There’s a squirrel popping up all over the Internet. The rodent first made its appearance in a holiday photo taken by an American couple in Canada and has gone on to become a Web sensation.
Melissa Brandts and her husband, Jackson, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, were taking a time delay picture of themselves in front of a lake at Canada’s Banff National Park when the squirrel jumped into the frame.
Melissa Brandts submitted the picture to National Geographic’s “Your Shot” photo gallery with an explanation of how the unusual picture came about.
“We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready to take the picture when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intrigued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot!”
“A once in a lifetime moment! We were laughing about this little guy for days!!”
The holiday photo has since gone viral on the Internet and Web sites such as “The Squirrelizer” have sprung up in which the photo of the squirrel can be inserted into any picture.
The squirrel even has its own page on Facebook created by Melissa Brandts with more than 2,000 members at last count.(AFP)
有一隻松鼠在網路上爆紅。這隻小松鼠一開始出現在一對從美國到加拿大渡假的夫妻的照片中，結果這張照片被放上網，這隻小松鼠一夕爆紅。
來自明尼蘇達州明尼阿波里茲市的梅麗莎．布蘭茨和丈夫傑克森，在加拿大班夫國家公園的一座湖前，用延時功能自拍時，這隻松鼠跑來「搶鏡頭」。
梅麗莎．布蘭茨把這張照片拿去參加國家地理雜誌「你的私房照」攝影集，並解釋這張獨特的照片是如何而來。
「我們把照相機架在大石頭上，準備好要拍照時，這隻好奇的小地松鼠就跑了出來，被相機聚焦發出的聲音吸引的牠就這麼入鏡了！」
「這是千載難逢的奇遇！我們連續好幾天都把這個小傢伙拿出來說笑！！」
這張觀光照自此在網路上爆紅，另外如「松鼠貼圖自動生成器」這類可以把這隻松鼠自動貼到任何照片上的網站，也像雨後春筍般冒出。
梅麗莎甚至幫這隻小松鼠申請了一個專屬的Facebook頁面，截至截稿前統計，牠在Facebook上已經吸引了超過兩千名粉絲。（法新社╱翻譯：袁星塵）
Street lights are often taken for granted until a power outage plunges the world into darkness. When that happens, the value of these lighting installations becomes evident as the world turns into a more dangerous place for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Chinese could claim to be the first to have constructed a crude type of street light. Around 500 BC, residents of Beijing employed a type of street lamp that used hollow bamboo pipes and natural gas vents to create burning torches. Later, ancient Romans adopted lamps fueled by vegetable oil, which relied on slaves to light and
A: Who else is on Billboard’s list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century?” B: No. 15 to 6 are: Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Usher, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Britney Spears. A: I can’t believe that Adele’s only at No. 10. B: No. 5 to 1 are: Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Beyonce. A: Well, they surely deserve the honor. A: 《告示牌》雜誌的「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」，還有誰上榜啊？ B: 第15至6名是：麥莉希拉、大賈斯汀、妮姬米娜、阿姆、亞瑟小子、愛黛兒、亞莉安娜、小賈斯汀、肯伊威斯特、小甜甜布蘭妮。 A: 真不敢相信愛黛兒只排第10名。 B: 第5至1名是：女神卡卡、德瑞克、蕾哈娜、泰勒絲、碧昂絲。 A: 這幾位真是實至名歸！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
A: The 21st Century is now entering its 25th year. B: So Billboard has released a list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century.” A: Who are the greatest pop singers? B: No. 25 to 16 are: Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bunny, One Direction, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, BTS, The Weeknd, Shakira and Jay-Z. A: Wow, my favorite K-pop supergroup BTS has made it to the list. A: 21世紀正在邁入第25個年頭了。 B: 《告示牌》雜誌特別公布：「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」。 A: 最偉大的歌手有哪些？ B: 第25至16名是：凱蒂佩芮、紅髮艾德、壞痞兔、1世代、小韋恩、火星人布魯諾、防彈少年團（BTS）、威肯、夏奇拉、Jay-Z。 A: 哇，我最愛的韓流天團BTS也上榜了！ （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋 在新冠疫情期間，無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home)，人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。 有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章：“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”，文中出現一些講法，可用來翻譯上述的流行語： In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) (Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020) 作者提到 Oedipus（伊底帕斯）想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由，加了一句：Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.（破梗：領導無方）。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」，如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中，也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下，在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂，但要小心劇透 (spoilers)，很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!，警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。 至於「甩鍋」，源自大陸網民用語，通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後，相關網路資訊量爆增，許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責，紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。 其實，在古代文學《奧德賽》中，就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法，試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯： Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience
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