The Science of Romance

看着你的右手：比较你的无名指指端和食指指端。 如果无名指相对来说越长的话， 你就越有可能在数学， 音乐和机械方面有天赋。

这可不是做＂半仙＂，这个例子摘自本期时代杂志一系列的专题文章－－<>. 这个问题是 Rutgers University 一人类学教授建立的，原因是当人在子宫内生长的时候，雄性激素会让无名指变长。她还有类似的５６个问题，从科学的角度帮助你做性格测试， Chemistry.com

Well,回到这个问题本身，发现我的数学水平其实在平均线左右，老公和儿子都是天生的数学和机械天才，女儿似乎更艺术化些。看来老三出世， 第一件事就是看手指头 :-)

灵魂的不存在

东西方的文化发展线，可以说相交的并不多。不过有意思的是大家都有个＂灵魂＂的概念， 一种独立于身体物质的精神存在。人死了，灵魂却是不灭的，可以转世投胎，也可以到天国永享幸福。

人对于永恒的追求是滋滋不倦的，而人生的苦难，有时只能让人将希望放之于来生或者天堂。可以说，所有的宗教都源于这两个动机。

不过，在最近一期的<<时代>>杂志上刊登的一篇文章，恐怕会打破很多人的这个安慰和梦想。 该文列举了近年来很多在NeuroSience 方面的科学试验，比如脑电图扫描和单向对比实验， 揭示了这样一个事实： 人的所有思维活动都是由大脑控制的，包括那些有濒死经验的人感觉到意识游离于躯体之外，只是大脑在特定条件的一种幻觉，而且是可以被仪器探测得知的。

所以，没有灵魂！ 而且，可以预测的是，将来科学的发展，会让一个人所有的思维活动都可被探知，至少你的大脑皮层的活动引起大脑不同区域的温度分布会让科学家知道你在想什么方面的问题。

孔夫子早就说：＂不知生，焉知死？＂，看来， 这是最好的态度。

How to raise the next generation?

There is a new article in the Deccember 16, 2006 issue of "Time" magazine:
" How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century ? "

It talked about the current American schools --- they are not up-to-date and doesn't educate students to meet the globalization requirements of the 21st century.

The following listed are several key points that our next generation need to survive in the information era:

(1) Knowing more about the world. Global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages.

(2) Thinking outside the box. Kids need to learn how to leap across disciplines because that is how breakthroughs now come about. It's interdisciplinary combinaitons --- Design and Technology, Mathematics and Art ---that produce YouTube and MySpace.

(3) Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distiguish between what's reliable and what isn't.

(4) Developing good people kills. EQ is as important as IQ for success in today's workplace.

(5) Master the real knowledge in the Google Era. They don't need to remember all the river names in South America besides Amazon, just look them up at Google.

This is a good article about education. As parents, we need to think about these points and not just blindly follow the current school systems. We need to figure out a good way to provide combined global education to our kids although obviously they have advantages here as second generation immigrants.

Ways to go

When and where death will arrive can rarely be predicted, but the statistics reveal what holds the greatest chance of ending a life. Below figures come from the most recent national geography magizine which shows what the lifetime probabilities are of a US resident dying in a relatively common event, such as a pedestrian accident, or a less common but larger scale catastrophe, such as an earthquake. No matter what the cause, one thing is certain: No one gets out of here alive.

Heart Disease: 1 in5
Cancer: 1 in 7
Stroke: 1 in 24
Automobile Accidents: 1 in 84
Suicide: 1 in 119
Falling: 1 in 218
Firearm Assault: 1 in 314
Oedestrain Accident: 1 in 626
Drowning: 1 in 1,008
Motorcycle accident: 1in 1,020
Fire or Smoke: 1 in 1,113
Bicycling accident: 1 in 4,919
Air/Space accident: 1 in 5,051
Accidental firearm discharge: 1 in 5,134
Accidental electrocution: 1 in 9,968
Alcohol Poisoning: 1 in 10,048
Hot Weather: 1 in 13,729
Hoenet, wasp, or bee sting: 1 in 56,789
Legal execution: 1 in 62,468
Lightning: 1 in 79,746
Earthquake: 1 in 117,127
Flood: 1 in 144,156
Fireworks discharge: 1 in 340,733


....
Total odds of dying, any cause: 1 in 1 (100%)

Among all of these , no cause of something such as SARS, bird flu, anthrax or other popular ones in the news are listed. We are worrying about something we shouldn't worry that much. Instead, we need to put more resource in the disease cure including stem cell research and cloning, natural disaster control and even weather prediction.

Human being had too much war already.