英语学习笔记：2016-06-23

遇到一个叫做 Triune brain 的理论，人在压力之下会减少大脑皮质供血从而让更多原始行为显现（紧张、情绪、焦虑）等等：

The triune brain is a model of the evolution of the vertebrate forebrain and behavior, proposed by the American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean. MacLean originally formulated his model in the 1960s and propounded it at length in his 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution. The triune brain consists of the reptilian complex, the paleomammalian complex (limbic system), and the neomammalian complex (neocortex), viewed as structures sequentially added to the forebrain in the course of evolution.

The triune model of the mammalian brain is seen as an oversimplified organizing theme by some in the field of comparative neuroscience It continues to hold public interest because of its simplicity. While technically inaccurate as an explanation for brain activity, it remains one of very few approximations of the truth we have to work with: the "neocortex" represents that cluster of brain structures involved in advanced cognition, including planning, modeling and simulation; the "limbic brain" refers to those brain structures, wherever located, associated with social and nurturing behaviors, mutual reciprocity, and other behaviors and affects that arose during the age of the mammals; and the "reptilian brain" refers to those brain structures related to territoriality, ritual behavior and other "reptile" behaviors. The broad explanatory value makes this approximation very engaging and is a useful level of complexity for high school students to begin engaging with brain research.

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瑞士是世界上少有的支持直接民主的国家，这项制度叫做：federal popular initiative^[1]

The federal popular initiative is an instrument of direct democracy in Switzerland. It allows citizens to propose changes to the Swiss Federal Constitution. A votation will be organised for every modification that collected 100,000 valid signatures in 18 months.

The most frequent themes tackled by initiatives are: healthcare, taxes, welfare, drug policy, public transport, immigration, asylum, education... There are only two kinds of restrictions on the content:

• Formal criteria(the initiative should deal with one topic at a time, etc.)
• The initiative shouldn't infringe on the core of the human rights, known as jus cogens.

wikipedia 上可以查询到1848年创立此项制度以来所有发生过的投票结果，最近几年每年也都会有2-4项的投票，瑞士人真的不简单

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了解了一下三大评级公司：

Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC (S&P) is an American financial services company. It is a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. S&P is known for its stock market indices such as the U.S.-based S&P 500, the Canadian S&P/TSX, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200. S&P is considered one of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, which also include Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings. Its head office is located on 55 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Moody's
Moody's Investors Service, often referred to as Moody's, is the bond credit rating business of Moody's Corporation, representing the company's traditional line of business and its historical name. Moody's Investors Service provides international financial research on bonds issued by commercial and government entities and, with Standard & Poor's and Fitch Group, is considered one of the Big Three credit rating agencies.

Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of the "Big Three credit rating agencies", the other two being Moody's and Standard & Poor's. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSRO) designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975.

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_initiative_(Switzerland) ↩