0113期经济学人第一篇The digital proletariat

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NUC130中文手册

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编号信息列表及管脚名称定义 ................................................................................................... 12
3.1 NuMicro™ NUC130产品选型指南 ................................................................................. 12
3.2.1 NuMicro™ NUC130管脚图 ..............................................................................................13
3.3 管脚功能描述 ................................................................................................................ 16
5.5 I2C 串行接口控制器 (Master/Slave) (I2C)...................................................................... 44
5.5.1 概述.................................................................................................................................44 5.5.2 特征.................................................................................................................................45

2021年《经济学人》杂志原版英文(整理完整版)

Digest Of The. Economist. 2006(6-7)欧阳光明（2021.03.07）Hard to digestA wealth of genetic information is to be found in the human gutBACTERIA, like people, can be divided into friend and foe. Inspired by evidence that the friendly sort may help with a range of ailments, many people consume bacteria in the form of yogurts and dietary supplements. Such a smattering of artificial additions, however, represents but a drop in the ocean. There are at least 800 types of bacteria living in the human gut. And research by Steven Gill of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, and his colleagues, published in this week's Science, suggests that the collective genome of these organisms is so large that it contains 100 times as many genes as the human genome itself.Dr Gill and his team were able to come to this conclusion by extracting bacterial DNA from the faeces of two volunteers. Because of the complexity of the samples, they were not able to reconstruct the entire genomes of each of the gut bacteria, just the individual genes. But that allowed them to make an estimate of numbers.What all these bacteria are doing is tricky to identify—the bacteria themselves are difficult to cultivate. So the researchers guessed at what they might be up to by comparing the genes they discovered withpublished databases of genes whose functions are already known.This comparison helped Dr Gill identify for the first time the probable enzymatic processes by which bacteria help humans to digest the complex carbohydrates in plants. The bacteria also contain a plentiful supply of genes involved in the synthesis of chemicals essential to human life—including two B vitamins and certain essential amino acids—although the team merely showed that these metabolic pathways exist rather than proving that they are used. Nevertheless, the pathways they found leave humans looking more like ruminants: animals such as goats and sheep that use bacteria to break down otherwise indigestible matter in the plants they eat.The broader conclusion Dr Gill draws is that people are superorganisms whose metabolism represents an amalgamation of human and microbial attributes. The notion of a superorganism has emerged before, as researchers in other fields have come to view humans as having a diverse internal ecosystem. This, suggest some, will be crucial to the success of personalised medicine, as different people will have different responses to drugs, depending on their microbial flora. Accordingly, the next step, says Dr Gill, is to see how microbial populations vary between people of different ages, backgrounds and diets.Another area of research is the process by which these helpful bacteria first colonise the digestive tract. Babies acquire their gut flora asthey pass down the birth canal and take a gene-filled gulp of their mother's vaginal and faecal flora. It might not be the most delicious of first meals, but it could well be an important one.Zapping the bluesThe rebirth of electric-shock treatmentELECTRICITY has long been used to treat medical disorders. As early as the second century AD, Galen, a Greek physician, recommended the use of electric eels for treating headaches and facial pain. In the 1930s Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, two Italian psychiatrists, used electroconvulsive therapy to treat schizophrenia. These days, such rigorous techniques are practised less widely. But researchers are still investigating how a gentler electric therapy appears to treat depression.Vagus-nerve stimulation, to give it its proper name, was originally developed to treat severe epilepsy. It requires a pacemaker-like device to be implanted in a patient's chest and wires from it threaded up to the vagus nerve on the left side of his neck. In the normal course of events, this provides an electrical pulse to the vagus nerve for 30 seconds every five minutes.This treatment does not always work, but in some cases where it failed (the number of epileptic seizures experienced by a patient remaining the same), that patient nevertheless reported feeling much better after receiving the implant. This secondary effect led to trials for treating depression and, in 2005, America's Food and DrugAdministration approved the therapy for depression that fails to respond to all conventional treatments, including drugs and psychotherapy.Not only does the treatment work, but its effects appear to be long lasting. A study led by Charles Conway of Saint Louis University in Missouri, and presented to a recent meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, has found that 70% of patients who are better after one year stay better after two years as well.The technique builds on a procedure called deep-brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted deep into the white matter of patients' brains and used to “reboot” f aulty neural circuitry. Such an operation is a big undertaking, requiring a full day of surgery and carrying a risk of the patient suffering a stroke. Only a small number of people have been treated this way. In contrast, the device that stimulates the vagus nerve can be implanted in 45 minutes without a stay in hospital.The trouble is that vagus-nerve stimulation can take a long time to produce its full beneficial effect. According to Dr Conway, scans taken using a technique called positron-emission tomography show significant changes in brain activity starting three months after treatment begins. The changes are similar to the improvements seen in patients who undergo other forms of antidepression treatment. The brain continues to change over the following 21 months. Dr Conway says that patients should be told that the antidepressant effects could be slow in coming.However, Richard Selway of King's College Hospital, London,found that his patients' moods improved just weeks after the implant. Although brain scans are useful in determining the longevity of the treatment, Mr Selway notes that visible changes in the brain do not necessarily correlate perfectly with changes in mood.Nobody knows why stimulating the vagus nerve improves the mood of depressed patients, but Mr Selway has a theory. He believes that the electrical stimulation causes a region in the brain stem called the locus caeruleus (Latin, ironically, for “blue place”) to flood the brain with norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter implicated in alertness, concentration and motivation—that is, the mood states missing in depressed patients. Whatever the mechanism, for the depressed a therapy that is relatively safe and long lasting is rare cause for cheer.The shape of things to comeHow tomorrow's nuclear power stations will differ from today's THE agency in charge of promoting nuclear power in America describes a new generation of reactors that will be “highly economical” with “enhanced safety”, that “minimise wastes” and will prove “proliferation resistant”. No doubt they will bake a mean apple pie, too.Unfortunately, in the world of nuclear energy, fine words are not enough. America got away lightly with its nuclear accident. When the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania overheated in 1979 very little radiation leaked, and there were no injuries. Europe was not so lucky. The accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 killed dozens immediatelyand has affected (sometimes fatally) the health of tens of thousands at the least. Even discounting the association of nuclear power with nuclear weaponry, people have good reason to be suspicious of claims that reactors are safe.Yet political interest in nuclear power is reviving across the world, thanks in part to concerns about global warming and energy security. Already, some 441 commercial reactors operate in 31 countries and provide 17% of the planet's electricity, according to America's Department of Energy. Until recently, the talk was of how to retire these reactors gracefully. Now it is of how to extend their lives. In addition, another 32 reactors are being built, mostly in India, China and their neighbours. These new power stations belong to what has been called the third generation of reactors, designs that have been informed by experience and that are considered by their creators to be advanced. But will these new stations really be safer than their predecessors?Clearly, modern designs need to be less accident prone. The most important feature of a safe design is that it “fails safe”. For a re actor, this means that if its control systems stop working it shuts down automatically, safely dissipates the heat produced by the reactions in its core, and stops both the fuel and the radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactions from escaping by keeping them within some sort of containment vessel. Reactors that follow such rules are called “passive”. Most modern designs are passive to some extent and some newer onesare truly so. However, some of the genuinely passive reactors are also likely to be more expensive to run.Nuclear energy is produced by atomic fission. A large atom (usually uranium or plutonium) breaks into two smaller ones, releasing energy and neutrons. The neutrons then trigger further break-ups. And so on. If this “chain reaction” can be controlled, the energy released can be used to boil water, produce steam and drive a turbine that generates electricity. If it runs away, the result is a meltdown and an accident (or, in extreme circumstances, a nuclear explosion—though circumstances are never that extreme in a reactor because the fuel is less fissile than the material in a bomb). In many new designs the neutrons, and thus the chain reaction, are kept under control by passing them through water to slow them down. (Slow neutrons trigger more break ups than fast ones.) This water is exposed to a pressure of about 150 atmospheres—a pressure that means it remains liquid even at high temperatures. When nuclear reactions warm the water, its density drops, and the neutrons passing through it are no longer slowed enough to trigger further reactions. That negative feedback stabilises the reaction rate.Can business be cool?Why a growing number of firms are taking global warming seriously RUPERT MURDOCH is no green activist. But in Pebble Beach later this summer, the annual gathering of executivesof Mr Murdoch's News Corporation—which last year led to a dramatic shift in the mediaconglomerate's attitude tothe internet—will be addressed by several leading environmentalists, including a vice-president turned climatechangemovie star. Last month BSkyB, a British satellite-television company chaired by Mr Murdoch and run by hisson, James, declared itself “carbon-neutral”, having taken various steps to cut or offset its discharges of carboninto the atmosphere.The army of corporate greens is growing fast. Late last year HSBC became the first big bank to announce that itwas carbon-neutral, joining other financial institutions, including Swiss Re, a reinsurer, and Goldman Sachs, aninvestment bank, in waging war on climate-warming gases (of which carbon dioxide is the main culprit). Last yearGeneral Electric (GE), an industrial powerhouse, launched its “Ecomagination” strategy, aiming to cut its output ofgreenhouse gases and to invest heavily in clean (ie, carbon-free) technologies. In October Wal-Mart announced aseries of environmental schemes, including doubling the fuel-efficiency of its fleet of vehicles within a decade.Tesco and Sainsbury, two of Britain's biggest retailers, are competing fiercely to be the greenest. And on June 7thsome leading British bosses lobbied Tony Blair for a more ambitious policy on climate change, even if that involvesharsher regulation.The greening of business is by no means universal, however. Money from Exxon Mobil, Ford and General Motorshelped pay for television advertisements aired recently in America by the CompetitiveEnterprise Institute, with thedaft slogan “Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life”. Besides, environmentalist critics say, some firmsare eng aged in superficial “greenwash” to boost the image of essentially climate-hurting businesses. Take BP, themost prominent corporate advocate of action on climate change, with its “Beyond Petroleum” ad campaign, highprofileinvestments in green energy, andev en a “carbon calculator” on its website that helps consumers measuretheir personal “carbon footprint”, or overall emissions of carbon. Yet, critics complain, BP's recent record profits arelargely thanks to sales of huge amounts of carbon-packed oil and gas.On the other hand, some free-market thinkers see the support of firms for regulation of carbon as the latestattempt at “regulatory capture”, by those who stand to profit from new rules. Max Schulz of the ManhattanInstitute, a conservative think tank, not es darkly that “Enron was into pushing the idea of climate change, becauseit was good for its business”.Others argue that climate change has no more place in corporate boardrooms than do discussions of other partisanpolitical issues, such as Darfur or gay marriage. That criticism, at least, is surely wrong. Most of the corporateconverts say they are acting not out of some vague sense of social responsibility, or even personal angst, butbecause climate change creates real business risks and opportunities—from regulatory compliance to insuringclients on flood plains. And although theseconcerns vary hugely from one company to the next, few firms can besure of remaining unaffected.Testing timesResearchers are working on ways to reduce the need for animal experiments, but new laws mayincrease the number of experiments neededIN AN ideal world, people would not perform experiments on animals. For the people, they are expensive. For theanimals, they are stressful and often painful.That ideal world, sadly, is still some way away. People need new drugs and vaccines. They want protection fromthe toxicity of chemicals. The search for basic scientific answers goes on. Indeed, the European Commission isforging ahead with proposals that will increase the number of animal experiments carried out in the EuropeanUnion, by requiring toxicity tests on every chemical approved for use within the union's borders in the past 25years.Already, the commission has identified 140,000 chemicals that have not yet been tested. It wants 30,000 of theseto be examined right away, and plans to spend between €4 billion-8 billion ($5 billion-10 billion) doing so. Thenumber of animals used for toxicity testing in Europe will thus, experts reckon, quintuple from just over 1m a yearto about 5m, unless they are saved by some dramatic advances in non-animal testing technology. At the moment,roughly 10% of European animal tests are forgeneral toxicity, 35% for basic research, 45% for drugs andvaccines, and the remaining 10% a variety of uses such as diagnosing diseases.Animal experimentation will therefore be around for some time yet. But the hunt for substitutes continues, and lastweekend the Middle European Society for Alternative Methods to Animal Testing met in Linz, Austria, to reviewprogress.A good place to start finding alternatives for toxicity tests is the liver—the organ responsible for breaking toxicchemicals down into safer molecules that can then be excreted. Two firms, one large and one small, told themeeting how they were using human liver cells removed incidentally during surgery to test various substances forlong-term toxic effects.PrimeCyte, the small firm, grows its cells in cultures over a few weeks and doses them regularly with the substanceunder investigation. The characteristics of the cells are carefully monitored, to look for changes in theirmicroanatomy.Pfizer, the big firm, also doses its cultures regularly, but rather than studying individual cells in detail, it counts cellnumbers. If the number of cells in a culture changes after a sample is added, that suggests the chemical inquestion is bad for the liver.In principle, these techniques could be applied to any chemical. In practice, drugs (and, in the case of PrimeCyte,food supplements) are top of the list. But that might change if the commission has its way: those 140,000screenings look like a lucrative market, although nobody knowswhether the new tests will be ready for use by2009, when the commission proposes that testing should start.Other tissues, too, can be tested independently of animals. Epithelix, a small firm in Geneva, has developed anartificial version of the liningof the lungs. According to Huang Song, one of Epithelix's researchers, the firm'scultured cells have similar microanatomy to those found in natural lung linings, and respond in the same way tovarious chemical messengers. Dr Huang says that they could be used in long-term toxicity tests of airbornechemicals and could also help identify treatments for lung diseases.The immune system can be mimicked and tested, too. ProBioGen, a company based in Berlin, is developing anartificial human lymph node which, it reckons, could have prevented the near-disastrous consequences of a drugtrial held in Britain three months ago, in which (despite the drug having passed animal tests) six men sufferedmultiple organ failure and nearly died. The drug the men were given made their immune systems hyperactive.Such a response would, the firm's scientists reckon, have been identified by their lymph node, which is made fromcells that provoke the immune system into a response. ProBioGen's lymph node could thus work better than animaltesting.Another way of cutting the number of animal experiments would be tochange the way that vaccines are tested, according to CoenraadHendriksen of the Netherlands Vaccine Institute. At themoment, allbatches of vaccine are subject to the same battery of tests. DrHendriksen argues that this is over-rigorous. When new vaccine culturesare made, belt-and-braces tests obviously need to be applied. But if abatch of vaccine is derived from an existing culture, he suggests that itneed be tested only to make sure it is identical to the batch from which itis derived. That would require fewer test animals.All this suggests that though there is still some way to go before drugs,vaccines and other substances can be tested routinely on cells ratherthan live animals, useful progress is being made. What is harder to see ishow the use of animals might be banished from fundamental research.Anger managementTo one emotion, men are more sensitive than womenMEN are notoriously insensitive to the emotional world around them. At least, that is the stereotype peddled by athousand women's magazines. And a study by two researchers at the University of Melbourne, in Australia,confirms that men are, indeed, less sensitive to emotion than women, with one important and suggestiveexception. Men are acutely sensitive to the anger of other men.Mark Williams and Jason Mattingley, whose study has just been published in Current Biology, looked at the way aperson's sex affects his or her response to emotionally charged facial expressions. People from all cultures agreeon what six basic expressions of emotion look like. Whether the face before you is expressing anger, disgust, fear,joy,sadness or surprise seems to be recognised universally—which suggests that the expressions involved areinnate, rather than learned.Dr Williams and Dr Mattingley showed the participants in their study photographs of these emotional expressions inmixed sets of either four or eight. They asked the participants to look for a particular sort of expression, andmeasured the amount of time it took them to find it. The researchers found, in agreement with previous studies,that both men and women identified angry expressions most quickly. But they also found that anger was morequickly identified on a male face than a female one.Moreover, most participants could find an angry face just as quickly when it was mixed in a group of eightphotographs as when it was part of a group of four. That was in stark contrast to the other five sorts of expression,which took more time to find when they had to be sorted from a larger group. This suggests that something in thebrain is attuned to picking out angry expressions, and that it is especially concerned about angry men. Also, thishighly tuned ability seems more important to males than females, since the two researchers found that men pickedout the angry expressions faster than women did, even though women were usually quicker than men to recognizeevery other sort of facial expression.Dr Williams and Dr Mattingley suspect the reason for this is that being able to spot an angry individual quickly hasa survival advantage—and, since anger is more likely to turn into lethal violence in men than inwomen, the abilityto spot angry males quickly is particularly valuable.As to why men are more sensitive to anger than women, it is presumably because they are far more likely to getkilled by it. Most murders involve men killing other men—even today the context of homicide is usually aspontaneous dispute over status or sex.The ability to spot quickly that an alpha male is in a foul mood would thus have great survival value. It would allowthe sharp-witted time to choose appeasement, defence or possibly even pre-emptive attack. And, if it is right, thisstudy also confirms a lesson learned by generations of bar-room tough guys and schoolyard bullies: if you wantattention, get angry.The shareholders' revoltA turning point in relations between company owners and bosses?SOMETHING strange has been happening this year at company annual meetings in America:shareholders have been voting decisively against the recommendations of managers. Until now, mostshareholders have, like so many sheep, routinely voted in accordance with the advice of the people theyemploy to run the company. This year managers have already been defeated at some 32 companies,including household names such as Boeing, ExxonMobil and General Motors.This shareholders' revolt has focused entirely on one issue: the method by which members of the boardof directors are elected. Shareholder resolutions on other subjects have mostly been defeated, asusual.The successful resolutions called for directors to be elected by majority voting, instead of by thetraditional method of “plurality”—which in practice meant that only votes cast in favour were counted,and that a single vote for a candidate would be enough to get him elected.Several companies, led by Pfizer, a drug giant, saw defeat looming and pre-emptively adopted a formalmajority-voting policy that was weaker than in the shareholder resolution. This required any director whofailed to secure a majority of votes to tender his resignation to the board, which would then be free todecide whether or not to accept it. Under the shareholder resolution, any candidate failing to secure amajority of the votes cast simply would not be elected. Intriguingly, the shareholder resolution wasdefeated at four-fifths of the firms that adopted a Pfizer-style majority voting rule, whereas it succeedednearly nine times out of ten at firms retaining the plurality rule.Unfortunately for shareholders, their victories may prove illusory, as the successful resolutions were all“precatory”—meaning that they merely advised management on the course of action preferred byshareholders, but did not force managers to do anything. Several resolutions that tried to imposemajority voting on firms by changing their bylaws failed this year.Even so, wise managers should voluntarily adopt majority voting, according to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen &Katz, a Wall Street law firm that has generally helped managers resist increases in shareholder powerbutnow expects majority voting eventually to “become universal”. It advises that, at the very least,managers should adopt the Pfizer model, if only to avoid becoming the subject of even greater scrutinyfrom corporate-governance activists. Some firms might choose to go further, as Dell and Intel have donethis year, and adopt bylaws requiring majority voting.Shareholders may have been radicalised by the success last year of a lobbying effort by managersagainst a proposal from regulators to make it easier for shareholders to put up candidates in boardelections. It remains to be seen if they will be back for more in 2007. Certainly, some of the activistshareholders behind this year's resolutions have big plans. Where new voting rules are in place, they plancampaigns to vote out the chairman of the compensation committee at any firm that they think overpaysthe boss. If the 2006 annual meeting was unpleasant for managers, next year's could be far worse.Intangible opportunitiesCompanies are borrowing against their copyrights, trademarks and patentsNOT long ago, the value of companies resided mostly in things you could see and touch. Today it liesincreasingly in intangible assets such as the McDonald's name, the patent for Viagra and the rights toSpiderman. Baruch Lev, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, puts theimplied value of intangibles on Americancompanies' balance sheets at about $6 trillion, or two-thirds ofthe total. Much of this consists of intellectual property, the collective name for copyrights, trademarksand patents. Increasingly, companies and their clever bankers are using these assets to raise cash.The method of choice is securitisation, the issuing of bonds based on the various revenues thrown off byintellectual property. Late last month Dunkin' Brands, owner of Dunkin' Donuts, a snack-bar chain, raised$1.7 billion by selling bonds backed by, among other things, the royalties it will receive from itsfranchisees. The three private-equity firms that acquired Dunkin' Brands a few months ago have used thecash to repay the money they borrowed to buy the chain. This is the biggest intellectual-propertysecuritisation by far, says Jordan Yarett of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a law firm that hasworked on many such deals.Securitisations of intellectual property can be based on revenues from copyrights, trademarks (such aslogos) or patents. The best-known copyright deal was the issue in 1997 of $55m-worth of “Bowie Bonds”supported by the future sales of music by David Bowie, a British rock star. Bonds based on the films ofDreamWorks, Marvel comic books and the stories of John Steinbeck have also been sold. As well asDunkin' Brands, several restaurant chains and fashion firms have issued bonds backed by logos andbrands.Intellectual-property deals belong to a class known as operating-asset securitisations. These differ fromstandard securitisations of future revenues, such as bonds backed by the payments on a 30-yearmortgage or a car loan, in that the borrower has to make his asset work. If investors are to recoup theirmoney, the assets being securitised must be “actively exploited”, says Mr Yarett: DreamWorks mustcontinue to churn out box-office hits.The market for such securitisations is still small. Jay Eisbruck, of Moody's, a rating agency, reckons thataround $10 billion-worth of bonds are outs tanding. But there is “big potential,” he says, pointing out thatlicensing patented technology generates $100 billion a year and involves thousands of companies.Raising money this way can make sense not only for clever private-equity firms, but also for companieswith low (or no) credit ratings that cannot easily tap the capital markets or with few tangible assets ascollateral for bank loans. Some universities have joined in, too. Yale built a new medical complex withsome of the roughly $100m it raised securitising patent royalties from Zerit, an anti-HIV drug.It may be harder for investors to decide whether such deals are worth their while. They are, after all,highly complex and riskier than standard securitisations. The most obvious risk is that the investorscannot be sure that the assets will yield what borrowers promise: technology moves on, fashions changeand the demand for sugary snacks may collapse. Valuing intellectual property—an exercise based。

The Economics of Microfinance-chapter 1

The Economics of Microﬁ nanceBeatriz Armendáriz and Jonathan MorduchThe MIT PressCambridge, MassachusettsLondon, EnglandSecond Edition© 2010 Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.For information about special quantity discounts, please email special_sales@mitpress. .This book was set in Palatino by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited.Printed and bound in the United States of America.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataArmendáriz, Beatriz.The economics of microﬁnance / Beatriz Armendáriz and Jonathan Morduch.—2nd ed.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-262-01410-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-51398-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Microﬁnance. I. Morduch, Jonathan. II. Title.HG178.3.A76 2010332—dc22200903476010 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11 1.1 IntroductionIn March 1978, seven years after Bangladesh won its war for indepen-dence, a small group of young men joined together to make a secret pledge. They vowed to create a new and dynamic organization dedi-cated to ﬁ ghting rural poverty. Some saw Bangladesh’s plight as hope-less, as the country struggled in a world increasingly divided between haves and have-nots. Thirty years later, however, the organization started by the young men serves nearly six million villagers in Bangladesh and is celebrated by global business leaders. The Associa-tion for Social Advancement (now best known by its acronym, ASA) targets Bangladesh’s poorest villagers, many of them women, offering tools to create better lives. ASA found success by applying fundamen-tal lessons from economics and management, coupled with important (and not obvious) new insights. In the process, ASA is expanding ﬁ nancial markets and creating fresh ways to think about business strat-egies, economics, and social change.1The hurdles have been high and ASA’s leaders have had to rethink their plans more than once. While ASA started with a commitment to fomenting political transformation, its course shifted radically. Today ASA is squarely a bank for the poor, headquartered in a new ofﬁ ce tower in Bangladesh’s capital. In this, ASA stands as part of a global “microﬁ nance” movement dedicated to expanding access to small-scale loans, savings accounts, insurance, and broader ﬁ nancial services in poor and low-income communities. Their bet is that access to microﬁ -nance can offer powerful ways for the poor to unlock their productive potential by growing small businesses. Increasingly, the focus is also on helping customers save for the future and create more stable lives. InRethinking Banking2 Chapter1doing so, ASA and institutions like it are challenging decades ofthinking about markets and social policy in low-income communities.ASA’s customers borrow on average around $120 per loan, andrepay the loans over the better part of a year. Traditional commercialbanks avoid this population. First, the loans are so small that proﬁtsare typically hard to ﬁnd, and, second, lending seems risky since theborrowers are too poor to offer much in the way of collateral. But atthe end of 2008 ASA reported loan recovery rates of 99.6 percent, andtheir reported revenues have fully covered costs in every year since1993.For many observers, microﬁnance is nothing short of a revolution ora paradigm shift (Robinson 2001). Innovators are proﬁ led in leadingnewspapers and business magazines (in December 2007, ASA toppedForbes magazine’s global ranking of microﬁnance providers), andthe 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the microﬁ nance pioneersMuhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, signals the ways in whichmicroﬁnance has shaken up the world of international development.One of the most striking elements is that the pioneering models grewout o f e xperiments i n l ow-income c ountries l ike B olivia a nd B angladesh—rather than from adaptations of standard banking models in richercountries.Entrepreneurs, academics, social activists, and development expertsfrom around the world have been attracted by the lessons about retailbanking through microﬁnance, as well as by the promise that bankslike ASA hold for getting much-needed resources to underserved pop-ulations.2 Scores of doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, and aca-demic studies have now been written on microﬁnance. Some focus onthe nontraditional contracts used to compensate for risks and to addressinformation problems faced by the microlenders. Others focus onmicroﬁnance as a way to better understand the nature of markets inlow-income economies—with possible lessons for how to supply insur-ance, water, and electricity through markets rather than throughinefﬁcient state-owned companies. Still others focus on the ways thatmicroﬁnance promises to reduce poverty, ﬁght gender inequality, andstrengthen communities. This book provides a critical guide to someof the most important new ideas.The ideas give reasons for hope. Banks and NGOs like ASA areﬂourishing at a time when the effectiveness of foreign aid to ease theburdens of the world’s poor faces fundamental questions (e.g., Boone1996; Easterly 2006). Governments around the world routinely faceRethinking Banking 3criticism for at times being corrupt, bloated, and uninterested in reform. Against this background, banks and NGOs like ASA offer the promise of innovative, cost-effective paths to poverty reduction and social change.ASA is not the only microlender ﬂourishing in rural Bangladesh. ASA’s leadership could learn from the experiences of Grameen Bank and from BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Com-mittee). When we looked at the ﬁ gures at the end of 2003, Grameen claimed 3.1 million members, BRAC claimed 3.9 million, and ASA claimed 2.3 million, nearly all of whom had been written off by com-mercial banks as being “unbankable.” Just four years later, at the end of 2007, the 3 biggest microlenders in Bangladesh claimed over 20 million customers: Grameen counted 7.4 million members, BRAC counted another 7.4 million, and ASA counted 5.4 million.3 Even accounting for the fact that people may belong to more than one micro-lending program at a time, both the absolute and relative ﬁ gures show the potential for rapid growth and scale.The institutions anchor a movement that is global and growing. Microﬁnance programs have created new opportunities in contexts as diverse as villages along the Amazon, inner-city Los Angeles, the Paris outskirts, and war-ravaged Bosnia. Programs are well-established in Bolivia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, and momentum is gaining in Mexico and India. Table 1.1 shows the results of a survey conducted by the Microcredit Summit Campaign. By the end of 2007, the campaign had reports of 154.8 million microﬁnance clients served worldwide by over 3,350 microﬁnance institutions. Of these clients, 106.6 million were reported as being in the bottom half of those living below their nation’s poverty line or were living in households earning under $1 per day per person (deﬁned as “the poorest”; Daley-Harris 2009). Between 1997 and 2007, the numbers grew on average by about 30 percent per year, and the movement’s leaders expect continued expansion as credit unions, commercial banks, and others enter the market.Microﬁnance presents a series of exciting possibilities for extending markets, reducing poverty, and fostering social change. But it also presents a series of puzzles, many of which have not yet been widely discussed. One aim of this book is to describe the innovations that have created the movement. Another aim is to address and clarify the puzzles, debates, and assumptions that guide discussions but that are too often overlooked. Debates include whether the poorest are best4 Chapter 1served by loans or by better ways to save, whether subsidies are a help or a hindrance, whether providing credit without training and other complements is enough, and which aspects of lending mechanisms have driven successful performances. Many of the insights from the microﬁnance experience can be seen fruitfully through the lens of recent innovations in economics (especially the economics of informa-tion, contract theory, and behavioral economics). Other microﬁnance insights point to areas where new research is needed, especially around possibilities and constraints for saving by the poor and for estimating social impacts.Another aim of the book is to tackle the myths that have made their way into conversations on microﬁnance. The ﬁrst myth is that microﬁnance is essentially about providing loans. In chapter 6 we show that providing better ways for low-income households to save and insure can be as important. But we take issue with the argument that, for the poorest, saving is more important. The second myth is that the secret to the high repayment rates on loans is tied closely to the use of the group lending contracts made famous by Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank and Bolivia’s BancoSol. (Grameen’s original approach is described in section 1.4 and in chapter 4.) Group lending has indeed been a critical innovation, but we note emerging tensions,Table 1.1Growth of microﬁ nance coverage as reported to the Microcredit Summit Campaign, 1997–2007End of year Total number ofinstitutionsTotal number of clients reached (millions)Number of “poorest” clients reported (millions)1997 65516.59.01998 70518.710.71999 96421.813.020001,47738.221.620012,03357.329.520022,33467.841.620032,57781.355.020042,81499.772.720053,056135.296.220063,244138.796.220073,352154.8106.6Source : Daley-Harris 2009.Rethinking Banking 5and in chapter 5 we describe a series of innovations in contracts and banking practices that go beyond group lending. We believe that the future of microﬁnance lies with these less-heralded innovations—including the focus on female customers (discussed in greater detail in chapter 7) and the improved management practices described in chapter 11.The third myth is that microﬁnance has a clear record of social impacts and has been shown to be a major tool for poverty reduction and gender empowerment. We believe that microﬁnance can make a real difference in the lives of those served (otherwise we would not have written this book), but microﬁnance is neither a panacea nor a magic bullet, and it cannot be expected to work everywhere or for everyone. Relatively few rigorous studies of impacts have been com-pleted, and the evidence on statistical impacts has been mixed so far. There is not yet a widely acclaimed study that robustly shows strong impacts, but many studies suggest the possibility. Better impact studies can help resolve debates, and we review recent results using random-ized control trials. Chapter 9 describes approaches and challenges to be confronted in pushing ahead.The ﬁnal myth is that most microlenders today are both serving the poor and making proﬁts. We show in chapters 8 and 10 that proﬁtability has been elusive for many institutions, and we describe why good banking practices matter—and how subsidies can be deployed strategi-cally to move microﬁnance forward.Unlike most discussions of microﬁnance oriented toward practitio-ners, we do not begin by describing new microﬁnance institutions.4 We will have much to say about recent innovations later, but our approach begins instead with the nature of poverty and the markets and institutions that currently serve poor households. By beginning with households, communities, and markets, we develop analytical tools and insights that can then be used to think about the new institu-tions, as well as to think about directions that go beyond current approaches.1.2 Why Doesn’t Capital Naturally Flow to the Poor?From the viewpoint of basic economics, the need for microﬁnance is somewhat surprising. One of the ﬁrst lessons in introductory econom-ics is the principle of diminishing marginal returns to capital, which says that enterprises with relatively little capital should be able to earn6 Chapter 1higher returns to their investments than enterprises with a great deal of capital. Poorer enterprises should thus be able to pay banks higher interest rates than richer enterprises. Money should ﬂow from rich depositors to poor entrepreneurs.The “diminishing returns principle” is derived from the assumed concavity of production functions, as illustrated in ﬁgure 1.1. Concav-ity is a product of the plausible assumption that when an enterprise invests more (i.e., uses more capital), it should expect to produce more output, but each additional unit of capital will bring smaller and smaller incremental (“marginal”) gains. When a tailor buys his ﬁrst $100 sewing machine, production can rise quickly relative to the output when using only a needle and thread. The next $100 investment, say for a set of electric scissors, will also bring gains, but the incremental increase is not likely to be as great as that generated by the sewing machine. After all, if buying the scissors added more to output than the sewing machine, the wise tailor would have bought the scissors ﬁrst. The size of the incremental gains matter since the marginal return to capital determines the borrowers’ ability to pay.5 As ﬁgure 1.1 shows, concav-ity implies that the poor entrepreneur has a higher marginal return to capital (and thus a higher ability to repay lenders) than a richerentrepreneur.O u t p u t CapitalFigure 1.1Marginal returns to capital with a concave production function. The poorer entrepreneur has a greater return on his next unit of capital and is willing to pay higher interest rates than the richer entrepreneur.Rethinking Banking 7On a larger scale, if this basic tool of introductory economics is correct, global investors have got it all wrong. Instead of investing more money in New York, London, and Tokyo, wise investors should direct their funds toward India, Kenya, Bolivia, and other low-income countries where capital is relatively scarce. Money should move from North to South, not out of altruism but in pursuit of proﬁt. The Nobel-winning economist Robert Lucas Jr. has measured the extent of the expected difference in returns across countries (assuming that marginal returns to capital depend just on the amount of capital relative to other productive inputs). Based on his estimates of marginal returns to capital, Lucas (1990) ﬁnds that borrowers in India should be willing to pay ﬁfty-eight times as much for capital as borrowers in the United States. Money should thus ﬂow from New York to New Delhi.6The logic can be pushed even further. Not only should funds move from the United States to India, but also, by the same argument, capital should naturally ﬂow from rich to poor borrowers within any given country. Money should ﬂow from Wall Street to Harlem and to the poor mountain communities of Appalachia, from New Delhi to villages throughout India. The principle of diminishing marginal returns says that a simple cobbler working on the streets or a woman selling ﬂowers in a market stall should be able to offer investors higher returns than General Motors or IBM or the Tata Group can—and banks and inves-tors should respond accordingly.Lucas’s ultimate aim is to point to a puzzle: given that investors are basically prudent and self-interested, how has introductory economics got it wrong? Why are investments in fact far more likely to ﬂow from poor to rich countries, and not in the other direction? Why do large corporations have a far easier time obtaining ﬁnancing from banks than self-employed cobblers and ﬂower sellers?The ﬁrst place to start in sorting out the puzzle is with risk. Investing in Kenya, India, or Bolivia is for many a far riskier prospect than invest-ing in U.S. or European equities, especially for global investors without the time and resources to keep up-to-date on shifting local conditions. The same is true of lending to cobblers and ﬂower sellers versus lending to large, regulated corporations. But why can’t cobblers and ﬂower sellers in the hinterlands offer such high returns to investors that their risk is well compensated for?One school argues that poor borrowers can pay high interest rates in principle but that government-imposed interest rate restrictions prevent banks from charging the interest rates required to draw capital8 Chapter1from North to South and from cities to villages.7 If this is so, the chal-lenge for microﬁnance is wholly political. Advocates should just con-vince governments to remove usury laws and other restrictions onbanks, then sit back and watch the banks ﬂood into poor regions. Thatis easier said than done of course, especially since usury laws (i.e., lawsthat put upper limits on the interest rates that lenders can charge) havelong histories and strong constituencies.Reality is both more complicated and more interesting. Even if usurylaws could be removed, providing banks with added freedom to servethe poor and cover costs is not the only answer. Indeed, as we showin chapter 2, raising interest rates can undermine institutions by weak-ening incentives for borrowers. Once (lack of) information is broughtinto the picture (together with the lack of collateral), we can more fullyexplain why lenders have such a hard time serving the poor, evenhouseholds with seemingly high returns. The important factors are thebank’s incomplete information about poor borrowers and the poorborrowers’ lack of collateral to offer as security to banks.The ﬁrst problem—adverse selection—occurs when banks cannoteasily determine which customers are likely to be more risky thanothers. Banks would like to charge riskier customers more than safercustomers in order to compensate for the added probability of default.But the bank does not know who is who, and raising average interestrates for everyone often drives safer customers out of the credit market.The second problem, moral hazard, arises because banks are unable toensure that customers are making the full effort required for theirinvestment projects to be successful. Moral hazard also arises whencustomers try to abscond with the bank’s money. Both problems aremade worse by the difﬁculty of enforcing contracts in regions withweak judicial systems.These problems could potentially be eliminated if banks had cheapways to gather and evaluate information on their clients and to enforcecontracts. But banks typically face relatively high transactions costswhen working in poor communities since handling many small trans-actions is far more expensive than servicing one large transaction fora richer borrower. Another potential solution would be available ifborrowers had marketable assets to offer as collateral. If that were so,banks could lend without risk, knowing that problem loans werecovered by assets. But the starting point for microﬁnance is that newways of delivering loans are needed precisely because borrowers aretoo poor to have much in the way of marketable assets. In this sense,1.3 Good Intentions Gone Awry: The Failures of State-Owned Development BanksThe lack of banks does not mean that poor individuals are unable to borrow. They do—but from informal sources such as moneylenders, neighbors, relatives, and local traders. Such lenders often have the rich information (and effective means of enforcing contracts) that banks lack. Their resources, however, are limited. Microﬁnance presents itself as the latest solution to the age-old challenge of ﬁnding a way to combine the banks’ resources with the local informational and cost advantages of neighbors and moneylenders. Like traditional banks, microﬁnance institutions can bring in resources from outside the com-munity. Microﬁnance is not the ﬁrst attempt to do this, but it is by far the most successful.The success of microﬁnance depends in part on studiously avoiding the mistakes of the past. As low-income countries attempted to develop their agricultural sectors after World War II, rural ﬁnance emerged as a large concern then too. Large state agricultural banks were given the responsibility for allocating funds, with the hope that providing sub-sidized credit would induce farmers to irrigate, apply fertilizers, and adopt new crop varieties and technologies (e.g., Reserve Bank of India 1954). The hope was to increase land productivity, increase labor demand, and thereby to increase agricultural wages.Heavy subsidies were also deployed to compensate the banks for entering into markets where they feared taking huge losses due to high transactions costs and inherent risks. The subsidies were also used to keep interest rates low for poor borrowers. In the Philippines, for example, interest rates charged to borrowers were capped at 16 percent before a reform in 1981, while inﬂation rates were around 20 percent annually (David 1984). The negative real interest rates created excess demand for loans, adding pressure to allocate loans to politically favored residents, rather than to target groups. Meanwhile, the interest rates offered to rural depositors were only about 6 percent per year, so inﬂation eroded the purchasing power of savings at a rate of about 14 percent per year. Not surprisingly, such policies turnedout disastrously. David (1984, 222) concludes that in the PhilippinesIndia’s Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) is, to many, a too perfect example of inefﬁcient subsidized credit. The program allocated credit according to “social targets” that in principle pushed 30 percent of loans toward socially excluded groups (as signiﬁed by being a member of a “scheduled” tribe or caste) and 30 percent toward women. Achieving social goals became as important as achieving efﬁciency. Under the system, capital was allocated according to a series of nested planning exercises, with village plans aggregating to block plans aggregating to district plans aggregating to state plans. Subsidies between 1979 and 1989, a period of rapid IRDP growth, amounted to $6 billion (roughly 25 percent to 50 percent of loan volume made to weak sectors). Those resources did not generate good institutional performance. According to Pulley (1989), IRDP repayment rates fell below 60 percent, and just 11 percent of borrowers took out a second loan after the ﬁrst (which is particularly striking given the importance accorded to repeat lending by microﬁnance practitioners). In 2000, the IRDP loan recovery rate fell to just 31 percent (Meyer 2002).10 As insti-tutional performance dramatically weakened, the IRDP failed to be a reliable and meaningful source of services for the poor.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Rural Finance Program at Ohio State University launched a devastating critique of government-led development banks like the IRDP and the Philippine programs.11 Its starting point was that credit is not like fertilizer or seeds. Instead, Ohio School critics argued, credit should be thought of as a fungible tool of ﬁnancial intermediation (with many uses) and not as a speciﬁc input into particular production processes. Thus one problem, according to such criticisms, came from mistakenly believing that credit could be “directed” to particular ends favored by policymakers (e.g., expanding the use of high-yielding crop varieties). And that, coupled with cheap credit policies, created havoc in rural ﬁnancial markets and ultimately undermined attempts to reduce poverty (Adams, Graham, and von Pischke 1984). The story hinges on a failure to adequately account forthe incentive effects and politics associated with subsidies. SubsidizingThus, critics of the subsidized state banks argue that poor house-holds would often have been better off without the subsidies. This is in part because, ﬁrst, subsidized banks pushed out informal credit sup-pliers on which the poor rely. Second, the market rate of interest is a rationing mechanism—those who are willing to pay for credit are only those with projects that are most worthy. But with subsidies driving interest rates well below market rates of interest, the rationing mecha-nism broke down. Credit was no longer allocated to the most produc-tive recipients, but instead was often allocated on the basis of politics or social concerns. Good projects thus went unfunded. Third, bankers’ incentives to collect savings deposits were diminished by the steady ﬂow of capital from the government, so poor households were left with relatively unattractive and inefﬁcient ways to save. Fourth, the fact that the banks were state banks led to pressure to forgive loans just before elections, to privilege the powerful with access to cheap funds meant for the poor, and to remove incentives for management to build tight, efﬁcient institutions. Braverman and Guasch (1986) conclude that gov-ernment credit programs in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia have, with a few exceptions, ended up with default rates between 40 percent and 95 percent. And at such rates, borrowers can be excused for seeing the credit programs as pro-viding grants rather than loans. The misallocation of resources hap-pened so regularly that González-Vega (1984) dubs it the “iron law of interest rate restrictions.”Critics hold that these kinds of subsidies undermined the poor, although the evidence from India at least provides a more nuanced picture. Empirical work by Burgess and Pande (2005), for example, shows net positive average impacts on the poor in India.12 Similarly, Binswanger and Khandker (1995) ﬁnd that between 1972–1973 and 1980–1981 the state banks in India increased nonfarm growth, employ-ment, and rural wages. Still, the Indian programs have been clearly inefﬁcient, and a great deal of money that was originally targeted to the poor ended up being wasted or going into the “wrong” hands. As a result, Binswanger and Khandker ﬁnd only modest impacts on agri-cultural output and none on agricultural employment, and they con-clude that the costs of the government programs were so high that they nearly swamped the economic beneﬁts. More than any positive histori-cal precedent, it is the repudiation of these negative legacies that has1.4 Grameen Bank and the Beginnings of MicroﬁnanceThe roots of microﬁnance can be found in many places, but the best-known story is that of Muhammad Yunus and the founding of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank. We brieﬂy tell the story now and return to Grameen’s experience in later chapters.13In the middle of the 1970s, Bangladesh was starting down the long road to build a new nation. The challenges were great: independence from Pakistan had been won in December 1971 after a ﬁerce war, and two years later widespread ﬂooding brought on a famine that killed tens of thousands (Sen 1981). Government surveys found over 80 percent of the population living in poverty in 1973–1974 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 1992).Muhammad Yunus, an economist trained at Vanderbilt University, was teaching at Chittagong University in southeast Bangladesh. The famine, though, brought him disillusionment with his career as an economics professor. In 1976, Yunus started a series of experiments lending to poor households in the nearby village of Jobra. Even the little money he could lend from his own pocket was enough for villag-ers to run simple business activities like rice husking and bamboo weaving. Yunus found that borrowers were not only proﬁting greatly by access to the loans but that they were also repaying reliably, even though the villagers could offer no collateral. Realizing that he could only go so far with his own resources, in 1976 Yunus convinced the Bangladesh Bank (the central bank of Bangladesh) to help him set up a special branch that catered to the poor of Jobra. That soon spawned another trial project, this time in Tangail in North-Central Bangladesh. Assured that the successes were not region-speciﬁc ﬂukes, Grameen went nation-wide. One innovation that allowed Grameen to grow explosively was group lending, a mechanism that essentially allows the poor borrowers to act as guarantors for each other. With group lending in place, the bank could quickly grow village by village as funding permitted. And funding—supplied in the early years by the International Fund for Agriculture and Development, the Ford Foun-dation, and the governments of Bangladesh, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands—permitted rapid growth indeed. As ﬁgure 1.2 shows, thebank grew by 40 percent per year at its peak. By 1991 the Grameen。

2013版《经济学人》中英文对照：网络净收益

Free exchange自在交流Net benefits网络净支利How to quantify the gains that the internet has broughtto consumers若何量化互联网给用户带去的支利?Mar 9th 2013 |From the print editionWHEN her two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer in1992, Judy Mollica spent hours in a nearby medical library in southFlorida, combing through journals for information about her child’scondition. Upon seeing an unfamiliar term she would stop and huntdown its meaning elsewhere in the library. It was, she says, like“walking in the dark”. Her daughter recovered but in 2005 wasdiagnosed with a different form of cancer. This time, Ms Mollicawas able to stay by her side. She could read articles online,instantly look up medical and scientific terms on Wikipedia, andthen follow footnotes to new sources. She could converse with herdaughter’s specialists like a fellow doctor. Wikipedia, she says,not only saved her time but gave her a greater sense of control.“You can’t put a price on that.”1992年茱迪•莫莉卡(JudyMollica)两岁年日的女女被诊续入得了癌症，她正在北佛罗中达州一家开医院没有远的医教图书馆中破钞了年日量的时间详实天查阅医教期刊体味女女的病情。

2.1Output, the stock market and interest rate

American Economic AssociationOutput, the Stock Market, and Interest RatesAuthor(s): Olivier J. BlanchardSource: The American Economic Review, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), pp. 132-143Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: /stable/1805045Accessed: 28/01/2010 09:24Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aea.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@.American Economic Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheAmerican Economic Review.。

Social and Cultural Environments

寬頻
• 擁有很大的容量，能同時傳輸多個聲音、資料及影像頻道 • 頻寬大小可決定通過某一傳輸管道的頻率範圍
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©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan
寬頻
• • • • • 讓使用者可以接收音頻、影像及媒體線上遊戲線上教學醫學診斷及治療電子商務
15-16
©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan
網站與設計
• 公司網站可自製也可外包 • 註冊特定國家的網域名稱 • 將網站的語言當地化，同時依照當地的國情為公司命名 • 每個特定國家的網站都應反映當地文化、習俗與審美觀 • 隱私議題：歐盟是全球法規最嚴格的地區，其對隱私權的標準現在也被加拿大、澳洲和亞洲等其他地區採用
15-14
©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan
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©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan
產業輻合
輻合(convergence) 代表結合之前各自獨立的產業與產品類別
15-6
©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan
價值網路與突破性科技
• 創新者的兩難 (innovator's dilemma) • 價值網絡(value network) • 持續性技術(sustaining technology) • 突破性技術(disruptive technology)
• 網站也可依用途來分類：
– 消費者促銷活動vs.經銷商促銷活動推廣商品或服務的促銷網站 – 提供新聞、娛樂，並支援公司公共關係的內容網站 – 讓消費者進行購買商品與服務的交易網站
15-12
©2011 Pearson Education Taiwan来自網站類別15-13

数字阅读取代传统阅读英语作文

数字阅读取代传统阅读英语作文The Evolution of Reading: Digital vs. Traditional.As technology marches forward, so does the way we consume information. The debate surrounding the replacement of traditional reading by digital reading has been raging for years, with proponents and opponents voicing their opinions passionately. This essay aims to explore both sides of the argument and delve into the implications of this shift in reading habits.The Rise of Digital Reading.The advent of the internet and subsequent digital revolution has been transformative in every aspect of human life, including reading. Digital reading, often referred to as e-reading, has seen exponential growth in recent years, with devices like smartphones, tablets, and e-readers becoming commonplace. This shift has been driven by several factors, including convenience, accessibility, and theever-growing library of digital content.Convenience is perhaps the most significant driver. With digital reading, users can access books, articles, and other forms of content anytime, anywhere, without the need for physical books or newspapers. This flexibility has made digital reading particularly popular among younger generations who are accustomed to the instant gratification of digital technology.Accessibility is another key factor. Digital content is often cheaper or even free, as compared to physical books, and it跨越了地理和文化的界限。

赏析版2011年1-3月经济学人文章(英汉双语对照)汇集

2011年1-3月赏析帖汇集
[2011.03.31]They’re bust. Admit it. 他们破产了，接受这个现实吧！ 1
[2011.03.31]Everybody needs good neighbours给力莫如好邻居 3
[2011.03.31]Raging bulls 愤怒的“公牛” 9
[2011.02.17]New world order 新世界秩序 148
[2011.02.17]Learning to like inflation 学会喜欢通胀 149
[2011.02.10]Shifting sands 流沙 153
[2011.02.10]The anti-Nokia 诺基亚的反例 156
[2011.03.17]Stopped in their tracks 网络追踪，戛然而止 53
[2011.03.17]Japan and the uses of adversity日本之灾,焉知非福? 55
[2011.03.12]Oh, Mr Porter - 哦，波特先生 58
[2011.03.11]Regional disparities 地区差距 62
[2011.01.20]The world's water-coolers 世界的开水间 185
[2011.01.20]The world's water-coolers 世界的开水间 189
[2011.01.20]Tribes still matter 族群依旧重要 194
[2011.01.20]Canada's tar sands 加拿大的油砂 198
Portugal’s prime minister resigned on March 23rd after failing to win support for the fourth austerity package in a year. The country’s credit rating was slashed to near-junk status on March 29th, while ten-year bond yields have risen above 8% as investors fear Portugal will have to turn to the European Union and the IMF for loans. The economies of both Greece and Ireland, Europe’s two “rescued” countries, are shrinking faster than expected, and bond yields, at almost 13% for Greece and over 10% for Ireland, remain stubbornly high. Investors plainly don’t believe the rescues will work.

unit1 TextA 课文翻译

无处可逃？马特•霍南在一个彼此关联的星球上，你不可能逃离科技——你必须设法应对。

1. 几年前，我和妻子花了三个星期在加州偏远地区徒步旅行。

我们走了200多英里却没有踏足任何公路——更爽的是，这期间我们没有回复任何电话、电子邮件、推特或其他日常网络通信。

这简直就是人间天堂。

但当我们走到小路尽头，站在惠特尼山巅，俯瞰着广阔无垠的西部，随处可见的各种智能手机让我惊愕不已。

人们都在拍照、发短信，一位女士甚至在打电话。

我们不屑与这群叽叽喳喳的人为伍，于是继续走到小路的起点，然后搭便车回到我们停车的约塞米蒂国家公园，心中颇为自得。

2.当我把这段经历讲给一位同事听的时候，他冷冷地打断我问道，“你们当时带了GPS吗？”我说带了。

“哦，那你们便不算独处荒野。

”他答道。

他说的似乎有些道理。

3. 每个人对何为彻底逃离（科技）都有自己的定义。

在某些人看来，我所谓的彻底逃离其实远非彻底。

即使身在最偏僻的旅途，也总有发射回地球的卫星信号告诉我准确的位置。

4. 人类有意逃离科技和文明的传统由来已久，可以说是与科技和文明相伴相随。

但在当今，将世界上绝大多数地方链接起来的互联网就像苹果手机一样近在身边，这种逃离便显得愈发紧迫。

我们追寻诗人拉尔夫•瓦尔多•爱默生在诗中描述的Waldensamkeit ——那种在林中独处的感觉。

5. 这种感觉在文学作品中描述甚多。

《黑暗的心灵》的主人公查尔斯•马洛就渴望探访地球上仅剩的几块空白之地。

这多少类似今天许多人规划假期时候的情形。

自然，河流、山谷和边疆许久之前就已经标在地图上了，今天我们说的空白之地是指全球通讯网络中仅剩的几个盲区。

我们要去的就是外界无法联络到的地方，无论什么地方都行。

不过，很快这些空白之地就都会被填满。

过不了多久，整个地球都会被通讯信号层层覆盖，我们将再也找不到没有联网的地方。

6. 现在的情形已基本如此啦。

只消上网看看国家电信和信息管理局的全美宽带覆盖图，你就会发现，除了一些高山和人烟稀少的沙漠外，全国基本呈一片连续的蓝色。

EST1课文翻译--科技英语综合教程

博弈论阿维纳什•迪克斯特&巴里•内尔巴夫1博弈是有关策略的科学。

它试图以数学和逻辑的方法来帮助博弈者作出决策，在一系列纷繁复杂的博弈中应采取何种策略来保证自己获得最大利益。

博弈论研究的博弈的范围包括了从下棋到抚育儿童，从网球竞技到公司转手。

但是所有的博弈都具有一个共同的特征：相互作用。

也就是说,每一个博弈者的博弈结果取决于所有博弈参与者的策略选择。

在零和博弈中，博弈者的利益之间是完全冲突的，因此一方的得利必然导致另一方的损失。

更多具有代表性的例子还有会导致共同得利(正和)博弈和共同损失(负和)博弈，同样的情况还会发生在另外一些冲突中。

2博弈论研究的先驱者是普林斯顿数学家约翰•冯•诺依曼。

在早先的一段时间里，研究的重点被放在了完全冲突(零和)博弈(非合作博弈)上，其他的博弈当时被认为是以合作形式出现。

也就是说，博弈要求参与者共同地选择和实施他们的行为.最近的研究则把重点放在了那些既不属于零和博弈也不属于绝对合作博弈的情况上，在这些博弈中，博弈者自主地选择博弈行为，但他们之间的相互关系中充满了合作与竞争。

3博弈行为与我们在中性环境中所作的各种决定有着根本性的不同。

要说明这一点，我们可以思考一下伐木工人和军队将军所作决定之间的不同。

当伐木工人决定要如何砍树时，他不会考虑树木本身会有什么反抗，他所处的环境为中性。

而当将军决定要消灭敌军时，他必须提前预料到并消除敌军的反抗。

与这一例子中的将军相类似，一个博弈者必须认识到他与其他机智且怀有争胜之心的竞争者之间的相互作用，他自己所作的决定也必须能够同时应对可能出现的合作或冲突。

4博弈的实质是博弈者采取策略之间的相互依赖性。

这种策略性的相互依赖表现为两个不同的类别：连续策略之间的相互作用以及联立策略之间的相互作用。

就前者而言，博弈者依次采取行动，每个人都会注意其他博弈者先前的行为。

就后者而言，博弈者同时采取行动，每个人都会忽略其他博弈者当前的行为。

5对连续策略博弈中的某一博弈这来说，一个普遍的原则就是放眼前方，及时反思和总结。

计算机文化1

诸如计算机和互联网等数字化技术所带来的社会、政治和经济的持续变化过程
The technology driving the digital revolution is based on digital electronics and the idea that electrical signals can represent data, such as numbers, words, pictures, and music /驱动数字革命的技术是建立在数字电子学和电子信号能表示诸如数字、字符、图
Chapter 2: Computer Hardware
12
1 Personal Computing
The model for the second phase of the digital revolution, personal computing is characterized（特征化为） by small, standalone computers powered by local software
形和音乐等数据的基础之上
Chapter 1: Computers and Digital Basics
8
1 The Digital Revolution
Digitization is the process of converting text, numbers, sound, photos, and video into data that can be processed by digital devices The digital revolution has evolved（演化） through four phases, beginning with big, expensive, standalone（独立的） computers, and progressing to（进步成） today’s digital world （数字化世界） in which small, inexpensive digital devices are everywhere

20160330爬坡一代

译文导读下载The Economist全本请回复「经济学人下载」对千禧一代（1981～2000年出生的人）来说，这是最好的时代：电脑，智能手机的普及，让信息一触即得，接受教育和寻找工作也变得更加容易；这也是最坏的时代：金融风暴席卷全球，大城市房价飙升，生活也愈加艰难。

本文是《经济学人》千禧一代专题的第一篇文章，译者说邀您共赏。

双语精读Generation Uphill爬坡一代The millennials are the brainiest, best-educated generation ever. Yet their elders often stop them from reaching their full potential, argues Robert Guest.千禧一代是有史以来最聪明，受教育程度最高的一代人。

然而他们的前辈却经常阻碍他们充分挖掘出自己的潜能，罗伯特•盖斯特（Robert Guest）这样说。

Translated by 忍冬Proofread by 黑彪，斯通.康姆Edited by Ghost IISHEN XIANG LIVES in a shipping crate on a construction site in Shanghai which he shares with at least seven other young workers. He sleeps in a bunk and uses a bucket to wash in. “It’s uncomfortable,” he says. Still, he pays no rent and the walk to work is only a few paces. Mr Shen, who was born in 1989, hails from a village of “mountains, rivers and trees”. He is a migrant worker and the son of two migrants, so he has always been a second-class citizen in his own country.沈翔（音）住在上海建筑工地的装运箱中，他与至少七个年轻工人共用一间房。

Digital Project

How does this tutorial work?A+S Commands at a Glance Import Options Defining Support Geometry Grids Tools Further A+S Commands Catalogs Slabs Columns Beams Walls Openings Doors Windows Spaces02040506141617182022242832363840MODULE 01: TABLE OF CONTENTS0107Fig. 01bp i tSYMBOLS + ABBREVIATIONSRight mouse button click Left mouse button click Middle mouse button click Double click left mouse button Ctrl key Alt keyStep Number R-clk: L-clk: M-clk: Dbl-clk: Ctrl: Alt:Best Practices Further Information TipMODULE 01 is an introductory exercise to the fundamentals of the Architecture and Structures workbench where a closer look is taken atthe Grids and the Architecture Objects toolbars.The module also addresses topics of importing geometry drawn outside of Digital Project.In the case study, the driving geometry is an existing ACAD drawing, from which a section is extracted using the commands featured in the Grids Toolbar. The elements extracted are further used as support for the creation of Architecture objects (fig. 01).INTRODUCTION: A+S MODULE 0101Item IndicationImage numberFig. 01Fig. 41iThe definition window image resembles the inputs made for theexample model.Specification Tree image indicatesreference\ support element selectionsmade in the definition window.Comments regarding best practices, tips or further information arelocated on odd pages. Text boxes contain a symbol indicating thetype of comments made.Newly created elements are brought to attention inthese fields. Element names appear Bold.Screen images showing the progress of the examplemodel are located on odd page numbers.In the image, pay attentions to the appearance ofthe Specifications Tree.With Catalog Selections, the Catalogwindow is shown in greater detail.i0102GRIDS TOOLBARFig. 03To access the Architecture and Structures Workbench go to:Start > Project Center > Architecture and StructuresYou may select the drawing by selecting and copying theview from the Drawing Specifications Tree.You may also select the drawing by selecting the geometryfrom your drafting space by clicking on the red dashed line.When you paste the drawing it will appear in a sketch called Main View. Rename the sketch to ACAD PLAN.00 | 0102 | 0304 | 0506 | 0708 | 0910 | 1112 | 1314 | 1516 | 1718 | 1920 | 2122 | 2324 | 2526 | 2728 | 2930 | 3132 | 3334 | 3536 | 37 38 | 3940 | 41Output geometry appears in the Specifications Tree under a new branch called Outputs .Output geometry is displayed with a heavier lineweight; in this case it also inherits the color of the ACAD drawing.Elements organized in separate geometrical set.Fig. 09Fig. 08Diagonal line and point marking the center of the column.Fig. 12 Fig. 11Renamed beam support linesLevel Planes Tree organizationHorizontal beam support lines04iiof the input plane.A grid is not limited to a rectangular system of coordinates used in locating the principal elements of an architectural plan. Theterm here refers to any organizational system of reference lines or curves. In this case study, the system is defined by the imported plan drawing. The elements of the drawing are outputted and then published using the grid tools which will enable them to be used as support for placing architectural elements throughout the model, regardless of the organization of products and parts.Define the INTERSECTION GRID as the in work object. Here you will create grid points from the column center points by using the Grid Point command. Click the Grid Point button and then select the input element. Change the name of each input point to correspond to the name of the column for which the point was created. In this example Point.1 was created as a center point for COLUMN 01 - C01 therefore the Grid Point is named C01.Think of Grid Points or Grid Intersections as 2D representations at a particular level of infinite vertical lines.Published elements.Planes as part of an Elevation GridLine geometry as part of a Plan GridGrid Points in an Intersection Grid .Grid types containing Grid objects: here named according to their type.For multiple selection of supportelements you must hold downFig. 18Fig. 19aFig. 19bFig. 19cFig. 20aFig. 20bWhen creating beams or columns you will have the following option tabs for defining the column or beam element:Rectangular Tab: Allows you to create a rectangular element by specifying a height and width for the profile. Circular Tab: Allows you to create a circular element by specifying a radius for the element.Standard Tab: Allows you to select a standard element that is part of a catalog.Custom Tab: Allows you to use a custom profile defined COLUMN AND BEAM PROFILE TYPE OPTIONSCustom Wall Type Catalog SelectionsIn this case the slab Thickness is specified as 1ft . You may either type or use the up and down arrows to input the desired value.The Layer field refers to the position of the slab inreference to the support plane. For this model the position of the support is specified as Top of Slab .The Offset field allows you to further define the location ofthe slab in relation to the given support. The offset distance will refer to the position of the support as specified in the Layer field.In the the bounding limits of the slab. For this case study you need to use the published Slab Profile PLAN GRID The Structural Panel Layer allows you to position the slab’s structural panel on top, in the middle or on the bottom of the slab.The Segments field contains the number of nodes that a structural element might contain in a case where it has been segmented for a structural analysis model. For example, if there is any curvature The Support support plane. For this example, slabs are created using each one of the Level Grid planes: L01, L02, and L03 defined within the ELEVATION GRID.more detail in A+S Module 02.Expand the Specification tree and familiarize yourself with the structure of the slab.Slabs at each level plane.Define the column as 2.5ft x 2.5ft square in the Rectangular tab.For this exercise each slab by selecting the appropriate slab input for the Bottom field and specifying the Bottom field as next slab up and have the of Slab .The Set Point fields allows you to input a position for the column with support. The Angle and the Angle Reference position of the column.Columns created using Grid Points as support.Once again, pay attention to the structure of the Column objects in the Specification Tree.Each A+S element has a tag that can be turned off/ on with the Quick Filter tool.Fig. 25The Structural Set Point field allows you to position the structural Define the beam as 1.5ft x 2ft rectangle in the Rectangular tab.Name each beam according to theAlignment Grid Axis Define the limits in the From and which each beam spans. Use the side of the column that defines the end of the beam.The Set Point the beam with respect to its support. The Angle Reference position of the beam.The Alignment this example so the line connecting the given two columns becomes the Alignment support. In the case of the first beam we select B01, which connects the first column C01 to the second column C02.The Support this example the beam is part of the support for the L02 Slab, therefore L02 SLAB is selected for the input in this field. Further in the Bottom of Slab the slab.Beams created using grid axes for alignments as well as L02 SLAB for support.Note the structure of the beam object in the Specification Tree.Columns become the limits defining the From andTo Specifications for each beam.Fig. 28position forAngle and thefields allow further modifications to theFig. 27Fig. 31Specify theTo limits for the walls as shown here. Later on you may need to go back and redefine the limits as you create more Architecture objects.To redefine any Architecture object, simply dbl-clk it on theTree and the its definition window will open.Select the Structure and Surface walltype as shown here from the catalogbrowser window. To open the windowL-clk the gray button next to theCatalog field.Once you have made your selection,the wall description will appear in theLayer Set field.For this exercise, set the StructureThickness to 2.5ft for the core walls.Change the wall, so that support.The Layer field refers to the Position of the wall in reference to its support. The position here depends on the direction of the wall, which in turn is dependent upon the specification of the Bottom,CORE01 in this case is positioned so that its support is to theExterior of Structure.Note the structure of the wall object in theSpecification Tree.Walls using grid axes for support.Fig. 32Fig. 34Select the Partition and Surface withFinished wall type, as shown here, from the catalog browser window. To open the window, L-clk the gray button next to the Catalog field.Once you have made your selection, the wall description will appear in the Layer Set field.Specify the Bottom , Top , From and To limits for the walls as shown here. Later on you may need to go back and redefine the limits as you create more Architecture objects.To redefine any Architecture object, simply dbl-clk it on the tions Tree and its definition window will open.For this exercise, set the Interior Thickness and Exterior Thickness to 0.25ft for each partition wall.The Layer field refers to the Position of the wall in reference to its support. The position here depends on the direction of the wall. The direction, in turn, is dependent upon the specifica tion of the Bottom To limits.Change the that it corresponds to its support.Arch. Walls (here as partition walls) created using grid axes as the support.Use existing architectural objects such as the columns to further define the limits of the walls.The partition wall - W06 here is limited by a column and one of the core walls.Note the structure of the partition walls in theSpecification Tree and compare it to the core walls.Pay attention to corners; you may need to redefine the limits of some elements to ensure the connec-tions are clean.Elements defining opening.At this point you may want to redefine the core walls’specifications, so that they reach the bottom of the slab.In this example we want the walls to go through the slab,therefore they should also be positioned to the inside ofthe core opening.Contour Opening defined by CORE grid axes.Note the location of the opening. It appears insidethe Slab.1 branch of the Specifications Tree.Fig. 36bFig. 38Fig. 39The definition window changes as the opening becomes Partial . Here we have a From and To fields to define the depth of the partial opening.For this exercise, define the openings as Complete .Define the opening as a 2.5ft x 2.5ft square in the Rectangular tab.Changing the shifts the opening relative to the Placement Position . For this example the Set Point is defined as in the of the opening. You have the option to also modify the position of the opening in regard to its support by changing the value of the Reference Once again redefine the columns’ specifications, so that they reach the bottom of the slab. You may edit all of the columns together by using the Edit Columns button from the Multiple Edits toolbar. (Note: Image does not illustratethis. Columns shown here are not redefined)Opening positioned using the a grid point from the INTERSECTION GRID.Openings appear inside the parent slab branch of the Specifications Tree .Fig. 41iFor this example select an IFC Sliding - Casing - Glass door form the CatalogBrowser window. To open the Catalog Browser , L-clk the gray button that appears next to the Style field.You may specify the Door Widthand Door Height here. For this exercise specify the value as shown. The Operation Side defines which way the door opens.Open Ratio controls the opening of the door.SLIDING DOOR 01.The More you to see additional details for the definition of the door object.The Invert button will reverse theorientation of the door.Set Point specifies the position of the door relative to its Reference .In the example model the doors are not positioned in accordance to the imported ACAD plan. If you wish you may show the imported plan geometry as visual reference; however, keep in mind that in a case where you would want to follow the plan accurately it is best practice to publish (using the GRIDS commands) reference geometry marking the position of each door.IFC Sliding - Casing - Glass door positioned inone of the walls as an exit to a future balcony.IFC Single Swing - Casing door positioned in the partition wall.Door openings appear inside the parent wall branch of the Specifications Tree .iYou may specify the Window Width and Window Height here. For this exercise specify the value as shown.Open Ratio controls the opening of the windowSet Point specifies the position of the window relative to its Reference .For this example select an IFC Triple Panel Vertical window from the Catalog Browser window. To open the Catalog Browser , L-clk the gray button that appears next to the Style field.The Invert button will reverse the orientation of the window.The Normal/ Vertical button aligns a window to an inclined wall.In the example, the windows are not positioned in accordance to the imported ACAD plan. If you wish you may show the imported plan geometry as visual reference; however keep in mind that in a case where you would want to follow the plan accurately it is best practice to publish (using the GRIDS commands) reference geometry mark -ing the position of each window.Window openings also appear inside the parent wall branch of the Specifications Tree .IFC Triple Panel Vertical window positioned in wall W04.Fig. 45Each space comes with a flooring fromwhich is derived the floor area of the space.The space appears as a transparent volume. Note the space object and its structure within theSpecifications Tree.。

第3讲-数字时代使我们更聪明

Lecture3The Digital Age Is Making Us Smarter Last week the American novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke about the e-reader,which he said threatened the sense of permanence found in the printed book.I am all for taking shots at Amazon and its popular Kindle,because the company is showing the unmistakable ticks of the power-mad monopoly,but Frazen was talking nonsense.If the printed word were the guardian of all democratic values,how is it that the country Germany where,in1439,Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press yielded almost 500years later to a totalitarian hell,in which books,and the knowledge in them,were suppressed with a relatively small number of bonfires?Ink on paper is not a guarantor of good government either.What I guess Franze is complaining about is that people using e-readers may not bring the serious attention to a book that he applies in his writing,which is famously undertaken in conditions of monastic rigour that exclude an internet connection.Like may,he believes that we are less able to focus on the deeper meaning of books and are the worse for it.This belief about our attention-deficit is not proven,but the obvious point is we still have a choice between screen or print,which is likely to remain,because people will always take pleasure in reading a work on the page and marking a passage.Naturally,few of us read in the way the Dickens’s audience did,but that is because of a deficit of time,not necessarily one of attention.We do,however,read and write more every year.The statistics of our hyperactivity are astonishing and show,for instance,that the information passing through our minds has risen threefold in the past30years and increases by about6%every year.So,the truth is that serious books such as Franzen’s Freedom or The Corrections have to compete for our time,whether in print or on a screen.But if a book is good it will earn the effort and reflection that no doubt Franzen’s book deserve.Yet this is not an entitlement and the idea that we are becoming incapable of sustained attention simply doesn’t hold up,as the sales of complicated science books attest.Indeed,I have a strong sense that the web has vastly increased our collective intelligence;that we are better informed,shrewder and able to grasp things more quickly than we were20years ago.[414words]1.The author implies in the first two paragraphs that printed books___________.[A]are incapable of defending civil society[B]are vulnerable to political catastrophes[C]rarely arouse the sense of permanence[D]often yield to totalitarianism2.Paragraph3mainly displays Franzen’s concern about___________.[A]the seriousness of ebooks[B]the prospect of ebooks[C]the death of traditional books[D]the loss of focused-reading ability3.According to the fourth paragraph,the changes in our reading mainly arise from___________.[A]the increase in choices of reading media[B]the demand to process more information[C]the emergence of attention-distracting e-readers[D]the decrease in our reading time4.The author mentioned the sales of science books in Paragraph5to show that___________.[A]most of us are incapable of sustained attention[B]books need to compete for our time[C]we haven’t lost the ability to read deeply[D]the decrease in our reading time5.What would be the best title for the text?[A]The Deprived Attention in E-readers[B]Smarter Readers in the Digital Age[C]Mourn the Lost Permanence in Printed Words[D]Read Deeply as Dickens’s Audience Did第三讲数字时代使我们更聪明文章难度：3星文章题材：文化教育上周，美国小说家乔纳森•弗兰岑谈到了电子阅读器。

经济学人补充带翻译

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数字时代：只求享用,不求持有

数字时代：只求享用，不求持有作者：By Emily Tamkin来源：《英语学习》2017年第02期或許大部分人都会理所当然地认为电子书比纸质书便宜，在网上付费看电影比购买电影光盘便宜。

所以当亚马逊上的电子书定价比纸质书还要高，下载高清版电影比购买二手光盘还要贵时，很多人感到疑惑不解。

但如果换个角度思考，电子版带给我们的除了信息内容，还有便利舒适的使用体验，也许你就会觉得多付的钱是值得的。

We’re increasingly paying extra to get t he digital version of a book or movie.我们正在为数字版书籍或电影支付越来越多的钱。

Imagine， for a moment， that you want to buy The Complete Works of Primo Levi1 edited by talented translator Ann Goldstein. If you were to buy a new version of the hardcover2 collection on Amazon， the price is$58.40. If， however， you decided that rather than adorning3 your shelves with Levi， you wanted to download it to your e-reader， saving yourself paper and time， you would need to pay $59.49. It would cost you more not to physically own the books.Of course，it’s just a difference of $1.09. But spend some time on Amazon and a trend becomes clear： Many （though certainly not all） digital versions cost more than their physical counterparts4. The Blu-ray Disc of the Christmas classic Love Actually costs a very reasonable $8.68， but to download and buy the HD5 version on Amazon Video costs $14.99. （To download and rent it costs $3.99， while a used version is only$2.37）. Download Beyoncé’s6 Lemonade from Apple to your iPhone for $17.99， but get the CD on Amazon for just $15.76.Certainly this is far from the case in every instance—there are lots of examples of the digital version being cheaper than the physical. But the list will only get longer， raising the question： Why are we increasingly paying more money to not actually have the thing we’re buying？ Amazon and Apple acknowledged receipt of but did not respond to requests for comment. But while we cannot know their official answers， we can nevertheless speculate7 as to why we’re now paying more to own without physically owning.For one thing，we’ve reached a point at which it’s the digital version that won’t let us down. Mark Dean， assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Columbia University， surmised in an email that while he could try to create “some clever behavioral econ explanation，”8 he thinks the real answer is that we are paying more to download because we are learning to trust the digital，easily available version. It used to be that to have the physical copy was to have reliability and consistency. But that isn’t true anymore， he said. The internet is now reliable， and with it Amazonand Netflix9. In fact，they’re more durable than the physical copy， as anyone who has scratched10 a CD or had a package get lost in the mail or misplaced a beloved book would likely agree.We’ve also come to see the digital version as superior in some ways. Mark Armstrong，professor of economics at the University of Oxford，noted in an email that we’ll she ll out11 for things like being able to quickly consume a product wherever one wants， or clicking on a word reading to see its definition， or skipping to the place in a book where a character first appears. Furthermore， he said，digital copies don’t take up any space in a home office or university library， and perhaps more importantly，it’s the “only way to get immediate access from your sofa.” All of which is to say that we pay more for digital copies not only because they are more reliable，but also because they are more convenient.Physical formats， on the other hand， so quickly become outdated. Richard Wilks，anthropologist and co-director of Indiana University’s Food Institute， noted in a phone interview that millennials （of course it’s the mille nnials） have seen their parents lug VHS tapes to Goodwill.12 In other words， they have seen， and are currently seeing， the technologies with which they themselves grew up become obsolete13. Why pay extra for the DVD when you know your next computer probabl y won’t have a DVD drive？This is true， of course， true of movies and music， but not of books. What is true of all three， however， is that the digital version is often more trusted and more convenient， and that the digital is an accepted part of the way we live now. （Consider how increasingly surprising it is to see someone proudly display DVDs and records. E-books make it harder to show off your erudite14 tastes， alas.）But not everyone can afford to jump on the ownership by absence bandwagon15， since not everyone has access to that version in the first place. According to the Pew Research Center， 13 percent of adult Americans do not use the internet，and 19 percent of those people said they don’t do so because it’s cost prohibitive16. To Al eenah Mehta， a research fellow at the University of California，Berkeley’s Haas Institute， this suggests a third driver behind this trend： People are paying more because the cost is less important than performance and participation in the new economy. That is， this trend exists because people always pay more to be part of the new cool club， and today the cool club is digital.Whether or not it is indeed hipper to own the digital version， the reality remains that if the most accessible version of culture is 1） not accessible to everyone and 2） the least affordable， then ownership by absence becomes exclusionary.17 Not everyone gets to download culture.We may be paying a premium for the convenience of digital objects—but there’s another costb eyond the extra couple of bucks you’re shelling out up-front.18 Mark Lemley， professor of law and director of the Program in Law， Science and Technology at Stanford Law School， said in anemail，“customers get fewer rights in a digital copy than they do in a physical copy. I can loan，resell，or tear into pieces my physical book or CD. But the law won’t let me do the same thing with the digital copy I ‘buy.’ ” We’re paying more to be legally able to do less. Or， as Aaron Fellmeth has put it in Future Tense，“You bought it，but you don’t own it.”This， qualms19 serious and subtle aside， is the way we pay to own now and may be for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t mean we’ve become any less captivated20 by consumption. As Wilks said， possession is fundamentally human， and while we may change the concept of what and how we possess，we’ll still be possessed by possessions.We still own things， in other words. We may no longer show how well-read21 we are by displaying hardcover Primo Levi on our bookshelves. But now we can bring his work with us everywhere，without lugging around those heavy books. And we’ll even pay more to do just that.我偶爾会设想，假如你想购买由优秀翻译家安·戈德斯坦编辑的《普里莫·莱维全集》，亚马逊上的新版精装书售价为58.40美元。

Experiences with a Mobile Robotic Guide for the Elderly

Experiences with a Mobile Robotic Guide for the Elderly
M. Montemerlo, J. Pineau, N. Roy, S. Thrun and V. Varma
School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213
The number of activities requiring navigation is large, ranging from regular daily events (e.g., meals), appointments (e.g., doctor appointments, physiotherapy, hair cuts), social events (e.g., visiting friends, cinema), to simply walking for the purpose of exercising. Many elderly people move at extremely slow speeds (e.g., 5 cm/sec), making the task of helping people around one of the most labor-intensive in assisted living facilities. Furthermore, the help provided is often not of a physical nature, as elderly people usually select walking aids over physical assistance by nurses, thus preserving some independence. Instead, nurses often provide important cognitive help, in the form of reminders, guidance and motivation, in addition to valuable social interaction. In two day-long experiments, our robot has demonstrated the ability to guide elderly people, without the assistance of a nurse. This involves moving to a person’s room, alerting them, informing them of an upcoming event or appointment, and inquiring about their willingness to be assisted. It then involves a lengthy phase where the robot guides a person, carefully monitoring the person’s progress and adjusting the robot’s velocity and path accordingly. Finally, the robot also serves the secondary purpose of providing information to the person upon request, such as information about upcoming community events, weather reports, TV schedules, etc. From an AI point of view, several factors make this task a challenging one. In addition to the well-developed topic of robot navigation [15], the task involves signiﬁcant interaction with people. Our present robot Pearl interacts through speech and visual displays. When it comes to speech, many elderly have difﬁculty understanding even simple sentences, and more importantly, articulating an appropriate response in a computer-understandable way. Those difﬁculties arise from perceptual and cognitive deﬁciencies, often involving a multitude of factors such as articulation, comprehension, and mental agility. In addition, people’s walking abilities vary drastically from person to person. People with walking aids are usually an order of magnitude slower than people without, and people often stop to chat or catch breath along the way. It is therefore imperative that the robot adapts to individual people—an aspect of people interaction that has been poorly explored in AI and robotics. Finally, safety concerns are much higher when dealing with the elderly population, especially in crowded situations (e.g., dining areas). The software system presented here seeks to address these challenges. All software components use probabilistic techniques to accommodate various sorts of uncertainty. The robot’s navigation system is mostly adopted from [5], and therefore will not be described in this paper. On top of this, our software possesses a collection of probabilistic modules concerned with people sensing, interaction, and control. In particular, Pearl uses efﬁcient particle ﬁlter techniques to detect

双语朗读美文：摆脱数字产品，回归简单生活

双语朗读美文：摆脱数字产品，回归简单生活摘录：摆脱数码奴隶，回归简单生活In the past few months, I started noticing that I’ve become a slave. I’m a slave to the internet, and I’m a slave to my phone.I tried remembering how many times I haven’t used my phone for more than an hour in the last few years, but I couldn’t.Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the internet. I hear the old-schoolers talk about how the internet is killing everything, how we humans are deteriorating because of it. I hear them say that bloggers are not journalists and that social connections are not relationships, but I think they are wrong.在过去的几个月里，我开始察觉自己俨然成了一个奴隶。

一个被英特网和手机驱使的奴隶。

我试图回想在前几年里究竟有多少次远离手机超一小时，但我无能为力。

不要误解，我其实是英特网的拥簇者。

但却听起守旧派说网络是如何如何地摧毁一切，我们人类又是如何如何地被其腐蚀。

还听说博客写手不是新闻工作者，网络社交也不算社交，可我却不敢苟同。

Technology, including in large part the internet, alongside human relationships, is one of the connections that moves our society forward. The innovation that appears in all aspects of our daily lives allows us to be smarter, faster, better. So every time I hear the old-schoolers talk about how the internet is a bad thing, I wonder why they wouldn’t want to be better.The BIG problem with the internet is that it makes us dependent. Quite often, I see people (and I’m one of them) that actually look and act like junkies. They can’t stop playing with their phone, i Pod, PC, or tablet. They can’t disconnect themselves from the non-stop stream of information that the internet provides us. Like everything in life, when you findyourself dependent on something, it might be the right time to start thinking about whether you need to stop and restart yourself.人类关系和科技，也包含广泛应用的网络，相辅相成，它们共同推进社会进步。

人类文明的斐波那契演进

人类文明的斐波那契演进：[淘股吧]人类是一种将无知的经济学家整出的垃圾当科学，拿科学预测当巫术的愚蠢动物。

(注：13世纪意大利著名数学家斐波那契)斐波那契及斐氏数列简介：欧洲数学在希腊文明衰落之后长期处于停滞状态，直到12世纪才有复苏的迹象。

这种复苏开始是受了翻译、传播希腊、阿拉伯著作的刺激。

对希腊与东方古典数学成就的发掘、探讨，最终导致了文艺复兴时期（15～16世纪）欧洲数学的高涨。

文艺复兴的前哨意大利，由于其特殊地理位置与贸易联系而成为东西方文化的熔炉。

意大利学者早在12～13世纪就开始翻译、介绍希腊与阿拉伯的数学文献。

欧洲，黑暗时代以后第一位有影响的数学家斐波那契（Fbonacc·约1170～1250），其拉丁文代表著作《算经》、《几何实践》等也是根据阿拉伯文与希腊文材料编译而成的，斐波那契，即比萨的列昂纳多（Leonardo of Pisa），早年随父在北非从师阿拉伯人习算，后又游历地中海沿岸诸国，回意大利后即写成《算经》（Liber Abac·1202，亦译作《算盘书》）。

《算经》最大的功绩是系统介绍印度记数法，影响并改变了欧洲数学的面貌。

现传《算经》是1228年的修订版，其中还引进了著名的“斐波那契数列”。

《几何实践》（Practica Geometriae，1220）则着重叙述希腊几何与三角术。

斐波那契其他数学著作还有《平方数书VLiberQuadratorum，1225）、《花朵》（Flos，1225）等，前者专论二次丢番图方程，后者内容多为菲德里克（Frederick）二世宫廷数学竞赛问题，其中包含一个三次方程／十2x2十10x～－20求解，斐波那契论证其根不能用尺规作出（即不可能是欧几里得的无理量），他还未加说明地给出了该方程的近似解（J一1．36880810785）。

微积分的创立与解析几何的发明一起，标志着文艺复兴后欧洲近代数学的兴起。

微积分的思想根源部分（尤其是积分学）可以追溯到古代希腊、中国和印度人的著作。