Asian markets fall on U.S. bailout failure

(CNN) -- Asian and Pacific stock markets sank in early trade on Tuesday after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to adopt a financial bailout plan, which triggered the largest point drop in U.S. market history.

Many of the markets expanded their losses toward the end of the trading day.

The Hong Kong stock exchange dropped 2.42 percent, while the Australian Securities Exchange fell 4.58 percent.

The Korea Exchange in Seoul, South Korea, was down 0.72 percent, after being off more than three percent earlier.

Japan's Nikkei Index was down 3.6 percent.

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday morning pumped another 2 trillion yen ($19.23 billion) into money markets, amid an effort among the world's central banks to calm worries about a global financial crisis, The Associated Press reported.

The Bank of Japan in recent weeks has been injecting trillions of yen by the day to add liquidity into the system. The latest brings the bank's infusion to a total of 20 trillion yen ($192.3 billion), AP reported.

A Place in the Sun for War Veterans

The mortar round that landed on Airman 1st Class Diane Lopes last September in Kirkuk, Iraq, collapsed a lung, perforated an eardrum, broke two bones in her left leg, and left shrapnel wounds in her right knee and both arms. That was the physical damage. The emotional trauma was serious too: “That was a lot harder for me to handle,” she says.

Although the physicians and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center treated Lopes's injuries with skill and care, their most effective step may have been a simple introduction to a wounded Army captain named Eivind Forseth. “This is the guy I want you to meet,” Lopes's surgeon told her. Forseth, a Ranger with the 82nd Airborne, had been wounded in a 2005 ambush by a suicide bomber in Iraq. His shattered arm would require 30 surgeries and thousands of hours of rehabilitation. His rage over his injuries and a career cut short only made his recovery more difficult. He tried to focus his restless mind on boyhood memories of wading with his father into the trout streams of Montana. As the vision faded, he'd wonder, Will I ever be able to fly-fish again?

Thanks to Project Healing Waters, an organization founded by a military man who thought the unhurried yet challenging sport would provide essential therapy for injured vets like Forseth and Lopes, the answer was yes. Both of them, and many others, would see their broken bodies and battered spirits restored.

Retired Navy Capt. Ed Nicholson was recuperating from abdominal surgery at Walter Reed in 2004, surrounded by soldiers just returned from Iraq, when he had his brainstorm. “These guys were struggling in the hallways, on crutches, missing arms and legs, suffering head injuries, banged up pretty good,” he recalls.

It occurred to Nicholson that fly-fishing, which he'd taken up in the 1980s, might offer a soothing form of rehab for these wounded men and women. He later learned that Benita Walton, MD, had had a similar idea eight years earlier, when she co-founded a group for breast cancer patients called Casting for Recovery. She discovered that the gentle casting motion of fly-fishing was an excellent activity for cancer survivors, both physically and emotionally. “To fish,” Dr. Walton often said, “is to hope.”

At Walter Reed, Nicholson's fledgling idea quickly won the medical staff's support and became Project Healing Waters. He found instructors to teach the basics of fly-fishing on the hospital lawn. For those who wanted more, volunteer fishing guides would take them to nearby streams and rivers to catch trout.

Forseth knew Nicholson was onto something good. “I was mending, but it wasn't enough,” he says. “I was in desperate need of a mission, and Healing Waters gave it to me.” After his first fishing trip with Nicholson, Forseth began recruiting other soldiers to join.

He started working on Lopes the moment they met. After her doctor introduced her to Forseth, he told her about Project Healing Waters: “You should join us,” he said. “Getting out in nature is a positive thing.”

She started with fly-tying sessions but was hesitant about casting, given that she'd be doing it from a wheelchair. One day, she wheeled herself to a window to see the vets at practice. “I watched them casting for a while and was getting ready to bail when I heard this booming voice behind me: 'Air Force, glad you finally joined us!' ”

Forseth took her out to the lawn. “I put a rod in her hand, and the rest is history,” he says. She had a knack for it, even though she had to cast left-handed because her stronger arm was in a brace. Soon Lopes was demanding a crack at the real thing.

“It was really too cold, but it was so nice to be out on the lake,” she says of her first trip with the group. “I used my walker to stand by the water's edge. It was exactly where I wanted to be.”

'Decision day' for U.S. bailout plan

U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives are set to vote shortly on the biggest proposed government intervention in the U.S. economy since the Great Depression after government officials, Treasury chiefs and political leaders agreed details of a $700 billion rescue plan to prop up the nation's ailing financial system.

intervention:插入；調停；仲栽；干涉
prop:支柱；贊助

A Dog's Life

"Tell Me About the Patient"

The phone call came at 2:47 a.m., jolting me awake. "Hi. I'm Dr. Sarah Keene, the new surgical resident," I heard a voice say. "I've got a dog here, a ten-year-old spayed female German shepherd. She's bloated and, well ... Sorry. My backup's not answering his pager. Can you come in for the surgery?"

Sitting up in bed and reassuring my wife, Kathy, that the call was for me, I said, "No problem, Dr. Keene. Tell me about the patient."

Bloat -- or GDV, for gastric dilatation and volvulus -- is a true veterinary emergency typically occurring in deep-chested dogs like German shepherds, Great Danes, and standard poodles. Often the animal eats a large meal, gets some exercise, and develops a serious problem about an hour later. The stomach, distended by fermented gas, twists around and flips over on its long axis. The effect is catastrophic. The animal tries to rid itself of food and gas, but nothing budges. The stomach keeps expanding unchecked, squashing the lungs and the blood flowing back to the heart. A dog can die in a matter of hours.

"Is she stable?" I asked.

"Not really," said Dr. Keene. "Her pressures are off the charts, and we're having a hell of a time finding a decent vein, let alone placing a catheter." The dog needed fluids to prevent shock.

My feet were now swinging out of bed as I fumbled for clean clothes. "Do your best to pass a stomach tube. I'll be there as fast as I can."

At this hour of the morning, my eyes were piggy and I had a jaunty case of bed head, but thankfully my patients didn't judge me on my appearance. I drove quickly to the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, one of the largest veterinary hospitals in the country, where I'd worked for the past 10 of my 25 years in the field. I saw my patient, Sage, lying across a stainless steel surface in the prep area. Her darting eyes were full of fear; an oxygen mask was on her face. As I approached, her broad and bushy tail offered me a couple of friendly beats.

I liked German shepherds and grew up with one. Yet the wagging tail was utterly surprising and endearing to me given this dog's dire condition. I ran my hand across her soft velvety ear, over the chest and down to the drum-tight abdomen. There was a small shaved square on Sage's flank, where an attempt was made to release the stomach gas with a large-bore needle. The skin was taut; clearly the attempt had failed.

"No luck with a stomach tube?" I asked Dr. Keene after we'd quickly shared hellos and introductions.

"Afraid not. She's in bad shape. Heart rate's 220 with occasional VPCs." She was referring to ventricular premature contractions, or abnormal and ineffective heartbeats.

Sage's tail beat a message of thanks as I relieved her of the oxygen mask and inspected her gums. Instead of healthy, vibrant pink tissue, signifying normal blood flow, I saw an ugly muddy purple. "How much intravenous fluid has she had?"

"This is her fourth liter," said Dr. Keene.

Sage's color looked awful. "She's acting like she's near the end," I said urgently. "Start a lidocaine drip, give her some intravenous antibiotics, and knock her down. The faster we get her stomach untwisted, the better. I'm changing into scrubs."

Cattle Farmers Leave Millions Behind

A year ago August, Dave Fuss lost his job driving a dump truck for a small excavation company in west Michigan. Dave and his wife, Gerrie, lived in Alto-a small community (population: 8,694) only 20 miles outside Grand Rapids that even now is more small town than suburb.

Gerrie was still working in the local grade school cafeteria, but work for Dave was scarce, and the price of everything was rising. The Fusses were at risk of joining the millions of Americans who have lost their homes in recent years. Then Dave and Gerrie received a timely gift--$7,000, a legacy from their neighbors Ish and Arlene Hatch. "It really made a difference when we were going under financially," says Dave.

Dave had plowed the Hatches' driveway in the winter and in the summer sat listening to Ish's stories about farming in the old days; still, he had no reason to expect that the Hatches would leave him or Gerrie anything but memories after they died. But the Fusses weren't the only folks in Alto and the neighboring town of Lowell to receive unexpected bequests from the Hatches. There were the Van Weeldens, the Vander Ziels, Jim and Norma Peterson, Dave Fuss's parents, Paul and Lois, and his brother Jerry--dozens of families were touched by the Hatches' generosity. In some cases, it was a few thousand dollars; in others, it was more than $100,000.

It surprised nearly everyone that the Hatches had so much money, more than $3 million-they were an elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm--but no one was surprised by what they did with it. "Money isn't what drove Ish and Arlene," says their friend Steve Vander Ziel, who spent many evenings with his wife, Joan, chatting with the Hatches on their back porch. "This is small-town America, neighbors helping neighbors."

Neighbors helping neighbors-that was Ish and Arlene Hatch's story, in death as in life.

For years after he retired from raising polled Herefords-beef cattle-on his farm in Lowell, Willis "Ish" Hatch spent the harvest riding alongside Steve Vander Ziel in the cab of his combine. They might talk about world events or the price of grain, but often they talked about their town-about families stretching to make house payments or meet medical bills, pay for college, or simply buy groceries. At sundown, Ish would clamber down from the combine and walk back home, full of neighborhood news for his wife, Arlene.

Arlene had deep roots in Kent County, Michigan. Her father, Allen Behler, once owned the same land Ish Hatch later farmed. Allen bought and sold property in town, owned the stockyards, and served as justice of the peace. "You know, it was an age in which people were kinda like entrepreneurs," says Arlene Hatch's 67-year-old niece, Quenda Story, remembering her grandfather. "He did everything."

Ish, by contrast, was something of a newcomer to the area. A veteran of World War II, he was still living with his parents in Macy, Indiana, when he first encountered Arlene, who was teaching school there. "He grew up in hard times," says Quenda. "The whole family worked as farmhands, and there wasn't enough food." Ish would later marvel in his letters home during the war at the abundance of food in Army mess halls.

Ish met Arlene on a blind date that almost ended before it began. A violent storm kicked up the night they were to meet, and Ish, watching the rain lash against the window and the trees bend in the wind, told his sister, "I'm not going."

"You are going," his sister replied, and she sent him on his way.

Ish never regretted it. Nearly six decades later, Ish and Arlene still held hands wherever they went.

After their marriage, Ish and Arlene moved to Lowell. There they lived in the 1853 clapboard farmhouse where Arlene had been born. Ish farmed the surrounding 300 acres, while Arlene taught English and math at the junior high school. Ish collected "gimme" caps-in time more than 150 of them-which he got from local businesses and hung on a wall in the house. Arlene planted four-o'clocks and baked rhubarb pies. There were firehouse breakfasts, Bible studies, craft clubs. At Christmas, Ish hung a lighted star from the silo that could be seen all the way from Interstate 96, nearly a mile north of the farm.

Through the years, the Hatches discreetly paid for local children to attend summer camp when their parents couldn't afford it, and they made certain no child went without warm clothing when winter came to the farmlands south of the Grand River. Fans of the Michigan State Spartans, the Hatches often took some of the local high school boys to football games in East Lansing, about 50 miles away. "Ish and Arlene never asked if you needed anything," says their friend Sandy Van Weelden, 72. "They could see things they could do to make you happier, and they would do them."

Children of the Great Depression, Ish and Arlene were known for their thrift. They thrived on comparison shopping and would routinely go from store to store, checking prices before making a new purchase. "One time they traveled all the way to South Carolina to purchase a pair of easy chairs because they learned the cheapest price was from the manufacturer there," recalls Quenda Story. Nevertheless, she says, "they had a comfortable home."

Presidential rivals go head-to-head

Candidates John McCain and Barack Obama face-off Friday in first presidential debate. McCain had thrown the debate into doubt when he said he would only take part if a deal was reached on solving the financial crisis gripping the U.S. and global markets. By noon in Washington though, McCain agreed to take part despite continuing deadlock on the bailout.

deadlock:使停頓、使僵持
bailout:緊急(財政)援助

三越伊勢丹、池袋店など６店閉鎖発表

　大手百貨店グループの三越伊勢丹ホールディングスは、業績が低迷している三越の池袋店など６店舗を来年５月までに閉鎖すると、正式に発表しました。

　「厳しい経営環境を乗り越え、成長発展していくためには避けられない判断であったことを、従業員あるいはステークホルダーのみなさまにご説明し、ご理解いただきたい」（三越伊勢丹ホールディングス　石塚邦雄 社長）

　閉鎖されるのは、三越の池袋店、鹿児島店、武蔵村山店、名取店と小型店舗の三越鎌倉、三越盛岡の６店舗です。いずれも業績が低迷していて、合計で年間２０億円程度の赤字が出ていました。

　武蔵村山店と名取店は開店から僅か２年での閉店となりますが、「今後の赤字流出を防ぐ上で、この時点での判断がベスト」だとしています。

　採算の悪い店舗を閉店し、今後は東京の銀座や日本橋の主力店に経営資源を集中させることで、収益力の向上を目指す考えです。

　池袋店については土地と建物を７５０億円で投資ファンドに売却することも、あわせて発表しました。

　百貨店業界では、Ｊ・フロントリテイリングも横浜松坂屋と今治大丸の閉店を決めていて、消費が低迷する中、不採算店舗を整理する動きが広がりそうです。（25日16:49）

世界最長「昼花火」で感動の2008年よ永遠に—江西

17日付中国新聞社電によると、中国の花火生産で有名な江西省では同日、長さ2008メートルの「豪華昼花火」の打ち上げに成功、「昼花火」としてギネス記録を打ち立てた。

　この花火は、火をつけるとカラフルな煙が出る「煙幕」。昼間にも鑑賞できることから「昼花火」とも呼ばれている。

　制作側は、五輪開催年にちなんだ長さと色彩の美しさで、人々の記憶に2008年を焼きつけたかったという。（編集担当：金田知子）

熱帯のチョウが大発生 太地町でソテツを食害（和歌山

幼虫がソテツの新芽を食べる熱帯チョウ「クロマダラソテツシジミ」が太地町で大発生している。チョウの専門家らは、発生の状況から人為的に放された可能性もあるとみており「生態系に影響を及ぼすことも考えられる」と警戒している。
　このチョウの成虫は羽を広げても2〜3センチと小さい。幼虫は全長1・5センチほどで赤系と緑系の2色がある。もともと台湾などに生息しているチョウだが、近年、迷チョウが南西諸島に定着した。昨年には九州南部、兵庫県と大阪府の境界付近で大発生している。
　太地町で発生しているという情報が、今夏ごろから県内の専門家らの間で流れていた。国道42号から町立くじらの博物館に向かう途中に植えられているソテツに発生している。中心部の新芽から多く食べられてぼろぼろになっている木もある。
　昆虫に詳しい県立自然博物館の的場績学芸員は「温暖な気候の太地町だと幼虫やサナギが越冬することも十分あり、来年も大発生することが考えられる」と指摘している。
　太地町は「県と相談しながら対策を考えたい」と話している。

11 tourists kidnapped in Egyptian desert

A group of 11 European tourists and four Egyptians have been kidnapped in the southern Egyptian desert and apparently taken to neighboring Sudan, an Egyptian government spokesman said on Monday. The tourists included five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian, Magdi Rady, a spokesman for the Egyptian prime minister, told CNN.

apparently:顯然,好像,外表似乎．．．

Markets stabilize as banks pump in billions

Central banks around the world are pumping billions of dollars into money markets in a coordinated bid to calm global financial upheaval. The $247 billion package to fuel economic activity helped cheer markets with the Europe's FTSE 100, DAX 30 and CAC 40 all entering positive territory and Wall Street rising on early trading.

bid：出價、嘗試
upheaval：動亂、舉起、劇變
territory：地方、領土、版圖

World markets hit by Wall Street woes

Stocks in Asia and Europe continued to tumble Tuesday following Wall Street's worst day since markets reopened seven years ago after the 9/11 terror attacks. Tokyo's Nikkei fell 4.95 percent while the Hong Kong Hang Seng shed 5.9 percent as the effects of Lehman Brothers' collapse reverberated around the world.

tumble:跌落、跌倒、倉促行動
shed:下跌、落下、脫落
collapse:n.瓦解、失敗；v.倒塌、崩潰、暴跌
reverberate:反響、回蕩、反射

Financial turmoil as top bank collapses

Global markets were reeling Monday after a convulsive day on Wall Street that saw leading U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy and others scramble for merger as the continued fallout from the credit crunch claimed new victims.

turmoil:混亂；騷動
reel:捲、繞、抽出；使眩暈
convulsive:痙攣的、震動的、騷動的、抽搐的
scramble:爬、攀登、蔓延、混雜一起
merger:併吞；合併者

＜四川大地震＞無傷で残った奇跡の古民家—蒲江県

9日、四川大地震の災禍にも負けず、奇跡的に無傷で生き残った伝統的古民家が取り壊しを中止。「中国のユダヤ人」とも言われる客家(ハッカ)人の集合住宅に酷似しており、専門家はこの古民家の歴史的価値に注目している

興味深い説ですね。パチンコ店の外装に、なぜLEDやネオンが重要か理解出来ました！

ギャンブルやゲームといった生活インフラに全く関係のない営みは、本来の人間生活には必要ないものです。つまり娯楽がなくても生きて行ける。しかし、娯 楽が無いと無味乾燥で退屈な生活でしかありません。生活という現実とは違う世界へ、まるで映画や音楽のようなファンタジーの世界への憧れを誰もが持ってい るのです。
非日常の世界へ誘うための装置として、LEDやネオンライトなどの照明機器は非常に重要な役割を持っています。ライブコンサートや舞台で見せる照明の劇的な演出、それはパチンコホールにも当てはまることでしょう。

新しいファサードデザインの極致…！東京オデッセイ

皆さんもご存知のパチンコ。この狭苦しくて騒々しい、時にうらぶれた場所に首を突っ込んでみると、いかにある特殊な建築事務所がLEDの輝きでパチ ンコ店を盛り立てているかを知ることができる。それというのも渋谷にある東京オデッセイは、パチンコ店の設計や改装を請け負い日本のラスベガスとも言える 派手な輝きを与える会社なのだ。
パチンコホールからジャズが流れる日が楽しみですね！　東京オデッセイの渡邉寧人さん、お話をありがとうございました！

うらぶれる：落魄
請け負い：承包、承辦
看更多美美的圖

バースデーケーキ形とさまざまな熱気球

独西部ワールシュタインで、続々と舞い上がった熱気球。バースデーケーキ形をはじめ、形、大きさともにさまざまな熱気球が結集し、初秋の空を彩った。

熱気球：fire balloon // hot-air balloon // montgolfier balloon
バースデーケーキ：birthday cake　

Lehman in Sale Talks as Survival Questioned: Sources- Reuters

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc was forced into talks about a possible sale after the Wall Street bank's shares plunged more than 40 percent and cast doubts on its survival. Bank of America Corp is said to be one possible suitor, according to the Wall Street Journal.

1. plunged 下跌,把..投入,使驟然前前傾,使陷入
2. suitor 起訴者,原告,請願者
   

Stocks Rise as Street Digests Lehman Plan- AP

Stocks ended a volatile session moderately higher Wednesday as investors bought up the stocks of energy, materials and consumer-staple companies, but remained cautious about the beleaguered financial sector. Bank and brokerage stocks finished mostly lower after Lehman Brothers said it plans to sell a majority stake in its investment management business and spin off its troubled mortgage assets.

1. volatile 易發作的, 易揮發的,活潑的,短暫的
2. staple 主要產品,天然原品,訂書針  The letter was stapled to the other documents in the file. 
3. beleaguered 圍困的,包圍的
4. stake  股本,股份,棍子 He put up a stake to support the newly planted tree.
5. spin off 除去,分離新設,附產品
6. mortgage 抵押 The bank refused to accept any mortgage on land.

Large Material for Small Use (大材小用）

Refferring to waste or misuse of fine materials or talents.

The famous poet Xie Qiji (辛棄疾)(1140-1207) of the Southern Song Dynasty, who all along stood for resistance against the Kin(金) invaders, repeatedly petitioned the throne that troops be used to recover the lost territories. His proposal, however, was turned down by the reigning emperor due to the opposition by ministers who advocated unprincipled peace.
When Xin Qiji served as an official in shaoxing of present-day Zhejiang Province in 1201, however, the emperor planned to grant him an audience. His friend, another patriotic poet by the name of Lu You(陸游) (1125-1210), regarded this as a good opportunity for Xin to present his views to the throne. So Lu wrote a long poem to Xin, which contained the lines "Large material being put to petty use, at this people have sighed from ancient times." Lu deeply regretted that Xin could not put this outstanding talent to better use.
(the sources from the internet and the book "The Best Chinese Idioms"

Shooting Two Hawks with One Arrow (一箭雙鵰)

Killing Two Birds with One Stone
Said of getting two separate results in one go.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties(420-589A.D), there was a general in Northern Zhou(北周), named Zhangsun Sheng(長孫晟). He was an export in the art of war and was good at archery. One year, his sovereign King Xuanwang ordered him to escort a princess to the northwestern Turkish Kingdom where she was to marry its king Shetu. The Turkish ruler, who wished to see Zhangsun's skill, asked the Northern Zhou general to go hunting with him. Shetu saw two hawks contending for food in the sky. He gave Zhangsun two arrows, asking him to shoot down the birds with them. Zhangsun complied, but he killed the two hawks with only one arrow.

(the soures from the internet and the book "The Best Chinese Idioms")