2020年4月24日 星期五

No Cell Service. No Wi-Fi. Just Childhood 手機不通、沒無線網路的童年 不在社群媒體訊息轟炸下長大


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讀紐時學英文
2020/04/24 第301期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 No Cell Service. No Wi-Fi. Just Childhood 手機不通、沒無線網路的童年 不在社群媒體訊息轟炸下長大
Why Is the Monarch Butterfly Population Declining? 為何帝王斑蝶愈來愈少?
紐時周報精選
 
No Cell Service. No Wi-Fi. Just Childhood 手機不通、沒無線網路的童年 不在社群媒體訊息轟炸下長大
文/Dan Levin
譯/李京倫 核稿/樂慧生

手機不通、沒無線網路的童年

Viral dance memes and dance challenges on TikTok largely bypass Green Bank, West Virginia. So do viral sensations like augmented reality filters on Snapchat and Instagram.

在美國西維吉尼亞州綠岸鎮,人們看不到短影音應用程式「抖音」大多數的網路爆紅舞步和改編舞步挑戰。這個地方的人也看不到擴增實境濾鏡等在社群軟體Snapchat和Instagram上爆紅的事物。

And when a Facebook fad had people all over the globe dumping ice water on their heads a few summers ago, Charity Warder, now a senior at Pocahontas County High School, was late to the game.

而在幾年前夏天,臉書掀起一陣風潮,使全球各地網友紛紛朝自己頭上傾倒冰塊和水時,目前已是波卡洪塔絲縣高中畢業班學生的查瑞蒂.沃爾德,很晚才加入這行列。

Sure, Charity has an iPhone, but she uses it mostly as a clock and a calculator. She makes phone calls from a landline, and she rarely texts her friends. Texting and driving? "It's not a thing here," she said.

查瑞蒂是有支iPhone,但她多半用來當鬧鐘和計算機。她只打固網電話,很少傳簡訊給朋友。邊傳簡訊邊開車?她說:「這裡沒這種事。」

When Charity wants to get online at home, she sits at her family's desktop computer, which has a broadband connection that is so sluggish, it takes minutes to load a YouTube video.

查瑞蒂想在家上網時,就坐在全家共用的桌上型電腦前,電腦連接的寬頻網路非常慢,要花上好幾分鐘才能載入一支YouTube影片。

Welcome to Green Bank, population 143, where Wi-Fi is both unavailable and banned and where cellphone signals are nonexistent.

歡迎來到綠岸這個僅143人的小鎮,這裡既沒無線網路也不准使用,更沒有手機訊號。

The near radio silence is a requirement for those living close to the town's most prominent and demanding resident, the Green Bank Observatory, home to the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. To protect the sensitive equipment from interference, the federal government in 1958 established the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area near the state's border with Virginia.

綠岸天文台是鎮裡最出名且要求最多的「住戶」,世界最大的全可動射電望遠鏡即設置於此,而幾乎禁絕無線電則為其附近居民必須接受的要求。為了保護這裡的精密設備不受干擾,聯邦政府1958年將西維吉尼亞州靠近維吉尼亞州、約3萬4000平方公里的區域劃為「國家無線電寂靜特區」。

The observatory's telescope "could detect your phone on Saturn in airplane mode," states a sign outside its science center building, but is rendered much weaker if anyone uses electronics that emit radio waves. For those who live within 10 miles of the observatory, the limitations also include a ban on Bluetooth devices and microwaves, unless they are contained in a metal box, known as a Faraday cage, which blocks electromagnetic fields.

綠岸天文台科學中心大樓外的告示牌寫道,這個天文台的望遠鏡很敏銳,「即使手機開飛航模式放在土星上,望遠鏡都偵測得到」,不過若有人使用會發射無線電波的電子產品,望遠鏡偵測能力就會大為減弱。天文台方圓16公里內的居民甚至連藍牙裝置和微波爐都不准使用,除非把這些裝置放在名為「法拉第籠」的金屬籠裡,這種籠子能阻隔電磁場。

Nearly 15 million Americans live in sparsely populated communities where there is no broadband internet service at all, a stark digital divide across America between those with access to uber-fast connections and those with none.

近1500萬美國人住在全無寬頻網路的人煙稀少地帶,與美國各地得以使用超快網路的人形成強烈對比。

But in Green Bank, where the restrictions are mandatory, the quiet zone has in many ways created a time warp in the mountainous region. Phone booths loom near barns and stand guard on rural roads. Paper maps are still common. Here, people are less distracted by the technologies that have come to dominate 21st-century American life.

不過,在強制執行這些限制的綠岸,寂靜特區使這多山地帶在許多方面出現時間錯位現象。電話亭赫然出現在穀倉附近,並佇立在鄉間道路旁。紙本地圖仍盛行。這裡的人比較不會為主導21世紀美國人生活的科技而分心。

At a time when nearly 60% of American teens say they have been bullied or harassed online, and studies have found links between social media use and teen mental health problems, the digital limitations around Green Bank have created a unique kind of modern childhood, providing a glimpse into what it means to grow up without the constant buzz of texting and social media.

近六成美國青少年表示曾遭受網路霸凌和騷擾,而且研究顯示使用社群媒體和青少年出現心理健康問題有關,在這當口,綠岸對數位技術的限制創造出一種獨特的現代童年生活,讓人一窺不在簡訊和社群媒體持續的訊息轟炸下長大,會是什麼樣貌。

 
Why Is the Monarch Butterfly Population Declining? 為何帝王斑蝶愈來愈少?
文/Karen Weintraub
譯/李京倫 核稿/樂慧生

為何帝王斑蝶愈來愈少?

Western monarch butterflies spend their winters in Pismo Beach and other sites on the central California coast. A few months later, they breed in the Central Valley and as far north and east as Idaho.

美國西部帝王斑蝶會在加州中部沿岸皮斯摩海灘市等地過冬。幾個月後,會在加州中部「中央谷地」,以及往東北方向最遠可到愛達荷州的地區交配。

But where they go in between remains an open question.

不過,這中間的空檔帝王斑蝶去了哪裡,仍沒人知道。

Now, a group of researchers wants the public's help to solve that mystery.

現在,一群研究人員希望民眾幫忙解開這個謎。

They would like anyone who spots a monarch north of Santa Barbara this spring to snap a quick picture. The researchers — from Washington State University, Tufts University, the nonprofit Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and the University of California, Santa Cruz — need photographic evidence, a date and a location to confirm where the monarchs might be living. (Photos and information can be emailed to monarchmystery@wsu.edu or uploaded on the iNaturalist app.)

他們希望,今年春天凡是在加州聖塔芭芭拉市以北發現帝王斑蝶的人,都拍下快照。這群研究人員來自華盛頓州立大學、塔夫茨大學、非營利組織澤西斯無脊椎動物保育協會和聖塔克魯茲加州大學,他們需要照片、拍攝日期和地點,用以確定帝王斑蝶的棲地。(照片和資訊可以用電郵寄到monarchmystery@wsu.edu,或用iNaturalist app上傳。)

"Something's going on in early spring," said Cheryl Schultz, a professor at Washington State University, in Vancouver.

加拿大溫哥華市華盛頓州立大學教授雪柔.舒茲說:「有某種事情在早春發生。」

Researchers know that winter survival isn't the issue in the short term, she said. But they don't know whether the monarchs are not making it to breeding sites, not finding plants to nourish them along the way, or not able to find mates.

舒茲說,研究人員知道,帝王斑蝶安度冬天短期內不是問題,研究人員不知道的是,帝王斑蝶是否到不了交配的地點,是否在沿途找不到植物供給營養,是否找不到交配對象。

The Western monarch population, which lives west of the Rocky Mountains, stood in the millions in the 1980s. In 2017, an annual count found 200,000 butterflies. In 2018, the tally fell to about 30,000 — a figure that held steady last year, said Elizabeth Crone, a biology professor at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts.

美國西部的帝王斑蝶棲息在洛磯山脈以西,在1980年代多達數百萬隻。2017年的年度調查顯示還有20萬隻。2018年剩下大約3萬隻。麻州梅德福市塔夫茨大學生物學教授伊麗莎白.克隆說,去年也差不多是這個數量。

The monarch's decline is part of a larger trend among dozens of butterfly species in the West,said Matt Forister, an insect ecologist at the University of Nevada.

內華達州雷諾市內華達大學昆蟲生態學者佛瑞斯特說,帝王斑蝶數量減少,是美西數十種蝴蝶數量減少的更大趨勢的一部分。

Research pins the loss of Western butterflies on a variety of factors, including development, climate change, farming practices, and the widespread use of pesticides by farmers and on home and business lawns, Forister said.

佛瑞斯特說,研究人員認為美西蝴蝶數量減少有多種原因,包括開發、氣候變遷、農作方式,以及農民、家庭和商業草坪廣泛使用農藥。

For example, Schultz said farms used to have rough, weedy borders that were great breeding grounds for the types of plants that monarchs love. Newer farming practices have pushed crops to the edge of the fields, leaving no room for these weedy margins, she said.

舒茲說,例如先前農場邊緣往往未開墾且雜草叢生,是帝王斑蝶喜愛的植物種類的沃土。她說,比較新穎的農耕方式會把作物種到農場邊緣,不讓這些邊緣有長出雜草的空間。

Another factor, she said: Some homeowners, eager to attract monarchs, have planted tropical milkweed. Although the butterflies will feed on them, these plants tend to spread disease because they don't drop their leaves, Schultz said, which may be contributing to the declining monarch population. Native milkweed supports the population without this risk, she said.

舒茲說,另一因素是,有屋主想吸引帝王斑蝶,就種了熱帶乳草。雖然帝王斑蝶會來吃,但乳草不掉葉子,容易傳播疾病,可能造成帝王斑蝶數量減少。她說,本地乳草能餵養帝王斑蝶,卻沒有這種風險。

※說文解字看新聞 李京倫

帝王斑蝶是大型蝴蝶,有醒目的橘、黑、白色斑紋極易辨認。成熟後翼展可達13公分。本文探討美國西部帝王斑蝶為何從數百萬隻減少到三萬隻左右。

population在本文中指某個範圍內某個物種的總數,急遽減少可以說rapid/sharp/steep/dramatic decline,逐漸減少則可以說steady/gradual/long-term decline。要阻止總數減少,可以說stop/halt a decline,復育有成則可說reverse a decline。

pin原意是別針、大頭針,尤其是固定布料用的,或釘、楔、銷、栓等用於固定的細長木頭或金屬。本文的pin something on為非正式用語,是「把某事歸咎於…」。最近常出現在新聞中的pull the pin,則是停止做某事的意思,如:Canada became the first country to pull the pin on Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 
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