LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS 生活札記

EnglishDo you want blue eyes with your baby? Or green eyes? Blond or brunette?

Dr. Jeff Steinberg, who operates clinics in Manhattan and Los Angeles, says that within six months he plans to let customers choose their baby’s eye, hair, and even skin color.

Trait-selection will be based on a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, created in the 1990s so that parents who carried genes for life-threatening diseases could be assured of having healthy children.

Steinberg, who helped produce the first test-tube baby, admits the technology is not 100% perfect and says best results are couples with Scandinavian heritage, whose gene pools are least diluted.

Source: ABC News

EnglishIndia is planning to produce a laptop computer for the knockdown price of about $20 (€16, £14), having come up with the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car at about $2,000.

The project, backed by New Delhi, would considerably undercut the so-called “$100 laptop”, otherwise known as the Children’s Machine or XO, that was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US.

The Children’s Machine, which received a cool reception in India, is the centrepiece of the One Laptop Per Child charity initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT’s Media Lab. Intel launched a similar product, called Classmate, in response.

 

India’s $20 laptop would also undercut the EeePC, made by Taiwan’s Asustek. The EeePC was the first ultra-cheap, scaled-down laptop (a new category known as a netbook) launched worldwide through commercial channels. It does not have a hard drive and sells for $200-$400.

 

India’s “Sakshat” laptop is intended to boost distance learning to help India fulfil its overwhelming educational needs. It forms part of a broader plan to improve e-learning at more than 18,000 colleges and 400 universities. However, some analysts are sceptical that a $20 laptop would be commercially sustainable and the project has yet to attract a commercial partner.

A prototype will go on show at a National Mission on Education launch in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, tomorrow. Pioneered in India by scientists at the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and at the state-controlled Semiconductor Complex, the laptop has 2Gb Ram capacity and wireless connectivity.

R.P. Agrawal, secretary of secondary and higher education, said last week that the cost of the laptop was about $20 a unit, but he expected that to fall. He also said he expected the units to be commercially available in six months.

India faces the huge challenge of finding ways to equip its large population, more than 550m of whom are under the age of 25, with contemporary skills. It needs to sustain high economic growth and spread development across the country.

During the next six years, by some estimates, India will need to create another 1,500 universities. Educational institutions in the UK and US are lining up to become partners to help with this huge projected tertiary-level expansion.

Pressure is building on the government to permit foreign investment into the sector and use public-private partnerships to meet some of the demand. Leading universities across the world, such as Kellogg School of Management in the US and Imperial College in the UK, are exploring different models, including faculty partnerships, distance learning and setting up campuses.

But the government appears to favour turning to technology ahead of international partnerships to bring people into higher education.

Source: Financial Times

 

EnglishWomen with larger chins are more likely to cheat on their partners, according to research.

Psychologists have found that adult females who have prominent chins are more sexually active than those with softer features, yet are less attractive to men looking for a long-term partner.

Larger chins on women are often caused by a high level of the male growth hormone testosterone, present in all women in various amounts.

The hormone also increases sexual assertiveness in a woman, a tendency more commonly attributed to males.

The researchers, from four universities across the US and Canada, took a group of young women and questioned them on their sexual histories and fantasies.

These women were then rated by a group of men on their desirability as a life partner.

It was concluded that men will shun women with such masculine features when looking for a long-term partner because they fear being cuckolded.

Psychologists believe it is linked to their evolutionary desire to have a partner who will produce children for only one man.

Authors of the study, published in the journal Personality And Individual Differences, said: “The findings are important in demonstrating that perceptions of women as desirable and trustworthy long-term mates can be reliably gleaned by men from viewing only the women’s facial features.

“Results suggest that information about women’s sexual unrestrictedness, which is related to their risk of infidelity, can potentially be conveyed by the masculinity of women’s faces.”

The theory has many examples in the celebrity world.

Actress Meg Ryan, 47, who has a strong chin, famously cheated on her husband Dennis Quaid with her co-star Russell Crowe.

However, the actress Joanne Woodward, who has a dainty jawline, was happily married for 50 years to Hollywood icon Paul Newman until his death in September.

Dr Lorne Campbell, a psychologist from Western Ontario University, who took part in the project, wrote: “It is difficult to conceal physical features, such as facial characteristics, that are partly governed by testosterone and reliably correlate with one’s sexual history and attitudes.

The research is the first to our knowledge to suggest that a more masculine facial appearance in women might convey their sexual unrestrictedness and perhaps their long-term mate quality.”

Source: Telegraph

繁體中文景氣大蕭條，全球引發嚴重失業潮，求職市場遇上了大寒冬，想要獲得企業的青睞，履歷表變得各外格外重要，尤其是履歷表上的大頭照，日本有一位攝影師，會針對每位學生求職的職業別，拍出不同感覺的大頭照，非常受到學生歡迎。

求職市場，進入冷颼颼的寒冬，這對即將步出校門的學生來說，可是嚴峻的考驗，要如何在眾多的求職者中，脫穎而出給企業人事主管留下深刻印象，履歷表上的大頭照，可說是最重要的關鍵。

在日本札幌市經營照相館的橋場一宏，在不景氣中依舊生意興隆，而且上門拍照的幾乎都是為求職苦惱的大學生，橋場之所有擁有超高人氣，最主要是他會針對每位學生希望的求職類別，給予拍照時的建議。

在橋場的引導下，學生的表情越來越自然，嘴角上揚的大頭照，用來應徵國內的航空公司，而另一張露齒微笑的照片，則是應徵外國航空公司之用，想要進入出版業的三上杏那，在拍了30張照片之後，最後決定以一張展現知性笑容的大頭照，投入激烈的求職戰場。

每張大頭照展現了求職者的個性，以及想要獲得率取的決心。