英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

◎俞智敏

Facebook’s $1 billion gobbling up of Instagram has sent disgruntled fans of the photo-sharing app to the delete button.

臉書以1億美元價格吃下Instagram公司，已促使這個照片分享應用程式的眾多不滿粉絲們選擇按下刪除鍵。

Twitter and other online platforms recently buzzed with depictions of Facebook as a corporate monster trampling over a defenseless community of creative, free-spirited types. "Guess it’s time to delete my instagram app before Facebook ruins it," griped a Twitter user.

推特及其他網路平台最近充滿著把臉書描繪為一隻企業怪獸，專門踐踏無助的創意、崇尚自由社群的討論。「我想現在該是在instagram被臉書破壞前，先刪除這個程式的時候了，」一名推特用戶抱怨說。

For Instagram’s 30 million users, the cult-status app has a very different identity to the mass market Facebook. Unlike Facebook, there is no advertising, and certainly no selling of users’ personal details to advertisers.

對Instagram的3000萬用戶而言，這個受人崇拜的應用程式與大眾市場導向的臉書完全不同。相較於臉書，這個程式沒有廣告，更不會把用戶的個人資料賣給廣告商。

"Its ability to let its users delicately toe the line between public and private gave us a little breathing room from the all-pervasiveness of Facebook, and to see it whisked away feels like a tangible loss," wrote Jenna Wortham on The New York Times tech blog.

「這個程式能讓使用者在公開與私人領域間巧妙地維持分際，讓我們在無孔不入的臉書之外能有一點喘息的空間，現在卻看著它被一下子買走，讓人覺得彷彿遭受了具體的損失，」紐約時報科技網誌作者沃翰寫道。

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went out of his way to reassure Instagram purists that they needn’t get their hands dirty. On his own Facebook page, Zuckerberg noted that users can maintain their Instagram photos off Facebook and also keep their Instagram followers separate. （AFP）

◎管淑平

Zeddie Little, who became an Internet sensation after being dubbed ’Ridiculously photogenic guy’, is in a serious relationship. He is ’very committed’ to his girlfriend of five years and is overwhelmed by all the attention he has been receiving, his father said.

被暱稱為「上相得不像話的傢伙」、在網路上爆紅的柴迪．利托，已經有認真交往的對象了。柴迪的父親說，他對交往5年的女友「非常死心塌地」，外界對他的注意讓他受寵若驚。

Speaking from his home in South Carolina, Zeddie’s father also revealed his son has spent years trying to break into the PR business--only to become famous overnight.

住在南卡羅萊納州的柴迪父親也透露，兒子幾年來一直想進公關界，沒想到卻一夕出名。

’What’s happened is crazy... my son is such a hard-working and unassuming guy,’ he said, ’this is totally unexpected and has just happened--he was in the right place at the right time with the right smile.’

「這件事很瘋狂…我兒子是很努力工作、又不喜歡出鋒頭的人」，他說，「完全沒料到會這樣。他是在對的時間、帶著對的微笑，出現在對的地方。」

Zeddie Little was photographed when he went home to compete in the 10km Cooper Bridge run in Charleston.

柴迪．利托是回家參加在查爾斯頓舉行的庫柏橋10公里路跑時被拍到。

Amateur photographer Will King took the picture of Zeddie with his beaming smile. King tagged it on his Flickr account as ’Ridiculously Photogenic Guy’.

◎張沛元

So you want to hang out with a bunny?

那麼，你想跟兔子玩嗎？

Look no further than Candy Fruits Usagi no Yakata（Rabbit Hall）in Tokyo’s bustling Akihabara, a district known as much for its maid cafes now as it was for stores selling electronic gadgetry in days gone by.

那就鎖定位於熙來攘往的東京秋葉原區的「糖果水果 兔之館」。秋葉原區過去以販賣各種電子零組件的商店打響名號，如今則以許多女僕咖啡店聞名。

"Welcome!" A woman in a pink outfit replete with rabbit ears says in greeting.

「歡迎光臨！」一名戴著兔耳朵、一身粉紅色裝束的女子上前迎賓。

The staff members are known as "ko-usagi"（rabbit girls）, but they are not the main attraction：Here, it’s the rabbits.

這些工作人員被稱為「娘兔」（兔女孩），但她們並不是最大賣點：在這裡，最大賣點是真的兔子。

There’s a basic charge for admission. It is 1,600 yen for an hour. Coffee and tea are all-you-can-drink, but there’s no food for people on the menu：only "rabbit snacks." These cost an additional 200 yen and consist of finely chopped carrots, apples and turnip leaves--in other words, rabbit food. Visitors are allowed to play with the rabbits.

◎陳成良

Japanese researchers on Friday unveiled a population clock that showed the nation’s people could become extinct in 1,000 years because of declining birth rates.

日本研究人員週五發布了一個人口時鐘，該時鐘顯示，由於出生率持續下降，日本人恐怕將於1000年內滅絕。

Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan’s population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds.

北部城市仙台的學者稱，日本14歲或以下兒童人口目前為1660萬，正在以每100秒1個的速度減少。

Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium.

他們的推斷指出，日本在1000年之內將沒有兒童。

"If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children’s Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University.

日本東北大學的經濟學教授吉田宏（譯音）說：「如果這種下降速度持續下去，3011年5月5日我們仍能慶祝兒童節，因為還剩下一名兒童。」

"But 100 seconds later there will be no children left," he said. "The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan’s fertility rate fell below two."

◎陳維真

They are designed to reduce stress and improve well-being, but one laughing yoga club in Mumbai has been ordered to stop its early morning giggling sessions after complaints from grumpy neighbours.

大笑瑜伽的原意是要減輕壓力並提高福祉，但一家位於孟買的瑜伽俱樂部，遭到脾氣暴躁的鄰居投訴，被要求停止晨間的咯咯笑課程。

The Bombay High Court told police to clamp down on the laughing yoga group after a 78-year-old resident complained it caused "mental agony, pain and public nuisance", the DNA newspaper reported on Tuesday.

DNA日報週二報導，一名78歲的居民抱怨大笑瑜伽造成他「精神上極大的痛苦、煩惱，與公害」後，孟買高等法院要警察取締大笑瑜伽俱樂部。

"It is not proper to gather outside somebody’s house and laugh," judges said while hearing the public interest lawsuit filed by Vinayak Shirsat from the Kurla suburb of Mumbai. According to Shirsat’s petition, 10 to 15 members of the group gather at 7：00 am to sing, clap and indulge in "loud and vigorous spells of laughter".

來自孟買克拉郊區的瑟沙特提出公共利益訴訟，法官審訊時表示，「聚集在別人家外面然後大笑並不適當。」根據瑟沙特的訴狀，早上7點時，該團體有10至15名會員聚集在一起，唱歌、拍手、放縱地發出「大聲且精力充沛的笑聲」。

Laughing yoga was made popular as an exercise routine by Indian physician Madan Kataria in Mumbai in 1995, based on the principle that laughter has physiological benefits.

在印度醫師卡塔利亞推廣下，大笑瑜伽在1995年的孟買成為廣受歡迎的運動，這項運動根據的原則是大笑可帶來心理層面的益處。

Laughter clubs, at which members burst into infectious giggles, have since caught on in many cities in India and abroad.The court on Monday gave police a week to inform judges how they planned to restrain the club from causing problems.