Continuing Job Losses May Signal Broad Economic Shift

美國失業(yè)率創(chuàng)25年新高

Another 651,000 jobs disappeared from the American economy in February, the government reported Friday, as the unemployment rate soared to 8.1 percent - its highest level since 1983.

美國政府周五發(fā)布的報告顯示，二月份美國又有65.1萬個工作消失，失業(yè)率已飆升至8.1%，為1983年以來的最高水平。

Most economists now assume that American fortunes will not improve before near the end of the year, as the Obama administration's $787 billion emergency spending program begins to wash through the economy. The acceleration has convinced some economists that, far from an ordinary downturn after which jobs will return, the contraction underway reflects a fundamental restructuring of the American economy. In crucial industries - particularly manufacturing, financial services and retail - many companies have opted to abandon whole areas of business.

大多數(shù)經(jīng)濟學家預計，美國在今年年底之前不會扭轉頹勢，因為奧巴馬政府7870億美元的緊急刺激計劃要到年底才會開始滲透經(jīng)濟。一些經(jīng)濟學家因此確信，跟工作可以失而復得的普通衰退不同，此次萎縮反映了美國經(jīng)濟正經(jīng)歷根本性的調整。在重要行業(yè)，特別是制造業(yè)、金融業(yè)和零售業(yè)，許多公司都選擇放棄整個商業(yè)領域。

'These jobs aren't coming back…There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, and fewer financial services operations.' said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. With job losses so enormous over such a short period of time, some economists argue that the latest crisis challenges the traditional American response to hard times. For decades, the government has reacted to economic downturns by handing out temporary unemployment insurance checks, relying upon the resumption of economic growth to deliver needed jobs. This time, argues Mr. Silvia, the government needs to put a much greater emphasis on retraining workers for careers in other industries.

“這些工作不會再回來了……商店、工廠、金融機構都會減少?！泵缆?lián)銀行首席經(jīng)濟學家約翰?E?思偉亞說。在如此短的時間內，有這么多工作崗位消失，一些經(jīng)濟學家因此認為，危機挑戰(zhàn)著美國應對艱難時刻的傳統(tǒng)做法。數(shù)十年來，面對經(jīng)濟衰退，政府則發(fā)放臨時失業(yè)保險卡，寄希望于經(jīng)濟增長恢復后創(chuàng)造出所需要的工作。思偉亞認為，這次政府得著力對工人進行再培訓，讓他們從事其他行業(yè)。

《紐約時報》

Meet the Future of Teaching: Mr Confucius

孔子老師

The education system has a new saviour. At the weekend, schools minister Jim Knight suggested that studying the works of Confucius might boost exam results and is apparently drawing up plans to incorporate the Chinese philosopher into the syllabus of England's secondary schools.

教育體系有了一個新的救星。本周末，英國教育大臣吉姆?奈特建議說，學習孔子的著作可能會提高考試成績，他正打算制定相關計劃，將這名中國哲學家列入英國中學的教學大綱。

'There is a lot we can learn from the Chinese culture and Confucius,' he said. 'Confucius said that, alongside knowledge, you should have time to think. It is not just about acquisition of knowledge, but about respect for the importance of education and the family, and that is something I would love to see engendered in our culture as well as it is in China.'

“我們從中國文化和孔子那里會學到很多東西，”他說?！白釉唬瑢W而不思則罔。不僅要獲取知識，還要重視教育和家庭，我希望在我們文化中也能產(chǎn)生這些，就像在中國一樣?！?/p>

Just how Knight proposes to implement this is anyone's guess. It's not just a question of rustling up several thousand teachers qualified to teach Confucianism and slotting their lessons into an already hopelessly overcrowded timetable; it's about ripping up the whole curriculum, which is predicated on testing and the acquisition of knowledge rather than time to think. Knight's conversion to Confucianism stems from government figures that show 65.8% of students of Chinese origin getting five GCSEs at A*-C, compared with 44.3% for white British pupils; when adjusted for the comparative income levels and class background of families, however, Chinese students only score a little higher than the British, since the Chinese have the highest median household incomes of any group in the UK.

奈特如何實施其計劃無人知曉。這不只是湊來數(shù)千名合格教師來教儒學，并把其課程塞進本來已經(jīng)繁忙的時間表內的問題，而是打碎全部課程，現(xiàn)在的課程只是考試和獲取知識，沒給學生思考的時間。奈特之所以轉向儒學，源自于政府數(shù)據(jù)。數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在英國中學結業(yè)考試(GCSE)中，65.8%的華裔學生能獲得個A至C級，而英國白人學生獲得類似成績的比例僅為44.3%。但考慮到收入水平與家庭背景，華裔學生的成績只比英國本地學生的成績高一點，因為在英國，華人家庭的平均收入是所有族群中最高的。

《衛(wèi)報》

India Moves to Protect Traditional Medicines from Foreign Patents

保護傳統(tǒng)藥，印度在行動

In the first step by a developing country to stop multinational companies patenting traditional remedies from local plants and animals, the Indian government has effectively licensed 200,000 local treatments as 'public property' free for anyone to use but no one to sell as a 'brand'.

為制止跨國公司取得本地傳統(tǒng)動植物藥物的專利，印度政府在發(fā)展中國家中率先采取行動，把國內20萬種藥方列為“公共財產(chǎn)”，任何人均可使用，但不能作為“品牌”進行銷售。

The move comes after scientists in Delhi noticed an alarming trend – the 'bio-prospecting' of natural remedies by companies abroad. After trawling through the records of the global trademark offices, officials found 5,000 patents had been issued — at a cost of at least $150m— for 'medical plants and traditional systems'.

在此之前，德里的科學家注意到一個驚人的趨勢——外國公司對天然藥物的“生物勘探”。逐一查看了全球商標局的記錄后，官員們發(fā)現(xiàn)已有5000個專利發(fā)放給“草藥和傳統(tǒng)療法”，成本至少為一億五千萬美元。

'More than 2,000 of these belong to the Indian systems of medicine … We began to ask why multinational companies were spending millions of dollars to patent treatments that so many lobbies in Europe deny work at all,' said Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta, who heads the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, which lists in encyclopedic detail the 200,000 treatments. The database, which took 200 researchers eight years to compile by meticulously translating ancient Indian texts, will now be used by the European Patent Office to check against 'bio-prospectors'.

“其中2000多個都是印度藥方……我們問跨國公司，為什么花成百上千萬美元取得藥方的專利，而歐洲許多政治團體根本不承認這些藥方有效，”古普達醫(yī)生說。他是傳統(tǒng)知識數(shù)字圖書館館長，該圖書館詳盡記錄了這20萬種療法。該數(shù)據(jù)庫由200位研究人員，將古印度文本精心翻譯過來，歷經(jīng)8年編撰而成，歐洲專利局將據(jù)此核對“生物勘探”。

《衛(wèi)報》

Do Optimists live longer?

樂觀的人更長壽？

A perennial grump? Might want to brighten up a bit – if, that is, you'd like to live longer. A new study says that the optimists among us may have a lower risk of heart disease and early death.

心情總是不好？想變得開朗活潑些，如果是真的，你可能會活得長些。一項新的研究顯示，樂觀的人得心臟病和早亡的幾率較低。

Researchers in the University of Pittsburgh analyzed eight years of data on 97,253 women, age 50 and over. Their findings: the women who were most cheery were 30 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 14 percent less likely than their pessimistic peers to die from all causes during the study period.

匹茲堡大學的研究人員八年間分析了97253名50歲及其以上年紀的女性。他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)是：這期間，最活潑的女性同悲觀的同齡女性相比，得心臟病死亡的幾率低30%，得各種病死亡的幾率低14%。

The researchers caution that their findings only show a link, not a cause-and-effect relationship, between optimism and health outcomes. So what is it about Pollyannas that may make them live longer? It could be that optimistic people tend to be healthier in general; they are more likely to be slim and physically active and less likely to smoke, a researcher says. Optimistic people have good social networks and strong social relationships，which could help them cope with chronic stress, a risk factor for heart disease. So are pessimists doomed to die early? Not necessarily. This is just one study, and more research is needed to get to the bottom of that question.

研究人員提醒說，他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)只是顯示樂觀與健康存在一種聯(lián)系，但并非因果聯(lián)系。但為什么波利安娜（極度樂觀的意思）能讓人活的更久？一名研究人員表示，可能是因為樂觀的人往往比較健康，身材比較苗條，愛運動，少抽煙。樂觀的人有良好的社交網(wǎng)絡和人際關系，這可能會幫助他們應對慢性抑郁，而慢性抑郁是引發(fā)心臟健康的一個危險因素。但悲觀的人就注定短命么？不一定。這只是一項研究，要有更多研究才能解答這個問題。

《科學美國人》