Moral hazard needs to be faced.There is an inherent contradiction when financial entities are permitted to reap extraodinary profits and manage vast assets and the, when conditions change, are declared too large to be permitted to fail, requiring taxpayer's bailouts. Fiancial institutions,whether investment banks or hedge funds,need oversight in a way that protects the taxpayer's interest.

道德风险必须面对。有一个内在的矛盾问题，即金融实体被允许获得超额利润和管理庞大资产，而当境况发生变化，又被宣布因其太大不能允许其倒闭，却要求纳税人来救市。金融机构，无论是投资银行或是对冲基金，需要以某种方式加以监管，以保护纳税人的利益。

New Roman" size=4>Guest Editorial
How to Avoid the Reviewer’s Axe:
One Editor’s View

 

如何避审稿人的大斧

 ----一个编辑的建议

From Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol.12, No.3, June 2003

I. INTRODUCTION


SINCE this is a personal commentary, I will use the first person, something that no proper writer of scientific dis-course would ever do. As an author of many technical papers over my 35-year academic career, I have too often felt the anx-iety of opening that envelope from the journal editor, which, from its bulk, obviously contains my precious manuscrīpt, re-turned to me for either minor revision, massive rework, or—the ultimate wound—assignment to the manuscrīptal trashbin.  

由于本文是个人观点，因此我用第一人称来写，一些严谨的科技论文的作者一般不会这么做。在我35年的学术生涯中，我也写作很多科技论文。我也多次感受到打开杂志编辑来信时的紧张心情，这些信中当然有我珍贵的手稿。它们被退回来，有的要作小小的修改，有的要大量重写，或者完全被否定--只能丢进垃圾桶。

Now, having spent some 17 years on the opposite side of the table, my cumulative experience with many manuscrīpts and almost equally many unhappy authors is that the primary reason reviewers attack certain manuscrīpts is that those manuscrīpts are genuinely flawed. Many, if not most authors won’t agree, at least not at first. So I thought it would be helpful to authors if I were to set down some practical suggestions for preventing the reviewer’s axe from giving the authors a whack.

现在，作为与作者相对的编辑和审核人已经有17年了，我从大量的手稿和相当数量的伤心的作者中积累的经验表明，审稿人诟病某些手稿是因为其的确存在缺陷。许多，如果不是大多数，起先是不承认的。因此，我想如果我能给作者们提出一些实用的建议，使他们能避免审稿人“大斧”的打击，对他们或许是有帮助的。
A scientific manuscrīpt is intended to communicate new in-formation and to teach new material to a willing audience. Many authors forget this simple fact; rather, they view the writing process as an opportunity to bolster their own egos and impress the reader, even discomfit the reader somewhat, either with too much material or too little. Since there are many different styles of paper, I will select a hypothetical example of an experimental paper in which the authors make a minor advance in an estab-lished experimental method, and they then use this method to obtain some new results that are to be compared with a model Digital Object Identifier .1109/JMEMS.2003.814319 that is also a minor modification of already published work. Along the way, some unusual behavīor is observed that the mod-ified model cannot explain. The authors believe that they under-stand why this behavīor is observed, and wish to propose their explanation, even though they have not yet done the definitive experiments to prove their hypothesis.
科研论文的目的是要交流信息或教给一些需要的人新的西。许多作者忘记了这个简单的事实，而把写作的过程当作是炫耀自己和让读者注目自己的机会，甚至在一定程度上使读者不快，如提供太多或太少的信息。由于论文的种类很多，我将选取一个假想的实验论文的例子，论文的作者对建立实验方式做了小小的改进，他们用这种实验方式取得了一些新的结论，并把这些结果与同样也只是对已发表的理论模型做了一点小改进而得到的结果进行对比。由此，他们观察到一些特别的现象，而这些现象一些改良的模型无法解释。作者们认为他们理解了他们为何得发现这些现象，并想发表他们对此的解释，尽管他们还没有进行过必要的实验来证实他们的假设。

Guest Editorial
How to Avoid the Reviewer’s Axe:
One Editor’s View

 

如何避审稿人的大斧

 ----一个编辑的建议

From Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol.12, No.3, June 2003

Editor’s Note: Stephen D. Senturia has been a member of the Board of Editors for IEEE/ASME JMEMS since the journal’s first issue in 1992 and was named a Senior Editor in 1998. This experience, coupled with his service from 1985–1995 as the Solid-State Sensors Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, adds up to 17 years in an editor’s chair. Over the years, Steve has kept mental notes on the myriad of problems that authors have with reviewers and has been inspired to compile the following “advice to the author” about ways to keep reviewers satisfied; hence, to keep them “at bay.”

编者按：Stephen D. Senturia 自ASME JMEMS （美国机械工程师协会微机电系统）电气和电子工程师协会1992年创刊以来，一直是该杂志编委会成员，并在1998年被任命为高级编辑。这些经历，加上从1985年至1995年作为IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEVICES Solid-State Sensors 的编辑，一共在编辑岗位上工作了17年，这些年中，Steven 总结了撰稿人给审稿人带来的大量的问题，因此，我们邀请他写了这篇“给作者的建议”，告诉作者怎样做才能使审核人满意，使他们无话可说。
Abstract—Based on his many years of experience, a JMEMS ed-itor provides guidelines for authors that will, if followed, greatly reduce the risk of a devastatingly negative result from the review process. The premise is that there are certain things that rightfully anger reviewers, and, once angered, the reviewers become both negative and aggressive in their judgments—hence, the imagery of “the reviewer’s axe” and how to avoid it.

摘要：在多年实践经验的基础上，这位JMEMS编辑给作者们提出了一引些建议。如果遵从这些建议，将大大降低论文在审稿过程中遭到拒绝的风险。前提是，文中确实有些问题惹恼了审稿人，他们一旦变得愤怒，他们在审稿中会变得消极和批判。作者将这比喻为“斧头”，并告诉人们如何避免这些情况的出现。

 

Jamaican secrets

from August 19, 2008 China Daily

牙买加人的秘密

New Zealand's biggest free-to-air broadcaster TVNZ said the explanations for Jamaica's success in producing the fastest man and three fastest women at the Olympics range from the power of root vegetables to the study of genes.

新西兰最大的免费广播电视公司TVNZ说，牙买加之所以能在 奥运会上产生跑得最快的男运动员和3个女运动员，其解释从根类蔬菜的魔力到基因研究不一而足。

Jamaica, an island of 2.6 million people, has made remarkable achievements on the tracks of Beijing's Bird's Nest and let the yellow, green and black flag fly with pride.

牙买加，是一个260万人口的岛国，在北京鸟巢的田径赛场上取得了举世瞩目的成绩，让他们黄、绿和黑色相间的国旗熤熤生辉。

Once known for being the land of laid-back reggae culture, Jamaica's athletes are giving their country a new image as the island of power and pace and many are asking the question - why?

"It's part of the natural ability of Jamaicans," Jamaican Sports Minister Olivia Grange told Reuters when asked the question recently.

牙买家曾以其悠闲的瑞格舞文化闻名，牙买加运动员给他们的国创造了一 个全新的形象—力量和步伐。许多人问，为什么呢？

“这部分源于牙买加人的天份。”当最近被问到这个问题时，牙买加体育部长奥里沃告诉路透社说，

Men's 100-meter gold medalist Usain Bolt's father credited the local yam for his son's success and while that might raise smiles there are many on the Caribbean island who believe their diet - full of root vegetables and herbs - is behind the pace of their youth.

男子100米金牌得主博尔特的父亲把 儿子成功归功于当地的红薯，尽管这会引人发笑，他相信因为他们的食物基本上是根类植物和草本植物，这就是当地年轻跑得快的原因。

The popularly held idea among Jamaicans that they are born quick has been given some academic support by Professor Errol Morrison of the island's University of Technology.

牙买加人普遍认为他们天生跑得快得到了他们岛内的科技大学埃尔.莫里森授的理论支持。

Morrison told the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper that research conducted with the University of Glasgow has identified a special component, called Actinen A, found in the "fast twitch fibres" in muscles.

莫里森告诉牙买加格宁那报说，一项由格拉斯哥大学实施的研究已经证明在肌肉的“快速启动纤维”有一种称为肌动蛋白A的特殊成份。

Morrison says the gene is present in a disproportionately high number of Jamaicans and others of West African descent.

"What it says to us is what is happening is not a flash in the pan, but there will be many potential Asafa Powells, Sherone Simpsons and Sherikas (Sherika Williams), because the genetic predisposition is there," he added.

莫里森说这种基因大量存在于牙买加人身上，而其他西非人则相对很少。他又说：“这么说来所有发生的这一切对我们来说并不是昙花一现，而将来会有更多的阿萨法鲍威尔，沙龙辛普森，沙拉克威兼姆斯，因为具有这种基因。”

"The question is always there. What is it, nature or nurture, that makes us so good? The answer seems to be coming that there seems to be a strong underlying genetic or nature predisposition as to why we are able to perform like this." There is also the power of tradition - athletics has long had strong roots in Jamaica.

“总会有人问，究竟是什么，天性条件或是后天培养，使我们如此优秀呢？至于我们能够做得这样好，其答案似乎在于一种强大的未知的基因和先天优势。”另外还在于强大的传统力量，体育运动在牙买加源远流长。

Arthur Wint won the 100 metres gold medal at the 1948 Games, the first the country had entered while still a British colony, and Herb McKenley won four medals from 1948 to 1952 and later Merlene Ottey enjoyed success throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

亚瑟温特赢得1948年100米金牌，这是这个国家第一次参加（奥运会），当时它还是一个英国殖民地，哈博迈克科林从1948年至1952年先后获得4块奖牌，至后来的默林欧蒂从20世纪80年代至90年代一直享受着成功的喜悦。

"I think it's a combination of factors," Jamaican athletics chief Howard Aris told Reuters."We have the tradition from way back, from 1948. We have the talent, we have the certified coaches. From the very early stages, they are taught the right things - how to eat, how to train, how to sprint."

牙买加体育运动主席霍华德亚里斯告诉路透社，“我想是几种因素综合的结果，我们从1948年开始就有这个传统。我们有这个天分，我们有正规的教练。从最早的阶段开始，他们就受到正确的教导，如何吃，如何思考，如何奔跑。”

Whatever may be pushing Jamaicans to run fast - it is certainly working in Beijing.

无论是什么使牙买加人跑得快---它确定无疑地在北京发挥了作用。

孩子们需要这种美味的冒险

Here's a news story guaranteed to provoke a fusillade of indignant spluttering: German politicians are reportedly planning to ban Kinder Surprise eggs on the grounds that they're a safety hazard.

这条消息注定要成为众矢之的：有报道称德国的政治家们计划彻底禁止“巧克力惊喜蛋”，因为它们对孩子们存在安全威胁。

 

In case you're not familiar with the concept, the "surprise" inside each Kinder egg is a cheapo little toy housed within a plastic shell. Anyway, the Germans are worried that hungry, gurgling kiddywinks might mistake the gifts for food and wind up choking to death. "Children can't differentiate between toys and nutritional items," said Miriam Gruss, a member of the German parliamentary children's committee.

或许你还不了解这个概念，每个“巧克力蛋”中的“惊喜”是一种塑料壳里包着的一个便宜的小玩具。无论如何，德国人但心那些肚子饿的咕咕作响的小家伙们会错误地把这些小礼物当作食物吞下去，并导致窒息死亡。

“小孩们不能区分玩具和有营养东西。”米尔曼.葛鲁斯说。他是德国议会儿童委员会的一名成员。

What, really? Don't get me wrong - I think children are idiots. But even I find that statement a tad unfair and sweeping. I used to have a spud gun when I was a kid. In case you're not familiar with that concept either, it was a small metal pistol that fired chunks of potato. Not once did I aim the potato at anyone. Or try to deep-fry the gun. And I was thick as shit. I guess it was luck.

果真如此吗？不要误会我--我认为小孩子们是白痴。但我更认为这项决定有点不公正和笼统。我小时候曾有把马铃薯小枪。也许你对此也不太了解，它是一个用来射击马铃薯的小小的金属手枪。我不止一次地对着任何人瞄准马铃薯，或者用油炸这个手枪。我笨得出奇。我猜这是幸运的。

In fact my run of luck was pretty impressive. Other toys I failed to ingest include a Scalextric, several boxes of space Lego, the board games Operation and Mousetrap, and a complete collection of Paul Daniels' TV Magic Tricks - even though the latter included an egg-shaped gizmo called The Magic Egg. Somehow, miraculously, my conker-sized kiddywink brain managed to differentiate it from a real egg. Thus my life was saved by a whisker.

事实上，我对我的好运气记忆深刻。我没有吞下的玩具还包括一个赛车模型，几箱子的乐高积木块，棋子和老鼠夹，普尔丹尼尔的全套魔术道具，甚至后者还包括一个叫做“魔蛋”的蛋形的小玩艺儿。从某种程度上说，这真是奇迹，我的小脑袋能够把它和真正的蛋区分开。这样说来，我曾经命悬一线。

 

Gruss won't countenance such a slapdash approach to child safety. Not on her watch. "It's a sad fact," she said. "Kinder Surprise eggs have to go."

葛鲁斯不赞成涉及儿童安全的这样的草率决定。并不是出于她的愿望。她说，“这是一个可悲的事，金德惊喜蛋不得不消失。”

As you can imagine, the committee's proclamation has already caused a fair bit of outraged huffing, not least from the manufacturer, Ferrero.

你可以想象，委员会的声明已经引起了较多的公愤，而并不仅仅来其制造商弗列罗公司。

"There is absolutely no evidence that the Kinder Surprise eggs, as a combination of toy and foodstuff, are dangerous," said Ferrero's spokeswoman. Now I'm no fan of Ferrero chocolate, which vaguely tastes like regurgitated icing sugar to me, but I can't help thinking that it would be hugely unfair on the company if an unsubstantiated link between Kinder eggs and danger began to form in parents' minds and sales suffered accordingly. Let's face it, even though Kinder eggs are generally bought for the gift rather than the sickly chocolate shell, and even though many of the toys are so ingeniously designed they could easily be sold on their own, munching through the outside to get at the inedible inside is half the fun.

弗列罗公司发言人说，“绝对还没有证据表明这种玩具和食物相结合的出奇蛋是危险的。”现在我并不是弗列罗巧克力的追捧者，这种巧克力的奇妙味道像是冰糖的回味样。但我忍不住想对于公司而言这是一个巨大的不公，一个未经证实的奇异蛋与危险相关联的概念一旦在父母们的脑海里形成，其巧克力的销售会相应地遭秧。让我们来面对这一事实，假如奇异蛋总体来说是作为礼物而非粘滑的巧克力外壳被购买，而其许多玩具也是设计精巧，单独卖也很好卖，通过吃掉包装来获得其中不能吃的部分，也占一半的乐趣。

What's more, jittery, neurotic parents don't need any more false scares to piss their pants over. They're already raising their twatty little offspring like mollycoddled prisoners: banned from playing outdoors in case a paedophile ring burrows through the pavement and eats them, locked indoors with nothing but anti-bacterial plasma screens for company, ferried to and from school in spluttering rollcaged tanks... Christ, half these kids would view choking to death as a release.

更为重要的是，那些神经过敏的父母们不想冒任何不利的风险。他们对自己的宝贝孩子一向如笼中鸟样娇生惯养：孩子们被禁止在室外活动，以免被从马路边的地洞钻出来的恋童廦们吃掉，被锁在家中只有抗菌的等离子电视屏幕相伴，每天上学放学由封闭严密的大车子接送...天啊，有一半的孩子会因得到放松而窒息的。

No wonder they grow up to become tiresome whooping advocates for extreme sports. If I'd spent the first 18 years of my life doing time in a joyless cotton-wool cell, listening to some angsty bloody parent banging on about how precious and special I was every pissing day, I'd snowboard off a cliff at the first opportunity too. Under those circumstances, tumbling down a rockface and cracking your skull open must feel like a declaration of independence .

怪不得他们会因剧烈运动而累得气喘吁吁。如果我人生中的头18年是在一个毫无乐趣的舒适的小窝里度过，听着激动得血脉膨胀的父母大声谈论我的每一次撒尿是多么珍贵和特别，我一定也会在第一时间乘着雪撬从悬崖上滑下去。在那种环境中，因磕着岩石摔倒并摔破脑壳似乎就是一种独立宣言。

How did we get to this point? Our sense of self grew too strong. We gazed up our own bums for so long, we each became the centre of the universe. We're not mere specks of flesh, jostled by the forces of chance. We're flawless deities, and we deny - deny! - the very existence of simple bad luck. If we trip on the pavement, someone else is to blame. Of course they are. And we'll sue them to prove it if necessary.

我们为什么这样说？我们的自我意识太强了。我们关注自己太多，每个人成了宇宙的中心。我们是完美的女神，我们拒绝，坚决拒绝任何一个微小的不幸的存在。如果我们流浪街头，一定是某人的罪过。当然，就是他们。如果必要的话，我们将起诉他们以证明这一点。

In a bid to pre-empt our self-important litigiousness, armies of risk assessors scan the horizon, dreaming of every conceivable threat. You could bang your head on that branch. Crack a rib on that teaspoon. Choke to death on that chocolate egg.

 在试图避免我们可能惹上对我们很重要的诉讼中,考虑到到每一种可以想到的威胁.可以发现我们身边潜在太多的风险.可能被树枝撞破头,可能被茶勺伤了肋骨,可能因吃巧克力鸡蛋而窒息死亡.

Well, it stops here. And it stops now. I'm launching my own range of Kinder eggs. They're called Unkinder Eggs. And they don't contain sweets. They contain specially designed hazards. Spiked ball bearings. Spring-loaded razor-blade traps. Flimsy balloons filled with acid. Miniature land mines powerful enough to punch holes in your cheeks and embed your teeth in the wall. The idea is to carefully nibble away all the chocolate without incurring a serious injury. Thrills! Tension! Chocolate! It's the confectionery equivalent of extreme sports. You'll love it.

好，到此为止。到目前为止。我在思考我自己的一系列的“金德蛋”。他们叫“非金德蛋”。它们不含甜点。它们含有特别设计的陷井。锥形的滚轴，带有发条的旅行剃须刀。装有酸物的软汽球。其威力足可以把脸面颊打穿，把牙齿嵌入墙内的地雷模型。这个点子是要你十分小心地吃掉所有外面的巧克力而不遭致严重的伤害。惊险！紧张！巧克力！这是糖果店里极限运动。你们会喜欢的！

And hey - that's not just cocoa butter and milk solids you're savouring. It's better than that. It's the great taste of risk.

嘿！那不仅仅是你喜欢的橄榄油和牛奶做成的固体。它比那些更好。这是一种伟大的味觉冒险。

Guardian News Service

According to the College Board,U,S. college students and their families are paying, on average,$167 go $1,132 more for this year's tuition and fees than they did in 2003-2004. The average annual cost of a public college education, for tuition and fees, is now $11,000, while private college are $27,000 or more.Over the past decade, college tuition has climbed 90 percent.

根据美国大学入学考试委员会的说法，美国大学生和他们的家庭今年平均要比2003至2004年多支出167美元至1132美元的学费杂费。公立大学年均学杂费现在是11000美元，私立大学为27000美元甚至更多。过去10年，大学学费上攀升了90%.

 The cost of a college education is heading north quickly, and many families around the United States now face a dilemma-- they make too much for their kids to qualify for full scholarships to attend college, but not enough to pay the entire cost of tuition, books,lab fees and other costs. They start eyeing the part-time student jobs at Starbucks.

大学教育费用快速增长，许多美国家庭左右为难，他们收入很高，孩子们没有资格申请助学金，但他们的收入不够支付全部学费、书本、实验费和其它费用。他们开始把目光转向在星巴克打工这样的学生兼职工作。

In reality, however,a lot of people incorrectly assume their income is too high and they don't bothering applying for financial aid. There are several options worth considering if you know where to look.

然而事实上，许多人错误地高估了他们的收入，以致懒得申请财政援助。如果你知道到哪儿申请的话，下面有几种途径可以考虑。

Indeed, there is more financial aid than ever before. Nearly 70 percent of students attending four year schools pay less than$8,000 for tuition and fees, according to the College Board, a not-for-profit membership association that is composed of more than 4,7000 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Students are currently receiving over $122 billion in aid each year. After grants are taken into consideration, the net price the average undergraduate pays for a college education is significantly lower than the published tuition and fees.

的确，现在的财政援助途径比以往任何时候都多。根据教育委员会的资料，在由47000多所学校、学院、大学和其它教育机构组成的非盈利会员协会里就读的70%的4年制大学生支付的学杂费不超过8000美元。并且那里的学生现在每年会收到超过122亿美元的财政援助，把津贴算进去，一个大学生所支付的净教育费用明显低于公布的学杂费。

 There are even options for a family that earns too much money to qualify for financial aid. A great option to consider is the Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students(PLUS) loan program, which currently have a variable interest rate that is capped at 9 percent but is currently 4.17 percent. These loans are available regardless of income or assets, and are not based on financial aid and do not require collateral, but applicants cannot have filed for bankruptcy,defaulted on student loans in the past or have any tax liens. PLUS loans are part of a federally subsidized educational loan program that allows families with college-aged children to borrow an amount up to the entire cost of the undergraduate college education,minus the sum covered by grants, scholarships or other financial aid. PLUS loans have flexible repayment options, giving borrowers up to ten years to repay. 

对于收入较高，没有资格申请助学金的的家庭而言，也有可供考虑的选择。最值得考虑的是联邦大学生父母贷款项目。这个项目采取浮动利息制，最高9%封顶，现在是4.17%.这些贷款不考虑收入或财产多少，也不是基于接受经济援助的多少或需要中介人，但是申请人必须是没有申请破产，没有不良还款记录或和税务滞留金负担的人。联邦大学生父母贷款项目是联邦资助的教育贷款项目的组成部分，这个项目允许有大学生年龄孩子的家庭借款，最高可达大学生上大学的全部费用，要减去所获得的助学金、奖学金和其他资助的总额。联邦大学生父母贷款有多种还款方式，为贷款者提供长达10年的还款期。

Life Is Short...

Sure, Michael Phelps may have snapped a string of Olympic records like so many Rice Krispies in milk, but what was this child of Poseidon up against, anyway? Elite human athletes from 250 countries.

当然，迈克尔.菲尔普斯可能像牛奶里的大量噼叭作响的麦通一样打破一系列的奥运记录，但这个海神之子所面临的是什么呢？他面临的是来自250个国家的体育精英。

small, speckled, asparagus-green chameleon of Madagascar, by contrast, holds a world speed record among just about all of the nearly 30,000 different animals equipped with four limbs and a backbone.

相比而言，个头小，浑身布满斑点，披着芦荟色外衣的马达加斯加变色龙，在所有世界上拥有四条腿和脊骨的近3万种不同的动物中，保持着一项世界记录。

Admittedly, it’s not a record many of us would aspire to best. As researchers recently reported in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the entire life span of the Furcifer labordi chameleon — from the moment of conception to development in the egg, hatching, maturation, breeding and right through to its last little lizardly thud to the ground — clocks in at barely a year.

然而，这种世界记录并不是我们当中许多人所渴望的。正如国家科学院最近在《进化》杂志中所报道的那样，这种变色龙的整个生命过程---从在卵中开始孕育到孵化，至成熟，到长成，直到最后那只小蜥蜴砰然落地---整个周期仅仅只有一年的时间。

That hypercondensed biography, the scientists said, may well make the chameleon the shortest-lived tetrapod on Earth, a creature chronologically more like a butterfly or a sea squirt than like the other reptiles, frogs, birds and mammals with which it is taxonomically bundled.

科学家说，这是一个浓缩的传记，最好把这种变色龙命名为地球上寿命最短的四足动物，按时间先后顺序排列，是一种更像蝴蝶或海鞘的生物，而不像其它的爬行动物，蛙类，鸟类和哺乳动物。

Equally bizarre, said Christopher J. Raxworthy, an author of the new report, the chameleon spends some two-thirds of its abbreviated existence as an egg buried in sand, with a mere 16 to 20 weeks allocated to all post-shellular affairs.

这份新报告的作者克里斯托夫J.热可斯说，同样奇怪的是，这种变色龙是在埋在沙中的卵中度过其短暂一生的三分之二的时间 ，即仅仅留下16至20周来度过出壳后所有生命时光。

Moreover, the chameleons operate by a synchronized schedule, hatching, growing, mating and dying at more or less the same times and at the same pace throughout the year. As a result, said Dr. Raxworthy, associate curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, “if you go into a forest during the dry season, the whole population of chameleons there will be represented by eggs.”

更有意思的是，这种变色龙都按照一种同步的时间表在成长，孵化，长大，交配，走向死亡，这些过程在整个一年中几乎按照相同的步调在进行。美国自然历史博物馆爬虫馆相关管理人员热可斯博士说，其结果是，如果你在干旱的季节去森林里，变色龙家族几乎都是以卵的形式存在。

Counterintuitive though it may seem, the extremity of F. labordi’s schedule could prove valuable for tracking down genes and other biological factors that promote longevity. The researchers observed that the chameleon is not merely short-lived as a matter of averages. It is an obligate annual species, destined for death after a single spin around the sun, and that stated fate differs markedly from the varying degrees of perenniality found throughout the tetrapod clan.

这似乎有点违背直觉，这种极其严格的时间表可能在查找基因和其他生物因子以促进延长寿命方面显示出价值。研究人员发现这种变色龙不仅是一种短命的普通生物。

“There are about a dozen lizard species known to be short-lived, in which a good proportion of individuals die off by a year,” said Kristopher B. Karsten of the zoology department at Oklahoma State University, another author of the report. “But there are always some that make it to the next year, so the species’ maximal longevity is greater than one year.”

 

No such luck for our bug-eyed Malagasy friends, which live in the arid, scrubby southwestern region of the giant island. “Once they reach the end of the season,” Dr. Karsten said, “they’re done,” and they will drop from the trees with the papery grace of autumn leaves.

Assuming the execution orders are somehow part of the chameleon’s program, researchers might be able to identify the specific genetic or hormonal assassins in lizard cells, find their analogues in human cells and put a cap in them.

The new work also underscores the growing use of so-called life history theory to trace the history and contours of life on Earth.

Scientists have determined that many essential features of an animal’s portfolio are linked, among them whether at birth it looks fetal and helpless like a newborn kitten or precocious and competent like a neonatal giraffe; how big the average litter is; the speed with which the animal reaches sexual maturity; the length of time between births; and the pace at which an adult ages.

Try to improve or optimize one of these parameters and you end up paying somewhere else along the line. “One of the most robust things to come out of life history theory is that trade-offs exist,” said Steven N. Austad, the author of “Why We Age” and a professor of cellular and structural biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

“If you increase the number of young, the cost is often accelerated aging. If you get something that lives longer, you get costs early in life, with lower fertility and even sterility.”

Selective pressures in the environment push species toward one life history course or another. One example is that if you’re a species in which the great majority of adults end up being killed by predators or disease, it’s best to invest your resources in breeding early and often and not to bother worrying about long-term needs like a robust DNA repair system. And so it is that rodents beloved by carnivores everywhere have high fecundity and relatively poor longevity.

If you’re a species in which infant and juvenile mortality is comparatively great, as it is with giant tortoises, for example, the emphasis is often on making the best of adulthood, with delayed maturity and extended life spans.

Catastrophic extrinsic changes may quickly rewrite a species’ game plan. In another new report from the National Academies journal, researchers presented evidence that Tasmanian devils, the largest of all carnivorous marsupials, have responded to an epidemic of fatal transmissible tumors among adults with a 16-fold increase in precocious puberty among the young. If you’re likely to be gone tomorrow, you’d better start begetting today.

Furcifer labordi’s extreme life history likewise seems born of extreme adversity and volatility. The chameleon is one of the smallest members of its genus, and adults are readily, avidly snacked on by birds and snakes. The local climate is harsh and unpredictable, lowering the odds of survival beyond a single rainy season.

In addition, the rainy season, which begins in November, when the chameleons hatch en masse, is brief and must be frantically exploited. The young coil-tongued lizards immediately start lassoing insects, and they eat so much, Dr. Raxworthy said, “that they practically grow in front of your very eyes.”

By January the chameleons are ready to mate, a nasty, often violent business of males fighting males, females fighting males, and all of them wishing they were somewhere else. Despite their cuteness, Dr. Raxworthy said, “chameleons can be very antisocial, and if you crowd them, they’ll happily fight to the death.”

Dr. Karsten suspects that Furcifer labordi’s compressed breeding season fosters such high levels of aggression that the chameleons die, in part, of hormone overdose.

Another athletic career cut tragically short by steroids.

In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic

By JANE SIGAL

Published: July 16, 2008

 EVEN if you couldn’t be on the Champs-Élysées for Bastille Day on Monday to watch seven parachutists float down in front of President Nicolas Sarkozy, you can still celebrate the greatness of France with a new local tradition.

Eat a hamburger.

如果你不能在星期一亲临巴士底日阅兵式现场，目睹7个伞形兵在萨科奇总统面前飘然而至的景象，那么你还可以用一种当地新的传统方式庆祝法兰西的伟大。

那就是吃汉堡包 。

Beginning a few years ago but picking up momentum in the past nine months, hamburgers and cheeseburgers have invaded the city.

这一活动几年前开始出现，而在过去9个月才盛行起来，汉堡包和奶酪夹心饼已经风靡整个城市。

Anywhere tourists are likely to go this summer — in St.-Germain cafes, in fashion-world hangouts, even in restaurants run by three-star chefs — they are likely to find a juicy beef patty, almost invariably on a sesame seed bun.

今年夏天旅游者喜欢去的任何地方，如在圣.格梅咖啡馆，时装商店，甚至由三星级厨师经营的餐厅，都可以找到多汁的牛肉小馅饼，他们几乎无一例外地放在一个芝麻小圆饼上。

“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”

“它有一种前所未有的美味，平和的，”这里的一位名叫海伦珊缪尔的餐厅顾问说，“用手拿着吃，这是一种纯粹的返璞归真。自然而然，大家都喜欢。”

It is a startling turnaround in a country where a chef once sued McDonald’s for $2.7 million in damages over a poster that suggested he was dreaming of a Big Mac. Hamburgers were everything that French dining is not: informal, messy, fast and foreign.

这是一个令人震惊的转机，在一乡下的地方，一个厨师曾经用海报起诉麦当劳，要求其赔偿270万美元，海报上说他梦到一个大麦当劳汉堡包，它是不正宗的，是肮脏的、速成的、外来的，而法式餐绝不会出现这些问题。

But as French chefs have embraced the quintessentially American food, they have also made it their own, incorporating Gallic flourishes like cornichons, fleur de sel and fresh thyme. These attempts to translate the burger, or maybe even improve it, strongly suggest that it is here to stay.

但法国厨师们已经掌握了美式食品的精髓，他们自己制作，吸收了高卢风味，如加入了酸黄瓜，新鲜百里香等。这些尝试改变甚至改进汉堡包的举措，表明其在当地十分流行。

 “It’s not just a fad,” said Frédérick Grasser-Hermé, who, as consulting chef at the Champs-Élysées boîte Black Calvados, developed a burger made with wagyu beef and seasoned with what she calls a black ketchup of blackberries and black currants. “It’s more than that. The burger has become gastronomic.”

“这不仅仅是一时兴起，”弗雷德说，他是Champs-Élysées boîte Black Calvados的厨师顾问，她发明了一种汉堡包，用牛肉，并加入了她称之为番茄酱、黑莓和红醋栗的调料制作而成，“不仅如此，汉堡包已成为一门烹饪学。”

Some of the most celebrated chefs in the city have taken up the challenge. Yannick Alléno, who earned a third Michelin star in 2007 for his precise, rarefied cuisine at Le Meurice, serves a thick, succulent hamburger at his casual restaurant, Le Dali. Mr. Alléno’s baker, Frédéric Lalos, a winner of one of the country’s fiercest cooking competitions, makes the buns. With smoked bacon, lettuce, dill pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and fries, the burger at Le Dali costs 35 euros, about $56.

这个城 市最有名的一些厨师已经接受了这一挑战。Yannick Alléno, 他曾于2007年在Le Meurice他的名叫Le Dali休闲餐厅,以其精确、纯净的烹饪技艺，制作了一个厚厚的，含有多种水果的汉堡包 而获得了第三颗迈克林星。Mr. Alléno的名叫Frédéric Lalos,面包师，是这个国家竞争最激烈的烹饪大赛的获奖者之一，他做这种小圆饼。他使用烟熏的培根，莴苣，小茴香，芥末，蛋黄酱和炸薯条制作汉堡，在Le Dali，这种汉堡卖到35欧元一个，合约56美元。

The only thing more surprising than the about-face in chefs’ attitudes may be the enthusiasm with which their patrons have devoured these haute burgers.

厨师们的态度中唯一比这种大转变更使人吃惊的可能是对他们老板吃光这些奢侈的汉堡的极大热情。

“I didn’t think we would sell so many,” said Sonia Ezgulian, guest chef at Café Salle Pleyel, which Ms. Samuel opened last fall in an airy, modernist space inside one of Paris’s most prestigious concert halls.

“我想我们不可能卖出那么多，”一个在Café Salle Pleyel工作的名叫Sonia Ezgulian的客座厨师说,这个餐厅位于巴黎最负名的通透的、富于现代化气息的音乐大厅内，于去年秋季开张。

On some days, as many as a third of her customers order the burger, which is offered alongside Mediterranean-inspired dishes like sea bass with fennel confit and pistachios. “Sometimes we say we have no more,” she said. “It’s just too much.”

有时，她的顾客中有多达三分之一的人预定这种汉堡，它们被盛在一个形似黑鲈的具有地中海风格的餐盘中。“有时我们说没货了，这的确是有点过份。”她说。

When a new guest chef replaces Ms. Ezgulian at the end of August, he will keep the burger on the menu. It’s in his contract.

 8月底，新的客座厨师取代 Ezgulian 太太时，他将仍把这种汉堡保留在菜单中。这是合同中确定的。

IT is not as if hamburgers were unknown in Paris. American restaurants here like Joe Allen have long served them. Ms. Grasser-Hermé ate her first in 1961 at the American Legion, 11 years before McDonald’s unveiled its golden arches in France. But with few exceptions the local burgers were flat, overcooked and shunned even by American expatriates.

与早些年汉堡在巴黎不为人知不同，这里的美国餐厅如乔阿伦早就开始供应。Grasser-Hermé 太太1961年第一次在美国退伍军人协会里吃到，比麦当劳在法国开始隆重推出早11年。但当地的汉堡几乎毫无例外地是扁平的，烤得过久，甚至当地美国侨民都不喜欢吃。

Other forms of ground or chopped beef have been enjoyed here for years as well. Butchers sell kilos of ground meat destined to become steak haché, a pan-seared patty made with lean meat, pressed into an oval, and served without a bun.

另一种粗牛肉或带骨牛肉多年以来在这里也很受欢迎。屠夫们为制作牛排饼而卖出一些粗牛肉，这种小馅饼包有瘦肉，用平底锅煎制而成，并压缩成椭圆形，不与小圆饼一起供应。

And while steak tartare shows up on practically every brasserie menu, chefs now recognize that a hamburger is not simply six ounces of chopped lean beef grilled until crusty.

“No, that would be an error,” said Ms. Grasser-Hermé.

 当这种烤牛肉真正在一些啤酒餐厅的菜单上出现时，厨师们意识到汉堡不仅是烤脆的六盎司的带骨瘦牛肉。

“不，这是一种错误的想法。” Grasser-Hermé太太说。.

Everybody’s Business

Lessons in Love, by Way of Economics

By BEN STEIN

Published: July 13, 2008

AS my fine professor of economics at Columbia, C. Lowell Harriss (who just celebrated his 96th birthday) used to tell us, economics is the study of the allocation of scarce goods and services. What could be scarcer or more precious than love? It is rare, hard to come by and often fragile.

C．Lowell HarrissSkip to next paragraph是我在哥伦比亚大学时的一位和善的经济教授，他刚刚庆祝完自己96岁的生日。他曾经跟我们讲，经济学研究的就是如何分配稀缺的资源和服务。有什么比爱更稀有，更珍贵的吗？爱的确很珍稀，难以获取，并且很脆弱。

My primary life study has been about love. Second comes economics, so here, in the form of a few rules, is a little amalgam of the two fields: the economics of love. (I last wrote about this subject 20 years or so ago, and it’s time to update it.)

我人生的第一课就是关于爱的学习，然后才是经济学，因此，从一些规律的形式来讲，就是两个领域的结合，即爱的经济学（我上次写这方面的主题是大约20年以前，现在该对它进行更新了）。

In general, and with rare exceptions, the returns in love situations are roughly proportional to the amount of time and devotion invested. The amount of love you get from an investment in love is correlated, if only roughly, to the amount of yourself you invest in the relationship.

总地来说，几乎绝少例外，爱的回报大致上与投入的时间和奉献总量是成正比的。你获得的爱与对爱的投入是相互关联的，如果粗略来算，就是与你自己在这段关系中的投入总量相称。

If you invest caring, patience and unselfishness, you get those things back. (This assumes, of course, that you are having a relationship with someone who loves you, and not a one-sided love affair with someone who isn’t interested.)

如果你投入关心、耐心和无私奉献，你也会被回报这些。（当然，这个假设，是建立在你与一个同样爱你的人之间的关系上的，并不是一厢情愿的单相思。）

High-quality bonds consistently yield more return than junk, and so it is with high-quality love. As for the returns on bonds, I know that my comment will come as a surprise to people who have been brainwashed into thinking that junk bonds are free money. They aren’t. The data from the maven of bond research, W. Braddock Hickman, shows that junk debt outperforms high quality only in rare situations, because of the default risk.

高质量的债券投资总会比垃圾债券获得更多的收益，高质量的爱情亦如此。关于债劵的收益，我想我的评价会使一些人大吃一惊，这些人被垃圾债劵会赚大钱的观念洗过脑，他们错了。债券专家W. Braddock Hickman的研究资料表明，由于违约风险，垃圾债券只是在极少的情况下表现比绩优债券强。

In love, the data is even clearer. Stay with high-quality human beings. And once you find you that are in a junk relationship, sell immediately. Junk situations can look appealing and seductive, but junk is junk. Be wary of it unless you control the market.

对于爱情而言，资料更为详实。要坚持与好品质的人交往。一旦发现处于“垃圾债券”的关系中，立即出手。“垃圾债券”的状态看起来似乎很有吸引力很诱人，但垃圾毕竟是垃圾。必须对它保持谨慎，除非你能掌控市场。

(Or, as I like to tell college students, the absolutely surest way to ruin your life is to have a relationship with someone with many serious problems, and to think that you can change this person.)

（或者，像我跟大学生们讲的那样，一个确信无疑能毁掉你生活的方法就是与一个有着各种严重问题的人关系密切，并自认为能够改变这个人。）

Research pays off. The most appealing and seductive (that word again) exterior can hide the most danger and chance of loss. For most of us, diversification in love, at least beyond a very small number, is impossible, so it’s necessary to do a lot of research on the choice you make. It is a rare man or woman who can resist the outward and the surface. But exteriors can hide far too much.

研究是有益的。最有吸引力和最诱人的外表下而藏着最大的危险和损失的风险。对我们大多数人而言，分散爱情的风险，是不可能的。因此有必要在你选择做大量的调查研究。极少的男人或女人能经得外表的诱惑，而表象可能藏得非常深。

In every long-term romantic situation, returns are greater when there is a monopoly. If you have to share your love with others, if you have to compete even after a brief while with others, forget the whole thing. You want to have monopoly bonds with your long-term lover. At least most situations work out better this way. ( I am too old to consider short-term romantic events. Those were my life when Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were in the White House.)

在每一段长期的浪漫关系中，如果是垄断关系，回报会更大。如果你不得 不与别人分享爱情，如果你不得不在片刻过后与人竞争，那么忘记一切。你希望与你的长期爱人保持专一关系，这样至少大多数情况发展得更好。（我太老了没有考虑短期的浪漫关系，我生活在Lyndon Johnson和Richard Nixon在白宫主政的时代。）

The returns on your investment should at least equal the cost of the investment. If you are getting less back than you put in over a considerable period of time, back off.

你在投入上的回报应该至少与你投入的花费相称。如果你在相当长的一段时间内获得的回报比投入少，那么，赶紧撤退。

Long-term investment pays off. The impatient day player will fare poorly without inside information or market-controlling power. He or she will have a few good days but years of agony in the world of love.

To coin a phrase: Fall in love in haste, repent at leisure.

长期投会获利。那些缺乏耐心的人没有内部信息和对市场的掌控能力,将陷入困境。他（ 或她）在爱的世界中只会感到长年的痛苦，而不会有多少快乐。

如一句俗语：急切地爱，慢慢的悔。

Realistic expectations are everything. If you have unrealistic expectations, they will rarely be met. If you think that you can go from nowhere to having someone wonderful in love with you, you are probably wrong.

现实的期望就是一切。如果你怀有不切实际的期望，很少能实现。如果你 认为无论身在何处都能让一个优秀的人爱上你，那你可能错了。

You need expectations that match reality before you can make some progress. There may be exceptions, but they are rare.

你的期望必须与现实相符才能有所进展。或许有些例外，但是少之又少。

When you have a winner, stick with your winner. Whether in love or in the stock market, winners are to be prized.

当你有胜算的把握，那么你就坚持到底 。 无论是在爱情中或在股票市场，胜利者终会被奖赏。

Have a dog or many dogs or cats in your life. These are your anchors to windward and your unfailing source of love.

养一只狗或许多狗或猫，它们是你迎风而上的支柱，以及爱的源泉。

Ben Franklin summed it up well. In times of stress, the three best things to have are an old dog, an old wife and ready money. How right he was.

Ben Franklin 总结得好，在失意的时候有三宝，老狗、老婆和现金。他说得对极了.

THERE is more that could be said about the economics of love, but these thoughts may divert you while you are thinking about your future.

还有更多关于爱情的经济学的说法，但当你思考未来时，这些思想或许会许会使你感到高兴。

And let me close with another thought. I am far from glib about the economy. It has a lot of pitfalls facing it. As workers and investors, we know that many dangers lurk in our paths.

让我以另一种思想来作为结束。我对经济学的认识并不是肤浅的，它前面有许多陷井，作为研究者和投资者，我们知道前进的路上会有许多潜在的危险。

But so far, these things have always worked themselves out and this one will, too. In the meantime, they say that falling in love is wonderful, and that the best is falling in love with what you have.

但迄今为止，这些观点总能证明其正确性，这个亦如此。同时，他们说恋爱是美妙的，而最美妙的是爱上你所拥有一切。

Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist.

 

两岸民众关注点不同
台湾：经济利益 大陆：观光价值

《联合早报》

  两岸关系迈入新时代，本报发现台湾民众眼前关注的还是开放之后的经济利益，而大陆民众更在乎的则是台湾的观光价值。

The cross-straits relations stepped in a new era (as the weekend charter flights with mainland tourists set off their first historical trip on July 4.) The cross-straits people focus on different point, the Taiwan people keen on the economic profit at the primary stage of the opening, while the mainland people pay more attention to the worthiness of the Taiwan tour.

台北计程车司机林胜岳（60岁）就强烈表达反对两岸快速开放，质疑开放陆客观光与包机直航只利及既得利益者，负面效应却要台湾全民承担。

LinShengyue, 60,a Taipei taxi driver cried out against the rapid opening of the cross-straits, he suspected that Taiwan’s opening to mainland tourists and the charter straight flight would only benefited those who with vested interest., and the negative effect would be taken by the Taiwan people.

他说：“反对开放并非歧视中国（大陆）旅客，但直航无法改变底层民众的生活，反而必须共同承担门户大开后，所产生的传染疾病及违法偷渡的隐忧。与其开放大陆客，不如设法争取更多日本旅客。”

He said: ”The opposing of opening has nothing to do with discriminating against the (mainland ) tourists, but the straight flight charters could not change the life of the people of bottom society, which while have to take on the risk of infected disease and illegal smuggling. It’s better to strive for more Japanese tourists than open to the mainland tourists.”

不过，同样着眼经济利益的音乐娱乐业者钟尚旻（29岁），对开放周末包机则抱有一定的期待。他因为工作所需每半年必须搭机往返两岸，现在庆幸日后不需再耗时搭机中转香港，也可省下些许机票成本。

But otherwise, some other people who also view on the economic profit like Zhongshangwen, a 29 year-old music and entertainment practitioner possess some expectation about the weekend charter flights. He needs to fly across-straights every half year because of work, now felicitately he need no longer to have a time-consuming transfer from Hongkong, and  maybe this would save money for tickets.

钟尚旻认为，台湾人不需要对大陆有“先入为主”、“标签化”的观念，毕竟就算是向其他地方开放，同样也有传染病或者偷渡客的问题，因此应该乐观看待“开放政策加速两岸交流，带给台湾经济利益的好处”。

Shang said,Taiwaners should not possess a “preconceived” and “labeled” concept, after all there are also the problems of infect diseases and illegal stowaway while opening to the other districts. So it should be optimistic to view the “ economic benefit brought about to Taiwan by the opening policy accelerating the intercommunication ”

在海峡彼岸，尽管媒体报道向旅行社报名到台湾旅游的反应非常热烈，但台湾对部分大陆民众的吸引力和观光价值，在各种行政手续的牵绊和偏高费用下，显然还有待提升。