XKCD, by Randall Munro

　　《XKCD漫画》，兰达尔·门罗

　　A collection of posts from Munroe’s blog XKCD, which is made up of cartoons he draws making fun of things—mostly scientists and computers, but lots of other things too.

　　这本书收集了该作者与书同名的博客上的一些博文，主要是他所画的搞笑卡通漫画，大多是科学家，电脑，但也有很多其他的东西。

　　There’s one about scientists holding a press conference to reveal their discovery that life is arsenic-based. They research press conferences and find out that sometimes it’s good to serve food that’s related to the subject of the conference. The last panel is all the reporters dead on the floor because they ate arsenic. It’s that kind of humor, which not everybody loves, but I do.

　　其中有一处说的就是，科学家们召开新闻发布会，宣布他们发现了生命是以砷(砒霜)为基本元素构成的。科学家们认为，新闻发布会上提供与会议专题相关的食物会是一个不错的主意。最后就是与会记者全都死在了地板上，因为他们服用了砒霜。这也是一种幽默，虽然不是所有人都喜欢，但我还蛮喜欢的。

　　On Immunity, by Eula Biss

　　《免疫》，作者：尤拉·比斯

　　When I stumbled across this book on the Internet, I thought it might be a worthwhile read. I had no idea what a pleasure reading it would be. Biss, an essayist and university lecturer, examines what lies behind people’s fears of vaccinating their children.

　　一开始我在网上看到这本书的时候，我只是认为这本书或许值得一读。我还不知道这本书读起来竟会让人如此开心。比斯是名随笔作家和大学讲师。

　　Like many of us, she concludes that vaccines are safe, effective, and almost miraculous tools for protecting children against needless suffering. But she is not out to demonizeanyone who holds opposing views. This is a thoughtful and beautifully written book about a very important topic.

　　她研究的是人们害怕给自己孩子接种疫苗这一背后说明的问题。和我们许多人一样，她认为疫苗是安全有效，且几乎是神奇的，能保护孩子免于无谓的病痛折磨。但她并没有想要将持相反观点的人妖魔化的意思。这本书讲述了一个十分重要的主题，语言生动而缜密。

　　How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff

　　《统计数字会撒谎》，作者：达莱尔·哈夫

　　I picked up this short, easy-to-read book after seeing it on a Wall Street Journal list of good books for investors. I enjoyed it so much that it was one of a handful of books I recommended to everyone at TED this year.

　　我在《华尔街日报》向投资者推荐的书单上看到了这本书的名字，于是我就选中了它，这本书很短，读起来也很简单。我十分喜欢这本书，在今年的TED演讲上，我向所有人推荐了它。

　　It was first published in 1954, but aside from a few anachronistic examples (it has been a long time since bread cost 5 cents a loaf in the United States), it doesn’t feel dated.

　　这本书最早出版于1954年，虽然书中有一些年代错误(一块面包5美分在美国那是老早以前的事儿了)，但它并不过时。

　　Should We Eat Meat?, by Vaclav Smil

　　《该吃肉吗?》，作者：瓦科拉夫·斯米尔

　　The richer the world gets, the more meat it eats. And the more meat it eats, the bigger the threat to the planet. How do we square this circle? Vaclav Smil takes his usual clear-eyed view of the whole landscape, from meat’s role in human evolution to hard questions about animal cruelty.

　　世界越富裕，消耗的肉就越多。肉消耗多了，对地球造成的威胁就越大。我们又该如何对待这个问题? 瓦科拉夫·斯米尔通过他清晰的视角全方位审视了这个问题。从肉在人类进化过程中扮演的角色到虐待动物的残酷性问题。

　　While it would be great if people wanted to eat less meat, I don’t think we can expect large numbers of people to make drastic reductions. I’m betting on innovation, including higher agricultural productivity and the development of meat substitutes, to help the world meet its need for meat.

　　虽然人少吃肉是件好事，但我不认为会有很多人大量减少肉食摄入。我觉得问题的关键在于创新，包括提高农业生产力，以及发展肉类替代品，从而满足世界对肉类的需求。

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（编辑：何莹莹）