作为动词，有“从..边缘绕过，躲开”的意思。我是在网上看一篇文章《THE FALL OF EGYPTAIR 990》的时候，遇到这么一句话，想起来查的。

It （第三架埃及航空的飞机）did not travel, as the other two did, on the Bette route, which hugs the Long Island coast in order to skirt the northern edge of military exercise zones W-105 and W-106.

起因是昨天下午去健身房跑步的时候，History频道正在播放一个讲飞机失事的片子。说96到99年期间，有三架飞机从JFK起飞，经过Long Island下面的那片海域（W-105,W-106）时或者在大西洋中坠毁，原因至今也没有定论。最早有些说法是，埃及的这架是因为副驾驶自杀，使得飞机坠毁，但是电视和这本书里，都对那种说法持否定态度。另外两架应该都是电子设备的问题。片中倾向于是由于电磁干扰（EMI）引起的。而电磁干扰的来源又可能是军事设备引起的。于是，在网上搜到这篇文章看。呵呵。

长颈鹿的意思。嘿嘿。

昨天跟人message，等了半天才回消息。想说你就跟长颈鹿似的，反应这么迟钝。可惜不知道英文咋说。呵呵。来学学动物词汇：

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2247/2005-5-3/127@214662.htm

原来是“街机游戏”的意思。呵呵。刚才在Wiki查看John Carmack时，从一些链接访问到Midway Games这个条目。里面有这个词组，然后查了一下arcade，有个词条有解释，不过不是特明白。不过大概猜出来了。之后把中英文都输入google查询，发现确实如此。呵呵。

对于id Software的两位核心人物，很欣赏John Carmack这样的人，脚踏实地，勤奋敬业。做一件事情就坚持不懈，直到做好。为啥人家就咋牛咧？呜呜。不太喜欢John Romero。他的性格注定了后来的种种失败。

标题是宫崎骏 的英文写法。

晚上系里一年级的小朋友们吃google pizza的时候用投影放《天空之城》。我问Monica，宫崎骏怎么发音。她说了一下，可是转眼我就又忘掉了。回来用google查的时候，先是用“宫崎骏”搜索，希望直接能返回一个中文网页包括他的英文名字。可惜不能马上找到。后来的解决办法是，google "castle in the sky"，然后找到英文网页，里面就有导演的英文名字。等知道之后，再google "宫崎骏 Hayao Miyazaki"可以返回不少中文网页，同时包括两者。但是很明显他们的page rank都不够高。

现在formulize一下，这个问题可以算作属于cross-language information retrieval。我试图写的查询就是想知道的答案，这种情况下，用户实际上无法issue一个很好的keyword based query。所以，现在我们的问题是：从"宫崎骏"出发，如何得到"Hayao Miyazaki"？上面的解决方案是查询另外一个和真正要知道的答案有某种association的query（这里是"castle in the sky"），以期待这个新query的答案里面同时含有我要的东西。我们从”宫崎俊“查起，可以得到"天空之城”。接着，我们需要知道这个新query"天空之城"的英文，而这个答案要容易得到得多，因为部分单词比如sky，很容易猜。同时issue "天空之城 sky“就得到了"castle in the sky"。最后，就能够查到"Hayao Miyazaki"。

估计这个idea早就被写过paper了，否则可以一起凑一个小paper喏，嘿嘿。如果大规模地应用这类idea，应该可以做一个好的搜索引擎专门提供cross language query，呵呵，startup去吧。

刚才要用，但是不太清楚，从网上搜出来的。

"Forming plurals of abbreviations

When forming plurals of abbreviated forms: Form the plural with a lowercase s (never an es).
PBXs (not PBXes)

If the abbreviation contains internal punctuation, form the plural with an apostrophe s.
Ph.D.'s
M.C.S.'s
(but CPUs, LANs)

Avoiding periods in abbreviated forms

In general, do not use periods in an abbreviation or acronym unless it can be confused with a word (such as in for inches)."

Taligent Style Guide
http://pcroot.cern.ch/TaligentDocs/TaligentOnline/DocumentRoot/1.0/Docs/books/SG/SG_5.html

"The formation of plurals and possessives is usually pretty straightforward, except in the case of abbreviations and acronyms. The following rules should help.

To form the plural of an abbreviation, a number, or a capital letter used as a noun, simply add an 's' to the end.

- A group of MPs
- The late 1940s
- Mind your Ps and Qs

To form the plural of an abbreviation with periods, a lowercase letter used as a noun, and abbreviations or capital letters that would be ambiguous or confusing if the 's' alone were added, use an apostrophe and an 's'.

- A group of M.P.'s 
- The x's in the equation
- Sending SOS's"

Writer's Block: Plural and Possessive Abbreviations
http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipmar96.htm

"Proper Use of the Apostrophe to Form Plurals

An apostrophe is also used to form some plurals, especially the plural of letters, symbols, and digits.

- Regina received four A's on her report card.
- Timothy used too many &'s in his paper.
- The judges gave the diver two 9's and two 8's.

It is no longer considered necessary or even correct to create the plural of years or decades or abbreviations with an apostrophe.

- He wrote several novels during the 1930s.
- There are fifteen PhDs on our faculty.
- My sister and I have identical IQs.

(If you wrote Ph.D. with periods, you would add an apostrophe before the pluralizing 's': Ph.D.'s) If the abbreviation ends in 'S,' it's a good idea to separate this final 'S' from the pluralizing 's' with an apostrophe: SOS's"

EditFast Grammar Resource: Apostrophes: Forming Plurals
http://www.editfast.com/english/grammar/apostrophes/apostrophe_plurals.htm

It should be noted that, in this matter, the New York Times does not
observe the generally-accepted rules:

"Use of plurals is another area of confusion to authors and editors. As with everything, Chicago/Turabian style takes precedence in this project. One area of specific confusion when it comes to computer terms is with acronyms. Most people mistakenly add an apostrophe and
letter 's' to make an acronym plural. The major proponent of this incorrect method is 'The New York Times,' even though all publishing houses and computer magazines agree that it is wrong.

The correct method is just to add the letter 's' to the acronym. Here are some examples:

PBXs (not PBX's)  VLANs (not VLAN's)  NICs (not NIC's)  PCs (not PC's)

The possessive of an acronym plural has the apostrophe after the s.

PBXs'  VLANs'  NICs'  PCs'

The only time we accept an 's is when the acronym is separated with periods. For example, Ph.D.'s."

Computer Dictionary Project http://computerdictionary.tsf.org.za/project/

Google Web Search: abbreviation plural apostrophe
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=abbreviation+plural+apostrophe