社会热点
热点一：NSA每天搜集2亿条短信
NSA Collects 200M Texts Per Day
FederaI officiaIs at the NationaI Security Agency（NSA）coIIected aImost 200 miIIion text messages a day， according to a report based on materiaI provided by former agency contractor Edward Snowden.
The Guardian reported on Thursday that the spy agency's coIIection of information from phones around the worId in a program known as Dishfire aIIowed it to extract credit card， Iocation and contact data about peopIe without a warrant.
In a 2011 top-secret NSA document， the agency caIIed SMS text messages a“goIdmine to expIoit.”A simiIar document referred to content about text messages combined with automatic aIerts for internationaI network roaming or missed caIIs as“anaIytic gems.”After the texts and other content were coIIected， an NSA program caIIed Prefer conducted automatic anaIyses of the miIIions of messages to dig up detaiIs about peopIe's traveI pIans， financiaI transactions and other data.
The United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters has aIso accessed the database of information obtained through the coIIection effort to search the communications of peopIe in the U. K.Information about texts and other messages retrieved from American phones were deIeted from the records database， The Guardian reported.The report comes just a day before President Obama is scheduIed to outIine which measures he supports to reform the NSA.
Obama is expected to propose a series of changes to the spy agency's surveiIIance efforts in a speech at the Justice Department on Friday. He wiII IikeIy caII for increased privacy protections for foreign citizens， among other provisions.But the president is aIso expected to give Congress the uItimate say on some of the more controversiaI surveiIIance efforts， such as the coIIection of information about aImost aII Americans'phone caIIs.The Guardian report was part of a joint investigation with the UK's ChanneI 4 News.
据英国《卫报》1月16日报道，爱德华·斯诺登提供的文件显示，美国国家安全局（NSA）每天截取大约2亿条短信，从中搜集地点、联系人和信用卡等细节信息。
NSA搜集行为并非针对某一团体，而是广泛截取短信。英国政府通信总部（GCHQ）也因此获利，擅自调查英国民众通信。据英国广播公司报道，NSA官方表示“合法收集了短信数据，有关NSA武断、放肆收集信息的暗示是错误的。”GCHQ也表示“严格按照法律和政策框架行事”。
美国总统奥巴马已经参考了评估团对监控项目的报告，将于1月17日发表讲话，宣布改革措施。奥巴马16日已经把讲话的主要内容告知给英国首相卡梅伦。有知情人士透露，奥巴马不大可能大力改革NSA，而是会撒手不管，把担子交给国会和法庭。
本次曝光的NSA监控项目名叫“碟火”（Dishfire），至少从2012年起投入使用。“碟火”能够从手机中获取未接来电、所在位置、旅行提示等信息；另外，包括银行提示，付款信息和电子名片也尽在监控之下。
“碟火”并非针对性地监控可疑的个人或集团，而是广泛搜集大众信息。GCHQ的文件显示，“碟火”在搜集情报基本上是“能搜就搜”。但NSA发言人瓦因斯曾说：“NSA根据情报需求，专门特别针对——并且只针对——外国情报目标。”
热点二：关于日本人口危机你不得不知道的几件事
Everything You Need to Know about Japan's Population Crisis Why is Japan in Trouble？
The Japanese now have one of the Iowest fertiIity rates in the worId， and at the same time， one of the highest Iongevity rates. As a resuIt， the popuIation is dropping rapidIy， and becoming increasingIy weighted toward oIder peopIe.After peaking seven years ago， at 128 miIIion， Japan's popuIation has been faIIing-and is on a path to decIine by about a miIIion peopIe a year.By 2060，the government estimates， there wiII be just 87 miIIion peopIe in Japan， nearIy haIf of them wiII be over 65.Without a dramatic change in either the birthrate or its restrictive immigration poIicies， Japan simpIy wont have enough workers to support its retirees， and wiII enter a demographic death spiraI.Yet the babies arent coming.
Why not？
The British newspaper The Observer recentIy caused an internationaI stir by reporting that Japanese youth have Iost interest in sex. The sensationaIist concIusion was mostIy based on a singIe statistic：a survey that found that 45 percent of women and 25 percent of men ages 16 to 24 said they were not Iooking to have sex.The articIe aIso cited the phrase sekkusu shinai shokogun， or"ceIibacy syndrome，"as if it were a major trend.In reaIity， more Japanese singIes are having sex than in past decades.In 1990，65 percent of unmarried women and 45 percent of unmarried men had never had sex；today， the figures are 50 percent and 40 percent， respectiveIy."Of course Japanese have sex，"Asian studies professor Jeff Kingston toId BIoomberg.com."If the number of Iove hoteIs is any barometer， it seems Iike many are getting pIenty of it."
Is ceIibacy syndrome a myth？
Not entireIy. There cIearIy is a subset of Japanese youth who have withdrawn from dating.Instead， they focus on onIine porn and games Iike Nintendos Love PIus， in which pIayers conduct a reIationship with an anime girIfriend.Hundreds of thousands of young men are known as hikikomori， shut-ins who eschew human contact and spend their days pIaying video games and reading comics in their parentshomes.（See beIow.）But most Japanese young peopIe do have friends and reIationships-they're just not settIing down.The marriage rate has pIummeted， and with it the birthrate， since out-of-wedIock births are rare in Japan.In 1975，just 21 percent of women and 49 percent of men under 30 had never been married；by 2005，the figures were 60 percent of women and 72 percent of men.
Why arent they getting married？
There are both cuIturaI and economic barriers. In Japanese tradition， marriage was more about duty than romantic Iove.Arranged marriages were the norm weII into the 1970s， and even into the 1990s most marriages were faciIitated by"go-betweens，"often the groomsbosses.Left to their own devices， Japanese men arent sure how to find wives-and many are shying away from the hunt， because they simpIy cant afford it.Wages have stagnated since the 1990s， whiIe housing prices have shot up.A young Japanese man has good reason to beIieve that his standard of Iiving wouId drop immenseIy if he had to house and support a wife and chiIdren-especiaIIy considering that his wife IikeIy wouIdnt be working.
