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Trying to Find a Partner
One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to star a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships? Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love? Or are we making it harder for ourselves?
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn't expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint: the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree: good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn't, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don't put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership. Milosevic's Death
Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead last Saturday in his cell at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The 64-year-old had been on trial there since February 2002.
Born in provincial Pozarevac in 1941, he was the second son of a priest and a school teacher. Both of his parents died when he was still a young adult. The young Milosevic was "untypical", says Slavoljub Djukic, his unofficial biographer. He was "not interested in sports, avoided excursions (短途旅行) and used to come to school dressed in the old-fashioned way--white shirt and tie. " One of his old friends said, he could "imagine him as a station-master or punctilious (一丝不苟的) civil servant. "
Indeed that is exactly what he might have become, had he not married Mira. She was widely believed to be his driving force.
At university and beyond he did well. He worked for various firms and was a communist party member. By 1986 he was head of Serbia's Central Committee. But still he had not yet really been noticed.
It was Kosovo that gave him his chance. An autonomous province of Serbia, Kosovo was home to an Albanian majority and a Serbian minority. In 1989, he was sent there to calm fears of Serbians who felt they were discriminated against. But instead he played the nationalist card and became their champion. In so doing, he changed into a ruthless (无情的) and determined man. At home with Mira he plotted the downfall of his political enemies. Conspiring (密谋) with the director of Serbian TV, he mounted a modern media campaign which aimed to get him the most power in the country.
He was elected Serbian president in 1990. In 1997, he became president of Yugoslavia. The rest of the story is well-known, his nationalist card caused Yugoslavia's other ethnic groups to fight for their own rights, power and lands. Yugoslavia broke up when four of the six republics declared independence in 1991. War started and lasted for years and millions died. Then Western countries intervened. NATO bombed Yugoslavia, and he eventually stepped down as state leader in 2000.
Soon after this, Serbia's new government, led by Zoran Djindjic, arrested him and sent him to face justice at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Hague. The World Cup
This summer's World Cup competition will see teams competing to play the world's best football. But the football they play will not all be of the same kind. The fans expect different styles of play from Brazil, Germany, or Italy.
What makes Brazilian football Brazilian? Our style of playing football contrasts with the Europeans because of a combination of qualities of surprise, accuracy and good judgment. This style has won Brazil five world cups. Yet many Brazilian fans only count four of these victories. In 1994, the team abandoned this style for modern, scientific training and tactics. The team won the cup, but in a boring way.
The Italians think differently. "To many Italians, the score 0-0 has a glorious quality, suggesting perfection," says the British football writer Simon Kuper. In the Italian culture, the idea of face is very important. This is why Italian teams are traditionally built around strong defences. The Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff once said that Italian teams never exactly beat you. It's just that you often lose to them.
In Holland, there is a tradition of decision making through argument and discussion. It is a society where everybody is expected to have a point of view. "Every Dutch player wants to control the game," says Arnold Muhren. "You play football with your brains and not your feet. "
"A Dutch player argues," says Simon Kuper. "An English player obeys his superior. He is a soldier. " The qualities valued in English football are military-strength, aggression and courage. This can make for exciting football. But it also means that the English find it difficult to use skillful players. David Beckham is usually criticized for his failure to defend--despite the fact that he is an attacker.
If the English like to fight, the Germans like to win. In recent years, Germany has tried to change its image as a country of ruthless efficiency and a desire for victory at all costs. But Germans are quite happy for these qualities to remain in their national football team. "Football is a simple game," Gary Lineker once said. "You kick a ball about for ninety minutes and in the end the Germans win. "
It's difficult to predict who will win this year's World Cup. There is no strong favorite. But a look at the track record of previous winners shows that it is the nations with the strongest national characteristics in the football that perform best. It seems that you need to know where you come from if you want to get to the top. Is the Tie a Necessity ?
Ties, or neckties, have been a symbol of politeness and elegance in Britain for centuries. But the casual Prime Minister Tony Blair has problems with them. Reports suggest that even the civil servants may stop wearing ties. So, are the famously formal British really going to abandon the neckties?
Maybe. Last week, the UK's Cabinet Secretary Andrew Turnbull openly welcomed a tieless era. He hinted that civil servants would soon be free of the costliest 12 inches of fabric that most men ever buy in their lives.
In fact, Blair showed this attitude when he had his first guests to a cocktail party. Many of them were celebrities (句名人士) without ties, which would have been unimaginable even in the recent past.
For some more conservative British, the tie is a must for proper appearance. Earlier, Labor leader Jim Callaghan said he would have died rather than have his children seen in public without a tie. For people like Callaghan, the tie was a sign of being complete, of showing respect. Men were supposed to wear a tie when going to church, to work in the office, to a party-almost every social occasion.
But today, people have begun to accept a casual style even for formal occasions.
The origin of the tie is tricky. It started as something called simply a "band". The term could mean anything around a man's neck. It appeared in finer ways in the 1633s. Frenchmen showed a love of this particular fashion statement. Their neckwear (颈饰) impressed Charles II, the king of England who was exiled (流放) to France at that time. When he returned to England in 1660, he brought this new fashion item along with him.
It wasn't, however, until the late 18th century that fancy young men introduced a more colorful, flowing piece of cloth that eventually became known as the tie. Then, clubs, military institutions and schools began to use colored and patterned ties to indicate the wearer's membership in the late 19th century. After that, the tie became a necessary item of clothing for British gentlemen.
But now, even gentlemen are getting tired of ties. Anyway, the clay feels a bit easier when you wake up without having to decide which tie suits you and your mood. Why Not Eat Breakfast ?
Breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, it is also the most neglected or skipped. Common reasons for not eating breakfast include lack of time, not feeling hungry, traditional dislike for breakfast, and dieting.
Breakfast simply means "break the fast." Your body spends at least six to twelve hours each night in a fasting state. In the morning your body needs energy to rev up (转动起来) into high gear for the day's work ahead.
If you skip breakfast, you are likely to concentrate less effectively in the late morning, feel irritable, short-tempered (易怒的), tired, or weak.
When you choose not to eat breakfast, your body stays in slow gear. Also, people who skip breakfast often binge (无节制地大吃) later in the day at other meals or eat a high - calorie (高卡路里) snack in the morning. Breakfast eaters tend to eat less fat during the day, have more strength and endurance and better concentration and problem -solving ability.
A good breakfast should provide up to 1/3 of your total calorie needs for the day. On the average, we eat 400 less calories for breakfast than for dinner. If breakfast doesn't appeal to you in the morning, try eating a lighter dinner earlier in the evening or save half your dinner for breakfast in the morning.
If you still aren't hungry in the morning, start with something small like juice or toast or have a mid -morning snack later when you are hungry.
Not eating breakfast can also cause you to overeat, since a fall in blood sugar often makes you feel very hungry later. To make matters worse, since your body is in a slowed state, it will not be able to burn those extra calories very efficiently. If you feed your body healthy snacks and meals throughout the day, you are less likely to become extremely hungry and stuff yourself as soon as you begin to eat.
Since breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day, choosing the right fuel is important. The best breakfast foods are fruits, juice, lean meat, and grain products such as breads, rice, noodles, and cereals. Who Came First, the Chicken or the Egg ?
I just mailed the chicken and the egg, each in its own separate packaging, and kept careful track of when each shipment was sent from a post office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and when it later arrived at its intended destination in New York City.
In mailing the chicken, I was careful to adhere to the restrictions described in the American Postal Service's Domestic Mail Manual 57, as updated on April 3, 2003. This, the most recent, version of the Manual states that: "Adult chickens must be sent by Express Mail. The containers used must pass the standards in International Safe Transit Association Test Procedure IA; be strong enough to endure normal handling; and ensure enough air for the chickens in transit... The number of birds must not be more than 1he container's limit. "
I mailed the chicken in a wooden box got from a colleague who does research with birds.
Then, I mailed the egg in standard packaging obtained through an industrial supplier. It's quite simple.
I posted both the chicken and the egg at 9. 40 am, on a Monday morning, from the Harvard Square post office, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The staff there told me that this was the first chicken anyone had mailed from there in recent memory, and perhaps ever. They handled both the chicken and the egg skillfully and politely.
The intended destination for both packages was the James A. Farley General Post Office, which is located in Manhattan right next to the Penn Station train terminal.
I took the subway from the Harvard Square to the Boston train station, and from there boarded a train to New York City, a distance of about 320 kilometers, arriving lhat afternoon at Penn Station. I immediately went to the post office, to await the arrivals of the chicken and the egg.
The James A. Farley General Post Office is open 24 hours a day, so I was able to wait there until both items arrived. I inquired once per hour for both the chicken and the egg.
That day, Monday, neither the chicken nor the egg arrived. The next day, Tuesday, neither the chicken nor the egg arrived.
The chicken arrived at 10:31 am, Wednesday. The staff at the post office told me that this was the first chicken anyone had mailed to the post office in recent memory, and perhaps ever. The egg arrived that same day, at 9. 37pm, 11 hours after the chicken.
Based on experiment data, it's now quite clear that the chicken came first, the egg second. More Than a Ride to School
The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community." They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior (外部) does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right, and sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl's bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesrs family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It's been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you're a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Transportation. Company President, Larry Althouse acknowledges Bruce Hardy's outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days; he has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. Recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350, 000 accident free miles, Hardy's reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further added, "Althouse Bus Transportation was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Transportation is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "
Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl's mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy's bus to the Octorara School District. Don't Count on Dung
Conservationists (自然保护主义者) may be miscalculating the numbers of the threatened animals such as elephants, say African and American researchers. The error occurs because of a flaw in the way they estimate animal numbers from the piles of dung (粪) the creatures leave behind.
The mistake could lead researchers to think that there are twice as many elephants as there really are in some regions, according to Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York.
Biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, agrees. "We really need to know elephant numbers and the evidence that we have is quite indirect," says Payne, who electronically tracks elephants.
Counting elephants from planes is impossible in the vast rainforests of Central Africa. So researchers often estimate elephant numbers by counting dung piles in a given area. They also need to know the rate at which dung decays. Because it's extremely difficult to determine these rates, however, researchers counting elephants in one region tend to rely on standard decay rates established elsewhere.
But researchers at the WCS have found that this decay rate varies from region to region depending on the climate and environment. Using the wrong values can lead the census astray (离开正道), says Plumptre.
He and his colleague Anthony Chifu Nchanji studied decaying elephant dung in the forests of Cameroon. They found that the dung decayed between 55 and 65 per cent more slowly than the dung in the rainforests of neighbouring Gabon. If researchers use decay rates from Gabon to count elephants in Cameroon, they would probably find more elephants than are actually around.
This could mean estimates in Cameroon are at least twice as high as those derived from decay rates calculated locally, says Plumptre. " However accurate your dung density estimate might be, the decay rate can severely affect the result. "
Plumptre also says that the dung-pile census should be carried out over a region similar in size to an elephant's natural range. The usual technique of monitoring only small, protected areas distorts numbers because elephants move in and out of these regions, he says. "If the elephant population increases within the protected area, you can not determine whether it is a real increase or whether it is due to elephants moving in because they are being poached (入侵偷猎) outside. "
Plumptre says that similar problems may also affect other animal census studies that rely on indirect evidence such as nests, tracks or burrows (地洞). More Than Just Money
When Patricia Rochester decided to go back to school after ten years as a staff nurse at Toronto Western Hospital, her employer not only cheered her on, but also paid her tuition and gave her a day off with pay every week to study. Throughout her years at the hospital, Rochester has also taken workshops on everything from coaching peers to career development--courses that she believes have helped her advance at work. "I'm now head of the mentoring (指导) program for new hires, students and staff nurses," she says. "There's a lot of room for personal improvement here."
Perhaps as important, Rochester says her employer supports and values her work. "If you put in overtime," the nurse points out, "you get your meals--they'll order in pizza or Greek food or Chinese. " And if staffers feel stiff and stressed from too many hours on the ward, they can call for a free 15-minute shoulder-and-neck massage (按摩) or even sign up for an eight-week evening course on meditation skills and stress-relief. If that's not enough, employees can take advantage of five family days a year that can be used if the kids come down with the flu or an aging parent needs ferrying to an important doctor's appointment. And they have access to a range of perks (好处) such as special rates on hotel rooms, drugstore purchases, and scholarships for employees' children.
You might wonder how an organization can provide such resources and still survive. But University Health Network is one of a number of progressive employers in Canada that have discovered that investing in staff is good business.
If such initiatives help companies cut down on turnover (人员更替) alone, they're well worthwhile, says Prem Benimadhu, a vice-president at the Conference Board of Canada. It costs anywhere from $3, 300 to rehire support staff, an average $13, 300 for technical staff and a whopping (巨资) $43, 000 for an executive position, according to one study of Conference Board members.
Innovative initiatives help companies attract talented employees, cut down on sick days (which cost Canadian businesses an estimated $17 billion a year. or an average of $3, 550 per employee) and keep employees more interested in their work. With the substantial talent shortage that already exists in Canada and the prospect of mass retirement over the next five years--as many as 50 or 60 per cent in some sectors -- Benimadhu says that intelligent employers are putting a renewed focus on the people who work for them. Technology Transfer in Germany
When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation's vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany's research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe's largest organisation for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12, 000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U. S. and Asia. Star Quality
A new anti-cheating system for counting the judges' scores in ice skating is flawed, according to leading sports specialists. Ice skating's governing body announced the new rules last week after concerns that a judge at the Winter Olympics may have been unfairly influenced.
Initially the judges in the pairs figure-skating event at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City voted 5 to 4 to give the gold medal to a Russian pair, even though they had a fall during their routine. But the International Skating Union suspended the French judge for failing to reveal that she had been put under pressure to vote for the Russians. The International Olympics Committee then decided to give a second gold to the Canadian runners-up (亚军).
The ISU, skating's governing body, now says it intends to change the rules. In future 14 judges will judge each event, but only 7 of their scores--selected at random--will count.
The ISU won't finally approve the new system until it meets in June but already U. K. Sport, the British Government's sports body, has expressed reservations. "I remain to be convinced that the random selection system would offer the guarantees that everyone concerned with ethical sport is looking for", says Jerry Bingham, U. K. Sport's heact of ethics (伦理).
A random system can still be manipulated, says Mark Dixon, a specialist on sports statistics from the Royal Statistical Society in London. "The score of one or two judges who have been nobbled (受到贿赂) may still be in the seven selected. "
Many other sports that have judges, including diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming, have a system that discards the highest and lowest scores. If a judge was under pressure to favour a particular team, they would tend to give it very high scores and mark down the opposition team, so their scores wouldn't count. It works for diving, says Jeff Cook, a member of the international government body's technical committee. "If you remove those at the top and bottom you're left with those in the middle, so you're getting a reasonable average. "
Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, diving has tightened up in its system still further. Two separate panels of judges score different rounds of diving during top competitions. Neither panel knows the scores given by the other. "We have done this to head off any suggestion of bias," says Cook.
Bingham urged the ISU to consider other options. "This should involve examining the way in which other sports deal with the problem of adjudicating (裁定) on matter of style and presentation," he says. Eat More, Weigh Less, Live Longer
Clever genetic detective work may have found out the reason why a near-starvation diet prolongs the life of many animals.
Ronald Kahn at Harvard Medical School in Boston, U.S. , and his colleagues have been able to extend the lifespan (寿命) of mice by 18 per cent by blocking the rodent's (啮齿动物) increase of fat in specific cells. This suggests that thinness--and not necessarily diet -- promotes long life in "calorie (热量卡) restricted" animals.
"It's very cool work," says aging researcher Cynthia Kenyon of the University of California, San Francisco. "These mice eat all they want, lose weight and live longer. It's like heaven. "
Calorie restriction dramatically extends the lifespan of organisms as different as worms and rodents. Whether this works in humans is still unknown, partly because few people are willing to submit to such a strict diet.
But many researchers hope they will be able to trigger the same effect with a drug once they understand how less food leads to a longer life. One theory is that eating less reduces the increase of harmful things that can damage cells. But Kahn's team wondered whether the animals simply benefit by becoming thin.
To find out, they used biology tricks to disrupt the insulin (胰岛素) receptor (受体) gene in lab mice -- but only in their fat cells. "Since insulin is needed to help fat cells store fat, these animals were protected against becoming fat," explains Kahn.
This slight genetic change in a single tissue had dramatic effects. By three months of age, Kahn's modified mice had up to 70 per cent less body fat than normal control mice, despite the fact that they ate 55 per cent more food per gram of body weight.
In addition, their lifespan increased. The average control mouse lived 753 days, while the thin rodents averaged a lifespan of 887 days. After three years, all the control mice had died, but one-quarter of the modified rodents were still alive.
"That they get these effects by just manipulating the fat cells is controversial," says Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who studies calorie restriction and aging.
But Guarente says Kahn has yet to prove that the same effect is responsible for increased lifespan in calorie-restricted animals. "It might be the same effect or there might be two routes to long life," he points out, "and that would be very interesting. " 
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