Israeli Army’s Idea Lab Aims at a New Target: Saving Lives
以色列軍隊帶頭征服新目標：新冠肺炎
By David M. Halbfinger

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up, with stealth tanks and sniper drones among its more lethal recent projects.
以色列國防部旗下的研究與開發部門，一向以開創殺人和炸毀物體的最先進方式而廣為人知，匿蹤戰車和無人狙擊機就是它近期開發計畫中更具殺傷力的兩項產品。

But its latest mission is lifesaving. Since March, it has been spearheading a sprawling, high-speed effort to unleash some of the country’s most advanced technologies against an enemy of another kind: COVID-19.
然而這個機構最新的任務卻是拯救生命。自3月以來，該單位已帶頭以高速展開一項包容廣泛的行動，整合動員這個國家一些最先進的科技，共同對抗另一種敵人：新冠病毒。

The national undertaking is for the first time linking up major hospitals and research institutes with Israel’s vaunted high-tech sector and its military-industrial behemoths: Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the companies behind Israel’s arsenals of unmanned vehicles, missiles and souped-up fighter jets.
這項全國性的工作，是以色列第一次把各主要醫院和研究機構，與以色列深以為傲的高科技業者及軍事工業巨獸連結起來：後二者包括埃爾比特系統公司、以色列航太工業、拉斐爾先進防禦系統，這些公司正是以色列無人載具，飛彈和更先進戰機等武器背後的研發者。

Red tape, institutional rivalries and cronyism can stand in the way of a unified, rapid response to a crisis. But Israel quickly set up a national task force and dozens of teams with hundreds of scientists, engineers, doctors, executives, government officials and military officers all working toward the same goals.
官僚作風、機構對立和用人唯親，都可能成為面對危機時團結一致迅速反應的障礙，然而以色列很快就設立了一個全國性專責指導單位，以及數十個團隊，納入數百名科學家、工程師、醫師、高階主管、政府官員及軍官，大家全朝著同一目標努力。

“In Israel, if there is a mission that has to be done, it’s like a war,” said Brig. Gen. Dani Gold, who is leading the charge. “Everybody drops what they’re doing, tunes into the mission and works on the mission with a lot of energy and creativity.”
「在以色列，遇到非完成不可的任務，就會當成作戰。」領導這項任務的達尼．高德准將說。「每個人都放下手邊的事，轉而投入這項任務，並以大量活力及創意致力於這任務。」

Gold, known as the father of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, leads the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, Israel’s version of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.
高德享有鐵幕反飛彈系統之父的令譽，他領導國防研究發展局，即以色列版的美國「國防先進研究計畫署」（DARPA）。

While DARPA gave the world the internet and GPS, its Israeli counterpart has not had a similar impact on civilian life. Its work on the coronavirus, officials say, could be a start.
DARPA讓世人得以享有網際網路及全球定位系統，以色列國防研發局卻尚未對平民生活產生類似影響。官員說，關於新冠病毒的工作可能會是個開始。

While Israel has fared relatively well against the virus so far, if a second wave overwhelms the health system, a command-and-control system being developed by the military is expected to link all the country’s hospitals, allowing officials to shift people and equipment where they are needed most, said Col. Talya Gazit, a reservist who was reactivated to lead the effort.
接受動員徵召並領導任務的後備軍官塔雅．賈吉特上校說，以色列目前為止對抗病毒表垷不惡，但是如果第二波疫情讓醫療系統無力招架，軍方正在開發的指揮與管制系統料可連結全國所有醫院，允許官員把人員和設備調往最需要的地方。

Beginning with Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, in the north, the project is linking systems containing patients’ clinical information, data on hospital staff and logistical and inventory systems with forecasting tools. “This will be the first time Israel can see the situation at once in all the hospitals in the country,” Gazit said.
從北部納哈里亞的加利利醫學中心開始，這項計畫以預測工具連接含有病患醫療資訊的系統，醫院職員的資料，物流及倉儲系統。「這將是以色列首次能夠立刻檢視全國所有醫院的狀況。」賈吉特說。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/world/middleeast/coronavirus-israel.html

2020-05-31．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．莊蕙嘉譯、核稿/樂慧生

說文解字看新聞 莊蕙嘉

本文介紹在新冠肺炎疫情中，以色列如何以軍事等級的行動規模及動員力量整合資源，結合產官學界。

主事者是以色列國防部下轄單位，因此提到一些軍事用語。近年最熱門、最先進的國防科技不外是unmanned和stealth。unmanned指的是無人技術，在先前紐時周報介紹自動駕駛車時也出現過，包含no people inside the vehicles和operate autonomously這兩個概念。

stealth是匿蹤技術，係透過設計、材料或裝置等，降低武器被偵測到的機率。

文中也提到阻礙合作的絆腳石，red tape（紅帶），據稱始於神聖羅馬帝國國王查理五世，為彰顯國家現代化，把部分檔案或公文用紅帶綑束，作為「優先處理」的標示，演變成在重重規定下阻礙迅速反應及決策的官僚主義，也可稱繁文縟節，或繁瑣的行政程序。

cronyism（用人唯親）也稱作裙帶關係，指將特定職務派給熟識的親信，favoring someone unfairly。這些「靠關係」進入組織的人，未必具備該有的知識或能力。

Our Ever-Expanding Virus Vernacular
疫情相關語彙不斷擴增
By Kate Mooney

The coronavirus pandemic has upended all kinds of human behavior, including speech. Conversations are mediated by masks and screens, their sentences strung together with new vocabulary: medical terms, political mandates and slang devised to take the clinical edge off.
新冠肺炎大流行大大改變了人類各種行為，包括說話。對話得透過口罩和螢幕傳達，句子則由新詞彙串起，包括醫學術語、政治命令和使醫學術語更親民的俚語。

This new vernacular has many people playing virologist in the group chat, with talk of contact tracing and antibody tests; planning “socially distant” activities like Zoom birthday parties and drive-by greetings; and tweeting about life under “quar,” a pet name for “quarantine”.
這種新的特殊語言讓許多人在群組聊天時扮起病毒學家，談起追蹤接觸史和抗體檢測；計畫「能保持社交距離」的活動，如用視訊會議軟體Zoom舉辦遠距生日派對，以及利用開車經過的時間向某人打招呼；並在推特上談論英文「居家隔離」的別稱quar。

In a recent article for The New Yorker, writer Karen Russell describes the assimilation of this novel lexicon as a kind of “language contagion.”
美國作家卡倫．羅素最近在紐約客雜誌發表一篇文章指出，這些新詞彙加入日常語言，是一種「語言的傳染」。

“‘Self-isolation,’ ‘social distancing,’ ‘abundance of caution’ – pairs of words I’d never seen together in a sentence back in January have become ubiquitous,” she writes. These phrases are moving “even faster than the virus, eye to mind, ear to mouth, disseminated by our iPhone screens and televisions.”
羅素寫道，「『自我隔離』、『保持社交距離』、『高度謹慎』，這些在今年1月時我從未看過的詞組，現在變得到處都是」，這些詞組「甚至傳播得比病毒快，從眼到心，從耳到口，透過我們的iPhone螢幕和電視傳播」。

The proliferation of neologisms and jargon was significant enough to merit updates to the Oxford English Dictionary in April, beyond the dictionary’s standard quarterly updates.
新詞和術語激增夠多，讓牛津英語詞典在標準的每季更新之外，於4月額外更新一次。

“Social change brings about linguistic change,” said Fiona McPherson, a senior editor at the OED. “These are permanent additions to our vocabulary.”
牛津英語詞典資深編輯費歐娜．麥克弗森說：「社會改變使語言跟著變，這些用語都永久加入我們的詞彙。」

She noted, though, that many of the words aren’t new; rather, their use has become more frequent, their meanings shifted in the new context of the pandemic. “Social distancing,” “self-isolation” and “coronavirus” date back decades, even centuries.
不過麥克弗森提到，許多這類詞彙並非新創，而是變得更常使用，在疫情蔓延的新語境下意義有了改變。「保持社交距離」、「自我隔離」和「冠狀病毒」等字詞，早在數十年前甚至幾世紀前就已出現。

McPherson said a lexicographer’s job is to be “descriptive, not prescriptive. We’re telling the story of what the words mean, but they only mean that because that’s how people are using them. And the stories are never completely finished.”
麥克弗森說，詞典編纂者的工作是「描述而非規定，我們在講故事，描述這些詞彙的意義，不過這些詞語只因人們那樣用它而有那種意義，而這些故事永遠不會完全結束」。

Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist and the author of “Because Internet,” raised the example of “face mask,” which a few months ago may have called to mind an at-home skin care treatment. Now, the phrase immediately evokes the protective mouth and nose covering people have been encouraged to wear to prevent viral transmission.
語言學家葛雷琴．麥卡洛克著有「因為網路」一書，她舉face mask一詞為例，數月前這個詞會讓人想到是一種居家護膚產品，如今會立刻讓人想起被鼓勵佩戴以防新冠病毒傳播的的保護口鼻覆蓋物。

This evolution in the language can be seen as well in the rhetoric of care providers and politicians, which varies by region. The states are “on pause” or working to “flatten the curve,” their residents told to “stay at home,” “shelter in place” or remain “healthy at home.”
這種語言的演變也可以在醫護人員和政治人物的話語中看到，而且因地區而不同，例如國家「停擺」或努力「使感染曲線平緩下來」，居民被勸導「待在家裡」、「居家避疫」或「在家保持健康」。

The World Health Organization has recommended that “physical distancing” replace “social distancing” because it more accurately describes the goal of keeping a physical distance while still encouraging safe, remote social connection, which is imperative for mental health.
世界衛生組織建議用「保持肢體距離」取代「保持社交距離」，因為保持肢體距離更精確地描述身體拉開距離的目標，但仍鼓勵安全的遠距社交活動，這對心理健康極為重要。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/style/language-slang-coronavirus.html

2020-05-31．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．李京倫譯、核稿/樂慧生