I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
《时代》杂志记者 Platon 向 Leo Benedictus 回忆他在2007年底前往莫斯科拍摄俄罗斯总统普京肖像的过程。Platon 说普京肖像是他最好的作品。
Platon’s best shot
‘There were snipers everywhere. Putin saw my tears and said: I’ll do it’
* Leo Benedictus
* The Guardian, Thursday November 13 2008
Vladimir Putin hates having his portrait taken. But when Time magazine made him its Man of the Year for 2007 he said he would grant an interview. So then there was this big question: would he pose for a photograph?
英国作家 JK Rowling 在《生日图册》(The Birthday Book)中介绍她最喜欢的生日故事，选择她自己的作品《哈利·波特与致命圣灵》(Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows)中的一段：哈利·波特即将独自面对伏地魔(Voldemort)。
JK Rowling on Harry Potter’s last, long walk
The author introduces her favourite scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this extract from The Birthday Book, a treasury of children’s stories and poems
* JK Rowling
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 13 2008 11.19 GMT
I admit that, at first glance, the extract I’ve chosen for The Birthday Book might not seem particularly celebratory, given that it has for its subject my hero walking to what he believes will be certain death. But when Harry takes his last, long walk into the heart of the Dark Forest, he is choosing to accept a burden that fell on him when still a tiny child, in spite of the fact that he never sought the role for which he has been cast, never wanted the scar with which he has been marked. As his mentor, Albus Dumbledore, has tried to make clear to Harry, he could have refused to follow the path marked out for him. In spite of the weight of opinion and expectation that singles him out as the “Chosen One”, it is Harry’s own will that takes him into the Forest to meet Voldemort, prepared to suffer the fate that he escaped sixteen years before.
Networking is easy if you’re beautiful, rich or the prime minister. Fulfil any of those criteria and you can leave the active bit to other people while you sit back and net whoever takes your fancy. If, on the other hand, you’re none of these things, you’ll need to work at it.
The iconic image of the US presidential election is a screenprint measuring 85x55cm on woven paper showing Barack Obama above the word “HOPE”. Created by street artist Shepard Fairey, it has cropped up across America and, though not officially commissioned by the Obama campaign, on November 5 it hung around Chicago accompanied by the message “Congratulations Chicago’s Own Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America.”
“Go enjoy yourself,” said President Bush in his congratulatory telephone call to Barack Obama on election night. It was like a child who has just smashed up all his toys inviting another to come and play in his nursery. To inherit two wars and a broken economy would not be most people’s idea of fun. But that’s pig-headed Bush for you.
* Gary Younge in Chicago
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 6 2008 00.01 GMT
There are times when the usually glacial pace of social progress accelerates to such a degree that you feel you are experiencing it in real time. Stand in the present and history comes rushing towards you, making you feel lightheaded.
The second that Ohio fell to Barack Obama on Tuesday evening, effectively handing him the keys to the White House, was one of those dizzying moments. A man born three years before African-Americans had secured their right to vote had risen by popular acclaim to the highest office in the land before he reached 50.
A political journey that should take generations felt as though it had occurred in a moment.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
Marc Abrahams 是双月刊《不可思议的研究》(Annals of Improbable Research)主编和 “搞笑诺贝尔奖”Ig Nobel Prize组织者。他为《卫报》写的专栏就叫”不可思议的研究”(Improbable Research)。今天的专栏介绍了三位英国巴斯大学的研究者对啄木鸟身体结构的研究。
How Woody the living hammer hit the spot
Improbable research into how to make a better, lighter hammer involved two mechanical engineering students carrying out a post-mortem on a dead woodpecker
* Marc Abrahams
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday November 4 2008
While others tried to build a better computer or teapot or mousetrap, Julian FV Vincent, Mehmet Necip Sahinkaya and W O’Shea of the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Bath tried to build a better hammer. Unlike most previous hammer smiths, they studied woodpeckers. Why? Because to mechanical engineers, when they are in a certain frame of mind, a woodpecker is nature’s finest version of a hammer.
