The writers of murder stories go to a great deal of trouble to keep up guessing right up to the end. In actual fact, people often behave more strangely in real life than they do in stories.

The following advertisement once appeared in a local newspaper: “An opportunity to earn $250 in a few minutes. A man is willing to take chances, wanted for an out-of-the-ordinary job which can be perfumed only once.” A reader found this offer very nice and wrote to the advertiser. But being a bit suspicious, he gave a false name. Soon afterwards, he received a reply. Enclosed in the envelope was a typed note instructing him to ring a certain number if he was still interested. He did so and learned on the telephone was the advertiser. But the man told the police and from then on acted under their instructions.

The police saw the two men meet and watched them as they drove away together. In the car the advertiser came to the point at once; he told the man he wanted him to shoot his wife. The reason he gave was that he was suffering from a serious disease and wanted to live in a warmer country, but his wife objected to this. Giving the man some money, the advertiser told him to buy a gun and warned him to be careful of the dog. Though it would not bite, it might attract attention. He also gave him a photograph of his wife so that he would be able to recognize her.

After that, the advertiser suggested that the man should “do the job” the next morning. At the same time he would prepare his wife by telling her that a young man was going to call. After the murder they would meet again outside a railway station and the money would be paid as arranged. The second meeting never took place, for the advertiser was arrested shortly afterwards and charged with attempting to get someone to murder his wife.

终于！封口了最后一份申请材料，提交了最后一个学校的网申，送出了最后一批TOEFL,GRE的成绩。剩下的就是等待了。老天哪，今年你就别再玩我了，辛辛苦苦一年不容易啊！自我保佑......

真没想到，都将近下午4：00了，还能在msn上遇到biotechen。美国那边都快两点了吧。一问，原来是帮zmm写ps呢，呵呵，真是甜蜜的负担啊。互相揶揄了一阵，不知怎么的，两个人居然开始讨论学术问题。他说最近突然觉得性别真是个好东西，对生物进化好处大大的有。一些细微的进化优势，可能在生存斗争中间被忽略了，但是异性的眼睛是雪亮的（汗......），总能把它们识别出来，然后发扬光大。我于是一如既往的对他的观点进行批驳。且不说进化最快的生物根本就没性别（病毒，最近禽流感闹腾得好不厉害），那些有性别的种族，性选择的方式也是千奇百怪。海豹这种还好，争配偶靠打架，肌肉发达的就nb，其效果和捕食者的选择相当。有些生物就比较搞笑了，记得以前看动物世界，常有些鸟类是看谁打鸣比较响啥的。可能有人说这个勉强也算能体现他某方面比较强健吧，起码肺活量大。看看人呢，我觉得人类发展到现阶段，真就很难看出来性选择起的作用是正还是反了。比如说长相，总体上说，应该是人类选择配偶时最重要的一个标准了吧。可我就没看出来它怎么能帮助人类自我改良，优化种族。

讨论了半天，算是稍微有了点一致的意见。人类和其他动物最大的不同，就是智慧，然后导致了一个重要结果就是复杂的心理活动。人类发展到现在这个程度，有了很多诸如社会、伦理之类其他任何物种所不具有的特征。这些对人的影响，我觉得一定程度上已经超过了天择，应该说人类是在自择。现代的人们，就算衣食无忧，健康无虞，也总是面临着各种各样的压力，来自于父母、亲戚、朋友、妻子儿女，使得因为心理问题自寻短见者比比皆是。光这两个月，上海各大学生加起来就跳了4个......

突然想起以前听过一个在网上流传很广的《爱情心理学》，其中有一句话我仍然记忆犹新：

If I tell you don't the truth, I distance from you; If I tell you the truth, you distance from me.

确实，人就是那么奇怪的动物。人害怕孤独，因为他脆弱，不能独自承担那么大的压力。所以人需要一种亲密的关系，需要能够对之倾吐心声的朋友。但是同时，人又是多疑的动物，在他心里的最深处，总会有一些秘密，永远不会为人所知晓。人在对人倾诉的同时，总在顾虑，你值不值得我信任，会不会将我的秘密向外传播；我们之间的关系够不够稳固，我所说的会不会令你离我而去？

人就在这种需求和顾虑间徘徊，试图寻找一种平衡，保持一种完美的，足够亲近但又不会彼此冒犯的距离。这就好比高中物理中学过的，两个电子间的势能随着距离变化：太靠近就互相排斥，隔得太远又会互相吸引，因而会有一个距离，使得他们达到一个稳定的状态。这对一对电子来说，是容易的事，它们在物理学规律无形的作用下自然的完成了这个过程。但是对人，就太难了。且不说古语有云，红颜易得，知己难求。就算有了这样一个能够倾听的人，他们也还要不断尝试，试探彼此都可以承受的距离。可能在尝试中，会不断受伤。受伤太多，他们就会胆怯，会把自己封闭来......

无怪乎曾有人说，以后的世界将是中国的世界：当人类对自然界的探索达到一个高度之后，就会返诸人类本身。而对与人之间的关系，中国人已经走的很远了。人太复杂了，远比自然界复杂得多......

子产曾说：天道远，人道迩。现在看来，似乎反过来更贴近实际：人道远，天道迩~