BEFORE he had finished belting out his first celebratory rendition of “The Red Flag”, a hymn to class struggle, some of Jeremy Corbyn’s colleagues in Labor’s shadow cabinet had already handed in their resignation s. A 66-year-old socialist, MrCorbyn has spent 32 years as one of the hardest of hardline left-wingers in the House of Commons and a serial rebel on the Labour backbenches. On September 12th he flatten ed three moderate rivals (seearticle) to become leader of Britain’s main opposition party. Labour MPs are stun ned—and perhaps none more so than MrCorbyn himself.
Two views are emergin g of Labour’s new leader. The more sympathetic is that, whatever you think of his ideology, MrCorbyn will at least enrich Britain by injecting fresh ideas into a stale debate. Voters who previously felt uninspired by the say-anything, spin-everything candidates who dominate modern politics have been energised by MrCorbyn’s willingness to speak his mind and condemn the sterile compromises of the centre left. The other is that MrCorbyn does not matter because he is unelectable and he cannot last. His significance will be to usher in a second successive Conservative government in the election of 2020—and perhaps a third in 2025.
Both these views are complacent and wrong. MrCorbyn’s election is bad for the Labour Party and bad for Britain, too.
Cowards flinch and traitors sneer
Start with the ideas. In recent decades the left has had the better of the social arguments—on gay rights, say, or the role of women and the status of the church—but the right has won most of the economic ones. Just as the Tory party has become more socially liberal, so, under Neil Kinnock and then Tony Blair, Labour dropped its old commitment to public ownership and accepted that markets had a role in providing public services. Mr Blair’s government put monetary policy in the hands of an independent Bank of England and embraced the free movement of people and goods within Europe.
The argument today has moved on—to the growing inequality that is a side-effect of new technology and globalization; to the nature of employment, pensions and benefits in an Uberisinglabour market of self-employed workers (see article); and to the need for efficient government and welfare systems. Fresh thinking on all this would be welcome—indeed it should be natural territory for the progressive left. But MrCorbyn is stuck in the past. His “new politics” has nothing to offer but the exhausted, hollow formulas which his predecessor s abandoned for the very good reason that they failed.
Only in the timewarp of MrCo rbyn’s hard-left fraternity could a programme of renationalisation and enhanced trade-union activism be the solution to inequality. If just spending more money were the secret
of world-class public services, Britain, which cut almost 1m public-sector jobs in the previous parliament, would have been a cauldron of discontent. In fact voters’ satisfaction with public services rose. If you could create macroeconomic stability by bringing the Bank of England back under the government’s thumb, then Britain would not have spent the post-war decades lurch ing from politically engineered booms to post-election busts.
What does Jeremy Corbyn stand for? See how he voted in parliament across a number of issues
Time and again, MrCorbyn spots a genuine problemonly to respond with a flawed policy. He is right that Britain sorely lacks housing. But rent controls would only exacerbate the shortage. The previous Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government should indeed have been less austere. It could have boosted demand by spending more
on infrastructure. But MrCorbyn’s notion of “people’s QE”—getting the Bank of England to print money to pay for projects—threatens to become an incontinent fiscal stimulus by the backdoor (rather than serve as an unorthodox form of monetary policy when interest rates are at zero). There is no denying that young people have been harmed by Tory policies that favour the old. But scrapping university-tuition fees would be regressive and counterproductive. For proof, consider that in England more poor students go to university than when higher education was free, whereas in Scotland, whose devolved government has abolished tuition fees, universities are facing a funding crisis and attract no more poor students than they did.
To see where MrCorbyn’s heart lies, you have only to look at the company he has kept. He admires the late Hugo Chávez for his legacy in Venezuela. No matter that chavismo has wreck ed the economy and hollowed out democracy. He indulge s Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian kleptocracy in Russia and blames NATO for provoking its invasion of Ukraine. He entertains Hamas, which has repeatedly used violence against Israel and admires Syriza, the radical left party that has governed Greece with almost unmatched incompetence. Yet he is stridently
anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-NATO and quietly anti-European Union (apparently, it’s a free-market conspiracy—see article). He even scold ed China’s Communist Par ty for its free-market excesses.
To argue that MrCorbyn’s ideas will improve the quality of political discourse in Britain just because they are different is about as wise as MrCorbyn’s refusal this week to sing the national anthem at a service to commemorate the Battle of Britain. Policies this flawed will crowd out debate, not enrich it.
The Corbyn of history
Perhaps that doesn’t matter. MrCorbyn had no expectation of winning the leadership, and for a man who has never had to compromise, the drudgery of party management, media appearances and relentless scrutiny must be a hardship. Even if he is not pushed, he may not choose to stay for long.
Yet the leader of the opposition is one Tory meltdown away from power. Even if MrCorbyn fails ever to become prime minister, as is likely, he will still leave his mark on the Labour Party. The populism and discontent that brought him the leadership will not just subside. The loathing of Westminster that he represents and the fantasies that he spins will make the task for the next centrist Labour leader all the harder. There is nothing to celebrate about MrCorbyn’s elevation. For Britain, it is a grave misfortune.
Leopard seals share their suppers 豹海豹会分享它们的晚餐 Bad news if you are a penguin 假如你是一只企鹅，这真是个坏消息 Leopard seals resemble their terrestrial namesakes in two ways.They have polka-dot pelts.And they are powerful,generally solitary carnivores that are quite capable of killing a human being if they so choose—as has indeed happened once,in2003,when a British marine biologist was the victim. 豹海豹与生活在陆地上的同名动物（豹）有着两点相似之处。其一，它们的皮毛上都有着圆点花纹。其二，它们都是强大的独栖性食肉动物，只要它们愿意，是完全有能力杀死一个人的——正如2003年真实发生的那样，当时一位英国海洋生物学家就成了受害者。 Curiously,though,there have also been reports of leopard seals behaving in a friendly manner towards people—apparently trying to present gifts,in the form of prey,to divers. 但奇怪的是，也有报道称豹海豹对人类表现得十分友好——它们很显然把猎物作为礼物赠送给了潜水员。 Until now,there has been no explanation for this philanthropy.But work just published in Polar Biology by James Robbins of Plymouth University, in Britain,suggests that what the seals are actually looking for is a dining partner.
经典文章摘抄 经典文章摘抄 经典文章摘抄，能够哭就好，哭是开始痊愈的象征，以下的经典文章摘抄范文，很值得阅读哦。 经典文章摘抄【1】 1、生命从来不是公平的，得到多少，便要靠那个多少做到最好，努力的生活下去。《我们不是天使》 2、聪明人，无谓争意气。《连环》 3、爱一个人决不潇洒，为自己留了后步的，也就不是爱《星之碎片》 4、一个成熟的人往往发觉可以责怪的人越来越少，人人都有他的难处。《我们不是天使》 5、能够说出的委屈，便不算委屈;能够抢走的爱人，便不算爱人。《开到荼蘼》 6、行乐及时，上天给你什么，就享受什么。千万不要去听难堪的话，一定不去见难看的人。或者是做难做的事情，爱上不应爱的人。《电光幻影》 7、人一定要受过伤才会沉默专注，无论是心灵或肉体上的创伤，对成长都有益处。《花解语》 8、要生活得漂亮，需要付出极大忍耐，一不抱怨，二不解释，绝对是个人才。《变形记》
9、结婚与恋爱毫无关系，人们老以为恋爱成熟后便自然而然的结婚，却不知结婚只是一种生活方式，人人可以结婚，简单得很。爱情????完全是另外一回事。《我的前半生》 10、做一个女人要做得像一副画，不要做一件衣裳，被男人试完了又试，却没人买，试残了旧了，五折抛售还有困难。《喜宝》 11、何必向不值得的人证明什么，生活得更好，乃是为你自己。《忽而今夏》 12、麻烦来找你，你才去应付它，如不，任它沉睡《花解语》 13、我也想清楚了，婚姻根本就是那么一回事，再恋爱得轰动，三五年之后，也就烟消云散，下班后大家扭开电视一齐看长篇连续剧，人生是这样的。《独身女人》 14、做人要含蓄点，得过且过，不必斤斤计较，水清无鱼，人清无徒，谁又不跟谁一辈子，一些事放在心中算了。《蔷薇泡沫》 15、通常吸引男人的是这种冷漠，但是男人终于娶的是仰慕他的女人，没才干的女人靠嫁人过活，有本事的女人靠自己过活。《城市故事》 16、最佳的报复不是仇恨，而是打心底发出的冷淡，干嘛花力气去恨一个不相干的人。《我的前半生》 17、能够哭就好，哭是开始痊愈的象征。《绝对是个梦》
Japanese commuters try new ways to deter gropers 日本通勤族尝试用新方法防止性骚扰 Victims are fighting back with apps,badges and invisible ink 受害者正在用应用程序、徽章和隐形墨水来反击 Throughout her20s,Yayoi Matsunaga was groped,almost daily,on packed rush-hour trains going to and from work.Three decades later,she discovered that her friend’s daughter was being molested on her commute to high school. 在松永弥生20多岁的时候，她几乎每天都会在上下班高峰拥挤的列车上被人骚扰。30年过去了，她发现她朋友的女儿仍会在上高中的通勤路上被人骚扰。 The teenager,after fruitless talks with the police and railway companies, decided to hang a sign from her bag that read:“Groping is a crime.I will not cry myself to sleep.”The groping stopped immediately. 在与警方和铁路部门交涉无果后，这名女孩决定在她的书包上挂一个牌子，上面写着：“性骚扰就是犯罪，我不会暗自哭泣的。”效果立竿见影。 Inspired,Ms Matsunaga launched a crowdfunding campaign in2015to create badges with the same message.They proved as effective as the sign: nearly95%of users stopped experiencing groping on public transport, according to a survey.
考研同源外刊《经济学人》最常用600个词汇（下） 401、Final goods最终产品 旨在最终使用而非转卖或进一步加工的商品。(参见"中间产品"，intermediate goods) 402、Financial economics金融经济学 经济学的一个分支。分析理性投资者如何通过最有效的方式使用资金和进行投资以期达到目标。 403、Financial intermediary金融中介 接受储蓄存款并将其出借给借款者的机构。包括存款机构(如商业银行和储蓄银行)和非存款机构(如货币市场共同基金、经纪人商行、保险公司或养老基金)。 404、Firm(business firm)厂商 (企业)经济体系中基本的私人生产单位。它雇用劳动，购买其他投入品，以制造和销售商品。 405、Fiscal-monetary mix财政-货币政策组合 用以干预宏观经济活动的财政政策和货币政策的组合。紧缩的货币政策和宽松的财政政策，倾向于鼓励消费和抑制投资。而宽松的货币政策和紧缩的财政政策，则具有相反的功效。 406、Fiscal policy财政政策 一种政府计划。内容包括：(1)商品和服务的购买及转移支付等支出；(2)税收的数量和种类。 407、Fiscal cost固定成本 见固定成本(cost，fixed)。 408、Fixed exchange rate固定汇率
见外汇汇率(foreign exchangs rate)。 409、Flexible exchange rates弹性汇率制 一种国际汇率制度。在该制度条件下，汇率主要由市场力量(即供给和需求)决定，政府不设定及维持某种特定的汇率。有时也称作"浮动汇率制"(floating exchange rates)。当政府对外汇市场不加干预时，该制度称为纯粹的浮动汇率制。 410、Floating exchange rates浮动汇率制 见弹性汇率制(flexible exchange rates)。 411、Flow vs stock流量与存量 流量是指，带有时间跨度或曰在一个时段上所累积变动的量(好比通过一个河段的水流)。存量则指，在某一个时点上某一变量的量值(如同湖中所盛的水)。收人代表每一年的美元流入数，因此是一个流量。而到1998年12月为止某人的财富则是一个存量。 412、Foreign exchange外汇 各国用以偿付对他国所欠债务的通货(或其他金融票据)。 413、Foreign exchange market外汇市场 不同国家的通货进行交易的市场。 414、Foreign exchange rate外汇汇率 一国通货与他国通货的交换比率或曰价格。例如，如果你可以用1美元购买19德国马克，那么马克的汇率就是19。如果一国通货钉住某一汇率水平，并准备随时捍卫这一汇率，则称该国实行的是固定汇率制(fixed ex-change rate)。而由市场供求力量来决定的汇率称为弹性汇率制(flexible exchange rates)。 415、Fourfirm concentration rate四企业集中度 见集中度(concentration ratio)。 416、Fractional-reserve banking部分准备金 银行制度现代银行体系的一种管制形式。依法要求有关金融机构将其所吸收的存款
Autism? 自闭症 Why it's not “Rain Woman”? 为什么它不是“雨女” Women have fewer cognitive disorders than men do because their bodies are better at ignoring the mutations which cause them? 与男性相比，患有认知障碍的女性较少，因为她们自身的身体能更好的忽略导致认知障碍的基因突变 AUTISM is a strange condition. Sometimes its symptoms of “social blindness”(an inability to read or comprehend the emotions of others) occur alone. This is dubbed high-functioning autism, or Asperger's syndrome. Though their fellow men and women may regard them as a bit odd, high-functioning autists are often successful (sometimes very successful) members of society. On other occasions, though, autism manifests as part of a range of cognitive problems. Then, the condition is debilitating. What is common to those on all parts of the so-called autistic spectrum is that they are more often men than women —so much more often that one school of thought suggests autism is an extreme manifestation of what it means, mentally, to be male. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls are. For high-functioning autism, the ratio is seven to one.?
携一份美好幽居禅意里 清晨醒来，打开窗帘，一抹慵懒的阳光照进来，暖暖的，柔柔的，时光瞬间变得温婉静美，打开音乐，沏一杯花茶，躺在床上，暖阳淼淼，茶香淡淡，音乐袅袅，闭上眼睛，嘴角轻轻上扬，算是对着光阴的镜子，和自己撒个娇。 时钟滴答滴答，一秒一秒的走着，毫无表情，不缓不急，过去了就是过去了，或许，有很多事情，我们会缅怀，会留恋，会铭刻，会珍藏，但那还是属于过去，还是被盖上了刻有“曾经”两字的印章，来不及细思量，来不及描绘，来不及逗留，转瞬即逝，洒下一地落英碎碎念，留下一串心语声声慢。生命只是时间中的一个停顿，一切的意义都只在它发生的那一时刻，如果可以，不要等！ 人生没有预定的轨迹，一切都在不确定中前行，你根本就无法预知明天会是什么样，好想把日子过成诗，爱为主题，幸福为背景，思考为主线，微笑为韵脚，日月星辰，花草树木，雨霜雪露为载体，经历和感受为表达方式，想象和幻想为延伸，时光温婉，岁月静好，让生活充满美妙旋律。至于生活中出现的一切不爽就让沉默来掩埋，让雨雪去消融，不论怎样，都不能让灵魂发出惨淡苍白的声音，哪怕是孤独轻影茕茕孑立，也要播一曲梵音，在柔和典雅，清澈湛寂，明净清幽的音乐中，把寂寥坐穿，把浑浊驱散，在心间开出一朵莲。
向往一种回归自然的生活，于心间修篱种菊，在一山一水间领悟悠幽禅意，滋养灵魂，静居幽谷，晨霭缭绕，晚霞轻舞，幽竹拔节，翠林窸窣，溪水潺潺，泉水叮咚，蜂飞蝶舞，鸟语花香，青苔萋萋，煮一壶茶，揽一抹暖阳，铺一卷唐诗宋词，摊一纸素笺，于文字间追寻一份淡然优雅，不去考量对错好坏，不去思忖是非曲直，守望一个不老的传说，典藏一份徜徉在生命里的馈赠，静看烟火悠悠绕山腰，聆听雨声淅沥诉缠绵，悦赏白雪飘飘任逍遥，清风朗月，云卷云舒皆美画，花开花落，风吹叶落尽诗意，只要有爱，世界就不会一片荒凉，只要有情，满眼都是潋滟清波，一路风光旖旎。 菩提本无树，明镜亦非台，本来无一物，何处惹尘埃。空灵的境界，不染世俗，不受困于贪念囹圄。一份真情，种在心田，汲取日月精华，沐浴甘甜雨露，根深叶茂，葱茏浓郁。历经岁月沧桑，风虐霜寒，一年又一年，收了又收，几度轮回，滤掉了浅薄，滤掉了浮华，滤掉了嗔痴，滤掉了怨恨，滤掉了冷漠，剩下的大概就是慈悲了吧！轻如云，重如山，浅如白，深如黑，柔如水，坚如石，如天对地，雨露对花朵，无声无息，无私无欲。电影《致我们终将逝去的青春》里郑微在结尾说过这样一句话：“爱一个人应该像爱祖国，爱山川，爱河流……”咋一听，觉得够矫情，细想锥心不已。爱就是爱了，一个人的事，无关他人，无需回应，无需复返，正如山川的静默不语，河流的奔流不息。需要经过多少沉淀，才会有如此厚重绵延的感悟？有即是无，无即是有，有无之间，一切在心。
The dash off cash 挥金如土 Rich countries must start planning for a cashless future 发达国家必须开始为无现金的未来做计划 For the past3,000years,when people thought of money they thought of cash.From buying food to settling bar tabs,day-to-day dealings involved creased paper or clinking bits of metal. 在过去的3000年里，每当提起钱，人们总会想到现金。从购买食物到酒吧吧台结算消费，日常交易用到的都是皱巴巴的纸币或叮当作响的硬币。 Over the past decade,however,digital payments have taken off—tapping your plastic on a terminal or swiping a smartphone has become normal.然而，过去十年间，数字支付已经兴起——在终端上刷卡或刷手机已经变得平常。Now this revolution is about to turn cash into an endangered species in some rich economies.That will make the economy more efficient—but it also poses new problems that could hold the transition hostage. 如今，这场革命即将要把一些发达国家的现金变为“濒危物种”。数字支付能够让经济更高效，但同时也带来了一些可能会阻碍经济转型的新的问题。 Countries are eliminating cash at varying speeds.But the direction of travel is clear,and in some cases the journey is nearly complete.In Sweden the number of retail cash transactions per person has fallen by80%in the
Free exchange 自由交易 The digital proletariat 数字无产阶级（无产阶级，不占有生产资料的阶级，这里意思我们产生数据，却无偿的交由互联网公司使用） 导读： Economists propose a radical solution to the problems posed byartificial intelligence 经济学家提出了一个彻底解决人工智能相关问题的方法。 正文： YOUhave multiple jobs, whetheryouknowitornot. 不管你有没有意识到，你身上都有多种生意。 Most begin first thing in the morning, when you pick up your phoneand begin generatingthe data thatmake up Silicon Valley’smost importantresource. 大多数生意在早晨开始，你拿起手机时就开始产生了数据。这些数据组成了硅谷最重要的资源 That, atleast, ishowwe oughtto think aboutthe role ofdata-creation in the economy, according to a fascinating new economics paper. 至少，这就是我们应该思考的：数据创造在经济里扮演怎样的角色，这是根据一篇很有吸引力的新经济文章提到的。
We are all digital labourers, helpingmake possible the fortunes generated by firms like Google andFacebook, the authors argue. 其中作者认为，我们就是所有数字的劳工，帮助像谷歌和脸书这样的公司创造财富。（fortunes命运，幸运，富有）Ifthe economy is to function properlyin the future—and ifa crisisoftechnological unemployment isto be avoided—we musttake accountofthis, and change the relationship between biginternetcompaniesand theirusers. 在未来经济运转良好的情况下，如果想要避免工业发展带来的失业危机，我们必须着眼于这件事情，并且改变大型互联网公司和他们用户之间的关系。 Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting better all the time, and stands poised totransform a host of industries, say the authors 作者说，人工智能势头一直越来越好，势必（准备）改变一大批工业。 But, in orderto learn to drive a carorrecognize a face, the algorithmsthatmake clever machines tick（滴答，拟声词，表示机器运作）mustusuallybe trained on massive amountsofdata. 但是，为了做到自动驾驶和人脸识别（主语是AI），使智能机器运作的法则必须经常用非常大量的数据进行测试。Internetfirms gather these data from users every time they click on aGoogle search result, say, orissue a command to Alexa.
The Brain Activity Map 绘制大脑活动地图 Hard cell 棘手的细胞 An ambitious project to map the brain is in the works. Possibly too ambitious 一个绘制大脑活动地图的宏伟计划正在准备当中，或许有些太宏伟了 NEWS of what protagonists hope will be America’s next big science project continues to dribble out. 有关其发起人心中下一个科学大工程的新闻报道层出不穷。 A leak to the New York Times, published on February 17th, let the cat out of the bag, with a report that Barack Obama’s administration is thinking of sponsoring what will be known as the Brain Activity Map. 2月17日，《纽约时报》刊登的一位线人报告终于泄露了秘密，报告称奥巴马政府正在考虑赞助将被称为“大脑活动地图”的计划。 And on March 7th several of those protagonists published a manifesto for the project in Science. 3月7日，部分发起人在《科学》杂志上发表声明证实了这一计划。 The purpose of BAM is to change the scale at which the brain is understood. “大脑活动地图”计划的目标是改变人们在认知大脑时采用的度量方法。 At the moment, neuroscience operates at two disconnected levels. 眼下，神经学的研究处在两个断开的层次。 The higher one, where the dimensions of features are measured in centimetres, has many techniques at its disposal, notably functional magnetic-res onance imaging, which measures changes in tissues’ fuel consumption. 在相对宏观的层次当中各个特征的规模用厘米来衡量，有很多技术可以使用，尤其是用来测量组织中能量消耗变动情况的核磁共振成像技术。 This lets researchers see which bits of the brain are active in particular tasks—as long as those tasks can be performed by a person lying down inside a scanner. 该技术可使研究人员找出在完成具体的任务时，大脑的哪些部分处于活跃状态。At the other end of the scale, where features are measured in microns, lots of research has been done on how individual nerve cells work, how messages are sent from one to another, and how the connections between cells strengthen and weaken as memories are formed. 而另一个度量的层次则要求用微米来测量各种特征，这一层次的研究很多都是关于单个神经细胞是如何工作的、信息在神经细胞之间是如何传递的以及当产生记忆的时候神经细胞之间的联系是如何得到加强和减弱的。 Between these two, though, all is darkness. 然而，位于这两个层次之间的研究还处于一片漆黑当中。 It is like trying to navigate America with an atlas that shows the states, the big cities and the main highways, and has a few street maps of local neighbourhoods, but displays nothing in between.
经典散文/经典文章大全 各位读友大家好，此文档由网络收集而来，欢迎您下载，谢谢 “漆漆一片间，亮亮一点光。独舞池塘边，伴我入梦乡。” 小时候，我和伙伴们经常念这样的儿歌。我们也都知道儿歌唱的是萤火虫。在空旷的山野里、小院的梧桐树下、村口的柴垛子里、池塘的草丛里、乡野的地畔头，萤火虫是随处可见的。从夏至秋的夜晚，伙伴们成群结队不知疲倦地追随着那些在低空中轻轻飘飞的萤火虫，脸上露出惊喜的神色。我们追啊，赶啊，仿佛小小的萤火虫就是童年黑夜里最明亮的灯光。曾经那样的夜晚不知陪我走过多少，那样的黑夜不知扑捉了多少只萤火虫。时光渐远，那些儿时的往事像珍珠一样，串接在记忆的门扉里至今璀璨夺目。
小时候，我是在乡村度过的。那时候的乡村淳朴得像一幅山水画，人们的生活清净简单，在我心里仿佛是一首纯净的田园牧歌。春种秋收，年复一年。在乡下我们能见到很多种小昆虫，萤火虫是其中最常见的一种。离我家不远处有一方池塘，夏天的时候，池塘边长满了野草，到了晚上，田野里、池塘边的草丛上空萤火虫飞来飞去，就像一个个小小的灯笼，照耀着恬静的乡村。有了这些萤火虫，我们这些顽皮的孩子便有了很多趣事。那时整个村子里只有三台电视机，夏天的晚上，人们常聚在村头的树下，拉拉家常，说说笑话。我们这些孩子便跑到野地里去扑捉那些漫天飞舞的流萤，因看到萤火虫身上的发光体总是让我们感到好玩。我们走在水塘边，看萤火虫的倒影在水中一闪一闪，我们数着天上的星星，也数着水塘上面飞舞的流萤，一只，两只，三只…… 在迷人的夏夜里，我们结伴而行去野外扑捉萤火虫。去之前，妈妈会给我
们准备一个透明的瓶子，我们便蹦蹦跳跳地奔向池塘。晚上，月光明媚、星光灿烂，我们轻快地奔跑着，凉风在耳边呼呼飘过，仿佛在为孩子纯真的梦想助威。许多萤火虫从我们面前飞过，在深蓝的夜空里一闪一闪的，煞是可爱，它们轻盈的身影伴着我们童年的梦一起装进了透明的瓶子里。 我仔细地观察过，那些萤火虫的飞行速度都比较慢，由于时刻发出亮光，所以飞行轨迹十分明显。只要我们发现亮光，十有八九都能扑捉到萤火虫。如果它停息在小树上或草叶上，我们就直接用手去扑捉。因为萤火虫身体娇弱，有时候稍不留意便会把它们捏伤，很快会死掉。那时候，我们只知道玩，压根也不觉得死掉几只萤火虫有什么可怜，反正乡村漫山遍野到处都是，永远也扑不完捉不尽。有时候，我还会荒唐地想：要是萤火虫能像秋蝉的体型那么大该多好，那样我们可以把捉来的萤火虫当电灯使了。
Disney Star Wars, Disney and myth-making How one company came to master the business of storytelling FROM a galaxy far, far away to a cinema just down the road: “The Force Awakens”, the newest instalment of the Star Wars saga, is inescapable this Christmas. The first Star Wars title since Lucasfilm, the owner of the franchise, was acquired by Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion, it represents more than just the revival of a beloved science-fiction series. It is the latest example of the way Disney has prospered over the past decade from a series of shrewd acquisitions (see article). Having bought Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, Disney has skilfullycapitalised on their intellectual property—and in so doing, cemented its position as the market leader in the industrialisation of mythology. Its success rests on its mastery of the three elements of modern myth-making: tropes, technology and toys. From Homer to Han Solo Start with the tropes. Disney properties, which include everything from “Thor” to “Toy Story”, draw on well-worn devices of mythic structure to give their stories cultural resonance. Walt Disney himself had an intuitive grasp of the power of fables. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, is an avid student of the work of Joseph Campbell, an American comparative mythologist who outlined the “monomyth” structure in which a hero answers a call, is assisted by a mentor figure, voyages to another world, survives various trials and emerges triumphant. Both film-makers merrily plundered ancient mythology and folklore. The Marvel universe goes even further, directly appropriating chunks of Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. (This makes Disney's enthusiasm for fierce enforcement of intellectual-property laws, and the seemingly perpetual extension of copyright, somewhat ironic.) The internal mechanics of myths may not have changed much over the ages, but the technology used to impart them certainly has. That highlights Disney's second area of expertise. In Homer's day, legends were passed on in the form of dactylic hexameters; modern myth-makers prefer computer graphics, special effects, 3D projection, surround sound and internet video distribution,
What went wrong IN RECENT months many economists and policymakers, including such unlikely bedfellows as Paul Krugman, an economist and New York Times columnist, and Hank Paulson, a former American treasury secretary, have put “global imbalances”—the huge current-account surpluses run by countries like China, alongside America’s huge deficit—at the root of the financial crisis. But the IMF disagrees. It argues, in new papers released on Friday March 6th, that the “main culprit” was deficient regulation of t he financial system, together with a failure of market discipline. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, said this week that global imbalances contributed only “indirectly” to the crisis. This may sound like buck-passing by the world’s main interna tional macroeconomic organisation. But the distinction has important consequences for whether macroeconomic policy or more regulation of financial markets will provide the solutions to the mess. In broad strokes, the global imbalances view of the crisis argues that a glut of money from countries with high savings rates, such as China and the oil-producing states, came flooding into America. This kept interest rates low and fuelled the credit boom and the related boom in the prices of assets, such as houses and equity, whose collapse precipitated the financial crisis. A workable long-term fix for the problems of the world economy would, therefore, involve figuring out what to do about these imbalances. But the IMF argues that imbalances could not have caused the crisis without the creative ability of financial institutions to develop new structures and instruments to cater to investors’ demand for higher yields. These instruments turned out to be more risky than they appeared. Investors, overly optimistic about continued rises in asset prices, did not look closely into the nature of the assets that they bought, preferring to rely on the analysis of credit-rating agencies which were, in some cases, also selling advice on how to game the ratings system. This “failure of market discipline”, the fund argues, played a big role in the crisis. As big a problem, according to the IMF, was that financial regulation was flawed, ineffective and too limited in scope. What it calls the “shadow banking system”—the loosely regulated but highly interconnected network of investment banks, hedge funds, mortgage originators, and the like—was not subject to the sorts of prudential regulation (capital-adequacy norms, for example) that applied to banks. In part, the fund argues, this was because they were not thought to be systemically important, in the sense that banks were understood to be. But their being unregulated made it more attractive for banks (whose affiliates the non-banks often were) to evade capital requirements by pushing risk into these entities. In time, this network of institutions grew so large that they were indeed systemically important: in the now-familiar phrase, they were “too big” or “too interconnected” to fail. By late 2007, some estimates of the assets of the bank-like institutions in America outside the scope of existing prudential regulation, was around $10 trillion, as large as the assets of the regulated American banking system itself. Given this interpretation, it is not surprising that the IMF has thrown its weight strongly behind an enormous increase in the scale and scope of financial regulation in a series of papers leading up to the G20 meetings. Among many other proposals, it wants the shadow banking system to be subjected to the same sorts of prudential requirements that banks must follow. Sensibly, it is calling for regulation to concentrate on what an institution does, not what it is called (that is, the basis of regulation should be activities, not entities). It also wants regulators to focus more broadly on