Mike Lynch was Britain’s first software billionaire
He was celebrating his freedom when his yacht sank in a freak storm
yacht：英 [jɒt] 游艇 注意发音
Editor’s note: the story was updated on August 22nd.
原文：
BAYES’S THEOREM, an 18th-century formula, holds that with the right understanding
of probabilities, most outcomes are predictable. But sometimes freak events
occur. In the early hours of August 19th, a superyacht owned by the wife of
Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur who only months ago was cleared
in a vast American fraud case, was struck by a waterspout, a form of
tornado, off the north coast of Sicily, and capsized. On August 22nd it was
confirmed that Mr Lynch was among five bodies recovered from the sunken
yacht; rescue teams continued to search for a missing woman. It was a tragic
end to an extraordinary story.
贝叶斯定理是一个18世纪的公式，它认为只要正确理解概率，大多数结果都是可以预测的。但有时会发生奇怪的事情。8月19日凌晨，英国科技企业家麦克·林奇的妻子拥有的一艘超级游艇在西西里岛北海岸被龙卷风袭击并倾覆，几个月前，麦克·林奇在一起巨大的美国诈骗案中被证明无罪。8月22日，林奇先生被证实是从沉没的游艇上打捞上来的五具尸体之一；救援队继续搜寻一名失踪的妇女。这是一个非凡故事的悲剧结局。
学习：
superyacht：超级游艇
waterspout：英 [ˈwɔːtəspaʊt] 海龙卷；水龙卷；水柱
capsize：美 [ˈkæpˌsaɪz] 倾覆；翻覆；翻船
sunken：沉入水中的；沉没的；（sink的过去式和过去分词）
was cleared: 某人被清除嫌疑或无罪释放
这里的 “was cleared” 指的是某人被清除嫌疑或无罪释放。在这个语境中，指的是Mike Lynch 在一场美国的大型欺诈案件中被判无罪或被清除了指控。
例子：
- 英文：After a thorough investigation, the politician was cleared of all corruption charges.
- 中文：经过彻底调查后，那位政客被清除了所有腐败指控。
原文：
Bayesian thinking was at the heart of Mr Lynch’s astonishing rise. It was the
subject of his PhD thesis at Cambridge and formed the basis of Autonomy, the
company he founded in 1996 and sold to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11.7bn in
2011, earning him $800m. Mr Lynch named his now-submerged yacht
Bayesian. Some called him the “British Bill Gates” as he racked up
accolades: an OBE, board seats at the BBC and the British Library, an advisory
role in Downing Street. Few could have predicted that he would find himself
arrested and facing more than two decades behind bars.
贝叶斯思维是林奇先生惊人崛起的核心。这是他在剑桥大学博士论文的主题，也是他在1996年创建Autonomy公司的基础，该公司在2011年以117亿美元出售给惠普，为他赚了8亿美元。林奇先生将他现在已经沉入水中的游艇命名为贝叶斯号。有人称他为“英国的比尔·盖茨”，因为他赢得了各种荣誉:英帝国勋章，英国广播公司和大英图书馆的董事席位，唐宁街的顾问职位。很少有人能预料到他会被捕并面临20多年的牢狱之灾。
学习：
Bayesian：英 ['beiziən] 贝叶斯定理的
PhD thesis：博士论文
submerged：水下的；在水中的；淹没的；
accolades：美 ['ækəleɪdz] 嘉奖；（accolade的复数）
rack up: 累积、获得或积累，通常指在一段时间内取得大量成就、利润或奖项
这里的 “rack up” 意思是累积、获得或积累，通常指在一段时间内取得大量成就、利润或奖项。在这个语境中，指的是Mike Lynch积累了许多荣誉和职位。
例子：
- 英文：Over the course of his career, the athlete racked up numerous awards and championships.
- 中文：在他的职业生涯中，那位运动员累积了众多奖项和冠军。
原文：
Mr Lynch’s years-long legal battle, sparked by the sale of Autonomy, is
regarded as one of Silicon Valley’s biggest-ever fraud cases. Accused by HP
of using “serious accounting improprieties” to inflate Autonomy’s value, Mr
Lynch was taken into custody and extradited to America in chains. Facing
15 counts of fraud and conspiracy, he was kept under house arrest in San
Francisco. HP, which took an $8.8bn write-down on the value of Autonomy
within a year of its purchase, was eventually broken up in 2015.
出售Autonomy引发的林奇长达数年的法律诉讼，被视为硅谷有史以来最大的欺诈案之一。被惠普指控使用“严重的会计不当行为”来夸大Autonomy的价值，林奇先生被拘留，并被带着镣铐引渡到美国。面对15项欺诈和共谋的指控，他被软禁在旧金山。惠普在收购Autonomy后的一年内减记了88亿美元，最终在2015年被分拆。
学习：
improprieties：美 [,ɪmprə’praɪətis] 不正确；用词错误；不适当；（impropriety的复数）
inflate：夸大；使物价上涨；使大幅增加
inflate xxx value：夸大价值
custody：美 [ˈkʌstədi] 拘留；监禁；羁押；
extradited： 美 [ˈekstrəˌdaɪtid] 引渡；获取…的引渡；（extradite的过去式）
write-down：资产减值或资产价值的下调；账面价值减少；
这里的 “write-down” 指的是资产减值或资产价值的下调。具体来说，当公司认为某项资产的实际市场价值已经大幅下降，低于其账面价值时，会在财务报表中记录一个 “write-down” 来反映这一减值情况。在这个语境中，HP 在收购 Autonomy 后不久，发现其实际价值远低于购买时的评估，因此做出了 88 亿美元的资产减值调整。
例子：
- 英文：The company had to write down its inventory due to a decrease in demand.
- 中文：由于需求下降，公司不得不对其库存进行减值处理。
原文：
The odds were stacked against Mr Lynch. Less than 1% of federal cases end
in acquittal. The vast majority of defendants plead guilty in return for more
lenient sentences. To make matters worse, Charles Breyer, the judge who
would hear Mr Lynch’s case, had already jailed Sushovan Hussain,
Autonomy’s former chief financial officer. A British judge had also ruled in
favour of HP in a separate civil lawsuit.
形势对林奇先生不利。不到1%的联邦案件以无罪判决告终。绝大多数被告认罪，以换取更宽大的判决。更糟糕的是，审理林奇案件的法官查尔斯·布雷耶(Charles Breyer)已经将Autonomy前首席财务官苏绍万·侯赛因(Sushovan Hussain)投入监狱。一名英国法官在另一起民事诉讼中也做出了有利于惠普的裁决。
学习：
the odds：几率；赔率；可能性
- “Odds” 指的是机会或可能性，通常用于描述成功或失败的几率。
- “Stacked” 指的是堆叠或堆积，在这个表达中意味着某种不利因素被堆积在一起，导致形势对某人不利。
因此，“The odds were stacked against Mr Lynch” 的意思是，机会对 Mr. Lynch 非常不利，他面临的情况使得成功的可能性非常低。
acquittal：英 [əˈkwɪt(ə)l] 无罪释放；宣告无罪
plead guilty：认罪
lenient：美 [ˈliːniənt] 宽容的；仁慈的；宽大的；温和的；
to make matters worse：更糟糕的是；
hear：审理（法庭案件）
hear case：审理案件
civil lawsuit：民事诉讼
原文：
His decision to take the stand was another gamble. Federal prosecutors
depicted Mr Lynch as a “controlling, dominating, intimidating boss”. He
was, his lawyers admitted, a “hard charger”. But they insisted that he
delegated most of the accounting, and was a prototypical “startup guy” who
enjoyed inventing things. HP’s botched deal, they argued, was simply a case
of buyer’s remorse. In June Mr Lynch and his co-defendant, Stephen
Chamberlain, were cleared by a jury of all charges.
他决定出庭作证是又一次赌博。联邦检察官将林奇描绘成一个“控制欲强、专横跋扈、令人生畏的老板”。他的律师承认，他是一个“顽固的充电者”。但他们坚持认为，他委派了大部分会计工作，是一个典型的喜欢发明创造的“创业人”。他们认为，惠普拙劣的交易只是买家后悔的一个例子。6月，陪审团宣布林奇先生和他的共同被告斯蒂芬·张伯伦无罪。
学习：
controlling, dominating, intimidating boss：控制欲强、专横跋扈、令人生畏的老板
prototypical： 美 [ˌproʊtə’tɪpɪkl] 原型的，典型的
botched：（尤指工作）一团糟的
remorse：美 [rɪˈmɔːrs] 悔恨；懊悔；内疚
take the stand：在法庭上作为证人出庭作证
“Take the stand” 在这里指的是在法庭上作为证人出庭作证。通常，这意味着被告或证人在庭审期间上法庭回答律师和法官的提问。
在这个语境中，Mr. Lynch 决定亲自出庭作证，这是一个冒险的决定。
原文:
Mr Lynch had beaten the odds before. Born to a fireman and nurse in
London, he spent holidays working as a cleaner at his mother’s hospital. A
gifted student, he won a scholarship to Bancroft’s, a private school in
London, and later read natural sciences at Cambridge. There he immersed
himself in adaptive pattern recognition, an early form of artificial
intelligence (AI) that later fuelled Autonomy’s growth. Both Autonomy and
Darktrace, a cyber-security firm he co-founded, were headquartered in the
market town.
林奇先生曾经战胜过概率。他出生于伦敦的一个消防员和护士家庭，假期在母亲的医院做清洁工。作为一名天才学生，他获得了伦敦一所私立学校班克罗夫特的奖学金，后来在剑桥大学攻读自然科学。在那里，他沉浸在自适应模式识别中，这是人工智能(AI)的早期形式，后来推动了Autonomy的发展。Autonomy和他共同创立的网络安全公司Darktrace的总部都在这个集镇。
学习：
fireman：消防队员；消防员；
cleaner：清洁工
原文：
The entrepreneur had always maintained his innocence. “Software
accounting is complex,” he said after his acquittal. He called his company’s
methods of record-keeping the norm across the industry. Having returned to
Britain, he was keen to get back to innovating and vowed to campaign
against what he saw as unjust extradition laws between Britain and America.
He told reporters he had been looking forward to his “second life” as a free
man.
这位企业家一直坚称自己是无辜的。“软件会计很复杂，”他在无罪释放后说。他称自己公司的记录保存方法是整个行业的标准。回到英国后，他热衷于重新创新，并发誓要反对他所认为的英美之间不公正的引渡法。他告诉记者，他一直期待着作为自由人的“第二次生命”。
学习：
maintain：坚持（意见）
maintain his innocence：坚称无辜
extradition：美 [ˌɛkstrəˈdɪʃ(ə)n] 引渡；引渡逃犯；引渡罪犯；
原文：
Mr Lynch had been celebrating his court victory aboard Bayesian when the
violent gale struck. His guests included Chris Morvillo, the partner who led
Mr Lynch’s defence team at Clifford Chance, a law firm, and Jonathan
Bloomer, a key witness in the court case, and the chairman of the
international arm at Morgan Stanley, a bank, who are both thought to be
among the bodies recovered. Freakishly, just days before the yacht sank Mr
Lynch’s co-defendant, Stephen Chamberlain, also died after being hit by a
car in Britain. That Mr Lynch’s life has been cut short, too, is a cruel, final
twist. ■
狂风来袭时，林奇先生正在贝叶斯号上庆祝他的法庭胜利。他的客人包括克利福德·钱斯律师事务所领导林奇先生辩护团队的合伙人克里斯·莫维罗，法庭案件的关键证人乔纳森·布鲁默，以及摩根士丹利银行国际部的主席，这两人都被认为是被发现的尸体。奇怪的是，就在游艇沉没的前几天，林奇先生的共同被告斯蒂芬·张伯伦也在英国被汽车撞死。林奇先生的生命也被中断了，这是一个残酷的、最后的转折。■
学习：
gale：大风；突发的一阵声音；八级风（在风力等级上指的是风速）
freakishly：反常地
cut short：打断；中断；缩短；
最后一句话 “That Mr Lynch’s life has been cut short, too, is a cruel, final twist.” 意思是，Lynch 的生命也被突然中断了，这是一个残酷的、最终的转折。
这一句话表达了作者对 Lynch 悲剧性命运的感叹，尤其是在他刚刚经历了胜利并庆祝的时候，突然的意外事件却夺走了他的生命，使整个故事结局更加悲剧和出人意料。
后记
2024年8月28日17点55分于上海。
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