Đừng ngạc nhiên

trung quốc, với sự trợ giúp của canada, đã lắp đặt hệ thống theo dõi dưới nước ngoài khơi ngay cạnh căn cứ quân sự tàu ngầm hạt nhân của mỹ

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Canada installs Chinese underwater monitoring devices next to US nuclear submarine base

...The instruments, which use hi-tech sensors to monitor the underwater environment, are connected to the Ocean Network Canada (ONC), a grid of marine observatories (đài quan sát, đài thiên văn; tháp canh, chòi canh) stretching (mạch đường) from the northeast Pacific to the Arctic... Now fully operational, they can be used to provide real-time streaming of data to the Chinese institute’s control centres in Sanya, a city on the island province of Hainan, and elsewhere.

...While there is no evidence to suggest China's military is involved with the project – there is also no suggestion the devices can be used to track submarines (tàu ngầm) or other vessels – maritime environmental data (dữ liệu môi trường biển) is equally valuable (có giá trị) to both civilian and non-civilian (phi dân sự) researchers.

Photo credit: scmp.

The ONC is primarily a scientific research facility, but it does also have a defence contract (hợp đồng quốc phòng) to help the Canadian military monitor Arctic waters with the help of a surveillance system (hệ thống do thám) powered by artificial intelligence technology (công nghệ trí thông minh nhân tạo), state broadcaster CBC News reported last year.

Bài trước: Ai “đạp phanh” cho những cỗ xe tiêu pha kiểu xây tượng đài?

Ai “đạp phanh” cho những cỗ xe tiêu pha kiểu xây tượng đài?

TQ như lên đồng với xây tượng Phật 'lớn nhất thế giới'

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Buddha-mania: Understanding China’s Buddha Building Boom

...Travelers looking for the world's largest Buddha statue, however, must make the trip to the neighboring province of Henan. Opened in 2008, the Spring Temple Buddha is located in Lushan County — one of the poorest  (nghèo nhất) counties (hạt, đất (phong của) bá tước) in all of China, in which residents' average annual discretionary (tự ý quyết định tùy theo tình hình thực tế; linh hoạt, tùy nghi sử dụng) income is just 12,800 yuan. In stark contrast (tương phản rõ rệt) to the poverty of the surrounding countryside, the Spring Temple Buddha, which took 11 years to complete, stands more than 208 meters tall, is plated with 108 kilograms of gold, and cost an eye-popping 1.2 billion yuan to build.

...Those familiar with the Communist Party’s official stance on atheism  (thuyết vô thần) may find it perplexing (phức tạp, rắc rối, khó hiểu) that local governments across China would approve the construction of enormous religious idols. Yet while these statues may be aimed at the country’s religious believers, their real purpose is far more worldly: making money (kiếm tiền).

Put simply: If an area without any notable (có tiếng, trứ danh) natural scenery (cảnh đẹp tự nhiên) or historical landmarks (nét đặc trưng hay đặc điểm để nhận biết một nơi nào) wants to attract tourists (thu hút khách du lịch), it needs a gimmick (mẹo/mánh lới quảng cáo, trò bịp) — and giant Buddhas fit the bill nicely. They are also well-suited to China’s entrance fee-centric tourism industry: By the time visitors are in the gate and realize that, actually, one giant statue of the Buddha is much like the next, park authorities have already made all the money they expect to make.

Bài trước: "Ngôi sao" nhà người ta

Sống như những nhành cây

Photo courtesy Steve Jurvetson.

It is the same with man as with the tree ... The more he seeketh to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark and deep—into the evil.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Con người -- cũng giống như cái cây -- ... Càng tìm cách vươn lên (đỉnh) cao và ánh sáng, rễ/gốc của anh ta càng đâm xuống đất mạnh hơn, sâu hơn, vào trong bóng tối và sâu thẳm -- vào điều ma tà/hiểm độc.

Đả hổ diệt ruồi

Đừng nhìn bề ngoài

"Ngôi sao" nhà người ta

Nam tài tử Châu Nhuận Phát (luôn nổi tiếng với nếp sống giản dị, tiết kiệm, khác xa với sự hào nhoáng, xa hoa của giới giải trí) -> quyên góp toàn bộ gia sản gần 17.000 tỷ đồng cho hoạt động từ thiện.

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Chow Yun Fat plans to give his entire net worth of $714m to charity.

As reported by Jayne Stars, Hong Kong movie legend (huyền thoại) Chow Yun Fat will give his entire net worth of $5.6 billion HKD ($714m USD) to charity (từ thiện).

Despite his gargantuan (to lớn phi thường, khổng lồ) wealth, Fat remains rather frugal (căn cơ, tiết kiệm, thanh đạm; đạm bạc). Only spending $800 HKD ($1o2 USD) per month, Fat is often seen taking public transport and doing charity work.

He used his first Nokia phone for over 17 years, only switching to a smartphone two years ago. Fat is known for shopping at discount stores. "I don't wear clothes for other people. As long as I think it's comfortable, then it's good enough for me," he said.

Fat often spends his free time hiking and jogging, instead of splashing out.

Bài trước: Vì sao WeChat thất bại ở Ấn Độ?

Nhược điểm của nền cộng hòa

ngay từ khởi đầu, tổng thống adams đã hoài nghi về nền cộng hòa và công dân của nó, khi trong chiến dịch tranh cử, mọi người tập trung công kích sự kiện là "mẹ của andrew jackson là điếm"

btw, jackson mà sinh ở xứ đông lào thì mút mùa ko ngóc đầu lên được

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...A Cincinnati newspaper printed a malevolent (có ác ý/ác tâm, ảnh hưởng xấu) editorial proclaiming (để lộ ra, chỉ ra; tuyên bố) that [Andrew] Jackson's mother was a common prostitute (đĩ, điếm) brought to this country by British soldiers (lính Anh). thereupon she married a mulatto (người da trắng lai da đen) man with whom she had several children, among them Andrew Jackson. Apprised of this far-fetched (khó tin, cường điệu), scandalous (khiếm nhã, đáng hổ thẹn, đáng kinh tởm; gây xôn xao dư luận, chứa đựng điều tai tiếng) tale, [John Quincy] Adams thought it absurd (vô lý, ngu xuẩn, buồn cười/lố bịch), but cynically (bất cần đạo lý, bất nhẫn) went on to comment that even if proved true it would probably not hurt Jackson. The course of the campaign seemed to substantiate (chứng minh) all Adams's apprehensions (e sợ) that fervent (nồng nhiệt, nhiệt thành) partisanship was demolishing reasonableness, a slugfest (ẩu đả kịch liệt, cãi/đánh nhau dữ dội) of calumny (lời vu khống) and lies replacing political civility. Vice was triumphing over virtue. And the cynicism expressed in his reaction to the malignant piece regarding Jackson's mother and his birth signaled that he had begun to doubt the probity (tính trung thực/liêm khiết, tính đáng tin cậy) of the republic and its citizens.

từ cuốn sách rất hay của William J. Cooper, The Lost Founding Father: John Quincy Adams and the Transformation of American Politics.

Bài trước: Những cuộc "đánh tư sản" sắt máu trong lịch sử

"Party girl" nghĩa là gì?

Photo courtesy abstrkt.ch.

'Party girl' nghĩa là cô gái đẹp chuyên tiếp khách thuê; cô gái chỉ thích ăn chơi (a girl who will party hard anywhere, even if the party is shit she will get down and get naked; a girl who likes to fuck, usually will either swallow or let you spray it all over her. Also prone to threesomes (including bi), and taking it in the wrong 'un).

Ví dụ

The sister of a "party girl" who died after taking two ecstasy (thuốc kích thích; cực kỳ sung sướng/hạnh phúc; cảm giác mãnh liệt/tột độ; nhập định, xuất thần) pills at a music festival said she "warned her about drugs".

Madonna, 60, proved she's still a party girl at heart as she hit London celebrity hotspot Chiltern Firehouse for a night out on Thursday.

A 'party girl' who lived on Chinese takeaways and would down up to 10 pints on a single night out has stunned (choáng váng, bất tỉnh, sững sờ) her friends and family after taking part in the Go Sober for October challenge.

Four years, nine months and 25 days later, she pulled on the shirt of KSK Heist and came on at half-time to make her debut (lần  trình diễn đầu tiên, bước đầu vào đời) in the professional Belgian Super League. When she began her journey it required quite a lifestyle change. “I was about as bad as they come as a teenager,” says Coolen. “At that time I was very rebellious; in school I was skipping classes and was known as the party girl, basically because I was insecure (bất an) and trying to fit in (hòa nhập).”

Phạm Hạnh

Bài trước: "Foam party" nghĩa là gì?

Vì sao WeChat thất bại ở Ấn Độ?

vì tính năng "find friends nearby", nên nhiều phụ nữ cảm thấy bị quấy rầy và uninstall không dùng,

sao ở Việt Nam, zalo (cũng có cổ phần của Tencent), với tính năng "tìm quanh đây" tương tự thì lại phát triển mạnh vậy các bạn? ;)

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How WeChat faded into the silence in India

... Another design feature in the app allowed users to look up and send add-friend requests to WeChat users nearby. During initial onboarding when users were just checking app's features, many would tap the "people nearby" feature, which would switch on location sharing by default – including with strangers. Once location sharing with strangers was switched on, it wasn't very intuitive to turn it off.

"Women used to get a lot of unwarranted messages from men, which was a major turn off and many of them left the platform," Gupta says. "China probably didn't have this stalking problem."

When this feedback was reported to China, the cultural nuance was missed or executives there didn't think of these features as potential challenges, he adds.

Bài trước: Bước Đại Nhảy Lùi của Trung Quốc

Bộ mặt thật của những công ty bình phong

dùng phần mềm phân tích dữ liệu sổ sách kế toán: ít vay ngân hàng, các khoản chi bất hợp pháp, quá nhiều vốn lưu động, tuổi và giới tính lãnh đạo công ty... là ra hết

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Seeking the devil in details

New software helps uncover Mafia crime masked as ordinary business

Suspicious patterns are revealed by crunching financial data

...Crime&tech’s software identifies not pizzo (protection payments) schemes as such, but firms that may be under mafioso control or involved in Mafia crimes such as illegal gambling and trafficking in people, drugs or arms. Its algorithms look at many variables. Businesses with little or no bank financing are more likely to have taken out a Mafia loan. Borrowers who struggle to repay may “convert the debt into stock” held by the Mafia creditor, often behind the smokescreen of a figurehead administrator, says Michele Riccardi of Crime&tech. The software considers the age and sex of a firm’s administrators. Those who are old, young or female are more likely to be figureheads.

It also looks for anomalies in payroll and invoice data that may reveal attempts to conceal illicit payments, especially in sectors where Mafia activity is strongest: construction, retail, waste removal, food services and transport. A high share of a firm’s wealth kept liquid is a red flag.

...In an effort to curb Mafia involvement in public contracts, Italy’s finance ministry is using the software to keep an eye on more than 10,000 bank accounts. Computer says no, mafioso.

Bài trước: Chỉ số Waffle House nghĩa là gì?

Thiết đầu công thời hiện đại

một anh chàng parkistan dùng đầu đập vỡ 243 quả óc chó trong một phút, phá kỷ lục guiness của một anh ấn độ (217 quả),

báo ko nói anh này chưa vợ hay đã ly hôn :D

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A Pakistani martial artist used his head to crack 243 walnuts, besting a Guinness World Record set earlier this year.

Mohammad Rashid Naseem, 32, of Karachi, posted a video to Facebook showing his official Guinness World Record attempt for most walnuts cracked against the head in one minute.

Naseem beat the previous Guinness record, which was set by Indian man S. Navin Kumar in September when he crushed 217 walnuts with his head.

Bài trước: Tương lai là đây

"Foam party" nghĩa là gì?

Photo courtesy micadew.

'Foam party' nghĩa là bữa tiệc bọt xà phòng (a social event at which participants dance to music on a dance floor covered in several feet of suds or bubbles, dispensed from a foam machine); lễ hội nơi mọi người tắm trong bột xà phòng.

Ví dụ

Captain Lee’s BFF Steve Bradley, who’s coming aboard to celebrate his fiancée’s birthday and their two-year anniversary: He’s known in the Below Deck guest canon as the one with the foam party gone awry.

The infamous foam party was one of the few times chief stewardess Kate Chastain had a party fail. The clearly inebriated guest demanded everyone get into the foam party, but the foam kept blowing off the boat.

Writer and director Tim Luscombe tackled it in a production at the Salisbury Playhouse in 2011, while the Royal Exchange took a contemporary view of the tale of familial (thuộc gia đình, có quan hệ huyết thống) duty over love last season – complete with a frolicking (tính vui nhộn/hay nô đùa) foam party.

When you see that kind of cabbage bring thrown around, it makes dressing up like a drag queen, throwing the world’s worst foam party and kowtowing (khấu đầu) to insane food requests somewhat palatable. But in addition to the all-important tip, what do yachties regularly make? According to Crewfinders, an industry-based resource, base pay depends on boat size. For instance, a first officer on a 70′ to 100′ vessel might make anywhere from $48,000 to $60,000 a year.

Phạm Hạnh

"Foam at the mouth" nghĩa là gì?

"Last Supper" nghĩa là gì?