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id_2400 | Fact 1: All drink mixes are beverages. Fact 2: All beverages are drinkable. Fact 3: Some beverages are red. | All beverages are drink mixes. | c |
id_2401 | Fact 1: All drink mixes are beverages. Fact 2: All beverages are drinkable. Fact 3: Some beverages are red. | Some drink mixes are red. | e |
id_2402 | Fact 1: All hats have brims. Fact 2: There are black hats and blue hats. Fact 3: Baseball caps are hats. | Baseball caps have no brims. | c |
id_2403 | Fact 1: All hats have brims. Fact 2: There are black hats and blue hats. Fact 3: Baseball caps are hats. | Some baseball caps are blue. | n |
id_2404 | Fact 1: All hats have brims. Fact 2: There are black hats and blue hats. Fact 3: Baseball caps are hats. | All caps have brims. | n |
id_2405 | Fact 1: Eyeglass frames cost between $35 and $350. Fact 2: Some eyeglass frames are made of titanium. Fact 3: Some eyeglass frames are made of plastic. | Only a few eyeglass frames cost less than $35. | c |
id_2406 | Fact 1: Eyeglass frames cost between $35 and $350. Fact 2: Some eyeglass frames are made of titanium. Fact 3: Some eyeglass frames are made of plastic. | Expensive eyeglass frames last longer than cheap frames. | n |
id_2407 | Fact 1: Eyeglass frames cost between $35 and $350. Fact 2: Some eyeglass frames are made of titanium. Fact 3: Some eyeglass frames are made of plastic. | Titanium eyeglass frames cost more than plastic frames. | n |
id_2408 | Fact 1: Islands are surrounded by water. Fact 2: Maui is an island. Fact 3: Maui was formed by a volcano. | All volcanoes are on islands. | n |
id_2409 | Fact 1: Islands are surrounded by water. Fact 2: Maui is an island. Fact 3: Maui was formed by a volcano. | All islands are formed by volcanoes. | n |
id_2410 | Fact 1: Islands are surrounded by water. Fact 2: Maui is an island. Fact 3: Maui was formed by a volcano. | Maui is surrounded by water. | e |
id_2411 | Fact 1: Jessica has four children. Fact 2: Two of the children have blue eyes and two of the children have brown eyes. Fact 3: Half of the children are girls. | At least one girl has blue eyes. | n |
id_2412 | Fact 1: Jessica has four children. Fact 2: Two of the children have blue eyes and two of the children have brown eyes. Fact 3: Half of the children are girls. | The boys have brown eyes. | n |
id_2413 | Fact 1: Jessica has four children. Fact 2: Two of the children have blue eyes and two of the children have brown eyes. Fact 3: Half of the children are girls. | Two of the children are boys. | e |
id_2414 | Fact 1: Mary said, Ann and I both have cats. Fact 2: Ann said, I don't have a cat. Fact 3: Mary always tells the truth, but Ann sometimes lies. | Mary has a cat. | e |
id_2415 | Fact 1: Mary said, Ann and I both have cats. Fact 2: Ann said, I don't have a cat. Fact 3: Mary always tells the truth, but Ann sometimes lies. | Ann is lying. | e |
id_2416 | Fact 1: Mary said, Ann and I both have cats. Fact 2: Ann said, I don't have a cat. Fact 3: Mary always tells the truth, but Ann sometimes lies. | Ann has a cat. | e |
id_2417 | Fact 1: Most stuffed toys are stuffed with beans. Fact 2: There are stuffed bears and stuffed tigers. Fact 3: Some chairs are stuffed with beans. | Only children's chairs are stuffed with beans. | n |
id_2418 | Fact 1: Most stuffed toys are stuffed with beans. Fact 2: There are stuffed bears and stuffed tigers. Fact 3: Some chairs are stuffed with beans. | Stuffed monkeys are not stuffed with beans. | n |
id_2419 | Fact 1: Most stuffed toys are stuffed with beans. Fact 2: There are stuffed bears and stuffed tigers. Fact 3: Some chairs are stuffed with beans. | All stuffed tigers are stuffed with beans. | n |
id_2420 | Fact 1: Pictures can tell a story. Fact 2: All storybooks have pictures. Fact 3: Some storybooks have words. | The stories in storybooks are very simple. | c |
id_2421 | Fact 1: Pictures can tell a story. Fact 2: All storybooks have pictures. Fact 3: Some storybooks have words. | Some storybooks have both words and pictures. | e |
id_2422 | Fact 1: Pictures can tell a story. Fact 2: All storybooks have pictures. Fact 3: Some storybooks have words. | Pictures can tell a story better than words can. | c |
id_2423 | Fact 1: Robert has four vehicles. Fact 2: Two of the vehicles are red. Fact 3: One of the vehicles is a minivan. | Robert has three cars. | n |
id_2424 | Fact 1: Robert has four vehicles. Fact 2: Two of the vehicles are red. Fact 3: One of the vehicles is a minivan. | Robert has a red minivan. | n |
id_2425 | Fact 1: Robert has four vehicles. Fact 2: Two of the vehicles are red. Fact 3: One of the vehicles is a minivan. | Robert's favorite color is red. | n |
id_2426 | Fact 1: Some pens don't write. Fact 2: All blue pens write. Fact 3: Some writing utensils are pens. | Some blue writing utensils don't write. | n |
id_2427 | Fact 1: Some pens don't write. Fact 2: All blue pens write. Fact 3: Some writing utensils are pens. | Some writing utensils don't write. | e |
id_2428 | Fact 1: Some pens don't write. Fact 2: All blue pens write. Fact 3: Some writing utensils are pens. | Some writing utensils are blue. | e |
id_2429 | False Report to a Peace Officer occurs when a person gives a false statement to a peace officer who is conducting a criminal investigation and that person knows his or her statement is a key part of the investigation. | Ed calls the police to report his stolen car, and police investigators discover that Ed paid friends to steal the car. This situation is the best example of a False Report to a Peace Officer. | e |
id_2430 | False Report to a Peace Officer occurs when a person gives a false statement to a peace officer who is conducting a criminal investigation and that person knows his or her statement is a key part of the investigation. | Betty, a witness to a homicide, tells the investigating officer that the suspect had on a blue shirt, and investigators later find out the shirt was dark green. This situation is the best example of a False Report to a Peace Officer | c |
id_2431 | False Report to a Peace Officer occurs when a person gives a false statement to a peace officer who is conducting a criminal investigation and that person knows his or her statement is a key part of the investigation. | Janice reports to police that her television has been stolen and then finds out later that a friend came over and borrowed her television without telling her. This situation is the best example of a False Report to a Peace Officer | c |
id_2432 | False Report to a Peace Officer occurs when a person gives a false statement to a peace officer who is conducting a criminal investigation and that person knows his or her statement is a key part of the investigation. | A resident from a nearby mental hospital calls police to report seeing space aliens stealing dogs from the pet store next door. This situation is the best example of a False Report to a Peace Officer | c |
id_2433 | Father of modern management Its been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the books publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of "modem management, " he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of societybusiness, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. Drucker has said that writing is die foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of EconomicMan: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War n, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book. Concept of the Corporation. The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Tided The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of "management by objectives. Management by objectives require managers to establish goals for theft subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure theft performance. Drucker wrote, "It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools "to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker's most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: 'The very term "middle management" is becoming meaningless as some will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems-none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. "It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals. Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in then jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize theirdreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as 'a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions and mistakes and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority. Drucker wasn't immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan's Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nations financial center would shift from New York to Washington, others maintain that one of Drucker's core concepts"management by objectives"is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn't shy away from controversy, either. Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was "a liberal art " and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. "The fact is, " Drucker wrote in 1973, "that in modem society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will. " In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects ofmodem economies. Business "gums" have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker's message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the postcapitalist era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the "knowledge worker" whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital. | Drucker believed the employees should enjoy the same status as the employers in a company | n |
id_2434 | Father of modern management Its been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the books publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of "modem management, " he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of societybusiness, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. Drucker has said that writing is die foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of EconomicMan: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War n, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book. Concept of the Corporation. The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Tided The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of "management by objectives. Management by objectives require managers to establish goals for theft subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure theft performance. Drucker wrote, "It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools "to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker's most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: 'The very term "middle management" is becoming meaningless as some will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems-none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. "It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals. Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in then jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize theirdreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as 'a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions and mistakes and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority. Drucker wasn't immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan's Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nations financial center would shift from New York to Washington, others maintain that one of Drucker's core concepts"management by objectives"is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn't shy away from controversy, either. Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was "a liberal art " and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. "The fact is, " Drucker wrote in 1973, "that in modem society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will. " In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects ofmodem economies. Business "gums" have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker's message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the postcapitalist era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the "knowledge worker" whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital. | Drucker strongly support that economists of schools have resources to explain the problems of modem economies at least in a macroeconomics scope | c |
id_2435 | Father of modern management Its been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the books publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of "modem management, " he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of societybusiness, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. Drucker has said that writing is die foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of EconomicMan: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War n, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book. Concept of the Corporation. The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Tided The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of "management by objectives. Management by objectives require managers to establish goals for theft subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure theft performance. Drucker wrote, "It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools "to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker's most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: 'The very term "middle management" is becoming meaningless as some will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems-none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. "It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals. Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in then jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize theirdreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as 'a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions and mistakes and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority. Drucker wasn't immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan's Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nations financial center would shift from New York to Washington, others maintain that one of Drucker's core concepts"management by objectives"is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn't shy away from controversy, either. Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was "a liberal art " and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. "The fact is, " Drucker wrote in 1973, "that in modem society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will. " In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects ofmodem economies. Business "gums" have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker's message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the postcapitalist era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the "knowledge worker" whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital. | Druckers ideas proposed half a century ago are out of date in modem days | c |
id_2436 | Father of modern management Its been said that Peter Drucker invented the discipline of management Before he wrote his first book on the topic, he knew of only two companies in the world with management development programs. Ten years after the books publication, 3,000 companies were teaching the subject. Widely considered as the father of "modem management, " he wrote 39 books and countless scholarly and popular articles exploring how humans are organized in all sectors of societybusiness, government and the nonprofit world. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to a world economic power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. Drucker has said that writing is die foundation of everything he does. In 1937, he published his first book, which was written in Europe. The End of EconomicMan: A Study of the New Totalitarianism examined the spiritual and social origins of fascism. In 1940, before the United States entered World War n, he wrote The Future of Industrial Man, in which he presented his social vision for the postwar world. In 1943, General Motors asked Drucker to study its management practices. Drucker accepted and spent 18 months researching and writing the 1945 book. Concept of the Corporation. The concepts Drucker introduced in the 1940s and 1950s have endured. In 1954, Drucker wrote his first book that taught people how to manage. Tided The Practice of Management, it introduced the concept of "management by objectives. Management by objectives require managers to establish goals for theft subordinates and devise means of measuring results. Workers are then left alone to perform as they will and measure theft performance. Drucker wrote, "It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish. He went on to explain that every worker must be given the tools "to appraise himself, rather than be appraised and controlled from the outside. Management by objectives has become an accepted business concept and is probably Drucker's most important contribution. Drucker issued challenges to junior, middle and senior management: 'The very term "middle management" is becoming meaningless as some will have to learn how to work with people over whom they have no direct line control, to work transnationally, and to create, maintain, and run systems-none of which are traditionally middle management tasks. "It is top management that faces the challenge of setting directions for the enterprise, of managing the fundamentals. Drucker interviewed executives and workers, visited plants, and attended board meetings. While the book focused on General Motors, Drucker went on to discuss the industrial corporation as a social institution and economic policy in the postwar era. He introduced previously unknown concepts such as cooperation between labor and management, decentralization of management, and viewing workers as resources rather than costs. Drucker saw people as a resource, and considered that they would be more able to satisfy customers if they had more involvement in then jobs and gained some satisfaction from doing them. Drucker claimed that an industrial society allows people to realize theirdreams of personal achievement and equal opportunity-the need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value. This concept of management by objectives forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management. He referred to decentralization as 'a system of local self government, in which central management tells division managers what to do, but not how to do it. The young executives are given the freedom to make decisions and mistakes and learn from the experience. Top leaders at General Motors disliked the book and discouraged their executives from reading it. Many other American executives criticized Concept for its challenge to management authority. Drucker wasn't immune to criticism. The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that English was the official language for all employees at Japan's Mitsui trading company. And he was known for his prescience. Given the recent involvement of the US government with financial companies, he was probably correct in his forecast when he anticipated, for instance, that the nations financial center would shift from New York to Washington, others maintain that one of Drucker's core concepts"management by objectives"is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Specifically, critics say that the system is difficult to implement, and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals. Drucker didn't shy away from controversy, either. Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was "a liberal art " and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons including history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also strongly believed that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility for the whole society. "The fact is, " Drucker wrote in 1973, "that in modem society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will. " In his books, lectures and interviews, the emergence of knowledge workers is only one of the demographic changes Drucker warns businesses to prepare for. Others include a decreasing birth rate in developed countries, a shift in population from rural to urban centers, shifts in distribution of disposable income and global competitiveness. Drucker believes these changes will have a tremendous impact on business. Drucker held a profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory and contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects ofmodem economies. Business "gums" have come and gone during the last 50 years, but Drucker's message continues to inspire managers. During the 1990s, Drucker wrote about social, political and economic changes of the postcapitalist era, which he says are as profound as those of the industrial revolution. In Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond (1992), Drucker discussed the emergence of the "knowledge worker" whose resources include specialized learning or competency rather than land, labor or other forms of capital. | middle management tasks will change since companies become more complicated and run business globally | e |
id_2437 | Fifty millimetres of rain across one square kilometre adds up to 50,000 tonnes of water. Such downpours are not rare and on their own they need not cause any significant problem. But if they occur in the wrong place they can cause flash floods, which can be devastating, especially in steep-sided valleys where the torrent can move at tremendous speeds and build up massive momentum. When moving down a steep valley, 15 centimetres of water will sweep a person off their feet; half a metre of water will carry away a car. If water builds up behind debris it can suddenly burst through, creating a wall of water metres high and travelling at speeds up to 45 kilometres per hour. | Flash floods occur when heavy rain falls over particular geographic features. | e |
id_2438 | Fifty millimetres of rain across one square kilometre adds up to 50,000 tonnes of water. Such downpours are not rare and on their own they need not cause any significant problem. But if they occur in the wrong place they can cause flash floods, which can be devastating, especially in steep-sided valleys where the torrent can move at tremendous speeds and build up massive momentum. When moving down a steep valley, 15 centimetres of water will sweep a person off their feet; half a metre of water will carry away a car. If water builds up behind debris it can suddenly burst through, creating a wall of water metres high and travelling at speeds up to 45 kilometres per hour. | A downpour of 15 centimetres of rain is rare. | n |
id_2439 | Fifty millimetres of rain across one square kilometre adds up to 50,000 tonnes of water. Such downpours are not rare and on their own they need not cause any significant problem. But if they occur in the wrong place they can cause flash floods, which can be devastating, especially in steep-sided valleys where the torrent can move at tremendous speeds and build up massive momentum. When moving down a steep valley, 15 centimetres of water will sweep a person off their feet; half a metre of water will carry away a car. If water builds up behind debris it can suddenly burst through, creating a wall of water metres high and travelling at speeds up to 45 kilometres per hour. | Where a flash flood might occur would be very difficult or impossible even to predict. | c |
id_2440 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Over half of all cases of fraud in 2005 were discovered by accident. | n |
id_2441 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Detective methods were operating very effectively in 2005. | c |
id_2442 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Business leaders are more concerned about financial fraud than before because of the growth of the Internet. | n |
id_2443 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial-staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Business leaders are more concerned about financial fraud than before because of the growth of the Internet. | n |
id_2444 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial-staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Over half of all cases of fraud in 2005 were discovered by accident. | n |
id_2445 | Financial fraud is a crime of growing significantly. In 2003, 8% of reported business-related crimes were fraud, averaging $35000 in losses. By 2005, whilst financial fraud was found to be the sixth-most frequent crime, it was the third-highest concern amongst business leaders. Researchers found that, globally, internet-based fraud was rising dramatically in 2005. The main reasons for fraud included poor supervision and lack of proper division of duties, inadequate control of access to system, and poor authorization controls. Internal detective measures uncovered less than half of the cases, with an increasing number of cases being discovered by accident. One third of the cases were committed by managerial-staff, while half were committed by non-managerial staff. | Detective methods were operating very effectively in 2005. | c |
id_2446 | Finches on Islands A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches. B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds. C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out. D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galapagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago. E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Ma i or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation. ' F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized, ' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow/ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areasby the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard. G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches. H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fastfrom 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars, ' Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it Into a Caribbean resort. I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be In the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split Into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large- billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine/ Hendry says. J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium ground finch population remains split between large-and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging. K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of thediversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. ' | Grants discovery has questioned Darwins theory. | c |
id_2447 | Finches on Islands A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches. B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds. C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out. D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galapagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago. E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Ma i or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation. ' F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized, ' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow/ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areasby the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard. G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches. H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fastfrom 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars, ' Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it Into a Caribbean resort. I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be In the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split Into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large- billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine/ Hendry says. J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium ground finch population remains split between large-and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging. K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of thediversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. ' | The cactus finches are less affected by food than the medium ground finch- | n |
id_2448 | Finches on Islands A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches. B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds. C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out. D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galapagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago. E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Ma i or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation. ' F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized, ' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow/ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areasby the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard. G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches. H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fastfrom 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars, ' Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it Into a Caribbean resort. I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be In the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split Into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large- billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine/ Hendry says. J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium ground finch population remains split between large-and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging. K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of thediversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. ' | In 2002 and 2003, all the birds were affected by the drought, | e |
id_2449 | Finches on Islands A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches. B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds. C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out. D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galapagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago. E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Ma i or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation. ' F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized, ' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow/ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areasby the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard. G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches. H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fastfrom 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars, ' Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it Into a Caribbean resort. I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be In the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split Into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large- billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine/ Hendry says. J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium ground finch population remains split between large-and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging. K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of thediversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. ' | The discovery of Andrew Hendry and Jeffrey Podos was the same as that of the previous studies. | c |
id_2450 | Finches on Islands A. Today, the quest continues. On Daphne Major one of the most desolate of the Galapagos Islands, an uninhabited volcanic cone where cacti and shrubs seldom grow higher than a researcher's knee Peter and Rosemary Grant have spent more than three decades watching Darwin's finches respond to the challenges of storms, drought and competition for food. Biologists at Princeton University, the Grants know and recognize many of the individual birds on the island and can trace the birds lineages back through time. They have witnessed Darwin's principle in action again and again, over many generations of finches. B. The Grants' most dramatic insights have come from watching the evolving bill of the medium ground finch. The plumage of this sparrow-sized bird ranges from dull brown to jet black. At first glance, it may not seem particularly striking, but among scientists who study evolutionary biology, the medium ground finch is a superstar. Its bill is a middling example in the array of shapes and sizes found among Galapagos finches: heftier than that of the small ground finch, which specializes in eating small, soft seeds, but petite compared to that of the large ground finch, an expert at cracking and devouring big, hard seeds. C. When the Grants began their study in the 1970s, only two species of finch lived on Daphne Major, the medium ground finch and the cactus finch. The island is so small that the researchers were able to count and catalogue every bird. When a severe drought hit in 1977, the birds soon devoured the last of the small, easily eaten seeds. Smaller members of the medium ground finch population, lacking the bill strength to crack large seeds, died out. D. Bill and body size are inherited traits, and the next generation had a high proportion of big-billed Individuals. The Grants had documented natural selection at work the same process that over many millennia, directed the evolution of the Galapagos' 14 unique finch species, all descended from a common ancestor that readied the islands a few million years ago. E. Eight years later, heavy rains brought by an El Nino transformed the normally meager vegetation on Daphne Ma i or. vines and other plants that in most years struggle for survival suddenly flourished, choking out the plants that provide large seeds to the finches. Small seeds came to dominate the food supply, and big birds with big bills died out at a higher rate than smaller ones. 'Natural selection is observable/ Rosemary Grant says. 'It happen when the environment changes. When local conditions reverse themselves, so does the direction of adaptation. ' F. Recently, die Grants witnessed another form of natural selection acting on the medium ground finch: competition from bigger, stronger cousins. In 1982, a third finch, the large ground finch, came to live on Daphne Major. The stout bills of these birds resemble the business end of a crescent wrench. Their arrival was the first such colonization recorded on the Galapagos in nearly a century of scientific observation. 'We realized, ' Peter Grant says, 'we had a very unusual and potentially important event to follow/ For 20 years, the large ground finch coexisted with the medium ground finch, which shared five supply of large seeds with its bigger-billed relative. Then, in 2002 and 2003, another drought struck. None of the birds nested that year, and many died out. Medium ground finches with large bills, crowded out of feeding areasby the more powerful large ground finches, were hit particularly hard. G. When wetter weather returned in 2004, and the finches nested again, the new generation of the medium ground finch was dominated by smaller birds with smaller bills, able to survive on smaller seeds. This situation, says Peter Grant, marked the first time that biologists have been able to follow the complete process of an evolutionary change due to competition between, species and the strongest response to natural selection that he had seen in 33 years of tracking Galapagos finches. H. On the inhabited island of Santa Cruz, just south of Daphne Major, Andrew Hendry of McGill University and Jeffrey Podos of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have discovered a new, man-made twist in finch evolution. Their study focused on birds living near the Academy Bay research station, on the fringe of the town of Puerto Ayora. The human population of the area has been growing fastfrom 900 people in 1974 to 9,582 In 2001. Today Puerto Ayorn is full of hotels and mai tai bars, ' Hendry says. 'People have taken tills extremely arid place and tried to turn it Into a Caribbean resort. I. Academy Bay records dating back to the early 1960s show that medium ground finches captured there had either small or large bills. Very few of the birds had mid-size bills. The finches appeared to be In the early stages of a new adaptive radiation: If the trend continued, the medium ground finch on Santa Cruz could split Into two distinct subspecies, specializing in different types of seeds. But in the late 1960s and early 70s, medium ground finches with medium-sized bills began to thrive at Academy Bay along with small and large- billed birds. The booming human population had introduced new food sources, including exotic plants and bird feeding stations stocked with rice. Billsize, once critical to the fishes' survival, no longer made any difference. 'Now an intermediate bill can do fine/ Hendry says. J. At a control site distant from Puerto Ayora, and relatively untouched by humane, the medium ground finch population remains split between large-and small-billed birds. On undisturbed parts of Santa Cruz, there Is no ecological niche for a middling medium ground finch, and the birds continue to diversify. In town, though there are still many finches, once-distinct populations are merging. K. The finches of Santa Cruz demonstrate a subtle process in which human meddling can stop evolution In Its tracks, outing the formation of new species. In a time when global biodiversity continues Its downhill slide, Darwin's finches have yet another unexpected lesson to teach. 'If we hope to regain some of thediversity that's already been lost/ Hendry says, 'we need to protect not just existing creatures, but also the processes that drive the origin of new species. ' | It is shown that the revolution in finches on Santa Cruz is likely a response to human intervention. | e |
id_2451 | Finding Our Way A. "Drive 200 yards, and then turn right, says the cars computer voice. You relax in the driver's seat, follow the directions and reach your destination without error. Its certainly nice to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) to direct you to within a few yards of your goal. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, you can become lost. Then you have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three-dimensional space. Luckily, your biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: it does not go awry if only one part of the guidance system goes wrong, because it works in various ways. You can ask questions of people on the sidewalk. Or follow a street that looks familiar. Or rely on a navigational rubric: "If I keep the East River on my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street. " The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point Band from A to Ccan probably figure out how to get from B to c, too. B. But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof. And as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. Grand Central, Please Imagine that you have arrived in a place you have never visited-New York City. You get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to explore before you must return for your ride home. You head uptown to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how? C. If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that the station is right below it. " Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance, " meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination. D. Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left. " In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration. " Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace then steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home. E. Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animalusing path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environmentsights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passingto determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train stationall represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey. F. In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street comer might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. " This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions-straight, turn, go throughfor reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route-following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way! " just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings. G. Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our headswith symbols for cities, train stations and churches; thick lines for highways; narrow lines for local streets? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map. " The map metaphor is obviously seductive: maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for convenient visual inspection. In many cultures, maps were developed before writing, and today they are used in almost every society. It is even possible that maps derive from a universal way in which our spatial-memory networks are wired. H. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you first envision the large scale-that is, you visualize the general direction of the station. Within that system you then imagine the route to the last place you remember. After that, you observe your nearby surroundings to pick out a recognizable storefront or street comer that will send you toward that place. In this hierarchical, or nested, scheme, positions and distances are relative, in contrast with a road map, where the same information is shown in a geometrically precise scale. | Path integration requires more thought from brain compared with route- following. | c |
id_2452 | Finding Our Way A. "Drive 200 yards, and then turn right, says the cars computer voice. You relax in the driver's seat, follow the directions and reach your destination without error. Its certainly nice to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) to direct you to within a few yards of your goal. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, you can become lost. Then you have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three-dimensional space. Luckily, your biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: it does not go awry if only one part of the guidance system goes wrong, because it works in various ways. You can ask questions of people on the sidewalk. Or follow a street that looks familiar. Or rely on a navigational rubric: "If I keep the East River on my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street. " The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point Band from A to Ccan probably figure out how to get from B to c, too. B. But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof. And as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. Grand Central, Please Imagine that you have arrived in a place you have never visited-New York City. You get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to explore before you must return for your ride home. You head uptown to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how? C. If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that the station is right below it. " Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance, " meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination. D. Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left. " In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration. " Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace then steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home. E. Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animalusing path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environmentsights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passingto determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train stationall represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey. F. In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street comer might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. " This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions-straight, turn, go throughfor reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route-following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way! " just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings. G. Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our headswith symbols for cities, train stations and churches; thick lines for highways; narrow lines for local streets? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map. " The map metaphor is obviously seductive: maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for convenient visual inspection. In many cultures, maps were developed before writing, and today they are used in almost every society. It is even possible that maps derive from a universal way in which our spatial-memory networks are wired. H. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you first envision the large scale-that is, you visualize the general direction of the station. Within that system you then imagine the route to the last place you remember. After that, you observe your nearby surroundings to pick out a recognizable storefront or street comer that will send you toward that place. In this hierarchical, or nested, scheme, positions and distances are relative, in contrast with a road map, where the same information is shown in a geometrically precise scale. | Biological navigation has a state of flexibility. | e |
id_2453 | Finding Our Way A. "Drive 200 yards, and then turn right, says the cars computer voice. You relax in the driver's seat, follow the directions and reach your destination without error. Its certainly nice to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) to direct you to within a few yards of your goal. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, you can become lost. Then you have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three-dimensional space. Luckily, your biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: it does not go awry if only one part of the guidance system goes wrong, because it works in various ways. You can ask questions of people on the sidewalk. Or follow a street that looks familiar. Or rely on a navigational rubric: "If I keep the East River on my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street. " The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point Band from A to Ccan probably figure out how to get from B to c, too. B. But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof. And as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. Grand Central, Please Imagine that you have arrived in a place you have never visited-New York City. You get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to explore before you must return for your ride home. You head uptown to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how? C. If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that the station is right below it. " Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance, " meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination. D. Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left. " In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration. " Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace then steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home. E. Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animalusing path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environmentsights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passingto determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train stationall represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey. F. In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street comer might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. " This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions-straight, turn, go throughfor reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route-following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way! " just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings. G. Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our headswith symbols for cities, train stations and churches; thick lines for highways; narrow lines for local streets? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map. " The map metaphor is obviously seductive: maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for convenient visual inspection. In many cultures, maps were developed before writing, and today they are used in almost every society. It is even possible that maps derive from a universal way in which our spatial-memory networks are wired. H. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you first envision the large scale-that is, you visualize the general direction of the station. Within that system you then imagine the route to the last place you remember. After that, you observe your nearby surroundings to pick out a recognizable storefront or street comer that will send you toward that place. In this hierarchical, or nested, scheme, positions and distances are relative, in contrast with a road map, where the same information is shown in a geometrically precise scale. | You will always receive good reaction when you ask direction. | n |
id_2454 | Finding Our Way A. "Drive 200 yards, and then turn right, says the cars computer voice. You relax in the driver's seat, follow the directions and reach your destination without error. Its certainly nice to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) to direct you to within a few yards of your goal. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, you can become lost. Then you have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three-dimensional space. Luckily, your biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: it does not go awry if only one part of the guidance system goes wrong, because it works in various ways. You can ask questions of people on the sidewalk. Or follow a street that looks familiar. Or rely on a navigational rubric: "If I keep the East River on my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street. " The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point Band from A to Ccan probably figure out how to get from B to c, too. B. But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof. And as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. Grand Central, Please Imagine that you have arrived in a place you have never visited-New York City. You get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to explore before you must return for your ride home. You head uptown to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how? C. If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that the station is right below it. " Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance, " meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination. D. Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left. " In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration. " Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace then steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home. E. Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animalusing path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environmentsights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passingto determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train stationall represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey. F. In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street comer might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. " This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions-straight, turn, go throughfor reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route-following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way! " just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings. G. Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our headswith symbols for cities, train stations and churches; thick lines for highways; narrow lines for local streets? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map. " The map metaphor is obviously seductive: maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for convenient visual inspection. In many cultures, maps were developed before writing, and today they are used in almost every society. It is even possible that maps derive from a universal way in which our spatial-memory networks are wired. H. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you first envision the large scale-that is, you visualize the general direction of the station. Within that system you then imagine the route to the last place you remember. After that, you observe your nearby surroundings to pick out a recognizable storefront or street comer that will send you toward that place. In this hierarchical, or nested, scheme, positions and distances are relative, in contrast with a road map, where the same information is shown in a geometrically precise scale. | When someone follows a route, he or she collects comprehensive perceptional information in mind on the way. | e |
id_2455 | Finding Our Way A. "Drive 200 yards, and then turn right, says the cars computer voice. You relax in the driver's seat, follow the directions and reach your destination without error. Its certainly nice to have the Global Positioning System (GPS) to direct you to within a few yards of your goal. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, you can become lost. Then you have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three-dimensional space. Luckily, your biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: it does not go awry if only one part of the guidance system goes wrong, because it works in various ways. You can ask questions of people on the sidewalk. Or follow a street that looks familiar. Or rely on a navigational rubric: "If I keep the East River on my left, I will eventually cross 34th Street. " The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point Band from A to Ccan probably figure out how to get from B to c, too. B. But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof. And as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. Grand Central, Please Imagine that you have arrived in a place you have never visited-New York City. You get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to explore before you must return for your ride home. You head uptown to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how? C. If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that the station is right below it. " Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance, " meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination. D. Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left. " In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration. " Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace then steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home. E. Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animalusing path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environmentsights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passingto determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train stationall represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey. F. In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street comer might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central. " This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions-straight, turn, go throughfor reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route-following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way! " just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings. G. Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our headswith symbols for cities, train stations and churches; thick lines for highways; narrow lines for local streets? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map. " The map metaphor is obviously seductive: maps are the easiest way to present geographic information for convenient visual inspection. In many cultures, maps were developed before writing, and today they are used in almost every society. It is even possible that maps derive from a universal way in which our spatial-memory networks are wired. H. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships. To get back to Grand Central, you first envision the large scale-that is, you visualize the general direction of the station. Within that system you then imagine the route to the last place you remember. After that, you observe your nearby surroundings to pick out a recognizable storefront or street comer that will send you toward that place. In this hierarchical, or nested, scheme, positions and distances are relative, in contrast with a road map, where the same information is shown in a geometrically precise scale. | In a familiar surrounding, an exact map of where you are will automatically emerge in your head. | c |
id_2456 | Fiscal discipline in the United States was thrown to the winds after the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The opening shot was Medicare Part D-free pills for seniors. To enact it, Congress had to abandon its 1990s rule that any bill for new spending had to provide new tax revenues to pay for it. The bill violated the principle of "fiscal neutrality": such programmes make people feel far wealthier than they are, leading to reductions in saving and domestic investment. But eventually, people look to the horizon and see massive levels of public debt. Thenmarkets get frightened and asset prices plunge. Thanks to Bush's tax tables, a working-class couple with two minor children would pay no federal tax at all income up to about $30,000 and would pay 15 per cent on additional income up to about $25,000. The middle class gets off lightly too. The federal tax on $85,000 would be about $10,000. In effect, the bottom half of America's economy appears to be using its voting power to tax the top half | A working-class couple with two minor children earning $55,000 must part only with some $3,750 in federal taxes. | e |
id_2457 | Fiscal discipline in the United States was thrown to the winds after the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The opening shot was Medicare Part D-free pills for seniors. To enact it, Congress had to abandon its 1990s rule that any bill for new spending had to provide new tax revenues to pay for it. The bill violated the principle of "fiscal neutrality": such programmes make people feel far wealthier than they are, leading to reductions in saving and domestic investment. But eventually, people look to the horizon and see massive levels of public debt. Thenmarkets get frightened and asset prices plunge. Thanks to Bush's tax tables, a working-class couple with two minor children would pay no federal tax at all income up to about $30,000 and would pay 15 per cent on additional income up to about $25,000. The middle class gets off lightly too. The federal tax on $85,000 would be about $10,000. In effect, the bottom half of America's economy appears to be using its voting power to tax the top half | There were no tax increases subsequent to the authorization of Medicare Part D. | n |
id_2458 | Fiscal discipline in the United States was thrown to the winds after the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The opening shot was Medicare Part D-free pills for seniors. To enact it, Congress had to abandon its 1990s rule that any bill for new spending had to provide new tax revenues to pay for it. The bill violated the principle of "fiscal neutrality": such programmes make people feel far wealthier than they are, leading to reductions in saving and domestic investment. But eventually, people look to the horizon and see massive levels of public debt. Thenmarkets get frightened and asset prices plunge. Thanks to Bush's tax tables, a working-class couple with two minor children would pay no federal tax at all income up to about $30,000 and would pay 15 per cent on additional income up to about $25,000. The middle class gets off lightly too. The federal tax on $85,000 would be about $10,000. In effect, the bottom half of America's economy appears to be using its voting power to tax the top half | The bottom half of America's economy consists of its working class; the top half consists of its middle and upper class. | c |
id_2459 | Fiscal discipline in the United States was thrown to the winds after the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The opening shot was Medicare Part D-free pills for seniors. To enact it, Congress had to abandon its 1990s rule that any bill for new spending had to provide new tax revenues to pay for it. The bill violated the principle of "fiscal neutrality": such programmes make people feel far wealthier than they are, leading to reductions in saving and domestic investment. But eventually, people look to the horizon and see massive levels of public debt. Thenmarkets get frightened and asset prices plunge. Thanks to Bush's tax tables, a working-class couple with two minor children would pay no federal tax at all income up to about $30,000 and would pay 15 per cent on additional income up to about $25,000. The middle class gets off lightly too. The federal tax on $85,000 would be about $10,000. In effect, the bottom half of America's economy appears to be using its voting power to tax the top half | Congress' aim in passing the 1990s rule was to adhere to the principle of "fiscal neutrality. " | n |
id_2460 | Fix it with Flavour Gabriele Dionisi, a 38-year-old Italian computer wizard living in London, is a true individualist when it comes to food. He has been known to live for days on dry toast and mashed potato. Hes also very fond of tinned mackerel with biscuits, washed down with, say, an apple-and-tomato milkshake. For some unfathomable reason, he sometimes has problems with his guts. Then he makes himself a hot cup of camomile tea with honey and half a spoonful of chilli flakes. Its an old Italian recipe, he says. Ms- grandmother taught me to make it. Its very good for the digestion. Spices such as chilli have been used for medicinal purposes in Europe for centuries. Medieval herbalists believed that spices could be used to treat a range of pains, diseases, and ailments. Sometimes they got it right; sometimes they were way off the end of the spice rack. For example, they used to pound up cloves to extract the oil, which was used to treat toothache. Sensible move: modern scientists know that cloves contain eugenol, a chemical which is an effective local anaesthetic. Cloves also contain salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. Ginger was held to be good for stomach upsets, and it is now known to have anti-nausea properties. It is also believed to have a painkilling effect, which is being studied at the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, those muddled medieval medics also believed that ginger was a cure for the Black Death it isnt and that eating borage would give you courage, just because the words rhymed. Doctors in India have long used spices as medicines. They understood that spices could be used as remedies. Their motto was: Let food be thy medicine. The Indian chefs favourite medical spice is turmeric, the yellow ingredient used in almost all Indian cookery. Turmeric is an antiseptic and disinfectant, and it is used widely not so much for its taste but for its antibacterial properties. Turmeric is used in Indian homes as a first-aid treatment. For example, if you had a small cut on your finger, youd run it under the tap and then dust the wound with turmeric. It is also supposed to be a cure for arthritis, and scientists are now researching its potential ability to suppress the growth of cancer cells. In 2002, staff at the oncology department of Leicester University noticed that of 500 patients with colon cancer, only two were Asian, despite the fact that 20 per cent of the population in Leicester is Asian. The scientists believed this was due to their spicy diet. And, in America, researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are investigating Zyflamend, a herbal treatment for arthritis, which contains turmeric and ginger. Zyflamend has shown an ability to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78% and induce cancer cell death. Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, suggest that curcumin, the chemical that gives turmeric its yellow colour, might also help to treat malaria. Mice were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and given five daily doses orally. After 20 days, a third of the treated mice were alive, whereas the untreated animals all died by day 13. If you want to know what chillies do to the body, cut open a fresh chilli and hold it on the back of your hand for 15 or 20 minutes. It will make the hand red and sore. It you eat it in excess, it can give you gastric problems. However, in small doses, chilli can aid digestion. Chilli contains vitamins A and E and is a good source of potassium, beta carotene, and folic acid. Also, chilli contains twice as much vitamin C as an orange, and it really can help to protect the body from colds and flu. One chilli contains 100mg of vitamin C more than the daily recommended amount, and capsaicin, the chemical in chillies that gives them heat, is also a natural decongestant. The pleasure of chillies comes from the pain of eating them. Literally, the burning sensation in the mouth triggers the release of endorphins, an opiate-like painkilling chemical, in the brain. This makes you feel good; so good, in fact, that it is possible to become a chilli junkie. In the light of this, perhaps the late Signora Dionisi should have taught her favourite grandson how lo make something oilier than chilli camomile tea. | Chillies help prevent colds because they contain capsaicin. | e |
id_2461 | Fix it with Flavour Gabriele Dionisi, a 38-year-old Italian computer wizard living in London, is a true individualist when it comes to food. He has been known to live for days on dry toast and mashed potato. Hes also very fond of tinned mackerel with biscuits, washed down with, say, an apple-and-tomato milkshake. For some unfathomable reason, he sometimes has problems with his guts. Then he makes himself a hot cup of camomile tea with honey and half a spoonful of chilli flakes. Its an old Italian recipe, he says. Ms- grandmother taught me to make it. Its very good for the digestion. Spices such as chilli have been used for medicinal purposes in Europe for centuries. Medieval herbalists believed that spices could be used to treat a range of pains, diseases, and ailments. Sometimes they got it right; sometimes they were way off the end of the spice rack. For example, they used to pound up cloves to extract the oil, which was used to treat toothache. Sensible move: modern scientists know that cloves contain eugenol, a chemical which is an effective local anaesthetic. Cloves also contain salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. Ginger was held to be good for stomach upsets, and it is now known to have anti-nausea properties. It is also believed to have a painkilling effect, which is being studied at the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, those muddled medieval medics also believed that ginger was a cure for the Black Death it isnt and that eating borage would give you courage, just because the words rhymed. Doctors in India have long used spices as medicines. They understood that spices could be used as remedies. Their motto was: Let food be thy medicine. The Indian chefs favourite medical spice is turmeric, the yellow ingredient used in almost all Indian cookery. Turmeric is an antiseptic and disinfectant, and it is used widely not so much for its taste but for its antibacterial properties. Turmeric is used in Indian homes as a first-aid treatment. For example, if you had a small cut on your finger, youd run it under the tap and then dust the wound with turmeric. It is also supposed to be a cure for arthritis, and scientists are now researching its potential ability to suppress the growth of cancer cells. In 2002, staff at the oncology department of Leicester University noticed that of 500 patients with colon cancer, only two were Asian, despite the fact that 20 per cent of the population in Leicester is Asian. The scientists believed this was due to their spicy diet. And, in America, researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are investigating Zyflamend, a herbal treatment for arthritis, which contains turmeric and ginger. Zyflamend has shown an ability to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78% and induce cancer cell death. Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, suggest that curcumin, the chemical that gives turmeric its yellow colour, might also help to treat malaria. Mice were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and given five daily doses orally. After 20 days, a third of the treated mice were alive, whereas the untreated animals all died by day 13. If you want to know what chillies do to the body, cut open a fresh chilli and hold it on the back of your hand for 15 or 20 minutes. It will make the hand red and sore. It you eat it in excess, it can give you gastric problems. However, in small doses, chilli can aid digestion. Chilli contains vitamins A and E and is a good source of potassium, beta carotene, and folic acid. Also, chilli contains twice as much vitamin C as an orange, and it really can help to protect the body from colds and flu. One chilli contains 100mg of vitamin C more than the daily recommended amount, and capsaicin, the chemical in chillies that gives them heat, is also a natural decongestant. The pleasure of chillies comes from the pain of eating them. Literally, the burning sensation in the mouth triggers the release of endorphins, an opiate-like painkilling chemical, in the brain. This makes you feel good; so good, in fact, that it is possible to become a chilli junkie. In the light of this, perhaps the late Signora Dionisi should have taught her favourite grandson how lo make something oilier than chilli camomile tea. | Zyflamend can kill cancer cells. | e |
id_2462 | Fix it with Flavour Gabriele Dionisi, a 38-year-old Italian computer wizard living in London, is a true individualist when it comes to food. He has been known to live for days on dry toast and mashed potato. Hes also very fond of tinned mackerel with biscuits, washed down with, say, an apple-and-tomato milkshake. For some unfathomable reason, he sometimes has problems with his guts. Then he makes himself a hot cup of camomile tea with honey and half a spoonful of chilli flakes. Its an old Italian recipe, he says. Ms- grandmother taught me to make it. Its very good for the digestion. Spices such as chilli have been used for medicinal purposes in Europe for centuries. Medieval herbalists believed that spices could be used to treat a range of pains, diseases, and ailments. Sometimes they got it right; sometimes they were way off the end of the spice rack. For example, they used to pound up cloves to extract the oil, which was used to treat toothache. Sensible move: modern scientists know that cloves contain eugenol, a chemical which is an effective local anaesthetic. Cloves also contain salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. Ginger was held to be good for stomach upsets, and it is now known to have anti-nausea properties. It is also believed to have a painkilling effect, which is being studied at the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, those muddled medieval medics also believed that ginger was a cure for the Black Death it isnt and that eating borage would give you courage, just because the words rhymed. Doctors in India have long used spices as medicines. They understood that spices could be used as remedies. Their motto was: Let food be thy medicine. The Indian chefs favourite medical spice is turmeric, the yellow ingredient used in almost all Indian cookery. Turmeric is an antiseptic and disinfectant, and it is used widely not so much for its taste but for its antibacterial properties. Turmeric is used in Indian homes as a first-aid treatment. For example, if you had a small cut on your finger, youd run it under the tap and then dust the wound with turmeric. It is also supposed to be a cure for arthritis, and scientists are now researching its potential ability to suppress the growth of cancer cells. In 2002, staff at the oncology department of Leicester University noticed that of 500 patients with colon cancer, only two were Asian, despite the fact that 20 per cent of the population in Leicester is Asian. The scientists believed this was due to their spicy diet. And, in America, researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are investigating Zyflamend, a herbal treatment for arthritis, which contains turmeric and ginger. Zyflamend has shown an ability to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78% and induce cancer cell death. Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, suggest that curcumin, the chemical that gives turmeric its yellow colour, might also help to treat malaria. Mice were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and given five daily doses orally. After 20 days, a third of the treated mice were alive, whereas the untreated animals all died by day 13. If you want to know what chillies do to the body, cut open a fresh chilli and hold it on the back of your hand for 15 or 20 minutes. It will make the hand red and sore. It you eat it in excess, it can give you gastric problems. However, in small doses, chilli can aid digestion. Chilli contains vitamins A and E and is a good source of potassium, beta carotene, and folic acid. Also, chilli contains twice as much vitamin C as an orange, and it really can help to protect the body from colds and flu. One chilli contains 100mg of vitamin C more than the daily recommended amount, and capsaicin, the chemical in chillies that gives them heat, is also a natural decongestant. The pleasure of chillies comes from the pain of eating them. Literally, the burning sensation in the mouth triggers the release of endorphins, an opiate-like painkilling chemical, in the brain. This makes you feel good; so good, in fact, that it is possible to become a chilli junkie. In the light of this, perhaps the late Signora Dionisi should have taught her favourite grandson how lo make something oilier than chilli camomile tea. | Signora Dionisi taught her favourite grandson many traditional Italian recipes. | n |
id_2463 | Fix it with Flavour Gabriele Dionisi, a 38-year-old Italian computer wizard living in London, is a true individualist when it comes to food. He has been known to live for days on dry toast and mashed potato. Hes also very fond of tinned mackerel with biscuits, washed down with, say, an apple-and-tomato milkshake. For some unfathomable reason, he sometimes has problems with his guts. Then he makes himself a hot cup of camomile tea with honey and half a spoonful of chilli flakes. Its an old Italian recipe, he says. Ms- grandmother taught me to make it. Its very good for the digestion. Spices such as chilli have been used for medicinal purposes in Europe for centuries. Medieval herbalists believed that spices could be used to treat a range of pains, diseases, and ailments. Sometimes they got it right; sometimes they were way off the end of the spice rack. For example, they used to pound up cloves to extract the oil, which was used to treat toothache. Sensible move: modern scientists know that cloves contain eugenol, a chemical which is an effective local anaesthetic. Cloves also contain salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. Ginger was held to be good for stomach upsets, and it is now known to have anti-nausea properties. It is also believed to have a painkilling effect, which is being studied at the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, those muddled medieval medics also believed that ginger was a cure for the Black Death it isnt and that eating borage would give you courage, just because the words rhymed. Doctors in India have long used spices as medicines. They understood that spices could be used as remedies. Their motto was: Let food be thy medicine. The Indian chefs favourite medical spice is turmeric, the yellow ingredient used in almost all Indian cookery. Turmeric is an antiseptic and disinfectant, and it is used widely not so much for its taste but for its antibacterial properties. Turmeric is used in Indian homes as a first-aid treatment. For example, if you had a small cut on your finger, youd run it under the tap and then dust the wound with turmeric. It is also supposed to be a cure for arthritis, and scientists are now researching its potential ability to suppress the growth of cancer cells. In 2002, staff at the oncology department of Leicester University noticed that of 500 patients with colon cancer, only two were Asian, despite the fact that 20 per cent of the population in Leicester is Asian. The scientists believed this was due to their spicy diet. And, in America, researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are investigating Zyflamend, a herbal treatment for arthritis, which contains turmeric and ginger. Zyflamend has shown an ability to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78% and induce cancer cell death. Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, suggest that curcumin, the chemical that gives turmeric its yellow colour, might also help to treat malaria. Mice were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and given five daily doses orally. After 20 days, a third of the treated mice were alive, whereas the untreated animals all died by day 13. If you want to know what chillies do to the body, cut open a fresh chilli and hold it on the back of your hand for 15 or 20 minutes. It will make the hand red and sore. It you eat it in excess, it can give you gastric problems. However, in small doses, chilli can aid digestion. Chilli contains vitamins A and E and is a good source of potassium, beta carotene, and folic acid. Also, chilli contains twice as much vitamin C as an orange, and it really can help to protect the body from colds and flu. One chilli contains 100mg of vitamin C more than the daily recommended amount, and capsaicin, the chemical in chillies that gives them heat, is also a natural decongestant. The pleasure of chillies comes from the pain of eating them. Literally, the burning sensation in the mouth triggers the release of endorphins, an opiate-like painkilling chemical, in the brain. This makes you feel good; so good, in fact, that it is possible to become a chilli junkie. In the light of this, perhaps the late Signora Dionisi should have taught her favourite grandson how lo make something oilier than chilli camomile tea. | Cloves are used to make aspirin. | n |
id_2464 | Fix it with Flavour Gabriele Dionisi, a 38-year-old Italian computer wizard living in London, is a true individualist when it comes to food. He has been known to live for days on dry toast and mashed potato. Hes also very fond of tinned mackerel with biscuits, washed down with, say, an apple-and-tomato milkshake. For some unfathomable reason, he sometimes has problems with his guts. Then he makes himself a hot cup of camomile tea with honey and half a spoonful of chilli flakes. Its an old Italian recipe, he says. Ms- grandmother taught me to make it. Its very good for the digestion. Spices such as chilli have been used for medicinal purposes in Europe for centuries. Medieval herbalists believed that spices could be used to treat a range of pains, diseases, and ailments. Sometimes they got it right; sometimes they were way off the end of the spice rack. For example, they used to pound up cloves to extract the oil, which was used to treat toothache. Sensible move: modern scientists know that cloves contain eugenol, a chemical which is an effective local anaesthetic. Cloves also contain salicylic acid, the basis of aspirin. Ginger was held to be good for stomach upsets, and it is now known to have anti-nausea properties. It is also believed to have a painkilling effect, which is being studied at the University of Arizona. Unfortunately, those muddled medieval medics also believed that ginger was a cure for the Black Death it isnt and that eating borage would give you courage, just because the words rhymed. Doctors in India have long used spices as medicines. They understood that spices could be used as remedies. Their motto was: Let food be thy medicine. The Indian chefs favourite medical spice is turmeric, the yellow ingredient used in almost all Indian cookery. Turmeric is an antiseptic and disinfectant, and it is used widely not so much for its taste but for its antibacterial properties. Turmeric is used in Indian homes as a first-aid treatment. For example, if you had a small cut on your finger, youd run it under the tap and then dust the wound with turmeric. It is also supposed to be a cure for arthritis, and scientists are now researching its potential ability to suppress the growth of cancer cells. In 2002, staff at the oncology department of Leicester University noticed that of 500 patients with colon cancer, only two were Asian, despite the fact that 20 per cent of the population in Leicester is Asian. The scientists believed this was due to their spicy diet. And, in America, researchers at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons are investigating Zyflamend, a herbal treatment for arthritis, which contains turmeric and ginger. Zyflamend has shown an ability to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78% and induce cancer cell death. Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, suggest that curcumin, the chemical that gives turmeric its yellow colour, might also help to treat malaria. Mice were infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei and given five daily doses orally. After 20 days, a third of the treated mice were alive, whereas the untreated animals all died by day 13. If you want to know what chillies do to the body, cut open a fresh chilli and hold it on the back of your hand for 15 or 20 minutes. It will make the hand red and sore. It you eat it in excess, it can give you gastric problems. However, in small doses, chilli can aid digestion. Chilli contains vitamins A and E and is a good source of potassium, beta carotene, and folic acid. Also, chilli contains twice as much vitamin C as an orange, and it really can help to protect the body from colds and flu. One chilli contains 100mg of vitamin C more than the daily recommended amount, and capsaicin, the chemical in chillies that gives them heat, is also a natural decongestant. The pleasure of chillies comes from the pain of eating them. Literally, the burning sensation in the mouth triggers the release of endorphins, an opiate-like painkilling chemical, in the brain. This makes you feel good; so good, in fact, that it is possible to become a chilli junkie. In the light of this, perhaps the late Signora Dionisi should have taught her favourite grandson how lo make something oilier than chilli camomile tea. | Turmeric is not used in Indian cooking because of its taste. | c |
id_2465 | Flawed Beauty: the problem with toughened glass On 2nd August 1999, a particularly hot day in the town of Cirencester in the UK, a large pane of toughened glass in the roof of a shopping centre at Bishops Walk shattered without warning and fell from its frame. When fragments were analysed by experts at the giant glass manufacturer Pilkington, which had made the pane, they found that minute crystals of nickel sulphide trapped inside the glass had almost certainly caused the failure. 'The glass industry is aware of the issue, ' says Brian Waldron, chairman of the standards committee at the Glass and Glazing Federation, a British trade association, and standards development officer at Pilkington. But he insists that cases are few and far between. 'It's a very rare phenomenon, ' he says. Others disagree. 'On average I see about one or two buildings a month suffering from nickel sulphide related failures, ' says Barrie Josie, a consultant engineer involved in the Bishops Walk investigation. Other experts tell of similar experiences. Tony Wilmott of London-based consulting engineers Sandberg, and Simon Armstrong at CladTech Associates in Hampshire both say they know of hundreds of cases. 'What you hear is only the tip of the iceberg, ' says Trevor Ford, a glass expert at Resolve Engineering in Brisbane, Queensland. He believes the reason is simple: 'No-one wants bad press. ' Toughened glass is found everywhere, from cars and bus shelters to the windows, walls and roofs of thousands of buildings around the world. It's easy to see why. This glass has five times the strength of standard glass, and when it does break it shatters into tiny cubes rather than large, razor-sharp shards. Architects love it because large panels can be bolted together to make transparent walls, and turning it into ceilings and floors is almost as easy. It is made by heating a sheet of ordinary glass to about 620C to soften it slightly, allowing its structure to expand, and then cooling it rapidly with jets of cold air. This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior. When the interior finally solidifies and shrinks, it exerts a pull on the outer layer that leaves it in permanent compression and produces a tensile force inside the glass. As cracks propagate best in materials under tension, the compressive force on the surface must be overcome before the pane will break, making it more resistant to cracking. The problem starts when glass contains nickel sulphide impurities. Trace amounts of nickel and sulphur are usually present in the raw materials used to make glass, and nickel can also be introduced by fragments of nickel alloys falling into the molten glass. As the glass is heated, these atoms react to form tiny crystals of nickel sulphide. Just a tenth of a gram of nickel in the furnace can create up to 50,000 crystals. These crystals can exist in two forms: a dense form called the alpha phase, which is stable at high temperatures, and a less dense form called the beta phase, which is stable at room temperatures. The high temperatures used in the toughening process convert all the crystals to the dense, compact alpha form. But the subsequent cooling is so rapid that the crystals don't have time to change back to the beta phase. This leaves unstable alpha crystals in the glass, primed like a coiled spring, ready to revert to the beta phase without warning. When this happens, the crystals expand by up to 4%. And if they are within the central, tensile region of the pane, the stresses this unleashes can shatter the whole sheet. The time that elapses before failure occurs is unpredictable. It could happen just months after manufacture, or decades later, although if the glass is heated by sunlight, for example the process is speeded up. Ironically, says Graham Dodd, of consulting engineers Arup in London, the oldest pane of toughened glass known to have failed due to nickel sulphide inclusions was in Pilkington's glass research building in Lathom, Lancashire. The pane was 27 years old. Data showing the scale of the nickel sulphide problem is almost impossible to find. The picture is made more complicated by the fact that these crystals occur in batches. So even if, on average, there is only one inclusion in 7 tonnes of glass, if you experience one nickel sulphide failure in your building, that probably means you've got a problem in more than one pane. Josie says that in the last decade he has worked on over 15 buildings with the number of failures into double figures. One of the worst examples of this is Waterfront Place, which was completed in 1990. Over the following decade the 40-storey Brisbane block suffered a rash of failures. Eighty panes of its toughened glass shattered due to inclusions before experts were finally called in. John Barry, an expert in nickel sulphide contamination at the University of Queensland, analysed every glass pane in the building. Using a studio camera, a photographer went up in a cradle to take photos of every pane. These were scanned under a modified microfiche reader for signs of nickel sulphide crystals. 'We discovered at least another 120 panes with potentially dangerous inclusions which were then replaced, ' says Barry. 'It was a very expensive and time-consuming process that took around six months to complete. 'Though the project cost A$1.6 million (nearly 700,000), the alternative re-cladding the entire building would have cost ten times as much. | Little doubt was expressed about the reason for the Bishops Walk accident. | e |
id_2466 | Flawed Beauty: the problem with toughened glass On 2nd August 1999, a particularly hot day in the town of Cirencester in the UK, a large pane of toughened glass in the roof of a shopping centre at Bishops Walk shattered without warning and fell from its frame. When fragments were analysed by experts at the giant glass manufacturer Pilkington, which had made the pane, they found that minute crystals of nickel sulphide trapped inside the glass had almost certainly caused the failure. 'The glass industry is aware of the issue, ' says Brian Waldron, chairman of the standards committee at the Glass and Glazing Federation, a British trade association, and standards development officer at Pilkington. But he insists that cases are few and far between. 'It's a very rare phenomenon, ' he says. Others disagree. 'On average I see about one or two buildings a month suffering from nickel sulphide related failures, ' says Barrie Josie, a consultant engineer involved in the Bishops Walk investigation. Other experts tell of similar experiences. Tony Wilmott of London-based consulting engineers Sandberg, and Simon Armstrong at CladTech Associates in Hampshire both say they know of hundreds of cases. 'What you hear is only the tip of the iceberg, ' says Trevor Ford, a glass expert at Resolve Engineering in Brisbane, Queensland. He believes the reason is simple: 'No-one wants bad press. ' Toughened glass is found everywhere, from cars and bus shelters to the windows, walls and roofs of thousands of buildings around the world. It's easy to see why. This glass has five times the strength of standard glass, and when it does break it shatters into tiny cubes rather than large, razor-sharp shards. Architects love it because large panels can be bolted together to make transparent walls, and turning it into ceilings and floors is almost as easy. It is made by heating a sheet of ordinary glass to about 620C to soften it slightly, allowing its structure to expand, and then cooling it rapidly with jets of cold air. This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior. When the interior finally solidifies and shrinks, it exerts a pull on the outer layer that leaves it in permanent compression and produces a tensile force inside the glass. As cracks propagate best in materials under tension, the compressive force on the surface must be overcome before the pane will break, making it more resistant to cracking. The problem starts when glass contains nickel sulphide impurities. Trace amounts of nickel and sulphur are usually present in the raw materials used to make glass, and nickel can also be introduced by fragments of nickel alloys falling into the molten glass. As the glass is heated, these atoms react to form tiny crystals of nickel sulphide. Just a tenth of a gram of nickel in the furnace can create up to 50,000 crystals. These crystals can exist in two forms: a dense form called the alpha phase, which is stable at high temperatures, and a less dense form called the beta phase, which is stable at room temperatures. The high temperatures used in the toughening process convert all the crystals to the dense, compact alpha form. But the subsequent cooling is so rapid that the crystals don't have time to change back to the beta phase. This leaves unstable alpha crystals in the glass, primed like a coiled spring, ready to revert to the beta phase without warning. When this happens, the crystals expand by up to 4%. And if they are within the central, tensile region of the pane, the stresses this unleashes can shatter the whole sheet. The time that elapses before failure occurs is unpredictable. It could happen just months after manufacture, or decades later, although if the glass is heated by sunlight, for example the process is speeded up. Ironically, says Graham Dodd, of consulting engineers Arup in London, the oldest pane of toughened glass known to have failed due to nickel sulphide inclusions was in Pilkington's glass research building in Lathom, Lancashire. The pane was 27 years old. Data showing the scale of the nickel sulphide problem is almost impossible to find. The picture is made more complicated by the fact that these crystals occur in batches. So even if, on average, there is only one inclusion in 7 tonnes of glass, if you experience one nickel sulphide failure in your building, that probably means you've got a problem in more than one pane. Josie says that in the last decade he has worked on over 15 buildings with the number of failures into double figures. One of the worst examples of this is Waterfront Place, which was completed in 1990. Over the following decade the 40-storey Brisbane block suffered a rash of failures. Eighty panes of its toughened glass shattered due to inclusions before experts were finally called in. John Barry, an expert in nickel sulphide contamination at the University of Queensland, analysed every glass pane in the building. Using a studio camera, a photographer went up in a cradle to take photos of every pane. These were scanned under a modified microfiche reader for signs of nickel sulphide crystals. 'We discovered at least another 120 panes with potentially dangerous inclusions which were then replaced, ' says Barry. 'It was a very expensive and time-consuming process that took around six months to complete. 'Though the project cost A$1.6 million (nearly 700,000), the alternative re-cladding the entire building would have cost ten times as much. | There is plenty of documented evidence available about the incidence of nickel sulphide failure. | c |
id_2467 | Flawed Beauty: the problem with toughened glass On 2nd August 1999, a particularly hot day in the town of Cirencester in the UK, a large pane of toughened glass in the roof of a shopping centre at Bishops Walk shattered without warning and fell from its frame. When fragments were analysed by experts at the giant glass manufacturer Pilkington, which had made the pane, they found that minute crystals of nickel sulphide trapped inside the glass had almost certainly caused the failure. 'The glass industry is aware of the issue, ' says Brian Waldron, chairman of the standards committee at the Glass and Glazing Federation, a British trade association, and standards development officer at Pilkington. But he insists that cases are few and far between. 'It's a very rare phenomenon, ' he says. Others disagree. 'On average I see about one or two buildings a month suffering from nickel sulphide related failures, ' says Barrie Josie, a consultant engineer involved in the Bishops Walk investigation. Other experts tell of similar experiences. Tony Wilmott of London-based consulting engineers Sandberg, and Simon Armstrong at CladTech Associates in Hampshire both say they know of hundreds of cases. 'What you hear is only the tip of the iceberg, ' says Trevor Ford, a glass expert at Resolve Engineering in Brisbane, Queensland. He believes the reason is simple: 'No-one wants bad press. ' Toughened glass is found everywhere, from cars and bus shelters to the windows, walls and roofs of thousands of buildings around the world. It's easy to see why. This glass has five times the strength of standard glass, and when it does break it shatters into tiny cubes rather than large, razor-sharp shards. Architects love it because large panels can be bolted together to make transparent walls, and turning it into ceilings and floors is almost as easy. It is made by heating a sheet of ordinary glass to about 620C to soften it slightly, allowing its structure to expand, and then cooling it rapidly with jets of cold air. This causes the outer layer of the pane to contract and solidify before the interior. When the interior finally solidifies and shrinks, it exerts a pull on the outer layer that leaves it in permanent compression and produces a tensile force inside the glass. As cracks propagate best in materials under tension, the compressive force on the surface must be overcome before the pane will break, making it more resistant to cracking. The problem starts when glass contains nickel sulphide impurities. Trace amounts of nickel and sulphur are usually present in the raw materials used to make glass, and nickel can also be introduced by fragments of nickel alloys falling into the molten glass. As the glass is heated, these atoms react to form tiny crystals of nickel sulphide. Just a tenth of a gram of nickel in the furnace can create up to 50,000 crystals. These crystals can exist in two forms: a dense form called the alpha phase, which is stable at high temperatures, and a less dense form called the beta phase, which is stable at room temperatures. The high temperatures used in the toughening process convert all the crystals to the dense, compact alpha form. But the subsequent cooling is so rapid that the crystals don't have time to change back to the beta phase. This leaves unstable alpha crystals in the glass, primed like a coiled spring, ready to revert to the beta phase without warning. When this happens, the crystals expand by up to 4%. And if they are within the central, tensile region of the pane, the stresses this unleashes can shatter the whole sheet. The time that elapses before failure occurs is unpredictable. It could happen just months after manufacture, or decades later, although if the glass is heated by sunlight, for example the process is speeded up. Ironically, says Graham Dodd, of consulting engineers Arup in London, the oldest pane of toughened glass known to have failed due to nickel sulphide inclusions was in Pilkington's glass research building in Lathom, Lancashire. The pane was 27 years old. Data showing the scale of the nickel sulphide problem is almost impossible to find. The picture is made more complicated by the fact that these crystals occur in batches. So even if, on average, there is only one inclusion in 7 tonnes of glass, if you experience one nickel sulphide failure in your building, that probably means you've got a problem in more than one pane. Josie says that in the last decade he has worked on over 15 buildings with the number of failures into double figures. One of the worst examples of this is Waterfront Place, which was completed in 1990. Over the following decade the 40-storey Brisbane block suffered a rash of failures. Eighty panes of its toughened glass shattered due to inclusions before experts were finally called in. John Barry, an expert in nickel sulphide contamination at the University of Queensland, analysed every glass pane in the building. Using a studio camera, a photographer went up in a cradle to take photos of every pane. These were scanned under a modified microfiche reader for signs of nickel sulphide crystals. 'We discovered at least another 120 panes with potentially dangerous inclusions which were then replaced, ' says Barry. 'It was a very expensive and time-consuming process that took around six months to complete. 'Though the project cost A$1.6 million (nearly 700,000), the alternative re-cladding the entire building would have cost ten times as much. | Toughened glass has the same appearance as ordinary glass. | n |
id_2468 | Flight from reality? Mobiles are barred, but passenger can tap away on their laptops to their heart' content. Is one realty safer than the other? hi the US, a Congressional subcommittee frilled airline representatives and regulators about the issue test month. But the committee heard that using cellphones in planes may indeed pose a risk, albeit a slight one. This would seem to vindicate the treatment of Manchester oil worker Neil Whitehouse, who was sentenced last summer to a year in jail by a British court for refusing to turn off his mobile phone on a flight home from Madrid. Although he was only typing a message to be sent on landing, not actually making a call, the court decided that he was putting the flight at risk. A. The potential fin problems is certainly there. Modem airliners are packed with electronic devices that control the plane and handle navigation and communications-Each has to meet stringent safeguards to make sure it doesn't emit radiation that would interfere with other devices in the plane- standards that passengers personal electronic devices don't necessarily meet Emissions from inside the plane could also interfere with sensitive antennae on the fixed exterior. B. But despite running a numbs of studies, Boeing, Airbus and various government agencies havent been able to find clear evidence of problems caused by personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, "We've done our own studies. Weve found cellphones actually have no impact on the navigation system, " Bays Maryazme Greczyn, a spokeswoman for Airbus Industries of North America in Herndon, Virginia, Nor do they affect other critical systems, she says. The only impact Airbus found? "Sometimes when a passenger is starting or finishing a phone call, the pilot hears a very slight beep in the headset, " she says. C. The best evidence yet of a problem comes from a report released this year by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority. Its researchers generated simulated cellphone transmissions inside two Boeing aircraft They concluded that the transmissions could create signals at a power and frequency that would not affect the latest equipment, but exceeded the safety threshold established in 1984 and might therefore affect some of the older equipment on board. This doesnt mean "mission critical" equipment such as the navigation system and flight controls. But the devices that could be affected, such as smoke detectors and fuel level indicators, could still create serious problems for the flight crew if they malfunction. D. Many planes still use equipment certified to the older standards, says Dan Hawkes, head of avionics at the CAAs Safety Regulation Group. The CAA study doesn't prove the equipment will actually fell when cellphone signals actually cause devices to fail. E. In 1996, RTCA, a consultant hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to conduct tests, determined that potentialproblems from personal electronic devices were 'low". Nevertheless, it recommended a ban on their use during "critical" periods of flight, such as take- off and landing. RTCA didn't actually test cellphones, but nevertheless recommended then wholesale ban on flights. But if "better safe than sorry" is the current policy, it's applied inconsistently, according to Marshall Cross, the chairman of MegaWave Corporation, based in Boylston, Massachusetts. Why are cellphones outlawed when no one considers a ban on laptops? "It's like most things in life. The reason is a little bit technical, a little bit economic and a little bit political, " says Cross. F. The company wrote a report for the FAA in 1998 saying it is possible to build an on-board system that can detect dangerous signals from electronic devices. But Cross's personal conclusion is that mobile phones aren't the real threat "You'd have to stretch things pretty far to figure out how a cellphone could interfere with a plane's systems, " he says. Cellphones transmit in ranges of around 400, 800 or 1800 megahertz. Since no important piece of aircraft equipment operates at those frequencies, the possibility of interference is very low. Cross says. The use of computers and electronic game systems is much more worrying, he says. They can generate very strong signals at frequencies that could interfere with plane electronics, especially u a mouse is attached (the wire operates as an antenna or if their built-in shielding is somehow damaged. Some airlines are even planning to put sockets for laptops in seatbacks. G. Theres fairly convincing anecdotal evidence that some personal electronic devices have interfered with systems. Air crew on one flight found that the autopilot was being disconnected, and narrowed the problem down to a passengers portable computer. They could actually watch the autopilot disconnect when they switched the computer on. Boeing bought the computer, took it to the airline's labs and even tested it on an empty flight. But as with every other reported instance of interference, technicians were unable to replicate the problem. H. Some engineers, however, such as Bruce Donham of Boeing, say that common sense suggests phones are more risky than laptops. "A device capable of producing a strong emission is not as safe as a device which does not have any intentional emission, " he says. Nevertheless, many experts think it's illogical that cellphones are prohibited when computers aren't. Besides, the problem is more complicated than simply looking at power and frequency. In the air, the plane operates in a soup of electronic emissions, created by its own electronics and by ground-based radiation. Electronic devices in the cabin-especially those emitting a strong signal-can behave unpredictably, reinforcing other signals, forinstance, or creating unforeseen harmonics that disrupt systems. I. Despite the Congressional subcommittee hearings last month, no one seems to be working seriously on a technical solution that would allow passengers to use their phones. That's mostly because no one -besides cellphone users themselves- stands to gain a lot if the phones are allowed in the air. Even the cellphone companies don't want it. They are concerned that airborne signals could cause problems by flooding a number of the networks' base stations at once with the same signal This effect, called big footing, happens because airborne cellphone signals tend to go to many base stations at once, unlike land calls which usually go to just one or two stations. In the US, even if FAA regulations didn't prohibit cellphones in the air, Federal Communications Commission regulations would. J. Possible solutions might be to enhance airliners electronic insulation, or to fit detectors which warned flight staff when passenger devices were emitting dangerous signals. But Cross complains that neither the FAA, the airlines nor the manufacturers are showing much interest in developing these. So despite Congressional suspicions and the occasional irritated (or jailed) mobile user, the industrys "better safe than sorry" policy on mobile phones seems likely to continue. In the absence of firm evidence that the international airline industry is engaged in a vast conspiracy to overcharge its customers, a delayed phone call seems a small price to pay for even the tiniest reduction in the chances of a plane crash. But you'll still be allowed to use your personal computer during a flight. And while that remains the case, airlines can hardly claim that logic has prevailed. | Some people believe that radio emission win interrupt the equipment on plane. | e |
id_2469 | Flight from reality? Mobiles are barred, but passenger can tap away on their laptops to their heart' content. Is one realty safer than the other? hi the US, a Congressional subcommittee frilled airline representatives and regulators about the issue test month. But the committee heard that using cellphones in planes may indeed pose a risk, albeit a slight one. This would seem to vindicate the treatment of Manchester oil worker Neil Whitehouse, who was sentenced last summer to a year in jail by a British court for refusing to turn off his mobile phone on a flight home from Madrid. Although he was only typing a message to be sent on landing, not actually making a call, the court decided that he was putting the flight at risk. A. The potential fin problems is certainly there. Modem airliners are packed with electronic devices that control the plane and handle navigation and communications-Each has to meet stringent safeguards to make sure it doesn't emit radiation that would interfere with other devices in the plane- standards that passengers personal electronic devices don't necessarily meet Emissions from inside the plane could also interfere with sensitive antennae on the fixed exterior. B. But despite running a numbs of studies, Boeing, Airbus and various government agencies havent been able to find clear evidence of problems caused by personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, "We've done our own studies. Weve found cellphones actually have no impact on the navigation system, " Bays Maryazme Greczyn, a spokeswoman for Airbus Industries of North America in Herndon, Virginia, Nor do they affect other critical systems, she says. The only impact Airbus found? "Sometimes when a passenger is starting or finishing a phone call, the pilot hears a very slight beep in the headset, " she says. C. The best evidence yet of a problem comes from a report released this year by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority. Its researchers generated simulated cellphone transmissions inside two Boeing aircraft They concluded that the transmissions could create signals at a power and frequency that would not affect the latest equipment, but exceeded the safety threshold established in 1984 and might therefore affect some of the older equipment on board. This doesnt mean "mission critical" equipment such as the navigation system and flight controls. But the devices that could be affected, such as smoke detectors and fuel level indicators, could still create serious problems for the flight crew if they malfunction. D. Many planes still use equipment certified to the older standards, says Dan Hawkes, head of avionics at the CAAs Safety Regulation Group. The CAA study doesn't prove the equipment will actually fell when cellphone signals actually cause devices to fail. E. In 1996, RTCA, a consultant hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to conduct tests, determined that potentialproblems from personal electronic devices were 'low". Nevertheless, it recommended a ban on their use during "critical" periods of flight, such as take- off and landing. RTCA didn't actually test cellphones, but nevertheless recommended then wholesale ban on flights. But if "better safe than sorry" is the current policy, it's applied inconsistently, according to Marshall Cross, the chairman of MegaWave Corporation, based in Boylston, Massachusetts. Why are cellphones outlawed when no one considers a ban on laptops? "It's like most things in life. The reason is a little bit technical, a little bit economic and a little bit political, " says Cross. F. The company wrote a report for the FAA in 1998 saying it is possible to build an on-board system that can detect dangerous signals from electronic devices. But Cross's personal conclusion is that mobile phones aren't the real threat "You'd have to stretch things pretty far to figure out how a cellphone could interfere with a plane's systems, " he says. Cellphones transmit in ranges of around 400, 800 or 1800 megahertz. Since no important piece of aircraft equipment operates at those frequencies, the possibility of interference is very low. Cross says. The use of computers and electronic game systems is much more worrying, he says. They can generate very strong signals at frequencies that could interfere with plane electronics, especially u a mouse is attached (the wire operates as an antenna or if their built-in shielding is somehow damaged. Some airlines are even planning to put sockets for laptops in seatbacks. G. Theres fairly convincing anecdotal evidence that some personal electronic devices have interfered with systems. Air crew on one flight found that the autopilot was being disconnected, and narrowed the problem down to a passengers portable computer. They could actually watch the autopilot disconnect when they switched the computer on. Boeing bought the computer, took it to the airline's labs and even tested it on an empty flight. But as with every other reported instance of interference, technicians were unable to replicate the problem. H. Some engineers, however, such as Bruce Donham of Boeing, say that common sense suggests phones are more risky than laptops. "A device capable of producing a strong emission is not as safe as a device which does not have any intentional emission, " he says. Nevertheless, many experts think it's illogical that cellphones are prohibited when computers aren't. Besides, the problem is more complicated than simply looking at power and frequency. In the air, the plane operates in a soup of electronic emissions, created by its own electronics and by ground-based radiation. Electronic devices in the cabin-especially those emitting a strong signal-can behave unpredictably, reinforcing other signals, forinstance, or creating unforeseen harmonics that disrupt systems. I. Despite the Congressional subcommittee hearings last month, no one seems to be working seriously on a technical solution that would allow passengers to use their phones. That's mostly because no one -besides cellphone users themselves- stands to gain a lot if the phones are allowed in the air. Even the cellphone companies don't want it. They are concerned that airborne signals could cause problems by flooding a number of the networks' base stations at once with the same signal This effect, called big footing, happens because airborne cellphone signals tend to go to many base stations at once, unlike land calls which usually go to just one or two stations. In the US, even if FAA regulations didn't prohibit cellphones in the air, Federal Communications Commission regulations would. J. Possible solutions might be to enhance airliners electronic insulation, or to fit detectors which warned flight staff when passenger devices were emitting dangerous signals. But Cross complains that neither the FAA, the airlines nor the manufacturers are showing much interest in developing these. So despite Congressional suspicions and the occasional irritated (or jailed) mobile user, the industrys "better safe than sorry" policy on mobile phones seems likely to continue. In the absence of firm evidence that the international airline industry is engaged in a vast conspiracy to overcharge its customers, a delayed phone call seems a small price to pay for even the tiniest reduction in the chances of a plane crash. But you'll still be allowed to use your personal computer during a flight. And while that remains the case, airlines can hardly claim that logic has prevailed. | Almost an scientists accept that cellphones have higher emission than that of personal computers. | c |
id_2470 | Flight from reality? Mobiles are barred, but passenger can tap away on their laptops to their heart' content. Is one realty safer than the other? hi the US, a Congressional subcommittee frilled airline representatives and regulators about the issue test month. But the committee heard that using cellphones in planes may indeed pose a risk, albeit a slight one. This would seem to vindicate the treatment of Manchester oil worker Neil Whitehouse, who was sentenced last summer to a year in jail by a British court for refusing to turn off his mobile phone on a flight home from Madrid. Although he was only typing a message to be sent on landing, not actually making a call, the court decided that he was putting the flight at risk. A. The potential fin problems is certainly there. Modem airliners are packed with electronic devices that control the plane and handle navigation and communications-Each has to meet stringent safeguards to make sure it doesn't emit radiation that would interfere with other devices in the plane- standards that passengers personal electronic devices don't necessarily meet Emissions from inside the plane could also interfere with sensitive antennae on the fixed exterior. B. But despite running a numbs of studies, Boeing, Airbus and various government agencies havent been able to find clear evidence of problems caused by personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, "We've done our own studies. Weve found cellphones actually have no impact on the navigation system, " Bays Maryazme Greczyn, a spokeswoman for Airbus Industries of North America in Herndon, Virginia, Nor do they affect other critical systems, she says. The only impact Airbus found? "Sometimes when a passenger is starting or finishing a phone call, the pilot hears a very slight beep in the headset, " she says. C. The best evidence yet of a problem comes from a report released this year by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority. Its researchers generated simulated cellphone transmissions inside two Boeing aircraft They concluded that the transmissions could create signals at a power and frequency that would not affect the latest equipment, but exceeded the safety threshold established in 1984 and might therefore affect some of the older equipment on board. This doesnt mean "mission critical" equipment such as the navigation system and flight controls. But the devices that could be affected, such as smoke detectors and fuel level indicators, could still create serious problems for the flight crew if they malfunction. D. Many planes still use equipment certified to the older standards, says Dan Hawkes, head of avionics at the CAAs Safety Regulation Group. The CAA study doesn't prove the equipment will actually fell when cellphone signals actually cause devices to fail. E. In 1996, RTCA, a consultant hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to conduct tests, determined that potentialproblems from personal electronic devices were 'low". Nevertheless, it recommended a ban on their use during "critical" periods of flight, such as take- off and landing. RTCA didn't actually test cellphones, but nevertheless recommended then wholesale ban on flights. But if "better safe than sorry" is the current policy, it's applied inconsistently, according to Marshall Cross, the chairman of MegaWave Corporation, based in Boylston, Massachusetts. Why are cellphones outlawed when no one considers a ban on laptops? "It's like most things in life. The reason is a little bit technical, a little bit economic and a little bit political, " says Cross. F. The company wrote a report for the FAA in 1998 saying it is possible to build an on-board system that can detect dangerous signals from electronic devices. But Cross's personal conclusion is that mobile phones aren't the real threat "You'd have to stretch things pretty far to figure out how a cellphone could interfere with a plane's systems, " he says. Cellphones transmit in ranges of around 400, 800 or 1800 megahertz. Since no important piece of aircraft equipment operates at those frequencies, the possibility of interference is very low. Cross says. The use of computers and electronic game systems is much more worrying, he says. They can generate very strong signals at frequencies that could interfere with plane electronics, especially u a mouse is attached (the wire operates as an antenna or if their built-in shielding is somehow damaged. Some airlines are even planning to put sockets for laptops in seatbacks. G. Theres fairly convincing anecdotal evidence that some personal electronic devices have interfered with systems. Air crew on one flight found that the autopilot was being disconnected, and narrowed the problem down to a passengers portable computer. They could actually watch the autopilot disconnect when they switched the computer on. Boeing bought the computer, took it to the airline's labs and even tested it on an empty flight. But as with every other reported instance of interference, technicians were unable to replicate the problem. H. Some engineers, however, such as Bruce Donham of Boeing, say that common sense suggests phones are more risky than laptops. "A device capable of producing a strong emission is not as safe as a device which does not have any intentional emission, " he says. Nevertheless, many experts think it's illogical that cellphones are prohibited when computers aren't. Besides, the problem is more complicated than simply looking at power and frequency. In the air, the plane operates in a soup of electronic emissions, created by its own electronics and by ground-based radiation. Electronic devices in the cabin-especially those emitting a strong signal-can behave unpredictably, reinforcing other signals, forinstance, or creating unforeseen harmonics that disrupt systems. I. Despite the Congressional subcommittee hearings last month, no one seems to be working seriously on a technical solution that would allow passengers to use their phones. That's mostly because no one -besides cellphone users themselves- stands to gain a lot if the phones are allowed in the air. Even the cellphone companies don't want it. They are concerned that airborne signals could cause problems by flooding a number of the networks' base stations at once with the same signal This effect, called big footing, happens because airborne cellphone signals tend to go to many base stations at once, unlike land calls which usually go to just one or two stations. In the US, even if FAA regulations didn't prohibit cellphones in the air, Federal Communications Commission regulations would. J. Possible solutions might be to enhance airliners electronic insulation, or to fit detectors which warned flight staff when passenger devices were emitting dangerous signals. But Cross complains that neither the FAA, the airlines nor the manufacturers are showing much interest in developing these. So despite Congressional suspicions and the occasional irritated (or jailed) mobile user, the industrys "better safe than sorry" policy on mobile phones seems likely to continue. In the absence of firm evidence that the international airline industry is engaged in a vast conspiracy to overcharge its customers, a delayed phone call seems a small price to pay for even the tiniest reduction in the chances of a plane crash. But you'll still be allowed to use your personal computer during a flight. And while that remains the case, airlines can hardly claim that logic has prevailed. | FAA initiated open debate with Federal Communications Commission. | n |
id_2471 | Flight from reality? Mobiles are barred, but passenger can tap away on their laptops to their heart' content. Is one realty safer than the other? hi the US, a Congressional subcommittee frilled airline representatives and regulators about the issue test month. But the committee heard that using cellphones in planes may indeed pose a risk, albeit a slight one. This would seem to vindicate the treatment of Manchester oil worker Neil Whitehouse, who was sentenced last summer to a year in jail by a British court for refusing to turn off his mobile phone on a flight home from Madrid. Although he was only typing a message to be sent on landing, not actually making a call, the court decided that he was putting the flight at risk. A. The potential fin problems is certainly there. Modem airliners are packed with electronic devices that control the plane and handle navigation and communications-Each has to meet stringent safeguards to make sure it doesn't emit radiation that would interfere with other devices in the plane- standards that passengers personal electronic devices don't necessarily meet Emissions from inside the plane could also interfere with sensitive antennae on the fixed exterior. B. But despite running a numbs of studies, Boeing, Airbus and various government agencies havent been able to find clear evidence of problems caused by personal electronic devices, including mobile phones, "We've done our own studies. Weve found cellphones actually have no impact on the navigation system, " Bays Maryazme Greczyn, a spokeswoman for Airbus Industries of North America in Herndon, Virginia, Nor do they affect other critical systems, she says. The only impact Airbus found? "Sometimes when a passenger is starting or finishing a phone call, the pilot hears a very slight beep in the headset, " she says. C. The best evidence yet of a problem comes from a report released this year by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority. Its researchers generated simulated cellphone transmissions inside two Boeing aircraft They concluded that the transmissions could create signals at a power and frequency that would not affect the latest equipment, but exceeded the safety threshold established in 1984 and might therefore affect some of the older equipment on board. This doesnt mean "mission critical" equipment such as the navigation system and flight controls. But the devices that could be affected, such as smoke detectors and fuel level indicators, could still create serious problems for the flight crew if they malfunction. D. Many planes still use equipment certified to the older standards, says Dan Hawkes, head of avionics at the CAAs Safety Regulation Group. The CAA study doesn't prove the equipment will actually fell when cellphone signals actually cause devices to fail. E. In 1996, RTCA, a consultant hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to conduct tests, determined that potentialproblems from personal electronic devices were 'low". Nevertheless, it recommended a ban on their use during "critical" periods of flight, such as take- off and landing. RTCA didn't actually test cellphones, but nevertheless recommended then wholesale ban on flights. But if "better safe than sorry" is the current policy, it's applied inconsistently, according to Marshall Cross, the chairman of MegaWave Corporation, based in Boylston, Massachusetts. Why are cellphones outlawed when no one considers a ban on laptops? "It's like most things in life. The reason is a little bit technical, a little bit economic and a little bit political, " says Cross. F. The company wrote a report for the FAA in 1998 saying it is possible to build an on-board system that can detect dangerous signals from electronic devices. But Cross's personal conclusion is that mobile phones aren't the real threat "You'd have to stretch things pretty far to figure out how a cellphone could interfere with a plane's systems, " he says. Cellphones transmit in ranges of around 400, 800 or 1800 megahertz. Since no important piece of aircraft equipment operates at those frequencies, the possibility of interference is very low. Cross says. The use of computers and electronic game systems is much more worrying, he says. They can generate very strong signals at frequencies that could interfere with plane electronics, especially u a mouse is attached (the wire operates as an antenna or if their built-in shielding is somehow damaged. Some airlines are even planning to put sockets for laptops in seatbacks. G. Theres fairly convincing anecdotal evidence that some personal electronic devices have interfered with systems. Air crew on one flight found that the autopilot was being disconnected, and narrowed the problem down to a passengers portable computer. They could actually watch the autopilot disconnect when they switched the computer on. Boeing bought the computer, took it to the airline's labs and even tested it on an empty flight. But as with every other reported instance of interference, technicians were unable to replicate the problem. H. Some engineers, however, such as Bruce Donham of Boeing, say that common sense suggests phones are more risky than laptops. "A device capable of producing a strong emission is not as safe as a device which does not have any intentional emission, " he says. Nevertheless, many experts think it's illogical that cellphones are prohibited when computers aren't. Besides, the problem is more complicated than simply looking at power and frequency. In the air, the plane operates in a soup of electronic emissions, created by its own electronics and by ground-based radiation. Electronic devices in the cabin-especially those emitting a strong signal-can behave unpredictably, reinforcing other signals, forinstance, or creating unforeseen harmonics that disrupt systems. I. Despite the Congressional subcommittee hearings last month, no one seems to be working seriously on a technical solution that would allow passengers to use their phones. That's mostly because no one -besides cellphone users themselves- stands to gain a lot if the phones are allowed in the air. Even the cellphone companies don't want it. They are concerned that airborne signals could cause problems by flooding a number of the networks' base stations at once with the same signal This effect, called big footing, happens because airborne cellphone signals tend to go to many base stations at once, unlike land calls which usually go to just one or two stations. In the US, even if FAA regulations didn't prohibit cellphones in the air, Federal Communications Commission regulations would. J. Possible solutions might be to enhance airliners electronic insulation, or to fit detectors which warned flight staff when passenger devices were emitting dangerous signals. But Cross complains that neither the FAA, the airlines nor the manufacturers are showing much interest in developing these. So despite Congressional suspicions and the occasional irritated (or jailed) mobile user, the industrys "better safe than sorry" policy on mobile phones seems likely to continue. In the absence of firm evidence that the international airline industry is engaged in a vast conspiracy to overcharge its customers, a delayed phone call seems a small price to pay for even the tiniest reduction in the chances of a plane crash. But you'll still be allowed to use your personal computer during a flight. And while that remains the case, airlines can hardly claim that logic has prevailed. | The signal interference-detecting device has not yet been developed because they are in priority far neither administrative department nor offer economic incentive. | e |
id_2472 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | The layout of the Torpedo Factory is open-plan. | c |
id_2473 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | Some of the art work is on a very large scale. | e |
id_2474 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | Most of the art on display is very unusual. | c |
id_2475 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | The US Naval Torpdo station was used to store weapons. | e |
id_2476 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | The photography in the Multiple Exposures Gallery is of very high quality. | e |
id_2477 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | Alexandria is a fairly unpleasant place to walk around. | c |
id_2478 | Flower power Alexandria in Virginia, USA, and particularly its well-tended Old Town section, is the sort of upscale suburb that rings most major American cities. From the array of pubs, sushi-restaurant chains and pasta joints that line its streets, you would never guess that within 20 minutes you can find some of the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Pakistani or Bolivian food in America. Its 18th-century homes have been carefully maintained; now that the nasty, dirty business of living in them is done, they are at last free to house upscale boutiques selling ornate pepper-shakers, local wine, birthday cakes for dogs and other essentials. Yet this suburb was a city before cars existed, making it especially dense, walkable and charming. It has also turned an instrument of war into an instrument of art. The day after the armistice that ended the first world war in 1918, the United States Navy began building the US Naval Torpedo station on the waterfront across the Potomac and just downriver from the Naval bought the site, which had grown to comprise 11 buildings, from the federal government. Five years later, after all the debris was removed and walls erected, the main building was refitted to house artists studios. A quarter-century, and several extensive renovations, later the artists are still there: over 160 of them sharing 82 studios, six galleries and two workshops. The Art League School and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum also share the space, bringing in thousands more aspirants and students. All of this makes the Torpedo Factory, as it is now called, a low-key, family-friendly and craft-centred alternative to the many worthy galleries across the river. Research Laboratory in south-west Washington, DC. After a brief period of production, it stored munitions between the wars. When the second world war broke out, it built torpedoes for submarines and aircraft; when that war ended, the building was again used for storage. In 1969, the local Alexandria government The building is three-storeys tall; on the first floor the studios and galleries are laid out along a single long hall. The arrangement grows more warrenlike, and the sense of discovery concomitantly more pleasant, as you ascend. Artists work in a variety of media, including painting, fibre, printmaking, ceramics, jewellery, stained glass and photography. Don't anticipate anything game-changing or jaw-dropping here. Expect plenty of cats and cows in different media, as well as watercolours of beach houses, ersatz Abstract Expressionist paintings, stained glass made for the walls of large suburban houses, baubles and knick-knacks and thingummies galore. All of it is skilfully done; most of it is pleasant. The photography is an exception: the Multiple Exposures Gallery is first-rate, displaying not merely beautiful pictures but inventive techniques as well. On a recent visit the gallery showcased landscapes, including an especially arresting wide-angle aerial shot of a field in Fujian after a storm. Crops glinted in the rising sun like rows of wet sapphires, the scalloped grey clouds echoing the terraced farming beneath. The Torpedo Factorys biggest draw, however, particularly for visitors with children, is not on what is sold but in the demystifying access visitors have to artists. While the galleries function traditionally, the artists work and sell out of the same studio; their raw materials and works in progress, the artistry behind the art, are all on display. Many of them are happy and eager to talk; one was soliciting the help of passers-by to complete a work, she wished to know how to say and write a certain phrase in Hebrew vernacular, a quest that might take time to complete in a yachty southern suburb. A metal sculptor sat on a stool patiently working a piece of metal back and forth in his hands. The centre of his studio was filled with a huge hollow sphere made from hundreds of cylinders of perhaps anodised aluminium. It seemed we were witnessing the first step in a thousand-mile march. | The artists enjoy sharing the 82 studios of the Torpedo Factory. | n |
id_2479 | Fly X airways whenever you decide to go places. Our fares are less than train fares. | The fares of other airlines are costlier than those of X airways. | e |
id_2480 | Fly X airways whenever you decide to go places. Our fares are less than train fares. | People prefer to travel by air when the fares are reasonable. | e |
id_2481 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | Surveillance cameras have been a success in Darton. | c |
id_2482 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | For reasons of crime prevention, the police will constantly monitor the new surveillance system. | c |
id_2483 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | In 2008 over half of the recorded crimes in the centre of Darton were thefts. | e |
id_2484 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | There is evidence that crime will be reduced in the centre of Darton by the use of surveillance cameras. | n |
id_2485 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | The new surveillance system will cost around 180,000 for the first year. | n |
id_2486 | Following their success in the neighbouring towns of Barnford and Littleton, surveillance cameras are to be installed in the centre of Darton. Both the police and the City Council are convinced that public order offences can be reduced by the adoption of such a scheme. Although the Chamber of Commerce has voiced its support, representa- tives of civil liberties groups have expressed their concerns, claiming that it will be another case of Big Brother is watching you. The following facts are also known: The cameras will be monitored on a random basis. The total number of thefts in the area to be covered by the scheme in the centre of Darton in 2008 was 1,905 and the total number of crimes was recorded at 3,646. It is estimated that the surveillance system will cost 100,000 to install and that staffing costs will be 80,000 per year. The City Council and the police have had many letters of support from local residents and representatives of local businesses. | There is unanimous support for the use of surveillance cameras in the centre of Darton. | c |
id_2487 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | Agricultural production in Bangladesh declined in last decade. | n |
id_2488 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | Small pump spread into big project in Bangladesh in the past decade. | e |
id_2489 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | Farmer Abdul Rahman knew how to increase production himself. | e |
id_2490 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | It is more effective to resolve poverty or food problem in large scale rather than in small scale. | c |
id_2491 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | Construction of gigantic dams costs more time in developing countries. | n |
id_2492 | Foot pedal irrigation A Until now, governments and development agencies have tried to tackle the problem through large-scale projects: gigantic dams, sprawling, irrigation canals and vast new fields of high-yield crops introduced during the Green Revolution, the famous campaign to increase grain harvests in developing nations. Traditional irrigation, however, has degraded the soil in many areas, and the reservoirs behind dams can quickly fill up with silt, reducing their storage capacity and depriving downstream farmers of fertile sediments. Furthermore, although the Green Revolution has greatly expanded worldwide farm production since 1950, poverty stubbornly persists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continued improvements in the productivity of large farms may play the main role in boosting food supply, but local efforts to provide cheap, individual irrigation systems to small farms may offer a better way to lift people out of poverty. B The Green Revolution was designed to increase the overall food supply, not to raise the incomes of the rural poor, so it should be no surprise that it did not eradicate poverty or hunger. India, for example, has been self-sufficient in food for 15 years, and its granaries are full, but more than 200 million Indians one fifth of the countrys population are malnourished because they cannot afford the food they need and because the countrys safety nets are deficient. In 2000, 189 nations committed to the Millennium Development Goals, which called for cutting world poverty in half by 2015. With business as usual, however, we have little hope of achieving most of the Millennium goals, no matter how much money rich countries contribute to poor ones. C The supply-driven strategies of the Green Revolution, however, may not help subsistence farmers, who must play to their strengths to compete in the global marketplace. The average size of a family farm is less than four acres in India, 1.8 acres in Bangladesh and about half an acre in China. Combines and other modern farming tools are too expensive to be used on such small areas. An Indian farmer selling surplus wheat grown on his one-acre plot could not possibly compete with the highly efficient and subsidized Canadian wheat farms that typically stretch over thousands of acres. Instead subsistence farmers should exploit the fact that their labor costs are the lowest in the world, giving them a comparative advantage in growing and selling high-value, intensely farmed crops. D Paul Polak saw firsthand the need for a small-scale strategy in 1981 when he met Abdul Rahman, a farmer in the Noakhali district of Bangladesh. From his three quarter-acre plots of rain-fed rice fields, Abdul could grow only 700 kilograms of rice each year 300 kilograms less than what he needed to feed his family. During the three months before the October rice harvest came in, Abdul and his wife had to watch silently while their three children survived on one meal a day or less. As Polak walked with him through the scattered fields he had inherited from his father, Polak asked what he needed to move out of poverty. Control of water for my crops, he said, at a price I can afford. E Soon Polak learned about a simple device that could help Abdul achieve his goal: the treadle pump. Developed in the late 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes, the pump is operated by a person walking in place on a pair of treadles and two handle arms made of bamboo. Properly adjusted and maintained, it can be operated several hours a day without tiring the users. Each treadle pump has two cylinders which are made of engineering plastic. The diameter of a cylinder is 100.5mm and the height is 280mm. The pump is capable of working up to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Operation beyond 7 meters is not recommended to preserve the integrity of the rubber components. The pump mechanism has piston and foot valve assemblies. The treadle action creates alternate strokes in the two pistons that lift the water in pulses. F The human-powered pump can irrigate half an acre of vegetables and costs only $25 (including the expense of drilling a tube well down to the groundwater). Abdul heard about the treadle pump from a cousin and was one of the first farmers in Bangladesh to buy one. He borrowed the $25 from an uncle and easily repaid the loan four months later. During the five-month dry season, when Bangladeshis typically farm very little, Abdul used the treadle pump to grow a quarter-acre of chili peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and eggplants. He also improved the yield of one of his rice plots by irrigating it. His family ate some of the vegetables and sold the rest at the village market, earning a net profit of $100. With his new income, Abdul was able to buy rice for his family to eat, keep his two sons in school until they were 16 and set aside a little money for his daughters dowry. When Polak visited him again in 1984, he had doubled the size of his vegetable plot and replaced the thatched roof on his house with corrugated tin. His family was raising a calf and some chickens. He told me that the treadle pump was a gift from God. G Bangladesh is particularly well suited for the treadle pump because a huge reservoir of groundwater lies just a few meters below the farmers feet. In the early 1980s IDE initiated a campaign to market the pump, encouraging 75 small private-sector companies to manufacture the devices and several thousand village dealers and tube-well drillers to sell and install them. Over the next 12 years one and a half million farm families purchased treadle pumps, which increased the farmers net income by a total of $150 million a year. The cost of IDEs market-creation activities was only $12 million, leveraged by the investment of $37.5 million from the farmers themselves. In contrast, the expense of building a conventional dam and canal system to irrigate an equivalent area of farmland would be in the range of $2,000 per acre, or $1.5 billion. | Green revolution foiled to increase global crop production from the mid of 20th century. | c |
id_2493 | For 20 consecutive years the pass rate in the national advanced-level exams has increased. The exam questions have not become easier but the students find it easier to obtain top grades now that marks are awarded for course and project work and only 20% of the marks are reserved for the final exams. Last year 130,000 girls obtained two A grades whereas 20 years ago only 34,000 obtained these marks. Before 1987, grades were norm-rated against previous years, with only the top 10% of candidates being awarded an A grade. Since that date no limit to the number of A grades has been set and anyone who scores over 60% receives an A grade. This change has seen the number of A grades awarded more than double. | Girls have been mainly responsible for the rise in the number of A grades. | n |
id_2494 | For 20 consecutive years the pass rate in the national advanced-level exams has increased. The exam questions have not become easier but the students find it easier to obtain top grades now that marks are awarded for course and project work and only 20% of the marks are reserved for the final exams. Last year 130,000 girls obtained two A grades whereas 20 years ago only 34,000 obtained these marks. Before 1987, grades were norm-rated against previous years, with only the top 10% of candidates being awarded an A grade. Since that date no limit to the number of A grades has been set and anyone who scores over 60% receives an A grade. This change has seen the number of A grades awarded more than double. | The examining method has made it easier for students to obtain top grades. | e |
id_2495 | For 20 consecutive years the pass rate in the national advanced-level exams has increased. The exam questions have not become easier but the students find it easier to obtain top grades now that marks are awarded for course and project work and only 20% of the marks are reserved for the final exams. Last year 130,000 girls obtained two A grades whereas 20 years ago only 34,000 obtained these marks. Before 1987, grades were norm-rated against previous years, with only the top 10% of candidates being awarded an A grade. Since that date no limit to the number of A grades has been set and anyone who scores over 60% receives an A grade. This change has seen the number of A grades awarded more than double. | Twenty per cent of candidates now realize a score over 60%. | c |
id_2496 | For a decade the objective has been the ending of rough sleeping in Britain. New Yorks tough homelessness policies were adopted and they have been far more effective in London than in New York. Rough sleeping is becoming much rarer in London, while the number of homeless in New York remains high. There are several reasons. The benefits system in the UK is fairly generous when compared to the US system. The hostel accommodation in London has been greatly improved, with dormitories converted to single rooms, making the alternatives to living on the street more attractive than in New York. | Improvements to hostel accommodation have made this alternative to rough sleeping more attractive in London than in New York. | e |
id_2497 | For a decade the objective has been the ending of rough sleeping in Britain. New Yorks tough homelessness policies were adopted and they have been far more effective in London than in New York. Rough sleeping is becoming much rarer in London, while the number of homeless in New York remains high. There are several reasons. The benefits system in the UK is fairly generous when compared to the US system. The hostel accommodation in London has been greatly improved, with dormitories converted to single rooms, making the alternatives to living on the street more attractive than in New York. | Homelessness in Britain has declined. | n |
id_2498 | For a decade the objective has been the ending of rough sleeping in Britain. New Yorks tough homelessness policies were adopted and they have been far more effective in London than in New York. Rough sleeping is becoming much rarer in London, while the number of homeless in New York remains high. There are several reasons. The benefits system in the UK is fairly generous when compared to the US system. The hostel accommodation in London has been greatly improved, with dormitories converted to single rooms, making the alternatives to living on the street more attractive than in New York. | A justification for a comparison of the occurrence of homelessness between the two cities is made in the passage. | c |
id_2499 | For ambitious employees, a good relationship with their immediate boss is crucial. A bad relationship can lead to missed opportunities for promotion, and even damage professional reputations. A boss who possesses a thorough understanding of the company's future direction and ultimate goals is the person best equipped to help an employee achieve success. Communication is key. It is important to understand a boss's personal goals and priorities within the company, as well as their individual management approach. Clarifying instructions, anticipating needs, requesting feedback, and accepting criticism gracefully all help to build a solid working relationship. On the other hand, artificial flattery or excessive deference are tactics unlikely to impress if promotion is the goal a good employee should demonstrate the potential to be an equally effective boss. | Flattering the boss can be an effective approach for an employee seeking promotion. | n |
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