To understand Britain, read its spy novels The nature of the establishment, the agonies of decline, the complicated tug of patriotism: spy novels explore what makes Britain British https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21728650-nature-establishment-agonies-decline-complicated-tug-patriotism-spy FEW countries have dominated any industry as Britain has dominated the industry of producing fictional spies. Britain invented the spy novel with Rudyard Kipling’s dissection of the Great Game in “Kim” and John Buchan’s adventure stories. It consolidated its lead with Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden stories and Graham Greene’s invention of “Greeneland”. It then produced the world’s two most famous spooks: James Bond, the dashing womaniser, and George Smiley, the cerebral cuckold, who reappears this week in a new book (see page 75). What accounts for this success? One reason is the revolving door between the secret establishment and the literary establishment. Some of the lions of British literature worked as spies. Maugham was sent to Switzerland to spy for Britain under cover of pursuing his career as a writer. Greene worked for the intelligence services. Both Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond, and John le Carré, the creator of Smiley, earned their living as spies. Dame Stella Rimington, head of MI5 in 1992-96, has taken to writing spy novels in retirement. It is as if the secret services are not so much arms of the state as creative-writing schools. Another reason is that British reality has often been stranger than fiction. The story of the “Cambridge spies”—Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and the rest—is as far-fetched as it gets. One Soviet mole at the top of MI6 (Philby, who also worked for The Economist in Beirut); another even looking after the queen’s pictures (Blunt); a cover-up; a dash to the safety of the Soviet Union; larger-than-life characters such as the compulsively promiscuous and permanently sozzled Burgess. There is also a more profound reason for Britain’s success. The spy novel is the quintessential British fictional form in the same way that the Western is quintessentially American. Britain’s best spy novelists are so good precisely because they use the genre to explore what it is that makes Britain British: the obsession with secrecy, the nature of the establishment, the agonies of imperial decline and the complicated tug of patriotism. Britain is honeycombed with secretive institutions, particularly public schools and Oxbridge colleges, which have their own private languages. At Eton, for example, where Fleming was educated and Mr le Carré taught for a while, boys dress in tailcoats and call their teachers “beaks” and their terms “halves”. Walter Bagehot argued (approvingly) that Britain weaves duplicity into its statecraft. The constitution rests on a distinction between an “efficient” branch which governs behind the scenes, and a “dignified” branch which puts on a show for the people. The British habitually wear masks to conceal their true selves. They put on different costumes for different roles in Bagehot’s theatre of state, and keep stiff upper lips to conceal their emotions. Mr le Carré (whose real name is David Cornwell) learned to put on a brave face at school because he was so embarrassed by his father, who was a professional confidence trickster. Greene learned the spymaster’s art when, as a pupil at Berkhamsted School, he acted as an informer for his father, the headmaster. The British establishment is not only a perfect machine for producing secrets and lies. It also produces the mavericks and misfits who thrive in the secret world. Establishment types seem to come in two varieties: smooth conformists who do everything by the rules, and mavericks who break every rule but are nevertheless tolerated because they are members of the club. The first type is sent into the Foreign Office and the second into MI6. The best spy novels are like distorting mirrors in fairgrounds: by exaggerating this or that feature of Establishment Man, they allow the reader to understand the ideal form. The other great theme in British spy novels is geopolitical decline. How can people who were “trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves”, as one of Mr le Carré’s characters puts it, bear to live in a world in which the waves are ruled by other powers and statecraft is reduced to providing fuel for the welfare state? Fleming’s novels are full of laments about Britain’s “crumbling empire” and its dependency-producing state. “You have not only lost a great empire,” Tiger Tanaka, a Japanese spy, tells Bond, “you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands.” Mr le Carré once described Britain as a country where “failed socialism is being replaced by failed capitalism”. The Circus, as he called the secret service’s headquarters, is a physical manifestation of decline: cramped, shoddy, reeking of rising damp, just one hasty repair away from collapse. Nobody does it better Why remain loyal to a country that has made such a mess of things and to an establishment soaked in hypocrisy? Mr le Carré’s traitors (like the Cambridge spies who inspired them) betray their country not for money but because they have transferred their patriotism to the Soviet Union. But what makes Britain’s best spy novels so good is that they toy with disillusionment only to reject it. For all its faults, they say, Britain is the best of a bad lot. Bond is so besotted with his country that he boasts that “British food is the best in the world”. For all his professed Europeanness in the new novel, Smiley is the model of a British gentleman. And spying provides Britain with a way of reclaiming its greatness, by excelling in the most sophisticated form of foreign policy. The Americans have the money and the bluster, but the British have the brains to spend it wisely and restrain the Americans from going over the top. Felix Leiter, Bond’s opposite number in the CIA, admits that Bond is playing “in a bigger league” than he is. Smiley is more subtle than his “cousins” in America. The secret at the heart of the British spy novel is that Britain is much better than it seems. The writers agonise over decline and hypocrisy, only to conclude that the British are cleverer and more civilised than anybody else. A comforting illusion wrapped in a tale of disillusionment: you can’t get more British than that.
今天电视里,欧盟开会,英国缺席。会后图斯克用英文说no single market without freedom of movement,突然想到,以后欧盟工作语言用什么?这么多年英文好像是欧盟的default工作语言,以后英国“不在”了,除了爱尔兰,欧盟就没有英语国家了,还用英语作为工作语言吗?用法语,德国人不干;用德语,法国人不干。要不都用波兰语吧,嘻嘻。
注:摘自《十七世纪英国科学技术与社会》 文化的各个不同领域并不是以恒定的速率发展的。在不同时期里,人们的注意力总是被引向某个或某些这样的领域,而最终放弃其他方面的兴趣。 在伯里克利斯时代,哲学和艺术吸引着十分广泛的兴趣,中世纪大部分时间里兴趣的主要焦点是宗教和神学。对文学、伦理学和艺术的令人注目的重视则是文艺复兴的一般特征。十七世纪的英国跨过“马尔萨斯陷阱”以后,形成了新的与以往不同的文化。 十六世纪的最后一个年头近代科学的第一部伟大著作在英国出版,这就是吉尔伯特的《磁石论》。 十七世纪期间,对文学的兴趣发生了种种深刻的变化。到1600年为止得到最高度发展的两种文学形式——戏剧和抒情诗,都出现了兴趣衰落的趋向,尽管偶尔也有短暂的繁盛期。伊丽莎白时期的戏剧家们达到了英格兰人在这一领域里的业绩的峰巅——这是对戏剧的热烈兴趣所带来的一项成就。可是,文德尔说道:“到了1612年……戏剧已经解体了。” 杰出的文学传记作家和文学史家大卫·梅森早就注意到了我们根据统计所了解到的对戏剧的兴趣的这种衰落: “各类文学形式,如同种种生命的和社会的形式一般,有着它们的周期,四十年来维系着戏剧的才能、闲暇和资金,现在 大部分已被吸引到其他方面去了。” 1642年,清教徒们关闭了剧院,这反映了这一期间热中戏剧的人数之萧条。在复辟时期,作为反对清教统治的放纵反应的结果,对戏剧的兴趣有所复活,不过随后又衰落了。 在这个世纪的上半叶,在斯宾塞、霍尔、马斯顿和琼森的影响下,诗歌继续激起相当可观的兴趣,尽管这种兴趣也处在衰落中。这个世纪的二十年代间出现了一种明显的然而却又颇令人费解的衰落,其程度严重得足以被埃德蒙·戈斯所提及:“出于这种或那种缘故,十七世纪头三十年里诗文的出版是极为不景气的,虽然在此前后都是有大量出版活动的时期”。 当时的一位敏锐的知识分子亨利·皮查姆也注意到了诗歌声望的这种相对衰落,“诗人们如今不再受到以前所得到的那种尊敬了。” 对诗歌的兴趣出现短暂的增强之后,接踵而来的便是衰退——毫无疑问,其原因部分来自于清教的影响,部分来自于科学运动所带来的强化了的现实主义倾向,甚至在复辟时期所出现的那种偶然进发之后,也是如此。 这种衰落曾被归诸于各种不同的来源,如清教主义、新哲学和科学,它们的一个共同之处就是具有日益增长的功利主义和现实主义。斯普拉特认为 诗歌涉及到对言词的过分粉饰并以牺牲现实性为代价而把事物提升到华而不实的地步,因而应加以抛弃,他并且把诗人说成是“娱人但却不能谋利的那种人。” 柏拉图主义者约翰·史密斯复活了他的普鲁塔克,告诫说:“上帝如今业 已把诗歌、各种方言土语、烦言赘语、晦涩词句从他的神谕中排除出去了,并已……渝示他们用最理智、最有说服力的语言进行讲话 。”【参见Basil willey,The Seventeenth Century Background(London:Chatto Windus,1934),p.153及各处。关于史密斯、霍布斯和洛克的引文,我受惠于这部杰出的著作,它表明“这个世纪的整个哲学运动为什么不可避免 地要谈到诗歌”。】 霍布斯可以容忍诗歌的无邪的娱乐性,却又敦促说:“这并不是使用言词的严肃方式,言词乃是关于实在事物及其种种联系的确切的符号。” 【Thomas Hobbs,Leviathan,Chap.IV.】 洛克却不那么宽容,他基于大致相同的理由宣称说,如果一个小孩有着诗人的气质,他的父母不应当加以爱 护,而“必须尽最大努力加以压制使之窒息。”这位功利主义的批评家同样提醒人们说,“ 帕尔纳索斯山的空气可能令人感到愉快,但它的土壤是贫瘠的 。” (John fLocke,Works,(London:1794),Vo1.VIII,p.167.) 正是这种时代精神的严峻性使得人们一方面对诗歌的魅力加以贬 损,另一方面则为科学歌功颂德。多恩说过“对学术的日甚一日的无节制的渴求”,是难以被凭借想像力的诗歌所压抑的。(苏格兰牧师约翰·布朗告诫说:“没有 几个剧本或浪漫故事能无害地为人们所阅读,因为它们触动了人们的想象力,而且在伤风败俗方面,颇具感染力。”在做了周密的考察之后,Schoffler做出结论说:“根据我多年来的系统性研究,到1700年以前”,没有任何一本世俗文学书籍是由某 位虔诚的教会捍卫者甚或教会内的清教徒写下的。) 对于散文,兴趣变化的趋势却迥然不同。用文德尔的话说:“……当着诗歌处于没落瓦解之时,散文在同样的那些影响之下,却趋向于发展得更茁壮强大。” 与 这一发展情况相联系,人们对于把散文作为一种表达手段的兴趣大为增强。在这个世纪里,对散文的兴 趣的趋向是增强的,虽然也偶有起伏出现。我们将会看到,这种倾向与对科学的兴趣的类似发展并非毫无联系:这两个领域都涉及到对经验现象的解释和描述。 这个 时期的强调重点是描述性和“真实”性而不在于想象力和虚构性。公然声明以虚构为基础的小说,这时还没有被“发明”出来。 从当时占主导地位的社会规范的观点看来,除散文外的其他各种文学表达形式的声望日渐衰落,这种情况是一点也不令人感到惊讶的。 对散文的兴趣的增长、对诗歌戏剧的兴趣的衰落是与当时时代精神里的某种变化联系在一起的。在这整个期间,人们日益注重“古典现实主义”,注重按 照“现实的生活条件”现实地工作,而不是逃逸在浪漫想象的翱翔之中。 对于修辞夸张的想象的反对意见的根据是,这些想象与具体现实毫不相干,而且(如同倍受诋毁的传统哲学一样),它们所表现的只是想象力的各种虚构而 不是“事物”,这类反对意见无形之中摧毁了诗歌的立足根基。 【Richard F.Jones,”Science and Prose Style in the third Quarter of the Seven teenth Century,”Publications of the Modern Language Association,XLV(1930),p.985.】人们所注重的是一种简朴的、不加修饰的风格,不要转义、形象和比喻,力求直截了当、经济、具 体。科学的非个人性的直陈表述标准被应用于所有文学形式,而后者在传统上既具有个人性又是含蓄的。 该世纪后期的戏剧和诗歌中带有这些科学标准的印记。复辟时期的戏剧主要是讥讽现实生活的习俗喜剧。从莎士比亚喜剧并经过琼森、米德尔顿和雪莱的 剧作,到复辟时期的剧作家们的喜剧,其间的变化倾向为现实主义(亦即具体描述)因素的增多。 与此同时,诗歌也在靠拢“散文的长处,而不是靠拢诗歌的长处, 即追求各种功利性的质朴、简洁性、明晰性、活力,而不是想象力的联想。” 对于这种致力于追求散文效能的情况的最佳表述,也许可推德赖登(Dryden)在其《宗教诗》中用二行史诗体做出的论证: “我选定这种粗犷无饰的体韵 只因它最适合对话又与散文最相近。” 【德赖登即是皇家学会会员,又是该学 会改进文学风格委员会成员,这一点从他的上述态度上看,是颇有意味的。看起来可以肯定,他对于新科学运动对知识界的冲击并不是无动于衷的。】 很清楚,这个世纪后半叶的文学规范就是科学家们的那些规范,这些科学家寻求对各种现象作出细致观察和精确记录。在这一方面,我们可以注意到, 佩 皮斯的《日记》“以其细节反映出商业和科学赖以得到繁荣的那些勤奋耐心的习惯 。” 随着人们逐渐从其纯粹说明和交流事实的功利作用而不是从其美学性质来评价文学表达,对散文的兴趣就开始变得热烈起 来,而对诗歌的兴趣便开始衰落。 靠唤起人们的情感反应的修辞学或雄辩术只能对事实起歪曲而不是描述的作用;它有说服力,却无信息量;它所带来的是含糊模仿 而不是明白清晰。 当时可以普遍感觉到对科学的尊祟,这创造出一种不信任无拘无束的想象力的气氛。在更早的一篇论文里,琼斯教授探索了新文格规范的宗教起源。参见”The Attack on Pulpit Eloquence in the Restoration,”Journal of English and Germanic Philology,XXX(1931),188-217。前引德赖登的二行诗差不多反映了皇家学会的决定: ……抛弃一切强扯拉长,离题发挥、膨胀臃肿的文风:恢复 原始时代的纯真和简洁,那时人们用差不多同等数目的词句表 达出那么多的事物。所有成员都要求以一种严谨缜密、不加遮掩、自然无饰的方式进行谈说;正面的表达;清晰的含义;一种天生的安逸自在:尽其可能使所有事物 接近于数学的明晰性。(Thomas Sprat,The History of the Royal-Society of London,p.113.) 这里提到了“数学明晰性”,这也许是当时数学的迅速发展及其本为增长了的声望的一种反映。还有,正如琼斯教授业已表明,在这个世纪的整个后半叶里,人们反复做出努力,以求确立起一种像数学符号那样简 明精密的语言。塞思·沃德、凯夫·贝克、达尔加诺【在波义耳、威尔金斯、沃德、巴塞斯特、配第和沃利斯的协助下】、塞缪尔·帕克以及约翰·威尔金斯,都曾 企图构造出能够达到自诩的数学明晰性的语言。【Jones的前引书第322及以后引用了下列著作:Ward 的Vindiciae ademiarum (London,1654); Beck的The Universal Character(London,1657);Dalgarno的Ars Signorum(London,1666)以及Wilkin的 Essay toward a Real Characters and a Philosophical Language(London,1668),这最后一本书的写作曾得到皇家学会的资助 。沃德对于数学符号所表现出的用途印象颇深,他希望“其他事物也许 可以采取同样的过程……我的初步建议是去发现其他事物是否也可以用符号加以设计,我目前就此找到的答案是,对于每一事物和概念,都是可以形成符号的。”】 语言应该成为一种精密的工具,而不是一种毛糙的钝器。作为这类致力于语言创造的基础的种种态度和看法,充斥着整个文学领域,【参见Carson B.Duncan,The New Science and English Literature in the Classical Period(Menasha:Banta Pub.Co.1913),pp. 26ff;G.N.Clark,The Seventeenth Century (Oxford:Clarendon Press.1929),p.232.“ 这不仅是数学进步的最伟大的时期之一,它也是这样一个时期,在其间数学知识对其他领域的知识因而也可以说对一般生 活具有最大影响力 。”】因而,诗歌的衰落和散文声望的提高,都是很可以理解的。关于这些隐含的功利主义(文学作为一种具体、描述和说明的手段) 和工具主义的规范的其他一些重要意义,我们在后面的讨论中将加以阐明。由于后面还要加以定性,我们在此只想指出, 这些规范构成了一些价值,这个时期的文化便围绕着这些价值而形成整体。 新式教育 该时期的“进步教育家”的观点也同样弥漫着实用的经验主义。如果有关教育工作者人数的数据是可信赖的,那么, 这个时期对教育职业的兴趣并没有出现 明显的增长 ,这实在令人感到惊奇。 不过,在教育目标方面,却出现了一种重大的、决定性的变化。 【Foster Watson,The Beginning of the Teaching of Modern Subjects in England(London: Pitman Sons,1909),pp.220 ff.】教育改革者们追随着“夸美纽斯”指责人们对言词做出了过分的研究 而忽视了对事物的研究。如同文学一般,经验主义和功利主义构成了教育理论的主调。 威廉·配第对技术进步充满自信,他提议设立一所“职业学院”,在那里教授各种机械工艺,以使新发明能“比新时装和新家庭用具更频繁地问世。” 【William Petty,Advice to S.Hartleib for the advancement of Some Particular Parts of Learning(London,1648),p.2.】米尔顿以类似的方式谴责那种正规 教育从“逻辑学和形而上学这类最高智力抽象”开始而不是从那些可 以“直接诉诸于感觉”的学科人手的做法 。(Of Education(London,1644).)约翰·韦伯斯特是清教徒和培根主义者,他大胆地公开鼓吹在大学中用实验科学取代古典研究。(John Webster,academiarum Examen(London,1653).特别参见第三章,其中韦伯斯特强调了教育的功利目的。注意约翰·霍尔在他的Humble Motion to the Parliament of England concerning the advancement of Learning(London,1649)一书中表示了类似的态度。同样的规范导致 清教徒在很大程度上回避戏剧和诗歌,但使他们重视科学 。因此,一度冈 维尔和凯厄斯学院的一位院长说:“ 数学在大学中应特别受到重视;同算术、几何、地理等一样:它们中间不带有邪恶,此外,它们对人类社会以及现世的生活事务 都很有用 。”Selected workes of William Dell (London, 1773), p. 580。)那些勾画出理想的教育改革的乌托邦,也表达出类似的观点。这一观点的梗概,也许可以从1682年 “一位杰出的律师”向他的儿子所提出的格言中窥见端倪,他忠告说:“不要学习任何东西,除非它能帮助谋利。” ××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××× 中国缺的不是诗歌、戏剧和小说,而是散文,科学精神的散文。民国时期学习西方,散文就是“缺项”。更有甚者,像鲁迅,竟然认为“散文”是小品文。 老外的这些见解都是真知灼见: 诗歌也在靠拢“散文的长处,而不是靠拢诗歌的长处,即追求各种功利性的质朴、简洁性、明晰性、活力,而不是想象力的联想。” 随着人们逐渐从其纯粹说明和交流事实的功利作用而不是从其美学性质来评价文学表达,对散文的兴趣就开始变得热烈,而对诗歌的兴趣便开始衰落。 靠唤起人们的情感反应的渲染手法只能对事实起歪曲而不是描述的作用;它有说服力,却无信息量;它所带来的是含糊朦胧而不是明白清晰。 “ 帕尔纳索斯山的空气可能令人感到愉快,但它的土壤是贫瘠的 。” 科学并不能致富,但是科学的习惯和商业的习惯都是共通的,即细致观察和精确记录、注意细节并且勤奋耐心。而且商业和科学一样都没有什么意思,“看着 数字不断增加、减少有什么意思呢?”
是男是女不知道。这个Baby姓啥,知道的人都不会多。 现在网络发达,一锅狗就出答案了。但是英国女王的姓氏,我问过加拿大人,还有英国来的移民同事,知道的人还真不多。有一个知识稍微渊博的英国人同事,回答说:“女王姓温莎”。 10 royal baby traditions to know AND THE LAST NAME? The royals don't require a surname. The correct title when referring to the royal baby will be His or Her Royal Highness Prince or Princess (name) of Cambridge. If required, current members of the royal household may use Mountbatten-Windsor, the surname adopted in 1960 for all of the queen's children. (That name combines Windsor, the family name adopted by King George V in 1917 to replace Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and Prince Philip's family name, Mountbatten). Prince William, the heir of Charles, the Prince of Wales, is known as Flight Lt. Wales when on military duty.
Thousands of newly-hatched ducklings sold as live SNAKE FOOD in China as country is gripped by bird flu crisis —— 由于担心禽流感,数千只刚出生的鸭子被卖掉喂蛇 当然,亮点在评论,高贵的英国人面前中国人又是恶心的,没人性的,残忍的,只会制造垃圾,缺乏爱心的垃圾种族。 而且我们要担心咱们还是不是人类了 China needs to try and join the 21st Century - on many levels - and then apply for acceptance into the human race 果然喷子的世界的i18n是做的最好的
旧话了,不知道现在是否还适用。 听到最多的话—— sorry. 英国人确实有礼貌,sorry不离口的。 说的最多的话—— sorry?刚到经常听不懂,或者词都听清了但不知道句子什么意思,所以sorry?也是经常说的。 看到最多的话—— buy one get one free. 那是实打实的买一送一,不像国内买电视送线缆也叫买一送一。 听到最多的提示—— mind the gap. 地铁的提示,开门关门都会听到。
前两天看见个扁扁的东西在天上飞,速度极快,而且飞行路线很古怪。 然后看见,后面一架飞机估计也发现了拼命追,结果越追越远,没一会那个扁东西就不见了。 当时是早晨11点左右,天气非常好,碧蓝的天空,所以我们俩都看得很清楚,是个扁扁的像个圆盘一样的东西,就是下面图里的东西,但是我们看见的时候天很亮,所以没有这样的发光点,就是平平常常的圆盘子。后面追的飞机好像是暴风,我不是军机控,但是应该是战斗机。 Close encounters of the Home Counties kind: Two 'alien aircraft' sightings in one week in 'UK's UFO hotspot' By Charles Walford Last updated at 4:16 PM on 17th January 2012 Comments ( 246 ) Share They hover in close formation against the backdrop of a cloudy Kent sky. The two mysterious bright lights were photographed on January 6 floating over Chatham. Less than a week later four similar lights were seen over Essex, shining brightly against the dawn. The remarkable sightings were made just 30 miles apart in an area now dubbed the country's UFO hotspot. The first image was captured by Ernestas Griksas, 21, who was taking a picture of a cherry-picker outside his home in Chatham at around 1pm. Unexplained: These two bright discs were seen over Chatham in Kent on January 6 Double trouble: A week later these four glowing discs were seen 30 miles away in the sky over Essex When he looked at the image afterwards he saw the bright disc-shaped objects. He told the Sun: 'There are two white discs I can't explain. I'm nowhere near a flightpath. One is slightly fainter as if it is further away or going at a different speed.' The second sighting came last Friday at 7am when car salesman Josh Cummins spotted four bright objects in the sky as he drove to work through Loughton, in Essex .More... What does sunset look like on an alien world? Astronomer 'decodes' Hubble signal to find out To boldly blow! Astronauts flatulence could create flammable gas in spacecraft Mr Cummins, 21, told the newspaper: 'I nearly crashed. I stopped to take this picture with my mobile. It was like the UFOs were surfing the clouds. They were there for 15 seconds then vanished. 'I wasn't a believer in UFOs but this made me think again.' ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? There have been a number of other recorded UFO sightings in recent years October 5, 2000 : A woman named Sharon Rowlands from Bonsall, Derbyshire claimed to have seen a large luminous pink object hovering and rotating over a nearby field. 26 May, 2004 : a 60 metre long cigar-shaped object was seen over Torquay. November, 2007 : Numerous people from the West Midlands conurbation reported sightings of a silent triangle shaped object in the skies in the evening which the press dubbed the Dudley Dorito. June 8, 2008 : A number of UFO sightings took place in Wales which involved a police helicopter following a UFO over Cardiff near MoD St Athan and the Bristol Channel. September 10, 2009 : Three people in a car claimed to have been struck by a colourful beam of light near Lennoxtown, ten miles north of Glasgow. The event reportedly lasted for more than two minutes. UFO fanatics will no doubt lay claim to the sightings as evidence to support their theories of alien life. Expert Nick Pope said: 'Assuming the images are genuine, they're interesting, though the smaller objects (in the first picture) weren't seen at the time, which raises the possibility of some glitch with the camera. 'As for the large one, I'm not sure. It might be some sort of atmospheric plasma phenomenon, but it's difficult to say. He added: 'The South-East does seem to be a hotspot at present. I'm not sure why. 'One possibility is that it's a self-fulfilling prophesy, where one media report smokes out more from the same area. 'Another is that it's a consequence of population density as there are more potential witnesses if there's anything odd in the sky.' Both sightings were about 75 miles, as the crow flies, from Rendlesham Forest, in Suffolk, which became known as the UK's Roswell after a group of servicemen went into the forest to investigate some mysterious lights and came out convinced they had seen seen an alien spacecraft. Meanwhile, TV presenter Chris Evans reported an unexplained sighting yesterday. He tweeted: ' Approx 40 mins ago went out to walk the dog. Something passed overhead - alight, too low for a shooting star and then disappeared. Berkshire. ' He added: 'Looked too fast for a Chinese Lantern. Hope it was something exciting.' Sightings of strange objects in the sky are often explained away as aircraft, reflections in camera lenses, satellites, flares and ball lightning, among other phenonmena Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087848/Two-alien-aircraft-sightings-week-Chatham-Kent--UKs-UFO-hotspot.html#ixzz1jpBrcn60