"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

all the real workтАФand very well tooтАФwhile she just added her expertise in grant writing, honed through
some tens of thousands of grant evaluations. She definitely knew that world, how to sequence the
information, what to emphasize, what language to use, what supporting documents, what argumentsтАФall
of it. Every word and punctuation mark of a grant proposal she had a feel for, one way or the other. It
had been a pleasure to apply that expertise to the KhembalisтАЩ attempts.

Now she was pleased again to find that they had heard back from three of them, two positively. NSF
had awarded them a quick temporary starter grant in the тАЬTropical Oceans, Global AtmosphereтАЭ effort;
and the INDOEX countries had agreed informally to expand their Project Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) to
include a big new monitoring facility on Khembalung, including researchers. This would cement a
partnership with the START units already scattered all over South Asia. Altogether it meant funding
streams for several years to comeтАФtens of millions of dollars all told, with infrastructure built, and
relationships with neighboring countries established. Allies in the struggle.

тАЬOh thatтАЩsvery nice,тАЭ Anna said, and hit thePRINT button. She ccтАЩd the news to Charlie, sent
congratulations to Drepung, and then got back to work on the spreadsheet.
After a while she remembered about the printouts, and went around the corner to the Department of
Unfortunate Statistics to get the hard copies.

She found Frank inside, shaking his head over the latest.

тАЬHave you seen this one?тАЭ he said, gesturing with his nose at a taped-up printout of yet another
spreadsheet.

тАЬNo, I donтАЩt think so.тАЭ

тАЬItтАЩs the latest Gini figures, do you know those?тАЭ

тАЬNo?тАЭ

тАЬTheyтАЩre a measurement of income distribution in a population, so an index of the gap between rich and
poor. Most industrialized democracies rate at between 2.5 and 3.5, thatтАЩs where we were in the 1950тАЩs,
see, but our numbers started to shoot up in the 1980тАЩs, and now weтАЩre worse than the worst third world
countries. 4.0 or greater is considered to be very inequitable, and weтАЩre at 5.2 and rising.тАЭ

Anna looked briefly at the graph, interested in the statistical method. A Lorenz curve, plotting the
distance away from perfect equalityтАЩs straight line tilted at forty-five degrees.

тАЬInterestingтАжSo this is for annual incomes?тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs right.тАЭ

тАЬSo if it were for capital holdingsтАФтАЭ

тАЬIt would be worse, I should think. Sure.тАЭ Frank shook his head, disgusted. He had come back from
San Diego in a permanently foul mood. No doubt anxious to finish and go home.

тАЬWell,тАЭ Anna said, looking at her printout, тАЬmaybe the Khembalis arenтАЩt so bad off after all.тАЭ

тАЬHowтАЩs that?тАЭ