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id_2500 | 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. | A bad relationship with a boss can lead to missed opportunities, but does not risk an employee's reputation. | c |
id_2501 | 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. | Employees must reject criticism to build a good working relationship with their boss. | c |
id_2502 | For many years the hunt has been on to find an effective way to treat cancerous tumours using physical rather than chemical means. That hunt may now be over with the latest breakthrough made by Dr Jennifer West at Rice University in Houston, Texas. West has done tests on animals using a non-chemical procedure known as Photothermal Ablation. She injected millions of nanoparticles, which can absorb infrared light, into the animals bloodstreams. These particles go straight to the tumours because, unlike healthy tissue, tumours have abnormal blood capillaries that will let them through. A few hours later an optical fibre is inserted into the tumour and a blast of infrared light is passed down the fibre, which heats the particles and effectively cooks the tumour. | Nanoparticles are objects whose dimensions are measured in nanometres, or billionths of a metre. | n |
id_2503 | For many years the hunt has been on to find an effective way to treat cancerous tumours using physical rather than chemical means. That hunt may now be over with the latest breakthrough made by Dr Jennifer West at Rice University in Houston, Texas. West has done tests on animals using a non-chemical procedure known as Photothermal Ablation. She injected millions of nanoparticles, which can absorb infrared light, into the animals bloodstreams. These particles go straight to the tumours because, unlike healthy tissue, tumours have abnormal blood capillaries that will let them through. A few hours later an optical fibre is inserted into the tumour and a blast of infrared light is passed down the fibre, which heats the particles and effectively cooks the tumour. | Nanoparticles can absorb infrared light. | e |
id_2504 | For many years the hunt has been on to find an effective way to treat cancerous tumours using physical rather than chemical means. That hunt may now be over with the latest breakthrough made by Dr Jennifer West at Rice University in Houston, Texas. West has done tests on animals using a non-chemical procedure known as Photothermal Ablation. She injected millions of nanoparticles, which can absorb infrared light, into the animals bloodstreams. These particles go straight to the tumours because, unlike healthy tissue, tumours have abnormal blood capillaries that will let them through. A few hours later an optical fibre is inserted into the tumour and a blast of infrared light is passed down the fibre, which heats the particles and effectively cooks the tumour. | Photothermal Ablation is the latest breakthrough in chemical treatment for cancer. | c |
id_2505 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing customer market. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers needs. However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | All manufacturers have introduced new production practices to survive. | n |
id_2506 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing customer market. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers needs. However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | Introducing just-in-time inventory control is the best way to remain responsive to market demands. | n |
id_2507 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing customer market. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers needs. However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | Manufactures who do not take up modern manufacturing methods will not automatically produce inferior items. | e |
id_2508 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing markets. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers' needs . However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | All manufacturers have introduced new production practices to survive | n |
id_2509 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing markets. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers' needs . However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | Introducing just-in-time inventory control is the best way to remain responsive to market demands. | n |
id_2510 | For many years, manufacturing practices remained devoid of innovation. That is, until the mid-1990s, when trends in modern manufacturing created a virtual revolution. This was driven by economic survival, global competition and rapidly changing markets. These external forces led to the introduction of production methods such as just-in-time inventory control, advanced manufacturing technology, and integrated manufacturing systems. These practices meant that manufacturers could remain responsive to market conditions and produce items which met customers' needs . However, these new innovations have not necessarily meant that the quality and durability of products have improved. | Manufacturers who do not take up modern manufacturing methods will not automatically produce inferior items. | n |
id_2511 | For most of the last two decades of the previous century the economy of the city of Liverpool was mostly stagnant and far behind that of the rest of the UK. But as other cities have become more expensive, Liverpool has become a more popular place in which to invest and live. Liverpools population dropped from 800,000 after the war to less than 500,000 at the turn of the century. The process of depopulation has now reduced to a trickle and for the first time in decades the working population has grown. The level of unemployment, which once stood at 20 per cent, is down to under 5 per cent. Construction of office space is booming and currently being built are conference complexes, a series of department stores and two 50-floor tower blocks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working population is expected to grow further still. Low living and housing costs have attracted many public sector organizations to relocate to the city. Forty per cent of the workforce of Liverpool work in this sector and it seems that this trend will continue as over half of the new jobs created are public appointments. Subsidy has played a significant part in attracting jobs and investment. Over 4 billion has been spent in the regeneration of the region and the lions share of this has been committed to the city of Liverpool itself. | The city of Liverpool is no longer a net exporter of people. | c |
id_2512 | For most of the last two decades of the previous century the economy of the city of Liverpool was mostly stagnant and far behind that of the rest of the UK. But as other cities have become more expensive, Liverpool has become a more popular place in which to invest and live. Liverpools population dropped from 800,000 after the war to less than 500,000 at the turn of the century. The process of depopulation has now reduced to a trickle and for the first time in decades the working population has grown. The level of unemployment, which once stood at 20 per cent, is down to under 5 per cent. Construction of office space is booming and currently being built are conference complexes, a series of department stores and two 50-floor tower blocks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working population is expected to grow further still. Low living and housing costs have attracted many public sector organizations to relocate to the city. Forty per cent of the workforce of Liverpool work in this sector and it seems that this trend will continue as over half of the new jobs created are public appointments. Subsidy has played a significant part in attracting jobs and investment. Over 4 billion has been spent in the regeneration of the region and the lions share of this has been committed to the city of Liverpool itself. | Much of Liverpools recent success is owed to the fact that the costs of living and housing there are less than in other cities in the UK. | e |
id_2513 | For most of the last two decades of the previous century the economy of the city of Liverpool was mostly stagnant and far behind that of the rest of the UK. But as other cities have become more expensive, Liverpool has become a more popular place in which to invest and live. Liverpools population dropped from 800,000 after the war to less than 500,000 at the turn of the century. The process of depopulation has now reduced to a trickle and for the first time in decades the working population has grown. The level of unemployment, which once stood at 20 per cent, is down to under 5 per cent. Construction of office space is booming and currently being built are conference complexes, a series of department stores and two 50-floor tower blocks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working population is expected to grow further still. Low living and housing costs have attracted many public sector organizations to relocate to the city. Forty per cent of the workforce of Liverpool work in this sector and it seems that this trend will continue as over half of the new jobs created are public appointments. Subsidy has played a significant part in attracting jobs and investment. Over 4 billion has been spent in the regeneration of the region and the lions share of this has been committed to the city of Liverpool itself. | During the 1990s the economy of the region fell far behind that of the rest of the UK. | n |
id_2514 | For most of the last two decades of the previous century the economy of the city of Liverpool was mostly stagnant and far behind that of the rest of the UK. But as other cities have become more expensive, Liverpool has become a more popular place in which to invest and live. Liverpools population dropped from 800,000 after the war to less than 500,000 at the turn of the century. The process of depopulation has now reduced to a trickle and for the first time in decades the working population has grown. The level of unemployment, which once stood at 20 per cent, is down to under 5 per cent. Construction of office space is booming and currently being built are conference complexes, a series of department stores and two 50-floor tower blocks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working population is expected to grow further still. Low living and housing costs have attracted many public sector organizations to relocate to the city. Forty per cent of the workforce of Liverpool work in this sector and it seems that this trend will continue as over half of the new jobs created are public appointments. Subsidy has played a significant part in attracting jobs and investment. Over 4 billion has been spent in the regeneration of the region and the lions share of this has been committed to the city of Liverpool itself. | Forty per cent of the new jobs are public appointments. | c |
id_2515 | For most of the last two decades of the previous century the economy of the city of Liverpool was mostly stagnant and far behind that of the rest of the UK. But as other cities have become more expensive, Liverpool has become a more popular place in which to invest and live. Liverpools population dropped from 800,000 after the war to less than 500,000 at the turn of the century. The process of depopulation has now reduced to a trickle and for the first time in decades the working population has grown. The level of unemployment, which once stood at 20 per cent, is down to under 5 per cent. Construction of office space is booming and currently being built are conference complexes, a series of department stores and two 50-floor tower blocks. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working population is expected to grow further still. Low living and housing costs have attracted many public sector organizations to relocate to the city. Forty per cent of the workforce of Liverpool work in this sector and it seems that this trend will continue as over half of the new jobs created are public appointments. Subsidy has played a significant part in attracting jobs and investment. Over 4 billion has been spent in the regeneration of the region and the lions share of this has been committed to the city of Liverpool itself. | Without the subsidy fewer jobs would have been attracted to the region. | e |
id_2516 | For most people, any reference to hypnosis brings to mind images of individuals involved in amusing, and often out of character, behavior. However, hypnosis is also a topic of scientific research. Research by scientists over the last few decades has revealed ways in which memory processes, and processes involved in pain perception can be changed using hypnosis. It has also been found that hypnotic suggestions can regulate activity in identifiable sections of the brain and can contribute to the effective management of cognitive conflict. Findings from several related brain imaging studies, for example, have suggested that people under hypnosis cab exhibit reduced level of brain activity in both visual area and the anterior cingulate cortex. Disparate research has already established the role of these brain structures in the monitoring the cognitive conflict. | Scientific research on the effects of hypnosis on memory and pain perception started a few decades ago. | e |
id_2517 | For most people, any reference to hypnosis brings to mind images of individuals involved in amusing, and often out of character, behavior. However, hypnosis is also a topic of scientific research. Research by scientists over the last few decades has revealed ways in which memory processes, and processes involved in pain perception can be changed using hypnosis. It has also been found that hypnotic suggestions can regulate activity in identifiable sections of the brain and can contribute to the effective management of cognitive conflict. Findings from several related brain imaging studies, for example, have suggested that people under hypnosis cab exhibit reduced level of brain activity in both visual area and the anterior cingulate cortex. Disparate research has already established the role of these brain structures in the monitoring the cognitive conflict. | Few people think that when hypnotized, individuals do things that they would not normally have done. | n |
id_2518 | For most people, any reference to hypnosis brings to mind images of individuals involved in amusing, and often out of character, behavior. However, hypnosis is also a topic of scientific research. Research by scientists over the last few decades has revealed ways in which memory processes, and processes involved in pain perception can be changed using hypnosis. It has also been found that hypnotic suggestions can regulate activity in identifiable sections of the brain and can contribute to the effective management of cognitive conflict. Findings from several related brain imaging studies, for example, have suggested that people under hypnosis cab exhibit reduced level of brain activity in both visual area and the anterior cingulate cortex. Disparate research has already established the role of these brain structures in the monitoring the cognitive conflict. | Under hypnosis most individuals participate in entertaining activities. | n |
id_2519 | For small to mediun-sized busmesses, outsourcing payroll operations 1s almost certamly a way to save time and staff costs. Payrol-service providers utilise specially designed computer systems, resulting in greater speed, accuracy and flexibility than an in-house department. Outsourcing the time-consuming burden of payroll admmistration enables businesses to be more focused and productive. However, organisations that outsource their payroll functions should remember that employers are ultimately accountable for the payment of their employees income taxes and national msurance payments and should thus choose ther provider wssely. | The passage states that small businesses can always save money by outsourcing payroll functions. | c |
id_2520 | For small to mediun-sized busmesses, outsourcing payroll operations 1s almost certamly a way to save time and staff costs. Payrol-service providers utilise specially designed computer systems, resulting in greater speed, accuracy and flexibility than an in-house department. Outsourcing the time-consuming burden of payroll admmistration enables businesses to be more focused and productive. However, organisations that outsource their payroll functions should remember that employers are ultimately accountable for the payment of their employees income taxes and national msurance payments and should thus choose ther provider wssely. | One possible benefit of outsourcing payroll operations is reduced employee overheads. | e |
id_2521 | For small to mediun-sized busmesses, outsourcing payroll operations 1s almost certamly a way to save time and staff costs. Payrol-service providers utilise specially designed computer systems, resulting in greater speed, accuracy and flexibility than an in-house department. Outsourcing the time-consuming burden of payroll admmistration enables businesses to be more focused and productive. However, organisations that outsource their payroll functions should remember that employers are ultimately accountable for the payment of their employees income taxes and national msurance payments and should thus choose ther provider wssely. | Large businesses would not benefit from outsourcing payroll operations. | n |
id_2522 | For small to mediun-sized busmesses, outsourcing payroll operations 1s almost certamly a way to save time and staff costs. Payrol-service providers utilise specially designed computer systems, resulting in greater speed, accuracy and flexibility than an in-house department. Outsourcing the time-consuming burden of payroll admmistration enables businesses to be more focused and productive. However, organisations that outsource their payroll functions should remember that employers are ultimately accountable for the payment of their employees income taxes and national msurance payments and should thus choose ther provider wssely. | Fraudulent payroll-service providers can be held responsible for an employers non-payment of taxes. | c |
id_2523 | For small to mediun-sized busmesses, outsourcing payroll operations 1s almost certamly a way to save time and staff costs. Payrol-service providers utilise specially designed computer systems, resulting in greater speed, accuracy and flexibility than an in-house department. Outsourcing the time-consuming burden of payroll admmistration enables businesses to be more focused and productive. However, organisations that outsource their payroll functions should remember that employers are ultimately accountable for the payment of their employees income taxes and national msurance payments and should thus choose ther provider wssely. | The passage suggests that payroll service providers will make fewer mistakes than in-house payroll staff. | e |
id_2524 | For something that 1s everywhere, colour ts often misunderstood. The sensation of colour ts a consequence of the human eye reacting differently to different wavelengths of light. Thus colour is not actually the property of an object. Any colour can be created by combing the three primary colours. An object that absorbs all light wavelengths appears black, whilst one that reflects all wavelengths is white. Some colours have different associations depending on where you are in the world. Purple, for example, ts associated with royalty m Western societies. In Thailand, however, tt is the colour of mournng. The meanings of colours can also change over time. Today, nm Western culture, baby girls are often dressed in pink. In the 19th century, however, pink was seen as a colour for baby boys. | Black objects reflect all light wavelengths. | c |
id_2525 | For something that 1s everywhere, colour ts often misunderstood. The sensation of colour ts a consequence of the human eye reacting differently to different wavelengths of light. Thus colour is not actually the property of an object. Any colour can be created by combing the three primary colours. An object that absorbs all light wavelengths appears black, whilst one that reflects all wavelengths is white. Some colours have different associations depending on where you are in the world. Purple, for example, ts associated with royalty m Western societies. In Thailand, however, tt is the colour of mournng. The meanings of colours can also change over time. Today, nm Western culture, baby girls are often dressed in pink. In the 19th century, however, pink was seen as a colour for baby boys. | The colour red ts perceived differently n Western society to how tt is viewed in Asian cultures. | n |
id_2526 | For something that 1s everywhere, colour ts often misunderstood. The sensation of colour ts a consequence of the human eye reacting differently to different wavelengths of light. Thus colour is not actually the property of an object. Any colour can be created by combing the three primary colours. An object that absorbs all light wavelengths appears black, whilst one that reflects all wavelengths is white. Some colours have different associations depending on where you are in the world. Purple, for example, ts associated with royalty m Western societies. In Thailand, however, tt is the colour of mournng. The meanings of colours can also change over time. Today, nm Western culture, baby girls are often dressed in pink. In the 19th century, however, pink was seen as a colour for baby boys. | In Western culture, pink has traditionally been viewed as a feminine hue. | c |
id_2527 | For something that 1s everywhere, colour ts often misunderstood. The sensation of colour ts a consequence of the human eye reacting differently to different wavelengths of light. Thus colour is not actually the property of an object. Any colour can be created by combing the three primary colours. An object that absorbs all light wavelengths appears black, whilst one that reflects all wavelengths is white. Some colours have different associations depending on where you are in the world. Purple, for example, ts associated with royalty m Western societies. In Thailand, however, tt is the colour of mournng. The meanings of colours can also change over time. Today, nm Western culture, baby girls are often dressed in pink. In the 19th century, however, pink was seen as a colour for baby boys. | The passage argues that colour ts often misunderstood because everyones eyes perceive light differently. | c |
id_2528 | Fordlandia Natural latex, or rubber, comes from the sap of rubber trees. Native to the Amazon region of South America, they had long been a Brazilian monopoly, and the boom in wild rubber had made many remote jungle towns rich, until thousands of seeds of the tree were smuggled out by an entrepreneurial Brit, Henry Wickham. These were used to start plantations throughout British East-Asia, where the trees, facing none of their natural insect or fungal enemies, thrived. Thus, the Brazilian rubber boom crashed, leaving control of the worlds supplies with the plantation owners in Malaysia (where to this day, most of the worlds natural rubber is still produced). But in the late 1920s, the automobile tycoon, Henry Ford, had a vision. He believed in vertical integrationthat is, a supply chain of car parts and products united through his ownership. With his factories producing hundreds of thousands of cars, each of them needing rubber tyres, Ford wanted his own source of rubber and resented dealing with the British plantation interests. He therefore decided to buy a huge tract of Amazonian rainforest, where he would transplant his American workers and lifestyle, in order to make the largest rubber plantation on the planet. It would be called Fordlandia ambitious, grandiose, and doomed from the beginning. The first mistake was to hire a rather untrustworthy Brazilian to scout for the best location in the Amazon, This man recommended a damp, rocky, and infertile series of hillsides near the Tapajos river, a tributary of the wide and mighty Amazon. In 1928, Ford blindly acquired a 10,000-square-kilometre concession and immediately ordered an immense amount of infrastructure to be builtat huge cost. To this end, earth-moving equipment arrived, tractors, stump-pullers, trains, prefabricated living quarters, and food-making equipment. The surface jungle was cleared, scores of Fords employees were relocated, and out of this wilderness sprang an instant slice of America, complete with a modern hospital, library, hotels, ice cream makers, and row upon row of prefabricated houses positioned along nicely paved streets. The second big mistake was that, incredibly, Ford never thought to consult trained horticulturists. He naively assumed that his own company engineers, who had proven their worth in the production of cars, would prove equally adept at this agricultural endeavour. Thus, they planted the rubber trees thickly together, believing that they would nourish in their home environment. However, in the Amazonian jungle, wild rubber trees are actually few and far between a defence against the prodigious insect life which chews, drills, sucks, and bites. In such environments, monocultural farming approaches are dubious at best. Fords young rubber trees had no sooner appeared from the ground than they were attacked by caterpillars, ants, red spiders, and most significantly, South American leaf blight, which, to this day, limits the number of rubber plantations in this, the trees native land. The next problem was based on cultural differences. The newly planted fields needed hundreds of local workers, who, although well paid, were expected to follow Fords patronising vision of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of the local custom of working before and after the roastingly hot middle of the day, Fords workers were forced to do the standard company 9-to-5 shift. Similarly, they had to eat American food and take part in weekend activities considered sufficiently wholesome, such as poetry reading and square-dancing. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at work, in the housing estates, or within Fordlandias sphere of influence. After a year denied their local customs, the disgruntled workers had had enough, and a riot followed, leaving the hapless American staff scurrying into the jungle to escape injury. It was all finally quelled with the arrival of the Brazilian army. After three years, and no significant quantity of rubber to show for it all, Ford did what he should have done from the beginninghired a trained horticulturist, who ultimately concluded that, in whatever manner the rubber trees were planted, the land was not appropriate for their cultivation. With such humiliating news, anyone less stubborn would have given up, yet Ford purchased another tract of land some fifty miles downstream of the Tapajos riverflatter, drier, better drained, and more suitable for machinery and started all over again. This time, Ford imported blight-resistant Malaysian rubber trees, and much more horticultural expertise. Still, 10 years later, in 1942, the operation could only produce a paltry 750 tons of latex rubber. Fords factories were hoping for almost 40,000. The final nail in the coffin was the development of synthetic rubber, and in 1945, it was time to admit defeat, although it was not Ford who did so. By that time he was old and ill and had relinquished control of his company to his grandson, Henry Ford II, who closed down the entire rubber operation. The holdings were sold back to the Brazilian government for a pittance, leaving a loss of over $20 million (which would be over 10 times that much in todays terms) a complete and utter financial disaster. | Rubber trees are well suited to Malaysia. | c |
id_2529 | Fordlandia Natural latex, or rubber, comes from the sap of rubber trees. Native to the Amazon region of South America, they had long been a Brazilian monopoly, and the boom in wild rubber had made many remote jungle towns rich, until thousands of seeds of the tree were smuggled out by an entrepreneurial Brit, Henry Wickham. These were used to start plantations throughout British East-Asia, where the trees, facing none of their natural insect or fungal enemies, thrived. Thus, the Brazilian rubber boom crashed, leaving control of the worlds supplies with the plantation owners in Malaysia (where to this day, most of the worlds natural rubber is still produced). But in the late 1920s, the automobile tycoon, Henry Ford, had a vision. He believed in vertical integrationthat is, a supply chain of car parts and products united through his ownership. With his factories producing hundreds of thousands of cars, each of them needing rubber tyres, Ford wanted his own source of rubber and resented dealing with the British plantation interests. He therefore decided to buy a huge tract of Amazonian rainforest, where he would transplant his American workers and lifestyle, in order to make the largest rubber plantation on the planet. It would be called Fordlandia ambitious, grandiose, and doomed from the beginning. The first mistake was to hire a rather untrustworthy Brazilian to scout for the best location in the Amazon, This man recommended a damp, rocky, and infertile series of hillsides near the Tapajos river, a tributary of the wide and mighty Amazon. In 1928, Ford blindly acquired a 10,000-square-kilometre concession and immediately ordered an immense amount of infrastructure to be builtat huge cost. To this end, earth-moving equipment arrived, tractors, stump-pullers, trains, prefabricated living quarters, and food-making equipment. The surface jungle was cleared, scores of Fords employees were relocated, and out of this wilderness sprang an instant slice of America, complete with a modern hospital, library, hotels, ice cream makers, and row upon row of prefabricated houses positioned along nicely paved streets. The second big mistake was that, incredibly, Ford never thought to consult trained horticulturists. He naively assumed that his own company engineers, who had proven their worth in the production of cars, would prove equally adept at this agricultural endeavour. Thus, they planted the rubber trees thickly together, believing that they would nourish in their home environment. However, in the Amazonian jungle, wild rubber trees are actually few and far between a defence against the prodigious insect life which chews, drills, sucks, and bites. In such environments, monocultural farming approaches are dubious at best. Fords young rubber trees had no sooner appeared from the ground than they were attacked by caterpillars, ants, red spiders, and most significantly, South American leaf blight, which, to this day, limits the number of rubber plantations in this, the trees native land. The next problem was based on cultural differences. The newly planted fields needed hundreds of local workers, who, although well paid, were expected to follow Fords patronising vision of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of the local custom of working before and after the roastingly hot middle of the day, Fords workers were forced to do the standard company 9-to-5 shift. Similarly, they had to eat American food and take part in weekend activities considered sufficiently wholesome, such as poetry reading and square-dancing. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at work, in the housing estates, or within Fordlandias sphere of influence. After a year denied their local customs, the disgruntled workers had had enough, and a riot followed, leaving the hapless American staff scurrying into the jungle to escape injury. It was all finally quelled with the arrival of the Brazilian army. After three years, and no significant quantity of rubber to show for it all, Ford did what he should have done from the beginninghired a trained horticulturist, who ultimately concluded that, in whatever manner the rubber trees were planted, the land was not appropriate for their cultivation. With such humiliating news, anyone less stubborn would have given up, yet Ford purchased another tract of land some fifty miles downstream of the Tapajos riverflatter, drier, better drained, and more suitable for machinery and started all over again. This time, Ford imported blight-resistant Malaysian rubber trees, and much more horticultural expertise. Still, 10 years later, in 1942, the operation could only produce a paltry 750 tons of latex rubber. Fords factories were hoping for almost 40,000. The final nail in the coffin was the development of synthetic rubber, and in 1945, it was time to admit defeat, although it was not Ford who did so. By that time he was old and ill and had relinquished control of his company to his grandson, Henry Ford II, who closed down the entire rubber operation. The holdings were sold back to the Brazilian government for a pittance, leaving a loss of over $20 million (which would be over 10 times that much in todays terms) a complete and utter financial disaster. | The Tapajos river is very wide. | n |
id_2530 | Fordlandia Natural latex, or rubber, comes from the sap of rubber trees. Native to the Amazon region of South America, they had long been a Brazilian monopoly, and the boom in wild rubber had made many remote jungle towns rich, until thousands of seeds of the tree were smuggled out by an entrepreneurial Brit, Henry Wickham. These were used to start plantations throughout British East-Asia, where the trees, facing none of their natural insect or fungal enemies, thrived. Thus, the Brazilian rubber boom crashed, leaving control of the worlds supplies with the plantation owners in Malaysia (where to this day, most of the worlds natural rubber is still produced). But in the late 1920s, the automobile tycoon, Henry Ford, had a vision. He believed in vertical integrationthat is, a supply chain of car parts and products united through his ownership. With his factories producing hundreds of thousands of cars, each of them needing rubber tyres, Ford wanted his own source of rubber and resented dealing with the British plantation interests. He therefore decided to buy a huge tract of Amazonian rainforest, where he would transplant his American workers and lifestyle, in order to make the largest rubber plantation on the planet. It would be called Fordlandia ambitious, grandiose, and doomed from the beginning. The first mistake was to hire a rather untrustworthy Brazilian to scout for the best location in the Amazon, This man recommended a damp, rocky, and infertile series of hillsides near the Tapajos river, a tributary of the wide and mighty Amazon. In 1928, Ford blindly acquired a 10,000-square-kilometre concession and immediately ordered an immense amount of infrastructure to be builtat huge cost. To this end, earth-moving equipment arrived, tractors, stump-pullers, trains, prefabricated living quarters, and food-making equipment. The surface jungle was cleared, scores of Fords employees were relocated, and out of this wilderness sprang an instant slice of America, complete with a modern hospital, library, hotels, ice cream makers, and row upon row of prefabricated houses positioned along nicely paved streets. The second big mistake was that, incredibly, Ford never thought to consult trained horticulturists. He naively assumed that his own company engineers, who had proven their worth in the production of cars, would prove equally adept at this agricultural endeavour. Thus, they planted the rubber trees thickly together, believing that they would nourish in their home environment. However, in the Amazonian jungle, wild rubber trees are actually few and far between a defence against the prodigious insect life which chews, drills, sucks, and bites. In such environments, monocultural farming approaches are dubious at best. Fords young rubber trees had no sooner appeared from the ground than they were attacked by caterpillars, ants, red spiders, and most significantly, South American leaf blight, which, to this day, limits the number of rubber plantations in this, the trees native land. The next problem was based on cultural differences. The newly planted fields needed hundreds of local workers, who, although well paid, were expected to follow Fords patronising vision of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of the local custom of working before and after the roastingly hot middle of the day, Fords workers were forced to do the standard company 9-to-5 shift. Similarly, they had to eat American food and take part in weekend activities considered sufficiently wholesome, such as poetry reading and square-dancing. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at work, in the housing estates, or within Fordlandias sphere of influence. After a year denied their local customs, the disgruntled workers had had enough, and a riot followed, leaving the hapless American staff scurrying into the jungle to escape injury. It was all finally quelled with the arrival of the Brazilian army. After three years, and no significant quantity of rubber to show for it all, Ford did what he should have done from the beginninghired a trained horticulturist, who ultimately concluded that, in whatever manner the rubber trees were planted, the land was not appropriate for their cultivation. With such humiliating news, anyone less stubborn would have given up, yet Ford purchased another tract of land some fifty miles downstream of the Tapajos riverflatter, drier, better drained, and more suitable for machinery and started all over again. This time, Ford imported blight-resistant Malaysian rubber trees, and much more horticultural expertise. Still, 10 years later, in 1942, the operation could only produce a paltry 750 tons of latex rubber. Fords factories were hoping for almost 40,000. The final nail in the coffin was the development of synthetic rubber, and in 1945, it was time to admit defeat, although it was not Ford who did so. By that time he was old and ill and had relinquished control of his company to his grandson, Henry Ford II, who closed down the entire rubber operation. The holdings were sold back to the Brazilian government for a pittance, leaving a loss of over $20 million (which would be over 10 times that much in todays terms) a complete and utter financial disaster. | Henry Wickham destroyed the Brazilian rubber boom. | e |
id_2531 | Fordlandia Natural latex, or rubber, comes from the sap of rubber trees. Native to the Amazon region of South America, they had long been a Brazilian monopoly, and the boom in wild rubber had made many remote jungle towns rich, until thousands of seeds of the tree were smuggled out by an entrepreneurial Brit, Henry Wickham. These were used to start plantations throughout British East-Asia, where the trees, facing none of their natural insect or fungal enemies, thrived. Thus, the Brazilian rubber boom crashed, leaving control of the worlds supplies with the plantation owners in Malaysia (where to this day, most of the worlds natural rubber is still produced). But in the late 1920s, the automobile tycoon, Henry Ford, had a vision. He believed in vertical integrationthat is, a supply chain of car parts and products united through his ownership. With his factories producing hundreds of thousands of cars, each of them needing rubber tyres, Ford wanted his own source of rubber and resented dealing with the British plantation interests. He therefore decided to buy a huge tract of Amazonian rainforest, where he would transplant his American workers and lifestyle, in order to make the largest rubber plantation on the planet. It would be called Fordlandia ambitious, grandiose, and doomed from the beginning. The first mistake was to hire a rather untrustworthy Brazilian to scout for the best location in the Amazon, This man recommended a damp, rocky, and infertile series of hillsides near the Tapajos river, a tributary of the wide and mighty Amazon. In 1928, Ford blindly acquired a 10,000-square-kilometre concession and immediately ordered an immense amount of infrastructure to be builtat huge cost. To this end, earth-moving equipment arrived, tractors, stump-pullers, trains, prefabricated living quarters, and food-making equipment. The surface jungle was cleared, scores of Fords employees were relocated, and out of this wilderness sprang an instant slice of America, complete with a modern hospital, library, hotels, ice cream makers, and row upon row of prefabricated houses positioned along nicely paved streets. The second big mistake was that, incredibly, Ford never thought to consult trained horticulturists. He naively assumed that his own company engineers, who had proven their worth in the production of cars, would prove equally adept at this agricultural endeavour. Thus, they planted the rubber trees thickly together, believing that they would nourish in their home environment. However, in the Amazonian jungle, wild rubber trees are actually few and far between a defence against the prodigious insect life which chews, drills, sucks, and bites. In such environments, monocultural farming approaches are dubious at best. Fords young rubber trees had no sooner appeared from the ground than they were attacked by caterpillars, ants, red spiders, and most significantly, South American leaf blight, which, to this day, limits the number of rubber plantations in this, the trees native land. The next problem was based on cultural differences. The newly planted fields needed hundreds of local workers, who, although well paid, were expected to follow Fords patronising vision of a healthy lifestyle. Instead of the local custom of working before and after the roastingly hot middle of the day, Fords workers were forced to do the standard company 9-to-5 shift. Similarly, they had to eat American food and take part in weekend activities considered sufficiently wholesome, such as poetry reading and square-dancing. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at work, in the housing estates, or within Fordlandias sphere of influence. After a year denied their local customs, the disgruntled workers had had enough, and a riot followed, leaving the hapless American staff scurrying into the jungle to escape injury. It was all finally quelled with the arrival of the Brazilian army. After three years, and no significant quantity of rubber to show for it all, Ford did what he should have done from the beginninghired a trained horticulturist, who ultimately concluded that, in whatever manner the rubber trees were planted, the land was not appropriate for their cultivation. With such humiliating news, anyone less stubborn would have given up, yet Ford purchased another tract of land some fifty miles downstream of the Tapajos riverflatter, drier, better drained, and more suitable for machinery and started all over again. This time, Ford imported blight-resistant Malaysian rubber trees, and much more horticultural expertise. Still, 10 years later, in 1942, the operation could only produce a paltry 750 tons of latex rubber. Fords factories were hoping for almost 40,000. The final nail in the coffin was the development of synthetic rubber, and in 1945, it was time to admit defeat, although it was not Ford who did so. By that time he was old and ill and had relinquished control of his company to his grandson, Henry Ford II, who closed down the entire rubber operation. The holdings were sold back to the Brazilian government for a pittance, leaving a loss of over $20 million (which would be over 10 times that much in todays terms) a complete and utter financial disaster. | Fordlandia may have succeeded. | c |
id_2532 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | Natural forests still exist in parts of Europe. | c |
id_2533 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | Problems in Nordic countries were excluded because they are outside the European Economic Community. | c |
id_2534 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | The Strasbourg conference decided that a forest policy must allow for the possibility of change. | e |
id_2535 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | Forests are a renewable source of raw material. | e |
id_2536 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | Forest policy should be limited by national boundaries. | c |
id_2537 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | Forest problems of Mediterranean countries are to be discussed at the next meeting or experts. | n |
id_2538 | Forests are one of the main elements of our natural heritage. The decline of Europes forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them. European countries are becoming increasingly concerned by major threats to European forests, threats which know no frontiers other than those of geography or climate: air pollution, soil deterioration, the increasing number of forest fires and sometimes even the mismanagement of our woodland and forest heritage. There has been a growing awareness of the need for countries to get together to co-ordinate their policies. In December 1990, Strasbourg hosted the first Ministerial Conference on the protection of Europes forests. The conference brought together 31 countries from both Western and Eastern Europe. The topics discussed included the coordinated study of the destruction of forests, as well as how to combat forest fires and the extension of European research programs on the forest ecosystem. The preparatory work for the conference had been undertaken at two meetings of experts. Their initial task was to decide which of the many forest problems of concern to Europe involved the largest number of countries and might be the subject of joint action. Those confined to particular geographical areas, such as countries bordering the Mediterranean or the Nordic countries therefore had to be discarded. However, this does not mean that in future they will be ignored. As a whole, European countries see forests as performing a triple function: biological, economic and recreational. The first is to act as a green lung for our planet; by means of photosynthesis, forests produce oxygen through the transformation of solar energy, thus fulfilling what for humans is the essential role of an immense, non-polluting power plant. At the same time, forests provide raw materials for human activities through their constantly renewed production of wood. Finally, they offer those condemned to spend five days a week in an urban environment an unrivalled area of freedom to unwind and take part in a range of leisure activities, such as hunting, riding and hiking. The economic importance of forests has been understood since the dawn of man wood was the first fuel. The other aspects have been recognised only for a few centuries but they are becoming more and more important. Hence, there is a real concern throughout Europe about the damage to the forest environment which threatens these three basic roles. The myth of the natural forest has survived, yet there are effectively no remaining primary forests in Europe. All European forests are artificial, having been adapted and exploited by man for thousands of years. This means that a forest policy is vital, that it must transcend national frontiers and generations of people, and that it must allow for the inevitable changes that take place in the forests, in needs, and hence in policy. The Strasbourg conference was one of the first events on such a scale to reach this conclusion. A general declaration was made that a central place in any ecologically coherent forest policy must be given to continuity over time and to the possible effects of unforeseen events, to ensure that the full potential of these forests is maintained. That general declaration was accompanied by six detailed resolutions to assist national policy-making. The first proposes the extension and systematisation of surveillance sites to monitor forest decline. Forest decline is still poorly understood but leads to the loss of a high proportion of a trees needles or leaves. The entire continent and the majority of species are now affected: between 30% and 50% of the tree population. The condition appears to result from the cumulative effect of a number of factors, with atmospheric pollutants the principal culprits. Compounds of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide should be particularly closely watched. However, their effects are probably accentuated by climatic factors, such as drought and hard winters, or soil imbalances such as soil acidification, which damages the roots. The second resolution concentrates on the need to preserve the genetic diversity of European forests. The aim is to reverse the decline in the number of tree species or at least to preserve the genetic material of all of them. Although forest fires do not affect all of Europe to the same extent, the amount of damage caused the experts to propose as the third resolution that the Strasbourg conference consider the establishment of a European databank on the subject. All information used in the development of national preventative policies would become generally available. The subject of the fourth resolution discussed by the ministers was mountain forests. In Europe, it is undoubtedly the mountain ecosystem which has changed most rapidly and is most at risk. A thinly scattered permanent population and development of leisure activities, particularly skiing, have resulted in significant long-term changes to the local ecosystems. Proposed developments include a preferential research program on mountain forests. The fifth resolution relaunched the European research network on the physiology of trees, called Eurosilva. Eurosilva should support joint European research on tree diseases and their physiological and biochemical aspects. Each country concerned could increase the number of scholarships and other financial support for doctoral theses and research projects in this area. Finally, the conference established the framework for a European research network on forest ecosystems. This would also involve harmonising activities in individual countries as well as identifying a number of priority research topics relating to the protection of forests. The Strasbourg conferences main concern was to provide for the future. This was the initial motivation, one now shared by all 31 participants representing 31 European countries. Their final text commits them to on-going discussion between government representatives with responsibility for forests. | The biological functions of forests were recognized only in the twentieth century. | c |
id_2539 | Founded in 1838 as Spring Hill College in Birmingham, Mansfield College was not fully integrated into the University of Oxford until 1995. Today the college, which is home to 210 undergraduates, 130 graduate students and 35 visiting scholars, is Oxford's smallest, except for Harris Manchester, the university's college for mature students. Mansfield has a reputation for friendliness and informality. Spring Hill College was founded as a Nonconformist college for those who could not attend major national universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, which required allegiance to the Church of England. The college stood in Birmingham for almost 50 years, moving to Oxford after the 1871 Universities Test Act, which abolished religious tests for admission of non-theological students at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. With the move, the college was also renamed in recognition of its greatest donors, George and Elizabeth Mansfield. Though Mansfield was Oxford's first Non- conformist college, it lost much of its religious character over time, becoming increasingly secular. Still, signs of the college's religious heritage still stand. A prominent portrait of Oliver Cromwell, the ultimate English dissenter who was killed in 1658, hangs in the Senior Common Room, and in the halls and library of Mansfield hang portraits of the 1662 dissenters who separated from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity required Anglican ordination for all clergy. Chapel services continue to be performed in the Nonconformist tradition, and the College Chaplain is always from a Nonconformist denomination. The college's religious past has also historically strengthened its ties to universities in the United States, from which the college still carries a long tradition of accepting a number of American junior year abroad students each year. | Mansfield is Oxford'ssmallest college. | c |
id_2540 | Founded in 1838 as Spring Hill College in Birmingham, Mansfield College was not fully integrated into the University of Oxford until 1995. Today the college, which is home to 210 undergraduates, 130 graduate students and 35 visiting scholars, is Oxford's smallest, except for Harris Manchester, the university's college for mature students. Mansfield has a reputation for friendliness and informality. Spring Hill College was founded as a Nonconformist college for those who could not attend major national universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, which required allegiance to the Church of England. The college stood in Birmingham for almost 50 years, moving to Oxford after the 1871 Universities Test Act, which abolished religious tests for admission of non-theological students at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. With the move, the college was also renamed in recognition of its greatest donors, George and Elizabeth Mansfield. Though Mansfield was Oxford's first Non- conformist college, it lost much of its religious character over time, becoming increasingly secular. Still, signs of the college's religious heritage still stand. A prominent portrait of Oliver Cromwell, the ultimate English dissenter who was killed in 1658, hangs in the Senior Common Room, and in the halls and library of Mansfield hang portraits of the 1662 dissenters who separated from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity required Anglican ordination for all clergy. Chapel services continue to be performed in the Nonconformist tradition, and the College Chaplain is always from a Nonconformist denomination. The college's religious past has also historically strengthened its ties to universities in the United States, from which the college still carries a long tradition of accepting a number of American junior year abroad students each year. | Durham University once required a religious admissions test. | e |
id_2541 | Founded in 1838 as Spring Hill College in Birmingham, Mansfield College was not fully integrated into the University of Oxford until 1995. Today the college, which is home to 210 undergraduates, 130 graduate students and 35 visiting scholars, is Oxford's smallest, except for Harris Manchester, the university's college for mature students. Mansfield has a reputation for friendliness and informality. Spring Hill College was founded as a Nonconformist college for those who could not attend major national universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, which required allegiance to the Church of England. The college stood in Birmingham for almost 50 years, moving to Oxford after the 1871 Universities Test Act, which abolished religious tests for admission of non-theological students at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. With the move, the college was also renamed in recognition of its greatest donors, George and Elizabeth Mansfield. Though Mansfield was Oxford's first Non- conformist college, it lost much of its religious character over time, becoming increasingly secular. Still, signs of the college's religious heritage still stand. A prominent portrait of Oliver Cromwell, the ultimate English dissenter who was killed in 1658, hangs in the Senior Common Room, and in the halls and library of Mansfield hang portraits of the 1662 dissenters who separated from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity required Anglican ordination for all clergy. Chapel services continue to be performed in the Nonconformist tradition, and the College Chaplain is always from a Nonconformist denomination. The college's religious past has also historically strengthened its ties to universities in the United States, from which the college still carries a long tradition of accepting a number of American junior year abroad students each year. | The Mansfield CollegeChapel is not consecrated. | n |
id_2542 | Founded in 1838 as Spring Hill College in Birmingham, Mansfield College was not fully integrated into the University of Oxford until 1995. Today the college, which is home to 210 undergraduates, 130 graduate students and 35 visiting scholars, is Oxford's smallest, except for Harris Manchester, the university's college for mature students. Mansfield has a reputation for friendliness and informality. Spring Hill College was founded as a Nonconformist college for those who could not attend major national universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, which required allegiance to the Church of England. The college stood in Birmingham for almost 50 years, moving to Oxford after the 1871 Universities Test Act, which abolished religious tests for admission of non-theological students at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. With the move, the college was also renamed in recognition of its greatest donors, George and Elizabeth Mansfield. Though Mansfield was Oxford's first Non- conformist college, it lost much of its religious character over time, becoming increasingly secular. Still, signs of the college's religious heritage still stand. A prominent portrait of Oliver Cromwell, the ultimate English dissenter who was killed in 1658, hangs in the Senior Common Room, and in the halls and library of Mansfield hang portraits of the 1662 dissenters who separated from the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity required Anglican ordination for all clergy. Chapel services continue to be performed in the Nonconformist tradition, and the College Chaplain is always from a Nonconformist denomination. The college's religious past has also historically strengthened its ties to universities in the United States, from which the college still carries a long tradition of accepting a number of American junior year abroad students each year. | Oliver Cromwell was one of the 1662 dissenters. | c |
id_2543 | Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds an annual conference of 120 of the worlds most powerful and influential people. Participants, invited by a steering committee comprised of two people from 18 different countries, typically include financiers, industrialists, politicians, royalty and newspaper editors. Past delegates have included Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, shortly before becoming heads of state. Reporters, however, are not invited: the Bilderberg Groups meetings are conducted in privacy, with strict confidentiality rules to foster open discussion. The Group was established to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and Europe and to create an informal network for the global elite. No votes are taken at the conference and no policies are agreed. However, the secrecy surrounding the conferences has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Right-wing critics believe that the Bilderberg Group is a shadowy global government, with some conspiracy theorists holding the Group responsible for organising events including the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the Bosnian War and the invasion of Iraq. Left-wing activists, who call for greater transparency, accuse the Group of being an unelected capitalist cabal controlling world finance. While opponents view the Group as undemocratic, supporters argue that modern democracies depend on cooperation between banking and politics, and that organisations such as the Bilderberg Group help ensure their success. | Representatives from the media are not allowed to attend the Bilderberg Group conference. | c |
id_2544 | Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds an annual conference of 120 of the worlds most powerful and influential people. Participants, invited by a steering committee comprised of two people from 18 different countries, typically include financiers, industrialists, politicians, royalty and newspaper editors. Past delegates have included Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, shortly before becoming heads of state. Reporters, however, are not invited: the Bilderberg Groups meetings are conducted in privacy, with strict confidentiality rules to foster open discussion. The Group was established to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and Europe and to create an informal network for the global elite. No votes are taken at the conference and no policies are agreed. However, the secrecy surrounding the conferences has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Right-wing critics believe that the Bilderberg Group is a shadowy global government, with some conspiracy theorists holding the Group responsible for organising events including the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the Bosnian War and the invasion of Iraq. Left-wing activists, who call for greater transparency, accuse the Group of being an unelected capitalist cabal controlling world finance. While opponents view the Group as undemocratic, supporters argue that modern democracies depend on cooperation between banking and politics, and that organisations such as the Bilderberg Group help ensure their success. | The Bilderberg Group has critics on both sides of the ideological spectrum. | e |
id_2545 | Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds an annual conference of 120 of the worlds most powerful and influential people. Participants, invited by a steering committee comprised of two people from 18 different countries, typically include financiers, industrialists, politicians, royalty and newspaper editors. Past delegates have included Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, shortly before becoming heads of state. Reporters, however, are not invited: the Bilderberg Groups meetings are conducted in privacy, with strict confidentiality rules to foster open discussion. The Group was established to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and Europe and to create an informal network for the global elite. No votes are taken at the conference and no policies are agreed. However, the secrecy surrounding the conferences has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Right-wing critics believe that the Bilderberg Group is a shadowy global government, with some conspiracy theorists holding the Group responsible for organising events including the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the Bosnian War and the invasion of Iraq. Left-wing activists, who call for greater transparency, accuse the Group of being an unelected capitalist cabal controlling world finance. While opponents view the Group as undemocratic, supporters argue that modern democracies depend on cooperation between banking and politics, and that organisations such as the Bilderberg Group help ensure their success. | The Bilderberg Group was created as a private forum to set Europe and Americas political and financial agenda. | c |
id_2546 | Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds an annual conference of 120 of the worlds most powerful and influential people. Participants, invited by a steering committee comprised of two people from 18 different countries, typically include financiers, industrialists, politicians, royalty and newspaper editors. Past delegates have included Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, shortly before becoming heads of state. Reporters, however, are not invited: the Bilderberg Groups meetings are conducted in privacy, with strict confidentiality rules to foster open discussion. The Group was established to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and Europe and to create an informal network for the global elite. No votes are taken at the conference and no policies are agreed. However, the secrecy surrounding the conferences has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Right-wing critics believe that the Bilderberg Group is a shadowy global government, with some conspiracy theorists holding the Group responsible for organising events including the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the Bosnian War and the invasion of Iraq. Left-wing activists, who call for greater transparency, accuse the Group of being an unelected capitalist cabal controlling world finance. While opponents view the Group as undemocratic, supporters argue that modern democracies depend on cooperation between banking and politics, and that organisations such as the Bilderberg Group help ensure their success. | Topics discussed at Bilderberg Group conferences have included the invasion of Iraq. | n |
id_2547 | Founded in 1954, the Bilderberg Group holds an annual conference of 120 of the worlds most powerful and influential people. Participants, invited by a steering committee comprised of two people from 18 different countries, typically include financiers, industrialists, politicians, royalty and newspaper editors. Past delegates have included Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, shortly before becoming heads of state. Reporters, however, are not invited: the Bilderberg Groups meetings are conducted in privacy, with strict confidentiality rules to foster open discussion. The Group was established to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and Europe and to create an informal network for the global elite. No votes are taken at the conference and no policies are agreed. However, the secrecy surrounding the conferences has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories. Right-wing critics believe that the Bilderberg Group is a shadowy global government, with some conspiracy theorists holding the Group responsible for organising events including the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the Bosnian War and the invasion of Iraq. Left-wing activists, who call for greater transparency, accuse the Group of being an unelected capitalist cabal controlling world finance. While opponents view the Group as undemocratic, supporters argue that modern democracies depend on cooperation between banking and politics, and that organisations such as the Bilderberg Group help ensure their success. | Because its delegates are not elected, the Bilderberg Groups activities are widely believed to be undemocratic. | n |
id_2548 | Founded in 2002 in Petaluma, 65 kilometres north of San Francisco, HydroPoint has engineered what appears to be the most sophisticated weather-based irrigation system among a growing list of competitors. The company built its primary climate-modelling centre outside of Salt Lake City, programming a supercomputer to simulate local weather for every square kilometre across North Americaall just to water the grass. The centre communicates via a two-way satellite link with control boxes that operate distinct zones of a client's irrigation system. Wires running underground from the outdoor boxes open and close valves in the water lines. Every night the climate centre broadcasts local weather-related data to a microprocessor inside each controller, which runs software that uses the information to compute precisely how much and when to water its zones, customized to one of 18 plant types as well as other factors like soil type and ground slope. | The weather conditions of every square kilometer in North America necessarily differ. | n |
id_2549 | Founded in 2002 in Petaluma, 65 kilometres north of San Francisco, HydroPoint has engineered what appears to be the most sophisticated weather-based irrigation system among a growing list of competitors. The company built its primary climate-modelling centre outside of Salt Lake City, programming a supercomputer to simulate local weather for every square kilometre across North Americaall just to water the grass. The centre communicates via a two-way satellite link with control boxes that operate distinct zones of a client's irrigation system. Wires running underground from the outdoor boxes open and close valves in the water lines. Every night the climate centre broadcasts local weather-related data to a microprocessor inside each controller, which runs software that uses the information to compute precisely how much and when to water its zones, customized to one of 18 plant types as well as other factors like soil type and ground slope. | HydroPoint's computerized irrigation system is based on theoretical climate-modeling data and not on live weather broadcasts. | n |
id_2550 | Founded in 2002 in Petaluma, 65 kilometres north of San Francisco, HydroPoint has engineered what appears to be the most sophisticated weather-based irrigation system among a growing list of competitors. The company built its primary climate-modelling centre outside of Salt Lake City, programming a supercomputer to simulate local weather for every square kilometre across North Americaall just to water the grass. The centre communicates via a two-way satellite link with control boxes that operate distinct zones of a client's irrigation system. Wires running underground from the outdoor boxes open and close valves in the water lines. Every night the climate centre broadcasts local weather-related data to a microprocessor inside each controller, which runs software that uses the information to compute precisely how much and when to water its zones, customized to one of 18 plant types as well as other factors like soil type and ground slope. | If a customer's land area is smaller than a square kilometre, the area is watered uniformly. | n |
id_2551 | Frank and John use computers in their work. Gary, John and Frank are self-employed. Frank and Jack work part-time, whilst the others are all full-time. Jack and John are the only ones who work in insurance. | John uses a computer to work full-time in insurance | e |
id_2552 | Frank and John use computers in their work. Gary, John and Frank are self-employed. Frank and Jack work part-time, whilst the others are all full-time. Jack and John are the only ones who work in insurance. | Gary does not work in insurance and does not have a computer | e |
id_2553 | Frank and John use computers in their work. Gary, John and Frank are self-employed. Frank and Jack work part-time, whilst the others are all full-time. Jack and John are the only ones who work in insurance. | Frank is the only one who is self-employed and works part-time | e |
id_2554 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | If Mr Onions had been attempting to take his own life, and he had succeeded, he would not have been the first to do so at this location. | e |
id_2555 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | If Fred Knox had not arrived at the scene when he did, Mr Onions would have plunged down the cliff to the sea along with his car. | c |
id_2556 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | Fred Knox was on his routine postal delivery round when he spotted the car hanging over the edge of the cliff. | e |
id_2557 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | Mr Onions had been depressed since his wife died and had been prescribed anti-depressants by his doctor. | n |
id_2558 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | Mr Onions was a former factory manager and widower. | e |
id_2559 | Fred Knott, a Post Office worker for 30 years, helped to rescue an elderly man from his car, which was hanging over the edge of a cliff on the south coast. According to a statement issued by the local Fire and Rescue Service, it was only a tree growing at the side of a lay-by that prevented 69-year-old Mr Ronald Onions, a retired factory manager, from plummeting 60 feet into the sea along with his car. The following facts are also known: Fred Knott was on his daily delivery round driving his Post Office van along Cliff Road when he spotted Mr Onions car in its precarious position. Mr Onions had recently traded in his old car for a new model with automatic gear change and satellite navi- gation. The cliff top close to the lay-by has been known locally for some years as dead mans jump because of a much-publicized suicide that once occurred there. Mr Onions was recently bereaved and had been suffering from depression since his wife died. | Unfamiliarity with his new car caused Mr Onions to get into difficulties when pulling into the lay-by on Cliff Road. | n |
id_2560 | Fred, John, Garth and Joe all have children. Fred and John are the only two to have boys. John and Joe take their children to school by bus, whilst it is near enough to school for the others to walk. Fred and Joe are car owners, and sometimes do use their cars to get the children to school. | Garth does not own a car and has a daughter | e |
id_2561 | Fred, John, Garth and Joe all have children. Fred and John are the only two to have boys. John and Joe take their children to school by bus, whilst it is near enough to school for the others to walk. Fred and Joe are car owners, and sometimes do use their cars to get the children to school. | Joe owns a car, but usually goes to work by bus | e |
id_2562 | Fred, Mack and John all have two different cars each. One of them does not have a Ford. Mack is the only one to have a Ferrari. John has a Ford. Fred and Mack have Buicks. | Mack has a Rolls-Royce. | e |
id_2563 | Friskies is an animal rescue centre based in the East End of London. It operates on a donations basis, gaining financial support from the local community. However, due to the current economic climate, Friskies has noticed a reduction in the amount of funds it receives. For this reason, they have decided to host a fund-raising event, inviting local families to visit the centre. On this fund-raising day, there will be food for sale, games and events such as face painting and races. Each event has a 2 entry fee. In this way, the centre hopes to make enough money to remain open and to raise awareness of the type of work they do within the local community | Friskies will be selling food, such as cakes, on the open day. | n |
id_2564 | Friskies is an animal rescue centre based in the East End of London. It operates on a donations basis, gaining financial support from the local community. However, due to the current economic climate, Friskies has noticed a reduction in the amount of funds it receives. For this reason, they have decided to host a fund-raising event, inviting local families to visit the centre. On this fund-raising day, there will be food for sale, games and events such as face painting and races. Each event has a 2 entry fee. In this way, the centre hopes to make enough money to remain open and to raise awareness of the type of work they do within the local community | Friskies open day aims to raise awareness of animal cruelty. | n |
id_2565 | Friskies is an animal rescue centre based in the East End of London. It operates on a donations basis, gaining financial support from the local community. However, due to the current economic climate, Friskies has noticed a reduction in the amount of funds it receives. For this reason, they have decided to host a fund-raising event, inviting local families to visit the centre. On this fund-raising day, there will be food for sale, games and events such as face painting and races. Each event has a 2 entry fee. In this way, the centre hopes to make enough money to remain open and to raise awareness of the type of work they do within the local community | Friskies, an animal rescue centre, operates throughout the UK. | n |
id_2566 | Friskies is an animal rescue centre based in the East End of London. It operates on a donations basis, gaining financial support from the local community. However, due to the current economic climate, Friskies has noticed a reduction in the amount of funds it receives. For this reason, they have decided to host a fund-raising event, inviting local families to visit the centre. On this fund-raising day, there will be food for sale, games and events such as face painting and races. Each event has a 2 entry fee. In this way, the centre hopes to make enough money to remain open and to raise awareness of the type of work they do within the local community | Friskies are charging a fee to take part in their charity events. | e |
id_2567 | From A Novice to An Expert Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that lest the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would he someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to leach her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning, or losing the game. In lime, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognise patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases. The journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game-playing, strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching, superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own case, rather than relying on the cases of others. The Power of Expertise An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organisation of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thou-sands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilise higher-order principles to solve- problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains belter than novices. Experts recognise variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables. Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking, about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution, Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context tor creating mental models to solve given problems. Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solution more often than novices and recognise when they are missing, information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domains heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing, the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If sup-plied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making, calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table. Theorists and researchers differ when trying, to explain why experts are less accurate fore-casters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting X in one month is different from the model used for predicting X in a following, month, although precisely the same case and same data set are used in both instances. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During, the last 30 years, researchers have categorised, experimented, and theorised about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias. | Novices and experts use the same system to classify objects. | c |
id_2568 | From A Novice to An Expert Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that lest the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would he someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to leach her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning, or losing the game. In lime, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognise patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases. The journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game-playing, strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching, superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own case, rather than relying on the cases of others. The Power of Expertise An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organisation of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thou-sands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilise higher-order principles to solve- problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains belter than novices. Experts recognise variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables. Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking, about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution, Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context tor creating mental models to solve given problems. Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solution more often than novices and recognise when they are missing, information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domains heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing, the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If sup-plied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making, calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table. Theorists and researchers differ when trying, to explain why experts are less accurate fore-casters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting X in one month is different from the model used for predicting X in a following, month, although precisely the same case and same data set are used in both instances. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During, the last 30 years, researchers have categorised, experimented, and theorised about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias. | A novices training is focused on memory skills. | n |
id_2569 | From A Novice to An Expert Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that lest the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would he someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to leach her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning, or losing the game. In lime, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognise patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases. The journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game-playing, strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching, superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own case, rather than relying on the cases of others. The Power of Expertise An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organisation of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thou-sands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilise higher-order principles to solve- problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains belter than novices. Experts recognise variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables. Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking, about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution, Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context tor creating mental models to solve given problems. Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solution more often than novices and recognise when they are missing, information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domains heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing, the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If sup-plied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making, calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table. Theorists and researchers differ when trying, to explain why experts are less accurate fore-casters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting X in one month is different from the model used for predicting X in a following, month, although precisely the same case and same data set are used in both instances. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During, the last 30 years, researchers have categorised, experimented, and theorised about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias. | Experts have higher efficiency than novices when solving problems in their own field. | e |
id_2570 | From A Novice to An Expert Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that lest the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would he someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to leach her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning, or losing the game. In lime, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognise patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases. The journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game-playing, strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching, superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own case, rather than relying on the cases of others. The Power of Expertise An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organisation of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thou-sands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilise higher-order principles to solve- problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains belter than novices. Experts recognise variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables. Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking, about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution, Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context tor creating mental models to solve given problems. Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solution more often than novices and recognise when they are missing, information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domains heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing, the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If sup-plied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making, calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table. Theorists and researchers differ when trying, to explain why experts are less accurate fore-casters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting X in one month is different from the model used for predicting X in a following, month, although precisely the same case and same data set are used in both instances. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During, the last 30 years, researchers have categorised, experimented, and theorised about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias. | When facing a problem, a novices always tries to solve it straight away. | e |
id_2571 | From A Novice to An Expert Expertise is commitment coupled with creativity. Specifically, it is the commitment of time, energy, and resources to a relatively narrow field of study and the creative energy necessary to generate new knowledge in that field. It takes a considerable amount of time and regular exposure to a large number of cases to become an expert. An individual enters a field of study as a novice. The novice needs to learn the guiding principles and rules of a given task in order to perform that task. Concurrently, the novice needs to be exposed to specific cases, or instances, that lest the boundaries of such principles. Generally, a novice will find a mentor to guide her through the process of acquiring new knowledge. A fairly simple example would he someone learning to play chess. The novice chess player seeks a mentor to leach her the object of the game, the number of spaces, the names of the pieces, the function of each piece, how each piece is moved, and the necessary conditions for winning, or losing the game. In lime, and with much practice, the novice begins to recognise patterns of behavior within cases and, thus, becomes a journeyman. With more practice and exposure to increasingly complex cases. The journeyman finds patterns not only within cases but also between cases. More importantly, the journeyman learns that these patterns often repeat themselves over time. The journeyman still maintains regular contact with a mentor to solve specific problems and learn more complex strategies. Returning to the example of the chess player, the individual begins to learn patterns of opening moves, offensive and defensive game-playing, strategies, and patterns of victory and defeat. When a journeyman starts to make and test hypotheses about future behavior based on past experiences, she begins the next transition. Once she creatively generates knowledge, rather than simply matching, superficial patterns, she becomes an expert. At this point, she is confident in her knowledge and no longer needs a mentor as a guide she becomes responsible for her own knowledge. In the chess example, once a journeyman begins competing against experts, makes predictions based on patterns, and tests those predictions against actual behavior, she is generating new knowledge and a deeper understanding of the game. She is creating her own case, rather than relying on the cases of others. The Power of Expertise An expert perceives meaningful patterns in her domain better than non-experts. Where a novice perceives random or disconnected data points, an expert connects regular patterns within and between cases. This ability to identify patterns is not an innate perceptual skill; rather it reflects the organisation of knowledge after exposure to and experience with thou-sands of cases. Experts have a deeper understanding of their domains than novices do, and utilise higher-order principles to solve- problems. A novice, for example, might group objects together by color or size, whereas an expert would group the same objects according to their function or utility. Experts comprehend the meaning of data and weigh variables with different criteria within their domains belter than novices. Experts recognise variables that have the largest influence on a particular problem and focus their attention on those variables. Experts have better domain-specific short-term and long-term memory than novices do. Moreover, experts perform tasks in their domains faster than novices and commit fewer errors while problem solving. Interestingly, experts go about solving problems differently than novices. Experts spend more time thinking, about a problem to fully understand it at the beginning of a task than do novices, who immediately seek to find a solution, Experts use their knowledge of previous cases as context tor creating mental models to solve given problems. Better at self-monitoring than novices, experts are more aware of instances where they have committed errors or failed to understand a problem. Experts check their solution more often than novices and recognise when they are missing, information necessary for solving a problem. Experts are aware of the limits of their domain knowledge and apply their domains heuristics to solve problems that fall outside of their experience base. The Paradox of Expertise The strengths of expertise can also be weaknesses. Although one would expect experts to be good forecasters, they are not particularly good at making predictions about the future. Since the 1930s, researchers have been testing, the ability of experts to make forecasts. The performance of experts has been tested against actuarial tables to determine if they are better at making predictions than simple statistical models. Seventy years later, with more than two hundred experiments in different domains, it is clear that the answer is no. If sup-plied with an equal amount of data about a particular case, an actuarial table is as good, or better, than an expert at making, calls about the future. Even if an expert is given more specific case information than is available to the statistical model, the expert does not tend to outperform the actuarial table. Theorists and researchers differ when trying, to explain why experts are less accurate fore-casters than statistical models. Some have argued that experts, like all humans, are inconsistent when using mental models to make predictions. That is, the model an expert uses for predicting X in one month is different from the model used for predicting X in a following, month, although precisely the same case and same data set are used in both instances. A number of researchers point to human biases to explain unreliable expert predictions. During, the last 30 years, researchers have categorised, experimented, and theorised about the cognitive aspects of forecasting. Despite such efforts, the literature shows little consensus regarding the causes or manifestations of human bias. | Experts are better at recognising their own mistakes and limits. | e |
id_2572 | From Hand to Mouth Once again, southern Africa is facing a severe food crisis. It is a chronic problem and shouldnt be. At the Trinity hospital in Malawis southern Nsanje district, three-year-old Mboyi is lying listless, his face against the wall. His belly is badly bloated and skin is peeling off his legs. His mother explains that the family has not been able to harvest anything this year, due to poor rains. Mothers in the area are already bringing malnourished children to hospitals in alarming numbers. Yet, it will be another six months before the next harvest. Aid agencies are sounding the alarm, hoping that help will come before emaciated childrens haunting images, such as those recently seen in Niger, appear on western television screens. The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) says that close to 12 million people across southern Africa will need food aid before the next harvest. The agency is short of more than $150 million to feed them over the next six months. Malawi and Zimbabwe are by far the hungriest, but Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, and Swaziland are also affected. The drought may be southern Africas worst in a decade. The crucial rains of January, when newly planted crops need water, did not come on time. Nor, in some places, did seeds and fertiliser. Maize, the staple food, is scarce in some areas; prices in markets have shot up beyond the means of the hungriest. Though the problem is particularly severe this year, it recurs across southern Africa. Food is produced mainly by subsistence farmers on small plots with no irrigation, their fate tied to rain falling in the right amount at the right time. Bad roads and unreliable transport make it expensive to move food and seeds. Without proper marketing channels, small farmers cannot sell whatever surplus they may have outside their neighbourhoods. This leaves southern Mozambicans hungry, even when crops are plentiful up north. Maize is ill-suited to the climate, needing too much water. In Malawi, there are too many people for the land. Partly due to bad farming, yields are low. And the region has the worlds highest rate of AIDS. Many small farmers struggle to make ends meet even in good years, so one bad season can be disastrous. And in Swaziland and Mozambique, they are facing their fourth dry year in a row. Unable to grow enough to feed themselves or borrow their way out of hard times, farmers end up losing the few assets they have. In Malawi, those without anything left often resort to cutting and selling firewood, further eroding the soil and making their plots still less productive, or else fishing already depleted waters. Others venture into crocodile-infested rivers to dig out water-lily tubers for food. Bad government policy sometimes makes things worse. In Zimbabwe, once the regions breadbasket, land grabs have crippled commercial agriculture and irrigation systems. Hyperinflation and lack of foreign exchange make it hard to buy seeds and fertiliser, while fuel shortages stymie crop transport. A recent operation to clean up cities by bulldozing supposedly illegal dwellings has left another 700,000 people destitute, adding to the ranks of the hungry. The government has so far refused to endorse the UNs proposed emergency programme to help those affected. Other governments are less bloody-minded. Malawi, the worst-hit country, with 5 million people (nearly half its population) needing food handouts, wants help. In July, President Bingu wa Mutharika asked his compatriots to give to a feed the nation fund: so far, $565,000 has been collected. In August, the UN appealed for $88 million. The World Bank will give $30 million. Harnessing what the region already has would go a long way to offsetting its chronic hunger. In southern Malawi, rivers regularly flood and are badly managed. By contrast, a big sugar plantation in Nchalo, its sprinklers spitting out arcs of water, is a green oasis. On a smaller but no less hopeful scale, the nearby Chitsukwa irrigation scheme cost only about $20,000 and provided canals and enough low-tech pumps to water 18 hectares (45 acres), which sustain 176 farmers. Along the canal, women with babies on their backs labour on what look like portable stairmasters, pumping water into their fields: the maize is flourishing. Now armed with better knowledge, farmers are aiming at three crops a year, instead of the precarious single one to which they were accustomed. A few kilometres down the road, the land is hopelessly dry and barren. Uladi Mussa, Malawi s minister for agriculture and food security, insists that expanding small-scale irrigation is a top priority. The potential is there, he explains, but Malawi lacks the know-how and money to do it on its own. Zambia and Mozambique have both welcomed exiled white Zimbabwean farmers, whose skills are already boosting local agriculture. Meanwhile, chronic hunger is threatening southern Africas future generations. Close to half of Malawis under-five-year-olds are stunted. Schools unable to feed their pupils report drops in attendance, as children are too weak to walk or are forced to help their parents find food. For them, the damage will remain long after the rains have come. | Some farmers didnt get seeds to plant this season. | e |
id_2573 | From Hand to Mouth Once again, southern Africa is facing a severe food crisis. It is a chronic problem and shouldnt be. At the Trinity hospital in Malawis southern Nsanje district, three-year-old Mboyi is lying listless, his face against the wall. His belly is badly bloated and skin is peeling off his legs. His mother explains that the family has not been able to harvest anything this year, due to poor rains. Mothers in the area are already bringing malnourished children to hospitals in alarming numbers. Yet, it will be another six months before the next harvest. Aid agencies are sounding the alarm, hoping that help will come before emaciated childrens haunting images, such as those recently seen in Niger, appear on western television screens. The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) says that close to 12 million people across southern Africa will need food aid before the next harvest. The agency is short of more than $150 million to feed them over the next six months. Malawi and Zimbabwe are by far the hungriest, but Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, and Swaziland are also affected. The drought may be southern Africas worst in a decade. The crucial rains of January, when newly planted crops need water, did not come on time. Nor, in some places, did seeds and fertiliser. Maize, the staple food, is scarce in some areas; prices in markets have shot up beyond the means of the hungriest. Though the problem is particularly severe this year, it recurs across southern Africa. Food is produced mainly by subsistence farmers on small plots with no irrigation, their fate tied to rain falling in the right amount at the right time. Bad roads and unreliable transport make it expensive to move food and seeds. Without proper marketing channels, small farmers cannot sell whatever surplus they may have outside their neighbourhoods. This leaves southern Mozambicans hungry, even when crops are plentiful up north. Maize is ill-suited to the climate, needing too much water. In Malawi, there are too many people for the land. Partly due to bad farming, yields are low. And the region has the worlds highest rate of AIDS. Many small farmers struggle to make ends meet even in good years, so one bad season can be disastrous. And in Swaziland and Mozambique, they are facing their fourth dry year in a row. Unable to grow enough to feed themselves or borrow their way out of hard times, farmers end up losing the few assets they have. In Malawi, those without anything left often resort to cutting and selling firewood, further eroding the soil and making their plots still less productive, or else fishing already depleted waters. Others venture into crocodile-infested rivers to dig out water-lily tubers for food. Bad government policy sometimes makes things worse. In Zimbabwe, once the regions breadbasket, land grabs have crippled commercial agriculture and irrigation systems. Hyperinflation and lack of foreign exchange make it hard to buy seeds and fertiliser, while fuel shortages stymie crop transport. A recent operation to clean up cities by bulldozing supposedly illegal dwellings has left another 700,000 people destitute, adding to the ranks of the hungry. The government has so far refused to endorse the UNs proposed emergency programme to help those affected. Other governments are less bloody-minded. Malawi, the worst-hit country, with 5 million people (nearly half its population) needing food handouts, wants help. In July, President Bingu wa Mutharika asked his compatriots to give to a feed the nation fund: so far, $565,000 has been collected. In August, the UN appealed for $88 million. The World Bank will give $30 million. Harnessing what the region already has would go a long way to offsetting its chronic hunger. In southern Malawi, rivers regularly flood and are badly managed. By contrast, a big sugar plantation in Nchalo, its sprinklers spitting out arcs of water, is a green oasis. On a smaller but no less hopeful scale, the nearby Chitsukwa irrigation scheme cost only about $20,000 and provided canals and enough low-tech pumps to water 18 hectares (45 acres), which sustain 176 farmers. Along the canal, women with babies on their backs labour on what look like portable stairmasters, pumping water into their fields: the maize is flourishing. Now armed with better knowledge, farmers are aiming at three crops a year, instead of the precarious single one to which they were accustomed. A few kilometres down the road, the land is hopelessly dry and barren. Uladi Mussa, Malawi s minister for agriculture and food security, insists that expanding small-scale irrigation is a top priority. The potential is there, he explains, but Malawi lacks the know-how and money to do it on its own. Zambia and Mozambique have both welcomed exiled white Zimbabwean farmers, whose skills are already boosting local agriculture. Meanwhile, chronic hunger is threatening southern Africas future generations. Close to half of Malawis under-five-year-olds are stunted. Schools unable to feed their pupils report drops in attendance, as children are too weak to walk or are forced to help their parents find food. For them, the damage will remain long after the rains have come. | Zimbabwes government policies have actually helped neighbouring countries in one way. | e |
id_2574 | From Hand to Mouth Once again, southern Africa is facing a severe food crisis. It is a chronic problem and shouldnt be. At the Trinity hospital in Malawis southern Nsanje district, three-year-old Mboyi is lying listless, his face against the wall. His belly is badly bloated and skin is peeling off his legs. His mother explains that the family has not been able to harvest anything this year, due to poor rains. Mothers in the area are already bringing malnourished children to hospitals in alarming numbers. Yet, it will be another six months before the next harvest. Aid agencies are sounding the alarm, hoping that help will come before emaciated childrens haunting images, such as those recently seen in Niger, appear on western television screens. The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) says that close to 12 million people across southern Africa will need food aid before the next harvest. The agency is short of more than $150 million to feed them over the next six months. Malawi and Zimbabwe are by far the hungriest, but Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, and Swaziland are also affected. The drought may be southern Africas worst in a decade. The crucial rains of January, when newly planted crops need water, did not come on time. Nor, in some places, did seeds and fertiliser. Maize, the staple food, is scarce in some areas; prices in markets have shot up beyond the means of the hungriest. Though the problem is particularly severe this year, it recurs across southern Africa. Food is produced mainly by subsistence farmers on small plots with no irrigation, their fate tied to rain falling in the right amount at the right time. Bad roads and unreliable transport make it expensive to move food and seeds. Without proper marketing channels, small farmers cannot sell whatever surplus they may have outside their neighbourhoods. This leaves southern Mozambicans hungry, even when crops are plentiful up north. Maize is ill-suited to the climate, needing too much water. In Malawi, there are too many people for the land. Partly due to bad farming, yields are low. And the region has the worlds highest rate of AIDS. Many small farmers struggle to make ends meet even in good years, so one bad season can be disastrous. And in Swaziland and Mozambique, they are facing their fourth dry year in a row. Unable to grow enough to feed themselves or borrow their way out of hard times, farmers end up losing the few assets they have. In Malawi, those without anything left often resort to cutting and selling firewood, further eroding the soil and making their plots still less productive, or else fishing already depleted waters. Others venture into crocodile-infested rivers to dig out water-lily tubers for food. Bad government policy sometimes makes things worse. In Zimbabwe, once the regions breadbasket, land grabs have crippled commercial agriculture and irrigation systems. Hyperinflation and lack of foreign exchange make it hard to buy seeds and fertiliser, while fuel shortages stymie crop transport. A recent operation to clean up cities by bulldozing supposedly illegal dwellings has left another 700,000 people destitute, adding to the ranks of the hungry. The government has so far refused to endorse the UNs proposed emergency programme to help those affected. Other governments are less bloody-minded. Malawi, the worst-hit country, with 5 million people (nearly half its population) needing food handouts, wants help. In July, President Bingu wa Mutharika asked his compatriots to give to a feed the nation fund: so far, $565,000 has been collected. In August, the UN appealed for $88 million. The World Bank will give $30 million. Harnessing what the region already has would go a long way to offsetting its chronic hunger. In southern Malawi, rivers regularly flood and are badly managed. By contrast, a big sugar plantation in Nchalo, its sprinklers spitting out arcs of water, is a green oasis. On a smaller but no less hopeful scale, the nearby Chitsukwa irrigation scheme cost only about $20,000 and provided canals and enough low-tech pumps to water 18 hectares (45 acres), which sustain 176 farmers. Along the canal, women with babies on their backs labour on what look like portable stairmasters, pumping water into their fields: the maize is flourishing. Now armed with better knowledge, farmers are aiming at three crops a year, instead of the precarious single one to which they were accustomed. A few kilometres down the road, the land is hopelessly dry and barren. Uladi Mussa, Malawi s minister for agriculture and food security, insists that expanding small-scale irrigation is a top priority. The potential is there, he explains, but Malawi lacks the know-how and money to do it on its own. Zambia and Mozambique have both welcomed exiled white Zimbabwean farmers, whose skills are already boosting local agriculture. Meanwhile, chronic hunger is threatening southern Africas future generations. Close to half of Malawis under-five-year-olds are stunted. Schools unable to feed their pupils report drops in attendance, as children are too weak to walk or are forced to help their parents find food. For them, the damage will remain long after the rains have come. | Southern Africa does not have many of the resources it needs to help solve its food problem. | c |
id_2575 | From Hand to Mouth Once again, southern Africa is facing a severe food crisis. It is a chronic problem and shouldnt be. At the Trinity hospital in Malawis southern Nsanje district, three-year-old Mboyi is lying listless, his face against the wall. His belly is badly bloated and skin is peeling off his legs. His mother explains that the family has not been able to harvest anything this year, due to poor rains. Mothers in the area are already bringing malnourished children to hospitals in alarming numbers. Yet, it will be another six months before the next harvest. Aid agencies are sounding the alarm, hoping that help will come before emaciated childrens haunting images, such as those recently seen in Niger, appear on western television screens. The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) says that close to 12 million people across southern Africa will need food aid before the next harvest. The agency is short of more than $150 million to feed them over the next six months. Malawi and Zimbabwe are by far the hungriest, but Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, and Swaziland are also affected. The drought may be southern Africas worst in a decade. The crucial rains of January, when newly planted crops need water, did not come on time. Nor, in some places, did seeds and fertiliser. Maize, the staple food, is scarce in some areas; prices in markets have shot up beyond the means of the hungriest. Though the problem is particularly severe this year, it recurs across southern Africa. Food is produced mainly by subsistence farmers on small plots with no irrigation, their fate tied to rain falling in the right amount at the right time. Bad roads and unreliable transport make it expensive to move food and seeds. Without proper marketing channels, small farmers cannot sell whatever surplus they may have outside their neighbourhoods. This leaves southern Mozambicans hungry, even when crops are plentiful up north. Maize is ill-suited to the climate, needing too much water. In Malawi, there are too many people for the land. Partly due to bad farming, yields are low. And the region has the worlds highest rate of AIDS. Many small farmers struggle to make ends meet even in good years, so one bad season can be disastrous. And in Swaziland and Mozambique, they are facing their fourth dry year in a row. Unable to grow enough to feed themselves or borrow their way out of hard times, farmers end up losing the few assets they have. In Malawi, those without anything left often resort to cutting and selling firewood, further eroding the soil and making their plots still less productive, or else fishing already depleted waters. Others venture into crocodile-infested rivers to dig out water-lily tubers for food. Bad government policy sometimes makes things worse. In Zimbabwe, once the regions breadbasket, land grabs have crippled commercial agriculture and irrigation systems. Hyperinflation and lack of foreign exchange make it hard to buy seeds and fertiliser, while fuel shortages stymie crop transport. A recent operation to clean up cities by bulldozing supposedly illegal dwellings has left another 700,000 people destitute, adding to the ranks of the hungry. The government has so far refused to endorse the UNs proposed emergency programme to help those affected. Other governments are less bloody-minded. Malawi, the worst-hit country, with 5 million people (nearly half its population) needing food handouts, wants help. In July, President Bingu wa Mutharika asked his compatriots to give to a feed the nation fund: so far, $565,000 has been collected. In August, the UN appealed for $88 million. The World Bank will give $30 million. Harnessing what the region already has would go a long way to offsetting its chronic hunger. In southern Malawi, rivers regularly flood and are badly managed. By contrast, a big sugar plantation in Nchalo, its sprinklers spitting out arcs of water, is a green oasis. On a smaller but no less hopeful scale, the nearby Chitsukwa irrigation scheme cost only about $20,000 and provided canals and enough low-tech pumps to water 18 hectares (45 acres), which sustain 176 farmers. Along the canal, women with babies on their backs labour on what look like portable stairmasters, pumping water into their fields: the maize is flourishing. Now armed with better knowledge, farmers are aiming at three crops a year, instead of the precarious single one to which they were accustomed. A few kilometres down the road, the land is hopelessly dry and barren. Uladi Mussa, Malawi s minister for agriculture and food security, insists that expanding small-scale irrigation is a top priority. The potential is there, he explains, but Malawi lacks the know-how and money to do it on its own. Zambia and Mozambique have both welcomed exiled white Zimbabwean farmers, whose skills are already boosting local agriculture. Meanwhile, chronic hunger is threatening southern Africas future generations. Close to half of Malawis under-five-year-olds are stunted. Schools unable to feed their pupils report drops in attendance, as children are too weak to walk or are forced to help their parents find food. For them, the damage will remain long after the rains have come. | Poor infrastructure means that parts of Mozambique are without food while other parts have plenty. | e |
id_2576 | From Hand to Mouth Once again, southern Africa is facing a severe food crisis. It is a chronic problem and shouldnt be. At the Trinity hospital in Malawis southern Nsanje district, three-year-old Mboyi is lying listless, his face against the wall. His belly is badly bloated and skin is peeling off his legs. His mother explains that the family has not been able to harvest anything this year, due to poor rains. Mothers in the area are already bringing malnourished children to hospitals in alarming numbers. Yet, it will be another six months before the next harvest. Aid agencies are sounding the alarm, hoping that help will come before emaciated childrens haunting images, such as those recently seen in Niger, appear on western television screens. The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) says that close to 12 million people across southern Africa will need food aid before the next harvest. The agency is short of more than $150 million to feed them over the next six months. Malawi and Zimbabwe are by far the hungriest, but Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, and Swaziland are also affected. The drought may be southern Africas worst in a decade. The crucial rains of January, when newly planted crops need water, did not come on time. Nor, in some places, did seeds and fertiliser. Maize, the staple food, is scarce in some areas; prices in markets have shot up beyond the means of the hungriest. Though the problem is particularly severe this year, it recurs across southern Africa. Food is produced mainly by subsistence farmers on small plots with no irrigation, their fate tied to rain falling in the right amount at the right time. Bad roads and unreliable transport make it expensive to move food and seeds. Without proper marketing channels, small farmers cannot sell whatever surplus they may have outside their neighbourhoods. This leaves southern Mozambicans hungry, even when crops are plentiful up north. Maize is ill-suited to the climate, needing too much water. In Malawi, there are too many people for the land. Partly due to bad farming, yields are low. And the region has the worlds highest rate of AIDS. Many small farmers struggle to make ends meet even in good years, so one bad season can be disastrous. And in Swaziland and Mozambique, they are facing their fourth dry year in a row. Unable to grow enough to feed themselves or borrow their way out of hard times, farmers end up losing the few assets they have. In Malawi, those without anything left often resort to cutting and selling firewood, further eroding the soil and making their plots still less productive, or else fishing already depleted waters. Others venture into crocodile-infested rivers to dig out water-lily tubers for food. Bad government policy sometimes makes things worse. In Zimbabwe, once the regions breadbasket, land grabs have crippled commercial agriculture and irrigation systems. Hyperinflation and lack of foreign exchange make it hard to buy seeds and fertiliser, while fuel shortages stymie crop transport. A recent operation to clean up cities by bulldozing supposedly illegal dwellings has left another 700,000 people destitute, adding to the ranks of the hungry. The government has so far refused to endorse the UNs proposed emergency programme to help those affected. Other governments are less bloody-minded. Malawi, the worst-hit country, with 5 million people (nearly half its population) needing food handouts, wants help. In July, President Bingu wa Mutharika asked his compatriots to give to a feed the nation fund: so far, $565,000 has been collected. In August, the UN appealed for $88 million. The World Bank will give $30 million. Harnessing what the region already has would go a long way to offsetting its chronic hunger. In southern Malawi, rivers regularly flood and are badly managed. By contrast, a big sugar plantation in Nchalo, its sprinklers spitting out arcs of water, is a green oasis. On a smaller but no less hopeful scale, the nearby Chitsukwa irrigation scheme cost only about $20,000 and provided canals and enough low-tech pumps to water 18 hectares (45 acres), which sustain 176 farmers. Along the canal, women with babies on their backs labour on what look like portable stairmasters, pumping water into their fields: the maize is flourishing. Now armed with better knowledge, farmers are aiming at three crops a year, instead of the precarious single one to which they were accustomed. A few kilometres down the road, the land is hopelessly dry and barren. Uladi Mussa, Malawi s minister for agriculture and food security, insists that expanding small-scale irrigation is a top priority. The potential is there, he explains, but Malawi lacks the know-how and money to do it on its own. Zambia and Mozambique have both welcomed exiled white Zimbabwean farmers, whose skills are already boosting local agriculture. Meanwhile, chronic hunger is threatening southern Africas future generations. Close to half of Malawis under-five-year-olds are stunted. Schools unable to feed their pupils report drops in attendance, as children are too weak to walk or are forced to help their parents find food. For them, the damage will remain long after the rains have come. | About half of Malawis children aged under 5 are malnourished. | e |
id_2577 | From October 2006, The Employment Equality (age) Regulations make it illegal to discriminate against workers, employers, jobseekers and trainees due to their age. Direct discrimination is set out in the regulations, and states that it is unlawful, on the grounds of age, to come to a decision about employing someone or dismissing someone, refuse to provide training, deny individuals promotion and make individuals work in adverse conditions. The second form of discrimination (indirect discrimination) is related to selection criteria, benefits, policies, and various employment rules and practises which may disadvantage particular people of specific ages, unless the practise which is utilised is justified. The regulation also allows organisations to predetermine the retirement age. This therefore means that one is able to set retirement ages at or above 65. | The act will allow a 75 year old to be in employment | e |
id_2578 | From October 2006, The Employment Equality (age) Regulations make it illegal to discriminate against workers, employers, jobseekers and trainees due to their age. Direct discrimination is set out in the regulations, and states that it is unlawful, on the grounds of age, to come to a decision about employing someone or dismissing someone, refuse to provide training, deny individuals promotion and make individuals work in adverse conditions. The second form of discrimination (indirect discrimination) is related to selection criteria, benefits, policies, and various employment rules and practises which may disadvantage particular people of specific ages, unless the practise which is utilised is justified. The regulation also allows organisations to predetermine the retirement age. This therefore means that one is able to set retirement ages at or above 65. | A job vacancy specifically advertising for graduates is a form of discrimination | c |
id_2579 | From October 2006, The Employment Equality (age) Regulations make it illegal to discriminate against workers, employers, jobseekers and trainees due to their age. Direct discrimination is set out in the regulations, and states that it is unlawful, on the grounds of age, to come to a decision about employing someone or dismissing someone, refuse to provide training, deny individuals promotion and make individuals work in adverse conditions. The second form of discrimination (indirect discrimination) is related to selection criteria, benefits, policies, and various employment rules and practises which may disadvantage particular people of specific ages, unless the practise which is utilised is justified. The regulation also allows organisations to predetermine the retirement age. This therefore means that one is able to set retirement ages at or above 65. | Indirect discrimination refers only to an organisations guiding principals | c |
id_2580 | From October 2006, The Employment Equality (age) Regulations make it illegal to discriminate against workers, employers, jobseekers and trainees due to their age. Direct discrimination is set out in the regulations, and states that it is unlawful, on the grounds of age, to come to a decision about employing someone or dismissing someone, refuse to provide training, deny individuals promotion and make individuals work in adverse conditions. The second form of discrimination (indirect discrimination) is related to selection criteria, benefits, policies, and various employment rules and practises which may disadvantage particular people of specific ages, unless the practise which is utilised is justified. The regulation also allows organisations to predetermine the retirement age. This therefore means that one is able to set retirement ages at or above 65. | An organisation justifies that an 18 year old is unable to be considered as a candidate as he or she does not have the right qualifications. This is a form of age discrimination. | c |
id_2581 | From SunnyD and Pizza to Bread and Water Another bad week in a bad month for the food and drink industry. Sunny Delight, formerly the UKs third largest selling drink, is to be taken off the shelves by Asda after plummeting sales, the supermarket said at the weekend. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Foods, makers of biscuits, pies, pizzas and ready meals, to admit that the trend to healthier food was causing it problems. The companys chief executive, Pat ODriscoll, issued its second profits warning in two months as its biscuit sales slumped by 12% year on year in January and February, and pastry sates by 11%. Shares fell 17% to a five-year low of 1.08p. The National Consumer Councils food expert, Sue Dibb, said the news showed companies would have to change to survive. It looks as though weve reached the tipping point on food. Our research showed that two thirds of consumers have made changes to what they eat in the last year. Supermarkets are getting competitive about health. Companies are having to wake up or lose their customers. Foods analyst Clive Black, of Shore Capital, said that a sea change in eating habits was behind the industrys problems. Anyone who hasnt realised over recent years that fruit and veg are good and doughnuts and cream cakes are bad must have been living on the moon, he said. But over the past year or so, the penny really seems to have dropped. Like other supermarket groups, Asda said it had seen a marked change in buying patterns in the past year. Customers want more natural and authentic products, Jon Bett, the trading manager for chilled drinks, said. The market for carbonated drinks has declined 7 to 8% in the last year, while the juice market has doubled and water sales have grown phenomenally. The trend had been driven by media coverage and the Jamie Oliver effect, he added. The decline of Sunny Delight is matched by the fall of other soft drinks two weeks ago, Britvic admitted a severe decline in sales of its carbonated drinks, which include Tango, 7UP and Pepsi although the fate of the SunnyD brand has attracted particular schadenfreude. Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings, and colourings. The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Procter and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999, paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight Syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on beta-carotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin. The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for SunnyD and turning bright orange. Its collapse was as dramatic as its rise to fame, and Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, which bought distribution rights to the brand in 2005, has been unable to reverse its fortunes despite efforts to reduce the sugar content, change the recipe, and introduce new variations, including a bright green apple and kiwi flavour. Kath Dalmeny, the Food Commissions senior policy adviser, greeted the news of SunnyDs delisting with satisfaction. There is no appetite any more for products that claim to be healthy but have no real nutritional value. Sunny Delight didnt live up to its claims and parents have seen through that kind of marketing. Gerber Funds Suit Drinks said SunnyD was suffering from an inherited and unjustified image problem. The marketing director, Rob Spencer, told The Grocer magazine: In Asda, two thirds of our sales come from no added sugar versions, which are up by 1% year on year. But market research figures from the company AC Nielsen show that the pressure on Sunny Delight and Northern Foods is part of a wider trend. Sales of pizzas and frozen foods fell by 9.2% last year. Most products seen as unhealthy declined confectionery by 3.1%/bagged snacks by 1.2%, and carbonated soft drinks by 1.7% while those seen as healthy boomed. Drinking yoghurts were up 51%, juices 15.6%, and water 9.4%. Ethical investment analysts EIRIS recently listed leading food manufacturers according to the percentage of turnover derived from products which fall into the unhealthy category. It said Unilever, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Cadbury Schweppes had the highest risk of suffering a backlash. | Most of the foods produced by Northern Foods are healthy. | c |
id_2582 | From SunnyD and Pizza to Bread and Water Another bad week in a bad month for the food and drink industry. Sunny Delight, formerly the UKs third largest selling drink, is to be taken off the shelves by Asda after plummeting sales, the supermarket said at the weekend. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Foods, makers of biscuits, pies, pizzas and ready meals, to admit that the trend to healthier food was causing it problems. The companys chief executive, Pat ODriscoll, issued its second profits warning in two months as its biscuit sales slumped by 12% year on year in January and February, and pastry sates by 11%. Shares fell 17% to a five-year low of 1.08p. The National Consumer Councils food expert, Sue Dibb, said the news showed companies would have to change to survive. It looks as though weve reached the tipping point on food. Our research showed that two thirds of consumers have made changes to what they eat in the last year. Supermarkets are getting competitive about health. Companies are having to wake up or lose their customers. Foods analyst Clive Black, of Shore Capital, said that a sea change in eating habits was behind the industrys problems. Anyone who hasnt realised over recent years that fruit and veg are good and doughnuts and cream cakes are bad must have been living on the moon, he said. But over the past year or so, the penny really seems to have dropped. Like other supermarket groups, Asda said it had seen a marked change in buying patterns in the past year. Customers want more natural and authentic products, Jon Bett, the trading manager for chilled drinks, said. The market for carbonated drinks has declined 7 to 8% in the last year, while the juice market has doubled and water sales have grown phenomenally. The trend had been driven by media coverage and the Jamie Oliver effect, he added. The decline of Sunny Delight is matched by the fall of other soft drinks two weeks ago, Britvic admitted a severe decline in sales of its carbonated drinks, which include Tango, 7UP and Pepsi although the fate of the SunnyD brand has attracted particular schadenfreude. Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings, and colourings. The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Procter and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999, paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight Syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on beta-carotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin. The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for SunnyD and turning bright orange. Its collapse was as dramatic as its rise to fame, and Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, which bought distribution rights to the brand in 2005, has been unable to reverse its fortunes despite efforts to reduce the sugar content, change the recipe, and introduce new variations, including a bright green apple and kiwi flavour. Kath Dalmeny, the Food Commissions senior policy adviser, greeted the news of SunnyDs delisting with satisfaction. There is no appetite any more for products that claim to be healthy but have no real nutritional value. Sunny Delight didnt live up to its claims and parents have seen through that kind of marketing. Gerber Funds Suit Drinks said SunnyD was suffering from an inherited and unjustified image problem. The marketing director, Rob Spencer, told The Grocer magazine: In Asda, two thirds of our sales come from no added sugar versions, which are up by 1% year on year. But market research figures from the company AC Nielsen show that the pressure on Sunny Delight and Northern Foods is part of a wider trend. Sales of pizzas and frozen foods fell by 9.2% last year. Most products seen as unhealthy declined confectionery by 3.1%/bagged snacks by 1.2%, and carbonated soft drinks by 1.7% while those seen as healthy boomed. Drinking yoghurts were up 51%, juices 15.6%, and water 9.4%. Ethical investment analysts EIRIS recently listed leading food manufacturers according to the percentage of turnover derived from products which fall into the unhealthy category. It said Unilever, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Cadbury Schweppes had the highest risk of suffering a backlash. | Fast food companies are looking to developing countries to increase their profits. | n |
id_2583 | From SunnyD and Pizza to Bread and Water Another bad week in a bad month for the food and drink industry. Sunny Delight, formerly the UKs third largest selling drink, is to be taken off the shelves by Asda after plummeting sales, the supermarket said at the weekend. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Foods, makers of biscuits, pies, pizzas and ready meals, to admit that the trend to healthier food was causing it problems. The companys chief executive, Pat ODriscoll, issued its second profits warning in two months as its biscuit sales slumped by 12% year on year in January and February, and pastry sates by 11%. Shares fell 17% to a five-year low of 1.08p. The National Consumer Councils food expert, Sue Dibb, said the news showed companies would have to change to survive. It looks as though weve reached the tipping point on food. Our research showed that two thirds of consumers have made changes to what they eat in the last year. Supermarkets are getting competitive about health. Companies are having to wake up or lose their customers. Foods analyst Clive Black, of Shore Capital, said that a sea change in eating habits was behind the industrys problems. Anyone who hasnt realised over recent years that fruit and veg are good and doughnuts and cream cakes are bad must have been living on the moon, he said. But over the past year or so, the penny really seems to have dropped. Like other supermarket groups, Asda said it had seen a marked change in buying patterns in the past year. Customers want more natural and authentic products, Jon Bett, the trading manager for chilled drinks, said. The market for carbonated drinks has declined 7 to 8% in the last year, while the juice market has doubled and water sales have grown phenomenally. The trend had been driven by media coverage and the Jamie Oliver effect, he added. The decline of Sunny Delight is matched by the fall of other soft drinks two weeks ago, Britvic admitted a severe decline in sales of its carbonated drinks, which include Tango, 7UP and Pepsi although the fate of the SunnyD brand has attracted particular schadenfreude. Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings, and colourings. The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Procter and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999, paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight Syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on beta-carotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin. The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for SunnyD and turning bright orange. Its collapse was as dramatic as its rise to fame, and Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, which bought distribution rights to the brand in 2005, has been unable to reverse its fortunes despite efforts to reduce the sugar content, change the recipe, and introduce new variations, including a bright green apple and kiwi flavour. Kath Dalmeny, the Food Commissions senior policy adviser, greeted the news of SunnyDs delisting with satisfaction. There is no appetite any more for products that claim to be healthy but have no real nutritional value. Sunny Delight didnt live up to its claims and parents have seen through that kind of marketing. Gerber Funds Suit Drinks said SunnyD was suffering from an inherited and unjustified image problem. The marketing director, Rob Spencer, told The Grocer magazine: In Asda, two thirds of our sales come from no added sugar versions, which are up by 1% year on year. But market research figures from the company AC Nielsen show that the pressure on Sunny Delight and Northern Foods is part of a wider trend. Sales of pizzas and frozen foods fell by 9.2% last year. Most products seen as unhealthy declined confectionery by 3.1%/bagged snacks by 1.2%, and carbonated soft drinks by 1.7% while those seen as healthy boomed. Drinking yoghurts were up 51%, juices 15.6%, and water 9.4%. Ethical investment analysts EIRIS recently listed leading food manufacturers according to the percentage of turnover derived from products which fall into the unhealthy category. It said Unilever, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Cadbury Schweppes had the highest risk of suffering a backlash. | Sales of Coca-Cola are declining in Britain. | n |
id_2584 | From SunnyD and Pizza to Bread and Water Another bad week in a bad month for the food and drink industry. Sunny Delight, formerly the UKs third largest selling drink, is to be taken off the shelves by Asda after plummeting sales, the supermarket said at the weekend. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Foods, makers of biscuits, pies, pizzas and ready meals, to admit that the trend to healthier food was causing it problems. The companys chief executive, Pat ODriscoll, issued its second profits warning in two months as its biscuit sales slumped by 12% year on year in January and February, and pastry sates by 11%. Shares fell 17% to a five-year low of 1.08p. The National Consumer Councils food expert, Sue Dibb, said the news showed companies would have to change to survive. It looks as though weve reached the tipping point on food. Our research showed that two thirds of consumers have made changes to what they eat in the last year. Supermarkets are getting competitive about health. Companies are having to wake up or lose their customers. Foods analyst Clive Black, of Shore Capital, said that a sea change in eating habits was behind the industrys problems. Anyone who hasnt realised over recent years that fruit and veg are good and doughnuts and cream cakes are bad must have been living on the moon, he said. But over the past year or so, the penny really seems to have dropped. Like other supermarket groups, Asda said it had seen a marked change in buying patterns in the past year. Customers want more natural and authentic products, Jon Bett, the trading manager for chilled drinks, said. The market for carbonated drinks has declined 7 to 8% in the last year, while the juice market has doubled and water sales have grown phenomenally. The trend had been driven by media coverage and the Jamie Oliver effect, he added. The decline of Sunny Delight is matched by the fall of other soft drinks two weeks ago, Britvic admitted a severe decline in sales of its carbonated drinks, which include Tango, 7UP and Pepsi although the fate of the SunnyD brand has attracted particular schadenfreude. Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings, and colourings. The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Procter and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999, paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight Syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on beta-carotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin. The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for SunnyD and turning bright orange. Its collapse was as dramatic as its rise to fame, and Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, which bought distribution rights to the brand in 2005, has been unable to reverse its fortunes despite efforts to reduce the sugar content, change the recipe, and introduce new variations, including a bright green apple and kiwi flavour. Kath Dalmeny, the Food Commissions senior policy adviser, greeted the news of SunnyDs delisting with satisfaction. There is no appetite any more for products that claim to be healthy but have no real nutritional value. Sunny Delight didnt live up to its claims and parents have seen through that kind of marketing. Gerber Funds Suit Drinks said SunnyD was suffering from an inherited and unjustified image problem. The marketing director, Rob Spencer, told The Grocer magazine: In Asda, two thirds of our sales come from no added sugar versions, which are up by 1% year on year. But market research figures from the company AC Nielsen show that the pressure on Sunny Delight and Northern Foods is part of a wider trend. Sales of pizzas and frozen foods fell by 9.2% last year. Most products seen as unhealthy declined confectionery by 3.1%/bagged snacks by 1.2%, and carbonated soft drinks by 1.7% while those seen as healthy boomed. Drinking yoghurts were up 51%, juices 15.6%, and water 9.4%. Ethical investment analysts EIRIS recently listed leading food manufacturers according to the percentage of turnover derived from products which fall into the unhealthy category. It said Unilever, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Cadbury Schweppes had the highest risk of suffering a backlash. | Rob Spencer works for Asda. | c |
id_2585 | From SunnyD and Pizza to Bread and Water Another bad week in a bad month for the food and drink industry. Sunny Delight, formerly the UKs third largest selling drink, is to be taken off the shelves by Asda after plummeting sales, the supermarket said at the weekend. Yesterday, it was the turn of Northern Foods, makers of biscuits, pies, pizzas and ready meals, to admit that the trend to healthier food was causing it problems. The companys chief executive, Pat ODriscoll, issued its second profits warning in two months as its biscuit sales slumped by 12% year on year in January and February, and pastry sates by 11%. Shares fell 17% to a five-year low of 1.08p. The National Consumer Councils food expert, Sue Dibb, said the news showed companies would have to change to survive. It looks as though weve reached the tipping point on food. Our research showed that two thirds of consumers have made changes to what they eat in the last year. Supermarkets are getting competitive about health. Companies are having to wake up or lose their customers. Foods analyst Clive Black, of Shore Capital, said that a sea change in eating habits was behind the industrys problems. Anyone who hasnt realised over recent years that fruit and veg are good and doughnuts and cream cakes are bad must have been living on the moon, he said. But over the past year or so, the penny really seems to have dropped. Like other supermarket groups, Asda said it had seen a marked change in buying patterns in the past year. Customers want more natural and authentic products, Jon Bett, the trading manager for chilled drinks, said. The market for carbonated drinks has declined 7 to 8% in the last year, while the juice market has doubled and water sales have grown phenomenally. The trend had been driven by media coverage and the Jamie Oliver effect, he added. The decline of Sunny Delight is matched by the fall of other soft drinks two weeks ago, Britvic admitted a severe decline in sales of its carbonated drinks, which include Tango, 7UP and Pepsi although the fate of the SunnyD brand has attracted particular schadenfreude. Sunny Delight burst on to the market in 1998 and reached the league table of top brands in 1999 by selling itself as a healthy drink, although its original recipe was only 5% juice with plenty of sugar and water as well as vegetable oil, thickeners, added vitamins, flavourings, and colourings. The health watchdog the Food Commission accused then owners Procter and Gamble of a con for selling it from fridge cabinets. In 1999, paediatrician Duncan Cameron reported a new and alarming condition in the medical journals: Sunny Delight Syndrome. A girl of five had turned bright yellow after drinking five litres a day. She was overdosing on beta-carotene, the additive used to give the drink its orange colour, and the pigment was being deposited in her skin. The marketing dream turned to a nightmare: by coincidence television adverts at the time showed two white snowmen raiding the fridge for SunnyD and turning bright orange. Its collapse was as dramatic as its rise to fame, and Gerber Foods Soft Drinks, which bought distribution rights to the brand in 2005, has been unable to reverse its fortunes despite efforts to reduce the sugar content, change the recipe, and introduce new variations, including a bright green apple and kiwi flavour. Kath Dalmeny, the Food Commissions senior policy adviser, greeted the news of SunnyDs delisting with satisfaction. There is no appetite any more for products that claim to be healthy but have no real nutritional value. Sunny Delight didnt live up to its claims and parents have seen through that kind of marketing. Gerber Funds Suit Drinks said SunnyD was suffering from an inherited and unjustified image problem. The marketing director, Rob Spencer, told The Grocer magazine: In Asda, two thirds of our sales come from no added sugar versions, which are up by 1% year on year. But market research figures from the company AC Nielsen show that the pressure on Sunny Delight and Northern Foods is part of a wider trend. Sales of pizzas and frozen foods fell by 9.2% last year. Most products seen as unhealthy declined confectionery by 3.1%/bagged snacks by 1.2%, and carbonated soft drinks by 1.7% while those seen as healthy boomed. Drinking yoghurts were up 51%, juices 15.6%, and water 9.4%. Ethical investment analysts EIRIS recently listed leading food manufacturers according to the percentage of turnover derived from products which fall into the unhealthy category. It said Unilever, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Cadbury Schweppes had the highest risk of suffering a backlash. | Duncan Cameron is a doctor. | e |
id_2586 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers. | e |
id_2587 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not. | c |
id_2588 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops. | e |
id_2589 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life. | e |
id_2590 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with. | n |
id_2591 | From The Economist print edition How shops can exploit peoples herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmanis supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmanis swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart. | c |
id_2592 | From outer space the world looks blue because of the extent that oceans cover its surface and of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. It stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, more than halfway around the globe and is twice the size of the next biggest ocean, the Atlantic. It harbours trenches 11,000m deep, which makes it the deepest of the oceans. Along its rim are some of the worlds richest nations. Huge cargo ships cross it carrying minerals, such as iron ore and copper from Australia, and manufactured goods from Japan, China and the United States. More than half the worlds catch of fish is from the Pacific. Most of the worlds palm oil is manufactured from the dried flesh of coconuts on the over 20,000 islands of the Pacific. | It can be concluded that no other ocean contains a trench 11,000m deep. | e |
id_2593 | From outer space the world looks blue because of the extent that oceans cover its surface and of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. It stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, more than halfway around the globe and is twice the size of the next biggest ocean, the Atlantic. It harbours trenches 11,000m deep, which makes it the deepest of the oceans. Along its rim are some of the worlds richest nations. Huge cargo ships cross it carrying minerals, such as iron ore and copper from Australia, and manufactured goods from Japan, China and the United States. More than half the worlds catch of fish is from the Pacific. Most of the worlds palm oil is manufactured from the dried flesh of coconuts on the over 20,000 islands of the Pacific. | It is possible to travel by ship from the Arctic to the Antarctic without leaving the Pacific ocean. | n |
id_2594 | From outer space the world looks blue because of the extent that oceans cover its surface and of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. It stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, more than halfway around the globe and is twice the size of the next biggest ocean, the Atlantic. It harbours trenches 11,000m deep, which makes it the deepest of the oceans. Along its rim are some of the worlds richest nations. Huge cargo ships cross it carrying minerals, such as iron ore and copper from Australia, and manufactured goods from Japan, China and the United States. More than half the worlds catch of fish is from the Pacific. Most of the worlds palm oil is manufactured from the dried flesh of coconuts on the over 20,000 islands of the Pacific. | It can be inferred from the passage that there are five oceans of which the Pacific is the largest. | c |
id_2595 | From outer space the world looks blue because of the extent that oceans cover its surface and of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. It stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, more than halfway around the globe and is twice the size of the next biggest ocean, the Atlantic. It harbours trenches 11,000m deep, which makes it the deepest of the oceans. Along its rim are some of the worlds richest nations. Huge cargo ships cross it carrying minerals, such as iron ore and copper from Australia, and manufactured goods from Japan, China and the United States. More than half the worlds catch of fish is from the Pacific. Most of the worlds palm oil is manufactured from the dried flesh of coconuts on the over 20,000 islands of the Pacific. | The sentiment of the passage is captured by the statement of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. | e |
id_2596 | From outer space the world looks blue because of the extent that oceans cover its surface and of all the oceans the greatest is the Pacific. It stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic, more than halfway around the globe and is twice the size of the next biggest ocean, the Atlantic. It harbours trenches 11,000m deep, which makes it the deepest of the oceans. Along its rim are some of the worlds richest nations. Huge cargo ships cross it carrying minerals, such as iron ore and copper from Australia, and manufactured goods from Japan, China and the United States. More than half the worlds catch of fish is from the Pacific. Most of the worlds palm oil is manufactured from the dried flesh of coconuts on the over 20,000 islands of the Pacific. | The Pacific accounts for more than half of the globes surface area taken up by ocean. | n |
id_2597 | From proper sanitation to extensive food management, ordinary restaurants and cafeterias have to do a lot to stay in business and avoid excessive scrutiny while also operating in a profitable manner. Given these considerations, one could assume that customers dietary restrictions and maintaining a stable dietary routine is not among any food services main concerns. However, this is not the case where hospital dining services are concerned. These establishments must also take into account that their customers are patients whose immune system is often compromised due to the risk of exposure to bacteria transferred from other patients and from medical staff. | A patient could suffer a deterioration in their condition when exposed to other people. | e |
id_2598 | From proper sanitation to extensive food management, ordinary restaurants and cafeterias have to do a lot to stay in business and avoid excessive scrutiny while also operating in a profitable manner. Given these considerations, one could assume that customers dietary restrictions and maintaining a stable dietary routine is not among any food services main concerns. However, this is not the case where hospital dining services are concerned. These establishments must also take into account that their customers are patients whose immune system is often compromised due to the risk of exposure to bacteria transferred from other patients and from medical staff. | Operating a regular restaurant is cheaper than operating a hospital dining service, due to the additional dietary requirements placed upon the latter. | n |
id_2599 | From proper sanitation to extensive food management, ordinary restaurants and cafeterias have to do a lot to stay in business and avoid excessive scrutiny while also operating in a profitable manner. Given these considerations, one could assume that customers dietary restrictions and maintaining a stable dietary routine is not among any food services main concerns. However, this is not the case where hospital dining services are concerned. These establishments must also take into account that their customers are patients whose immune system is often compromised due to the risk of exposure to bacteria transferred from other patients and from medical staff. | Patient dietary restrictions are the main responsibility of hospital dining services. | n |
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