姑苏翻译社公告：
The Internet is becoming our main source of memory instead of our own brains, a study has concluded. In the age of Google, our minds are adapting so that we are experts at knowing where to find information even though we don’t recall what it is. The researchers found that when we want to know something we use the Internet as an ‘external memory’ just as computers use an external hard dri... 查看详细
Men turn from penny-pinching savers to big spenders if they think there is a shortage of women around them according to new research. When men believe that competition for wives and girlfriends is increasing they become impulsive with their money and even increase their borrowing. To test their theory that sex ratios affect economic decisions, researchers at Minnesota University"s Carlso... 查看详细
Maritime authorities, passengers and mounting evidence pointed toward the captain of a cruise liner that ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan coast, amid accusations that he abandoned ship before everyone was safely evacuated and was showing off when he steered the vessel far too close to shore. Divers searching the murky depths of the partially submerged Costa Concordia found the bodi... 查看详细
The remainder of the crippled Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is set to crash to Earth on Sunday following its botched mission to Mars, space experts have said. The minibus-sized Russian craft has been in a low orbit around Earth since losing contact with engineers shortly after its launch on November 8. It had been intended to explore Phobos, one of Mars"s two moons, but became stranded while s... 查看详细
Before jetting off to Paris, Madrid or Rome, American holidaymakers should consider a trip to Birmingham, according to a new list of places to visit in 2012. The New York Times" “45 Places to Go in 2012”, published last week, finds room for England’s much maligned second city at number 19, ahead of the likes of Vienna, Jordan, Dubrovnik and Antarctica, while the Italian, Spanish and Frenc... 查看详细
Scientists on Tuesday pushed the hands of the infamous "Doomsday Clock" forward one minute from last year, signalling their increasing pessimism about the efforts of world leaders to handle global threats. "It is now five minutes to midnight," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) said in a sober assessment of current trends. "Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might addr... 查看详细
Lounging on the New York subway with feet up on the seats was costly to lazy riders fined by the city last year, police said on Tuesday. More than 7,000 riders on New York City subways were ticketed last year for putting feet on the seats or otherwise taking up too much space, under a law that makes bad manners a crime. The offenses, which ranged from putting a bag on a seat to blocking ... 查看详细
Retirees looking to stretch their pensions might consider spending their golden years in Ecuador, Panama or Mexico, where cost of living is low and the weather is warm, according to a new index. International Living Magazine rated the three Latin American countries the top destinations in its Retirement Index 2012, followed by Malaysia, Colombia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Spain, Thailand an... 查看详细
Working less hours each week will help boost the economy by creating more jobs and improving quality of life, according to a think tank. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) will meet with other experts at an event in London this week to find a solution to unemployment, the credit crisis and reducing the country"s carbon footprint. The NEF, which has organised the gathering with the Centre... 查看详细
David Cameron has been warned by his chief fundraiser that he faces a backlash from grassroots Tories and donors over the Coalition"s proposed high speed rail link. Lord Feldman, the Tory co-chairman, last week held a series of tense meetings with Conservative associations in areas which the planned link will pass through, after warnings that some were on the verge of mutiny. At one meet... 查看详细
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett will reach out to millions of Chinese in the most curious of ways: singing for the online version of China"s annual Spring Festival gala. The Berkshire Hathaway chief executive, best known in China for his investment in automaker BYD Co Ltd, has recorded a video specially for the gala in which he sings and plays the guitar, state news agency Xinhua said... 查看详细
Brides are increasingly shunning summer weddings and getting married during winter instead to cut costs amid the economic gloom, figures suggest. Register office data shows that thousands more people are tying the knot between October and March than in previous years, to save money on hosting receptions. Companies offering wedding services are also reporting booming business as couples t... 查看详细
With the New Year just around the corner, President Obama said there will be “difficult debates” and “tough fights” ahead but that he’s hopeful the American people will come together to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class. “There’s no doubt that 2012 will bring even more change,” the president said in his weekly address from Hawaii, where he’s vacationing with his family. “As... 查看详细
Around 200 people who thought their only experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games would be minor heats of synchronised swimming have received an unexpected upgrade to the men’s 100m final following an embarrassing ticketing mistake. The London 2012 organising committee (Locog) confirmed on Wednesday that a decidedly unsynchronised error in its ticketing process had led to four synchron... 查看详细
Facebook is becoming a major factor in marriage breakdowns and is increasingly being used as a source of evidence in divorce cases, according to lawyers. The social networking site was cited as a reason for a third of divorces last year in which unreasonable behaviour was a factor, according to law firm Divorce-Online. The firm said it had seen a 50 percent jump in the number of behaviou... 查看详细
If you are reading this on Friday you cannot be in Samoa. Friday, December 30, has been cut this year for the tiny South Pacific island nation as it ditched a time-zone alliance with the United States and moved its time zone 24 hours ahead to catch up with Asia, New Zealand and Australia. On New Year"s Eve, Samoa will have jumped to the west of the international dateline, which runs zig-... 查看详细
The BBC has defended its decision to name a panda among the 12 women in its Faces of 2011 as "a light-hearted addition" to the list. Sweetie, who is also known as Tian Tian, is one of a pair of pandas newly installed at Edinburgh Zoo. The animal joins 11 other notable names on the BBC list including shot US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, singer Adele and Pauline Pearce - who was dubbe... 查看详细
Poor people are quicker than middle-class or rich individuals to recognize the suffering of others and to show compassion, according to a new study. It included more than 300 young adults who were divided into groups that took part in three experiments designed to assess their levels of empathy and compassion. The findings challenge previous research that concluded lower-class people are... 查看详细
From dancing geckos to the ‘Thriller’ cat – 2011 has brought plenty of smiles to readers. The house that looks like Hitler The elderly owner of an end-of-terrace house in Swansea was left bewildered when hundreds of thousands of twitter users compared his house to Hitler’s face. The joke became a hit on social networking site Twitter when it was pointed out that the features of the hous... 查看详细
The loose-knit hacking movement "Anonymous" claimed Sunday to have stolen thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to clients of US-based security think tank Stratfor. One hacker said the goal was to pilfer funds from individuals" accounts to give away as Christmas donations, and some victims confirmed unauthorized transactions linked to their credit cards... 查看详细
