经济学人最新最经典文章
一
Science and Technology,Solar power from space,Beam it down, Scotty.
科技,从太空采集太阳能,传送电力到地球吧,斯科蒂。
Harvesting solar power in space, for use on Earth, comes a step closer to reality
将太空收获的太阳电能在地球上利用，这种理想又向现实迈出了一大步。
THE idea of collecting solar energy in space and beaming it to Earth has been around for at least 70 years.In "Reason", a short story by Isaac Asimov that was published in 1941, a space station transmits energycollected from the sun to various planets using microwave beams.
从太空中收集太阳能并将其传送到地球的想法已经存在了至少70年。艾萨克·阿西莫夫(Isaac Asimov )在1941年出版的短篇小说Reason中曾设想利用微波束将空间站收集到的太阳能传送到各类行星上。
The advantage of intercepting sunlight in space, instead of letting it find its own way through theatmosphere, is that so much gets absorbed by the air. By converting it to the right frequency first (one of theso-called windows in the atmosphere, in which little energy is absorbed) a space-based collector could,enthusiasts claim, yield on average five times as much power as one located on the ground.
从太空直接截获太阳光而不任由它们穿过大气层的优点是大部分光能量不会被大气吸收。通过将太阳光转换成正确的频率光波（即所谓的大气窗口之一，这种频率的光波在穿越大气层时能量损失最少），热衷该技术的人士称空间接收器产生的能量要比地面接收器平均高4倍。
The disadvantage is cost. Launching and maintaining suitable satellites would be ludicrously expensive. Butperhaps not, if the satellites were small and the customers specialised. Military expeditions, rescuers in disasterzones, remote desalination plants and scientific-research bases might be willing to pay for such power from thesky. And a research group based at the University of Surrey, in England, hopes that in a few years it will bepossible to offer it to them.
但它的缺点是费用高。发射和维护合适的卫星将需要异常昂贵的费用。但如果它们是为客户专用的小型卫星，费用可能就不是问题。军事远征，灾区救援人员，远程海水淡化厂和各种科研基地都可能愿意为这种太空能源花付费用。英国萨里郡(Surrey)大学研究小组希望在未来几年时间内可能将这种能源提供给客户使用。
This summer, Stephen Sweeney and his colleagues will test a laser that would do the job which Asimovassigned to microwaves. Certainly, microwaves would work: a test carried out in 2008 transmitted usefulamounts of microwave energy between two Hawaiian islands 148km (92 miles) apart, so penetrating the100km of the atmosphere would be a doddle. But microwaves spread out as they propagate. A collector onEarth that was picking up power from a geostationary satellite orbiting at an altitude of 35,800km would needto be spread over hundreds of square metres. Using a laser means the collector need be only tens of squaremetres in area.
今年夏天，斯蒂芬·斯威尼(Stephen Sweeney )及其同事将测试能够胜任这种工作的激光，用以取代阿西莫夫(Asimov)所指定的微波。当然，微波也能完成此项工作：2008年科研人员对微波做了实验，他们在两座相距148公里（92英里）的夏威夷岛屿之间成功地传送了大量微波能量，因此微波要穿透100公里的大气层也将是轻而易举的事。但是微波在传播过程中会扩散，要想从轨道高度在35800公里的地球同步卫星上收集能量，地面能源接收器
需涵盖几百平方米的范围。而采用激光手段意味着能量接收器只需涵盖几十平方米的区域。
Dr Sweeney's team, working in collaboration with Astrium, a satellite-and-space company that is part ofEADS, a European aerospace group, will test the system in a large aircraft hangar in Germany. The beam itselfwill be produced by a device called a fibre laser, this generates the coherent light of a laser beam in the coreof a long, thin optical fibre. That means the beam produced is of higher quality than other lasers, is extremelystraight (even by the exacting standards of a normal laser beam) and can thus be focused onto a small area.Another bonus is that such lasers are becoming more efficient and ever more powerful.
斯威尼(Sweeney)博士领导的研究小组与欧洲航空航天集团EADS下属的卫星与空间公司astrium合作研发，他们将在德国一座大型飞机库内对该系统进行测试。激光波束本身将由光纤激光设备产生并在一个细长的光纤核心产生激光束的相干光。这意味着产生的激光波比其它激光有更好的品质，并且直线度极高。（甚至符合正常激光束的严格标准）这样就能将能量集中传送到一个小的区域范围内。这种激光波的另一个优点是具有更高的效率和更强的能量。
In the case of Dr Sweeney's fibre laser, the beam will have a wavelength of 1.5 microns, making it part ofthe infra-red spectrum. This wavelength corresponds to one of the best windows in the atmosphere. The beamwill be aimed at a collector on the other side of the hangar, rather than several kilometres away. The idea is totest the effects on the atmospheric window of various pollutants, and also of water vapour, by releasing theminto the building.
以斯威尼(Sweeney)博士研发的光纤激光器为例，它产生的激光波束波长为1.5微米，这使其成为红外线光谱的一部分。此波长对应于大气中的最佳窗口之一。实验中激光束的目标能量接收器不是位于几千米以外，而是放置在了飞机库的另一端。其想法是把激光束释放到建筑空间来测试不同污染物和水蒸气对大气窗口的影响。
Assuming all goes well, the next step will be to test the system in space. That could happen about fiveyears from now, perhaps using a laser on the International Space Station to transmit solar power collected byits panels to Earth. Such an experimental system would deliver but a kilowatt of power, as a test. In 10-15years Astrium hopes it will be possible to deploy a complete, small-scale orbiting power station producingsignificantly more than that from its own solar cells.
假如一切进展顺利，下一步该系统将送到太空中系统测试。从现在算起，实验可能会在未来的五年内进行，可能采用的方法是利用国际空间站的激光将太阳板收集到的太阳能传送到地球。作为测试，该实验系统将只传送一千瓦的电力。Astrium希望在未来10到15年内，将有可能部署一个完整的、小规模的地球轨道电站，使其产生的电能远远超过自身太阳能电池产生的电能。
Other researchers, in America and Japan, are also looking at using lasers rather than microwaves totransmit power through the atmosphere. NASA, America's space agency, has started using them to beamenergy to remotely controlled drones. Each stage of converting and transmitting power results in a loss ofefficiency, but with technological improvements these losses are being reduced. Some of the latest solar cells,for instance, can covert sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of more than 40%. In the 1980s, 20% wasthought good.
美国和日本的其它研究人员也在寻求利用微波以外的激光透过大气传输能量。美国航天
局（NASA）已开始利用激光束将能量传送到远程无人驾驶飞机上。在电力转换和传送的各个阶段都会伴随效率的损失，但是随着科技的进步这些效率的损失正逐步减少。例如最近开发的太阳能电池能以超过40%的效率将太阳光转换成电能。但在20世纪80年代，20%的效率就被认为是不凡的表现了。
Whether the Astrium system will remain a specialised novelty or will be the forerunner of something morelike the cosmic power stations of Asimov's imagination is anybody's guess. But if it comes to pass at all, it willbe an intriguing example, like the geostationary communications satellites dreamed up by Asimov'scontemporary, Arthur C. Clarke, of the musings of a science-fiction author becoming science fact.
是否Astrium的系统仍只是一种专业领域的新奇玩意或者会成为象阿西莫夫设想的宇宙发电站那样的科技先锋，一切都还是未知数。与阿西莫夫（Asimov）同时代的科幻小说作家阿瑟C.克拉克曾幻想过地球同步通信卫星的存在，这种幻想如今已变成了科学现实，与此相同，如果Astrium的系统实验能获成功，它也将成为将科学幻想变成现实的有趣范例。
二
Science and Technology Three-dimensional printing An image of the future 科技3D印刷印刷未来
One of the biggest manufacturers in the world gives 3D printing a go
世界龙头机器制造商用3D印刷术进行了一次格外成功的应用
ULTRASOUND scanners are used for tasks as diverse as examining unborn babies and searching for cracksin the fabric of aircraft. They work by sending out pulses of high-frequency sound and then interpreting thereflections as images. To do all this, though, you need a device called a transducer.
超声波扫描器的应用领域很广，小到用于检查胎儿，大到飞行器机体瑕疵检测等。机理过程是，通过发射高频声波脉冲信号对反射信号进行成像解读。但完成该过程，你不能缺少一台叫做…压电式换能器'的设备。
Transducers are made from arrays of tiny piezoelectric structures that convert electrical signals intoultrasound waves by vibrating at an appropriate frequency. Their shape focuses the waves so that theypenetrate the object being scanned. The waves are then reflected back from areas where there is a change indensity and on their return the transducer works in reverse, producing a signal which the scanner can processinto a digital image.
压电式换能器是由具有…压电'效应的一系列敏感元件机构组成。敏感元件机构通过…定频'震荡将电信号转换成超声波。机构的特定外形可聚焦超声波，对被扫描的物体产生穿透作用。超声波会从密度发生变化的介质反射回来，这时压电式换能器会反向操作产生信号，再经过扫描器的处理，最后进行数字成像。
To make a transducer by painstakingly micro-machining a brittle block of ceramic material can take manyhours of work, though. As a result, even as the size and cost of the console that controls the scanner has fallenwith advances in microelectronics (some are now small enough to fit in a doctor's pocket and cost a fewhundred dollars), the cost of making the probe itself remains stubbornly high—as much as ten times that ofthe console.
压电式换能器需要用到陶瓷材料，而精密地加工一块精细的陶瓷材料就要耗费几个小时的工作时间。随着微电子领域中，技术的突飞猛进，控制扫描仪的电路板无论从体积还有成本都有很大程度的优化变小和降低。有些电路板小到可以装进医生口袋里面，成本也不过几百美元的价格。而制作换能器探头的成本却一直居高不下，跟电路板相比，探头的制作
成本大概是一块电路板的10倍左右。
At least, it does if you use traditional "subtractive" manufacturing techniques like cutting and drilling.However GE, a large American conglomerate, is now proposing to make ultrasound transducers by "additive"manufacturing—or three-dimensional printing, as it is also known. A new laboratory at the firm's researchcentre in Niskayuna, New York, is taking a hard-headed look at the technique, which some see as a fad andothers as the future, and working out which products might be made more efficiently by addition rather thansubtraction.
即使不考虑体积及成本的情况下，传统的…对比相减式'加工流程技术也能完成这些工作，比如切割，机钻等。而GE作为美国的一个庞大的企业集团正考虑采用…对比添加式'的加工流程（或者又称大家所熟悉的…3D印刷'）来加工超声波压电式换能器。GE在纽约Niskayuna 地区的研发中心新成立了一个实验室，目前该实验室正本着理性实际的态度（非一时狂热）对该项技术进行研发，力图找到哪些产品用…对比添加式'而非…对比相减式'的技术流程加工生产更加适合，一些人认为，对该项技术的研发只不过是一时狂热。还有一些人声称，目前的时机并不成熟，对该项技术的研发仅仅具有…将来时'的意义罢了。
Ultrasound transducers were an early pick both because of the complicated geometry needed to focus thesound waves and because ceramics are harder than metals to cut and drill accurately. But they are easy toprint.
最初选择超声波压电式换能器来作为…3D印刷术'的对象原因有两点。一是该换能器用来聚焦声波的机体外形非常复杂，二是它用到的陶瓷材料比金属的硬度要高很多，很难进行精准地切割和机钻。而用…3D印刷术'却很容易解决这两个难题。
The GE process for making a transducer begins by spreading onto the print table a thin layer of ceramicslurry containing a light-sensitive polymer. This layer is exposed to ultraviolet light through a mask thatrepresents the required pattern. Wherever the light falls on the polymer it causes it to solidify, binding theparticles in the slurry together.
GE对加工换能器的方法是首先在印刷台上撒上薄薄的一层陶瓷粘土，其中混入一种光敏聚合体。然后用紫外线通过露光模板的光孔照射到印刷台的粘土层，以此塑造出需要的模型图案。光敏聚合体一经被紫外线照射就会立即变得坚硬，粘土中的粒子随即凝结固化。
The print table is then lowered by a fraction of a millimetre and the process repeated, with a different maskif required. And so on. Once finished, the solidified shape is cleaned of residual slurry and heated in a furnaceto sinter the ceramic particles together. More work will be needed to turn the process into a production-readysystem. But Prabhjot Singh, who leads the project, hopes that it will be possible to use it to make not justcheaper ultrasound probes, but also more sensitive ones that can show greater detail. Although researchershave had new transducer designs in mind for years, it has been impractical to construct them subtractively.Additive manufacturing could change that.
接下来，印刷台会以不超过一毫米的距离向下位移，然后重复整个上面这一过程，如果有必要，需要重新更换一个新的露光模板。以此反复处理直到整个过程结束，再进行清理成模上的残余粘土，最后把成模放入熔炉，以低于熔点的温度进行焙烧，最终完成陶瓷粒子的凝固收缩聚合。该处理流程在具有批量生产体系能力之前，还需要做很多的工作。但项目负责人Prabhjot Singh表示，希望不仅仅制造出成本相对低廉的超声波探头，最好探头的灵敏性也会更高，这样可以让我们通过成像看到更加细节化的信息。多年以来，压电式换能器的研究者们一直都有新型设计的想法，但应用…对比相减式'的加工流程实际上很难能把这样的构想变为现实，而…对比添加式'很可能会使这种困顿得到改善。
The new laboratory will look at other forms of additive manufacturing, too. Some 3D printers spread metalpowders on the print table and sinter the pattern with lasers or electron beams, rather than using masks.Others deposit thin filaments of polymer in order to build structures up. GE is interested in how the technologycould be used right across the firm's businesses, from aerospace to power generation and consumer products,according to Luana Iorio, head of manufacturing technologies at GE Global Research.
GE的新实验室还将研究其它…对比添加式'的加工流程。比如一些3D印刷机在印刷台铺撒金属粉末之后，采用露光模板以外的激光或电子束方式进行热凝处理来产生样模。其它流程，如混入聚合体热敏细丝通过自加固原理进行聚合以产生成模。GE全球研发中心…制造技术中心'主任Luana Iorio指出，GE旨在为各种商业形式，包括象航空航天、能源及消费产品等领域提供令人满意的…3D印刷技术'。
The gains include less waste and the ability to make bespoke parts more easily. But one of the mostcompelling advantages is freeing designers from the constraints of traditional production. Those constraintsinclude having to design things not in their optimal shape but to be machined, often as a series of pieces.Additive manufacturing can combine parts into a single item, so less assembly is needed. That can also saveweight—a particular advantage in aerospace. These new production opportunities mean manufacturers, bigand small, are about to become a lot more inventive.
这种技术的获益在于节约耗材和使第三方定制个性化零部件变得更加容易。但最无可争辩的优势之一是让设计者从传统工艺的桎梏中解脱出来。这些限制包括，设计者不得不用多个零部件去实现一个功能，不能从最优化的外形尺寸来设计产品。…对比添加式'可以整合零部件，避免了一些繁琐的机械组装过程，同时减轻了重量，这点对航空航天领域尤为有利。在这种新的生产有利背景下，意味着制造商们，无论规模大小，都将变得更加具有创造性。
三
Science and Technology New transistors Mechanical advantage
科技新型晶体管机械优势
Two new types of transistor may lead to simpler, more efficient computers
两种新型晶体管或许会导致更加便捷高效计算机的出现
WHEN baking a cake it helps to have all the ingredients within reach, rather than wasting time and energymaking frequent trips to the pantry. Something similar is true of the logic circuits in computers'microprocessors. These could be made faster, and would consume less energy, if they were able to storeinformation themselves instead of fetching it from separate memory chips or hard drives.
当你在烧烤蛋糕的时候，它有会让所有的一切都变得触手可及，而不是让你在食品柜繁琐的开关之间浪费时间与精力。这也同样会真正应用于电脑微处理器中的某些逻辑电路。如果这些微处理器自己能够储存一些信息，用来取代从原来相互独立的芯片或手工操作中获得的信息，它们的速度将会变得更快，能耗将会更低。
The problem is that the transistors used to make logic circuits hold their electronic state, and therefore anydata they contain, only when powered up. The choice engineers face is thus between supplying continuouspower to a transistor, so that it can retain its memory (which costs energy), and ferrying data that wouldotherwise be lost to and from so-called non-volatile memory devices that do not require continuous power(which costs time). Cracking this problem—so that transistors can act as their own non-volatile
memory—wouldmake all computers faster. It would be particularly valuable, though, for mobile devices. These could be madesmaller and lighter, since they would require fewer components. And they could go for longer betweencharges.
问题是，用来制造逻辑电路的晶体管中保留着它们的电子态，因此当这些晶体管通电的时候，它们会包含任何可能的数据。因此，工程师们面临的选择就是要么对晶体管提供一个持续的电源，让晶体管保持自己的记忆（这会耗费能源），否则从所谓的非易失性半导体存储器中传输的数据就有可能丢失，不过它不需要持续的电源（这会消耗时间）。解决这个问题——以便于让晶体管使用自身的非易失性半导体存储器——将会让所有的电脑运行速度更快。虽然这对于移动设备来说，显得特别昂贵。不过移动设备因此可以做得更小，更轻盈，因为它们需要的元件更小。并且两次充电的时间间隔将会变得更长。
To this end, Hiroshi Mizuta of the University of Southampton, in England, and Tsuyoshi Hasegawa of theNational Institute for Material Science in Tsukuba, Japan, are proposing a marriage between two novel types oftransistor that could hardly be more different. One, the atomic transistor, draws on the latest advances innanoscience. The other, the mechanical transistor, sounds as if it has been lifted from the annals of theindustrial revolution.
为此，英国南安普顿大学的Hiroshi Mizuta和日本筑波国立材料科学研究所的Tsuyoshi Hasegawa提出了将两种完全不同新型材料混合起来。其中一种就是原子晶体管，它利用了最新的纳米科技。另外一种就是机械晶体管，这听起来就像是从工业革命史册中发掘出来的玩意儿。
The atomic transistor works, as its name suggests, by shuffling individual atoms around within the device.The atoms in question are copper, and the result of the shuffling is to create or destroy a conductive pathwaybetween two crucial bits of the transistor, the source and the drain, thus switching the device on or off. That ispossible because this part of the transistor is made of tantalum pentoxide, a material whose atoms arearranged in a lattice which contains holes large enough for copper atoms to squeeze through.
原子晶体管的工作方式就像它名字所示的那样，是通过移动该元件内部的单个原子进行工作的。这里所说的原子指的是铜原子，移动的结果主是在晶体管的两个十字位置构建或消除一个传导通路，它的源极和漏极因此就会开启或关闭。这是有可能实现的，因为这部分晶体管是由五氧化二钽制造的——这种材料可以将它自身的原子排布在晶格中，这些晶格包括一些足够大的孔，可以让铜原子挤过去。
The mechanical transistor, more properly called a nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) transistor,creates and destroys the connection between source and drain mechanically. When a voltage is applied acrosstwo beamlike electrodes made of aluminium, which are separated by a gap of around 50 nanometres, chargebuilds up on each, creating an attractive force between them, until a critical point is reached. At that momentone of the electrodes flips towards the other, causing the two to make contact. This closes the circuit and turnsthe transistor on. Apply the opposite charge and the electrode flips back, breaking the circuit.
机械晶体管，更确切地可以称之为纳米电子机械系统（NEMS）晶体管，它可以在源极和漏极之间机械地构建或消除连接。两个柱状的铝电极间隔约50纳米，当电压加在这两个电极之间时，它们就会相互通电，在二者之间会形成一股引力，直至达到一个临界点。在达到临界点的那一刻，其中一个电极就会移向另一个电极，这两个电极就会形成通路。这样就会接通电路，打开晶体管。利用相反的电荷，电极就会复位，进而断开电路。
What makes these two very different types of transistor attractive is that both the copper and thealuminium stay put when the power is turned off. They can thus act as memories as well as processors. The"on" state represents one type of binary digit (a one, say) and the "off" state represents the other (zero). DrMizuta and Dr Hasegawa are therefore using the novel transistors to try to make the world's first non-volatileprocessor chip.
这两种完全不同类型的晶体管如此吸引人的地方就在于断电后，如何让铜原子和铝电极待在原地。它们可以应用于储存芯片和处理器。"开"的状态表示二进制中的一个数字（就是"一"），"关"的状态可以表示另一个数字（即"零"）。Mizuta博士和Hasegawa博士因此都在使用新型的晶体管，力图制造出世界上第一个非易失性处理器芯片。
Ideally, such a chip would have only one sort of transistor, since that would mean it was much easier tomanufacture. However, transistors come in two varieties, n-type (negative) and p-type (positive). Both areneeded in a logic circuit, but atomic devices can be only n-type. The alternatives, then, are to make the circuitentirely out of NEMS transistors, or to mix the two by using atomic devices where an n-type transistor isneeded and NEMS ones where a p-type is required.
理想的这种芯片将只有一种晶体管类型，因为这意味着它将会更加容易制造。不过，晶体管却有两种，一种是N型（负），一种是P型（正）。逻辑电路都需要这两种晶体管，不过在原子设备中，只需要N型。那么另一个方案就是完全用NEMS晶体管制造电路，或者是将利用N型晶体管的原子设备和利用P型晶体管的NEMS晶体管混合起来。
Dr Mizuta and Dr Hasegawa have opted for a mixture, because atomic transistors are much smaller thanNEMS ones, and the saving of space outweighs the awkwardness of mixing them together. If their recipeworks, it will mean far fewer electronic trips to the pantry and a quicker baking time for whatever answer thenew chip is trying to cook up.
Mizuta博士和Hasegawa博士选择了二者的混合，因为原子晶体管比NEMS更加小巧，这样节省的空间就会消除二者的混合的尴尬。如果他们的方案成功的话，这意味着食品柜中的开关将会大大减小，（无论任何口味的饭菜）实现更短的烹饪时间
四
Business Mexican airlines A clumsy giant stumbles
商业墨西哥航空公司一个拙劣航空巨人的穷途末路
Mexicana's bankruptcy will bring welcome turbulence to Mexican skies
墨西哥航空公司的破产将迎来墨西哥上空的群雄争据时代
AFTER 89 years in the skies, North America's oldest airline seems ready to ditch. Compania Mexicana deAviacion filed for bankruptcy protection on August 2nd and has been in a tailspin ever since: ticket sales werestopped on August 4th and a third of its routes were suspended a few days later. The airline says it has lost$350m since 2007 and now owes nearly $800m.
驰骋天空89载，北美最老牌的航空公司看来要退出历史舞台了。8月2日墨西哥航空公司申请破产保护，从那以后墨西哥航空公司运营一直处于混乱状态。8月4日起机票开始停止出售。几天后，三分之一的航线停运。航空公司说自2007年以来，他们已亏损3.5亿美元，现在外债接近8亿。
These are difficult times for airlines everywhere. But despite the entry of several low-cost carriers since2005, fares in Mexico have remained old-fashionedly high: an hour's
flight from the capital's main airport toGuadalajara, Mexico's second city, cannot be had next month for much less than $175 return. Sao Paulo to Rio,a similar hop, can be done for $100. Partly because of this, middle-class Brazilians fly three times more oftenthan their Mexican counterparts.
现在各地的航空公司都处于惨淡经营期。但是尽管2005年该公司引进了几架低成本航班，但飞机票价依旧停留在旧时的高位。从首都主要机场飞往瓜达拉哈拉（墨西哥第二大城市）的一小时航班，下个月的返程票价不可能比175美元低很多。而圣保罗到里奥的类似短途客机，票价仅100美元。其中部分原因是由于巴西中产人士搭乘飞机的次数是墨西哥中产人士的3倍。
Some of Mexico's costs are imposed by fate. The thin air of Mexico City, which lies at 2,250m (7,380 feet),reduces a plane's range and the weight it can carry. (Flights to Tokyo, for instance, must refuel in Tijuana.) Itsinternational airport, Latin America's busiest, is in a built-up area with no room for a third runway, though theairport is running at capacity. Last year was especially cruel: while suffering the deepest recession in theAmericas, Mexico was hit by the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu, which emptied the country's popular beachresorts and cut airport traffic by one-sixth.
一些墨西哥航班费用昂贵是因为天公不作美。墨西哥城2,250米的高空处(7,380英尺)空气稀薄，这使航班的类型和载客重量都受到了限制。(例如，到东京的航班必须在提华纳城加油）做为南拉丁洲美最为繁忙的国际机场，尽管它已经满负荷运转了，但由于机场处于建筑密集区，已没有空间再建第三条跑道了。去年的经营情况尤为严峻: 当墨西哥正遭受最严重的经济危机时，H1N1禽流感又突然爆发，让该国广受欢迎的海滩度假胜地无人光顾，航班业务也减少了六分之一。
However, some of Mexicana's problems are man-made. The firm blames its bankruptcy on onerous labourcontracts, under which it says pilots earn 49% more than their counterparts at big American airlines althoughAmerica is a rich country and Mexico is not. The Mexican pilots' union says this figure is "inexact" but has notprovided one of its own. Working hours are capped so that return flights sometimes require two separatecrews, and in some cases the company must train its own pilots rather than hire cheaper outsiders.
然而墨西哥航班出现的问题有些是人为导致的。公司把它的破产归咎于繁重的薪金用工合同，按合同规定，墨西哥飞行员的薪水要比大美航空的同行高出49%，尽管美国是富有的国家而墨西哥不是。墨西哥飞行员工会说这个数字不确切，但又提供不出他们自己的数字。员工的工作时间也设置了上限，导致有时往返的航班需要两班机组人员。在某些情况下公司宁可培训自己的飞行员也不请便宜的外劳。
These burdens are hangovers from Mexicana's days as a state airline, which ended in 2005 but whoseinfluence has never quite been shaken off. It is a rarity in Latin America, "the one region in the world wherestate-backed carriers have faded out of existence to be replaced by or reborn as fully private airlines," saysAlex Dichter, head of the airline practice of McKinsey, a firm of consultants. The continent claims severalsuccess stories, including Panama's Copa Airlines, one of the most profitable carriers in the world.
这些负担早在墨西哥航空公司作为国有航空那天起就一直如影随行，直到2005年才它们被免除，但其影响力却从未因此减弱。麦肯锡航空业务咨询公司主管Alex Dichter说，在拉丁美洲这个地区，国有航空公司被全私营公司取代或自己改组成私营公司的情况是极其少见的。这片陆地曾造就过几个成功的航空传奇，包括世界上最赚钱的航空公司之一，巴拿马航空公司。
Mexicana's failure may have a silver lining. For a start, it will give breathing space to low-cost carriers suchas Interjet and Volaris, which have gobbled up 21% of domestic traffic since 2005 but have been kept out ofmany of the most profitable routes by the older airlines. By bilateral agreement, most routes to the UnitedStates may only be operated by two airlines from each country, so popular hops such as Mexico City to NewYork are the exclusive business of Mexicana and its rival Aeroméxico, another pricey, formerly state-run carrier.These two old fossils also hold most of the take-off and landing slots at Mexico City's main airport, relegatingthe upstarts to the out-of-town Toluca airport (from which a flight to Guadalajara costs more like $115).
墨西哥航空公司的倒闭可能为墨西哥航空业带来一线生机。首先，Interjet和Volaris这样低成本运行的航班将会有喘息的空间。从2005年起，他们已接管了21%的国内航班业务，但许多最赚钱的航线就一直由老牌航空公司把持着。根据双边协定，飞往美国的大多数航线只能由双方各两家公司负责营运，因此广受欢迎的墨西哥到纽约短程航班成为墨西哥航空公司和它的竞争对手Aeromxico(墨西哥另一家票价昂贵的前国有航空公司)的专享航线。这两个老古董一直把持着墨西哥城主要机场的大部分起飞和降落空位，却把一些航空公司的后起之秀排挤到城外的Toluca机场（从那里飞往瓜达拉哈拉的航班票价是115美元）。
Vultures are already circling over Mexicana's valuable slots. But the airline's chances of surviving in someform have been helped by a ruling by America's Federal Aviation Administration on July 30th, whichdowngraded Mexico's flight-safety rating a notch, owing to a lack of air-traffic controllers. One impact of theruling is that Mexican airlines cannot open new services to the United States, meaning that rivals cannot takeover routes that Mexicana has been forced to shut down. Existing routes, however, are not affected—so anyairline that took over Mexicana would inherit the American routes it already flies. "It's a problem for theMexican airline industry that could hold an answer for Mexicana," says Tomás Lajous, head of Mexico strategyat UBS, an investment bank. Mexicana may end up attracting more bids than a bankrupt airline might expect.
一些贪婪的野心家早已对墨西哥航空公司赚钱的航线垂涎已久。美国联邦航空管理局7月30日做出的裁定帮助这家航空公司以某种形式存留下来的机会增加。由于航空交通管制不足，墨西哥飞行安全评定等级被降低。这种裁定产生的一个影响是墨西哥航空公司不能开通飞往美国的新航线，这意味着竞争对手不能接手墨西哥航空公司被迫关闭的航线。然而现存的航线却不受影响—因此任何航空公司在接管墨西哥航空公司以后，将继续运营它已经开通的美国航线。墨西哥瑞士投资银行策略主管Tomás Lajous说，"墨西哥航空产业能否承担起墨西哥航空公司的重担仍是个问题"。墨西哥航空公司最后吸引来的投标商数量可能会比这个破产的航空公司所希望的要多。
五
Still in Books and Arts; Book Review;T ax reform in America;A simple bare necessity;
文艺；书评；美国税改;必须做的一件事;
The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform—Why We Need It and What It Will Take. By Bruce Bartlett.
《效益与负担：税改——我们为什么需要税改，推行税改需要什么》。布鲁斯·巴特利特著。
Few subjects match tax reform for economic importance and utter lack of sex appeal. With a governmentbleeding red ink, an ageing population and growth lagging, reform is back on America's political agenda. BruceBartlett, a supply-side economist, tax expert and
former adviser to President Reagan, is among those bestequipped to help navigate the murky terrain. Mr Bartlett held influential economic positions during thecountry's last great spasm of reform in the 1980s, but he is now held an apostate by many Republicans, forwhom the only acceptable tax changes are cuts. His balanced, well-researched primer on America's tax system, “The Benefit and the Burden”, will not endear him further to ideologues, but it is a refreshing entrée to adifficult subject.
很少有话题能像税收改革那样具有经济意义，也很少有话题能像税收改革这样枯燥无味。政府赤字还在增加，人口老龄化还在加剧，经济增长依然迟缓，税收改革又重新回到美国的政治议程。一些人秣马厉兵帮助美国共渡难关，供应学派经济学家布鲁斯·巴特莱特就是其中的一位，他是一位税务专家，曾在里根政府里担任顾问。在上世纪80年代的美国改革阵痛中，巴特莱特先生确立了他在经济领域的重要地位，然而现在许多共和党人视他为“叛徒”，因为唯一可以接受的税改方案因他而被删除。他那本结构平衡、条分缕析介绍美国税制的普及读本《福利及税负》不再使他更受理论家的追捧，但把这本书当作一个困难话题的“开口小菜”倒是不错。
The book's no-nonsense approach to tax policy proves surprisingly engaging. Mr Bartlett walks readersthrough discussions on income and spending—basic concepts made baffling within the context of the tax code.He offers a dose of history and the useful perspective of a seasoned Washington hand. America's labyrinthinetax rules are hardly the product of intelligent design, he explains. The popular deduction for home-mortgageinterest that helped create suburban America, for example, was not adopted to boost home-ownership butincluded quite innocently in a 1913 income-tax law that spared interest of any kind. Where economics hasuseful things to say about tax Mr Bartlett is quick to cite research. And he is prepared to let empirical analysisspeak for itself.
该书对税收政策的讲述比较严肃，后经证明这是一种引人入胜的方式。巴特莱特先生让读者领会了财政收支问题，在税收法典中这些基本概念常让人感到困惑。他提供的是一剂历史良药，他提供给读者的是身经百战的政府官员才能具备的有用视角。巴特莱特先生解释说，美国的税收规则如迷宫一般，几乎不是智慧设计的产物。例如，帮助美国郊区快速发展的按揭贷款利息扣除的流行做法，就没有被采用以提高住房的自有率，但却被十分天真地写到美国1913年所得税法当中，按照该方法，各类利息都可以免除。经济学中谈及税收的有用章节都会很快被巴特莱特先生引用。他准备让经验分析自己证明这一切。
Mr Bartlett's critique of America's tax system is that it creates a deceptive picture of the influence ofgovernment, and is far too costly. On revenues as a share of GDP, America's government looks small relative toits European peers. The difference is illusory. European health spending shows up on the government's ledgerswhereas America's tax preferences for health insurance do not. But the government intervention is there allthe same. In 2012 the deduction for employer-provided insurance cost some $434 billion, or roughly 3% ofGDP. Include these “tax expenditures” in the budget, Mr Bartlett says, and America's state looks as bloated asany in Europe. Net social spending rises to 27.2% of GDP—above the level in Italy and Denmark and higherthan the OECD average.
巴特莱特先生对美国税制提出批评，认为它制造了一种政府影响力的假象，而且成本太高。看上去美国税收收入与GDP之间的比率比欧洲国家要低。两者之间的区别是不真实的。欧洲国家的保健支出在政府账上显示为增加，而美国健康保险的税收优惠却没有增加。但美国和欧洲国家政府的介入一直是一致的。2012年，雇主提供的保险成本扣除数为4340亿美元左右，约占GDP的3%。巴特莱特先生表示，包括这些预算中“税收支出”在内，美国的状况
看起来与欧洲任何国家一样庞大。社会净支出增加到GDP的27.2%，超过了意大利和丹麦，也高于经合组织的平均水平。
It is also needlessly costly, riddled with quirks of the sort that allow Warren Buffett, an American billionaire,and the Republican presidential contender, Mitt Romney, to pay a lower average tax rate than many poorerhouseholds. Rates should be cut, Mr Bartlett argues, but one must also broaden the tax base, leaving fewloopholes through which revenue might escape. The value-added tax (VAT) that is common in Europe is abetter way. VAT is a tax on consumption; firms receive credits for tax paid on business supplies. The structureimproves compliance and efficiency. Europe raises more money than America at less cost to growth; somehigh-tax countries like Denmark outperform America in real growth per head.
也不必说它的成本高昂了，有很多奇怪的制度设计使得美国亿万富翁巴菲特、共和党总统竞争者罗姆尼比许多贫困家庭支付的税率还要低。巴特莱特先生认为，税率应该降低，但税基必须扩大，使得收入没有太多的漏洞可钻。欧洲普遍实施的增值税就是一个比较好的方法。增值税是一种消费税，公司收到供应商的货物，也就收到了的税收信用，这种设计能够加强人们对税法的遵守，能够提高效率。欧洲比美国的税收更高，而税收成本增长更小，像丹麦这样的高税收国家，人均实际增长比美国要好。
Mr Bartlett favours the introduction of VAT, but reckons that politics will make this hard to do. It is doublyabhorrent to Republicans, who oppose any new taxes, and who fear that the “painless”efficiency of VAT maymake the American government too eager to spend. Democrats, on the other hand, worry that VAT will harmlow-income households relative to income tax, which is more progressive. European welfare states often relyon tax systems that are flatter than America's, using welfare spending to smooth out inequities.
巴特莱特先生倾向于引进增值税，但他认为美国政治将为这个问题增加难度。也会增加共和党的憎恶，因为他们反对任何新的税种，他们担心增值税的“无痛”功效可能促使美国政府急于花钱。另一方面，民主党则担心增值税会损害到与所得税这个更先进的税收相关的低收入家庭的利益。欧洲福利国家常依靠比美国更低的税收制度，使用福利支出来弥合社会不公。
America's politics seem ill-prepared for such reforms. Democrats, riding populist outrage at the rich, wantto protect the welfare state and pay for it through tax rises on the wealthy. On the right, well-heeledAmericans fume that nearly half of all households pay no federal income tax. Mr Bartlett's political diagnosis isperhaps the book's least satisfying aspect. Little will be accomplished until congressional Republicans arewilling to compromise, he writes, and America's best chance may be to elect a reform-minded Republicanpresident and a Democratic Congress—and to hope. In the end, the weaknesses in America's tax code are nothalf as debilitating as those in its politics.
面临税制改革，美国政府似乎准备不足。民主党将平民主义的愤怒发泄到富人身上，他们想要保住福利制度，通过对富人增税解决这个问题。在右派这边，富有的美国人愤怒地说，将近一半的美国家庭不缴联邦所得税。巴特莱特先生对美国政治的诊断也许是该书是不能令人满意的地方。他在书中写道，除非国会中的共和党人愿意作出妥协，否则很难取得进展，美国最好的局面可能是，由一位具有改革精神的共和党人做总统，由民主党人领导国会——他希望如此。最后，美国税典中的缺点所带来的负面影响远不及美国政治大。
六
Books and Arts; Book Review;Our love of garbage；Rubbish heaps；
文艺；书评；我们对垃圾的爱；成堆的垃圾；
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash. By Edward Humes.
《垃圾学：我们对垃圾非常感兴趣》，Edward Humes 著。
Although it is the buried tombs and the lost cities that get all the press, one of the most valuable thingsthat an archaeologist can dig up is rubbish. Palace murals and heroic statues record the sanitised, officialversion of history, but a society's garbage tells the true story of how its members lived.
虽然深埋的古墓和迷失的城市占据了所有的新闻版面，但是垃圾，却是考古学家们最值得深挖的东西。宫廷壁画，英雄雕像，那些记录的都是一尘不染的东西，是历史的官方版本，但是，一个社会的垃圾讲述的却是实实在在的市民生活。
With that thought in mind, archaeologists of the future are in for a treat. The industrial societies of theworld's developed countries are the most wasteful ever, their spoor turning up in every corner of the Earth.Almost by definition, waste is something that most people prefer not to think too much about. But EdwardHumes, an American journalist, is fascinated by the stuff. “Garbology”is his attempt to make sense of ourhistorically unprecedented readiness to throw things away.
这样想来，我们确实是好好地款待了那些未来的考古学家们。因为处于工业社会的发达国家，他们制造了有史以来最多的垃圾，地球上的每个角落都有他们的足迹。很显然，大多数的人是不怎么会深思垃圾这类东西的。但是爱德华休姆斯，一位美国记者，却对垃圾如此着迷。他试图通过“垃圾学”，搞清楚我们为什么会及其相当之非常愿意扔东西。
The book begins at the Puente Hills landfill, an artificial mountain near Los Angeles. It is the biggest dumpin America, 30 years old, 150 metres high and containing 130m tonnes of rubbish within a 700-acre footprint.If it were a building, it would be among the 20 tallest in the city. Building a rubbish pile is, it turns out,surprisingly high-tech. The mountain is a giant, putrid layer-cake, with dozens of strata of rubbish separatedby soil and plastic liners designed to contain the brew of noxious chemicals that would otherwise leach intogroundwater. The rot produces methane, which is collected via a network of pipes that penetrate themountain, and burned to produce electricity.
本书以朋地山垃圾场开头，朋地山垃圾场，靠近洛杉矶，大得看起来像一座假山。是美国最大的垃圾堆，30岁高龄，150米高，1.3亿吨，700英亩。假如它是一座建筑物的话，那就能名列该城市前20名了。建一座拉一堆可不是易事，事实证明，技术含量出奇的高。这座大山犹如一个腐烂的大蛋糕，几十层的垃圾，由土和塑料管隔开，设计塑料管的目的，是为了防止变质中的有毒化学物质浸入地下水。腐烂物产生沼气，经由管网收集，管网贯穿大山之中，然后燃烧发电。
From there, Mr Humes traces the history of garbage in America, beginning with New York's “White Wings”,an army of municipal rubbish collectors created to clean the city's stinking streets in the 19th century, throughthe heyday of backyard incinerators (and the smog they produced) to the modern day, where the mostcommon solutions often involve burying the stuff in the ground or dumping it in the sea. He talks to theresearchers who are chronicling the plasticisation of the oceans, a swelling suspended solution of pulverisedplastic. And he describes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous expanse of the Pacific Ocean wherecurrents concentrate the trash over a continent-sized area.
休姆斯先生从那里去追溯美国的垃圾历史。先从纽约“白翼”开始，纽约“白翼”指的是19
世纪，为了清扫臭气熏天的街道，市里成立的专门用于收垃圾的群体。之后是后院焚烧炉活跃期（还有焚烧炉产生的烟雾）。再后就是如今，最普遍的垃圾处理方法莫过于地下掩埋或是倾倒大海。休姆斯先生与从事海洋塑化记录的研究员一起，谈论那悬而未决的、了不起的粉末塑料解决方案。他说，太平洋垃圾带，使太平洋体积膨胀变大，水流将垃圾集中到一起，大小有陆地那么大。
The author is just as interested in the creation of rubbish as its disposal. But whereas few will disagree withthe gist of his observations about the shortcomings of our modern, disposable, consumer culture, the analysisis rather superficial. Mr Humes comes close to blaming a single man—J. Gordon Lippincott, an industrialdesigner—for the creation of the entire wasteful model of modern consumerism. And although it isunderstandable that an American author should write a book looking mostly at the problems of America, itnevertheless feels like a missed opportunity. Some of the most interesting parts of the book come towards theend, where he discusses some of the possible solutions—such as Denmark's strategy of burning rubbish toproduce electricity, or an Irish scheme to charge shoppers for plastic bags, which led to a 90% drop in theiruse. Food for thought, and more.
这位作者对垃圾的产生与对垃圾的处理一样感兴趣。但是他的言论宗旨，即我们现代的、一次性的消费文化缺陷，虽然很少有人反对，可是依然很肤浅。休姆斯先生几近于只责备一个人——杰戈登利平科特，工业设计师——创造了整个奢侈的现代化消费模式。作为一个美国作者，主要写当下美国发生的问题，是可以理解的，可是这总还是会让人觉得缺少了点什么。一些最有趣的部分放在了最后，像关于垃圾问题的可行的解决方案——丹麦焚烧垃圾发电，或是爱尔兰人对塑料袋收费计划，降低了对塑料袋90%的使用。发人深思，意味深远，超出你的想象。
七
Business Facebook and privacy Sorry, friends
商业脸谱和用户隐私对不起，朋友
The giant social network is castigated for serious privacy failings
社交网巨头因严重隐私缺陷而遭受公众谴责
FACEBOOK has been playing with fire and has got its fingers burned, again. On November 29th America'sFederal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a draft settlement with the giant socialnetwork over allegations that it had misled people about its use of their personal data.
脸谱一直在玩火，这次它又烧伤了自己的指头。11月29日美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC)声明已和该社交网巨头关于公众对它欺骗用户、滥用用户个人信息的控诉初步达成解决方案。
The details of the settlement make clear that Facebook, which boasts over 800m users, betrayed its users'trust. It is also notable because it appears to be part of a broader attempt by the FTC to craft a new privacyframework to deal with the swift rise of social networks in America.
这份解决方案的细目明确说明，脸谱网背叛了它所声称的八亿用户的信任。FTC有个更大的计划，那就是创建一个新的隐私框架以应对美国快速攀升的社交网用户。而这份方案似乎是这个计划中的一部分，这也是它受到广泛关注的另一个原因。
The regulator's findings come at a sensitive time for Facebook, which is said to be
preparing for an initialpublic offering next year that could value it at around $100 billion. To clear the way for its blockbusterflotation, the firm first needs to resolve its privacy tussles with regulators in America and Europe. Hence itswillingness to negotiate the settlement unveiled this week, which should be finalised at the end of Decemberafter a period for public comment.
调解员的调查对这个时候的脸谱网来说很敏感。据说它正在准备明年的首次招股，这将使它的价值达到一千亿。为了给这次非同一般的上市计划扫清障碍，脸谱网必须首先解决与美国和欧洲协调员关于用户隐私的争端，因此这周它公开了商谈意向。经过征询公共意见后，商谈结果将在十二月底最终敲定。
Announcing the agreement, the FTC said it had found a number of cases where Facebook had made claimsthat were "unfair and deceptive, and violated federal law". For instance, it passed on personally identifiableinformation to advertisers, even though it said it would not do so. And it failed to keep a promise to makephotos and videos on deactivated and deleted accounts inaccessible.
宣布协议时，FTC说发现有好几回脸谱的声明都是"不公平，虚假并触犯联邦法"的，比如，它把用户身份信息透露给广告商，但是嘴上却声称不会做此类事情。还有，账户不再活动或取消后，上面的相片和视频却仍然可以被搜索到，这完全与它的承诺不相符。
The settlement does not constitute an admission by Facebook that it has broken the law. But the regulator'sfindings are deeply embarrassing for the company nonetheless. In a blog post published the same day, MarkZuckerberg, Facebook's boss, tried to play down the impact of the deal. First he claimed that "a small numberof high-profile mistakes" were overshadowing the social network's "good history" on privacy. Then he confessedthat it could still do better and said he had hired two new "chief privacy officers".
脸谱没有在这份协议中承认自己触犯法律。但是，协调员的调查结果已经让这个公司陷入极为尴尬的境地。同一天，脸谱老板Mark Zuckerberg在一篇博文上极力淡化这份协议的影响。在这篇博文中他首先声明"一小部分被高调炒作的错误"正在掩盖脸谱网关于用户隐私的"良好记录"。接着，他承认确实有一些地方需要改进，并说明他已经雇用了两名新的"首席隐私官"。
The FTC is not relying on Facebook to police itself. Among other things, the company will now have to seekconsumers' approval before it changes the way it shares their data. And it has agreed to an independentprivacy audit every two years for the next 20 years. Jeff Chester of the Centre for Digital Democracy reckonsthis will make it somewhat easier for privacy activists to hold the social network to account.
FTC不指望脸谱自我监督。此外，在改变用户信息共享方式前，它还必须征询用户的同意，并且它也同意在未来二十年里每两年进行一次独立的隐私审核。数字民主中心的Jeff Chester认为，这从某种程度上让隐私主义者更容易相信脸谱会为自己的行为负责。
There is a clear pattern here. In separate cases over the past couple of years the FTC has insisted thatTwitter and Google accept regular external audits, too, after each firm was accused of violating its customers'privacy. The intent seems to be to create a regulatory regime that is tighter than the status quo, but one thatstill gives social networks plenty of room to innovate. The audits can be used to tweak the framework in thelight of new developments.
这里有个很清晰的模式。从过去几年里Twitter和Google各自的案例来看，在这两家公司分别被指控触犯用户隐私后，FTC也坚持要求两家公司接受定期的外部审核，目的似乎
就是为了给此类社交网络创造一个比现状严格却又有足够空间革新的管理制度。从发展的角度讲，这些审核有助于打破原本框架。
Some observers reckon web firms have agreed to all this in the hope that it will deflect a push for moreonerous privacy legislation in America. But outrage over Facebook's behaviour could spur Congress into actionanyway. And it will certainly not be lost on regulators in Europe who are scrutinising the social network'sprivacy record too. Mr Zuckerberg's latest mea culpa is unlikely to be his last.
一些观测者认为，这些网络公司全盘接受这些审核，希望借此摆脱美国更为繁琐的隐私保护法。但是公众对脸谱行为的不满终将刺激国会做出反应，而正在审阅该社交网隐私记录的欧洲协调员们也必然会给予这些不满的呼声以相应的重视。看来Zuckerberg先生最近的这次检讨不会是最后一次。
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