学习英语

Regardless of what the law says (which is clearly on the side of MD), the widespread online support for the leak seems to me to indicate a desire to live in a society where a company like MD is more clearly illegal. This is vigilante justice at work; our legal system as a whole has let us down, so one or two anonymous individuals decided to take matters into their own hands — to the joy and entertainment of the online lynch mob. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1204>commen...

vigilante justice

A vigilante is someone who takes enforcement of law or moral code into his own hands. The term stems from a Spanish term meaning private security … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilante justice

take matters into their own hands

online lynch mob.

kill without legal sanction; “The blood-thirsty mob lynched the alleged killer of the child” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

learn more about US currency at http://www.uspapermoney.info

What is this “fug”? I’ve never heard of it.

“Fug” comes from “fugly,” which is a contraction of “fantastically ugly” (or an f-word more prurient, if you like, but we are clean and delightful young ladies who don’t engage in that kind of filth, dammit). Here’s some etymology for you: http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/faq/

hahaha. 喜欢时装和幽默的朋友应该看看

Intellectual Property and Magicians 这篇文章非常有意思。

请大家看全文。如果有兴趣读读文章给的一些魔术专利的说明，自己练习一下也能来点惊人的魔术表演说不定。：）

文章有一些词我找出来学学。

Yet Loshin, and apparently most magicians, think that patent and trade secret are a poor fit. There are basically three reasons for this. First, part of the value of a trick is that the audience can’t figure out how it’s done; but a patent must explain the details of the invention. Second, tricks are subject to “reverse engineering” by rival magicians who watch the trick done, repeatedly, from different parts of the audience, then do experiments to try to replicate it; and of course trade secrets are not protected against reverse engineering. Third, there’s a sort of guild mentality among magicians, holding that knowledge can be shared within the profession but must not be shared with the public. This guild mentality can’t easily be implemented within current law — a trade secret must be carefully protected, and so cannot be passed around casually within a loosely defined “community”. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1196

guild

club: a formal association of people with similar interests; “he joined a golf club”; “they formed a small lunch society”; “men from the fraternal … wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A guild is an association of craftspeople in a particular trade. The earliest guilds are believed to have been formed in India circa 3800 BC, and though they are not as commonplace as they were a few centuries ago, many guilds continue to flourish around the world today. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild

But I have my doubts that publishing information about tricks actually makes them less entertaining. Goldin’s patent on the saw-a-person-in-half trick — which explains pretty clearly how to do the trick — was issued in 1923, but the trick is still a staple today.

staple

basic: (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant a natural fiber (raw cotton, wool, hemp, flax) that can be twisted to form yarn; “staple fibers vary widely in length” raw material: material suitable for manufacture or use or finishing a short U-shaped wire nail for securing cables paper fastener consisting of a short length of U-shaped wire that can fasten papers together necessary foods or commodities; “wheat is a staple crop” secure or fasten with a staple or staples; “staple the papers together” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

这里作基本的讲。就是观众还是要看的。

The great innovators may be venerated within the profession, but they’re unknown to the public.

venerate

reverence: regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of; “Fear God as your father”; “We venerate … wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

saw-a-person-in-half trick 可以翻译为 电锯活人的魔术

魔术如何把人锯成两段的专利说明：）saw-a-person-in-half trick, http://www.google.com/patents?id=NZRAAAAAEBAJ

via http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1196

The New York Times Sunday Magazine has a fascinating piece that interviews and discusses Columbia Records’ hiring of Rick Rubin as their new studio chieftain. Rubin has been a well-known music producer (among other things, he orchestrated the famous mash-up of Aerosmith and Run-DMC and worked with Johnny Cash later in his life), and is quoted in the article saying many things that Freedom-to-Tinker readers will find familiar. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1194

chieftain

captain: the leader of a group of people; “a captain of industry” headman: the head of a tribe or clan wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A chieftain is the leader or head of a group, especially of a clan or tribe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chieftain

Just last night, the Supreme Court stayed the execution of Carlton Turner Jr., a Texas death row inmate. The Court did not give a reason for the stay: Turner requested it until the constitutionality of the method can be decided by the Justices.

In a separate development yesterday, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley stayed the execution of Tommy Arthur, who won’t be executed until the state can be sure that its lethal injection protocol will ensure that the inmate is unconscious before the fatal dose is delivered. http://blog.aclu.org/index.php?/archives/302-Mo...

stay这种当动词的用法值得记忆。

When the execution isn’t botched, the first drug is supposed to render the prisoner unconscious, the second drug paralyzes them, and the third drug causes cardiac arrest. The process should take about 20 minutes. http://blog.aclu.org/index.php?/archives/300-Su...

arrest 在这里是停止的意思。以前不知道呢。

the state of inactivity following an interruption; “the negotiations were in arrest”; “held them in check”; “during the halt he got some lunch”; “the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow”; “he spent the entire stop in his seat” halt: cause to stop; “Halt the engines”; “Arrest the progress”; “halt the presses” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

abatement

Now some of this analysis of global warming problem is pretty much standard economics of externalities (a la fellow Nobelists A.C. Pigou and Paul Samuelson), where the abatement of carbon pollution is seen to be a public good. But I suspect that the information asymmetries across nations will make the problem more complicated at the international level than a simple analysis would suggest. And the research by this year’s Nobel prize winners may prove to be very valuable indeed. http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_view...

abatement

suspension: an interruption in the intensity or amount of something the act of abating; “laws enforcing noise abatement” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

The reduction or elimination of pollution. www.pca.state.mn.us/gloss/glossary.cfm

abate

slake: make less active or intense become less in amount or intensity; “The storm abated”; “The rain let up after a few hours” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

lumber ; given

Grokster Case Lumbers On; Judge To Issue Permanent Injunction http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1214

lumber

move heavily or clumsily; “The heavy man lumbered across the room” the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material baseball bat: an implement used in baseball by the batter log: cut lumber, as in woods and forests wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

lumber这个意思法我是刚知道。以前只知道第4个意思。

The issue now before the judge is what relief to grant the copyright-owner plaintiffs against StreamCast, which is the only defendant still standing. It’s apparently a given that the judge will eventually assess monetary damages against StreamCast. And you’d think these damages would be enough to kill StreamCast, so it’s not clear why StreamCast hasn’t just thrown in the towel, shut its doors, and handed over all its assets to the plaintiffs. Instead, StreamCast fought on, so the judge had to decide what kind of injunction, if any, to impose on StreamCast — that is, what rules would govern StreamCast’s future behavior. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1214

given

acknowledged as a supposition; “given the engine’s condition, it is a wonder that it started” having possession delivered or transferred without compensation an assumption that is taken for granted apt(p): (usually followed by `to’) naturally disposed toward; “he is apt to ignore matters he considers unimportant”; “I am not minded to answer any questions” wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

这里用第3个解释很合适