2012年11月4日 星期日

火葬有多盛行?

經濟學人做了統計,原來香港火葬「名列前茅」。我再次懶惰,原文照錄,附上google translate的搞笑中譯。


THE first recorded cremation in Britain was in 1885. Mrs Jeanette Pickersgill was one of three people that year who were cremated, out of 596,000 deaths. Over time, cremations have increased as burial space has run out and costs have come down. By 2010 around three-quarters of the 566,000 Britons who died were cremated. This trend is seen in other rich countries too. The number of cremations in America rose from 47 in 1885 to over 1m in 2010, or 42% of all deaths. Within America there is much variation. Cremation is most popular in Nevada (72%) and Washington (71%), and least used in Bible-belt states such as Alabama (17%) and Mississippi (14%). Religion and culture are important factors. In Japan, most people identify with the indigenous religion of Shintoism or with Buddhism, which both favour that the dead be cremated. Close to 100% of all dead people are cremated in the country, the highest known rate according to the Cremation Society of Great Britain, which gathers data from around 40 countries. Rates are also high in densely populated (and tiny) places such as Hong Kong, where people store their families' ashes in lockers in multi-storey columbaria. 於1885年在英國的第一個記錄火化。劉珍妮特皮克斯吉爾的三個人之一,今年被火化,出的596,000人死亡。隨著時間的推移,火葬的埋葬空間已用完,增加和成本都降下來。到2010年,大約四分之三的566,000英國人死亡被火化了。這種趨勢在其他富裕國家。美國火葬的人數上升至47在1885年,2010年超過100萬,所有死亡人數的42%。在美國有太大的變化。火葬是最流行的,在內華達州(72%)和華盛頓(71%),最少使用的聖經帶,如阿拉巴馬州(17%)和密西西比州(14%)。宗教和文化的重要因素。在日本,大多數人認同的本土宗教神道教或佛教,都贊成,死者火化。人都死了接近100%火化的國家,根據英國火葬協會,收集的數據來自約40個國家的已知的最高速度。價格也很高,在人口密集的(小)的地方,如香港,那裡的人將他們的家庭的骨灰在儲物櫃的多層骨灰龕。

Source: The Economist

2012年11月1日 星期四

浸豬籠的另一個下場

上次浸豬籠,隻豬被困在籠中,不讓鯊魚吃。今次沒有籠,鯊魚可以為所欲為,豬的下場怎樣?更悲慘?

Source: New Scientist TV

再次用google translate翻譯原文,寓誤樂於學習。

What happens to a dead body if it's dumped in the ocean? If large scavengers can't get at it, sea lice are likely to slowly devour it from the inside out. But if a carcass is left exposed, it will probably be ravaged by sharks, as shown in this dramatic video. 一具屍體,如果它在海洋中傾倒會發生什麼事?如果大量的拾荒者不能得到它,海蝨很可能會慢慢吃掉它由內而外的。但是,如果胴體暴露,它可能會被蹂躪的鯊魚,在這個戲劇性的視頻所示。
  
Captured at a depth of 300 metres in the strait of Georgia near Vancouver Island, Canada, the footage is part of an experiment led by Gail Anderson from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, that uses dead pigs as models for human bodies. It aims to examine decomposition in an area with normal oxygen levels, where a range of scavengers is likely to visit. In a previous study conducted in a nearby inlet, body decay was affected by low oxygen levels, restricting sea life that fed on the remains. 在深度為300米的加拿大溫哥華島,喬治亞海峽附近拍攝的畫面是蓋爾·安德森的帶領下從西門菲沙大學,加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞省伯納比的,使用死豬模型,對人體的實驗的一部分。它的目的是檢查在正常的氧氣含量,其中一個拾荒者可能訪問的地區分解。在以前的研究在附近的一個入口,身體腐爛的氧氣水平低的影響,限制了海上生活,美聯儲的遺骸。
  
In this video, one of the carcasses was quickly visited by shrimp followed by a few small crustaceans that targeted its mouth and nose. Then a few hours later, a sixgill shark located the dead pig, attracting other sharks, which helped it devour the body within hours. Each of the three specimens filmed was eaten to varying degrees by the hungry predators. "Although it showed that sharks are common in this area, it didn't provide a longer-term understanding of tissue breakdown and invertebrate colonisation," says Anderson. 在這段視頻中,一個蝦其次是一些小的甲殼類動物,針對它的嘴和鼻子的屍體很快被訪問的。然後幾個小時後,一個sixgill的鯊魚位於死豬,吸引其他鯊魚,這有助於它在幾個小時內吃掉身體。每三個試樣拍攝的被吃掉了不同程度的飢餓的掠食者。 “雖然這表明,鯊魚在這方面,它並沒有提供一個長期的組織破壞和無脊椎動物的殖民了解,”安德森說。
  
In a new set of experiments, pig carcasses are deployed in pairs, leaving one exposed while the other one is caged to compare the difference. A video camera underwater has now been set up as a live stream: lights are turned on every 15 minutes, allowing the public and other researchers to follow the process. The most recent pair of pigs, deployed on 12 August, can currently be watched as they turn to bones. 在一組新的實驗中,部署在對豬殼,留下一個暴露的,而另一種是籠比較差異。水下的視頻攝像頭被設置為一個實況流:燈都打開,每15分鐘,讓公眾和其他研究人員遵循的過程。最近對豬的,部署在8月12日,目前可以看到,因為他們把骨頭。