Comments on: Sino the times

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:48:58 +0000

Here, from my good buddy, Anthony, is a rough synopsis of the interview, edited (only slightly) for minor typos. I kept the bulk of the syntax intact, so as to preserve an impression of the interview on a Chinese reader.

—-

Ok, here is the brief overview about this interview and book review.

First, the reporter asks the author if he wants to catch readers’ eyes by sacrificing some scientific facts; the reporter cites some news from US that some scientists think this book is scary.

The author points out that he doesn’t want to scare the general public, that’s not his intention. He just wants to point out there is a possibility (even very slim) that the earth will be doomed in various ways.

The author also understands that last chapter of the book doesn’t give a lot of concrete information to support his theory. It only based on what information we have so far. He said this book is written based on scientific research and publications.

Then reporter asked when did author get interested in astronomy. The author answer that he started to get interested in astronomy at age 5 when he saw Saturn by telescope. The author said what he wants the reader to know is the chances that the earth can be doomed–either hit by small asteroid or influenced by solar flares–and how can we prevent it if possible.

The interview is setup by email and it’s objective and short.

By: fen

fen — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:19:21 +0000

When I studied chinese all they taught were simplified characters, for obvious reasons. I never learned to read or write well even the simple words. As a foreigner you really need to start early and work hard if you want to become proficient if not speaking (tones are difficult for westerners), at least reading standard newspaper chinese.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:24:20 +0000

So, the closer transliteration comes out more like “plate fail”. Bwahaha!

By: LL

LL — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:17:25 +0000

Or they can transliterate as “普雷特” which sounds more like “plate”, “普莱特” sounds like “plight” to me…

And “Phil” is difficult to transliterate as there exist no sound like “fee” in Chinese, so the closest sound would be “菲”, which sounds like “fay”.

Although that review was interesting, I wish there would also be reviews in Traditional Chinese instead of that horrendous Simplified Chinese.

By: earthandbeyond

earthandbeyond — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:15:21 +0000

Love the translation. I live in Japan, and my co-workers have tried to phonetically change my name to kanji (chinese characters), but it’s quite difficult with my name.

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:08:28 +0000

Well, I think I heard Randi say something in an interview about his books selling well in China, and him not seeing a dime of those sales. So, maybe you will do better.
-Jake.

By: Berlzebub

Berlzebub — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:37:39 +0000

@ Phil:
I think the shirt should read:

“sensationalism — that’s not what I meant”
菲尔普莱特

I’d buy one.