方面，Hall认为英国也有许多需要学习的地方。“（英国）越来越多的学校以大学校名来命名教室。但你还必须让老师们去配合——他们也要经常谈及个人抱负和不懈努力。”这些对美国人就比因循守旧的英国人来得更自然，因为他们有着万事皆可能的性格和明确的使命感。 Still, success stories such as New Orleans are, says Nick Timothy of the New Schools Network, “tremendously exciting”. It is a vindication of the idea that the best way to get schools is to give dedicated teachers and parents the power to control them – and set them up. The free schools built in Britain are, Timothy points out, “more likely to be rated outstanding than other state schools, more popular with parents, and more likely to teach the so-called facilitating subjects that get young people into top universities. We know that they are improving the quality of education and creating more opportunities for children whatever their background, just like charter schools are doing in the States.” 尽管如此，像新奥尔良那样的成功案例，用“新校网”的Nick Timothy的话来说，依然“令人欣喜若狂”。这也是该办校理念——最好让投身其中的老师和家长们有权参与学校的运营和建设——的一大佐证。Timothy指出，英国的自由学校“与其他公立学校相比更经常被评为表现优异，更受家长们欢迎，也更普遍设立所谓的提高课程以帮助年轻人考上顶尖大学。我们都能看到，它们和美国的特许学校一样，在不断地改善教育质量，为不同背景的学生创造更多的机会。” But there is still work to be done, on both sides of the Atlantic. “In all honesty, all that we’ve done in New Orleans is gone from an F to a D or a C,” says Altman. “The schools aren’t failing any more, but we’ve got to do more than ‘not failing’, right?” 然而在大西洋两岸，要做的事情都还有很多。“坦率的讲，我们在新奥尔良做到的，只是从‘不及格’进步到‘尚可’和‘中等’”Altman说，“这些学校都不再不及格了，但我们也不能只满足于‘及格’是吧？” Robert Colvile is the former comment editor of the Telegraph and news director of BuzzFeed UK. His new book, ‘The Great Acceleration: How Life is Getting Faster, Faster’, was published by Bloomsbury on April 7th. Robert Colvile是英国《电迅报》评论编辑，也是BuzzFeed英国版的新闻总监。他的新书《伟大的加速：生活如何变得越来越快》由Bloomsbury出版社在2016年4月7日出版。 （编辑：辉格@whigzhou） *注：本译文未经原作者授权，本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利，如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容，请私信联系，我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组，致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

【2017-03-07】 照这个替代方案，Obamacare被保留了一大半，去掉的主要是当初引发各州诉讼、涉嫌违宪的条款，保留的是迫使许多保险公司退出的负面激励条款，和最初的声势相比，这是很糟糕的结果。 这个『Obamacare Lite』（不是我取的名字）在有些方面好像比原版更糟，所以（1）福利果子派出去就是很难收回来，无论是真果子还是假果子，2）对本届国会共和党的预期需要调低一点了。  

【2017-02-26】 @whigzhou: 越想越觉得border-adjustment是个好东西，最好的地方是它可能会把川普糊弄过去（或者帮川普把他的支持者糊弄过去？），以他（和他的支持者）对经济问题的理解能力，这很可能。 ​​​​ @史搞特:这个border adjustment tax跟关税有啥不同 @whigzhou: 差别是：关税是对跨境交易额外征了一笔税，因而会提高税负，降低贸易额，而BA只是改变了跨境交易的税负分布，后者对贸易的影响会被汇率杠杆重新撬回来，最终效果只是提高了美元币值，总体上的贸易均衡位置不会改变。 @whigzhou: BA表面上看起来好像会减少美国的贸易逆差，其实不会，因为贸易逆差只跟境外对美元资产的投资需求有关，和其他因素统统无关，只要这一需求不变，逆差仍会延续，所有其他因素造成的影响都会被汇率杠杆撬回来。  

【2017-02-23】 @研二公知苗 不少人在讲移民问题时，都忽略社会，文化和政治成本，只讲纯经济收益。讲经济收益时，理论上，无论是受高等教育的合法移民还是从事低端工作的非法移民带来的纯经济收益理论上都是正的。但是这种收益不是一些人描绘的帕累托改进。相反，这种收益实际上带有很强的再分配性质。尤其是考虑到非法移民增加了低端工作岗位的供给，压低了低端岗位的工资，实际上是一种带有劫贫济富性质的再分配。 @whigzhou: 你说的是分配效应，distributive effect，不是再分配，后面这个词要难听得多 @whigzhou: 贸易开放、技术进步、资源发现，都有很强的分配效应，但不是再分配，后者是对由市场机制分配的要素报酬通过非市场手段进行人际转移 @whigzhou: 制度和政策上无视分配效应，是自由市场原则的要点之一，否则贸易保护、卢德分子、行会特权、工会垄断，就都有了位置 @研二公知苗: 但现实中，自由市场的运行还是需要政治上的保障。对受损者的补偿就是为了使得自由市场的基本原则在政治上具有可持续性。 @whigzhou: 妥协让步当然可以，但让步不能通过修改自己的是非观来进行，『你欠我100，还不起？好吧，那就免掉你30』vs『你欠我100，还不起？好吧，那就算你只借了70』  

【2017-02-21】 ​​​​@whigzhou: 如果让你列出五件东西，没了它们美国（在你眼里）就不再是美国了，你会选哪五件？我的选择：持枪权，[[stand your ground]]，陪审团，最高法院，州权。 @都市学派:宪法必须排第一。 @whigzhou: 宪法很难判定怎么算『没了』，我列的五件都很容易判别 @慕容飞宇gg:辉总的意思是没了其中一件还是全部没了？ @whigzhou: 每少一件就更远离一点啊（幸亏我不是本质主义者） @银色子弹V5: 那不也很好嘛，变成加拿大了 @whigzhou: 说到点子上了，没这些就是加拿大了，我之所以选这几件，不是说其他（比如言论自由、私人财产权）不重要，而是认为这些才是让美国比盎格鲁世界乃至自由世界的其他部分更自由的东西，是特别美国的东西