Purenisia

      让我把这一切都当做补偿，感谢生活的平衡。如果没来这儿，可能就没机会弄个网站，搞个字幕组，给更多的人带去快乐和启迪。如果没来这儿，自己的纠结可能还不敢跟王同学等人说，只能算是熟人的高中同学还不能说是朋友；同时也就不一定会有胆量让一些文字送到Sis那儿发挥神奇的作用。

      王同学说：“你真是我的好朋友。”

      闫同学说：“谢谢你是我的朋友！”

      Sis说：“其实一直都希望你好好努力。”

      感谢大家，也感谢我自己。接下来的日子有更多的坎儿。祝我自己能幸福地迈过去。

摘自新闻周刊网站，原文：http://www.newsweek.com/id/222844

By Melinda Liu | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Nov 14, 2009

On the eve of Obama's visit, China reveals an identity crisis.

奥巴马访问前夜，中国显露出一场身份危机

Which China will receive President Barack Obama on his first trip to Asia—the China of growing influence (and foreign-exchange reserves) or the one that acts like an accidental superpower? Obama will be delivering a fairly straightforward message that the two countries must work together to tackle global—and not just bilateral—problems. Washington wants Beijing to assume more responsibility and leadership on everything from the global economic recovery to climate change to nonproliferation to regional-security headaches.

迎接首次访问亚洲的总统巴拉克·奥巴马的将是哪个中国？是那个影响力不断增强（外汇储备也在增多）的中国还是那个表现得像个偶然诞生的超级大国一样的中国？奥巴马将会传递一个十分直白的信息，那就是两国必须共同解决全球——不仅限于双边——的问题。华盛顿希望北京能够在从世界经济复苏到气候变化，从防扩散到区域安全问题上承担起更多的责任和领导力。

But not all of Beijing's leaders are interested. "China doesn't want to lead the world—it doesn't even want to be seen as a leader of the developing world," says Brookings Sinologist David Shambaugh, who currently lives in Beijing. "The result is that Beijing has multiple personas. It's asking 'what kind of power are we?' "

然而并非所有北京的领导人都感兴趣。“中国不想领导世界——它甚至不想被看做发展中国家的领导者，”现居北京的布鲁金斯学会中国问题专家David Shambaugh如是说，“结果是北京具有多重身份。它在问自己：‘我们到底是怎样的一支力量？’”

For its part, the United States has been watching its own leadership tested in the region. In the shadow of China's rise, American clout in the Pacific also declined markedly under George W. Bush's presidency. The dysfunctional new power dynamic—neither party wants to take a back seat for the other but neither wants to seem presumptuous and give offense—is painfully evident as both sides ponder unpalatable options in Afghanistan. Aside from being a quagmire for the U.S. and NATO, the war threatens to bleed over a common border into China and inflame Muslim unrest in the western region of Xinjiang, where Uighur riots took place this summer.

就美国自身而言，它已经注意到自己在该地区的领导地位遇到了考验。在中国崛起的阴影下，乔治·W·布什当政期间美国在太平洋地区的影响力显著下降。这种不正常的运转机制——任何一方都不想落后于对方，然而任何一方也都不想冒犯得罪对方——就在这里体现：双方在阿富汗问题上都在苦恼地考虑该采取怎样的对策。除了将美国和北约拖进泥潭之外，这场战争还越过边界威胁到了中国，激怒了西部自治区新?疆的穆?斯林动荡。今年夏天，维吾?尔暴?乱就在这里发生。

Still, Washington is clear on what it wants. Even as American officials feud internally over how many more troops to send to Kabul or even whether the Afghan government is a reliable partner, they're eager for China to stop free-riding and show more leadership in its own part of the world. Shambaugh thinks China's armed police should train Afghan cops, for example. But Beijing shuns anything close to putting boots on the ground. "Every foreign power that goes in has failed—so why should China join the list of failures?" as Tsinghua University foreign-policy expert Yan Xuetong says. One Chinese Netizen put it more tartly in a chatroom posting: "Now NATO wants China to help wipe it's ass."

然而，华盛顿对于自己想要什么还是很清楚的。即便美国官员内部在该向喀布尔增派多少部队，甚至阿富汗政府是不是一个值得信赖的伙伴这样的问题上争执不休，他们都急切地希望中国不要再搭便车，而是更多地承担起所属范围内的领导权。Shambaugh举例说，中国武警应该训练阿富汗的警察。但北京则避免谈及任何有关派兵的话题。“任何进去的国家都失败了，那么中国为什么还要加入这份失败者名单呢？”清华大学外交政策专家阎学通说。一名中国网民则更加辛辣地发帖指出：“现在北约想让中国给它擦屁股。”

The United States and China are also the world's biggest carbon emitters, and as the ambassador to Beijing Jon Huntsman says, "If our two countries can't get our acts together to combat climate change, nobody else will." Yet Beijing authorities want Washington to bankroll a big chunk of China's anti-pollution technology upgrades, arguing that the United States and other developed countries have this responsibility since they've been belching emissions for a century.

中美是世界上最大的碳排放国，就像美国驻华大使洪博培所言：“如果我们两国不能合作对抗气候变化，那就没人能了。”然而北京当局希望华盛顿为中国的清洁技术升级提供大量援助，称美国及其他发达国家有这个责任，因为他们已经排放了一个世纪了。

Within Chinese government circles, explains Shambaugh, there is an escalating debate over whether the country should assume the role of a "responsible big power" or just continue practicing the late Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping's more veiled and ambiguous strategy of "biding time, hiding capabilities, but doing some things." Skeptics in the Beijing leadership believe China simply isn't ready to take on much greater global responsibilities—and yet "some people want Beijing to overextend itself precisely so that Chinese growth will be stifled," says Professor Yan. "China is terribly conflicted internally over this issue," Shambaugh says, quipping that when Chinese and American leaders meet next week "maybe there should be a third chair for a psychiatrist to analyze these two psychologically wounded, ambivalent, schizophrenic countries."

Shambaugh解释道，在中国政府内部正在进行一场越发升级的讨论，那就是国家是应该承担起“负责任大国”的职责还是继续实践已故中国铁腕人物邓小平的模棱两可策略：“竞标时间，隐藏实力，但是要做点事情。”北京领导层内的怀疑论者相信中国还没有准备好承担更多的全球责任——但是“有些人就是想让北京过度伸展自己，以使中国的发展得以遏制。”阎教授说。“中国内部在这个问题上就分歧严重，”Shambaugh说，并戏谑道下周中美领导人见面时，“应该为精神科医生再准备一把椅子，请他来解析这两个心理损伤的，自相矛盾的，精神分裂的国家。”

To be sure, there's much that the world wants to see Washington and Beijing handle together—especially on the global economic recovery (which requires China to keep buying U.S. Treasury bills) and on grappling with a recalcitrant North Korea. Recognizing that gives them every incentive to whitewash simmering trade disputes over tires, disagreements over the value of each other's currencies, and the failure to agree on how developed and developing countries should tackle global climate change. Such differences will be discussed during Obama's visit, even though nobody expects breakthroughs.

可以肯定的是，世界期待华盛顿和北京一同处理众多问题——尤其是全球经济复苏（需要中国继续购买美国国债）以及和执拗的北朝鲜角力。一旦认识到这些，升温的轮胎贸易摩擦，彼此对对方货币政策的分歧，以及在关于发达国家和发展中国家如何应对全球气候变化问题上的不一致，一切不和都将被冲淡。

But while they agree they really have to get along, there are still major cultural problems keeping them apart. One perennial thorn is that China seeks symbols—a state banquet unmarred by pesky protests, a perfect Great Wall photo op—while America often focuses on substantive "deliverables." So even as Air Force One took off for Japan, the first stop in Obama's Asian overture, American and Chinese authorities were still scrambling to hammer out details of his China visit.

不过即使他们都同意它们应该好好相处，一些主要的文化问题仍然将它们分隔开。一个长期存在的难题是，中国总想找到象征——一次没有烦人抗议的国家盛宴，一张完美的长城摄影作品——而美国则通常关注实质的“可交付成果”。所以，即便空军一号已经起飞前往奥巴马亚洲之行的第一站日本，美中官员仍在为敲定他访问中国的细节而手忙脚乱。

The high point of Obama's China visit, for example, is meant to be a "town hall" meeting with young Chinese in Shanghai—and his aides want it to be broadcast live on Chinese TV and streamed live over the Internet. But Beijing remains nervous about unscripted interactions with ordinary Chinese; the last-minute haggling underscored Beijing's jitters about the issues of freedom of speech and human rights that Obama's team intends to raise. Thursday, State Department officials briefed a number of mostly Chinese bloggers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in an attempt to mobilize the social-media tools that Obama used so successfully to communicate with American voters. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on the bloggers, who asked if Chinese would be able to access news of Obama's visit on Twitter or Facebook, which remain blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

奥巴马此次中国之行的一个亮点，应该是在上海与中国青年进行一次“市政厅”会议——他的助手们希望该活动能够在中国的电视上和网络上直播。但北京仍然对这种没有事先安排的，与普通中国人的交流感到忧虑；最后时刻的讨价还价勾勒出了北京在言论自由和人?权问题上的紧张，而这正是奥巴马的团队想要强调的问题。星期四，国务院官方向大多来自北京、上海和广州的中国博客做了一份简报，试图调动社会媒体工具。奥巴马就曾通过这种方式成功地与美国选民进行交流。博客上少不了讽刺的信息，博主们仍在疑问，中国人能否通过Twitter或Facebook了解到奥巴马此行的新闻。这两个网站至今仍被中国的防火?长城封禁。

Another telling detail, as Beijing prepared for the state visit, was the sudden appearance of fast-selling T shirts emblazoned with Obama's face topped with a Mao-style green cloth cap. Then, just as swiftly, municipal authorities descended on souvenir shops to confiscate the "Maobama" shirts, apparently worried they might offend American sensibilities. Attendants at one shop in a popular tourist district of Beijing told the "T shirt police" that they were not selling the Maobama souvenirs. Perhaps simply wanting to be seen to be doing something—anything—the authorities instead carted off T shirts featuring Mao Zedong himself.

另一个值得注意的细节是，就在北京为这次国事访问做准备之时，一种T恤衫突然出现并热卖起来，上面画有一张戴着毛泽东式样的绿布帽子的奥巴马头像。紧接着，市政当局迅速到各纪念品商店没收了这种“毛巴马”T恤衫，显然他们担心这些衣服会惹怒美国人的敏感神经。北京一处热门旅游区一家商店的店员告诉“T恤衫警察”，他们没有售卖毛巴马纪念品。也许只是想让外界看到自己在做些什么——做任何事——官员干脆运走了印有毛泽东头像的T恤衫。

One reason for all the paranoia is that, at heart, the countries still don't totally understand each other. China's hamfisted style of one-party rule remains at odds with American democracy: "It lies at the heart of the distrust between these two countries," says Minxin Pei, a China expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

从本质上讲，这些偏执现象的一个原因是，两国仍然不完全理解彼此。中国一?党统?治的强势风格仍然与美国的民?主制度相抵触：“问题根源在于两国之间的不信任。”卡内基国际和平基金会的中国问题专家裴敏新说。

So at the same time that China remains uncomfortable with its new role (but craves recognition of its rise), the United States needs real help overcoming global challenges but doesn't want to give offense.

因此，在中国对自己的新角色还感到不适应（却又渴望自己的崛起得到认可）的同时，美国也确实需要得到帮助来克服全球性挑战，并且不想惹怒他国。

这篇巨无聊。算了还是发吧以便与王同学对照。

From Chicken Soup from the Soul: The Cancer Book

摘自心灵鸡汤：抗癌寄语

BY: By Daniel Molitor

Middle-aged men are not supposed to cry, but I did. The phone call only confirmed what I already knew, that the lumps I felt would be diagnosed as lymphoma. I hung up the phone and immediately buried my head in my arms. I had not cried like that since I was a little boy.

中年人不该哭的，但是我哭了。电话确认了一件我已经知道的事情，那就是我摸到的肿块被确诊为淋巴癌。我挂了电话，立刻把头埋进胳膊里。从我还是个小男孩儿的时候到现在，我还从没像这样哭过。

The cancer didn't strike me, or my partner, or any of our immediate relatives. It struck my friend, my best friend, a ten-year-old Welsh Corgi named Mr. Fred.

癌症击垮的不是我，不是我的配偶，也不是我的任何一位近亲。它击垮的是我的朋友，我最好的朋友，一条名叫弗雷德先生的十岁威尔士柯基犬。

I'd discovered the lumps beneath his front legs, all but hidden beneath his thick coat of tawny fur, after he'd strolled into our bedroom and lay down beside the bed, waiting as he usually did for the first tummy rub of the day.

我是在他的前爪下面发现肿块的，差不多就藏在他那厚厚的茶色软毛下面。他溜达到我的卧室里，在床边趴下，像往常一样等着当天第一次蹭肚子。

It may seem presumptuous of me to talk about Mr. Fred's cancer as if it were on a par with, say, a child's, a parent's, or a sibling's, but just as there are many types of cancer so are there many types of families. Not having any children, our dog is every bit a child to us, his doting parents.

我在这儿大谈弗雷德先生的癌症，就好像跟一个孩子、一位父母或者一个兄弟姐妹得了癌症一样，这似乎有点放肆。不过就像癌症有很多种一样，亲人也有很多种。我们没有孩子，我们的狗完全就是我们的一个孩子，我们就是溺爱他的父母。

Our two-legged friends know we are taken with Mr. Fred, that he travels with us when he can, and misses us when he can't. We miss him, too, so we don't travel much.

我们的两条腿的朋友们都知道我们很喜欢弗雷德先生，我们去旅行，他可以跟着的时候就会跟着，他不能跟着的时候会很想念我们。我们也想念他，所以我们并不经常旅行。

They also know Mr. Fred is a very well cared-for dog. He visits the vet regularly, gets all his shots, and takes his various medicines and supplements according to a strict schedule. Corgis are prone to disorders such as epilepsy, and Mr. Fred is no exception. He had one seizure when he was four, and he's been on Phenobarbital ever since. For the last six years his health has been excellent--until I found those lumps.

他们也知道弗雷德先生是一条被照顾得很好的狗。他定期去看兽医，打各种该打的针，根据严格的时间表服用各种药和补品。柯基犬容易患上癫痫之类的病，弗雷德先生也不例外。他四岁的时候发作过一次，从那以后就一直服用苯巴比妥。过去的六年里他的健康状况都很不错——直到我发现了那些肿瘤。

We took him to his regular vet right away, and within days she told us that he had lymphoma, but the prognosis was good because there were many treatment options, if we chose to pursue them. A specialist in canine oncology outlined a six-month program of oral and intravenous chemotherapy that would necessitate weekly drives across town.

我们立刻带他去看他的兽医，几天之后她告诉我们他患了淋巴癌，不过病情比较乐观，因为如果我们要继续治疗的话，有许多治疗方法可以选择。一位犬类肿瘤专家制定出了为期六个月的口服和静脉化疗计划，为此我们每周都要开车穿越全城。

The oncologist told us how much it would cost, but for my partner and I cost was not an issue that would prevent Mr. Fred from receiving treatment. If need be, we would have taken out another mortgage on the house. Thankfully, that wasn't needed, but the expense was a hardship we hadn't planned for.

这位肿瘤学家告诉我们这个计划所需的开销。不过对我的爱人和我来说，开销问题根本不能阻止让弗雷德先生接受治疗。如果需要的话，我们愿意再以房子作抵押来申请贷款。谢天谢地，我们不需要这样做。不过这笔开支仍然带来了我们没有预料到的艰难。

For the most part, everyone understood. People who know us know we love our dog and would do just about anything to give him the happy and healthy life he deserves.

通常每个人都理解我们。人们知道我们爱我们的狗，为了给他带来快乐以及他应得的健康，我们愿意做任何事。

But one person didn't get it. She could not see the situation from our point of view, no matter how hard she tried, and we're not sure she even did. To her, Mr. Fred was a pet, plain and simple, and as such, as expendable as a stuffed toy, or perhaps a yard ornament.

不过有一个人不理解。她无论怎么努力都无法从我们的角度看这个问题。我们不确定她是不是真的努力过。对她来说，弗雷德先生就是一个宠物罢了，平凡而普通。从这种观点出发，他就像一只男孩毛绒玩具或者一个院子里的装饰品一样不值得为其牺牲这么多。

"Why waste all that money? How could you?" Her voice was as upsetting as the original conversation with the vet. "There are so many more important ways to spend money! Why not give it to charity instead?"

“为什么要浪费这么多钱呢？你们怎么能这样呢？”她的声音简直就像第一次与兽医谈话时那样烦人。“还有很多更重要的花钱方式呢！你们为什么不能把钱捐给慈善事业？”

Okay, charity is good, no question about that. But why would supporting Mr. Fred in his time of need preclude our usual charitable donations? We give generously to the causes of our choice. We would like to continue to do so, with Mr. Fred at our feet.

好吧，慈善事业是很好，这毫无疑问。不过在弗雷德先生需要的时候支持他们就妨碍到了我们一贯的慈善捐助了吗？我们为我们愿意捐助的事业慷慨解囊。我们愿意继续这样做，弗雷德先生也要在我们脚下。

I wish we could have easily brushed off this person's insensitive comments, but it was harder than that. Not everyone has our view of animals, or knows how we feel about our dog, and that's okay. We wouldn't force anyone to share our way of thinking, and get along just fine with those who don't.

我真希望我们可以对这个人麻木不仁的话语不以为意，但实际上比这要难。不是每一个人对动物的看法都与我们相同，或者理解我们对狗的感受，这不要紧。我们不会强迫任何人跟我们的想法一样，我们也可以与那些不这样想的人好好相处。

But this was different. She was family, and fairly close. She knew of our relationship with Mr. Fred. Her comments cut like a knife and hurt us both at a time when we needed to be as strong as we possibly could be, physically and emotionally.

不过这次不一样。她是我们的家人，而且跟我们关系很近。她知道我们和弗雷德先生的关系。在我们正需要在身体上和精神上达到最坚强的状态时，她的话简直就像刀一样伤害了我们。

I have to admit, I cried a little more, in secret. Dealing with cancer does that to you.
And, Mr. Fred could tell. Dogs behave in unique ways, especially when someone they know is hurting. And I was hurting. Maybe not as much as Mr. Fred, but enough that he knew. After that last phone call, he got up from his favorite corner where he'd been sleeping off a dose of Adriamycin and slowly walked across the room, his head bowed, eyes up, asking me what was wrong.

我不得不承认，我偷偷哭了很多次。跟癌症抗争时，你就会这样。而且，弗雷德先生能看得出来。狗在他们认识的某人收到伤害时表现得尤其特别。也许我的痛苦不及弗雷德先生的，但足以让他明白了。挂掉最后一个电话之后，他从他最喜欢的那个角落爬起来，他总会在服用一剂阿霉素后在那个角落睡下。他慢慢地穿过房间，头低下去，眼睛向上看，问我出了什么事。

I couldn't answer, of course, because he's just a dog and they don't understand the things you want to tell them, about how you know he's scared when he goes to the oncologist every week, and you know the drugs make him feel bad, and you're sorry you're doing this to him but he'll feel so much better very soon.

我当然无法回答，因为他只是一只狗，他们不懂你想告诉他们什么事，比如你怎么知道每周他去看肿瘤医生时很害怕，你怎么知道吃药让他们感觉很难受，还有你为你对他做的这些时感到抱歉，但是你知道他很快会感觉好很多的。

You want to tell him these things and you try, but words fail, and you wish there was another way. Then his nose is against your knee and his warm little tongue is kissing your toes, and those big brown eyes are looking up at you from his furry face.

你想告诉他这些事，你也尝试过了，不过语言是不顶用的，你真希望还会有其他的办法。这时他用鼻子抵住你的膝盖，用温暖的小舌头亲吻着你的脚趾头，还有那双大大的棕色眼睛从他毛茸茸的脸上抬头望向你。

And you cry some more, but this time it's okay, because your arms are wrapped around him and your face is pressed against his muzzle and your hands instinctively scratch that one spot right behind his ear and he offers an appreciative little "woof" and wags his butt and you know that words don't matter because love is what it's all about.

你又哭了，不过这次不要紧，因为你用双臂搂住他，你的脸紧贴在他的鼻子和嘴巴，你的双手本能地挠着他耳朵后面那个小点，他会感谢地对你轻轻“汪”一声，并摇起他的屁股。什么话也不用说了，因为这就是爱。

And cancer does not weaken love one little bit.

癌症一点也不能让爱变淡。

第二篇太无聊了，不发出来了。

原文：http://science.howstuffworks.com/blackout.htm

by Marshall Brain and Julia Layton

You may remember the blackout that occurred on Aug. 14, 2003. It was the biggest in U.S. history. And just like every major blackout, it raised a lot of questions about how the power-distribution system works.

你可能还记得2003年8月14日的那次停电。那是美国历史上最大的一次。就像每一次大停电一样，这一次停电给我们提出了很多关于配电系统如何工作的问题。

At a high level, the power grid is a very simple thing. It consists of a set of large power plants (hydropower plants, nuclear power plants, etc.) all connected together by wires. One grid can be as big as half of the United States. (See How Power Distribution Grids Work to learn about the different pieces of the grid.)

从一定高度来看，电网是一个很简单的东西。它包括一批被输电线路连接起来的大型发电站（水电站、核电站等等）。一个电网就可以大到覆盖半个美国。（查看“电网是如何配电的”，了解关于电网不同部分的更多知识。）

A grid works very well as a power-distribution system because it allows a lot of sharing. If a power company needs to take a power plant or a transmission tower off line for maintenance, the other parts of the grid can pick up the slack.

一个电网作为一个配电系统会运转得很好，因为它允许共享。如果一个电力公司需要让一个发电厂或者一个输电塔离线进行维护，电网中的其他部分会承担起这部分任务。

The thing that is so amazing about the power grid is that it cannot store any power anywhere in the system. At any moment, you have millions of customers consuming megawatts of power. At that same moment, you have dozens of power plants producing exactly the right amount of power to satisfy all of that demand. And you have all the transmission and distribution lines sending the power from the power plants to the consumers.

电网的一个令人惊异的事实是，它不能在系统中储存任何电量。在任何时刻，数百万的用户在消耗数兆瓦的电能。同时，数十座发电站也在生产完全相等的电能以满足所有的需求。输电塔和电线将电从发电厂输送到消费者那里。

This system works great, and it can be highly reliable for years at a time. However, there can be times, particularly when there is high demand, that the interconnected nature of the grid makes the entire system vulnerable to collapse. In this article, we'll find out what happens to cause a blackout and see what steps you can take to prepare yourself for an extended power outage.

这个系统工作得很好，一次建成，长期受用。然而有时候，特别是在电力需求很高的时候，电网相互连接的特性使整个系统变得脆弱，容易崩溃。在这篇文章中，我们将找出停电产生的原因，并看看你可以做哪些准备来应对大范围的停电。

First, why do widespread blackouts occur if there are so many potential back-ups in the system?

首先，既然系统中有这么多潜在的预案，为什么还会发生大范围的停电呢？

1. Blackouts: Grid System Failure  停电：电网系统故障

Let's say that the grid is running pretty close to its maximum capacity. Something causes a power plant to suddenly trip off line. The "something" might be anything from a serious lightning strike to a geomagnetic storm to a bearing failure and subsequent fire in a generator. When that plant disconnects from the grid, the other plants connected to it have to spin up to meet the demand. If they are all near their maximum capacity, then they cannot handle the extra load. To prevent themselves from overloading and failing, they will disconnect from the grid as well. That only makes the problem worse, and dozens of plants eventually disconnect. That leaves millions of people without power.

比方说电网正在接近最大生产能力地运转着。某事导致一座发电厂突然离线。这里的“某事”可以是一次严重的雷击，也可以是一次地磁暴，还可以是轴承损坏后发电机内发生的火灾。当这座发电厂脱离电网之后，其他电网中的发电厂就需要加速运转以满足需求。如果他们本来就接近最大生产能力的话，那么它们就无法应付这些额外的负担。为了阻止它们自己过载并发生故障，它们也会从电网中脱离。这就使问题变得更糟了，数十座发电厂最终都离线了。这就导致了数百万人无法用电。

The same thing can happen if a big transmission line fails. In 1996, there was a huge blackout in the western United States and Canada because the wires of a major transmission line sagged into some trees and shorted out. When that transmission line failed, its entire load shifted to neighboring transmission lines. They then overloaded and failed, and the overload cascaded through the grid.

如果一个大型输电线路发生故障，同样的事情也会发生。1996年，美国西部和加拿大发生了一次大停电，原因是一条主要输电线路下垂到了树上并发生短路。当这条输电线路发生故障时，所有的负载都转移到了相邻的其他输电线路上去了。随后他们也过载并发生故障，过载级联式地波及整个电网。

In nearly every major blackout, the situation is the same. One piece of the system fails, and then the pieces near it cannot handle the increased load caused by the failure, so they fail. The multiple failures make the problem worse and worse, and a large area ends up in the dark.

在每一次大停电中，情况几乎都是一样的。系统中的一小块发生故障，然后相邻的其他部分无法应付由故障带来的增加的负荷，因此它们也发生故障。众多故障使情况变得越来越糟糕，最后一大片地区陷入黑暗。

One solution to the problem would be to build significant amounts of excess capacity -- extra power plants, extra transmission lines, etc. By having extra capacity, it would be able to pick up the load the moment something else failed. That approach would work, but it would increase our power bills.

有一个办法可以解决这个问题，那就是增加众多额外的生产能力——额外的发电站，额外的输电线路等等。有了额外生产能力，在一些设备发生故障时，它们就可以承担起这部分负担。这种方法有用，但是这会增加我们的电费。

At this moment, we have made the choice as a society to save the money and live with the risk of losing power. Until we make a different choice, then, it makes sense to be prepared for those times when electricity is not an option.

这时，我们整个社会都为了节约金钱而选择冒停电的危险。除非我们做出其他选择，否则时刻准备好应对停电就很有意义。

      关于信件、邮寄之类的事情，确实是有很多东西可以思考的。有的东西twitter一把就行了，有的想法还是记下来比较好。

      为什么我觉得写信比其他通讯方式要好呢？这么发达的网络，这么方便的电话，想说几句话还不容易？如果你真的跟你在乎的人用各种方式交流过，也许你会理解以下的感受。

      可能我们已经习惯了网上聊天，可是聊天的时候：

• 第一，你不一定能在这么短的时间内把语言组织好，以便让对方容易理解。你只是因为急于表达，没有把话说清，可能对方已经误解或者产生负面的感受了。
• 第二，对方不一定会认真地对待你说的话，导致他不理解。对方正在看电影、看新闻、听音乐，你突然发过去一条信息，开启一个话题，对方也只是习惯性地答复你，他并没有专心于和你的对话。另外，当对方没有做任何思想准备的时候，与其聊天，不一定能让对方真正投入对这个话题的思考。
• 第三，聊天的时候，双方是在交流，可能你还没把你的意思系统地表达完，对方就插话了。你知道的，每个人都有不耐心的时候。这其实已经影响到了你的表达效果。

      电子邮件也许会好一些，但其实我感觉，只要是在网上，我们的注意力就会不太集中。打开你的电子邮箱，看看除了那封邮件，周围花里胡哨的各种元素。谁能保证不受影响呢？总得来说，网上的交流，总有种“快餐”的感觉，似乎解决了问题，但是匆匆开始，草草收场。

      电话呢？显然电话比网上的交流更容易让对方集中注意力。毕竟我们在电话里的交谈总是倾向于连续不断的，不像网上聊天那样断断续续；打电话时我们一般情况下会把主要注意力放在这个电话上，因为对方的话只说一遍，我们也正想一边就听清楚。不像在网上，我们心里清楚，对方发过来的东西我等会儿再看也不晚。实际上我觉得这样的想法已经使注意力下降了。

      另外，打电话的时候，由于对话倾向于连续，我们心里希望快速做出反应回答对方的话。优点是，我们可以提高表达速度，提高沟通效率。我们畅所欲言，爱说啥说啥，跟键盘、打字之类的没关系。你想插话是吧？“听我把话说完！”接着说就行了。缺点是，反应快了，思考也就欠妥了。考虑不全面，不准确，说出来的话产生的影响也就偏了。你有没有这种经历，给别人打字的时候，打完一句话觉得这样说不太好，删掉，换个说法发过去。打电话可不容你这么反悔。说了就说了，即使你说“我刚才说错了”，那句话在对方心里的影响已经造成了。

      何况，打电话的时候，说话的口气也会有影响。你一句话口气不对头，对方获得的信息也就有偏差了。再加上打电话周围的环境也可能比较复杂，造成的影响是不确定的。

      写信可以克服众多问题。

• 我们可以找个安静的时间和环境静下心来好好想想我们到底想表达什么，想让对方理解什么。
• 没人和我们对话，这一封信都是我们自己表达的空间。没有压力，没有催促，慢慢写吧。
• 我们有条件斟酌我们的措辞。我们先打一份草稿，找到最合适的语言，最能让对方理解我们的说法，确定之后再滕到信纸上。
• 聊天、读电子邮件是上网的一部分，而取信、读信则是只能单独完成的事情了，对方会投入更多的注意力的。想象一下，对方拿到你的信，拆开信封，展开信纸，在台灯下一行一行地读了起来。你知道这意味着什么吗？对方会更加认真地看你想说的话，更多地思考你要传达的信息。
• 信件的投递是一个复杂的过程，没有即时通讯、电话那么快捷。无论是寄信人还是收信人都知道这一点。因此你们都在心里默认，经过这么多道工序传达的信息，是重要的。
• 信是你自己写的，不是你用键盘打出来的GB2312。你投入在书写的过程中，也就慢慢享受起这种感觉。

      最近还没写过信吗？写信吧，即使邮筒不好找，邮局也有点远，写地址、贴邮票有点麻烦。相信我，这一切都值。

      对了，最好寄挂号信。