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　　Today, there's hardly an aspect of our life that isn't being upended by the tons of information available on the hundreds of millions of sites crowding the Internet, not to mention its ability to keep us in constant touch with each other via electronic mail．“If the automobile and aerospace technology had exploded at the same pace as computer and information technology,” says Microsoft, “a new car would cost about ＄ 2 and go 600 miles on a small quantity of gas．And you could buy a Boeing 747 for the cost of a pizza．”

　　Probably the biggest payoff, however, is the billions of dollars the Internet is saving companies in producing goods and serving for the needs of their customers．Nothing like it has been seen since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when power-driven machines began producing more in a day than men could turn out in nearly a year．“We view the growth of the Internet and e-commerce as a global trend,” says Merrill Lynch, “along the lines of printing press, the telephone, the computer, and electricity．”

　　You would be hard pressed to name something that isn't available on the Internet．Consider：books, health care, movie tickets, construction materials, baby clothes, stocks, cattle feed, music, electronics, antiques, tools, real estate, toys, autographs of famous people, wine and airline tickets．And even after you've moved on to your final resting place, there's no reason those you love can't keep in touch．A company called FinalThoughts．com offers a place for you to store “afterlife e-mails” you can send to Heaven with the help of a “guardian angel”．

　　Kids today are so computer literate that it in fact ensures the United States will remain the unchallenged leader in cyberspace for the foreseeable(能预测的)future．Nearly all children in families with incomes of more than ＄75,000 a year have home computers, according to a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation．Youngsters from ages 2 to 17 at all income levels have computers, with 52％ of those connected to the Internet．Most kids use computers to play games(some for 30 hours or more a week), and many teenage girls think nothing of rushing home from school to have e-mail chats with friends they have just left．

　　What's clear is that, whether we like it or not, the Internet is an ever growing part of our lives and there is no turning back．“The Internet is just 20％ invented,” says cyber pioneer Jake Winebaum．“The last 80％ is happening now．”

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How often do you travel by plane？

　　How much electricity do you use? These days everyone is worried about the size of their carbon footprint．In order to reduce global warming we need to make our carbon footprints smaller．But how much CO₂ are we responsible for?

　　A new book by Mike Berners Lee(a leading expert in carbon footprint)might be able to help．How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything looks at the different things we do and buy, and calculates the amount of CO₂ all of the following created：the ingredients, the electricity used in the brewery, the equipment, the travel and commuting of the beer, and the packaging．It's amazing how many different things need to be included in each calculation．And it's frightening how much carbon dioxide everything produces．

　　But all of this can help us decide which beer to drink．From Berners-Lee's calculations, it's clear that a pint(568ml)of locally-brewed beer has a smaller carbon footprint than a bottle of imported beer．This is because the imported beer has been transported from far away, and it uses more packaging．The local beer only produces 300g of CO₂, but the imported beer produces 900g! So, one pint of local beer is better for the environment than three cans of cheap foreign lager from the supermarket．

　　Berners-Lee has even calculated the carbon footprint of cycling to work．Nothing is more environmentally-friendly than riding a bike, surely? Well, it depends on what you've had to eat before．To ride a bike we need energy and for energy we need food．So if we eat a banana and then ride a kilometer and a half, our footprint is 65g of CO₂．However, if we eat bacon before the bike ride, it's 200g．In fact, bananas are good in general because they don't need packaging, they can be transported by boat and they grow in natural sunlight．

　　So, does this mean that cycling is bad for the environment? Absolutely not, for a start, if you cycle, you don't use your car, and the fewer cars on the road, the fewer traffic jams．And cars in traffic jams produce three times more CO₂ than cars traveling at speed．Cycling also makes you healthy and less likely to go to a hospital．And hospitals have very big carbon footprints!

　　So maybe it's time for us all to start making some changes．Pass me a banana and a pint of local beer, please．

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　　Which is sillier：denying we ever went to the moon or trying to convince the true nonbelievers?

　　Once upon a time－July 20, 1969, to be specific－two men got out of their little spaceship and wandered around on the moon for a while．Ten more men walked on the moon over the next three and a half years．The end．

　　Unfortunately, not quite．A fair number of Americans think that this whole business of moon landings really is a fairy tale．They believe that the landings were a big hoax(骗局)staged in the Mojave Desert, to convince everyone that U．S．technology was the “bestest” in the whole wide world．

　　Which is the harder thing to do：Send men to the moon or make believe we did? The fact is the physics behind sending people to the moon is simple．You can do it with computers whose entire memory capacities can now fit on chips the size of postage stamps and that cost about as much as, well, a postage stamp．I know you can because we did．

　　However, last fall NASA considered spending ＄15,000 on a public-relations campaign to convince the unimpressed that Americans had in fact gone to the moon．That idea was mostly a reaction to a Fox television program, first aired in February 2001, that claimed to expose the hoax．The show's creator is a publicity hound(猎狗)who has lived up to the name in more ways than one by hounding Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon．Mr．X(as I will call him, thereby denying him the joyous sight of his name in print)recently followed Buzz Aldrin around and called him “a thief, liar and coward” until the 72-year-old astronaut finally lost it and hit the 37-year-old Mr．X in the face．

　　Anyway, NASA's publicity campaign began to slow down．The nonbelievers took the campaign as NASA's effort to hide something while the believers said that ＄15,000 to convince people that the world was round－I mean, that we had gone to the moon－was simply a waste of money．(Actually, the ＄15,000 was supposed to pay for an article by James E．Oberg, an astronomy writer who, with Aldrin, has contributed to Scientific American．)

　　If NASA's not paying Oberg, perhaps it could put the money to good use by hiring two big guys to drag Neil Armstrong out of the house．Armstrong is an extremely private man, but he is also the first man on the moon, so maybe he has a duty to be a bit more outspoken about the experience．Or NASA could just buy Aldrin a commemorate plaque(纪念匾)for his recent touch on the face of Mr．X．

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　　Bonus(奖金)culture has become the subject of many studies nowadays．Many people have been angered by the way some bankers and high officials seem to have been rewarded for failure．Others find the idea of offering many-million-dollar bonuses morally disgusting．

　　But few have asked whether performance-related bonuses really do improve performance．The answer seems so obvious that even to ask the question can appear ridiculous．Indeed, in spite of all the complaints about them, financial encouragements continue to be introduced in more and more areas, from healthcare and public services to teaching and universities．

　　So it may come as a shock to many to learn that paying for results can actually make people perform badly in many circumstances, and that the more you pay, the worse they perform．

　　No one is arguing that bonuses can help companies and institutions attract and keep the best staff．Nor does anyone argue against the idea that you can encourage people to do specific tasks by linking payments to those tasks．Rather, the point is about how to get the best out of people．Do employees really perform better if you promise to pay them more for getting results?

　　There are some obvious reasons why such payments can fail．It has been argued, for instance, that cash bonuses contributed to the financial crash, because traders had little enthusiasm to make sure that their companies enjoyed long-term survival．

　　Most bonus projects are poorly designed, says Professor Malcolm Higgs．He thinks the reason is that organisations try to keep bonus arrangements simple．Nevertheless, he thinks bonus projects can work as long as they link the interests of individual employees with the long-term goals of a business．

　　Bonuses can also encourage cheating．“Once you start making people's rewards dependent on outcomes rather than behaviours, the evidence is people will do whatever they can to get those outcomes,” says Professor Edward Deci．“In many cases the high officials simply lied and cheated to make the stock(股票)price go up so they got huge bonuses．”

　　But the work of Deci and others suggests the problem with bonuses runs far deeper than poor design or cheating．In 1971, he asked students to solve puzzles, with some receiving cash prizes for doing well and others getting nothing．Deci found those offered cash were less likely to keep working on puzzles after they had done enough to get paid．

　　These studies suggest that offering rewards can stop people doing things for the pure joy of it．This was the basis for a series of books by Kohn in which he argues that rewarding children, students and workers with grades, scholarships and other “bribes”(贿赂)leads to low-quality work in the long run．

　　Those who believe in the power of bonuses fail to distinguish between inner drive and outside pressure－wanting to do something because you like it for itself in contrast to doing something because you want the reward, Kohn says．“It's not just that these two are different, it's often that the more you reward people for doing something, the more their inner drive tends to decline．”

　　A “do this and get that” approach might improve performance in the short term, but over longer periods it will always fail, Kohn says．People who receive bonus will naturally play safe, become less creative, cooperate less and feel less valued, he adds．What's more, the studies also suggest that offering rewards can also stop people taking responsibility．

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Below is a page from The World Almanac(年鉴)and Book of Facts 2008．

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　　Until I was twelve years old, I thought everyone in the world knew about the grinnies, if I thought about the term at all－which is unlikely．After all, everyone in my family used the word quite naturally, and we understood each other．So far as I knew, it was a word like any other word－like bath, or chocolate, or homework．But it was my homework which led to my discovery that grinnies was a word not known outside my family．

　　My last report card had said that I was a “C” student in English, and my parents, both teachers, decided that no child of theirs would be just an average student of anything．So nightly I spelled words aloud and answered questions about the fine points of grammar．I wrote and rewrote and rewrote every composition until I convinced my mother that I could make no more improvements．And the hard work paid off．One day the teacher returned compositions, and there it was－a big fat, bright red “A” on the top of my paper．Naturally, I was delighted, but I didn't know I was attracting attention until the teacher spoke sharply, “Helen, what are you doing?”

　　Called suddenly out of my happy thoughts, I said “Oh, I've got the grinnies!” The teacher and my classmates burst into laughter, and then I understood that grinnies were used inside my family．Other people were not so lucky．

　　And it is really lucky to have the grinnies, an uncontrollable, natural state of great pleasure．Grinnies are shown on the outside by sparkling eyes and a wide, wide smile － not just any smile, but one that shows the teeth and stretches the mouth to its limits．A person experiencing the grinnies appears to be all mouth．On the inside grinnies are characterized by a feeling of joyful anxiety．Grinnies usually last just a few seconds, but they can come and go．Sometimes, when life seems just perfect, I have occasional attacks of the grinnies for a whole day．

　　The term originated in my mother's family．Her younger sister, Rose, who had deep dimples(酒窝), often expressed her pleasure with such a grin that the dimples appeared to become permanent．When Rose was about four, she started explaining her funny look by saying, “I have the grinnies”．The term caught on, and it has been an important word in our family now for two generations．

　　The occasion doesn't matter．Anything can bring on the grinnies－just so long as one feels great delight．When my brother finally rode his bicycle－without training wheels－from our house to the corner and back, he came home with the grinnies．When I was little, my mother's announcement that we would have homemade ice cream for dessert always gave me the grinnies．My father had the grinnies when I was chosen to make a speech at the end-of-school-year ceremony．Grinnies can be brought on by a good meal, a sense of pride, a new friend, a telephone call from someone special, an achievement．Or sometimes one gets the grinnies for no reason at all：just a sudden sense of happiness can bring on a case．Whatever brings them on, an attack of the grinnies is among life's greatest pleasures．

　　In fact, now that I look back on the experience, I feel sorry for my seventh-grade teacher．I think it's a pity that she didn't know the word grinnies．It's such a useful term for saying, “I'm really, really pleased!”

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　　Dr．Glenn Tisman, a cancer specialist, knew his young neighbor, Ray Bateman, had an unusual mind．But he had no idea at the time that 12-year-old Ray had the ability to become his partner in cancer research．

　　Ray' s parents remembered that at age four, Ray surprised them by fixing a broken vacuum cleaner(吸尘器)．When he was ten, he speedily constructed the family color television from a kit．Later, he succeeded in assembling(组装)a complex stereo system after two experts had failed to do the job．

　　When Ray was ten, he convinced his parents to buy him a computer．In a short time, Ray was able to do amazing things with the computer．Ray shared his enthusiasm for computers with Dr．Tisman, who used a computer for his research．The two discussed computers and medicine frequently．Amazingly, Ray understood the biology and chemistry related to Dr．Tisman's medical research without any previous instruction．

　　Ray then worked with Dr．Tisman after school．He helped conduct research with the equipment and kept it in working order．The purpose of the research was to test the effectiveness of mixing an old cancer drug with certain vitamins．Ray analyzed patient test results by computer, while Dr．Tisman handled all patient contact．Together, they came up with solid research that helped advance cancer treatment．

　　In 1988, 14-year-old Ray went with Dr．Tisman to a meeting of the American Federation for Clinical Research(AFCR), where Ray presented their initial research findings．Using terminology(术语)beyond the grasp of most kids of his age, Ray told the scientists how the new drug mixture caused fewer and milder side effects for cancer patients．

　　A year later, Ray returned to the meeting to update the findings of his and Dr．Tisman' s research．By then, he had become well-known for his devotion to finding cures for sick patients．Stories about him appeared in hundreds of newspapers around the world．He appeared on television newscasts and talk shows．

　　Ray continued to spend most free hours working with Dr．Tisman．The two began studying the effects of vitamins on babies inside the womb．However, Ray' s main interest remained cancer treatment, and he continues his research today．

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　　“Congratulations, Mr．Jones, it's a girl．”

　　Fatherhood is going to have a different meaning and bring forth a different response from every man who hears these words．Some feel proud when they receive the news, while others worry, wondering whether they will be good fathers．Although there are some men who like children and may have had considerable experience with them, others do not particularly care for children and spend little time with them．Many fathers and mothers have been planning and looking forward to children for some time．For other couples, pregnancy was an accident that both husband and wife have accepted willingly or unwillingly．

　　Whatever the reaction to the birth of a child, it is clear that the change from the role of husband to that of father is a difficult task．Yet, unfortunately, few attempts have been made to educate fathers in this resocialization process．Although many books have been written about American mothers, only recently has literature referred to the role of a father．

　　It is argued by some writers that the transition(转化)to the father's role, although difficult, is not nearly as great as the transition the wife must make to the mother's role．The mother's role seems to require a complete transformation in daily life and highly innovative(革新性的)adaptation(适应)．On the other hand, the father's role is less demanding and immediate．However, even though we mentioned the fact that growing numbers of women are working outside the home, the father is still thought by many as the breadwinner in the family．

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　　Honesty is the best policy, as the English saying goes．Unfortunately, honesty often leaves us when no one is watching, British psychologists reported last week．

Researchers at UK's Newcastle University set up an experiment in their psychology department's coffee room．

　　They set a kettle, with tea, coffee and milk on the counter and hung up a sign listing the price for drinks．People helping themselves to a cup of tea were supposed to put a few cents in the box nearby．

　　The scientists hung a poster above the money box, and changed each week between pictures of gazing(注视的)eyes and pictures of flowers．The researchers found that staff paid 2.76 times more for their drinks when the image of the eyes was hung．

　　“We were shocked by the size of the effect,” said Gilbert Roberts, one of the researchers．

　　Eyes are known to be a powerful perceptual(知觉的)signal for humans, scientists say．

　　“Even though the eyes were not real, they still seemed to make people behave more honestly,” said Melissa Bateson, a behavioral biologist and leader of the study．

　　Researchers believe the effect throws light on our evolutionary(进化的)past．It may arise from behavioral characteristics that developed when early humans formed social groups to increase their chances of survival．For social groups to work, individuals had to co-operate, rather than act selfishly．“There's an argument that if nobody is watching us, it is in our interests to behave selfishly．But when we're being watched we should behave better．So people see us as co-operative and behave the same way towards us,” Bateson said．

　　The new finding indicates that people have a striking response to eyes．That might be because eyes and faces send a strong biological signal we have evolved to respond to, Bateson said．

　　The finding could be put to practical use．For example, images of eyes could ensure ticket sales on public transport and improve surveillance(监视)systems to deter antisocial(反社会)behaviour．

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　　They like using the Internet．They have lots of pocket money to spend．And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us．Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web．

　　But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards．Most have to use a parent's card．They want a facility that allows them to spend money．

That may come sooner than they think：new ways to take pocket money into cyber(网络的)space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic．If successful, these products can stimulate(刺激)online sales．

In general, teenagers spend huge amounts：＄153bn(billion)in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK．Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school --- 88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK．According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online---mainly CDs and books．

In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children．Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street．They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online．

One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK．Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or ＄50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account．