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id_1200 | Beneficence In the 18th century, there were great improvements in surgery, midwifery and hygiene. In London between 1720 and 1745, Guys, Westminster, St Georges, the London and Middlesex general hospitals were all founded. Other hospitals were established in Exeter (1741), Bristol (1733), Liverpool (1745) and York (1740). In the course of 125 years after 1700, at least 154 new hospitals and dispensaries were founded in towns across Britain. These were not municipal undertakings; they were benevolent efforts that relied on voluntary contributions and bequests. It worked well for 250 years prior to the creation of the NHS in 1948. The first medical school in England was the London Hospital medical college founded in 1785. The teaching and practice of medicine and surgery were improving, but treatments remained limited, encouraging medical fakers with homemade remedies. There was minimal knowledge of the disease process, and diagnosis remained poor, so the same medication was given regardless of the ailment. The most popular treatment was laudanum, a mixture of an opiate-based drug and alcohol, prescribed for pain relief and common ailments such as headaches and diarrhoea. Unfortunately some people became dependent on it and died from overdoses. Anaesthetics (chloroform and ether) were not used to relieve pain in surgery until 1847. Suturing of wounds was common practice, though needles and thread were not sterile, so infection was rife. Hygiene and infection control remained non-existent until the 1870s, when Louis Pasteurs germ theory of disease had become widely accepted. A Scottish surgeon named Joseph Lister atomized carbolic acid (phenol) for use as an anti- septic, leading to a major decline in blood poisoning following surgery, which had normally proved fatal. The hygiene and nursing practices of Florence Nightingale were adopted by hospitals and led to a reduction in cross-infection and an improvement in recovery rates. | Operations prior to 1847 were carried out without any pain relief. | c |
id_1201 | Beneficence In the 18th century, there were great improvements in surgery, midwifery and hygiene. In London between 1720 and 1745, Guys, Westminster, St Georges, the London and Middlesex general hospitals were all founded. Other hospitals were established in Exeter (1741), Bristol (1733), Liverpool (1745) and York (1740). In the course of 125 years after 1700, at least 154 new hospitals and dispensaries were founded in towns across Britain. These were not municipal undertakings; they were benevolent efforts that relied on voluntary contributions and bequests. It worked well for 250 years prior to the creation of the NHS in 1948. The first medical school in England was the London Hospital medical college founded in 1785. The teaching and practice of medicine and surgery were improving, but treatments remained limited, encouraging medical fakers with homemade remedies. There was minimal knowledge of the disease process, and diagnosis remained poor, so the same medication was given regardless of the ailment. The most popular treatment was laudanum, a mixture of an opiate-based drug and alcohol, prescribed for pain relief and common ailments such as headaches and diarrhoea. Unfortunately some people became dependent on it and died from overdoses. Anaesthetics (chloroform and ether) were not used to relieve pain in surgery until 1847. Suturing of wounds was common practice, though needles and thread were not sterile, so infection was rife. Hygiene and infection control remained non-existent until the 1870s, when Louis Pasteurs germ theory of disease had become widely accepted. A Scottish surgeon named Joseph Lister atomized carbolic acid (phenol) for use as an anti- septic, leading to a major decline in blood poisoning following surgery, which had normally proved fatal. The hygiene and nursing practices of Florence Nightingale were adopted by hospitals and led to a reduction in cross-infection and an improvement in recovery rates. | A hospital in Exeter was established before a hospital in Liverpool but after hospitals in Bristol and York. | e |
id_1202 | Benefit and interest motivate ordinary people to fight to be big potatoes. Those who want to be entrepreneurs often have some characters of risk taking and love ventures. Government encourages venture capitals and people to start their business. Recent years venture capital has decreased but the information age provides still many opportunities for them. | Decrease in venture capital is problematic for entrepreneurs. | n |
id_1203 | Benefit and interest motivate ordinary people to fight to be big potatoes. Those who want to be entrepreneurs often have some characters of risk taking and love ventures. Government encourages venture capitals and people to start their business. Recent years venture capital has decreased but the information age provides still many opportunities for them. | Entrepreneurs are often risk taking. | e |
id_1204 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | Researches conducted showed concentration-time span in office takes up only average a bit over than 65%. | c |
id_1205 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | People usually have misperception about whether they are busy or not. | e |
id_1206 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | Microsoft is now investigating a software which is compatible with ordinary office units | e |
id_1207 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | Advanced phone and computer system will install a shortcut key for people receive information immediately. | n |
id_1208 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | If people are interrupted by calls or E-mails, they usually put up with it instead of taking uncooperative action | e |
id_1209 | Bestcom CONSIPERATE COMPUTING A. YOUR BATTERY IS NOW FULLY CHARGED, ANNOUNCED THE LAPTOP COMPUTER to its owner, Donald A. Norman, with enthusiasmperhaps even a hint of pride? in its synthetic voice. To be sure, distractions and multitasking are hardly new to the human condition. A complicated life, continually interrupted by competing requests for attention, is as old as procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. But increasingly, it is not just our kids pulling us three ways at once; it is also a relentless barrage of e-mail, alerts, alarms, calls, instant messages and automated notifications, none of them coordinated and all of them oblivious to whether we are busyor even present. Its ridiculous that my own computer cant figure out whether Im in front of it, but a public toilet can, exclaims Roel Vertegaal of Queens University in Ontario. B. Humanity has connected itself through roughly three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights even refrigerators and picture frames because these things make life more convenient and keep US available to those we care about. So although we could simply turn off the phones, close the e-mail program, and shut the office door when it is time for a meeting or a stretch of concentrated work, we usually dont. We just endure the consequences. C. Numerous studies have shown that when people are unexpectedly interrupted, they not only work less efficiently but also make more mistakes. It seems to add cumulatively to a feeling of frustration, Picard reports, and that stress response makes it hard to regain focus. It isnt merely a matter of productivity and the pace of life. For pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, errors of inattention can be downright dangerous. If we could just give our computers and phones some understanding of the limits of human attention and memory, it would make them seem a lot more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Vertegaal, Selker and Picard are among a small but growing number of researches trying to teach computers, phones, care and other gadgets to behave less like egocentric oafs and more likeconsiderate colleagues. D. Attentive" computing systems have begun appearing in newer Volvos and IBM has introduced Websphere communications software with a basic busyness sense. Microsoft has beat running extensive in-house tests of a much more sophisticated system since 2003. Within a few years, companies may be able to offer every office worker a software version of the personal receptionist that only comer-suite executives enjoy today. But if such an offer should land in your inbox, be sure to read the print before you sign. An attentive system, by definition, is one that I B always watching. That considerate computer may come to know more about your work habits than you do. E. Most people aren't as busy as they think they are, which is why we can usually tolerate interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. James Fogarty and Scott E. Hudson of Carnegie Mellon University recently teamed up with Jennifer Lai of IBM Research to study 10 managers, researchers and interns at work. They videotaped the subjects and periodically had them rate then interruptibility. The amount of time the workers spent in leave-me-alone mode varied from person to person and day to day, ranging from 10 to 51 percent. On average, the subjects wanted to work without interruption about one third of the time. In studies of Microsoftemployees, Horvitz has similarly found that they typically spend more than 65 percent of theft day in a state of low attention. F. Todays phones and computers, winch naively assume that die user is never too busy to take a call, read an email, or click OK on an alert box, thus are probably correct about two thirds of time. To be useful, then, considerate systems will have to be more than 65 percent accurate in sensing when their users are near theft cognitive limits. G. Bestcom/Enhanced Telephony, a Microsoft prototype based on Horvitzs weak, digs a little deeper into each users computer to find clues about what they are up to. Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. By last October, Horvitz says, about 3,800 people were using the system to field their incoming phone calls. H. Horvitz himself is one of those testers, and while we talk in his office in Redmond, Wash, Bestcom silently handles one call after another. First it checks whether the caller is listed in his address book, the company directory, or its log of people he has called recently. Triangulating these sources, it tries to deduce their relationship. Family members, supervisors and people he called earlier today ring through Others see a message on their computer that he is in a meeting and wont be available until 3 RM. The system scans Horvitzs and the callers calendar and offers to reschedule the call at a time that is open for both Some callers choose that option; others leave voice mail. E-mail messages get a similar screening. When Horvitz is out of the office, Bestcom automatically offers to forward selected callers to his cellphone unless his calendar and other evidence suggest that he is in a meeting. I. Most large companies already use computerized phone systems and standard calendar and contact management software, so tapping into those sensors" should be straightforward. Not all employees will like the idea of having a microphone on all the time in them office, however, nor will everyone want to expose them datebook to some program they do not ultimately control. Moreover, some managers might be tempted to equate a state of low attention with goofing off and punish those who seem insufficiently busy. | According to Ted Selker, human productivity has been disturbed by office competitors frequently. | n |
id_1210 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | According to Ted Selker, human reproduction has been disturbed throughout history. | n |
id_1211 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | Current phone and computer systems have shortcut keys for people receiving information immediately. | n |
id_1212 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | Microsoft is now investigating a software which is compatible with ordinary offices. | e |
id_1213 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | If people are interrupted by calls or e-mails, they usually put up with it. | e |
id_1214 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | Experts in Carnegie Mellon University conducted a research observing all occupations of IBM. | c |
id_1215 | BestcomConsiderate Computing Your battery is now fully charged, announced the laptop to its owner Donald A. Norman in a synthetic voice, with great enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of pride. For the record, humans are not at all unfamiliar with distractions and multitasking. We are used to a complex life that gets constantly interrupted by computers attention-seeking requests, as much as we are familiar with procreation, laughs Ted Selker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Humanity has been connected to approximately three billion networked telephones, computers, traffic lights and even fridges and picture frames since these things can facilitate our daily lives. That is why we do not typically turn off the phones, shut down the e-mail system, or close the office door even when we have a meeting coming or a stretch of concentrated work. We merely endure the consequences. Countless research reports have confirmed that if people are unexpectedly interrupted, they may suffer a drop in work efficiency, and they are more likely to make mistakes. According to Robert G. Picard from the University of Missouri, it appears to build up the feeling of frustration cumulatively, and that stress response makes it difficult to focus again. It is. not solely about productivity and the pace of life. For some professionals like pilots, drivers, soldiers and doctors, loss of focus can be downright disastrous. If we could find a way to make our computers and phones realise the limits of human attention and memory, they may come off as more thoughtful and courteous, says Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research. Horvitz, Selker and Picard are just a few of a small but prospering group of researchers who are attempting to make computers, phones, cars and other devices to function more like considerate colleagues instead of egocentric oafs. To do this, the machines need new skills of three kinds: sensing, reasoning and communicating. First, a system must: sense or infer where its owner is and what he or she is doing. Next, it must weigh the value of the messages it wants to convey against the cost of the disruption. Then it has to. choose the best mode and time to interject: Each of these pushes the limits of computer science and raises issues of privacy, complexity or reliability. Nevertheless, Attentive Computing Systems, have started to make an appearance in the latest Volvos, and IBM has designed and developed a communications software called WebSphere that comes with an underlying sense of busyness. Microsoft has been conducting extensive in-house tests of a way more sophisticated system since 2003. In a couple of years, companies might manage to provide each office employee with a software version of the personal receptionist which is only available to corner-suite executives today. However, the truth is that most people are not as busy as they claim to be, which explains why we can often stand interruptions from our inconsiderate electronic paraphernalia. To find out the extent to which such disruption may claim peoples daily time, an IBM Research team led by Jennifer Lai from Carnegie Mellon University studied ten managers, researchers and interns at the workplace. They had the subjects on videotape, and within every period of a specific time, they asked the subjects to evaluate their interruptibility. The time a worker spent in leave-me-alone state varied from individual to individual and day to day, and the percentage ranged from 10 to 51. Generally, the employees wished to work without interruption for roughly 1/3 of the time. Similarly, by studying Microsoft workers, Horvitz also came to the discovery that they ordinarily spend over 65 per cent of their day in a low-attention mode. Obviously, todays phones and computers are probably correct about two-thirds of time by assuming that their users are always available to answer a call, check an email, or click the OK button on an alert box. But for the considerate systems to be functional and useful, their accuracy has to be above 65 in sending when their users are about to reach their cognitive limit. Inspired by Horvitzs work, Microsoft prototype Bestcom-Enhanced Telephony (Bestcom-ET) digs a bit deeper into every users computer to find out clues about what they are dealing with. As I said earlier, Microsoft launched an internal beta test of the system in mid-2003. Horvitz points out that by the end of last October, nearly 3,800 people had been relying on the system to field their incoming calls. Horvitz is, in fact, a tester himself, and as we have our conversation in his office, Bestcom silently takes care of all the calls. Firstly, it checks if the caller is in his address book, the company directory, or the recent call list. After triangulating all these resources at the same time, it attempts to figure out what their relationship is. The calls that get through are from family, supervisors and people he called earlier that day. Other callers will get a message on their screens that say he cannot answer now because he is in a meeting, and will not be available until 3pm. The system will scan both Horvitzs and the callers calendar to check if it can reschedule a callback at a time which works for both of them. Some callers will take that option, while others simply leave a voicemail. The same happens with e-mails. When Horvitz is not in his office, Bestcom automatically offers to transfer selected callers to his cellphone, unless his calendar implies that he is in a meeting. | People usually have a misperception about whether they are busy or not. | e |
id_1216 | Between 10 and 12 December the police have reported over 120 cases of sharp metal pieces being found in jars of Janesons mincemeat. The police have evidence that the person responsible is an employee of Janesons. It is also known that: Janesons has rearranged its management structure and will be making 20 senior employees redundant in January. Ben Laidet was made redundant on 8 December for incompetent behaviour. Janesons closest rival, Bertsons, has been suffering from severe financial losses since Janesons installed new technology in the bottling process, which increased their output. Engineers recently overhauled the machinery. Janesons changed its dried fruit suppliers in November. The mincemeat is put into jars two weeks before going out to the shops. The seals were unbroken on the contaminated jars. | The metal pieces found in the jars of mincemeat may have come from the new suppliers of dried fruit. | e |
id_1217 | Between 10 and 12 December the police have reported over 120 cases of sharp metal pieces being found in jars of Janesons mincemeat. The police have evidence that the person responsible is an employee of Janesons. It is also known that: Janesons has rearranged its management structure and will be making 20 senior employees redundant in January. Ben Laidet was made redundant on 8 December for incompetent behaviour. Janesons closest rival, Bertsons, has been suffering from severe financial losses since Janesons installed new technology in the bottling process, which increased their output. Engineers recently overhauled the machinery. Janesons changed its dried fruit suppliers in November. The mincemeat is put into jars two weeks before going out to the shops. The seals were unbroken on the contaminated jars. | Janesons had recently expanded its output. | e |
id_1218 | Between 10 and 12 December the police have reported over 120 cases of sharp metal pieces being found in jars of Janesons mincemeat. The police have evidence that the person responsible is an employee of Janesons. It is also known that: Janesons has rearranged its management structure and will be making 20 senior employees redundant in January. Ben Laidet was made redundant on 8 December for incompetent behaviour. Janesons closest rival, Bertsons, has been suffering from severe financial losses since Janesons installed new technology in the bottling process, which increased their output. Engineers recently overhauled the machinery. Janesons changed its dried fruit suppliers in November. The mincemeat is put into jars two weeks before going out to the shops. The seals were unbroken on the contaminated jars. | The contaminated jars of mincemeat were probably bottled between 4 and 7 December. | c |
id_1219 | Between 10 and 12 December the police have reported over 120 cases of sharp metal pieces being found in jars of Janesons mincemeat. The police have evidence that the person responsible is an employee of Janesons. It is also known that: Janesons has rearranged its management structure and will be making 20 senior employees redundant in January. Ben Laidet was made redundant on 8 December for incompetent behaviour. Janesons closest rival, Bertsons, has been suffering from severe financial losses since Janesons installed new technology in the bottling process, which increased their output. Engineers recently overhauled the machinery. Janesons changed its dried fruit suppliers in November. The mincemeat is put into jars two weeks before going out to the shops. The seals were unbroken on the contaminated jars. | Bertsons will benefit from Janesons loss of customers. | n |
id_1220 | Between 10 and 12 December the police have reported over 120 cases of sharp metal pieces being found in jars of Janesons mincemeat. The police have evidence that the person responsible is an employee of Janesons. It is also known that: Janesons has rearranged its management structure and will be making 20 senior employees redundant in January. Ben Laidet was made redundant on 8 December for incompetent behaviour. Janesons closest rival, Bertsons, has been suffering from severe financial losses since Janesons installed new technology in the bottling process, which increased their output. Engineers recently overhauled the machinery. Janesons changed its dried fruit suppliers in November. The mincemeat is put into jars two weeks before going out to the shops. The seals were unbroken on the contaminated jars. | Ben Laidet could have put the metal pieces into the mincemeat. | c |
id_1221 | Between 12 March and 3 April there have been a number of cases of food poisoning at the old peoples care home. It has resulted in two deaths, permanent paralysis of one old woman and continued hospitalization of three other resi- dents. The police are treating the cases as suspicious. It is also known that: The residents have all agreed to leave 5% of their estates to the home on their death. The home is privately owned and run by David John. There have been delays of at least 28 hours from the appearance of the initial symptoms in reporting the cases of food poisoning. David John is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Janet Scree is the nurse in charge of the residents. David John is a qualified pharmacist. The care home is currently running at a loss. The chef ensures that the standards of hygiene in the kitchen are above the level required by environmental health inspectors. Janet Scree is colour-blind. | Janet Scree may have muddled up the residents medicines. | e |
id_1222 | Between 12 March and 3 April there have been a number of cases of food poisoning at the old peoples care home. It has resulted in two deaths, permanent paralysis of one old woman and continued hospitalization of three other resi- dents. The police are treating the cases as suspicious. It is also known that: The residents have all agreed to leave 5% of their estates to the home on their death. The home is privately owned and run by David John. There have been delays of at least 28 hours from the appearance of the initial symptoms in reporting the cases of food poisoning. David John is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Janet Scree is the nurse in charge of the residents. David John is a qualified pharmacist. The care home is currently running at a loss. The chef ensures that the standards of hygiene in the kitchen are above the level required by environmental health inspectors. Janet Scree is colour-blind. | The care home will profit from the two deaths which have occurred. | n |
id_1223 | Between 12 March and 3 April there have been a number of cases of food poisoning at the old peoples care home. It has resulted in two deaths, permanent paralysis of one old woman and continued hospitalization of three other resi- dents. The police are treating the cases as suspicious. It is also known that: The residents have all agreed to leave 5% of their estates to the home on their death. The home is privately owned and run by David John. There have been delays of at least 28 hours from the appearance of the initial symptoms in reporting the cases of food poisoning. David John is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Janet Scree is the nurse in charge of the residents. David John is a qualified pharmacist. The care home is currently running at a loss. The chef ensures that the standards of hygiene in the kitchen are above the level required by environmental health inspectors. Janet Scree is colour-blind. | The kitchen staff worked in hygienic conditions. | e |
id_1224 | Between 12 March and 3 April there have been a number of cases of food poisoning at the old peoples care home. It has resulted in two deaths, permanent paralysis of one old woman and continued hospitalization of three other resi- dents. The police are treating the cases as suspicious. It is also known that: The residents have all agreed to leave 5% of their estates to the home on their death. The home is privately owned and run by David John. There have been delays of at least 28 hours from the appearance of the initial symptoms in reporting the cases of food poisoning. David John is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Janet Scree is the nurse in charge of the residents. David John is a qualified pharmacist. The care home is currently running at a loss. The chef ensures that the standards of hygiene in the kitchen are above the level required by environmental health inspectors. Janet Scree is colour-blind. | The victims were taken to hospital as soon as their symptoms appeared. | c |
id_1225 | Between 12 March and 3 April there have been a number of cases of food poisoning at the old peoples care home. It has resulted in two deaths, permanent paralysis of one old woman and continued hospitalization of three other resi- dents. The police are treating the cases as suspicious. It is also known that: The residents have all agreed to leave 5% of their estates to the home on their death. The home is privately owned and run by David John. There have been delays of at least 28 hours from the appearance of the initial symptoms in reporting the cases of food poisoning. David John is a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Janet Scree is the nurse in charge of the residents. David John is a qualified pharmacist. The care home is currently running at a loss. The chef ensures that the standards of hygiene in the kitchen are above the level required by environmental health inspectors. Janet Scree is colour-blind. | The residents of the care home suffering from food poisoning were treated in the same hospital. | n |
id_1226 | Between 1797 and 1815 Europe went through the Napoleonic wars. This period saw France at war with the kingdoms of Prussia, Russia, Austria, Spain and Britain. At that time the French army was the most powerful in Europe. By 1808 France had conquered much of the continent and had created the largest European empire since the Romans two thousand years before. Napoleon Bonaparte was its emperor and the military leader who oversaw the many major victories. However, a disastrous campaign in Russia, retreat from the Spanish peninsular and British supremacy at sea eventually allowed a combined European force to defeat Napoleons army at Waterloo. | The Napoleonic wars lasted 18 years. | e |
id_1227 | Between 1797 and 1815 Europe went through the Napoleonic wars. This period saw France at war with the kingdoms of Prussia, Russia, Austria, Spain and Britain. At that time the French army was the most powerful in Europe. By 1808 France had conquered much of the continent and had created the largest European empire since the Romans two thousand years before. Napoleon Bonaparte was its emperor and the military leader who oversaw the many major victories. However, a disastrous campaign in Russia, retreat from the Spanish peninsular and British supremacy at sea eventually allowed a combined European force to defeat Napoleons army at Waterloo. | By 1808 Napoleon headed an empire that controlled most of the continent of Europe. | e |
id_1228 | Between 1797 and 1815 Europe went through the Napoleonic wars. This period saw France at war with the kingdoms of Prussia, Russia, Austria, Spain and Britain. At that time the French army was the most powerful in Europe. By 1808 France had conquered much of the continent and had created the largest European empire since the Romans two thousand years before. Napoleon Bonaparte was its emperor and the military leader who oversaw the many major victories. However, a disastrous campaign in Russia, retreat from the Spanish peninsular and British supremacy at sea eventually allowed a combined European force to defeat Napoleons army at Waterloo. | At the height of Napoleons victories the French army was the largest in Europe. | n |
id_1229 | Between 1797 and 1815 Europe went through the Napoleonic wars. This period saw France at war with the kingdoms of Prussia, Russia, Austria, Spain and Britain. At that time the French army was the most powerful in Europe. By 1808 France had conquered much of the continent and had created the largest European empire since the Romans two thousand years before. Napoleon Bonaparte was its emperor and the military leader who oversaw the many major victories. However, a disastrous campaign in Russia, retreat from the Spanish peninsular and British supremacy at sea eventually allowed a combined European force to defeat Napoleons army at Waterloo. | France won battles against Prussia, Russia, Austria and Britain. | n |
id_1230 | Between 1797 and 1815 Europe went through the Napoleonic wars. This period saw France at war with the kingdoms of Prussia, Russia, Austria, Spain and Britain. At that time the French army was the most powerful in Europe. By 1808 France had conquered much of the continent and had created the largest European empire since the Romans two thousand years before. Napoleon Bonaparte was its emperor and the military leader who oversaw the many major victories. However, a disastrous campaign in Russia, retreat from the Spanish peninsular and British supremacy at sea eventually allowed a combined European force to defeat Napoleons army at Waterloo. | The passage states that the battle of Waterloo took place in 1815. | c |
id_1231 | Beyond the Blue Line A. Much of the thrill of venturing to the far side of the world rests on the romance of difference. So one feels certain sympathy for Captain James Cook on the day in 1778 that he discovered Hawaii. Then on his third expedition to the Pacific, the British navigator had explored scores of islands across the breadth of the sea, from lush New Zealand to the lonely wastes of Easter Island. This latest voyage had taken him thousands of miles north from the Society Islands to an irchipelago so remote that even the old Polynesians back on Tahiti knew nothing about it. Imagine Cooks surprise, then, when the natives of Hawaii came paddling out in their canoes and greeted him in a familiar tongue, one he had heard on virtually every mote of inhabited land he had visited. Marveling at the ubiquity of this Pacific language and culture, he later wondered in his journal: "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean? B. That question, and others that flow from it, has tantalized inquiring minds for centuries: Who were these amazing seafarers? Where did they come from, starting more than 3,000 years ago? And how could a Neolithic people with simple canoes and no navigation gear manage to find, let alone colonize, hundreds of far-flung island specks scattered across an ocean that spans nearly a third of the globe? Answers have been slow in coming. But now a startling archaeological find on the island of Efate, in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, has revealed an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians, taking their first steps into the unknown. The discoveries there have also opened a window into the shadowy world of those early voyagers. C. What we have is a first-or second-generation site containing the graves of some of the Pacifics first explorers, " says Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and co-leader of an international team excavating the site. It came to light only by luck. A backhoe operator, digging up topsoil on the grounds of a derelict coconut plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the bones of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita, a label that derives from a beach in New Caledonia where a landmark cache of their pottery was found in the 1950s. D. They were daring blue-water adventurers who oved the sea not just as explorers but also as pioneers, bringing along everything they would need tobuild new livestheir families and livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of a few centuries the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga, at least 2,000 miles eastward in the Pacific. Along the way they explored millions of square miles of unknown sea, discovering and colonizing scores of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. It was their descendants, centuries later, who became the great Polynesian navigators we all tend to think of: the Tahitians and Hawaiians, the New Zealand Maori, and the curious people who erected those statues on Easter Island. But it was the Lapita who laid the foundationwho bequeathed to the islands the language, customs, and cultures that their more famous descendants carried around the Pacific. E. While the Lapita left a glorious legacy, they also left precious few clues about themselves. A particularly intriguing clue comes from chemical tests on the teeth of several skeletons. Then as now, the food and water you consume as a child deposits oxygen, carbon, strontium, and other elements in your still-forming adult teeth. The isotope signatures of these elements vary subtly from place to place, so that if you grow up in, say, Buffalo, New York, then spend your adult life in California, tests on the isotopes in your teeth will always reveal your eastern roots. Isotope analysis indicates that several of the Lapita buried on Efate didn't spend their childhoods here but came from somewhere else. And while isotopes can't pinpoint their precise island of origin, this much is clear: At some point in their lives, these people left the villages of their birth and made a voyage by seagoing canoe, never to return. DNA teased from these ancient bones may also help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: Did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? "This represents the best opportunity we've had yet, " says Spriggs, "to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. " F. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: How did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights. "All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, " says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland and an avid yachtsman. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific making short crossings to islands within sight of each other. The real adventure didn't begin, however, until their Lapita descendants neared the end of the Solomons chain, for this was the edge of the world. The nearest landfall, the Santa Cruz Islands, is almost 230 miles away, and for at least 150 of those miles the Lapita sailors would have been out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. G. The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. 'They could sail out for days into the unknown and reconnoiter, secure in the knowledge that if they didn't find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride home on the trade winds. It's what made the whole thing work. " Once out there, skilled seafarers would detect abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds and turtles, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pileup of clouds on the horizon that often betokens an island in the distance. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University and, like Irwin, a keen yachtsman: that the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of tacking into the wind. "And there's no proof that they could do any such thing, " Anderson says. "There has been this assumption that they must have done so, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. " H. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific, and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. Supplied with such an embarrassment of riches, they could settle down and enjoy what for a time were Earth's last Edens. I. Rather than give all the credit to human skill and daring, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the first settlers to the ends of the ocean, Anderson suggests. Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around thePacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South America point to a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again between 1,600 and 1,200 years ago, when the second wave of pioneer navigators made their voyages farther east, to the remotest comers of the Pacific. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these "super El Ninos" might have sped the Pacific's ancient mariners on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon. The volley of El Ninos that coincided with the second wave of voyages could have been key to launching Polynesians across the wide expanse of open water between Tonga, where the Lapita stopped, and the distant archipelagoes of eastern Polynesia. "Once they crossed that gap, they could island hop throughout the region, and from the Marquesas it's mostly downwind to Hawaii, " Anderson says. It took another 400 years for mariners to reach Easter Island, which lies in the opposite directionnormally upwind. "Once again this was during a period of frequent El Nino activity. " | The reason why the Lapita stopped canoeing farther is still unknown. | e |
id_1232 | Beyond the Blue Line A. Much of the thrill of venturing to the far side of the world rests on the romance of difference. So one feels certain sympathy for Captain James Cook on the day in 1778 that he discovered Hawaii. Then on his third expedition to the Pacific, the British navigator had explored scores of islands across the breadth of the sea, from lush New Zealand to the lonely wastes of Easter Island. This latest voyage had taken him thousands of miles north from the Society Islands to an irchipelago so remote that even the old Polynesians back on Tahiti knew nothing about it. Imagine Cooks surprise, then, when the natives of Hawaii came paddling out in their canoes and greeted him in a familiar tongue, one he had heard on virtually every mote of inhabited land he had visited. Marveling at the ubiquity of this Pacific language and culture, he later wondered in his journal: "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean? B. That question, and others that flow from it, has tantalized inquiring minds for centuries: Who were these amazing seafarers? Where did they come from, starting more than 3,000 years ago? And how could a Neolithic people with simple canoes and no navigation gear manage to find, let alone colonize, hundreds of far-flung island specks scattered across an ocean that spans nearly a third of the globe? Answers have been slow in coming. But now a startling archaeological find on the island of Efate, in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, has revealed an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians, taking their first steps into the unknown. The discoveries there have also opened a window into the shadowy world of those early voyagers. C. What we have is a first-or second-generation site containing the graves of some of the Pacifics first explorers, " says Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and co-leader of an international team excavating the site. It came to light only by luck. A backhoe operator, digging up topsoil on the grounds of a derelict coconut plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the bones of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita, a label that derives from a beach in New Caledonia where a landmark cache of their pottery was found in the 1950s. D. They were daring blue-water adventurers who oved the sea not just as explorers but also as pioneers, bringing along everything they would need tobuild new livestheir families and livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of a few centuries the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga, at least 2,000 miles eastward in the Pacific. Along the way they explored millions of square miles of unknown sea, discovering and colonizing scores of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. It was their descendants, centuries later, who became the great Polynesian navigators we all tend to think of: the Tahitians and Hawaiians, the New Zealand Maori, and the curious people who erected those statues on Easter Island. But it was the Lapita who laid the foundationwho bequeathed to the islands the language, customs, and cultures that their more famous descendants carried around the Pacific. E. While the Lapita left a glorious legacy, they also left precious few clues about themselves. A particularly intriguing clue comes from chemical tests on the teeth of several skeletons. Then as now, the food and water you consume as a child deposits oxygen, carbon, strontium, and other elements in your still-forming adult teeth. The isotope signatures of these elements vary subtly from place to place, so that if you grow up in, say, Buffalo, New York, then spend your adult life in California, tests on the isotopes in your teeth will always reveal your eastern roots. Isotope analysis indicates that several of the Lapita buried on Efate didn't spend their childhoods here but came from somewhere else. And while isotopes can't pinpoint their precise island of origin, this much is clear: At some point in their lives, these people left the villages of their birth and made a voyage by seagoing canoe, never to return. DNA teased from these ancient bones may also help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: Did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? "This represents the best opportunity we've had yet, " says Spriggs, "to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. " F. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: How did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights. "All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, " says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland and an avid yachtsman. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific making short crossings to islands within sight of each other. The real adventure didn't begin, however, until their Lapita descendants neared the end of the Solomons chain, for this was the edge of the world. The nearest landfall, the Santa Cruz Islands, is almost 230 miles away, and for at least 150 of those miles the Lapita sailors would have been out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. G. The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. 'They could sail out for days into the unknown and reconnoiter, secure in the knowledge that if they didn't find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride home on the trade winds. It's what made the whole thing work. " Once out there, skilled seafarers would detect abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds and turtles, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pileup of clouds on the horizon that often betokens an island in the distance. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University and, like Irwin, a keen yachtsman: that the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of tacking into the wind. "And there's no proof that they could do any such thing, " Anderson says. "There has been this assumption that they must have done so, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. " H. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific, and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. Supplied with such an embarrassment of riches, they could settle down and enjoy what for a time were Earth's last Edens. I. Rather than give all the credit to human skill and daring, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the first settlers to the ends of the ocean, Anderson suggests. Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around thePacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South America point to a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again between 1,600 and 1,200 years ago, when the second wave of pioneer navigators made their voyages farther east, to the remotest comers of the Pacific. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these "super El Ninos" might have sped the Pacific's ancient mariners on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon. The volley of El Ninos that coincided with the second wave of voyages could have been key to launching Polynesians across the wide expanse of open water between Tonga, where the Lapita stopped, and the distant archipelagoes of eastern Polynesia. "Once they crossed that gap, they could island hop throughout the region, and from the Marquesas it's mostly downwind to Hawaii, " Anderson says. It took another 400 years for mariners to reach Easter Island, which lies in the opposite directionnormally upwind. "Once again this was during a period of frequent El Nino activity. " | The Lapita could canoe in the prevailing wind. | e |
id_1233 | Beyond the Blue Line A. Much of the thrill of venturing to the far side of the world rests on the romance of difference. So one feels certain sympathy for Captain James Cook on the day in 1778 that he discovered Hawaii. Then on his third expedition to the Pacific, the British navigator had explored scores of islands across the breadth of the sea, from lush New Zealand to the lonely wastes of Easter Island. This latest voyage had taken him thousands of miles north from the Society Islands to an irchipelago so remote that even the old Polynesians back on Tahiti knew nothing about it. Imagine Cooks surprise, then, when the natives of Hawaii came paddling out in their canoes and greeted him in a familiar tongue, one he had heard on virtually every mote of inhabited land he had visited. Marveling at the ubiquity of this Pacific language and culture, he later wondered in his journal: "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean? B. That question, and others that flow from it, has tantalized inquiring minds for centuries: Who were these amazing seafarers? Where did they come from, starting more than 3,000 years ago? And how could a Neolithic people with simple canoes and no navigation gear manage to find, let alone colonize, hundreds of far-flung island specks scattered across an ocean that spans nearly a third of the globe? Answers have been slow in coming. But now a startling archaeological find on the island of Efate, in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, has revealed an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians, taking their first steps into the unknown. The discoveries there have also opened a window into the shadowy world of those early voyagers. C. What we have is a first-or second-generation site containing the graves of some of the Pacifics first explorers, " says Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and co-leader of an international team excavating the site. It came to light only by luck. A backhoe operator, digging up topsoil on the grounds of a derelict coconut plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the bones of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita, a label that derives from a beach in New Caledonia where a landmark cache of their pottery was found in the 1950s. D. They were daring blue-water adventurers who oved the sea not just as explorers but also as pioneers, bringing along everything they would need tobuild new livestheir families and livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of a few centuries the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga, at least 2,000 miles eastward in the Pacific. Along the way they explored millions of square miles of unknown sea, discovering and colonizing scores of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. It was their descendants, centuries later, who became the great Polynesian navigators we all tend to think of: the Tahitians and Hawaiians, the New Zealand Maori, and the curious people who erected those statues on Easter Island. But it was the Lapita who laid the foundationwho bequeathed to the islands the language, customs, and cultures that their more famous descendants carried around the Pacific. E. While the Lapita left a glorious legacy, they also left precious few clues about themselves. A particularly intriguing clue comes from chemical tests on the teeth of several skeletons. Then as now, the food and water you consume as a child deposits oxygen, carbon, strontium, and other elements in your still-forming adult teeth. The isotope signatures of these elements vary subtly from place to place, so that if you grow up in, say, Buffalo, New York, then spend your adult life in California, tests on the isotopes in your teeth will always reveal your eastern roots. Isotope analysis indicates that several of the Lapita buried on Efate didn't spend their childhoods here but came from somewhere else. And while isotopes can't pinpoint their precise island of origin, this much is clear: At some point in their lives, these people left the villages of their birth and made a voyage by seagoing canoe, never to return. DNA teased from these ancient bones may also help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: Did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? "This represents the best opportunity we've had yet, " says Spriggs, "to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. " F. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: How did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights. "All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, " says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland and an avid yachtsman. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific making short crossings to islands within sight of each other. The real adventure didn't begin, however, until their Lapita descendants neared the end of the Solomons chain, for this was the edge of the world. The nearest landfall, the Santa Cruz Islands, is almost 230 miles away, and for at least 150 of those miles the Lapita sailors would have been out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. G. The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. 'They could sail out for days into the unknown and reconnoiter, secure in the knowledge that if they didn't find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride home on the trade winds. It's what made the whole thing work. " Once out there, skilled seafarers would detect abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds and turtles, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pileup of clouds on the horizon that often betokens an island in the distance. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University and, like Irwin, a keen yachtsman: that the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of tacking into the wind. "And there's no proof that they could do any such thing, " Anderson says. "There has been this assumption that they must have done so, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. " H. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific, and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. Supplied with such an embarrassment of riches, they could settle down and enjoy what for a time were Earth's last Edens. I. Rather than give all the credit to human skill and daring, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the first settlers to the ends of the ocean, Anderson suggests. Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around thePacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South America point to a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again between 1,600 and 1,200 years ago, when the second wave of pioneer navigators made their voyages farther east, to the remotest comers of the Pacific. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these "super El Ninos" might have sped the Pacific's ancient mariners on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon. The volley of El Ninos that coincided with the second wave of voyages could have been key to launching Polynesians across the wide expanse of open water between Tonga, where the Lapita stopped, and the distant archipelagoes of eastern Polynesia. "Once they crossed that gap, they could island hop throughout the region, and from the Marquesas it's mostly downwind to Hawaii, " Anderson says. It took another 400 years for mariners to reach Easter Island, which lies in the opposite directionnormally upwind. "Once again this was during a period of frequent El Nino activity. " | It was difficult for the sailors to find ways back, once they were out. | c |
id_1234 | Beyond the Blue Line A. Much of the thrill of venturing to the far side of the world rests on the romance of difference. So one feels certain sympathy for Captain James Cook on the day in 1778 that he discovered Hawaii. Then on his third expedition to the Pacific, the British navigator had explored scores of islands across the breadth of the sea, from lush New Zealand to the lonely wastes of Easter Island. This latest voyage had taken him thousands of miles north from the Society Islands to an irchipelago so remote that even the old Polynesians back on Tahiti knew nothing about it. Imagine Cooks surprise, then, when the natives of Hawaii came paddling out in their canoes and greeted him in a familiar tongue, one he had heard on virtually every mote of inhabited land he had visited. Marveling at the ubiquity of this Pacific language and culture, he later wondered in his journal: "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean? B. That question, and others that flow from it, has tantalized inquiring minds for centuries: Who were these amazing seafarers? Where did they come from, starting more than 3,000 years ago? And how could a Neolithic people with simple canoes and no navigation gear manage to find, let alone colonize, hundreds of far-flung island specks scattered across an ocean that spans nearly a third of the globe? Answers have been slow in coming. But now a startling archaeological find on the island of Efate, in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, has revealed an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians, taking their first steps into the unknown. The discoveries there have also opened a window into the shadowy world of those early voyagers. C. What we have is a first-or second-generation site containing the graves of some of the Pacifics first explorers, " says Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and co-leader of an international team excavating the site. It came to light only by luck. A backhoe operator, digging up topsoil on the grounds of a derelict coconut plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the bones of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita, a label that derives from a beach in New Caledonia where a landmark cache of their pottery was found in the 1950s. D. They were daring blue-water adventurers who oved the sea not just as explorers but also as pioneers, bringing along everything they would need tobuild new livestheir families and livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of a few centuries the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga, at least 2,000 miles eastward in the Pacific. Along the way they explored millions of square miles of unknown sea, discovering and colonizing scores of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. It was their descendants, centuries later, who became the great Polynesian navigators we all tend to think of: the Tahitians and Hawaiians, the New Zealand Maori, and the curious people who erected those statues on Easter Island. But it was the Lapita who laid the foundationwho bequeathed to the islands the language, customs, and cultures that their more famous descendants carried around the Pacific. E. While the Lapita left a glorious legacy, they also left precious few clues about themselves. A particularly intriguing clue comes from chemical tests on the teeth of several skeletons. Then as now, the food and water you consume as a child deposits oxygen, carbon, strontium, and other elements in your still-forming adult teeth. The isotope signatures of these elements vary subtly from place to place, so that if you grow up in, say, Buffalo, New York, then spend your adult life in California, tests on the isotopes in your teeth will always reveal your eastern roots. Isotope analysis indicates that several of the Lapita buried on Efate didn't spend their childhoods here but came from somewhere else. And while isotopes can't pinpoint their precise island of origin, this much is clear: At some point in their lives, these people left the villages of their birth and made a voyage by seagoing canoe, never to return. DNA teased from these ancient bones may also help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: Did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? "This represents the best opportunity we've had yet, " says Spriggs, "to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. " F. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: How did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights. "All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, " says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland and an avid yachtsman. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific making short crossings to islands within sight of each other. The real adventure didn't begin, however, until their Lapita descendants neared the end of the Solomons chain, for this was the edge of the world. The nearest landfall, the Santa Cruz Islands, is almost 230 miles away, and for at least 150 of those miles the Lapita sailors would have been out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. G. The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. 'They could sail out for days into the unknown and reconnoiter, secure in the knowledge that if they didn't find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride home on the trade winds. It's what made the whole thing work. " Once out there, skilled seafarers would detect abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds and turtles, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pileup of clouds on the horizon that often betokens an island in the distance. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University and, like Irwin, a keen yachtsman: that the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of tacking into the wind. "And there's no proof that they could do any such thing, " Anderson says. "There has been this assumption that they must have done so, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. " H. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific, and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. Supplied with such an embarrassment of riches, they could settle down and enjoy what for a time were Earth's last Edens. I. Rather than give all the credit to human skill and daring, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the first settlers to the ends of the ocean, Anderson suggests. Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around thePacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South America point to a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again between 1,600 and 1,200 years ago, when the second wave of pioneer navigators made their voyages farther east, to the remotest comers of the Pacific. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these "super El Ninos" might have sped the Pacific's ancient mariners on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon. The volley of El Ninos that coincided with the second wave of voyages could have been key to launching Polynesians across the wide expanse of open water between Tonga, where the Lapita stopped, and the distant archipelagoes of eastern Polynesia. "Once they crossed that gap, they could island hop throughout the region, and from the Marquesas it's mostly downwind to Hawaii, " Anderson says. It took another 400 years for mariners to reach Easter Island, which lies in the opposite directionnormally upwind. "Once again this was during a period of frequent El Nino activity. " | The navigators could take advantage of El Nino during their forth voyages. | n |
id_1235 | Beyond the Blue Line A. Much of the thrill of venturing to the far side of the world rests on the romance of difference. So one feels certain sympathy for Captain James Cook on the day in 1778 that he discovered Hawaii. Then on his third expedition to the Pacific, the British navigator had explored scores of islands across the breadth of the sea, from lush New Zealand to the lonely wastes of Easter Island. This latest voyage had taken him thousands of miles north from the Society Islands to an irchipelago so remote that even the old Polynesians back on Tahiti knew nothing about it. Imagine Cooks surprise, then, when the natives of Hawaii came paddling out in their canoes and greeted him in a familiar tongue, one he had heard on virtually every mote of inhabited land he had visited. Marveling at the ubiquity of this Pacific language and culture, he later wondered in his journal: "How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this vast ocean? B. That question, and others that flow from it, has tantalized inquiring minds for centuries: Who were these amazing seafarers? Where did they come from, starting more than 3,000 years ago? And how could a Neolithic people with simple canoes and no navigation gear manage to find, let alone colonize, hundreds of far-flung island specks scattered across an ocean that spans nearly a third of the globe? Answers have been slow in coming. But now a startling archaeological find on the island of Efate, in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, has revealed an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians, taking their first steps into the unknown. The discoveries there have also opened a window into the shadowy world of those early voyagers. C. What we have is a first-or second-generation site containing the graves of some of the Pacifics first explorers, " says Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and co-leader of an international team excavating the site. It came to light only by luck. A backhoe operator, digging up topsoil on the grounds of a derelict coconut plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the bones of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita, a label that derives from a beach in New Caledonia where a landmark cache of their pottery was found in the 1950s. D. They were daring blue-water adventurers who oved the sea not just as explorers but also as pioneers, bringing along everything they would need tobuild new livestheir families and livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of a few centuries the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga, at least 2,000 miles eastward in the Pacific. Along the way they explored millions of square miles of unknown sea, discovering and colonizing scores of tropical islands never before seen by human eyes: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa. It was their descendants, centuries later, who became the great Polynesian navigators we all tend to think of: the Tahitians and Hawaiians, the New Zealand Maori, and the curious people who erected those statues on Easter Island. But it was the Lapita who laid the foundationwho bequeathed to the islands the language, customs, and cultures that their more famous descendants carried around the Pacific. E. While the Lapita left a glorious legacy, they also left precious few clues about themselves. A particularly intriguing clue comes from chemical tests on the teeth of several skeletons. Then as now, the food and water you consume as a child deposits oxygen, carbon, strontium, and other elements in your still-forming adult teeth. The isotope signatures of these elements vary subtly from place to place, so that if you grow up in, say, Buffalo, New York, then spend your adult life in California, tests on the isotopes in your teeth will always reveal your eastern roots. Isotope analysis indicates that several of the Lapita buried on Efate didn't spend their childhoods here but came from somewhere else. And while isotopes can't pinpoint their precise island of origin, this much is clear: At some point in their lives, these people left the villages of their birth and made a voyage by seagoing canoe, never to return. DNA teased from these ancient bones may also help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: Did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? "This represents the best opportunity we've had yet, " says Spriggs, "to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. " F. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: How did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights. "All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, " says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland and an avid yachtsman. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific making short crossings to islands within sight of each other. The real adventure didn't begin, however, until their Lapita descendants neared the end of the Solomons chain, for this was the edge of the world. The nearest landfall, the Santa Cruz Islands, is almost 230 miles away, and for at least 150 of those miles the Lapita sailors would have been out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. G. The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. 'They could sail out for days into the unknown and reconnoiter, secure in the knowledge that if they didn't find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride home on the trade winds. It's what made the whole thing work. " Once out there, skilled seafarers would detect abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds and turtles, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pileup of clouds on the horizon that often betokens an island in the distance. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University and, like Irwin, a keen yachtsman: that the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of tacking into the wind. "And there's no proof that they could do any such thing, " Anderson says. "There has been this assumption that they must have done so, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. " H. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific, and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. Supplied with such an embarrassment of riches, they could settle down and enjoy what for a time were Earth's last Edens. I. Rather than give all the credit to human skill and daring, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the first settlers to the ends of the ocean, Anderson suggests. Climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around thePacific and from lake-bed sediments in the Andes of South America point to a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again between 1,600 and 1,200 years ago, when the second wave of pioneer navigators made their voyages farther east, to the remotest comers of the Pacific. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these "super El Ninos" might have sped the Pacific's ancient mariners on long, unplanned voyages far over the horizon. The volley of El Ninos that coincided with the second wave of voyages could have been key to launching Polynesians across the wide expanse of open water between Tonga, where the Lapita stopped, and the distant archipelagoes of eastern Polynesia. "Once they crossed that gap, they could island hop throughout the region, and from the Marquesas it's mostly downwind to Hawaii, " Anderson says. It took another 400 years for mariners to reach Easter Island, which lies in the opposite directionnormally upwind. "Once again this was during a period of frequent El Nino activity. " | The majority of the Lapita dwelled on Fiji. | c |
id_1236 | Beyond the blue horizon Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. 80For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It is now clear that the Lapita could sail into a prevailing wind. | c |
id_1237 | Beyond the blue horizon Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. 80For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | Extreme climate conditions may have played a role in Lapita migration. | c |
id_1238 | Beyond the blue horizon Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. 80For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | The Lapita learnt to predict the duration of El Ninos. | e |
id_1239 | Beyond the blue horizon Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. 80For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It remains unclear why the Lapita halted their expansion across the Pacific. | n |
id_1240 | Beyond the blue horizon Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays, Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lap it as thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. 80For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of inrervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It is likely that the majority of Lapita settled on Fiji. | e |
id_1241 | Beyond the blue horizon. Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It is now clear that the Lapita could sail into a prevailing wind. | c |
id_1242 | Beyond the blue horizon. Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It remains unclear why the Lapita halted their expansion across the Pacific. | e |
id_1243 | Beyond the blue horizon. Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | It is likely that the majority of Lapita settled on Fiji. | n |
id_1244 | Beyond the blue horizon. Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | Extreme climate conditions may have played a role in Lapita migration. | e |
id_1245 | Beyond the blue horizon. Ancient voyagers who settled the far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean An important archaeological discovery on the island of Efate in the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu has revealed traces of an ancient seafaring people, the distant ancestors of todays Polynesians. The site came to light only by chance. An agricultural worker, digging in the grounds of a derelict plantation, scraped open a grave the first of dozens in a burial ground some 3,000 years old. It is the oldest cemetery ever found in the Pacific islands, and it harbors the remains of an ancient people archaeologists call the Lapita. They were daring blue-water adventurers who used basic canoes to rove across the ocean. But they were not just explorers. They were also pioneers who carried with them everything they would need to build new lives their livestock, taro seedlings and stone tools. Within the span of several centuries, the Lapita stretched the boundaries of their world from the jungle-clad volcanoes of Papua New Guinea to the loneliest coral outliers of Tonga. The Lapita left precious few clues about themselves, but Efate expands the volume of data available to researchers dramatically. The remains of 62 individuals have been uncovered so far, and archaeologists were also thrilled to find six complete Lapita pots. Other items included a Lapita burial urn with modeled birds arranged on the rim as though peering down at the human remains sealed inside. Its an important discovery, says Matthew Spriggs, professor of archaeology at the Australian National University and head of the international team digging up the site, for it conclusively identifies the remains as Lapita. DNA teased from these human remains may help answer one of the most puzzling questions in Pacific anthropology: did all Pacific islanders spring from one source or many? Was there only one outward migration from a single point in Asia, or several from different points? This represents the best opportunity weve had yet, says Spriggs, to find out who the Lapita actually were, where they came from, and who their closest descendants are today. There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita. All we can say for certain is that the Lapita had canoes that were capable of ocean voyages, and they had the ability to sail them, says Geoff Irwin, a professor of archaeology at the University of Auckland. Those sailing skills, he says, were developed and passed down over thousands of years by earlier mariners who worked their way through the archipelagoes of the western Pacific, making short crossings to nearby islands. The real adventure didnt begin, however, until their Lapita descendants sailed out of sight of land, with empty horizons on every side. This must have been as difficult for them as landing on the moon is for us today. Certainly it distinguished them from their ancestors, but what gave them the courage to launch out on such risky voyages? The Lapitas thrust into the Pacific was eastward, against the prevailing trade winds, Irwin notes. Those nagging headwinds, he argues, may have been the key to their success. They could sail out for days into the unknown and assess the area, secure in the knowledge that if they didnt find anything, they could turn about and catch a swift ride back on the trade winds. This is what would have made the whole thing work. Once out there, skilled seafarers would have detected abundant leads to follow to land: seabirds, coconuts and twigs carried out to sea by the tides, and the afternoon pile-up of clouds on the horizon which often indicates an island in the distance. For returning explorers, successful or not, the geography of their own archipelagoes would have provided a safety net. Without this to go by, overshooting their home ports, getting lost and sailing off into eternity would have been all too easy. Vanuatu, for example, stretches more than 500 miles in a northwest-southeast trend, its scores of intervisible islands forming a backstop for mariners riding the trade winds home. All this presupposes one essential detail, says Atholl Anderson, professor of prehistory at the Australian National University: the Lapita had mastered the advanced art of sailing against the wind. And theres no proof they could do any such thing, Anderson says. There has been this assumption they did, and people have built canoes to re-create those early voyages based on that assumption. But nobody has any idea what their canoes looked like or how they were rigged. Rather than give all the credit to human skill, Anderson invokes the winds of chance. El Nino, the same climate disruption that affects the Pacific today, may have helped scatter the Lapita, Anderson suggests. He points out that climate data obtained from slow-growing corals around the Pacific indicate a series of unusually frequent El Ninos around the time of the Lapita expansion. By reversing the regular east-to-west flow of the trade winds for weeks at a time, these super El Ninos might have taken the Lapita on long unplanned voyages. However they did it, the Lapita spread themselves a third of the way across the Pacific, then called it quits for reasons known only to them. Ahead lay the vast emptiness of the central Pacific and perhaps they were too thinly stretched to venture farther. They probably never numbered more than a few thousand in total, and in their rapid migration eastward they encountered hundreds of islands more than 300 in Fiji alone. | The Lapita learnt to predict the duration of El Ninos. | n |
id_1246 | Bilingualism in Children One misguided legacy of over a hundred years of writing on bilingualism is that childrens intelligence will suffer if they are bilingual. Some of the earliest research into bilingualism examined whether bilingual children were ahead or behind monolingual2 children on IQ tests. From the 1920s through to the 1960s, the tendency was to find monolingual children ahead of bilinguals on IQ tests. The conclusion was that bilingual children were mentally confused. Having two languages in the brain, it was said, disrupted effective thinking. It was argued that having one well-developed language was superior to having two half-developed languages. The idea that bilinguals may have a lower IQ still exists among many people, particularly monolinguals. However, we now know that this early research was misconceived and incorrect. First, such research often gave bilinguals an IQ test in their weaker language usually English. Had bilinguals been tested in Welsh or Spanish or Hebrew, a different result may have been found. The testing of bilinguals was thus unfair. Second, like was not compared with like. Bilinguals tended to come from, for example, impoverished New York or rural Welsh backgrounds. The monolinguals tended to come from more middle class, urban families. Working class bilinguals were often compared with middle class monolinguals. So the results were more likely to be due to social class differences than language differences. The comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals was unfair. The most recent research from Canada, the United States and Wales suggests that bilinguals are, at least, equal to monolinguals on IQ tests. When bilinguals have two well- developed languages (in the research literature called balanced bilinguals), bilinguals tend to show a slight superiority in IQ tests compared with monolinguals. This is the received psychological wisdom of the moment and is good news for raising bilingual children. Take, for example, a child who can operate in either language in the curriculum in the school. That child is likely to be ahead on IQ tests compared with similar (same gender, social class and age) monolinguals. Far from making people mentally confused, bilingualism is now associated with a mild degree of intellectual superiority. One note of caution needs to be sounded. IQ tests probably do not measure intelligence. IQ tests measure a small sample of the broadest concept of intelligence. IQ tests are simply paper and pencil tests where only right and wrong answers are allowed. Is all intelligence summed up in such right and wrong, pencil and paper tests? Isnt there a wider variety of intelligences that are important in everyday functioning and everyday life? Many questions need answering. Do we only define an intelligent person as somebody who obtains a high score on an IQ test? Are the only intelligent people those who belong to high IQ organisations such as MENSA? Is there social intelligence, musical intelligence, military intelligence, marketing intelligence, motoring intelligence, political intelligence? Are all, or indeed any, of these forms of intelligence measured by a simple pencil and paper IQ test which demands a single, acceptable, correct solution to each question? Defining what constitutes intelligent behaviour requires a personal value judgement as to what type of behaviour, and what kind of person is of more worth. The current state of psychological wisdom about bilingual children is that, where two languages are relatively well developed, bilinguals have thinking advantages over monolinguals. Take an example. A child is asked a simple question: How many uses can you think offer a brick? Some children give two or three answers only. They can think of building walls, building a house and perhaps that is all. Another child scribbles away, pouring out ideas one after the other: blocking up a rabbit hole, breaking a window, using as a bird bath, as a plumb line, as an abstract sculpture in an art exhibition. Research across different continents of the world shows that bilinguals tend to be more fluent, flexible, original and elaborate in their answers to this type of open-ended question. The person who can think of a few answers tends to be termed a convergent thinker. They converge onto a few acceptable conventional answers. People who think of lots of different uses for unusual items (e. g. a brick, tin can, cardboard box) are called divergers. Divergers like a variety of answers to a question and are imaginative and fluent in their thinking. There are other dimensions in thinking where approximately balanced bilinguals may have temporary and occasionally permanent advantages over monolinguals: increased sensitivity to communication, a slightly speedier movement through the stages of cognitive development, and being less fixed on the sounds of words and more centred on the meaning of words. Such ability to move away from the sound of words and fix on the meaning of words tends to be a (temporary) advantage for bilinguals around the ages four to six This advantage may mean an initial head start in learning to read and learning to think about language. | Bilinguals just starting school might pick up certain skills faster than monolinguals. | e |
id_1247 | Bilingualism in Children One misguided legacy of over a hundred years of writing on bilingualism is that childrens intelligence will suffer if they are bilingual. Some of the earliest research into bilingualism examined whether bilingual children were ahead or behind monolingual2 children on IQ tests. From the 1920s through to the 1960s, the tendency was to find monolingual children ahead of bilinguals on IQ tests. The conclusion was that bilingual children were mentally confused. Having two languages in the brain, it was said, disrupted effective thinking. It was argued that having one well-developed language was superior to having two half-developed languages. The idea that bilinguals may have a lower IQ still exists among many people, particularly monolinguals. However, we now know that this early research was misconceived and incorrect. First, such research often gave bilinguals an IQ test in their weaker language usually English. Had bilinguals been tested in Welsh or Spanish or Hebrew, a different result may have been found. The testing of bilinguals was thus unfair. Second, like was not compared with like. Bilinguals tended to come from, for example, impoverished New York or rural Welsh backgrounds. The monolinguals tended to come from more middle class, urban families. Working class bilinguals were often compared with middle class monolinguals. So the results were more likely to be due to social class differences than language differences. The comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals was unfair. The most recent research from Canada, the United States and Wales suggests that bilinguals are, at least, equal to monolinguals on IQ tests. When bilinguals have two well- developed languages (in the research literature called balanced bilinguals), bilinguals tend to show a slight superiority in IQ tests compared with monolinguals. This is the received psychological wisdom of the moment and is good news for raising bilingual children. Take, for example, a child who can operate in either language in the curriculum in the school. That child is likely to be ahead on IQ tests compared with similar (same gender, social class and age) monolinguals. Far from making people mentally confused, bilingualism is now associated with a mild degree of intellectual superiority. One note of caution needs to be sounded. IQ tests probably do not measure intelligence. IQ tests measure a small sample of the broadest concept of intelligence. IQ tests are simply paper and pencil tests where only right and wrong answers are allowed. Is all intelligence summed up in such right and wrong, pencil and paper tests? Isnt there a wider variety of intelligences that are important in everyday functioning and everyday life? Many questions need answering. Do we only define an intelligent person as somebody who obtains a high score on an IQ test? Are the only intelligent people those who belong to high IQ organisations such as MENSA? Is there social intelligence, musical intelligence, military intelligence, marketing intelligence, motoring intelligence, political intelligence? Are all, or indeed any, of these forms of intelligence measured by a simple pencil and paper IQ test which demands a single, acceptable, correct solution to each question? Defining what constitutes intelligent behaviour requires a personal value judgement as to what type of behaviour, and what kind of person is of more worth. The current state of psychological wisdom about bilingual children is that, where two languages are relatively well developed, bilinguals have thinking advantages over monolinguals. Take an example. A child is asked a simple question: How many uses can you think offer a brick? Some children give two or three answers only. They can think of building walls, building a house and perhaps that is all. Another child scribbles away, pouring out ideas one after the other: blocking up a rabbit hole, breaking a window, using as a bird bath, as a plumb line, as an abstract sculpture in an art exhibition. Research across different continents of the world shows that bilinguals tend to be more fluent, flexible, original and elaborate in their answers to this type of open-ended question. The person who can think of a few answers tends to be termed a convergent thinker. They converge onto a few acceptable conventional answers. People who think of lots of different uses for unusual items (e. g. a brick, tin can, cardboard box) are called divergers. Divergers like a variety of answers to a question and are imaginative and fluent in their thinking. There are other dimensions in thinking where approximately balanced bilinguals may have temporary and occasionally permanent advantages over monolinguals: increased sensitivity to communication, a slightly speedier movement through the stages of cognitive development, and being less fixed on the sounds of words and more centred on the meaning of words. Such ability to move away from the sound of words and fix on the meaning of words tends to be a (temporary) advantage for bilinguals around the ages four to six This advantage may mean an initial head start in learning to read and learning to think about language. | Balanced bilinguals have more permanent than temporary advantages over monolinguals. | c |
id_1248 | Bilingualism in Children One misguided legacy of over a hundred years of writing on bilingualism is that childrens intelligence will suffer if they are bilingual. Some of the earliest research into bilingualism examined whether bilingual children were ahead or behind monolingual2 children on IQ tests. From the 1920s through to the 1960s, the tendency was to find monolingual children ahead of bilinguals on IQ tests. The conclusion was that bilingual children were mentally confused. Having two languages in the brain, it was said, disrupted effective thinking. It was argued that having one well-developed language was superior to having two half-developed languages. The idea that bilinguals may have a lower IQ still exists among many people, particularly monolinguals. However, we now know that this early research was misconceived and incorrect. First, such research often gave bilinguals an IQ test in their weaker language usually English. Had bilinguals been tested in Welsh or Spanish or Hebrew, a different result may have been found. The testing of bilinguals was thus unfair. Second, like was not compared with like. Bilinguals tended to come from, for example, impoverished New York or rural Welsh backgrounds. The monolinguals tended to come from more middle class, urban families. Working class bilinguals were often compared with middle class monolinguals. So the results were more likely to be due to social class differences than language differences. The comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals was unfair. The most recent research from Canada, the United States and Wales suggests that bilinguals are, at least, equal to monolinguals on IQ tests. When bilinguals have two well- developed languages (in the research literature called balanced bilinguals), bilinguals tend to show a slight superiority in IQ tests compared with monolinguals. This is the received psychological wisdom of the moment and is good news for raising bilingual children. Take, for example, a child who can operate in either language in the curriculum in the school. That child is likely to be ahead on IQ tests compared with similar (same gender, social class and age) monolinguals. Far from making people mentally confused, bilingualism is now associated with a mild degree of intellectual superiority. One note of caution needs to be sounded. IQ tests probably do not measure intelligence. IQ tests measure a small sample of the broadest concept of intelligence. IQ tests are simply paper and pencil tests where only right and wrong answers are allowed. Is all intelligence summed up in such right and wrong, pencil and paper tests? Isnt there a wider variety of intelligences that are important in everyday functioning and everyday life? Many questions need answering. Do we only define an intelligent person as somebody who obtains a high score on an IQ test? Are the only intelligent people those who belong to high IQ organisations such as MENSA? Is there social intelligence, musical intelligence, military intelligence, marketing intelligence, motoring intelligence, political intelligence? Are all, or indeed any, of these forms of intelligence measured by a simple pencil and paper IQ test which demands a single, acceptable, correct solution to each question? Defining what constitutes intelligent behaviour requires a personal value judgement as to what type of behaviour, and what kind of person is of more worth. The current state of psychological wisdom about bilingual children is that, where two languages are relatively well developed, bilinguals have thinking advantages over monolinguals. Take an example. A child is asked a simple question: How many uses can you think offer a brick? Some children give two or three answers only. They can think of building walls, building a house and perhaps that is all. Another child scribbles away, pouring out ideas one after the other: blocking up a rabbit hole, breaking a window, using as a bird bath, as a plumb line, as an abstract sculpture in an art exhibition. Research across different continents of the world shows that bilinguals tend to be more fluent, flexible, original and elaborate in their answers to this type of open-ended question. The person who can think of a few answers tends to be termed a convergent thinker. They converge onto a few acceptable conventional answers. People who think of lots of different uses for unusual items (e. g. a brick, tin can, cardboard box) are called divergers. Divergers like a variety of answers to a question and are imaginative and fluent in their thinking. There are other dimensions in thinking where approximately balanced bilinguals may have temporary and occasionally permanent advantages over monolinguals: increased sensitivity to communication, a slightly speedier movement through the stages of cognitive development, and being less fixed on the sounds of words and more centred on the meaning of words. Such ability to move away from the sound of words and fix on the meaning of words tends to be a (temporary) advantage for bilinguals around the ages four to six This advantage may mean an initial head start in learning to read and learning to think about language. | Often bilinguals concentrate more on the way a word sounds than on its meaning. | c |
id_1249 | Bilingualism in Children One misguided legacy of over a hundred years of writing on bilingualism is that childrens intelligence will suffer if they are bilingual. Some of the earliest research into bilingualism examined whether bilingual children were ahead or behind monolingual2 children on IQ tests. From the 1920s through to the 1960s, the tendency was to find monolingual children ahead of bilinguals on IQ tests. The conclusion was that bilingual children were mentally confused. Having two languages in the brain, it was said, disrupted effective thinking. It was argued that having one well-developed language was superior to having two half-developed languages. The idea that bilinguals may have a lower IQ still exists among many people, particularly monolinguals. However, we now know that this early research was misconceived and incorrect. First, such research often gave bilinguals an IQ test in their weaker language usually English. Had bilinguals been tested in Welsh or Spanish or Hebrew, a different result may have been found. The testing of bilinguals was thus unfair. Second, like was not compared with like. Bilinguals tended to come from, for example, impoverished New York or rural Welsh backgrounds. The monolinguals tended to come from more middle class, urban families. Working class bilinguals were often compared with middle class monolinguals. So the results were more likely to be due to social class differences than language differences. The comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals was unfair. The most recent research from Canada, the United States and Wales suggests that bilinguals are, at least, equal to monolinguals on IQ tests. When bilinguals have two well- developed languages (in the research literature called balanced bilinguals), bilinguals tend to show a slight superiority in IQ tests compared with monolinguals. This is the received psychological wisdom of the moment and is good news for raising bilingual children. Take, for example, a child who can operate in either language in the curriculum in the school. That child is likely to be ahead on IQ tests compared with similar (same gender, social class and age) monolinguals. Far from making people mentally confused, bilingualism is now associated with a mild degree of intellectual superiority. One note of caution needs to be sounded. IQ tests probably do not measure intelligence. IQ tests measure a small sample of the broadest concept of intelligence. IQ tests are simply paper and pencil tests where only right and wrong answers are allowed. Is all intelligence summed up in such right and wrong, pencil and paper tests? Isnt there a wider variety of intelligences that are important in everyday functioning and everyday life? Many questions need answering. Do we only define an intelligent person as somebody who obtains a high score on an IQ test? Are the only intelligent people those who belong to high IQ organisations such as MENSA? Is there social intelligence, musical intelligence, military intelligence, marketing intelligence, motoring intelligence, political intelligence? Are all, or indeed any, of these forms of intelligence measured by a simple pencil and paper IQ test which demands a single, acceptable, correct solution to each question? Defining what constitutes intelligent behaviour requires a personal value judgement as to what type of behaviour, and what kind of person is of more worth. The current state of psychological wisdom about bilingual children is that, where two languages are relatively well developed, bilinguals have thinking advantages over monolinguals. Take an example. A child is asked a simple question: How many uses can you think offer a brick? Some children give two or three answers only. They can think of building walls, building a house and perhaps that is all. Another child scribbles away, pouring out ideas one after the other: blocking up a rabbit hole, breaking a window, using as a bird bath, as a plumb line, as an abstract sculpture in an art exhibition. Research across different continents of the world shows that bilinguals tend to be more fluent, flexible, original and elaborate in their answers to this type of open-ended question. The person who can think of a few answers tends to be termed a convergent thinker. They converge onto a few acceptable conventional answers. People who think of lots of different uses for unusual items (e. g. a brick, tin can, cardboard box) are called divergers. Divergers like a variety of answers to a question and are imaginative and fluent in their thinking. There are other dimensions in thinking where approximately balanced bilinguals may have temporary and occasionally permanent advantages over monolinguals: increased sensitivity to communication, a slightly speedier movement through the stages of cognitive development, and being less fixed on the sounds of words and more centred on the meaning of words. Such ability to move away from the sound of words and fix on the meaning of words tends to be a (temporary) advantage for bilinguals around the ages four to six This advantage may mean an initial head start in learning to read and learning to think about language. | Monolinguals learn to speak at a younger age than bilingual. | n |
id_1250 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | There are species that have not been researched because its unnecessary to study all creatures. | c |
id_1251 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | It is not necessary to investigate all creatures in a certain place. | e |
id_1252 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | The press more often than not focuses on animals well-known. | e |
id_1253 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | There is a successful case that cactus moth plays a positive role in the US. | c |
id_1254 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | Usage of hardwoods is forbidden in some European countries. | n |
id_1255 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | Agriculture experts advise farmers to plant single crops in the field in terms of sustainable farming | n |
id_1256 | Biodiversity It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists, protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement to conserve and share the planets biological riches, provides a good working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems of which they are apart. In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction 121 more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animals and 270,000 species of plants have been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only 4 percent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction. It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now so that comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isnt necessary to observe every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many habitats, there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be used as indicator species In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as pandas, elephants, tigers and whales that get all the attention when the loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats in the process saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species. By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so important that scientists sometimes call figs jungle burgers. A whole range of animals, from tiny insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the trees bark and leaves to its flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one. Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London who is also involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity points out that if fig trees are affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity will be enormous. Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts of California and Alaska. These marine rainforests provide a home for a wide range of other species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn, the urchins are eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow and it can grow many centimetres in a day. As the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As large predators they are vulnerable their numbers are relatively small so disease or human hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they roam the seafloor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity. Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to the Caribbean islands that had the same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately, some of the moths have now reached the US mainland borne on winds and in tourists luggage where they are devastating the native cactus populations of Florida. Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major international meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this year have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of limited value if some countries refuse to implement them. There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programs, with the emphasis on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize environmental damage and avoid monoculture Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness. Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This, in turn, has a direct effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional extra. Variety may be the spice of life, but biological variety is also our life-support system. | The term biodiversity consists of living creatures and the environment that they live in. | e |
id_1257 | Biofuels are now being used worldwide and supporters claim that they are a sustainable, renewable and cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, supplies of which are becoming depleted. Biofuels are increasingly used in the transportation sector. The main producers of biofuels are in Asia, Europe and America. They can be produced from any carbon source including landfill gasses and recycled vegetable oil but most of the biofuel produced around the world is derived from photosynthetic plants grown in Brazil. The two main types of plant used in production are those high in sugar, which are fermented to produce ethanol, and those high in oil, which have the oil extracted and heated to reduce viscosity before the oil is used. Advocates explain that burning biofuels releases the same amount of CO2 that the plants took out of the environment during their growth so there is no net increase in levels of atmospheric carbon. | Ethanol can be produced from photosynthetic plants with high oil content. | n |
id_1258 | Biofuels are now being used worldwide and supporters claim that they are a sustainable, renewable and cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, supplies of which are becoming depleted. Biofuels are increasingly used in the transportation sector. The main producers of biofuels are in Asia, Europe and America. They can be produced from any carbon source including landfill gasses and recycled vegetable oil but most of the biofuel produced around the world is derived from photosynthetic plants grown in Brazil. The two main types of plant used in production are those high in sugar, which are fermented to produce ethanol, and those high in oil, which have the oil extracted and heated to reduce viscosity before the oil is used. Advocates explain that burning biofuels releases the same amount of CO2 that the plants took out of the environment during their growth so there is no net increase in levels of atmospheric carbon. | Biofuels can be used to power aircraft. | n |
id_1259 | Biofuels are now being used worldwide and supporters claim that they are a sustainable, renewable and cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, supplies of which are becoming depleted. Biofuels are increasingly used in the transportation sector. The main producers of biofuels are in Asia, Europe and America. They can be produced from any carbon source including landfill gasses and recycled vegetable oil but most of the biofuel produced around the world is derived from photosynthetic plants grown in Brazil. The two main types of plant used in production are those high in sugar, which are fermented to produce ethanol, and those high in oil, which have the oil extracted and heated to reduce viscosity before the oil is used. Advocates explain that burning biofuels releases the same amount of CO2 that the plants took out of the environment during their growth so there is no net increase in levels of atmospheric carbon. | Oil from some plants will flow more easily if it is heated. | e |
id_1260 | Biofuels backlash A Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are cleaner, sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which continue to deplete. Biofuels can be grown repeatedly from crops making them 100% renewable. Bio-ethanol is made in a similar way to moonshine by fer menting cereals like corn and maize and then distilling the brew to evaporate the ethanol. Biodiesel is manufactured from the vegetable oils found in sunflower seeds, rapeseed and the oil palm. Gasoline (petrol) engines can be tuned to run on 90% ethanol blended with 10% petroleum and biodiesel is a direct replacement for exist ing road diesel. B Carbon-dioxide is the principal man-made greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global warming, causing polar ice to recede and sea- levels to rise. Energy crops offer one solution to the deleterious effects of carbon- dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts. Biofuels are 100% carbon-neutral, which means that there is no net gain or loss of carbon to the environment when the fuels are burnt. The carbon-dioxide does not add to the total amount in the atmosphere because the crops absorb the equivalent amount of carbon-dioxide by photosynthesis as they grow. Consequently, the carbon footprint of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles can be reduced by switching to bio-ethanol or biodiesel. The latter burns more efficiently than petroleum diesel leaving less unburned hydrocarbons, carbon- monoxide and particulates, which means less atmospheric pollution as well as less global warming. Biofuels are less toxic than fossil fuels and biodegrade if spilt on the ground. C Not everybody believes that biofuels are the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. The status of biofuels as environmentally friendly can be challenged on several counts. Firstly, to provide space for energy-crop plantations, trees are felled and burnt which creates a surplus of carbon-dioxide. Secondly, in tropical rainforests the loss of trees threatens biodiversity by destroying habitat. Thirdly, deforestation increases the evaporation of water from the ground, which can lead to extensive droughts. These deficits can be discounted if the energy crops are planted on existing agricultural land, but if this is done it reduces the supply of food crops, creating a surge in food prices. Furthermore, in developing countries people have barely sufficient food to eat and switching to fuel crops could threaten their meagre food supplies. D To judge whether or not biofuels are genuinely a greener alternative to fossil fuels it is necessary to scrutinize the manufacturing steps. Whilst in theory, the carbon released by biofuels is equivalent to that removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants this does not reflect the true energy picture. Substantial amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizers are added to the soil to increase crop production. The process of manufacturing fertilizers consumes large amounts of energy in a process that burns natural gas and releases carbon-dioxide. Whats more, when fertilizers are added to the land the soil releases nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. As an agent of global warming, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent than carbon- dioxide, and surplus nitrates can leach into nearby rivers and streams where they kill the fish. The ethanol industry generates additional carbon-dioxide because many of its manufacturing plants use coal-fired boilers, and fossil fuels are also consumed by the vehicles that transport materials to and from manufacturing sites. Whilst the transportation of petroleum-based fuels also burns fossil fuels, biofuels are supposed to offer a greener alternative to the fuels they intend to replace. E Biofuels may not be a panacea for global warning but they can play a part in a sustainable energy programme. To reinforce their green credentials, energy crops should not be planted on land that was being used to produce food. New technologies can produce ethanol from the inedible parts of plants, or from grasses grown on wasteland that is unsuitable for food. Genetically modified plants may be the answer to increasing biofuel crop yields without the need for further land grab. Plant strains can be developed that require little in the way of fertilizers or irrigation. Biodiesel consumption may, in the future, extend beyond transportation to include heating oils for domestic boilers. Developing countries that grow biofuels should be allowed to benefit from the premium prices that fuel crops command, enabling farmers and their communities to reap economic and social benefits. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of fuel crops it is clear that fossil fuels are a limited resource and cannot remain the mainstay of our economies indefinitely. | The eco-friendly nature of biofuels cannot be disputed. | c |
id_1261 | Biofuels backlash A Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are cleaner, sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which continue to deplete. Biofuels can be grown repeatedly from crops making them 100% renewable. Bio-ethanol is made in a similar way to moonshine by fer menting cereals like corn and maize and then distilling the brew to evaporate the ethanol. Biodiesel is manufactured from the vegetable oils found in sunflower seeds, rapeseed and the oil palm. Gasoline (petrol) engines can be tuned to run on 90% ethanol blended with 10% petroleum and biodiesel is a direct replacement for exist ing road diesel. B Carbon-dioxide is the principal man-made greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global warming, causing polar ice to recede and sea- levels to rise. Energy crops offer one solution to the deleterious effects of carbon- dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts. Biofuels are 100% carbon-neutral, which means that there is no net gain or loss of carbon to the environment when the fuels are burnt. The carbon-dioxide does not add to the total amount in the atmosphere because the crops absorb the equivalent amount of carbon-dioxide by photosynthesis as they grow. Consequently, the carbon footprint of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles can be reduced by switching to bio-ethanol or biodiesel. The latter burns more efficiently than petroleum diesel leaving less unburned hydrocarbons, carbon- monoxide and particulates, which means less atmospheric pollution as well as less global warming. Biofuels are less toxic than fossil fuels and biodegrade if spilt on the ground. C Not everybody believes that biofuels are the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. The status of biofuels as environmentally friendly can be challenged on several counts. Firstly, to provide space for energy-crop plantations, trees are felled and burnt which creates a surplus of carbon-dioxide. Secondly, in tropical rainforests the loss of trees threatens biodiversity by destroying habitat. Thirdly, deforestation increases the evaporation of water from the ground, which can lead to extensive droughts. These deficits can be discounted if the energy crops are planted on existing agricultural land, but if this is done it reduces the supply of food crops, creating a surge in food prices. Furthermore, in developing countries people have barely sufficient food to eat and switching to fuel crops could threaten their meagre food supplies. D To judge whether or not biofuels are genuinely a greener alternative to fossil fuels it is necessary to scrutinize the manufacturing steps. Whilst in theory, the carbon released by biofuels is equivalent to that removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants this does not reflect the true energy picture. Substantial amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizers are added to the soil to increase crop production. The process of manufacturing fertilizers consumes large amounts of energy in a process that burns natural gas and releases carbon-dioxide. Whats more, when fertilizers are added to the land the soil releases nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. As an agent of global warming, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent than carbon- dioxide, and surplus nitrates can leach into nearby rivers and streams where they kill the fish. The ethanol industry generates additional carbon-dioxide because many of its manufacturing plants use coal-fired boilers, and fossil fuels are also consumed by the vehicles that transport materials to and from manufacturing sites. Whilst the transportation of petroleum-based fuels also burns fossil fuels, biofuels are supposed to offer a greener alternative to the fuels they intend to replace. E Biofuels may not be a panacea for global warning but they can play a part in a sustainable energy programme. To reinforce their green credentials, energy crops should not be planted on land that was being used to produce food. New technologies can produce ethanol from the inedible parts of plants, or from grasses grown on wasteland that is unsuitable for food. Genetically modified plants may be the answer to increasing biofuel crop yields without the need for further land grab. Plant strains can be developed that require little in the way of fertilizers or irrigation. Biodiesel consumption may, in the future, extend beyond transportation to include heating oils for domestic boilers. Developing countries that grow biofuels should be allowed to benefit from the premium prices that fuel crops command, enabling farmers and their communities to reap economic and social benefits. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of fuel crops it is clear that fossil fuels are a limited resource and cannot remain the mainstay of our economies indefinitely. | Fuel crops outnumber food crops in developing countries. | n |
id_1262 | Biofuels backlash A Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are cleaner, sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which continue to deplete. Biofuels can be grown repeatedly from crops making them 100% renewable. Bio-ethanol is made in a similar way to moonshine by fer menting cereals like corn and maize and then distilling the brew to evaporate the ethanol. Biodiesel is manufactured from the vegetable oils found in sunflower seeds, rapeseed and the oil palm. Gasoline (petrol) engines can be tuned to run on 90% ethanol blended with 10% petroleum and biodiesel is a direct replacement for exist ing road diesel. B Carbon-dioxide is the principal man-made greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global warming, causing polar ice to recede and sea- levels to rise. Energy crops offer one solution to the deleterious effects of carbon- dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts. Biofuels are 100% carbon-neutral, which means that there is no net gain or loss of carbon to the environment when the fuels are burnt. The carbon-dioxide does not add to the total amount in the atmosphere because the crops absorb the equivalent amount of carbon-dioxide by photosynthesis as they grow. Consequently, the carbon footprint of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles can be reduced by switching to bio-ethanol or biodiesel. The latter burns more efficiently than petroleum diesel leaving less unburned hydrocarbons, carbon- monoxide and particulates, which means less atmospheric pollution as well as less global warming. Biofuels are less toxic than fossil fuels and biodegrade if spilt on the ground. C Not everybody believes that biofuels are the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. The status of biofuels as environmentally friendly can be challenged on several counts. Firstly, to provide space for energy-crop plantations, trees are felled and burnt which creates a surplus of carbon-dioxide. Secondly, in tropical rainforests the loss of trees threatens biodiversity by destroying habitat. Thirdly, deforestation increases the evaporation of water from the ground, which can lead to extensive droughts. These deficits can be discounted if the energy crops are planted on existing agricultural land, but if this is done it reduces the supply of food crops, creating a surge in food prices. Furthermore, in developing countries people have barely sufficient food to eat and switching to fuel crops could threaten their meagre food supplies. D To judge whether or not biofuels are genuinely a greener alternative to fossil fuels it is necessary to scrutinize the manufacturing steps. Whilst in theory, the carbon released by biofuels is equivalent to that removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants this does not reflect the true energy picture. Substantial amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizers are added to the soil to increase crop production. The process of manufacturing fertilizers consumes large amounts of energy in a process that burns natural gas and releases carbon-dioxide. Whats more, when fertilizers are added to the land the soil releases nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. As an agent of global warming, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent than carbon- dioxide, and surplus nitrates can leach into nearby rivers and streams where they kill the fish. The ethanol industry generates additional carbon-dioxide because many of its manufacturing plants use coal-fired boilers, and fossil fuels are also consumed by the vehicles that transport materials to and from manufacturing sites. Whilst the transportation of petroleum-based fuels also burns fossil fuels, biofuels are supposed to offer a greener alternative to the fuels they intend to replace. E Biofuels may not be a panacea for global warning but they can play a part in a sustainable energy programme. To reinforce their green credentials, energy crops should not be planted on land that was being used to produce food. New technologies can produce ethanol from the inedible parts of plants, or from grasses grown on wasteland that is unsuitable for food. Genetically modified plants may be the answer to increasing biofuel crop yields without the need for further land grab. Plant strains can be developed that require little in the way of fertilizers or irrigation. Biodiesel consumption may, in the future, extend beyond transportation to include heating oils for domestic boilers. Developing countries that grow biofuels should be allowed to benefit from the premium prices that fuel crops command, enabling farmers and their communities to reap economic and social benefits. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of fuel crops it is clear that fossil fuels are a limited resource and cannot remain the mainstay of our economies indefinitely. | Food prices fall when fuel crops are planted on land used to grow food. | c |
id_1263 | Biofuels backlash A Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are cleaner, sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which continue to deplete. Biofuels can be grown repeatedly from crops making them 100% renewable. Bio-ethanol is made in a similar way to moonshine by fer menting cereals like corn and maize and then distilling the brew to evaporate the ethanol. Biodiesel is manufactured from the vegetable oils found in sunflower seeds, rapeseed and the oil palm. Gasoline (petrol) engines can be tuned to run on 90% ethanol blended with 10% petroleum and biodiesel is a direct replacement for exist ing road diesel. B Carbon-dioxide is the principal man-made greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global warming, causing polar ice to recede and sea- levels to rise. Energy crops offer one solution to the deleterious effects of carbon- dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts. Biofuels are 100% carbon-neutral, which means that there is no net gain or loss of carbon to the environment when the fuels are burnt. The carbon-dioxide does not add to the total amount in the atmosphere because the crops absorb the equivalent amount of carbon-dioxide by photosynthesis as they grow. Consequently, the carbon footprint of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles can be reduced by switching to bio-ethanol or biodiesel. The latter burns more efficiently than petroleum diesel leaving less unburned hydrocarbons, carbon- monoxide and particulates, which means less atmospheric pollution as well as less global warming. Biofuels are less toxic than fossil fuels and biodegrade if spilt on the ground. C Not everybody believes that biofuels are the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. The status of biofuels as environmentally friendly can be challenged on several counts. Firstly, to provide space for energy-crop plantations, trees are felled and burnt which creates a surplus of carbon-dioxide. Secondly, in tropical rainforests the loss of trees threatens biodiversity by destroying habitat. Thirdly, deforestation increases the evaporation of water from the ground, which can lead to extensive droughts. These deficits can be discounted if the energy crops are planted on existing agricultural land, but if this is done it reduces the supply of food crops, creating a surge in food prices. Furthermore, in developing countries people have barely sufficient food to eat and switching to fuel crops could threaten their meagre food supplies. D To judge whether or not biofuels are genuinely a greener alternative to fossil fuels it is necessary to scrutinize the manufacturing steps. Whilst in theory, the carbon released by biofuels is equivalent to that removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants this does not reflect the true energy picture. Substantial amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizers are added to the soil to increase crop production. The process of manufacturing fertilizers consumes large amounts of energy in a process that burns natural gas and releases carbon-dioxide. Whats more, when fertilizers are added to the land the soil releases nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. As an agent of global warming, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent than carbon- dioxide, and surplus nitrates can leach into nearby rivers and streams where they kill the fish. The ethanol industry generates additional carbon-dioxide because many of its manufacturing plants use coal-fired boilers, and fossil fuels are also consumed by the vehicles that transport materials to and from manufacturing sites. Whilst the transportation of petroleum-based fuels also burns fossil fuels, biofuels are supposed to offer a greener alternative to the fuels they intend to replace. E Biofuels may not be a panacea for global warning but they can play a part in a sustainable energy programme. To reinforce their green credentials, energy crops should not be planted on land that was being used to produce food. New technologies can produce ethanol from the inedible parts of plants, or from grasses grown on wasteland that is unsuitable for food. Genetically modified plants may be the answer to increasing biofuel crop yields without the need for further land grab. Plant strains can be developed that require little in the way of fertilizers or irrigation. Biodiesel consumption may, in the future, extend beyond transportation to include heating oils for domestic boilers. Developing countries that grow biofuels should be allowed to benefit from the premium prices that fuel crops command, enabling farmers and their communities to reap economic and social benefits. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of fuel crops it is clear that fossil fuels are a limited resource and cannot remain the mainstay of our economies indefinitely. | Burning biodiesel instead of petroleum diesel generates less pollution. | e |
id_1264 | Biofuels backlash A Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are cleaner, sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, which continue to deplete. Biofuels can be grown repeatedly from crops making them 100% renewable. Bio-ethanol is made in a similar way to moonshine by fer menting cereals like corn and maize and then distilling the brew to evaporate the ethanol. Biodiesel is manufactured from the vegetable oils found in sunflower seeds, rapeseed and the oil palm. Gasoline (petrol) engines can be tuned to run on 90% ethanol blended with 10% petroleum and biodiesel is a direct replacement for exist ing road diesel. B Carbon-dioxide is the principal man-made greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere and increases global warming, causing polar ice to recede and sea- levels to rise. Energy crops offer one solution to the deleterious effects of carbon- dioxide emitted from vehicle exhausts. Biofuels are 100% carbon-neutral, which means that there is no net gain or loss of carbon to the environment when the fuels are burnt. The carbon-dioxide does not add to the total amount in the atmosphere because the crops absorb the equivalent amount of carbon-dioxide by photosynthesis as they grow. Consequently, the carbon footprint of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles can be reduced by switching to bio-ethanol or biodiesel. The latter burns more efficiently than petroleum diesel leaving less unburned hydrocarbons, carbon- monoxide and particulates, which means less atmospheric pollution as well as less global warming. Biofuels are less toxic than fossil fuels and biodegrade if spilt on the ground. C Not everybody believes that biofuels are the ideal alternative to fossil fuels. The status of biofuels as environmentally friendly can be challenged on several counts. Firstly, to provide space for energy-crop plantations, trees are felled and burnt which creates a surplus of carbon-dioxide. Secondly, in tropical rainforests the loss of trees threatens biodiversity by destroying habitat. Thirdly, deforestation increases the evaporation of water from the ground, which can lead to extensive droughts. These deficits can be discounted if the energy crops are planted on existing agricultural land, but if this is done it reduces the supply of food crops, creating a surge in food prices. Furthermore, in developing countries people have barely sufficient food to eat and switching to fuel crops could threaten their meagre food supplies. D To judge whether or not biofuels are genuinely a greener alternative to fossil fuels it is necessary to scrutinize the manufacturing steps. Whilst in theory, the carbon released by biofuels is equivalent to that removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants this does not reflect the true energy picture. Substantial amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizers are added to the soil to increase crop production. The process of manufacturing fertilizers consumes large amounts of energy in a process that burns natural gas and releases carbon-dioxide. Whats more, when fertilizers are added to the land the soil releases nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. As an agent of global warming, nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent than carbon- dioxide, and surplus nitrates can leach into nearby rivers and streams where they kill the fish. The ethanol industry generates additional carbon-dioxide because many of its manufacturing plants use coal-fired boilers, and fossil fuels are also consumed by the vehicles that transport materials to and from manufacturing sites. Whilst the transportation of petroleum-based fuels also burns fossil fuels, biofuels are supposed to offer a greener alternative to the fuels they intend to replace. E Biofuels may not be a panacea for global warning but they can play a part in a sustainable energy programme. To reinforce their green credentials, energy crops should not be planted on land that was being used to produce food. New technologies can produce ethanol from the inedible parts of plants, or from grasses grown on wasteland that is unsuitable for food. Genetically modified plants may be the answer to increasing biofuel crop yields without the need for further land grab. Plant strains can be developed that require little in the way of fertilizers or irrigation. Biodiesel consumption may, in the future, extend beyond transportation to include heating oils for domestic boilers. Developing countries that grow biofuels should be allowed to benefit from the premium prices that fuel crops command, enabling farmers and their communities to reap economic and social benefits. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of fuel crops it is clear that fossil fuels are a limited resource and cannot remain the mainstay of our economies indefinitely. | Bio-ethanol is a non-renewable fuel source. | c |
id_1265 | Biological control of pests The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter- productive. Apart from engendering widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs. According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a variety of insecticides now in use. One glaring disadvantage of pesticides application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in check. This results in what agroecologists call the treadmill syndrome. Because of their tremendous breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides. The havoc that the treadmill syndrome can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-basedintensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield. The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests. By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests, necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically stronger insect species. Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use. In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity - though, as yet, it is a new field with limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects. When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing. The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non- commercial research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control world-wide. CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both India and Australia. Similarly the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth, another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other 74plant and a pair of adult bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days. CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding parasites that prey on disapene scale insects - notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and India. How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In the late 1960s, when Sri Lankas flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre-long canal from the clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called African Payal in Kerala. About 30,000 hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed. | A number of pests are now born with an innate immunity to some pesticides. | e |
id_1266 | Biological control of pests The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter- productive. Apart from engendering widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs. According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a variety of insecticides now in use. One glaring disadvantage of pesticides application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in check. This results in what agroecologists call the treadmill syndrome. Because of their tremendous breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides. The havoc that the treadmill syndrome can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-basedintensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield. The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests. By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests, necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically stronger insect species. Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use. In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity - though, as yet, it is a new field with limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects. When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing. The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non- commercial research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control world-wide. CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both India and Australia. Similarly the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth, another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other 74plant and a pair of adult bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days. CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding parasites that prey on disapene scale insects - notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and India. How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In the late 1960s, when Sri Lankas flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre-long canal from the clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called African Payal in Kerala. About 30,000 hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed. | Disease-spreading pests respond more quickly to pesticides than agricultural pests do. | n |
id_1267 | Biological control of pests The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter- productive. Apart from engendering widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs. According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a variety of insecticides now in use. One glaring disadvantage of pesticides application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in check. This results in what agroecologists call the treadmill syndrome. Because of their tremendous breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides. The havoc that the treadmill syndrome can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-basedintensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield. The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests. By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests, necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically stronger insect species. Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use. In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity - though, as yet, it is a new field with limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects. When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing. The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non- commercial research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control world-wide. CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both India and Australia. Similarly the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth, another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other 74plant and a pair of adult bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days. CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding parasites that prey on disapene scale insects - notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and India. How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In the late 1960s, when Sri Lankas flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre-long canal from the clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called African Payal in Kerala. About 30,000 hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed. | Biological control entails using synthetic chemicals to try and change the genetic make-up of the pests offspring. | c |
id_1268 | Biological control of pests The continuous and reckless use of synthetic chemicals for the control of pests which pose a threat to agricultural crops and human health is proving to be counter- productive. Apart from engendering widespread ecological disorders, pesticides have contributed to the emergence of a new breed of chemical-resistant, highly lethal superbugs. According to a recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), more than 300 species of agricultural pests have developed resistance to a wide range of potent chemicals. Not to be left behind are the disease-spreading pests, about 100 species of which have become immune to a variety of insecticides now in use. One glaring disadvantage of pesticides application is that, while destroying harmful pests, they also wipe out many useful non-targeted organisms, which keep the growth of the pest population in check. This results in what agroecologists call the treadmill syndrome. Because of their tremendous breeding potential and genetic diversity, many pests are known to withstand synthetic chemicals and bear offspring with a built-in resistance to pesticides. The havoc that the treadmill syndrome can bring about is well illustrated by what happened to cotton farmers in Central America. In the early 1940s, basking in the glory of chemical-basedintensive agriculture, the farmers avidly took to pesticides as a sure measure to boost crop yield. The insecticide was applied eight times a year in the mid-1940s, rising to 28 in a season in the mid-1950s, following the sudden proliferation of three new varieties of chemical-resistant pests. By the mid-1960s, the situation took an alarming turn with the outbreak of four more new pests, necessitating pesticide spraying to such an extent that 50% of the financial outlay on cotton production was accounted for by pesticides. In the early 1970s, the spraying frequently reached 70 times a season as the farmers were pushed to the wall by the invasion of genetically stronger insect species. Most of the pesticides in the market today remain inadequately tested for properties that cause cancer and mutations as well as for other adverse effects on health, says a study by United States environmental agencies. The United States National Resource Defense Council has found that DDT was the most popular of a long list of dangerous chemicals in use. In the face of the escalating perils from indiscriminate applications of pesticides, a more effective and ecologically sound strategy of biological control, involving the selective use of natural enemies of the pest population, is fast gaining popularity - though, as yet, it is a new field with limited potential. The advantage of biological control in contrast to other methods is that it provides a relatively low-cost, perpetual control system with a minimum of detrimental side-effects. When handled by experts, bio-control is safe, non-polluting and self-dispersing. The Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (CIBC) in Bangalore, with its global network of research laboratories and field stations, is one of the most active, non- commercial research agencies engaged in pest control by setting natural predators against parasites. CIBC also serves as a clearing-house for the export and import of biological agents for pest control world-wide. CIBC successfully used a seed-feeding weevil, native to Mexico, to control the obnoxious parthenium weed, known to exert devious influence on agriculture and human health in both India and Australia. Similarly the Hyderabad-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), supported by CIBC, is now trying out an Argentinian weevil for the eradication of water hyacinth, another dangerous weed, which has become a nuisance in many parts of the world. According to Mrs Kaiser Jamil of RRL, The Argentinian weevil does not attack any other 74plant and a pair of adult bugs could destroy the weed in 4-5 days. CIBC is also perfecting the technique for breeding parasites that prey on disapene scale insects - notorious defoliants of fruit trees in the US and India. How effectively biological control can be pressed into service is proved by the following examples. In the late 1960s, when Sri Lankas flourishing coconut groves were plagued by leaf-mining hispides, a larval parasite imported from Singapore brought the pest under control. A natural predator indigenous to India, Neodumetia sangawani, was found useful in controlling the Rhodes grass-scale insect that was devouring forage grass in many parts of the US. By using Neochetina bruci, a beetle native to Brazil, scientists at Kerala Agricultural University freed a 12-kilometre-long canal from the clutches of the weed Salvinia molesta, popularly called African Payal in Kerala. About 30,000 hectares of rice fields in Kerala are infested by this weed. | Bio-control is free from danger under certain circumstances. | e |
id_1269 | Bioprospecting refers to searching the worlds remotest areas for genetic resources with commercial value. Bioprospecting is hardly a new phenomenon the active ingredient in aspirin, for example, comes from willow bark, whose medicinal properties were known to the ancient Greeks. In recent years, however, the ethics of the practice have been debated. Opponents, who use the term biopiracy, view it as the exploitation of developing countries resources and indigenous medical knowledge for the developed worlds profit. Pharmaceutical companies argue that drugs resulting from bioprospecting can help thousands of people. Furthermore, they are not patenting native plants, rather the techniques used to extract compounds from them. Despite these arguments, in 2005 the Indian government successfully overturned a US patent to extract an anti-fungal agent from the neem tree. Central to the debate is the question of who owns the worlds biodiversity. The UNs Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1993 to ensure that bioprospectors obtain consent from and share any profits with the source nation. The United States, however, has not ratified the CBD. It is not only the pharmaceutical industry that has fallen foul of sovereign rights to biological resources. In 2008, Mexican farmers won an appeal to revoke a US patent on Mexican Enola beans. Similarly, following a diplomatic crisis between India and the United States, a Texan company lost the right to patent basmati rice. | There have been incidences where India has successfully repealed patents on its local flora. | e |
id_1270 | Bioprospecting refers to searching the worlds remotest areas for genetic resources with commercial value. Bioprospecting is hardly a new phenomenon the active ingredient in aspirin, for example, comes from willow bark, whose medicinal properties were known to the ancient Greeks. In recent years, however, the ethics of the practice have been debated. Opponents, who use the term biopiracy, view it as the exploitation of developing countries resources and indigenous medical knowledge for the developed worlds profit. Pharmaceutical companies argue that drugs resulting from bioprospecting can help thousands of people. Furthermore, they are not patenting native plants, rather the techniques used to extract compounds from them. Despite these arguments, in 2005 the Indian government successfully overturned a US patent to extract an anti-fungal agent from the neem tree. Central to the debate is the question of who owns the worlds biodiversity. The UNs Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1993 to ensure that bioprospectors obtain consent from and share any profits with the source nation. The United States, however, has not ratified the CBD. It is not only the pharmaceutical industry that has fallen foul of sovereign rights to biological resources. In 2008, Mexican farmers won an appeal to revoke a US patent on Mexican Enola beans. Similarly, following a diplomatic crisis between India and the United States, a Texan company lost the right to patent basmati rice. | Bioprospecting is defined as the practice of obtaining plants from developing countries for commercial exploitation. | c |
id_1271 | Bioprospecting refers to searching the worlds remotest areas for genetic resources with commercial value. Bioprospecting is hardly a new phenomenon the active ingredient in aspirin, for example, comes from willow bark, whose medicinal properties were known to the ancient Greeks. In recent years, however, the ethics of the practice have been debated. Opponents, who use the term biopiracy, view it as the exploitation of developing countries resources and indigenous medical knowledge for the developed worlds profit. Pharmaceutical companies argue that drugs resulting from bioprospecting can help thousands of people. Furthermore, they are not patenting native plants, rather the techniques used to extract compounds from them. Despite these arguments, in 2005 the Indian government successfully overturned a US patent to extract an anti-fungal agent from the neem tree. Central to the debate is the question of who owns the worlds biodiversity. The UNs Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1993 to ensure that bioprospectors obtain consent from and share any profits with the source nation. The United States, however, has not ratified the CBD. It is not only the pharmaceutical industry that has fallen foul of sovereign rights to biological resources. In 2008, Mexican farmers won an appeal to revoke a US patent on Mexican Enola beans. Similarly, following a diplomatic crisis between India and the United States, a Texan company lost the right to patent basmati rice. | The United States government believes that the earths biodiversity is not owned by sovereign nations. | n |
id_1272 | Bioprospecting refers to searching the worlds remotest areas for genetic resources with commercial value. Bioprospecting is hardly a new phenomenon the active ingredient in aspirin, for example, comes from willow bark, whose medicinal properties were known to the ancient Greeks. In recent years, however, the ethics of the practice have been debated. Opponents, who use the term biopiracy, view it as the exploitation of developing countries resources and indigenous medical knowledge for the developed worlds profit. Pharmaceutical companies argue that drugs resulting from bioprospecting can help thousands of people. Furthermore, they are not patenting native plants, rather the techniques used to extract compounds from them. Despite these arguments, in 2005 the Indian government successfully overturned a US patent to extract an anti-fungal agent from the neem tree. Central to the debate is the question of who owns the worlds biodiversity. The UNs Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1993 to ensure that bioprospectors obtain consent from and share any profits with the source nation. The United States, however, has not ratified the CBD. It is not only the pharmaceutical industry that has fallen foul of sovereign rights to biological resources. In 2008, Mexican farmers won an appeal to revoke a US patent on Mexican Enola beans. Similarly, following a diplomatic crisis between India and the United States, a Texan company lost the right to patent basmati rice. | Under the CBD, nations grant access to sovereign genetic material in exchange for a share in the rewards. | e |
id_1273 | Bioprospecting refers to searching the worlds remotest areas for genetic resources with commercial value. Bioprospecting is hardly a new phenomenon the active ingredient in aspirin, for example, comes from willow bark, whose medicinal properties were known to the ancient Greeks. In recent years, however, the ethics of the practice have been debated. Opponents, who use the term biopiracy, view it as the exploitation of developing countries resources and indigenous medical knowledge for the developed worlds profit. Pharmaceutical companies argue that drugs resulting from bioprospecting can help thousands of people. Furthermore, they are not patenting native plants, rather the techniques used to extract compounds from them. Despite these arguments, in 2005 the Indian government successfully overturned a US patent to extract an anti-fungal agent from the neem tree. Central to the debate is the question of who owns the worlds biodiversity. The UNs Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1993 to ensure that bioprospectors obtain consent from and share any profits with the source nation. The United States, however, has not ratified the CBD. It is not only the pharmaceutical industry that has fallen foul of sovereign rights to biological resources. In 2008, Mexican farmers won an appeal to revoke a US patent on Mexican Enola beans. Similarly, following a diplomatic crisis between India and the United States, a Texan company lost the right to patent basmati rice. | Bioprospecting is primarily carried out by the pharmaceutical and food industries. | n |
id_1274 | Biotechnology is the use of living organisms and systems to develop or make useful products, or provide services. Biotechnology may be used in the production of medicines, drugs or in agriculture. Similarly, industrial biotechnology has applications in industrial processes, such as eliminating hazardous chemicals. The use of biotechnology raises unique ethical issues regarding the role of living organisms in business. | Using algae to remove a dangerous oil spill would be an example of biotechnology. | e |
id_1275 | Biotechnology is the use of living organisms and systems to develop or make useful products, or provide services. Biotechnology may be used in the production of medicines, drugs or in agriculture. Similarly, industrial biotechnology has applications in industrial processes, such as eliminating hazardous chemicals. The use of biotechnology raises unique ethical issues regarding the role of living organisms in business. | The use of living organisms in business is considered unethical. | n |
id_1276 | Biotechnology is the use of living organisms and systems to develop or make useful products, or provide services. Biotechnology may be used in the production of medicines, drugs or in agriculture. Similarly, industrial biotechnology has applications in industrial processes, such as eliminating hazardous chemicals. The use of biotechnology raises unique ethical issues regarding the role of living organisms in business. | Biotechnology could include the application of genetically modified organisms. | e |
id_1277 | Birds were long considered stupid, however laboratory research has shown that corvids the group of birds including crows and jays are actually highly intelligent. Their ability to make and use tools rivals that of chimpanzees. When hiding stores of food, corvids demonstrate their episodic memory and future planning ability; cognitive abilities previously thought unique to humans. Not only do corvids remember where they have caught food, they remember when they stored it. If seen catching food, corvids will return and re-hide it, unobserved by competitors. This anticipation of pilfering shows that corvids acknowledge the mental state of other individuals. Being the most social group of birds, corvids raise their young cooperatively and form long-term relationships. The social function of intellect theory, which hypothesised that social living was the impetus for the development of primate intelligence, is now applied to other species, such as corvids. Although capable of doing many of the same things as primates, corvids have smaller brains and lack the neocortex that is responsible for mammalian cognition. Instead, corvids have a nidopallium, which scientists believe fulfils a similar function more efficiently. Primate and corvid intelligence is sometimes used as an example of convergent evolution, whereby two unrelated species independently develop the same adaptations to similar environmental conditions. But animal intelligence is a controversial subject, with no consensus on its definition. Some scientists argue that corvid behaviour can be explained by adaptive specialization and is not equivalent to primate intelligence, and thus convergent evolution does not apply. | Corvids feeding behaviour indicates that they have some awareness of what their competitors are thinking. | e |
id_1278 | Birds were long considered stupid, however laboratory research has shown that corvids the group of birds including crows and jays are actually highly intelligent. Their ability to make and use tools rivals that of chimpanzees. When hiding stores of food, corvids demonstrate their episodic memory and future planning ability; cognitive abilities previously thought unique to humans. Not only do corvids remember where they have caught food, they remember when they stored it. If seen catching food, corvids will return and re-hide it, unobserved by competitors. This anticipation of pilfering shows that corvids acknowledge the mental state of other individuals. Being the most social group of birds, corvids raise their young cooperatively and form long-term relationships. The social function of intellect theory, which hypothesised that social living was the impetus for the development of primate intelligence, is now applied to other species, such as corvids. Although capable of doing many of the same things as primates, corvids have smaller brains and lack the neocortex that is responsible for mammalian cognition. Instead, corvids have a nidopallium, which scientists believe fulfils a similar function more efficiently. Primate and corvid intelligence is sometimes used as an example of convergent evolution, whereby two unrelated species independently develop the same adaptations to similar environmental conditions. But animal intelligence is a controversial subject, with no consensus on its definition. Some scientists argue that corvid behaviour can be explained by adaptive specialization and is not equivalent to primate intelligence, and thus convergent evolution does not apply. | Although they lack a common ancestor, primates and corvids acquired their intelligence under the same evolutionary processes. | n |
id_1279 | Birds were long considered stupid, however laboratory research has shown that corvids the group of birds including crows and jays are actually highly intelligent. Their ability to make and use tools rivals that of chimpanzees. When hiding stores of food, corvids demonstrate their episodic memory and future planning ability; cognitive abilities previously thought unique to humans. Not only do corvids remember where they have caught food, they remember when they stored it. If seen catching food, corvids will return and re-hide it, unobserved by competitors. This anticipation of pilfering shows that corvids acknowledge the mental state of other individuals. Being the most social group of birds, corvids raise their young cooperatively and form long-term relationships. The social function of intellect theory, which hypothesised that social living was the impetus for the development of primate intelligence, is now applied to other species, such as corvids. Although capable of doing many of the same things as primates, corvids have smaller brains and lack the neocortex that is responsible for mammalian cognition. Instead, corvids have a nidopallium, which scientists believe fulfils a similar function more efficiently. Primate and corvid intelligence is sometimes used as an example of convergent evolution, whereby two unrelated species independently develop the same adaptations to similar environmental conditions. But animal intelligence is a controversial subject, with no consensus on its definition. Some scientists argue that corvid behaviour can be explained by adaptive specialization and is not equivalent to primate intelligence, and thus convergent evolution does not apply. | Corvids cognitive abilities are the result of both brain structure and social structure. | n |
id_1280 | Birds were long considered stupid, however laboratory research has shown that corvids the group of birds including crows and jays are actually highly intelligent. Their ability to make and use tools rivals that of chimpanzees. When hiding stores of food, corvids demonstrate their episodic memory and future planning ability; cognitive abilities previously thought unique to humans. Not only do corvids remember where they have caught food, they remember when they stored it. If seen catching food, corvids will return and re-hide it, unobserved by competitors. This anticipation of pilfering shows that corvids acknowledge the mental state of other individuals. Being the most social group of birds, corvids raise their young cooperatively and form long-term relationships. The social function of intellect theory, which hypothesised that social living was the impetus for the development of primate intelligence, is now applied to other species, such as corvids. Although capable of doing many of the same things as primates, corvids have smaller brains and lack the neocortex that is responsible for mammalian cognition. Instead, corvids have a nidopallium, which scientists believe fulfils a similar function more efficiently. Primate and corvid intelligence is sometimes used as an example of convergent evolution, whereby two unrelated species independently develop the same adaptations to similar environmental conditions. But animal intelligence is a controversial subject, with no consensus on its definition. Some scientists argue that corvid behaviour can be explained by adaptive specialization and is not equivalent to primate intelligence, and thus convergent evolution does not apply. | A corvids nidopallium is smaller, but more powerful, than a primates neocortex. | n |
id_1281 | Birds were long considered stupid, however laboratory research has shown that corvids the group of birds including crows and jays are actually highly intelligent. Their ability to make and use tools rivals that of chimpanzees. When hiding stores of food, corvids demonstrate their episodic memory and future planning ability; cognitive abilities previously thought unique to humans. Not only do corvids remember where they have caught food, they remember when they stored it. If seen catching food, corvids will return and re-hide it, unobserved by competitors. This anticipation of pilfering shows that corvids acknowledge the mental state of other individuals. Being the most social group of birds, corvids raise their young cooperatively and form long-term relationships. The social function of intellect theory, which hypothesised that social living was the impetus for the development of primate intelligence, is now applied to other species, such as corvids. Although capable of doing many of the same things as primates, corvids have smaller brains and lack the neocortex that is responsible for mammalian cognition. Instead, corvids have a nidopallium, which scientists believe fulfils a similar function more efficiently. Primate and corvid intelligence is sometimes used as an example of convergent evolution, whereby two unrelated species independently develop the same adaptations to similar environmental conditions. But animal intelligence is a controversial subject, with no consensus on its definition. Some scientists argue that corvid behaviour can be explained by adaptive specialization and is not equivalent to primate intelligence, and thus convergent evolution does not apply. | The social function of intellect theory states that corvid intelligence developed as a result of their complex social structure. | e |
id_1282 | Blighty. Are the British Isles, the UK, Great Britain and Britain one and the same thing? Well, no, actually. The British Isles is a non-political, geographical term that refers to an archi- pelago, or cluster of islands, that includes the two main islands that encompass England, Wales and Scotland and the whole of the island of Ireland, as well as all of the many small surrounding islands. The UK is an abbreviated form of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, whereas Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland (and their adjacent islands) but not Northern Ireland, making Great Britain a geographical term but not a political entity. The adjacent islands referred to include the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon in Welsh) and the islands of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland Islands and the Inner and Outer Hebrides). The term Britain is often used to mean Great Britain, though strictly speaking Britain covers England and Wales but not Scotland, because Britain stems from the Roman word Britannia, which did not include the area now called Scotland, which was never conquered. To add to the confusion, the term British Islands encompasses the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) and the Isle of Man; the small islands are not part of Great Britain, the UK or the European Union but are self-governing British Crown dependencies. Finally, the term Ireland defines both a political entity, ie the Republic of Ireland (or Eire), that is Southern Ireland, and the geographical entity that is both Northern and Southern Ireland, the single land mass. | Jersey is not part of Great Britain but it is part of the British Isles. | e |
id_1283 | Blighty. Are the British Isles, the UK, Great Britain and Britain one and the same thing? Well, no, actually. The British Isles is a non-political, geographical term that refers to an archi- pelago, or cluster of islands, that includes the two main islands that encompass England, Wales and Scotland and the whole of the island of Ireland, as well as all of the many small surrounding islands. The UK is an abbreviated form of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, whereas Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland (and their adjacent islands) but not Northern Ireland, making Great Britain a geographical term but not a political entity. The adjacent islands referred to include the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon in Welsh) and the islands of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland Islands and the Inner and Outer Hebrides). The term Britain is often used to mean Great Britain, though strictly speaking Britain covers England and Wales but not Scotland, because Britain stems from the Roman word Britannia, which did not include the area now called Scotland, which was never conquered. To add to the confusion, the term British Islands encompasses the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) and the Isle of Man; the small islands are not part of Great Britain, the UK or the European Union but are self-governing British Crown dependencies. Finally, the term Ireland defines both a political entity, ie the Republic of Ireland (or Eire), that is Southern Ireland, and the geographical entity that is both Northern and Southern Ireland, the single land mass. | Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain but it is part of the UK. | e |
id_1284 | Blighty. Are the British Isles, the UK, Great Britain and Britain one and the same thing? Well, no, actually. The British Isles is a non-political, geographical term that refers to an archi- pelago, or cluster of islands, that includes the two main islands that encompass England, Wales and Scotland and the whole of the island of Ireland, as well as all of the many small surrounding islands. The UK is an abbreviated form of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, whereas Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland (and their adjacent islands) but not Northern Ireland, making Great Britain a geographical term but not a political entity. The adjacent islands referred to include the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon in Welsh) and the islands of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland Islands and the Inner and Outer Hebrides). The term Britain is often used to mean Great Britain, though strictly speaking Britain covers England and Wales but not Scotland, because Britain stems from the Roman word Britannia, which did not include the area now called Scotland, which was never conquered. To add to the confusion, the term British Islands encompasses the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) and the Isle of Man; the small islands are not part of Great Britain, the UK or the European Union but are self-governing British Crown dependencies. Finally, the term Ireland defines both a political entity, ie the Republic of Ireland (or Eire), that is Southern Ireland, and the geographical entity that is both Northern and Southern Ireland, the single land mass. | The British Islands include Northern Ireland whilst the British Isles include all of Ireland. | e |
id_1285 | Blighty. Are the British Isles, the UK, Great Britain and Britain one and the same thing? Well, no, actually. The British Isles is a non-political, geographical term that refers to an archi- pelago, or cluster of islands, that includes the two main islands that encompass England, Wales and Scotland and the whole of the island of Ireland, as well as all of the many small surrounding islands. The UK is an abbreviated form of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, whereas Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland (and their adjacent islands) but not Northern Ireland, making Great Britain a geographical term but not a political entity. The adjacent islands referred to include the Isle of Wight, the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon in Welsh) and the islands of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland Islands and the Inner and Outer Hebrides). The term Britain is often used to mean Great Britain, though strictly speaking Britain covers England and Wales but not Scotland, because Britain stems from the Roman word Britannia, which did not include the area now called Scotland, which was never conquered. To add to the confusion, the term British Islands encompasses the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) and the Isle of Man; the small islands are not part of Great Britain, the UK or the European Union but are self-governing British Crown dependencies. Finally, the term Ireland defines both a political entity, ie the Republic of Ireland (or Eire), that is Southern Ireland, and the geographical entity that is both Northern and Southern Ireland, the single land mass. | The Isle of Anglesey is not part of Great Britain. | c |
id_1286 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | Diagnosis of a disease in human being is not always possible only by the blood test. | n |
id_1287 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | Various aspects of blood flow are important for diagnosis. | e |
id_1288 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | Pathological pattern of a disease is very much understood from the examination of blood. | n |
id_1289 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | In man the blood flow system is very simple. | c |
id_1290 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | The composition of blood helps in the diagnosis of various ailments. | e |
id_1291 | Blood flow in human or animal body is indeed complex due to very complicated structure and function of blood and blood vessels. However the structure and function of blood as well as blood vessels including the various aspects of blood flow are widely used for the diagnosis of pathological pattern in human or animal physiology. | Blood is composed by many chemicals. | n |
id_1292 | Bob Davies was killed when driving home and his vehicle crashed through a barrier and fell 50 feet off a mountain road. The incident happened at approximately 23.45hrs on Thursday 22nd March. Andrew Williams was driving in the opposite direction along the same road around the same time. He reported the incident to the police. The following facts are known: Bob Davies was suffering from depression. Andrew Williams had consumed six pints of lager in the Bull's Head on Wednesday. No braking marks were found on the road at the scene. Andrew Williams had seen stray sheep on, the road less than 100 yards from the scene. Bob Davies had spent that evening at the Red Lion. | Bob Davies may have been drunk whilst driving home on the night of the incident. | e |
id_1293 | Bob Davies was killed when driving home and his vehicle crashed through a barrier and fell 50 feet off a mountain road. The incident happened at approximately 23.45hrs on Thursday 22nd March. Andrew Williams was driving in the opposite direction along the same road around the same time. He reported the incident to the police. The following facts are known: Bob Davies was suffering from depression. Andrew Williams had consumed six pints of lager in the Bull's Head on Wednesday. No braking marks were found on the road at the scene. Andrew Williams had seen stray sheep on, the road less than 100 yards from the scene. Bob Davies had spent that evening at the Red Lion. | There are definite grounds for believing that Bob Davies committed suicide. | c |
id_1294 | Bob Davies was killed when driving home and his vehicle crashed through a barrier and fell 50 feet off a mountain road. The incident happened at approximately 23.45hrs on Thursday 22nd March. Andrew Williams was driving in the opposite direction along the same road around the same time. He reported the incident to the police. The following facts are known: Bob Davies was suffering from depression. Andrew Williams had consumed six pints of lager in the Bull's Head on Wednesday. No braking marks were found on the road at the scene. Andrew Williams had seen stray sheep on, the road less than 100 yards from the scene. Bob Davies had spent that evening at the Red Lion. | Andrew Williams was three times over the legal alcohol limit at the time of the collision. | n |
id_1295 | Bob Davies was killed when driving home and his vehicle crashed through a barrier and fell 50 feet off a mountain road. The incident happened at approximately 23.45hrs on Thursday 22nd March. Andrew Williams was driving in the opposite direction along the same road around the same time. He reported the incident to the police. The following facts are known: Bob Davies was suffering from depression. Andrew Williams had consumed six pints of lager in the Bull's Head on Wednesday. No braking marks were found on the road at the scene. Andrew Williams had seen stray sheep on, the road less than 100 yards from the scene. Bob Davies had spent that evening at the Red Lion. | The brakes could have failed on Bob Davies car resulting in the collision. | e |
id_1296 | Bob Davies was killed when driving home and his vehicle crashed through a barrier and fell 50 feet off a mountain road. The incident happened at approximately 23.45hrs on Thursday 22nd March. Andrew Williams was driving in the opposite direction along the same road around the same time. He reported the incident to the police. The following facts are known: Bob Davies was suffering from depression. Andrew Williams had consumed six pints of lager in the Bull's Head on Wednesday. No braking marks were found on the road at the scene. Andrew Williams had seen stray sheep on, the road less than 100 yards from the scene. Bob Davies had spent that evening at the Red Lion. | The collision happened when Bob Davies lost control of his vehicle when he swerved to avoid sheep on the road. | n |
id_1297 | Bondi Beach Bondi Beach, Australias most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the Local Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the sound of breaking waves. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock carvings on the northern end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on die coastal walk. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been welcomed to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means "the people"). One theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests that they were a distinct language group of then own. There is no clear evidence for the name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the Waverley area, A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region. From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics. The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the "The Bondi Estate. " Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased Hall's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate, " and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, die Municipal Councilbelieved that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy - a playground everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in 1884. Following this, tram became the first public transportation in Bondi-As an alternative, this action changed die rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach-By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the "Playground of the Pacific". There is a growing trend that people prefer having relax near seaside instead of living unhealthily in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world's first formally documented surf lifesaving club, the Bondi Surf Bathers' life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of "Black Sunday" at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of life savers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place of the life saver i n the national imagination. Bondi Beach Is the end point of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in August Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi Beach for the Queen Elizabeth n during her first visited in Australia, in 1954. Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets is open every Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the shortage of houses occurs when lots of people crushed to seaside. Manly is the seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the satisfied destination rather than Manly. Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent sidestreets, featuring many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary beach. It is depicted as wholly modem and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches' unique position has Been a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley naming down to the beach is famous world over for its view of distinctive red tiled roofs. Those architectures are deeply influenced by British costal town. Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm- up courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and argue for health life in Bondi. "They're prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of eight days of volleyball", said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface. | The name of the Bondi beach is first called by the British settlers. | c |
id_1298 | Bondi Beach Bondi Beach, Australias most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the Local Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the sound of breaking waves. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock carvings on the northern end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on die coastal walk. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been welcomed to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means "the people"). One theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests that they were a distinct language group of then own. There is no clear evidence for the name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the Waverley area, A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region. From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics. The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the "The Bondi Estate. " Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased Hall's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate, " and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, die Municipal Councilbelieved that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy - a playground everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in 1884. Following this, tram became the first public transportation in Bondi-As an alternative, this action changed die rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach-By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the "Playground of the Pacific". There is a growing trend that people prefer having relax near seaside instead of living unhealthily in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world's first formally documented surf lifesaving club, the Bondi Surf Bathers' life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of "Black Sunday" at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of life savers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place of the life saver i n the national imagination. Bondi Beach Is the end point of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in August Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi Beach for the Queen Elizabeth n during her first visited in Australia, in 1954. Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets is open every Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the shortage of houses occurs when lots of people crushed to seaside. Manly is the seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the satisfied destination rather than Manly. Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent sidestreets, featuring many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary beach. It is depicted as wholly modem and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches' unique position has Been a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley naming down to the beach is famous world over for its view of distinctive red tiled roofs. Those architectures are deeply influenced by British costal town. Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm- up courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and argue for health life in Bondi. "They're prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of eight days of volleyball", said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface. | The aboriginal culture in Australia is different when compared with European culture. | n |
id_1299 | Bondi Beach Bondi Beach, Australias most famous beach, is located in the suburb of Bondi, in the Local Government Area of Waverley, seven kilometers from the centre of Sydney. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or the sound of breaking waves. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. There are Aboriginal Rock carvings on the northern end of the beach at Ben Buckler and south of Bondi Beach near McKenzies Beach on die coastal walk. The indigenous people of the area at the time of European settlement have generally been welcomed to as the Sydney people or the Eora (Eora means "the people"). One theory describes the Eora as a sub-group of the Darug language group which occupied the Cumberland Plain west to the Blue Mountains. However, another theory suggests that they were a distinct language group of then own. There is no clear evidence for the name or names of the particular band(s) of the Eora that roamed what is now the Waverley area, A number of place names within Waverley, most famously Bondi, have been based on words derived from Aboriginal languages of the Sydney region. From the mid-1800s Bondi Beach was a favourite location for family outings and picnics. The beginnings of the suburb go back to 1809, when the early road builder, William Roberts, received from Governor Bligh a grant of 81 hectares of what is now most of the business and residential area of Bondi Beach. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that embraced almost the whole frontage of Bondi Beach, and it was named the "The Bondi Estate. " Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased Hall's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate, " and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, die Municipal Councilbelieved that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. During the 1900s beach became associated with health, leisure and democracy - a playground everyone could enjoy equally. Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. The first tramway reached the beach in 1884. Following this, tram became the first public transportation in Bondi-As an alternative, this action changed die rule that only rich people can enjoy the beach-By the 1930s Bondi was drawing not only local visitors but also people from elsewhere in Australia and overseas. Advertising at the time referred to Bondi Beach as the "Playground of the Pacific". There is a growing trend that people prefer having relax near seaside instead of living unhealthily in cities. The increasing popularity of sea bathing during the late 1800s and early 1900s raised concerns about public safety and how to prevent people from drowning. In response, the world's first formally documented surf lifesaving club, the Bondi Surf Bathers' life Saving Club, was formed in 1907. This was powerfully reinforced by the dramatic events of "Black Sunday" at Bondi in 1938. Some 35,000 people were on the beach and a large group of life savers were about to start a surf race when three freak waves hit the beach, sweeping hundreds of people out to sea. Lifesavers rescued 300 people. The largest mass rescue in the history of surf bathing, it confirmed the place of the life saver i n the national imagination. Bondi Beach Is the end point of the City to Surf Fun Run which is held each year in August Australian surf carnivals further instilled this image. A Royal Surf Carnival was held at Bondi Beach for the Queen Elizabeth n during her first visited in Australia, in 1954. Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the British Royal Family to Australia. In addition to many activities, the Bondi Beach Markets is open every Sunday. Many wealthy people spend Christmas Day at the beach. However, the shortage of houses occurs when lots of people crushed to seaside. Manly is the seashore town which solved this problem. However, people still choose Bondi as the satisfied destination rather than Manly. Bondi Beach has a commercial area along Campbell Parade and adjacent sidestreets, featuring many popular cafes, restaurants, and hotels, with views of the contemporary beach. It is depicted as wholly modem and European. In the last decade, Bondi Beaches' unique position has Been a dramatic rise in svelte houses and apartments to take advantage of the views and scent of the sea. The valley naming down to the beach is famous world over for its view of distinctive red tiled roofs. Those architectures are deeply influenced by British costal town. Bondi Beach hosted the beach volleyball competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. A temporary 10,000-seat stadium, a much smaller stadium, 2 warm- up courts, and 3 training courts were set up to host the tournament. The Bondi Beach Volleyball Stadium was constructed for it and stood for just six weeks. Campaigners oppose both the social and environmental consequences of the development. The stadium will divide the beach in two and seriously restrict public access for swimming, walking, and other forms of outdoor recreation. People protest for their human rights of having a pure seaside and argue for health life in Bondi. "They're prepared to risk lives and risk the Bondi beach environment for the sake of eight days of volleyball", said Stephen Uniacke, a construction lawyer involved in the campaign. Other environmental concerns include the possibility that soil dredged up from below the sand will acidify when brought to the surface. | Bondi beach area holds many contemporary hotels | n |
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