Just 9 percent of the fair sex want products that "look feminine," like a pink Playstation or Hello Kitty keyboards. The remaining 91 percent seek something sleek and sophisticated, more boardroom than teenage bedroom. The data comes from a study, done by the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, of 750 British women age 24 to 45.

These "empowered" women, 37 percent of the total, owned an average of six devices, including a digital camera, desktop or laptop, multimedia mobile phone, MP3 player, digital TV and handheld game console. Overall, U.K. women own only slightly fewer tech items (11 percent) than men. "What's fascinating to me about this research is the index of just how much technology women own," said Dr. Genevieve Bell, resident anthropologist at Intel.

The study's authors, as well as other researchers, agree on the key to upgrading women tech users from cowed to confident: Simplify, simplify, simplify. "Demands on women's time tend to be greater," said Sydney-born Bell. "If you wanted to design technology that would appeal to women, it needs to work flawlessly the first time out of the box and every time thereafter. They don't have time to faff around."

目前，公共健康在不断恶化，污染已使癌症成为中国公民的头号杀手。仅环境中的空气污染就造成每年成百上千人死亡，近五亿人喝不到安全的饮用水。中国的城市似乎经常笼罩在灰色的毒雾中。目前有五亿六千万城市居民，但是仅有百分之一的人呼吸的空气达到了欧盟的安全标准。而此刻，北京正在疯狂寻找一种能改变天气的灵丹妙药，目的是让2008年奥运会的天空变得干净些。在一些国家看来应该算作环境灾难的事件，在中国似乎已经司空见惯了。比如天空中见不到太阳的产煤城市，由铅中毒或其他污染导致死亡的儿童，被赤潮淹没的海岸线，造成了许多海域的海洋生物无法生存。 中国的污染问题已经严重到成为一个世界性的问题。中国的燃媒电厂排放的二氧化硫和氮氧化物已在汉城和东京作为酸雨降落。据地球物理研究学报道，洛杉矶的很多微粒污染都源自中国。更为紧迫的是，正当全世界为全球变暖焦头烂额的时候，中国正兴致勃勃地进行她的工业革命。专家们曾以为，中国可能在2010年之前，或者更晚些，超过美国成为世界温室气体排放头号大国。但是，荷兰的环境评估机构称，中国今年已经成为二氧化碳排放最大国。