因为篇幅有限，每篇文章小编都会选择目录中的某个日期或者相近日期的文章进行展示，展示的文章小编会在目录上将标题加黑，供大家参考。
一、文章目录.
[2013.03.30] Online media 网络媒体
[2013.03.30] Know your own strength 实力究竟如何，当有自知之明
Dark matter 寻寻觅觅暗物质
[2013.02.02] If in doubt, innovate 若质疑，则创新
[2013.04.06]Inside the cult of Kim 平壤一如往常
[2013.04.07] Law of the lend 借贷的法则——LIBOR丑闻后续报道
[2013.04.08]The lady who changed the world 改变世界的女人 撒切尔夫人
[2013.04.13] Sex, drugs and hope 性、药物与希望
[2013.04.13]The death of inflation 通货膨胀的终结
[2013.04.13] Abs-olutely fabulous 男性魅力|腹肌，绝对是极好的
[2013.04.13] Smoking: Weight watchers 抽烟=减肥
[2013.04.19] Clean, safe and it drives itself 清洁，安全并且自动驾驶
[2013.04.20] You’re not welcome 这里不欢迎你们
[2013.04.20] Horn of scarcity 犀角难再得
[2013.04.20] Paris, c’est fini 巴黎我们缘尽了
[2013.04.20] China’s economy: Speed isn’t everything速度并非一切
[2013.04.27] A continued infrastructure boom: Going underground 大修地铁
[2013.04.27] Apple: Tim Cook's cash card 库克先生打出现金牌
[2013.04.27] America and the 2nd world war 美国参加二战为何犹豫不决
[2013.04.27] Butterflies in America: To marvel at all things 美国的蝴蝶
二、文章内容
[2013.04.13] Sex, drugs and hope 性、药物与希望
Schumpeter
熊彼特
Sex, drugs and hope
性、药物与希望
How big business fought AIDS in South Africa
大型企业如何对抗南非艾滋病
Apr 13th 2013 |From the print edition
MOST managers extol the power of positive thinking. At the New Vaal colliery in South Africa, however, workers are urged to “stay negative”. This is not because Anglo American, the mining giant that owns the colliery, wants to foster a gloomy attitude among its employees. Rather, it wants them to stay alive.
很多经理都赞扬积极思考的力量，但南非新瓦尔河煤矿(the New Vaal)却要求工人“保持消极”。 英美资源集团作为煤矿负责人，不是想给员工营造悲观的气氛，而是让他们活下来。
When Schumpeter visited, the coal mine’s top brass were wearing the canary-yellow shirts of the national football team, part of a promotion to encourage employees to take a voluntary test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Around 80% have done so. No one who was HIV-negative last year has turned positive this year. Early testers are often those with the least reason to be anxious about their status; nonetheless, this is promising.
当笔者到达采访时看到，煤矿的高层主管都穿着浅黄色的国家足球队队服，可能是以此鼓励员工自愿接受能引发艾滋病的HIV病毒检查，约有80%的进行了检查。去年曾经为阴性的今年未有一例转为阳性，而那些早期接受检查的人就更没有理由去担心自己的状况了。人们看到了希望。
The rate of conversions from HIV-negative to positive is dubbed the “safe-sex indicator”. In 2005 it was 2.1 for every 100 staff at Anglo’s thermal coal division; so far this year it has fallen to 0.63. Bosses receive a daily e-mail that shows, statistically speaking, “which is the safest mine to have sex”, says John Standish-White, an Anglo executive and a champion of its AIDS policy. Managers are judged by it. There is even a trophy for the mine with the lowest score. Any employee who tests positive for HIV is offered antiretroviral drugs paid for by Anglo. So the 17% of Anglo’s South African staff with HIV can live a normal life. The firm’s big push now is to slow down or stop new infections.
HIV的阴阳转化率可以用安全性指标表示。2005年，在英国人开的热能煤矿里，每100名员工的安全性指标为2.1;截至今年降到时了0.63。煤矿老板每天都会收到数据统计邮件，显示“哪家煤矿的性生活是最安全的”，约翰(John Standish-White)说。他是一名英籍高管，积极倡导艾滋病预防政策。煤矿经理可以根据邮件做出判断。那些感染率最低的煤矿还有奖励。任何一名HIV检验结果呈阳性的员工都可以得到由英国人提供的抗逆转录病毒药物药费。因此，那些感染了HIV病毒的南非员工有17%的人都能正常地生活。现在，公司的重大努力已经减缓或是阻止了新发的感染。
How much has changed. A decade ago South Africa faced catastrophe. The proportion of adults with HIV had shot up from barely 1% in 1992 to 17% in 2002. The drugs that kept HIV-positive people in rich countries alive and healthy were impossibly expensive for most South Africans. Legions were dying. And the country’s president, Thabo Mbeki, was promoting the crackpot theory that HIV did not cause AIDS. The story of how apocalypse was averted has many heroes, from health workers to AIDS activists. But big business also played its part.
情况改变了许多。十年前，南非面临着灾难。感染HIV的成年人从1992的1%直线上升到2002年的17%。富裕国家为艾滋病病毒携带者的生存和健康制造了药物，而大多数南非人都买不起。虽然当地人大批大批地死去，但南非总统塔博•姆贝基(Thabo Mbeki)还在宣扬不切实际的理论――HIV不会导致艾滋病。然而，是医务人员和艾滋病活动家这样很多英雄的努力逆转了人们的看法，其中大型企业公司起到了一定的作用。
Some industries were especially vulnerable. Miners were often migrants who lived in single-sex hostels surrounded by prostitutes. Truckers often rested at roadside brothels. Infection spread fast. Skilled workers sickened and slowly died. Two people were trained for each critical job at each mine, so there was a backup if one fell ill. The consequent loss of productivity threatened to destroy the business. Attempts to preach safe sex failed.
有些产业是极脆弱的。煤矿工人都是移民，并且住在被妓女包围的单一性别宿舍。卡车司机也经常在妓院投宿。因此，疾病迅速传播。患病的技术工人也因此慢慢死去。每项关键岗位都要培训两个人，在一人生病的情况下另一人会及时补上。结果损失了劳力，破坏了生产。性知识安全的教育也终归失败。
Then, in August 2002, Brian Brink, Anglo’s chief medical officer, was called in to see the boss, who told him that it was time to change tack. Anglo would provide testing for all employees who wanted it and free treatment for those who tested positive. The firm did not know what this programme would cost or whether it would work. Anglo is no charity but “in the end it was a moral decision,” says Dr Brink.
2002年8月，英美资源集团首席健康卫生官员(Chief Medical Officer) 布莱恩•布林克(Brian Brink)应邀来与煤矿老板见面。老板告诉他说，现在该是变革的时候了。英国人将为所有愿意接受检测的工人提供检测，并对结果呈阳性者提供免费医疗。公司不知道此项计划的成本或效果。虽然英美资源集团不是慈善机构，但“最终还是出于道德考虑的决定”，布林克说。
Other businesses followed suit. SABMiller, a big brewer, was one of the first. Its operations were at risk from barley-field to bar: the virus hit the small farmers who supplied its ingredients, the truckers who delivered its beer and the customers who drank it. (People sometimes make unwise choices about sex after a glass or three.) SABMiller offers antiretroviral drugs to its staff. It also dishes out condoms in taverns and trains bar staff to spread the safe-sex message. Hectoring strangers may be ignored, but warnings from peers—such as the buddy who suggests you use a condom as you leave the bar with a new friend—are often heeded.
其它公司也纷纷效仿。南非米勒(啤酒公司)是第一个。从大麦场到酒吧，公司都采取一系列防范措施：为公司提供原料的小型农户，为公司送货的卡车司机以及喝啤酒的顾客。(酒过三巡后，人们往往不由自主)米勒不仅为员工提供抗艾滋病毒药物，也在酒吧和列车酒吧员工发放避孕套，宣传性安全知识。可以忽略那些受到惊吓的外来人，但是你和一个新朋友离开酒吧时，有人警告你，建议你用避孕套，一定要接受建议。
The results of all this were better than anyone dared to hope. Free drugs gave workers an incentive to get tested, so many did. Thanks to lobbying by activists and improvements in technology, the price of drugs meanwhile plummeted from roughly $10,000 per person per year in the late 1990s to as little as $100 today. Drug firms made their medicines simpler to take: a pill or two a day instead of lots. Corporate AIDS programmes are starting to pay for themselves by cutting absenteeism and staff turnover, not to mention improving morale. Anglo’s Dr Brink talks of “turning a disaster into something we could manage”.
这些努力产生的结果是任何人都不敢企及的。免费药物促使工人进行检测，而且是大量的员工都进行了检测。由于积极人士的游说以及技术的进步，药价从20世纪90年代的每人每年约10000美元直降到今天的100美元。制药公司也使药服务更简单：每天吃一两片而不是一大把。公司里预防艾滋病的项目开始通过减少员工旷工和人员流动来自费治疗，而不提改善道德修养。英美资源集团的布林克博士说“把灾难变成我们能应付的局面。”
Positive paternalism
积极的家长作风
The fight against AIDS has subtly changed the relationship between firms and their workers. Before AIDS, a mine boss at Anglo would worry about rockfalls but feel it none of his business if an employee took risks at home. These days he takes a paternalistic interest in the sex lives of his workers. Managers at SABMiller, too, have formed closer relationships with suppliers and sellers. Since Anglo started monitoring its workers’ health more closely it has discovered other problems, such as rising obesity and hypertension, and started to tackle them. Dr Jan Pienaar, who developed the health-care IT system for Anglo’s coal unit, jokes about linking it to the cafeteria’s turnstiles so that the overweight are guided to the salad counter.
对艾滋病的抗击微妙地改变了公司与员工的关系。以前，那些煤老板会更担心塌方，而不是艾滋病。但是又觉得员工在家发生了事故，不关自己的事。现在，他们对员工的性生活非常关心，采取了家长式的管理方式。米勒的经理们和供应商和销售商形成了更紧密的联系。英美资源集团在监测员工健康的过程中发现了其它一些问题，比如不断增长的肥胖问题和高血压，并着手解决。皮纳尔博士(Dr Jan Pienaar)为英美资源集团的煤矿作业单位开发了一款医疗信息软件。他开玩笑说，把软件与餐厅的十字转门相连，那些超重的顾客就会引导到色拉专柜前就餐。
Mining firms have a strong incentive to keep employees healthy, because they are hard to replace. Miners become familiar with the unique geology of the mine where they work. Staff turnover is only 2.4% a year at Anglo. Also, its record in tackling HIV may help it secure the “social licence” to mine in other regions with virulent diseases, such as malaria.
煤矿公司的要求员工保持健康的强烈动机来源于员工的不可替代性。煤矿工人熟悉矿井里独特的地质。英美资源集团员工年流动率是2.4%。但公司有着抗击HIV病毒的记录，即便在带有一些致命性疾病(如瘴气等)的地区采煤，也能保全其“社会执照”。
A final pay-off from the corporate fight against AIDS is that it helped to shame South Africa’s government into changing its AIDS policy. President Mbeki left office in 2008. The current president, Jacob Zuma, is hardly perfect: when on trial for rape, he said he had showered after sex with an HIV-positive woman to avoid infection. (He was acquitted.) But despite ignorance at the top, the government now offers the 6m South Africans with HIV free antiretroviral drugs if their immune strength drops below a critical level. Such treatment makes carriers less infectious, and so slows the spread of the epidemic. Business has played only a supporting role in this revolution, but an honourable one.
大型企业抗击艾滋病的最后一项成功就是羞辱了南非政府，使其改变了原有的艾滋病政策。姆贝基(Mbeki)于2008下台，现任总统雅各布•祖玛(Jacob Zuma)也不是完人：他因强奸受审。在狱中他说，与一名HIV呈阳性的妇女性交后，进行洗澡防止被感染。(他被释放。)虽然政府高层有所忽略，但南非600万艾滋病患者免疫力降低到临界值以下的会得到由政府提供免费的抗艾滋病毒药物。携带者经过治疗后传染率就会减小，减少了疾病的传播。企业公司在这场变革中虽然只是起到了支持作用，但却是光荣的。
[2013.04.13]The death of inflation 通货膨胀的终结
Free exchange
自由交流
The death of inflation
通货膨胀的终结
Central banks in the rich world may have been too successful in subduing price pressures
发达国家的中央银行抑制价格举动或许用力过猛。
Apr 13th 2013 |From the print edition
2013年04月13日 | 印刷版
IT TOOK an iron will (and a handbag) to beat the inflation of the 1970s. Under Margaret Thatcher the British government squeezed the economy with high interest rates until the beast submitted. The Federal Reserve, then led by Paul Volcker, followed suit. Such displays of fortitude convinced markets that governments were serious about keeping inflation low. Expectations of future price increases converged around central-bank targets, touching off an era of long expansions and mild recessions. Yet relative price stability may now be adding to the rich world’s economic woes.
钢铁般的意志(以及一只手提袋)成功抑制了上世纪70年代的通货膨胀。玛格丽特•撒切尔治下的英国政府采用高利率的经济政策压低经济增长率，直至通胀巨兽束手就擒。其时由保罗•沃克尔主导的美国联邦储蓄银行在抑制通胀方面的政策紧随其后。政府在此期间所展现的勇气和决断使市场确信政府会豪不手软地压低通货膨胀率。未来价格增幅预期唯央行通胀目标是瞻，由此触发了一个经济长期扩张但偶有温和衰退的时代。但是，相对的价格稳定性目前对于发达国家的经济状况来说不啻于一个困境。
Deep recessions like the recent global contraction would normally be expected to send inflation tumbling. Workless labourers ought to reduce wage demands to find employment; firms with unsold goods should slash prices to clear inventories. There was every reason to expect that inflation would go to zero or even enter negative territory in recent years. In April 2009 the International Monetary Fund forecast that inflation in that year would be -0.2% for advanced economies. Instead it has barely budged across the latest business cycle (see left-hand chart).
人们通常认为像最近全球经济收缩此类的严重衰退会压低通货膨胀率。失业的劳动者为了寻求就业机会理应会降低薪资要求;有滞销产品的企业应该降低商品价格清理库存。近些年来，人们有充分的理由来预计通货膨胀率会降至零或者负值以下。2009年4月，国际货币基金组织预先通报了发达经济体当年通货膨胀率将会是-0.2%。相反，当年的通货膨胀率几乎毫不为最近的商业周期所动(见右表)。
Deflation has been the “dog that didn’t bark”, notes the IMF in its new “World Economic Outlook”. When America’s unemployment rate jumped between 1980 and 1982, by 4.5 percentage points to 10.8%, core inflation plummeted from 12.0% to 4.5%. The jobless rate in America rose even more steeply between 2007 and 2009 but inflation dropped by less than one percentage point, from about 2.4% to 1.7%. Where inflation rates rose above central bankers’ targets, as in Britain, or below them, as in Japan, expectations of future rates still stayed close to the targets.
国际货币基金组织在其最新发布的《世界经济展望》中强调，通货紧缩一直以来都是“一只不叫的狗”。1980年至1982年间，美国失业率跃升了4.5的百分点高达10.8%，而核心通货膨胀率从12.0%降至4.5%。2007至2009年间，美国失业率升幅更加剧烈，可是通货膨胀率却下降了不到1个百分点，从2.4%降至1.7%。有些国家通货膨胀率高于(以英国为例)或低于(以日本为例)央行目标通胀值，可通货膨胀率预期却始终接近于央行的目标值。
Some economists argue that stable inflation is a result of some big changes in the labour market. Wages and prices did not fall by much in recent years because jobless workers exited the labour force for good—a result of over-generous welfare benefits and obsolete skills. Such people do not compete with others for jobs and therefore cannot drag down inflation.
一些经济学家认为稳定的通货膨胀率是劳动力市场发生的巨变所致。近些年来，在过度慷慨的社会福利和劳动技能过时的情况下，失业劳动力永久退出劳动力市场，因此薪资水平和商品价格下降幅度不大。退出劳动力市场的工人不再与其他人竞争工作机会，因此他们不可能对降低通货膨胀率产生任何影响。
Another view is that stability reflects central banks’ credibility. When central banks whipped inflation in the early 1980s and adopted low targets for it, they firmly anchored beliefs about future growth in prices and wages. This credibility is self-reinforcing. Workers who expect prices to rise only slowly tend not to push as hard for higher wages. That helps firms to keep costs and prices down. When the crisis struck, this process also helped avert deflation. If prices are not expected to drop, workers are less likely to accept wage cuts. Anticipating stable wage demands, employers are more reluctant to cut prices.
另一个观点是通货膨胀率所展现出的稳定性反映了各国央行的可信度。上世纪80年代后期，各国央行大力遏制通货膨胀并为其设定了较低的目标值，低通胀目标值把人们对商品价格和薪资水平未来的低增长率期望也牢牢固定住。而这种期望不断在自我强化。期望商品价格缓慢上升的劳动者往往不会强烈要求提高薪资。这有助于企业保持低水平的成本和价格。当经济危机来袭时，这一机制同样也有助于抑制通货紧缩。如果商品的价格预期不会降低，那么劳动者就不太可能会接受薪资的消减。稳定的薪资要求在雇主的预期之内，那么他们就更不会愿意降低商品的价格。
This second story seems a better fit for the data, argues the IMF. Since 1990 expected rates of inflation have inched ever closer to central-bank targets. And over the same period short-term gaps between actual inflation and the official target had ever weaker effects on people’s expectations. Markets seem to trust central banks to return inflation to target, and that trust itself helps keep it in line (though the dispersion in expected inflation rates seems to have widened lately).
国际货币基金组织认为，第二个理由似乎更能与数据相契合。自1990年以来,通货膨胀率预期一直逐步向央行所设定的目标值靠拢。而同期实际通货膨胀率和官方目标之间的短期差距对人们预期的影响越来越微弱。市场似乎相信央行能够将通货膨胀率控制在目标值内，而且信任本身有助于通货膨率不越雷池一步(虽然预期通货膨胀率离散度似乎近来在扩大。)
As inflation has become more anchored, its links with other economic indicators have weakened. In a study of 21 rich countries since the 1960s, the IMF shows that changes in unemployment now influence inflation much less than in the past (see right-hand chart). Without the breakdown in this relationship, America’s economy would have faced deflation rates approaching 3% in the wake of the recent recession, the IMF notes.
随着通货膨胀率变得愈来愈稳固，这一指标与其它经济指标之间的联系也愈来愈弱。国际货币基金组织研究了自上世纪60年代以来21个发达国家的经济状况，该研究表明：就目前而言，失业率的变动对通货膨胀率的影响远不如从前(见右表)。国际货币基金组织强调，倘若其间的关联性保持不变，那么美国经济在最近一次经济衰退之初的通货紧缩率就会接近3%的水平。
That is small comfort to inflation hawks, who fear that expectations may well prove less anchored during the next boom. After all, firms could easily be more enthusiastic about raising prices than cutting them. Yet experience before the financial crisis suggests that boom times may not be so different. In the decade before the crisis unemployment in Britain, Ireland and Spain dipped below its estimated “natural rate” (the lowest sustainable rate) for years at a time. Actual inflation and expectations of it hardly budged.
对于担忧通货膨胀率预期值在下次经济繁荣时期无法表现出强劲稳定性的通胀鹰派来说，这足以让他们稍感宽慰。毕竟，企业更热衷于提高而不是降低商品价格。但是金融危机前的经验表明经济繁荣时期的情况或许没有太大的差别。金融危机前的10年里，英国、爱尔兰和西班牙曾出现过失业率连续几年跌破其估计的“自然率”(最低可持续发展率)的情况。而实际通货膨胀率和预期值几乎毫不受此影响。
What could cause inflation expectations to break free again, as in the 1970s? Contrasting the experience of the American and German economies, the IMF reckons that central-bank independence makes all the difference. Both the Federal Reserve and the Bundesbank mistakenly saw 1970s-era unemployment as mostly temporary. But the Bundesbank managed to resist its government’s calls for looser monetary policy. The Fed, under its then chairman, Arthur Burns, was more responsive to Richard Nixon’s demands. Only in the late 1970s, when public opinion no longer saw unemployment but inflation as the chief economic evil, was it politically possible to give the Fed licence to stamp out inflation.
是什么因素导致了上世纪70年代通货膨胀率预期值打破上述这根深蒂固的预期呢?国际货币基金组织对比了美国和德国经济发展的经验，据此得出结论认为央行的独立性决定了一切。美联储和德国联邦银行均错误的认为70年代出现的失业不过是昙花一现。但是德国联邦银行成功地顶住了政府要求他们进一步放松货币政策的压力。在当时的美联储主席阿瑟•伯恩斯(Arthur Burns)的领导下，美联储积极地响应了时任美国总统理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)的要求。仅仅在70年代后期，当舆论认为经济的罪魁祸首主要是通货膨胀而不是失业之后，美联储才能政治层面获得抑制通货膨胀率的许可。
Missing the target
渐渐迷失目标
Low inflation may be central bankers’ proudest achievement but it comes with its own set of economic risks, argues the IMF. The economic stability of the pre-crisis era may have fuelled the excess borrowing that led to the financial crisis. And a 2012 IMF working paper suggests that reining in inflation can increase income inequality by compressing wages while allowing asset prices to soar.
国际货币基金组织认为低通货膨胀率或许是央行高管最引以为傲的成就，但低通胀率本身却存在诸多经济风险。金融危机之前那段时期经济情况稳定性或许给信贷泛滥起到了火上浇油的效果，由此引发了金融危机。国际货币基金组织在2012年发布的一份工作报告中指出，压低薪资水平的同时却允许资产价格飙升，通过这种手段来抑制通货膨胀会扩大收入不公的差距。
More worryingly, the weakening link between inflation and unemployment could breed complacency about rising joblessness. Central bankers weaned on tales from the 1930s and 1980s, when soaring unemployment produced tumbling inflation, may have underestimated recent economic troubles because of stable inflation. An outbreak of deflation might have prompted them to act sooner and even more resolutely to battle the recession. Central banks are victims of their own success. With inflation no longer a reliable indicator of demand, they must look elsewhere to keep economies from running hot or cold.
更令人担忧的是，通货膨胀率和失业率之间日益脆弱的关联性可能会令人对不断上升的失业率毫无警觉，进而无动于衷。各国央行高管们对上世纪30年和80年发生的高失业率所引起通胀急跌的故事耳熟能详，所以就有可能因通货膨胀率的稳定而低估了目前的经济问题。反之，如果突然爆发通货紧缩，兴许他们就会迅速行动，甚至是会拿出最具成效的解决之法来应对经济衰退。央行为其成功所累。由于通货膨涨率不再是一个可靠的需求反映指标，各国央行必须另寻它途来防止经济运行过热或是过冷。
Sources
资料来源
“The dog that didn’t bark: Has inflation been muzzled or was it just sleeping?”, IMF World Economic Outlook
“Innocent Bystanders? Monetary Policy and Inequality in the U.S.”, Olivier Coibion, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Lorenz Kueng, and John Silvia, IMF Working Paper
Economist.com/blogs/freeexchange
[2013.04.13] Abs-olutely fabulous 男性魅力|腹肌，绝对是极好的!
Male attractiveness
男性魅力
Abs-olutely fabulous
腹肌，绝对是极好的!
Women’s expectations of the opposite sex are at least as unrealistic as men’s ‘
男女对异性抱有的期望都不切实际，但女性更甚。
Apr 13th 2013 |From the print edition
MEN have long wondered what exactly it is that women want. Some pore over men’s magazines, with their promises of “washboard abs”, for guidance. The more scientifically minded look for experimental data. The latest evidence comes from a group of researchers led by Brian Mautz, then of Australian National University. They gathered 105 heterosexual Australian women and showed them a series of digitally generated pictures of men in which three bodily characteristics were varied—height, shoulder-to-waist ratio and flaccid penis size. The women were asked to rate the men as sexual partners.
“女人到底看重男性身材的哪一点”，男人们一直在苦苦寻求答案。有些人研读教男人如何获得“搓衣板般腹肌”的男性杂志，想从中找到答案。而更具科学精神的人则会希望从实验数据中寻找答案。由布莱恩•莫茨(当时还属于澳大利亚国立大学)带领的研究小组发现了最新证据。他们选取了105名国内异性恋女性，给她们展示了三种能展现男性魅力(身高，肩腰比例，萎软状态下的阴茎大小)的组图，并让她们以性伴侣的角度去评价这些男性。
In an article just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Mautz and his team describe their results. Happily for the insecure, although the women did indeed find a larger penis alluring, it was not the most important factor. That honour went to the combination of broad shoulders and a narrow waist, which accounted for around three-quarters of the variation in attractiveness all by itself.
莫茨及其小组在《美国国家科学院院刊》刚发表了一篇文章描述了他们的研究结果。结果让那些对自己阴茎没自信的男性感到庆幸：尽管女性的确会认为阴茎更大更有吸引力，但这并不是最重要的因素。最重要的是要同时拥有宽肩和窄腰，单单这点就能解释所有男性魅力方差的四分之三。
Height was also only a weak predictor of appeal. That is odd, says Dr Mautz, because other studies have linked height with all sorts of benefits, from higher salaries to longer lives. The bigger-is-better effect was also subject to diminishing returns: each extra centimetre, whether of height, shoulder width or penis size, was less significant than the previous one.
结果还得出，男性魅力也与身高关系不大。莫茨博士说，但有点很奇怪，因为其他研究经常拿身高和好的方面联系起来，比如高薪和长寿。“越大越好”的效应也遵循收益递减定律：无论身多高，肩多宽，阴茎多大，每多一厘米，那这一厘米的重要性都会递减。
Nonetheless, even the tallest, broadest-shouldered and best-endowed digital hunks that the researchers generated fell short of perfection. “The optimum values appear to lie outside the tested range,” they note, adding that the “maxima are more than two standard deviations from the population mean for each trait.” That means that, for each trait, fewer than 2.5% of the men whom women encounter in the real world will be as generously proportioned as they might hope. Men with perfect scores in all three traits will be rarer than hen’s teeth.
然而，即便在研究者所合成的数字照片中，拥有最高身高，最宽肩膀和最大阴茎的健壮男性也算不上完美。研究者说，“最优值似乎在测试范围外，每项特征的极大值都在总体均值的两个标准差之外”，这也就是说，在女性现实世界遇到的所有男性中，就该特征而言，尺寸能符合所愿的少于2.5%。这三方面都很完美的男性算是凤毛麟角。
The study is not perfect. There was no danger of the women mistaking the digital men for the real thing. Other factors—such as social status, for instance—may, in the real world, override the physical preferences that the researchers were measuring. And it is hard, when all the subjects come from a single country, to disentangle the effects of nurture from those of nature. It is commonly pointed out, for instance, that men’s apparent preference for slim women seems to be a relatively modern (and Western) construction. Erotica from the turn of the 19th century tend to feature much curvier women than their modern equivalent. Women’s preferences may be just as influenced by the culture in which they grow up.
该研究并非精确无误。参加测试的女性并不会把虚拟男性看作是真人。现实世界中，其他因素可能比研究者一直在测量的身材偏好这个因素更为重要，比如社会地位。而且如果参与测验的女性仅来自一个国家，那她们就很难将后天形成因素和先天自带特点区分开来。比如，普遍观点指出：男性对窈窕女子有明显偏好，似乎是现代西方文化做出的解释。相比现代的色情书籍，十九世纪初的则更着重描述拥有曲线美的女性。女性喜欢什么样的男性，也许正会因她们成长中所经历的文化的不同而不同。相比现代情色书刊中出现的女性，19世纪初情色书刊会将女性描述得更为妖娆。她们成长所处的文化背景些许会影响女性对男性的偏好吧。
On the other hand, it is a rule of thumb in biology that females (of any species) are much pickier than males. There are good evolutionary reasons why that is so. Even in humans, who share the burden of child-rearing more equally than many animals, having children requires far more of an investment of resources from a female than it does from a male—after all, it is the woman who must endure nine months of pregnancy and then breast-feed the baby. Women therefore face stronger incentives to spend their relatively limited reproductive resources on only the most attractive men, whose children will be most likely to breed in turn. Back to the sit-ups, boys.
而且从生物学的角度来看，有这么一条常理，(任何物种的)雌性都比雄性更挑剔。进化论就很好地解释了这一点。即便在分担子女抚养责任方面，人类在所有动物中算是做得比较公平的了，但是就生小孩而言，还是需要女性从自己身上投入更多。毕竟，女性需要怀胎十月，小孩生下后还需母乳喂养。因此就能强烈诱发女性将自己十分有限的生殖资源献给更具吸引力的男性身上，他们的孩子才最有可能接着生养自己的孩子。所以，小伙子，还是仰卧起坐走起吧!
[2013.04.13] Smoking: Weight watchers 抽烟=减肥
Smoking
吸烟
Weight watchers
抽烟=减肥
Bad news for advocates of higher cigarette taxes
对支持提高烟草税的人来说，坏消息来了
Apr 13th 2013 |From the print edition
“IF IT were totally up to me, I would raise the cigarette tax so high the revenues from it would go to zero,” thundered Michael Bloomberg back in 2002. New York city’s combative mayor has since raised cigarette taxes several times. The effect has been limited, so he wants to try something new. He recently proposed to outlaw discounting cigarettes and displaying them openly in stores.
“如果让我全权决策的话，我会大幅度提高烟草税，直到让烟草业利润降为零。”2002年，纽约市市长Michael Bloomberg这番话掷地有声。在那之后，这位有干劲的市长几次提高了烟草税。然而收效并不十分显著，所以他希望尝试一些新举措。最近，市长提议将打折销售香烟和在商店公开陈列香烟视为违法。
Whether these measures will be approved—and help—remains to be seen. But Mr Bloomberg may well be right to push for more bans. A new paper by Abel Brodeur of the Paris School of Economics, based on extensive surveys in America, suggests that bans on smoking are not just effective but actually make smokers happier. By not allowing them to light up in restaurants and bars (as New York already does), governments give weaker-willed individuals an excuse to do what they otherwise cannot: stop smoking. As an additional benefit, bans also seem to make spouses of smokers happier.
这些条例是否会被通过、是否有效，还有待观察。但布隆伯格市长很可能还会提出更多相关禁令。巴黎经济学院的Abel Brodeur发表了一篇论文，通过在美国大量的调查发现，禁烟条例不仅仅是有效的，事实上还让烟民感到更快乐了。通过禁止人们在餐厅和酒吧抽烟(纽约已经实施这一条例)，政府让意志力不坚定的人有了“借口”去戒烟——而这原本是他们自己所办不到的。禁烟的另一个好处是，吸烟的夫妻似乎因此更幸福了。
A second paper provides ammunition to those sceptical of higher cigarette taxes as a way of discouraging smoking. John Cawley of Cornell University and Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder of York University looked at how sensitive young American smokers are to higher cigarette prices. Not very, it turns out. That is because a big share—46% of teenage girls and 30% of teenage boys—do not smoke for pleasure, but to stay thin or lose weight.
有的人对提高烟草税来降低吸烟率这一举措持怀疑态度，而另一份报告则给这些人提供了有力依据。康奈尔大学的John Cawley和约克大学的Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder就美国年轻吸烟者对提高烟草税的敏感度作了调查。事实证明，这些年轻烟民对此并不敏感。因为大部分吸烟的青少年(46%的女生和30%的男生)并不是为了享受而吸烟，而是为了保持苗条或者减肥。
hat may not be healthy, but it is rational: cigarettes appear to suppress the appetite and increase the metabolic rate. At any rate a desire to lose weight makes young smokers much less sensitive to price changes: other ways of shedding pounds, such as eating less or exercising more, are less appealing. What is more, few teenagers spend a lot of money on cigarettes. A 2003 study by researchers from the University of Minnesota found that only 16% of teenage smokers had bought their last fags themselves.
这个方法可能并不健康，但却有其科学依据。香烟会抑制胃口，加速新陈代谢。不管怎样，减肥的意愿会降低吸烟的年轻人对香烟价格变动的敏感度。和抽烟相比，其他像节食或者加强锻炼这样的减肥方法对他们来说没什么吸引力。此外，极少有青少年会花大笔钱在购买香烟上。2003年，明尼苏达大学的一项研究发现，年轻烟民所吸的上一支烟是自己花钱买的可能性只有16%。
Bans may not do much to stop already illicit smoking by young people. Luckily, the study also opens up a new line of attack: convincing smokers that they are in fact not overweight. Judged by their body-mass index, a way of measuring whether people are under- or overweight, many girls (but not boys) who smoked to get thinner were of perfectly normal weight.
青少年吸烟是违法行为，想要通过禁烟条例来制止这一行为或许没有太大威慑力。但幸运的是，研究找到了一个劝说青少年戒烟的新方法：让他们相信其实他们并没有超重。通过体重系数(一种判断人们体重是偏轻还是偏重的方法)可以看出，很多想要通过吸烟来减肥的女生体重完全是正常的(男生则不是这样)。
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