Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 2.0 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is at the centre of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.
Archaeologists believe the iconic stone monument was constructed anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, as described in the chronology below. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested that the first stones were erected in 2400–2200 BC, whilst another theory suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC.
The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge monument. It is a national legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.
Archaeological evidence found by the Stonehenge Riverside Project in 2008 indicates that Stonehenge could possibly have served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. The dating of cremated remains found on the site indicate that deposits contain human bone material from as early as 3000 BC, when the initial ditch and bank were first dug. Such deposits continued at Stonehenge for at least another 500 years.
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Cystic fibrosis woman died with smoker's donor lungs
A 27-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis died of cancer after she was given the donor lungs of a smoker. Jennifer Wederell, of Hawkwell, Essex, died at home in August - 16 months after the transplant at Harefield Hospital in London. Colin Grannell said he believes his daughter would not have agreed to the transplant had she known the middle-aged donor was a heavy smoker. The hospital has apologized for not giving her that choice. Jennifer had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of two and by her mid-20s was using oxygen 24 hours a day. She had been on the waiting list for a lung transplant for 18 months when in April 2011, she was told there had been a match. Mr Grannell said the family had "lived all for that moment" for years, and thought it would help Jennifer "cheat" her condition.
Приложение
Тексты к государственному экзамену «Теория и практика перевода»
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A home from home: Five planets that could host life
It's one of the big questions: Are we alone on this blue marble or is there life elsewhere in the cosmos? To shed some light, astronomers are searching for habitable worlds circling far-off stars. A team has now published updated evidence for a planet that could be the most Earth-like yet. According to the US Planetary Habitability Laboratory, it would be the fifth potentially habitable world known outside our Solar System. So what do we know about these five Earth-like planets, and how likely is it that they could support life?
The discovery of Gliese 581g was announced in September 2010 by a US-led team. But as soon as they made the announcement, doubts began to surface. The team at the Geneva observatory which had discovered all four other planets around the star Gliese 581 failed to detect it in their own data. However, the original discoverers of 581g have now published an analysis using a greater amount of data to provide more promising evidence for its existence.This would be significant because the Earth Similarity Index (ESI), devised by a team including Dirk Schulze-Makuch from Washington State University and Abel Mendez from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Arecibo, shows that Gliese 581g is the most Earth-like planet discovered to date. The ESI measures characteristics of exoplanets on a scale from zero to one, with one being identical to Earth. Accordingly, the online Habitable Exoplanets Catalog, based at UPR, has decided to include it in their list of the most promising worlds to support life.
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Gliese 667Cc
Similarity to Earth (ESI): 0.85
Minimum mass: 4.5 times that of Earth
Distance: 22 light-years
Announced in February 2012 by a team from the US Carnegie Insitution and Germany's Goettingen University, Gliese 667Cc belongs to a class of planets known as Super Earths - a class of planet with a size in between that of rocky worlds like Earth and Mars and the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Roughly 4.5 times the mass of Earth, Gliese 667Cc takes 28 days to complete a single orbit of its star, which is located just 22 light-years away. The exoplanet absorbs about as much energy from its star as Earth does from the Sun, which means surface temperatures could be similar to Earth's. This would allow for the presence on the planet's surface of liquid water - one of the pre-requisites for life. However, astronomers say this cannot be confirmed without further information on the planet's atmosphere. Nevertheless, co-discoverer Guillem Anglada-Escude has said of 667Cc: "This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it."
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HD85512b
Similarity to Earth (ESI): 0.77
Minimum mass: 3.6 times that of Earth
Distance: 35 light-years
Another Super-Earth, with a mass 3.6 times that of our planet, HD85512b orbits on the inner margins of its habitable zone. This means it is closer to Venus than Earth in the amount of energy it absorbs from its star. However, that would not necessarily preclude the possibility of life. How hospitable the planet is may depend on how much cloud cover it has, since clouds reflect solar radiation. Its discoverers calculate that if HD85512b were to have more than 50% cloud cover (on the same order as Earth), it could offset the planet's proximity to its star enough for water to stay liquid at the surface. However, any life forms on HD85512b will have to be suited to very balmy conditions, "It's going to be really muggy, just think about the muggiest day you can think of," co-discoverer Lisa Kaltenegger, from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, said at the time of its discovery. "We're not saying it's habitable for you and me."
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Coal to equal oil as world's top energy source within 10 years
China on top - By 2017 the agency says global coal consumption will stand at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, versus 4.4 billion tones for oil itself."Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year," says IEA executive director Maria Van der Hoeven. "If no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."The report forecasts that by 2014 China will account for more than half the world's coal consumption, while India will overtake the US in second place. In fact the US is the only region of the world forecast to reduce demand for coal says the report, highlighting the role being played by shale gas in the energy mix."The US experience suggests that a more efficient gas market, marked by flexible pricing and fuelled by indigenous unconventional resources that are produced sustainably can reduce coal use, CO2 emissions and consumers' electricity bills without harming energy security," says Ms. Van der Hoeven. Earlier this year the IEA reported that without a major move away from coal as an energy source, average global temperatures could rise by 6C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, leading to highly damaging climate change.
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Coal to equal oil as world's top energy source
To avoid that, governments are hoping that technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be utilised to curb the growth in emissions.But in today's study, the IEA says that CCS is unlikely to make any impact in the next five years. This pessimistic view was echoed in Brussels as the EU was unable to find a suitable carbon capture and storage project to fund, despite having set aside 275m euros (£224m) to kick start the technology.A number of projects from different European countries including the UK had been in the running for a share of the money but all were forced to withdraw after they failed to secure necessary financial support from their home governments. This is despite the UK outlining a new effort to develop CCS earlier this year.
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'All in the same boat'
"Solo artists in general approach life in a solitary manner - deliberately choosing to go it alone. "They can find themselves in a situation where everyone around them are paid employees - the PR guru, their manger - all interested in them from a financial point of view and not in their personal needs - it's hard for the artist to know who to trust. "They travel a lot, are away from friends and family for long periods of time and only seen for their public image, not their real self - which can make them feel inferior, isolated and invalidated. "Even for the general population, psychology research has found that people with support have increased lifespan - and those in a band may benefit even more from this - they are all in the same boat. "It is easier to know who to trust - other members can stop an individual spiralling into self-destruction and pull them back into the group - both because of concern for the band mate, but also because they are all in it together."
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Europe and Russia are cementing their plans to explore Mars together.
European Space Agency member states have approved the agreement that would see Russia take significant roles in Red Planet missions in 2016 and 2018. The former is a satellite that will look for methane and other trace gases in the atmosphere; the latter will be a surface rover.
Russian participation fills a void left by the Americans who pulled back from the projects earlier this year. For a while, it looked as though the ventures, known as ExoMars, might have to be cancelled. But Russian desire to pick up many of the elements dropped by the US means ExoMars is now on a much surer footing.
Esa member states indicated their happiness with the cooperation text on Monday. All that remains is for the documentation to be signed by both parties. This is likely to happen before the end of the year.
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Cystic fibrosis woman died with smoker's donor lungs
A 27-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis died of cancer after she was given the donor lungs of a smoker. Jennifer Wederell, of Hawkwell, Essex, died at home in August - 16 months after the transplant at Harefield Hospital in London. Colin Grannell said he believes his daughter would not have agreed to the transplant had she known the middle-aged donor was a heavy smoker. The hospital has apologized for not giving her that choice. Jennifer had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of two and by her mid-20s was using oxygen 24 hours a day. She had been on the waiting list for a lung transplant for 18 months when in April 2011, she was told there had been a match. Mr Grannell said the family had "lived all for that moment" for years, and thought it would help Jennifer "cheat" her condition.
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Greenhouse gases
US weather agency the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contributed to the bulletin with their Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, which indicated that between 1990 and 2011, carbon dioxide's role in the radiative forcing that leads to warming had increased by 30%.
Levels of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas, hit a new record at 1,813 parts per billion - more than two-and-a-half times the pre-industrial level.
Concentrations of nitrous oxide, estimated to be nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, rose slightly to a record 324 parts per billion.
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To explore Mars
"Russia already has its Luna-Glob and Luna-Resurs missions, which are already being implemented, but we're considering other opportunities for this in other areas."
The planned agreement calls for Russia to provide the Proton rockets to send the two ExoMars missions on their way. Russia would also get instrument space on the 2016 satellite and the 2018 rover. In addition, its researchers would join the science teams that exploit the missions' data. One key contribution would be the landing system that places the rover on the surface of the Red Planet. With the exception of some key components, this would be built by Russian industry. ExoMars was formally initiated in Europe by ministers in 2005, and Esa has so far spent in excess of 400m euros on technology development. The final budget on the European side is projected to be about 1.2bn euros for the two missions. So far, 850m of that total has been committed. But officials remain confident of closing the gap. The 2016 orbiter will try to track down the sources of methane that have been observed at Mars. Its presence in the atmosphere is intriguing and could conceivably indicate biological activity on the planet. A key role for the satellite also will be to provide the communications relay for the 2018 rover.
The six-wheeled vehicle would look for signs of past or present life. It would have the ability to drill 2m into the ground.
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Greenhouse gases hit record high
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record high in 2011, the World Meteorological Organization has said. In its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin released on Tuesday, the organisation said that carbon dioxide levels reached 391 parts per million in 2011. The report estimates that carbon dioxide accounts for 85% of the "radiative forcing" that leads to global temperature rises. Other potent greenhouse gases such as methane also reached record highs. The carbon dioxide levels appear to have been rising at a level of two parts per million each year for the last 10 years - with the latest measure being 40% higher than those at the start of the industrial revolution. The WMO estimates that 375 billion tonnes of carbon have been released into the atmosphere since 1750, and that about half of that amount is still present in the atmosphere.
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Jobless 'face increased heart attack risk'
Being unemployed in your 50s and early 60s may raise heart-attack risk by a similar magnitude as smoking, findings suggest. The study of more than 13,000 people in the US indicated heart-attack risk went up by a quarter in the first year after job loss and increased incrementally with further sackings or redundancies. The same was not seen in people who gave up work voluntarily, Archives of Internal Medicine reports. Experts suspect stress may be to blame. They say more research is needed to explore this.
This confirms other work that shows life stressors can increase your risk of a heart attack”. Past work has suggested that doing a stressful job may similarly increase your risk of having a heart attack. The British Heart Foundation advises that stress in itself is not a direct cause of heart disease, although it may contribute to your risk level.
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Stress link
In the latest study, which spanned nearly 20 years, there were more than 1,000 heart attacks among the 13,451 participants. When the researchers looked specifically at to whom these events had happened, they found a number of trends. Men and women in the study who smoked, were overweight and did little or no exercise were more likely to have a heart attack. So too were those who were older and those who had high blood pressure or diabetes. After accounting for these more well-established heart-risk factors, the researchers found job loss was also independently linked with heart attack risk. Heart attacks were significantly (27%) more common among people who were recently unemployed, regardless of occupation type. And the effect was cumulative - the chances of having a heart attack went up by two-thirds (63%) for people who had lost four or more jobs.
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North Korea rocket 'has 10,000km range'
North Korea's recent rocket launch shows it has the ability to fire a rocket more than 10,000km (6,200 miles), South Korean officials say. The estimate, which would potentially put the Western US in range, was based on an analysis of rocket debris. However, there was no confirmation that the North had the re-entry technology needed to deliver a missile.Experts believe North Korea is also years away from gaining the ability to mount a nuclear bomb on a missile.North Korea launched the Unha-3 rocket on 12 December, in defiance of sanctions and international warnings.It was the first time the North had made successful use of a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into orbit, and observers said it appeared to mark a step towards fielding an intercontinental range ballistic missile."As a result of analysing the material of Unha-3 (North Korea's rocket), we judged North Korea had secured a range of more than 10,000km in case the warhead is 500-600kg," a South Korean defence ministry official told journalists.
The South Koreans - and others - have long alleged that the North Koreans are trying to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the US. The South Korean defence ministry says its analysis of the remains of the first stage of the rocket fired on 12 December backs up that view - that North Korea has dual use technology that could potentially propel a missile onto the US mainland.
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Bali’s south coast
Bali’s south coast is the most popular and most built-up region, including the beach towns centred around the capital Denpasar. “Seminyak has proved incredibly popular in the last couple of years,” explained James Cook, a marketing director with Savills Singapore, an international real estate agency. “It is full of lively beach bars, restaurants, boutiques and shops. It’s chaotic and great fun.” Owners here pay a premium to be near the clubs and restaurants, and to have close access to the airport and beaches. Across town, centrally located Sanur, Bali’s oldest beach resort area, is having a resurgence, with many new hotels under construction. “Sanur was forgotten as the focus moved to the resort areas of Jimbaran and Nusa Dua, but it has a gentle elegance of its own,” Cook said.
Up the coast from Seminyak is the quieter area of Canggu, not far from the Tanah Lot Temple, one of the most sacred sites in Bali. It is popular with ex-pats, many of whom own villas near the black-sand beaches. “Some of the old Bali hands and expatriates, as well as the well-heeled have moved farther north up the coast,” Cook said. “There are some beautiful villas with magnificent views of the sea and the rice paddy fields.” Some prospective residents are drawn to villas in Ubud, for the town’s more cultural and artsy vibe. “It all depends on personal choice and what you are looking for in your ideal home in Bali,” Cook added.
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Living in: Bali
The island of Bali has long been a must-see for tourists and travellers because of its spiritual and sacred spaces, its almost mystical landscapes and its unique Hindu culture in the largely Muslim country of Indonesia. While development threatens to swamp some of the island’s built-up places, the magical and the mundane manage to flourish side-by-side, drawing new visitors to the enchanted isle year after year.
Bali’s statues, shrines and simple pleasures have been attracting travellers since the Dutch opened the island to tourism in 1914. First it was wealthy Westerners who could afford the time and passage to this remote spot in the Indian Ocean. Then in the 1960s and ‘70s, surfers, mainly from Australia, came to ride the classic waves. Now luxury hotels and golf courses have colonized the south shore, and it can take two hours to get from one end of Kuta, the major beach resort area near the capital Denpasar, to the other, a distance of only about 7km. But what has not changed is the special quality of the Balinese culture. “The Balinese people are, in general, really wonderful,” said Corey O’Malley, an Australian who has lived in the remote central highlands for about six years. “The rich, vibrant and ever-present culture of the Balinese and the lushness of the island beyond the traffic zones are an aesthetic feast.”
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The eruption
Residents reported that the eruption was heralded by small earthquakes which began about six days prior to the outbreak of lava. These earthquakes increased in size and frequency through April 2, and a particularly strong one was reported at about 8 p.m., some four hours before the eruption apparently began. Just after midnight, the fissures opened on the flank of Pico. One resident said it looked as if the cone had "been cut by a knife." The 1,300 people living inside the caldera fled during the night to the safety of villages on the north coast. No one was killed; about 20 people required medical attention, although our reports do not indicate the nature or severity of their injuries. We suspect that they inhaled volcanic fumes and ash particles, which caused difficulties in breathing. During the day on April 3, the island was covered by a thick cloud of dark ash that reached 2.5 to 5 kilometers high. The violent eruption produced lava bombs up to 4 meters across that were ejected as far as 500 meters from the vents. On April 4, lava fountains reached 400 meters high beneath a cloud of ashes about 2 kilometers high.
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Pico do Fogo pronounced: [ˈpiku du ˈfoɡu] is the highest peak of Cape Verde, rising to 2,829 metres (9,281 ft) above sea level. It is an active stratovolcano lying on the island of Fogo. The main cone last erupted in 1675, causing mass emigration from the island, while a subsidiary vent erupted in 1995. The only deadly eruption was in 1847 when earthquakes generated in all the island claimed several lives.
The mountain's slopes are used to grow coffee, while its lava is used as building material. Near its peak is a caldera and a small village, Chã das Caldeiras, is inside this caldera.
The eruption began on the night of 2–3 April, covering the island with a cloud of ash. Residents were evacuated from Chã das Caldeiras, as their homes were destroyed.
A team of United States Geological Survey (USGS) volcanologists has been monitoring an eruption that began just after midnight on April 3 on Fogo.
Like Hawaii, Fogo is a "hot-spot" volcanic island. It last erupted in 1951. It is the youngest and most active volcano in the Cape Verde Islands. The Cape Verde Islands, a short chain of volcanic islands that generally are younger at the western end, formed as the African Plate moved towards the east over the hotspot in much the same way that the Hawaiian Ridge formed as the Pacific Plate moved west-northwestward over a hotspot.
Unlike the island of Hawaii, Fogo consists of a single volcano, so the island is nearly round and about 25 kilometers (16 mi) in diameter. The large summit caldera (about 10 kilometers in the north-south direction and 7 kilometers in the east-west direction) is not located in the center of the island, but rather towards its northeastern corner.
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Rare subterranean fish rediscovered in Brazil
An incredibly rare blind fish that lives underground in Brazil has been rediscovered by scientists.
A number of individual fish have been found almost 50 years after the only known specimen was collected and then described by American experts.
Biologists cannot be sure, but they suspect the fish may be a living relict that has survived deep under the ground while its relatives above went extinct.
Details of the discovery are published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
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The first and only known specimen was caught in 1962 from a communal water well used by inhabitants of the city of Jaiba, in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The fish was taken to American ecologist Dr Joseph Tosi Jr who was in the region at the time, and then described by specialists back in the US.
"This was the most enigmatic species of the order Characiformes, a group of freshwater fishes that includes piranhas and tetras," says Dr Moreira.
Not only did the fish come from underground, but it was blind, whereas most fish live above ground and have good eyesight.
"Because it was never collected since, it was assumed that is was an endangered species. However, no one knew. There was no information of its distribution, abundance, anything."
To find the fish, the expedition team interviewed local people around Jaiba, who reported they had seen the fish swimming in open wells.
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Capturing the cash
The EU says that the money will remain available to fund CCS projects in a second call for proposals that the Commission says it will proceed with "swiftly. «Liberal Democrat member of the European Parliament Chris Davies blamed European governments for failing to come up with the cash, particularly when the IEA were reporting the unabated rise of coal."We may have fallen at the first hurdle but we mustn't give up," he told the BBC. "CCS becomes even more important globally with coal set to overtake oil as the primary source of energy." While the EU was unable to announce any progress on CCS, they were able to award 1.2bn euros (£975m) to 23 innovative renewable energy demonstrations projects across the member states.
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TRANSPLANT CHECKS
All organs must be free of apparent disease before transplantation.
A person cannot donate if they have been diagnosed with HIV or the fatal brain disease CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). Physical condition, not age, is the deciding factor.
The medical history of the donor is looked at - including a review of any past investigations like chest x-rays.
Before lung transplantation, a small camera may be used to look for any inside trauma.
Matches are made on blood group, tissue type, and if the size of organ fits the recipient.
The waiting list is prioritized by need, greatest benefit and length of wait.
Last year NHS Blood and Transplant said doctors should tell patients in advance if there is an increased risk because of the donor's personal history - such as smoking, disease or being elderly.