沃爾夫·艾薩克·拉德金斯基（Wolf Isaac Ladejinsky，1899年3月15日－1975年7月3日）是美國喬治主義者[1]、農業工程師、農業經濟學家和研究員，曾先後在美國農業部、福特基金會和世界銀行任職[2]。拉德金斯基是多個亞洲國家政府土地改革的關鍵顧問，其中包括1945年至1954年（日據時期）的日本、蔣介石統治下的中國大陸及後來的台灣、1955年至1961年吳廷琰統治下的南越，以及東南亞和整個印度次大陸的多個國家。他在日本和台灣的努力取得了顯著的成功，但由於其社會主義政治觀點在麥卡錫主義時期被誤導為共產主義，他後來的努力因政治迫害而受挫。在他漫長的職業生涯中，他一直致力於透過土地改革改善亞洲農民的福利，因此被譽為「不是典型的官僚，而是一位熱情洋溢的改革者」。 [3]
1949 年，麥克阿瑟元帥派沃夫至中華民國，指導在援華法案下所成立的中國農村復興聯合委員會 (簡稱農復會)。農復會由兩名美國人、三名中國人組成主要委員會: 美方為 Raymond Moyer, James Baker、而中方為蔣夢麟、晏陽初、沈宗瀚。農復會的宗旨在於推行中國土地改革，以遏止共產主義擴張。然而國民政府頹勢已成的情況下，農復會將重心轉至福爾摩沙。
2026冬奧會才剛開始，有的獎牌已經「散架」運動員就反映獎牌存在缺陷。意大利官員承諾將「全力以赴」展開調查。 路易威登母公司LVMH集團 感動 2025 奧運獎牌故事或啟示：2024年 vs 1904年 巴黎奧運獎牌褪色，LVMH 路威酩軒集團奧運獎牌品質下滑 備受關注。1904年聖路易奧運110公尺跨欄比賽金牌拍賣會上售出價超過50萬美元 A rare gold medal from the 1904 St. Louis Olympics sells for $545,371 at auction 1904年聖路易斯奧運的1枚罕見金牌，在拍賣會上以54萬5371美元的價格售出
感動 2025 奧運獎牌故事或啟示：2024年 vs 1904年 巴黎奧運獎牌褪色，LVMH 路威酩軒集團奧運獎牌品質下滑 備受關注。1904年聖路易奧運110公尺跨欄比賽金牌拍賣會上售出價超過50萬美元 A rare gold medal from the 1904 St. Louis Olympics sells for $545,371 at auction 1904年聖路易斯奧運的1枚罕見金牌，在拍賣會上以54萬5371美元的價格售出
A gold medal awarded at the first Olympics hosted on U.S. soil was sold at auction for over half a million dollars, part of hundreds of lots of memorabilia from the Games over the decades, a firm announced Friday.
The 1904 St. Louis Olympics medal, auctioned for $545,371, bears the inscription “Olympiad, 1904” and shows a victorious athlete holding a wreath on the front. On the other side, Nike, the goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology, is shown alongside Zeus, the pantheon’s king of gods, and the words for the 110-meter hurdles it was awarded. The medal, awarded to American Fred Schule, includes the original ribbon and leather case.
This was the first Olympics where gold medals were awarded and the Americans took advantage, winning 78 of 96 events. Unlike Olympic medals these days which are mostly made of silver with gold plating, these were smaller and made entirely of gold.
But its most significant role involved the Olympic medals, which were designed by Chaumet, a luxury jewelry and watch maker and part of the LVMH group. Gold, silver and bronze — the very best athletes would take them back home as mementos of their feats at the Paris Games.
Now those medals are falling apart — and LVMH has fallen silent.
In just over 100 days since the Olympics closed, more than 100 athletes have asked for their crumbling medals to be replaced. Last month, Clement Secchi and Yohann Ndoye-Brouard, French swimmers, showed their flaking medals on social media. “Crocodile skin,” Mr. Secchi wrote.
Nick Itkin won a bronze medal in foil fencing at the Paris Olympics.Credit...Nick Itkin
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But he said he noticed that it had started to deteriorate after only a few days.Credit...Nick Itkin
The issue seems to be most acute with the bronze medals, problems for which athletes first started flagging shortly after receiving them.
The International Olympic Committee has apologized and says it will find replacements. Monnaie de Paris, the French mint, which produced the medals, has so far taken responsibility, blaming the problem on a technical issue related to varnish.
The mint discovered that the varnish used to prevent oxidation was defective. Its varnish recipe is a trade secret, but the coating was weakened after the mint changed it to conform to recent European Union regulations banning the use of chromium trioxide, a toxic chemical used to prevent metal from rusting, according to La Lettre, a French industry newspaper.
But in the buildup to the Games, and during the event itself, LVMH was showing off the roles of its expert artisans in crafting the medals. On the second floor of a club it created, just a few yards from the Élysée Palace, the residence of the French president, designers from Chaumet proudly explained the yearlong project to design the medals in secrecy. At the heart of each was a piece of the Eiffel Tower.
Chaumet had never previously designed a sporting medal, and of the three they were asked to make, the bronze was the trickiest.
“It’s the most difficult because it’s the most delicate,” Philippe Bergamini, one of Chaumet’s longest serving jewelry designers, told The New York Times at the time.
Chaumet 任職時間最長的珠寶設計師之一 Philippe Bergamini 當時對《紐約時報》表示：“這是最困難的，因為它是最精緻的。”
The company tweaked the designs hundreds of times until a special committee of athletes and Olympic officials were in agreement. Designers then joined forces with the mint, a French institution that has produced money and other precious objects since the Middle Ages.
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The medals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during a press presentation at Louis Vuitton’s family home in the Paris suburb of Asnières, France, last year.Credit...Teresa Suarez/EPA, via Shutterstock
Deming Philosophy and "Five Lies Our Culture Tells By David Brooks} 兩翻譯版本可比較：紐約時報 v.s Google 翻譯。大西洋月刊: 精英制度Meritocracy讓生活變成了一場永無止境、令人痛苦的競爭。這個制度已經不再對任何人有益了。
Meritocracy has made life an endless, terrible competition, Daniel Markovits wrote in 2019. The system is no longer serving anyone well. https://theatln.tc/0WStj6yL
丹尼爾·馬爾科維茨在2019年寫道，精英制度讓生活變成了一場永無止境、令人痛苦的競爭。這個制度已經不再對任何人有益了。 https://theatln.tc/0WStj6yL
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美國文化的五大謊言 Five Lies Our Culture Tells By David Brooks
美國文化的五大謊言
戴維·布魯克斯
四年前，奧巴馬擔任總統期間，我出版了一本名為《品格之路》(The Road to Character)的書。當時美國文化狀態似乎不錯，我關注的是個人如何深入自己的內心生活。特朗普擔任總統期間，我在這個星期又出版了一本書，《第二座山》( The Second Mountain)。很明顯，這段時間情況不是很好，我們的問題是社會問題。整個國家正在經歷某種精神和情感危機。
Four years ago, in the midst of the Obama presidency, I published a book called “The Road to Character.” American culture seemed to be in decent shape and my focus was on how individuals can deepen their inner lives. This week, in the midst of the Trump presidency, I’ve got another book, “The Second Mountain.” It’s become clear in the interim that things are not in good shape, that our problems are societal. The whole country is going through some sort of spiritual and emotional crisis.
College mental health facilities are swamped, suicide rates are spiking, the president’s repulsive behavior is tolerated or even celebrated by tens of millions of Americans. At the root of it all is the following problem: We’ve created a culture based on lies.
Here are some of them:
Career success is fulfilling. This is the lie we foist on the young. In their tender years we put the most privileged of them inside a college admissions process that puts achievement and status anxiety at the center of their lives. That begins advertising’s lifelong mantra — if you make it, life will be good.
Everybody who has actually tasted success can tell you that’s not true. I remember when the editor of my first book called to tell me it had made the best-seller list. It felt like … nothing. It was external to me.
The truth is, success spares you from the shame you might experience if you feel yourself a failure, but career success alone does not provide positive peace or fulfillment. If you build your life around it, your ambitions will always race out in front of what you’ve achieved, leaving you anxious and dissatisfied.
I can make myself happy. This is the lie of self-sufficiency. This is the lie that happiness is an individual accomplishment. If I can have just one more victory, lose 15 pounds or get better at meditation, then I will be happy.
But people looking back on their lives from their deathbeds tell us that happiness is found amid thick and loving relationships. It is found by defeating self-sufficiency for a state of mutual dependence. It is found in the giving and receiving of care.
It’s easy to say you live for relationships, but it’s very hard to do. It’s hard to see other people in all their complexity. It’s hard to communicate from your depths, not your shallows. It’s hard to stop performing! No one teaches us these skills.
Life is an individual journey. This is the lie books like Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” tell. In adulthood, each person goes on a personal trip and racks up a bunch of experiences, and whoever has the most experiences wins. This lie encourages people to believe freedom is the absence of restraint. Be unattached. Stay on the move. Keep your options open.
In reality, the people who live best tie themselves down. They don’t ask: What cool thing can I do next? They ask: What is my responsibility here? They respond to some problem or get called out of themselves by a deep love.
By planting themselves in one neighborhood, one organization or one mission, they earn trust. They have the freedom to make a lasting difference. It’s the chains we choose that set us free.
You have to find your own truth. This is the privatization of meaning. It’s not up to the schools to teach a coherent set of moral values, or a society. Everybody chooses his or her own values. Come up with your own answers to life’s ultimate questions! You do you!
The problem is that unless your name is Aristotle, you probably can’t do it. Most of us wind up with a few vague moral feelings but no moral clarity or sense of purpose.
The reality is that values are created and passed down by strong, self-confident communities and institutions. People absorb their values by submitting to communities and institutions and taking part in the conversations that take place within them. It’s a group process.
Rich and successful people are worth more than poorer and less successful people. We pretend we don’t tell this lie, but our whole meritocracy points to it. In fact, the meritocracy contains a skein of lies.
The message of the meritocracy is that you are what you accomplish. The false promise of the meritocracy is that you can earn dignity by attaching yourself to prestigious brands. The emotion of the meritocracy is conditional love — that if you perform well, people will love you.
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The sociology of the meritocracy is that society is organized around a set of inner rings with the high achievers inside and everyone else further out. The anthropology of the meritocracy is that you are not a soul to be saved but a set of skills to be maximized.
No wonder it’s so hard to be a young adult today. No wonder our society is fragmenting. We’ve taken the lies of hyper-individualism and we’ve made them the unspoken assumptions that govern how we live.
We talk a lot about the political revolution we need. The cultural revolution is more important.
David Brooks has been a columnist with The Times since 2003. He is the author of “The Road to Character” and the forthcoming book, “The Second Mountain.” @nytdavidbrooks
