五一小假~快乐啊~~~~~啦啦啦啦啦啦 4.5是一个文章的!
SPEED
[Time1]
![]()
If you hate your current job, you might have the worst job of 2013, according to CareerCast.com. The website released its Jobs Rated 2013 list, a ranking of the 200 best and worst jobs of 2013 in the US.
Which job might have people reconsidering their career path?
CareerCast rankers found that newspaper reporter was the worst job of 2013.
"It's been towards the bottom of the list over the course of 25 years," Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast.com, told ABCNews.com. "It's been increasingly worse over time." With low salary prospects, tight deadlines, and a 24/7 news environment, newspaper writing is a demanding job, with a negative employment growth, according to CareerCast. Newspapers have been closing by the dozens and those that are still open face continual contraction as revenue dwindles and ads migrate to the Internet.
Even lumberjacks and soldiers, whose jobs were ranked as worse in past years, have improved in CareerCast's criteria compared with newspaper writers. For lumberjacks, the higher demand for lumber has given them a positive employment growth, Lee said. "Same for military soldiers, there's been a draw down," he said, which leaves some entry-level room in the ranks.
As for the best job of 2013, actuaries can happily keep their day job. According to CareerCast, actuaries are in high demand, with a great work environment and high salary. Other best jobs of 2013 include biomedical engineer, software engineer, and audiologist.
For its list, CareerCast considered four core job categories that Lee said are inherent in every job: environment, income, outlook, and stress.
"We have a wide range of criteria we look at when we do the rankings," Lee said.
Other considerations within those categories include emotional factors, income potential, and unemployment rates within a specific job.
"If you have any aptitude at all for any of the science, math, or engineering fields, look to see how you can apply your skills to those differently," Lee said as his advice for those stuck in one of the top ten worst jobs. "That's where the demand is now."
（342）
[Time2]
![]()
China on Friday rejected an attempt by the Philippines to seek an international arbitrationtribunal verdict on the South China Sea issue, urging Manila to solve the problem through bilateral negotiation.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks in a statement, saying Beijing "firmly and consistently opposes the illegal occupation of islands and reefs by the Philippines, and demands the Philippines withdraw all its nationals and facilities from them".
On Thursday, Manila said the international arbitration court had set up a tribunal to hear the case.
Hua said that by initiating the arbitration on the basis of its illegal occupation, the Philippines has distorted the basic facts relating to disputes between the two countries. It is attempting to deny China's territorial sovereignty, and hide its illegal occupation behind a cloak of legality, Hua said. The Philippines' attempt to seek a so-called durable solution, and the means it has used, are "absolutely unacceptable to China", she said.
In a notification on Jan 22, Manila said it "does not seek a determination of which party enjoys sovereignty over the islands claimed by both of them", but it later also publicly stated that the purpose of initiating the arbitration is to bring "a durable solution" to disputes on the South China Sea between the two countries.
Hua said these statements are simply "self-contradictory".
Meanwhile, she said the compulsory dispute settlement procedures as contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea should not apply to the claims for arbitration as raised by the Philippines, given the fact that Sino-Philippine territorial disputes remain unresolved.
The claims for arbitration as raised by the Philippines are essentially concerned with maritime delimitation between the two countries in parts of the South China Sea, and "thus inevitably involve the territorial sovereignty over certain relevant islands and reefs," Hua said.
"Such issues of territorial sovereignty are not the ones concerning the interpretation or application of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," Hua said. She said the request for arbitration by the Philippines is manifestly unfounded.
China made a declaration in pursuance of Article 298 of the Convention in 2006, excluding disputes regarding such matters as those related to maritime delimitation from the compulsory dispute settlement procedures, including arbitration.
（375）
[The Rest]
Observers said Manila's effort to push for the establishment of the tribunal abuses the Convention and is politically motivated.
Gong Yingchun, an expert on international law with the Beijing-based China Foreign Affairs University, said the Convention has limited the use of compulsory dispute settlement procedures. Manila's move is challenging the law itself.
Gao Jianjun, a professor at the School of International Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, said, "Beijing has shown consistency in its pursuit of a peaceful resolution of international disputes."
Political considerations are behind Manila's latest proposal, he said.
Manila took the South China Sea dispute to an arbitrationtribunal on Jan 22, but China rejected it in February and returned a note and related notice to the Philippines.
Hua said China has been persistent in pursuing bilateral negotiations and consultations with the Philippines to resolve relevant disputes, in the interest of maintaining Sino-Philippine relations and peace and stability in the South China Sea.
It is a commitment undertaken by all signatories, the Philippines included, under the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) that disputes relating to territorial and maritime rights and interests "be resolved through negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned therewith".
Hua said: "China will adhere to the means of bilateral negotiations to resolve territorial and maritime delimitation disputes both in accordance with applicable rules of international law and in compliance with the spirit of the DOC."
[Time3]
![]()
China and France reached a consensus Thursday to raise their partnership to a new level as the two sides reached a slew of cooperation agreements in Beijing.
The agreements were reached during Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting with his visiting French counterpart Francois Hollande at the Great Hall of the People, the two leaders decided to push forward the bilateral comprehensive and strategic partnership based on mutual respect and mutually-beneficial cooperation.
Hollande, on behalf of both the French government and people, expressed sympathy
for those who died or suffered from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Lushan
County, Sichuan Province on Saturday.
Xi said that China and France, big nations with a strong spirit of independence, are both committed to their national development, their peoples' well-being, as well as multilateralism and multipolarity in the world.
China and France should continue to prioritize their strategic partnership, support each other and expand bilateral cooperation in an aim to forge win-win cooperation between countries with different political systems, cultures and traditions, Xi noted.
The two sides should also work together to improve the democratization of the international relations, help establish a fair, just international order, promote collective decision-making process with equal consultation on international rules, and push for dialogue and peaceful settlement of international disputes so as to safeguard world peace and stability and boost common prosperity, Xi added.
The Chinese president also stressed that the two nations should strengthen communication and exchange to increase and expand mutual respect, attend each other's core interests and key concerns and support their respective development path both countries have chosen independently.
He called on the two sides to expand their trade cooperation, cement cultural and humanitarian exchange to foster friendship between the two peoples and jointly protect cultural diversity in the world.
"The two sides should also strengthen coordination when dealing with world affairs and we are looking forward to seeing the development of a new type of China-France comprehensive and strategic partnership in the future," Xi added.
Hailing a long history of the friendship between the two nations, Hollande said the diplomatic aspiration shared by France and China for independence, mutual respect and a balanced world has formed a solid foundation for the two nations to develop ties.
(372)
[The Rest]
Hollande noted that France and China, both as responsible big nations, should work closer and step up dialogue, coordination and cooperation to address the worldwide challenges and improve global economic governance.
France is committed to boosting its comprehensive and strategic partnership with China, respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity and support China's development, Hollande said.
To promote the partnership to a higher level, the two leaders decided: to maintain annual meeting between heads of the state, enhance strategic dialogue, and establish high-level economic and financial dialogue mechanism;
To improve bilateral cooperation in fields such as nuclear energy and aviation, and forge new areas of cooperation in urbanization, modern agriculture and farm produce processing, food processing, industrial energy saving, new energy, as well as health care and digitalisation;
To expand mutual investment and balanced growth of two-way trade.
China will increase importation from France and France will provide favorable conditions for Chinese companies to invest and establish business in the European nation .
The two leaders agreed to boost cooperation in cultural heritage protection, cracking down on cultural relics smuggling, popularization of their language in the other country, and strengthen cooperation on tourism. The two sides decided to launch a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic relationship next year.
They also agreed to improve China-France coordination on issues concerning the G20, climate change, food and energy safety. China will continue its support for Europe on its efforts to tackle its sovereign debt crisis and France will continue its significant role inside the European Union (EU) to help promote China-EU relations.
The two leaders also exchanged their views on current regional issues of common concern.
After the talks, Xi and Hollande also witnessed the signing of a dozen and more agreement documents ranging from technological innovation, environmental protection, urban sustainable development, culture, tourism, nuclear power, electricity, aviation, finance and insurance, to food safety. (Xinhua)
[Time4]
In the field of observation,” legendary disease prevention pioneer Louis Pasteur famously proclaimed in 1854, “chance favors only the prepared mind.” “Knowledge comes form noticing resemblances and recurrences in the events that happen around us,” neuroscience godfather Wilfred Trotter asserted. That keen observation is what transmutes information into knowledge is indisputable — look no further than Sherlock Holmes and his exquisite mindfulness for a proof — but how, exactly, does one cultivate that critical faculty?
From The Art of Scientific Investigation (public library; public domain) by Cambridge University animal pathology professor W. I. B. Beveridge — the same fantastic 1957 compendium that explored the role of the intuition and imagination in science and how serendipity and “chance opportunism” fuel discovery — comes a timeless meditation on the art of observation, which he insists “is not passively watching but is an active mental process,” and the importance of distinguishing it from what we call intuition.
Though a number of celebrated minds favored intuition over rationality, and even Beveridge himself extolled the merits of the intuitive in science, he sides with modern-day admonitions about our tendency to mislabel other cognitive processes as “intuition” and advises:
It is important to realize that observation is much more than merely seeing something; it also involves a mental process. In all observations there are two elements : (a) the sense-perceptual element (usually visual) and (b) the mental, which, as we have seen, may be partly conscious and partly unconscious. Where the sense-perceptual element is relatively unimportant, it is often difficult to distinguish between an observation and an ordinary intuition. For example, this sort of thing is usually referred to as an observation: “I have noticed that I get hay fever whenever I go near horses.” The hay fever and the horses are perfectly obvious, it is the connection between the two that may require astuteness to notice at first, and this is a mental process not distinguishable from an intuition. Sometimes it is possible to draw a line between the noticing and the intuition, e.g. Aristotle commented that on observing that the bright side of the moon is always toward the sun, it may suddenly occur to the observer that the explanation is that the moon shines by the light of the sun.
(373)
[Time5]
Ultimately, Beveridge argues that the art of observation depends on developing the capacity for pattern-recognition, which in turn relies on a broad pool of networked knowledge that allows you to spot the piece that doesn’t fit:
In carrying out any observation you look deliberately for each characteristic you know may be there, for any unusual feature, and especially for any suggestive associations or relationships among the things you see, or between them and what you know. … Most of the relationships observed are due to chance and have no significance, but occasionally one will lead to a fruitful idea.
Training in observation follows the same principles as training in any activity. At first one must do things consciously and laboriously, but with practice the activities gradually become automatic and unconscious and a habit is established. Effective scientific observation also requires a good background, for only by being familiar with the usual can we notice something as being unusual or unexplained.
It seems, then, that Steven Johnson was right in augmenting Pasteur’s famous words to “chance favors the connected mind.”
Despite its title, The Art of Scientific Investigation is a priceless treasure trove of insight on creativity in all domains — highly recommended. This article was illustrated with gender-gap-defying public domain images of women in science courtesy of the ever-wonderful Flickr Commons archive.
(222)
OBSTACLE
Social policiesTime to scrap affirmative actionGovernments should be colour-blind
ABOVE the entrance to America’s Supreme Court four words are carved: “Equal justice under law”. The court is pondering whether affirmative action breaks that promise. The justices recently accepted a case concerning a vote in Michigan that banned it, and will soon rule on whether the University of Texas’s race-conscious admissions policies are lawful. The question in both cases is as simple as it is divisive: should government be colour-blind? America is one of many countries where the state gives a leg-up to members of certain racial, ethnic, or other groups by holding them to different standards. The details vary. In some countries, the policy applies only to areas under direct state control, such as public-works contracts or admission to public universities. In others, private firms are also obliged to take account of the race of their employees, contractors and even owners. But the effects are strikingly similar around the world (see article). The burden of history Many of these policies were put in place with the best of intentions: to atone for past injustices and ameliorate their legacy. No one can deny that, for example, blacks in America or dalits in India (members of the caste once branded “untouchable”) have suffered grievous wrongs, and continue to suffer discrimination. Favouring members of these groups seems like a quick and effective way of making society fairer. Most of these groups have made great progress. But establishing how much credit affirmative action can take is hard, when growth also brings progress and some of the good—for example the confidence-boosting effect of creating prominent role models for a benighted group—is intangible. And it is impossible to know how a targeted group would have got on without this special treatment. Malays are three times richer in Singapore, where they do not get preferences, than in next-door Malaysia, where they do. At the same time, the downside of affirmative action has become all too apparent. Awarding university places to black students with lower test scores than whites sounds reasonable, given the legacy of segregation. But a study found that at some American universities, black applicants who scored 450 points (out of 1,600) worse than Asians on entrance tests were equally likely to win a place. That is neither fair on Asians, nor an incentive to blacks to study in high school. In their book “Mismatch”, Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor produce evidence that suggests affirmative action reduces the number of blacks who qualify as lawyers by placing black students in law schools for which they are ill-prepared, causing many to drop out. Had they attended less demanding schools, they might have graduated. Although the groups covered by affirmative action tend to be poorer than their neighbours, the individuals who benefit are often not. One American federal-contracting programme favours businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged” people. Such people can be 87 times richer than the average American family and still be deemed “disadvantaged” if their skin is the right colour. One beneficiary of South Africa’s programme of “Black Economic Empowerment” is worth an estimated $675m; he is also the deputy president of the ruling party. Letting members of certain groups charge more and still win public contracts is nice for the few who own construction firms; less so for the many who rely on public services. The same goes for civil-service quotas. When jobs are dished out for reasons other than competence, the state grows less competent, as anyone who has wrestled with Indian or Nigerian officialdom can attest. Moreover, rules favouring businesses owned by members of particular groups are easy to game. Malaysians talk of “Ali-Baba” firms, where Ali (an ethnic Malay) lends his name, for a fee, to Baba (a Chinese businessman) to win a government contract. Although these policies tend to start with the intention of favouring narrow groups, they spread as others clamour to be included. That American federal programme began by awarding no-bid contracts to firms owned by blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans; now it covers people with ancestry from at least 33 countries. In India 60% of the population are eligible for privileges as members of scheduled castes, tribes or “other backward classes”. Such policies poison democracy by encouraging divisions along lines drawn by discriminatory rules. The anger thus stoked has helped stir bloody conflicts in India, Rwanda and Sri Lanka. And such rules, once in place, are almost impossible to get rid of. In 1949 India’s constitution said quotas should be phased out in ten years, but they are now more widespread than ever. America’s policies have survived decades of legal pushback, though not unscathed. The content of their character The University of Texas (UT) justifies discriminating in favour of black people not on the ground that society owes it to them, but because, it claims, a diverse university offers a better education to all its students. That is a reasonable argument—some companies benefit from understanding a variety of customers, for instance, and the police probably keep order better if enough of them share a culture with the neighbourhood they patrol—but it does not wash for most institutions. In UT’s case, although colleges benefit from a diversity of ideas, to use skin colour as a proxy for this implies that all black people and all Chinese people view the world in a similar way. That suggests a bleak view of the human imagination. Universities that want to improve their selection procedures by identifying talented people (of any colour or creed) from disadvantaged backgrounds should be encouraged. But selection on the basis of race is neither a fair nor an efficient way of doing so. Affirmative action replaced old injustices with new ones: it divides society rather than unites it. Governments should tackle disadvantage directly, without reference to race. If a school is bad, fix it. If there are barriers to opportunity, remove them. And if Barack Obama’s daughters apply to a university, judge them on their academic prowess, not the colour of their skin. (1000)
|
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
发表于 2013-4-27 23:55:59
收藏
收藏
经典的都没太读懂，再读几遍。。。
's solutions are self-contradictory.