悠然作手Blogger: 五月 2026

2026年5月15日星期五

RP200 Rafflesia, the corpse Flower

Repulsive, foul, stinking—would you guess that all these adjectives apply to a flower?

Rafflesia is the type of flower to which all those words apply. It grows in Southeast Asia. It's very rare, and it is more commonly called the corpse flower. It got this nickname because of its horrible smell. People say rafflesia flowers smell like rotting flesh.

Rafflesias are unusual for a lot of reasons, not only for their smell. First of all, they are parasites. They grow on a particular kind of rain forest vine. Sadly, as the rain forests disappear, rafflesia is also disappearing. The only parts of rafflesia plants that can be seen are their flowers, which are huge. The biggest, Rafflesia arnoldii, can be one meter across and weigh 11 kilograms! It's the heaviest single flower on Earth. Even the smallest blossoms are quite large at 12 centimeters across.

Rafflesia flowers are usually reddish brown with a white pattern that can look like warts. They smell so terrible in order to attract flies—not bees—which pollinate them. Flies land on the flowers, looking for meat, and take pollen with them when they fly away. This helps rafflesia reproduce.

Currently, rafflesia needs some help. For all its great size, it is a delicate genus. The flowers live only a few days, they usually grow in untouched locations, and many of them are difficult to keep alive outside of their natural habitat. Right now, the number of rafflesia flowers in the world is decreasing, so the more reproducing it does, the better. If we want wild, stinky, unusual rafflesias to stay alive on the earth, we must work to protect them and study them, even if we have to hold our noses while we do so.

RP199 Social Contagion

We all understand that certain illnesses are contagious. We don't share a drink with someone who has a cold. We also wash our hands after we cough on them to keep from spreading germs. But we' re discovering now that germs aren't the only things that are contagious. Ideas and states of being can be catching too.

You must have noticed how you'll probably yawn if your friend yawns. Or if a friend tells you an angry story, you may feel yourself getting angry. One person crying tends to make other people cry. This happens because of our genes. When we watch someone else feel something or do something, the very same parts of our brains that would control that emotion or action become active. Human beings were designed to share each other's feelings and emotions. Imitating other people's words and behavior is only natural for us.

Imagine that you have an overweight friend. This friend always orders too much food. When you go out with him, you order a lot as well. Can you see how you'd end up gaining weight that way? That's social contagion. If you have an overweight spouse or sibling, the chances that you will be overweight increase. Or imagine drinking and smoking. If your friends do those things, the chances that you will try them increase.

Understanding social contagion can help us live happier, healthier lives. If you want to quit smoking, spend time with people who don't smoke. Recognize when you and your friends are only encouraging each other to complain. Once you know how other people affect you, you can surround yourself with positive influences.

RP198 Cats

You're sitting on the couch with your cat on your lap. You're petting your cat, your cat is purring, and you're both very happy. But then you feel your kitty's claws on your leg. She's opening and closing her claws against you. Ouch!

Your cat doesn't want to hurt you; she's just kneading. This actually means she's happy and content. Kneading is what cats do to their mothers to make milk flow. When your cat kneads with her paws, she is feeling safe. She's treating you like her mother.

Cats also use their paws to show other things. When they are disgusted, for example, they may shake their paws, one by one. In fact, cats talk with all their body parts. A loving cat may greet you by rubbing her face against yours. If your cat rears up on her hind legs to greet you, she's trying to get her face close to yours. This means she trusts you and wants to give you a sweet greeting.

Cats' tails are important, too. Greeting you with a tail curved like a question mark means she loves you and is happy to see you. Swishing her tail back and forth means your cat is feeling indecisive or aggressive. This is unlike dogs, which wag their tails when they' re happy!

Just like us, cats show emotions with their faces. Flattened ears mean she's scared, as do wide eyes. Blinking slowly, on the other hand, shows that your cat is calm and trusting.

Just because we don't use the same language doesn't mean we can't learn to understand animals. Study cat communication for a few minutes, and you'll be amazed at what your cat can tell you!

RP197 American Football

Huge men sprint across the field like gazelles, then smash into each other like trains. One man is alone inside a clear space while other men fight to protect him. Just before he falls under the weight of other bodies, he throws a ball high into the air. Thirty yards away, it is caught. A touchdown! The crowd goes wild.

This is American football. It's the most popular sport in the United States, but it's not well-known elsewhere. Two teams of eleven men fight to move along a 100-yard field. Each team defends its goal at the ends of the field. The men try to move a ball. The ball can be thrown, carried, or kicked. A team scores six points for carrying or throwing the ball across the other team's goal line, and three points for kicking the ball between the other team's goalposts.

American football (called "football" in the United States) evolved in the 19th century from different types of rugby, which is played in the United Kingdom. Rugby has a similar ball and similar rules to football. While American football is still clearly related to rugby, the two games are now very different.

American football was already a popular high school and college game before it was recognized as a professional sport in 1892. The first football league was established in 1920. Two years later, it changed its name to the NFL (National Football League), which still exists today.

After 1958, when a great championship game was played, football's popularity grew. Now, it is the most popular sport in the United States. The championship, now called the Super Bowl, is watched by more Americans than any other television event. The game, with its violence, strategy, and passion, is deeply rooted in American culture.

RP196 Alpacas

If you' re ever traveling in South America, you might see something that looks like a moving mass of fluff darting up a slope. Don't be startled. It's just an alpaca!

Alpacas have been domesticated for thousands of years. Humans value them for their soft wool, which the Incas called "the fiber of the gods." Alpaca wool can be turned into soft, warm fabrics that would have been very useful to people living at high altitudes in the Andes mountains.

Alpacas are still herded in the foothills of the Andes. Most alpaca s live in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. They eat hay and grass, but they'll try to eat anything. Within the herds, they live in family groups dominated by one male, plus females and babies. They are social animals and interact with each other frequently. They make different sounds to show anger, fear, and happiness, or to warn other alpacas of enemies. They will fight to defend their families. When they fight, they use their front feet—and they spit!

Alpacas are part of the Camelidae family, which includes camels and llamas, among other animals. Alpacas look very similar to small llamas. They are usually about 100-200 pounds and three feet high at the shoulder. That's shorter than most human beings. They are different shades of white, black, brown, or gray. They may be solid or have spots of different colors. Their thick wool can make them look chubby, but when shorn you can see that they are thin and long legged. They have large features. They can often look like they are making kissing faces under their big eyes!

These interesting and unique animals have been part of human culture for thousands of years, and we' re still using them in the same ways today!

RP195 The Fall and Rise of Pompeii

It's a museum of human suffering. Pompeii, in Italy, was destroyed by a volcano in AD 79. Out of a population of about 15,000 people, more than 2,000were killed.

Pompeii was a thriving city. Merchants and traders sold and transported products. Fertile soil meant Pompeii was a good place for farmers. The people who lived there didn't understand that beautiful Mount Vesuvius, which towered over their city, would destroy them.

Mount Vesuvius had been an active volcano for a long time. It caused earthquakes, and in the fall of AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted. Mud, stones, ash, and poisonous gases blew out of it. People in Pompeii tried to run away. Unfortunately, many were killed by the poisonous gas before they could get far enough away. Others died when their houses collapsed under the weight of ash and stone from the volcano.

Pompeii and its people were completely buried by the ash that rained down on the city for hours. It ended up underneath seven meters of ash and soil, completely hidden from sight. Surprisingly, the material that killed Pompeii also preserved it. When it was found again, centuries later, people discovered that the earth had protected the beautiful frescos (wall paintings), artwork, and architecture of the city. Bottles of wine on shop counters, coins in purses, even people's bodies had been preserved, exactly as they were when they died. It was as though the entire town had been wrapped like a mummy.

Today, Pompeii is a major tourist destination in Italy. It's a great resource for scholars, who have learned so much about day to day life in the past. It's a sad irony that what destroyed Pompeii is what has kept it alive for history.

RP194 Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas is a beloved poet and writer from Wales. He is most famous for his poetry, but he also wrote short stories and scripts for radio and television. He was very talented though he had a difficult life.

Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, South Wales, on October 27, 1914. He was not a very healthy child. He had asthma and bronchitis, so he usually preferred to read than to play. Thomas dropped out of school when he was 16 and went to work as a journalist for the local newspaper. He wrote some famous poems when he was a teenager, including "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" and "And Death Shall Have No Dominion." His first volume of poetry was published in 1934 when he had just turned 21. However, while he was having great success with his writing, he also began to develop a drinking habit. This would be a problem all his life.

In 1937, Thomas married Caitlin Macnamara. They had three children together. It was difficult for him to support his family. He wrote for movies for years, but the family stayed poor. Then, in 1946, he published Deaths and Entrance. It changed their lives. After this, Thomas gave several successful speaking tours.

In 1953, Thomas went to New York for a conference. As usual, he drank very much. People worried about whether he would behave well or cause problems. But it wasn't drinking that he should have worried about. Unluckily for him, the air quality in New York dropped suddenly. Smog filled the city. Thomas became very sick. By the time anyone noticed, it was too late. Dylan Thomas died of pneumonia and bronchitis in a New York hospital on November 9, 1953.

RP193 Yoga

The word “yoga” has many meanings. It can mean “balance,” “unity,” or “joining.” Broadly speaking, yoga is a combination of mental and physical practices. Doing yoga is supposed to help people achieve true understanding. It is unclear when people first began to practice yoga, but the concept of yoga comes from the area of India and Pakistan and may be over 5,000 years old. There are many different branches of yoga. We' ll focus here on some basic principles they all share.

The most important part of yoga is breathing. Yoga starts with the correct breath. Breathing slowly and deeply through the nose is the beginning of yoga practice. Later, people practicing yoga may learn more difficult breathing exercises. Once your breathing is correct, you can move on to doing poses.

The poses, or asanas, are designed to create strength and flexibility in the body. This relates back to the idea of balance. As you become more used to yoga, you can do more challenging poses. Many people do yoga simply for the exercise. Yoga does indeed help people become fit and healthy. But the idea is never to compete, only to do your best and improve at your own rate.

The difficult poses also help people learn grace under pressure. This means that though the body is struggling, the mind is calm. During a yoga practice, your mind is supposed to be clear and empty. You think about nothing but the pose. In this way, yoga helps relieve mental stress.

The ancient tradition of yoga has spread to every continent and has been adapted to many different cultures. If you walk through your town, you'll probably be able to spot a yoga studio. Care to try it?

RP192 Capoeira The Dance of War

RP192 Capoeira: The Dance of War

Capoeira is a unique combination of music, dance, sport, fighting, and competition. This distinct art form comes from Brazil. Slaves and the descendants of slaves created capoeira, which is also influenced by the culture of native people of Brazil.

In the 1600s, the rulers of Brazil were bringing slaves from Africa to work on huge farms. These slaves began to form their own culture. This new culture combined arts from Africa and Brazil, creating capoeira. The music and dance probably helped tell stories and bind people together. But the slaves who developed capoeira would have wanted to be free. Experts think the fighting in capoeira may have been a way for slaves to train to escape or revolt. They hid their war training inside music and dance and then used it to help themselves survive in the jungle or fight against their owners. Capoeira has been called “the Dance of War.”

Capoeira now is performed by two people who dance with and compete against each other. The competition is called the jogo. The jogo is performed like a battle, but the battle is fought to the rhythm of a traditional stringed instrument called a berimbau. The performers use kicks and leg-sweeping movements to fight. They also use head butts, cartwheels, handstands, and other acrobatic moves. They take turns moving forward and falling back, as in a battle. They duck to escape kicks. The goal is never to injure one's opponent. Rather, the idea is to catch one's opponent off guard and show the fighting move that could have hurt him. Capoeira is about showing skill, not winning and losing.

Capoeira is becoming popular around the world because it teaches fitness and grace. You may find this dance of war from the days of slavery in your town soon.

RP191 The Rose City

Imagine walking through a narrow canyon in the desert, with steep rock walls on either side. You turn a corner and suddenly come face-to-face with an enormous building carved directly into the stone! Welcome to the ancient city of Petra.

Petra is located in the country of Jordan in the Middle East, and was already famous 2,000 years ago. The city was once an important location for trade. Many people had to pass through the area while carrying supplies between the West and the East. The citizens of Petra were especially good at storing water. This allowed their city to become prosperous even in one of the driest deserts in the world.

The reason Petra is so widely admired is its incredible buildings. The people who lived there carved thousands of structures, including temples, theaters, houses, and halls, directly into the surrounding rocks. Even more impressive is the fact that they did all of this work by hand! They did not have any of the power tools we would rely on today. The pink color of the stone buildings is especially beautiful, and gives Petra its nickname, the Rose City.

A huge earthquake in the year AD 363 put an end to Petra's strength and importance in trade. The city was mostly abandoned and forgotten over the following centuries, with just a few local tribes continuing to live there. However, in the early 1800s a Swiss explorer named Johann Burckhardt wrote about his visit. People from Europe and the rest of the world became curious about this mysterious place. Today Petra is a World Heritage Site, with half a million tourists coming every year! The Rose City has once again been placed on the map.

RP190 Danger in the Sea

It was the worst environmental disaster in American history. Here's how the BP (British Petroleum) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010 happened.

1. The government wasn't watching. Wouldn't it be great if you could make up the rules for every game you played? That's basically what BP was allowed to do. The US government generally let BP regulate itself. No one was around to tell the company no or force it to maintain safety standards.

2. The offshore oil rig involved in the spill was sealing the well it had drilled. Workers tested the seal once, but didn't do any other more expensive safety tests to be absolutely sure the seal worked.

3. As we later learned, the cement used for the well was not allowed enough time to set. BP knew this, but believed it could be strengthened later.

4. A gas bubble escaped from the badly sealed well. The gas rose through the pipe and reached the air at the oil rig, where it exploded. Eleven workers were killed. The rig burned and slowly sank.

5. A blowout preventer should have come on to seal the well automatically. It didn't. The well pipe had been knocked out of place by the explosion. That kept the blowout preventer from sealing the well as it should have.

6. BP, rushing to fix the well, accidentally opened a bigger hole, and the oil started gushing. By some estimates, 205.8 million gallons spilled into the gulf in 87 days. However, a judge later ruled that BP was only responsible for about 130 million gallons. Livelihoods were destroyed. Countless animals and plants were killed. The effects of the oil on the surface and floor of the ocean will continue for decades. A study presented in April 2017 showed that the oil spill had caused US$17.2 billion in damage to the Gulf of Mexico's natural resources.

RP189 What Is Beauty

RP189 What Is Beauty?

Ideas of beauty are like the ocean: they change constantly, but they' re always somehow the same. There are some things that have always been considered beautiful, while other fashions come and go.

Some beautiful qualities are the same across cultures and centuries. One important aspect of beauty is symmetry. Symmetry is balance. It refers to how alike two halves of an object are. Faces that are symmetrical are considered more beautiful than those that aren't. Signs of good health are also always called beautiful, such as shiny hair, clear skin, and strong teeth. Strong teeth don't necessarily have to be white, though. In some parts of Vietnam, black teeth are considered attractive.

Other aspects of beauty change with time and geography. For example, our current obsession with thinness in much of the world is very new. Until recently—40 or 50 years ago—it was beautiful to be soft and round. Having some fat was considered beautiful throughout most of history. It meant that you were healthy and didn't have to work hard. Now we know that being fit is healthy, too. Being fit is something that takes time and effort—and probably money. Being thin now shows status the way being fat did.

Different cultures have different ideas of beauty. Some cultures in Africa and Asia value long necks. Women have their necks stretched with metal rings to achieve a beautiful look. In ancient China, bound feet were beautiful, though they prevented women from walking comfortably. In Renaissance Europe, high foreheads were regarded as beautiful, so women plucked their hairlines.

Some ideas of beauty change with our opinions of health and status, but others stay the same. There are few rules about beauty. In the end, the most beautiful person in the world is the one you look at with love.

RP188 Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan lived at the beginning of the last century. She was that type of artist whose work is extremely difficult to describe or capture: a dancer. Yet her name and her reputation are alive and well. Isadora Duncan had something magical about her.

It probably all started with her mother. Duncan's mother taught her young daughter to love music, dance, and theater. Unusually, her mother also insisted that Duncan “listen to the music with her soul.” Duncan began to dance without rules. She wanted to express the feeling of the music, not stick to old-fashioned ideas of dance. Duncan was passionate about teaching this expression and freedom to other people. She began teaching when she was only five, gathering the neighborhood girls and teaching them how to move their arms like ocean waves.

Duncan believed in improvisation, not tradition. She hated unnatural movements. She sometimes danced without shoes. She loved all of the human form and wanted all of it to be free and moving. Many people were tired of the rules of traditional arts, and Duncan's philosophy appealed to them. She gained many followers and friends. Her free, natural style became very popular and influential. In fact, she is seen as the mother of modern dance. But while she was alive, she was much more appreciated in Europe than in the United States, where she was born. So she left for Europe when she was 22 years old.

Isadora Duncan changed dance forever. She minimized sets and costumes, making audiences focus on the dancer. She designed a new type of breathing. She developed a philosophy of dance which would lead to our modern dance. She made dance more athletic, and lifted dance back up to the status of high art. Dance was reborn through her.

RP187 Stuttering

Stuttering (also called “stammering”) is a communication disorder. People who stutter have a very difficult time speaking. When they try to talk, they seem to get stuck on words or sounds. They may repeat the beginning sound of a word many times (as in “My na-na-na-name is...”), or they may make the same sound for a long time before they are able to say the word (as in “My nnnnnnnname is...”). They may also have trouble making any sound at all when they talk.

Stuttering is still a mysterious problem. It affects more boys than girls. It usually becomes obvious at a young age, soon after a child starts talking. One cause of stuttering seems to be genetic. However, not all stutterers have the stuttering gene. It may also be caused by trauma early in life, or other factors in a child’s development. Most children outgrow stuttering, but for some people the problem continues into adulthood.

Stuttering is not a consistent problem. It gets better or worse depending on the situation. Singing often reduces stuttering, while public speaking or even talking on the phone can make it much worse.

Stuttering causes a lot of emotional stress. Stutterers may feel tense and anxious in social situations, or ashamed of the way they speak. This causes some stutterers to stay away from other people, which can lead to loneliness and depression. Now people are accepting stuttering more, and stutterers are becoming less ashamed. There are many famous people who have stuttered: King George VI of England, for example, and Lewis Carrol, who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Even Julia Roberts stuttered at one point. There's even a Facebook page for stutterers to join. Sounding different shouldn't mean you can't communicate.

RP186 Saving Animals, One Species at a Time

In the late 1960s, you could spot one if you crossed your fingers for luck and traveled deep into a swamp. By 1985, they were turning up in swimming pools. The American alligator is one remarkable success story of the American Endangered Species Act, but there are many more.

The Endangered Species Act was passed to protect animals whose populations were dangerously low. It created a list of animals that needed to be protected. The act helped stop or regulate hunting of these animals. It also protected their environments. It has probably saved more than 100 types of animals so far. The American alligator is one. The bald eagle, the symbol of the United States, is another.

The number of bald eagles dwindled to only 417 nesting pairs in 1963 because humans were hunting them and taking over places they live. The biggest problem, however, was a pesticide called DDT, which affected bald eagles' eggs. DDT was banned in 1973, and bald eagle populations grew steadily after that. Not only are bald eagles a symbol of America, but they are now also "a symbol of environmental stewardship," says Michael Daulton of the Audubon Society.

The Endangered Species Act has saved wolves, fish, insects, and types of almost every creature that walks, flies, or slithers across North America. The population of the Virginia big-eared bat grew by nearly 10 times in the 20 years since it was listed as endangered— another great success. Treaties like CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) try to do the same. With proper attention and enforcement, animals like the pangolin and Formosan black bears can become environmental success stories too.

RP185 Pros and Cons of Coffee

Our relationship with coffee is complicated. Some people say they can't get up in the morning without it. Other people believe it's practically deadly. When it comes to coffee, there are a lot of pros and cons.

Here are a few of the pros. For one, coffee can be good for your body and your mind. The caffeine in coffee—the chemical that wakes you up—might help prevent diabetes and Alzheimer's disease in the long term. In the short term, caffeine can improve mental performance and help with breathing problems. Coffee is also full of a kind of vitamin which protects the cells in your body. Other vitamins in it can help stop signs of aging and even prevent some cancers. In tests, coffee has also been shown to prevent Parkinson's disease, kidney stones, and liver problems.

What could be bad about a drink like that? Well, on the flip side, coffee seems to cause or contribute to a lot of other diseases. It can raise cholesterol in the body, and it's not good for your blood circulation. Coffee, as you have probably seen, can make you excited and nervous. It raises people's heart rates and, sometimes, blood pressure, which is dangerous. It also may cause you to lose water and feel thirsty. It may be bad for your bones, especially for women. There are even some studies that connect drinking coffee with heart disease.

So how can you decide if you should drink coffee? Consider your own circumstances. If you have a bad heart or high blood pressure, stay away from it. However, if you need to be sharp and you want to prevent some other diseases later in life, a cup of coffee in the morning probably won't hurt.

RP184 The Plain of Jars

Laos (or Lao PDR) is a calm, green oasis between other bigger, faster, and stronger nations. Near the center of this quiet country is a quiet mystery—the beautiful, unexplainable Plain of Jars.

The Plain of Jars refers to more than 90 areas within Lao's Xieng Khouang province. The sites are mostly the same: there are the green, rolling hills of Laos. There are mountains in the distance. In the fields, sunk into the grass or tipped onto their sides, are many giant jars. The jars seem to have lids, though the lids have all disappeared over the centuries. There are also a few flat stone plates carved with animals.

Why were large, heavy stone jars—some larger than a man and with thick, rough sides—scattered across the fields in this place? There are local legends and different scientific theories. Local legend holds that the jars stored lao-lao (rice whisky) for a group of giants who lived there. According to that legend, the jars aren't made of stone, but clay, and were fired in a huge cave oven.

Most current experts seem to think the jars were for funerals, to hold the ashes of the dead. It's also possible the jars were used to store rain water for travelers. There is no indication of who built them or why. We only have a rough idea of when: the Iron Age, 500 BC to AD 500.

It seems appropriate to have this quiet mystery in this quiet country. The jars perhaps reflect the beauty of the country: simple, natural, rough, and charming.

RP183 Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was one of the most important composers in the history of music. When we think of classical music, his name is one of the first to come up. He was not necessarily an innovator. Instead, his talent was to express the musical style of his age in the most complete and mature way.

Bach grew up in the era of Baroque music. He learned to play a variety of instruments as a child, and he was also an excellent singer. During his life, he was better known as a musician than a composer, but now we remember him for the compositions he left behind.

Bach's music is special for several reasons. First of all, Bach was a fantastic craftsman. During his life, he was employed to create different types of music for different people. This required him to explore different types of music and different sounds and broaden his own musical style. Perhaps because of this experience, he would add foreign musical influences to his own compositions. Bach also valued completeness. In many of his compositions, a single musical idea is explored fully. This might mean playing a melody in every possible key or at many different speeds. Bach's works often seem to approach one musical idea from many angles. He was a master of counterpoint. Counterpoint is when two voices sing two very different patterns of music that somehow blend together in harmony. He was able to make two distinct lines of music complete each other. Finally, Bach created feeling in his compositions. Particularly with his religious music, Bach was able to make listeners truly feel his passion.

Bach's detailed, controlled compositions are seen as the height of Baroque music. His passion and dedication ensured that his name remains alive hundreds of years after his death.

RP182 Wind Power

Around the world, people are looking for new, longer-lasting sources of energy. One of these sources is the wind. Wind power has the potential to be an important new way to create electricity.

Wind power really is clean. Using wind turbines to generate electricity creates no air pollution and requires no fuel. Using more wind power would actually reduce pollution, as we would use less power from polluting sources. Besides, wind is free! Building a turbine or mill costs money, but the wind itself costs nothing. In addition to being free, wind is sustainable. We won't run out of wind the way we will run out of coal, oil, or other fuel sources. In fact, the power wind can create is much greater than the world's current energy needs. And the power can help people or small communities be self-reliant. They would rely only on their turbine, not a city power grid.

However, even wind power has some drawbacks. Some people find wind turbines ugly. They think the turbines ruin the landscape. The turbines can also be quite loud, which is a problem for people and animals nearby. The turbines may affect animals more than people. They can disrupt birds' flight patterns. What's worse, they may frighten other animals away from the area. The turbines can also cause problems with TV signals.

The key to making wind power work seems to be building more and better turbines. If we do that, it seems likely that wind power will be more and more important in our future.

RP181 How Were Dogs Domesticated

RP181 How Were Dogs Domesticated?

In the West, dogs are called "man's best friend." But how were these best friends domesticated?

Grey wolves are the ancestors of modern dogs. Evidence shows that dogs and wolves began to split into separate groups around 100,000 years ago. But dogs were only domesticated much later. Some scientists believe dog domestication began in China, while others think it was in the Middle East. Dog bones and human bones were buried together in Europe, Asia, and North America between 9,000 and 14,000 years ago. Scientists believe that burying dogs with humans was a way to show that the dogs were important. Therefore, those dogs must have been domesticated.

Scientists have a few ideas about how dogs were domesticated. No one is sure which one is correct. One idea is that humans found orphaned wolf cubs and raised them with human babies. Over time, the offspring of the wolf cubs evolved into dogs. Another idea is that wolves domesticated themselves by coming close to human camps for food. wolves would have wanted the food and bones near the camps, so they would have wanted to be close to humans. Another possibility is that humans used wolves for food, fur or work, like pulling sleds, and this eventually led to their domestication.

Interestingly, humans are still domesticating dogs. We continue to breed dogs for different characteristics like color, size, or personality. In addition to being man's best friend, dogs are probably man's oldest friend as well!

RP180 Formerly Taboo Entertainment

People's ideas about religion, clothes, money, and government change over the years. So do our ideas about entertainment. Some pastimes that we call innocent fun used to be thought of as dangerous or evil.

Take playing cards, for example. Playing cards were first invented in India or China and then spread to Europe. Over time, they became the popular entertainment they are today. Many families play cards together, and playing cards is seen as a fun activity for parents and children. But at first, many Christians believed that it was a wicked game. They thought that the cards had evil powers that went against God. In medieval Europe, cards and dice were banned in many places. It was only in the 1850s that many children began to play card games.

Do you like to read? Do you read novels? Reading novels is another activity that people used to think was wrong. In many parts of the Western world, novels were thought to be too exciting. People thought they must be bad for our health. Many people read novels in secret because they didn't want to be caught doing something so immoral.

What about watching a play? A few centuries ago in Europe, people thought watching plays could be dangerous. Plays were considered lying, which was wrong. Some people believed that plays, like novels, were too exciting. This excitement was especially bad for women, they thought. Until after Shakespeare's time, going to see a play was taboo for many people.

Soon, you'll read a book, go to a movie or play, or play cards with your friends and family. When you do, remember that a few hundred years ago, those activities might have gotten you in big trouble!

RP179 Headphones and Hearing

The music you love could end up making you deaf. More specifically, the way you listen to the music you love could be making you deaf faster.

The problem is headphones. In the past, we played music out into the air. Then earmuff-style headphones were invented, and we were able to play music much closer to our ears. Now we have earbuds, and people are starting to get worried. Many doctors think earbuds are worse than older headphones because they play music directly into the ears. Also, earbuds are not as good at blocking outside noise, so people who use them may turn the volume up to dangerous levels.

What's a dangerous noise level? Well, it depends on how long you' re going to listen to the noise. This is the next problem. Very, very loud sounds can be dangerous to your hearing even if you only listen to them for a few minutes. But the scary truth is that even normal seeming noise can be dangerous if you listen to it all the time. People, especially young people, wear headphones all day long nowadays. Even if your music isn't blasting, listening to it for many hours this way can damage your hearing.

Noise-induced hearing loss— the kind that headphones cause— happens when tiny hairs in your ear canal become overstressed and die. Guess what? Playing loud music only millimeters away from these tiny hairs can stress them out! And once these hairs die, they may not come back. Hearing loss is usually permanent.

Think for a minute about how long you spend listening to headphones and other loud noises every day. Then, do some research. There are resources online to tell you what volumes are safe and for how long. Don't take your hearing for granted.

RP178 The Oldest Trees in the World

“The Big Tree is Nature's forest masterpiece, and so far as I know, the greatest of living things,” said the naturalist John Muir. Some of these forest masterpieces are not only big, but ancient. Our human lifespan is short by comparison.

One of the oldest trees in the world is the Llangernyw Yew, a huge, bushy yew tree that grows in a churchyard in Wales. It's hard to tell how old yew trees are, but this one is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. The churchyard is open to the public, and people are free to come in, walk around it, and touch it.

Another tree that is at least 4,000 years old is Sarv-e Abarqu, which grows in Yazd, Iran. It's a cypress tree, 25 meters high and 18 meters around. Its leaves form a giant green cone. It may be the oldest living thing in Asia.

Methuselah is over 4,840 years old and grows in the White Mountains of California. It was named after an ancient character in the Bible. Methuselah is a bristlecone pine—a type of relatively short, twisted tree with a trunk of many colors. Methuselah grows in a grove of other ancient bristlecone pines.

The oldest tree in the world, however, grows up north in Sweden. They call it Old Tjikko, and it's 9,550 years old! Old Tjikko is a Norway spruce and the smallest, spindliest tree on this list. It's also a clonal tree. That means that it is a clone of other trees. The part of a clonal tree that we can see may not be very old, but the roots below are ancient. This is true of Old Tjikko. Its trunk is fairly new, but the bushes and roots below are the oldest living tree on Earth!

RP177 Rock Climbing

“It gives me a chance to feel like a kid again,” says Sherri. “I love the challenge; I love the outdoors; I love that it is a very individual sport,” says Mark. “I believe the mountains were made for me to climb them,” says Colin.

They' re all talking about rock climbing, or mountain climbing, a sport that is both exciting and sometimes deadly. Rock climbing is what it sounds like: crawling up a rock using your hands and feet. Climbers ascend nearly vertical rock faces, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air. They climb little by little, sometimes only moving inches at a time.

Because they climb so high above hard rock surfaces, climbing can be very dangerous. For this reason, many climbers use safety equipment. They may wear special climbing shoes or gloves that help them grip the rocks. They often use ropes to stop them if they fall. Some wear helmets to protect their heads from falling rocks.

The danger of climbing both pulls people to the sport and pushes them away. The danger adds to the thrill of the sport. Statistically, climbing is much safer than driving in a car. People playing football and soccer hurt themselves more often. But the danger of climbing is real. Alone, halfway up a mountain, there's no one to save you but yourself. Climbing forces you to take care of yourself. But accidents happen. Rocks break, climbing partners slip, and people trip over their ropes. One small mistake can mean death.

Rock climbing is an intense, individual challenge for your mind and body. If you want to try rock climbing, practice in a climbing gym first. Gain strength, experience, and confidence. Then see if you' re one of those people who want to tackle mountains.

RP176 Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric art is art from cultures that did not yet have a written language. The first pieces of artwork are about 40,000 years old, though experts don't agree on exactly when humans started to make art. The earliest clear works of art come from the Upper Paleolithic era (from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago). Most art from this era is of three types: stone figurines, cave paintings, and etchings or carvings.

Stone figurines are some of the oldest kinds of art. In fact, the oldest known piece of art is a stone figurine called a Venus figurine. Venus figurines are small stone sculptures of women. This particular sculpture has beautiful round curves but is not very detailed. Several figurines like this have been found. Almost all of these sculptures have no facial features but very detailed bodies.

Prehistoric cave paintings have been found in several parts of the world. The oldest cave paintings are in Europe, with many in Spain and France. The paintings often show animals, especially buffalo. They also show hunting scenes. Early painters had only five colors to use: white, black, red, brown, and yellow. But with these colors, they created lasting works of art.

Etchings and carvings are also common prehistoric types of art. Prehistoric humans cut pictures into the walls of caves with tools. Like the paintings, these pictures are often of animals or hunts. Some carved deer bones were found in Korea. They may be up to 40,000 years old, which would make them some of the oldest known art in the world.

Though the tools prehistoric people had were basic, the art they made still looks fresh and meaningful. Even 40,000 years ago, human beings wanted to have beauty in their lives. Perhaps we aren't so different from them.

RP175 Whales' Silent Tears

We humans think more and more about the effect of our actions on our environment. We are starting to understand how destroying animal populations can have far-reaching effects on our planet. We' re even starting to consider the rights of animals as we think about hunting them. However, we rarely discuss how our actions affect animals' psychological states.

Whales are very intelligent and social. They behave in complex, moral ways. They babysit young whales while their mothers look for food. They can be grateful for being rescued. One whale, after being freed from a net, didn't swim away but instead approached and touched every diver who had helped save her.

Whales need company to thrive. They play and interact with many of their species as they travel through the water. Now, however, there are far fewer animals in many whale species. One French naturalist, Yves Paccalet, believes that whales are getting lonely. He thinks that the effect hunting has on whales affects not only their bodies, but their minds as well. The small numbers of whales left behind are confused. They may not understand where the other whales have gone or why. Paccalet warns that lonely, depressed whales could lose their will to live. That means that they don't care about living anymore. They may stop eating or do other unhealthy things. He thinks that when whales get too lonely, they may stop breeding.

It's not only hunting that lowers whale populations. Nets and other dangerous fishing gear, environmental pollution, and the use of sonar (using sound waves to navigate) are all creating a new, frightening environment for whales. They may decide that they just don't want to live in it anymore. Then, unfortunately, whales themselves will finish the job that overhunting started.

RP174 A Chinese Legend

Laozi is something of a legendary figure in Chinese culture. He is known as the father of Daoism and the author of the philosophy's central text, the Dao De Jing.

Some of the stories told about Laozi are pretty incredible. It's said that he remained in his mother's womb for 81 years. And when he was finally born, he came out a grown man with a full grey beard and long ears.

We can be fairly certain that this story is fanciful. But the facts about the real Laozi's life still remain a mystery.

The first biography of Laozi was written several centuries after he is thought to have lived. It is included in the Records of the Grand Historian, written in the first century BC. According to the Records, Laozi was a librarian at the royal court of Zhou and a contemporary of Confucius. As the state of Zhou began to break down, however, Laozi decided to leave. At the entrance to a mountain pass, he gave a guard a book that revealed the secrets of living a good life— the Dao De Jing. However, in addition to this story, two other conflicting accounts of Laozi's life are given in the Records. This has caused a lot of confusion, leaving people unsure which Laozi was the real one.

Many modern scholars doubt whether Laozi actually existed at all. The Dao De Jing, they suggest, may actually be a collection of the teachings and ideas of various ancient Chinese thinkers.

For many followers of Daoism, however, this is all beside the point. The truth of the teachings, they say, is what really matters, not the man said to be behind them.

RP173 The Wild Amazon

Step inside, and the air is rich and heavy, full of oxygen that the plants breathe out. Everything is green. The light comes down through the leaves of the trees high above. Growing things pile on top of each other—vines on trees, moss on vines, fungi and flowers everywhere. Animals large and small hide in the tangled plants. It seems quiet, but the air is actually full of the sound of leaves and insects moving. This is the Amazon rain forest.

The Amazon rain forest covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. It covers five and a half million square kilometers, mostly in Brazil but reaching into some other countries as well. It is ancient, at least 55 million years old. It is full of fresh water from its many rivers.

The Amazon rain forest has the most animal and plant species in one place in the world. One in 10 living species of plants or animals make their home in the Amazon. One in five of all birds live in the Amazon. It is incredibly rich, and we have discovered and documented only a small part of it.

That is why the destruction of the Amazon is so frightening and so serious. Deforestation—cutting down forests for farming or pasture—is a major threat. Though the deforestation rate has slowed, the Amazon still loses many miles of forest every year. For every mile lost, we may lose valuable plants and animals. We also depend on the plants in the Amazon for oxygen. killing them may accelerate global warming.

The Amazon is one of the world's few remaining wild, mysterious places. Let's protect it before it's too late.

RP172 Look Away From the Light

Smartphones have changed the way we live. We use them for just about everything now— communicating, learning, laughing, and even getting around our cities. But not all the changes have been good ones. One negative consequence of our smartphone use is that it's breaking havoc on our bodies' natural cycles.

The problem has to do with the blue light given off by smartphones and other electronics. Blue light has a very short wavelength, and produces a higher amount of energy than normal light. Smartphone producers favor it because it matches the brightness of sunlight. This makes it easier to read what's on your smartphone screen in daylight.

But it's this very similarity to sunlight that causes our bodies problems. The human body normally releases a chemical called melatonin after the sun goes down. This chemical tells us it's time to go to sleep. But here's where your smartphone comes in. Imagine a normal evening of riding the bus home, cooking dinner, and then going to bed. You' re probably checking your smartphone the whole time, right? Well, all that blue light is tricking your body into thinking that it's still daytime. As a result, your natural cycle is disturbed and it's harder to get a good night's sleep!

A disturbed sleep cycle has been proven to lead to other health problems. In one study, researchers linked working a night shift to increased chances of diabetes and heart disease.

Luckily, we' re not totally powerless. There are some things we can do to beat blue light. Try to avoid using your smartphone for an hour or two before bed. There are also special glasses you can buy to block out blue light. And you could always just stop using your smartphone altogether. Good luck with that one!

RP171 Desertification

Some people say desertification is the biggest environmental problem for our planet. What is desertification? Why does it happen? How can we stop it?

Desertification is what happens when dry areas become very damaged. These areas can be very delicate. Natural events or human activities can change the important balance of water in dry land areas. When the plants dry up and the ways to hold water in an area are gone, the land becomes what we would call a desert. Desertification is bad for agriculture and biodiversity.

Desertification has always happened in the world. Natural events like long droughts can cause desertification. But now, human activity causes most desertification. Slash-and-burn agriculture, in which trees are cut and burned to clear land for farming, can lead to desertification, as roots stop soil from eroding. Overgrazing—when animals eat too much grass in an area—can also cause it. Planting non-native plants in dry areas can change the balance of the ecosystem and lead to desertification. Then there is more poverty, less food, and more hunger for people in the area.

So how can we stop desertification? Most importantly, we need to prevent it from starting. It is easier to protect dry lands than to restore them. Preventing soil from eroding is very important for preventing desertification. Simple things like putting stones around tree trunks can help, because the stones collect dew for the tree's roots. Living trees are important for holding on to soil. Even after lands have been degraded, they can still be helped. Reforestation—planting new forests—is one solution.

Desertification is happening fast and affecting many people. We must learn how desertification happens and how to prevent it, or we will face more pain and poverty.

RP170 Charlie Chaplin, a Serious Man

When you think of Charlie Chaplin, you probably think of his expressive face or his funny, penguin-like waddle. Charlie Chaplin was very good at making people laugh, but he had a serious side, too. Chaplin was passionately anti-Nazi and urged the rest of the world to take the Nazi threat seriously. Later, he made antiwar statements in some movies. While he was beloved for his silly antics, his serious political views sometimes got him into trouble.

The Great Dictator was the only film of its time to make fun of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Chaplin mock s Hitler but uses a speech at the climax of the movie to push America into the war. While telling his soldiers (Hitler's soldiers, in the metaphor) not to be used by a dictator, he at the same time repeatedly asks the world to fight for democracy, peace, and freedom. The speech was a brave statement, but America was not at war with Germany then. Many people wanted to stay out of the fight. Chaplin began to be watched by some authorities.

If Chaplin was too pro-war in 1940, authorities found him to be too antiwar later during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Movies like Monsieur Verduex made antiwar statements, causing authorities in the United States to harassment Chaplin. Authorities followed and searched Chaplin many times without ever finding hard evidence.

Chaplin went from being America's darling to being harassed and threatened for his political views, but he didn't stop doing what he thought was right. Chaplin, despite all the trouble, ended up as well loved as ever. Those who opposed him, however, are either forgotten or ashamed.

RP169 Magic Realism

Literature is a huge concept. In order to talk about it more meaningfully, we break it down into styles—groups of writing that use similar effects, themes, or tactics. One of these styles is magic realism.

Magic realism in literature comes from South America. The Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one writer very closely associated with the term. But "magic realism" was actually first used by a German art critic in 1925 to talk about a style of painting. That style of painting—putting magical objects or concepts in a real world—had the same effect as magic realism in literature. However, magic realism wasn't used as a literary term until 1955.

Magic realism is not fantasy. Instead, it is serious, realistic fiction that includes magical or supernatural elements in a real, normal setting. The magical elements in that setting are not seen as magic. They're just part of a world that looks like ours but is slightly different. Magic realism uses these magic elements to help tell very real—not fantastic—stories. In order for magic realism to work, the reader must accept that these magic elements are not necessarily surprising, but just part of the world of the story.

Magic realism is a complicated idea. Some critics say the term is out-of-date now and want a new, more accurate one. Some critics have never liked the term and say it contributes to racism. Instead of letting this type of Latin American writing simply join literature, a new genre was created to avoid taking it seriously.

Magic realism has played a very important role in modern literature. What it will do in the future is today's question. Will it continue to tell serious stories, or will it merge with light fiction and fantasy?

RP168 A House Full of Junk

Do you have anything in your home that you never use, but can't bear to throw out? Maybe some old toys from your childhood, or books that you never finished reading, or an outdated cell phone that you think you might need in an emergency? Everyone hangs on to some items longer than is necessary, but hoarders take this practice to the extreme.

Hoarding is a form of behavior which means that a person simply cannot part with anything. It is more than just the desire to collect old things. Hoarders hold on to everything they own forever, no matter how useless it may seem to others. Commonly hoarded items include personal possessions like clothes and photographs, as well as more unusual things such as buttons and old electronics. Some people even keep garbage like old newspapers and advertisements. One woman reported needing 58 enormous boxes to carry useless art supplies with her when she moved to a new house!

But hoarding isn't just an unusual personal characteristic. It can lead to serious consequences for people. For one thing, hoarders tend to be very disorganized. Boxes and rooms fill up with trash, and this can lead to a dirty and unhealthy living situation. Another problem is the emotional impact on the hoarder's family. Imagine living with a family member who gets upset anytime you try to throw something away. It can be incredibly stressful for everyone involved.

Hoarding is recognized as a psychological problem, so it is possible for hoarders to get treatment. One woman participated in a 30-day program which encouraged her to throw out one item on the first day, two on the second day, and so on. Throwing away your trash may seem simple and natural to most of us. For hoarders, though, it can be a long and often painful road to cleaning up both their homes and their lives.

RP167 The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Only 3.99 degrees—that's what turns just a pretty little building into one of the world's most famous sights. The Torre di Pisa, or the Leaning Tower of Pisa, tilts 3.99 degrees from vertical. That means its top is 3.9 meters away from where it would be if the tower went straight up and down.

The tower wasn't supposed to lean, of course. When it was begun in 1173, the city of Pisa simply wanted another tower. However, the design of the tower was flawed. The foundation—the support for the bottom of the building—wasn't large enough. It was also built on soil that was too soft to hold it. Just five years after the tower was begun, it started to sink. At that time, only three floors were built

The city decided to take some time off from building the tower. They wanted to give it time to settle. Besides, they were busy fighting a war with a neighboring city. The tower was left alone for nearly 100 years.

Beginning in 1272, four more floors were added. They were built at an angle to try to make up for the tilt of the tower. The last floor, the bell chamber at the top, was added in 1372. Then it was left alone to sink slowly.

The beautiful white marble tower has been slowly tilting for centuries. In 1934, to try to stop it, architects injected cement into its foundation. This was a mistake, as it damaged the base even more. It began to lean further.

Architects are working on different ways to keep the tower steady. Lead weights were added to stabilize it and soil was removed from one side. The building is now open to the public again and seems to be stable. People can continue to come and see the building that is beloved for its greatest flaw.

RP166 Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a French artist who is now seen as one of the founders of modern art. He began painting as an impressionist, but he grew tired of that style. He evolved toward the use of figures and clear, outlined blocks of color. Indeed, he is best known for his use of flat color. He used images and symbols from his travels in exotic lands such as Martinique, Panama, and Tahiti, giving his paintings a sense of mystery.

Gauguin lived in Europe for most of his early life. He married a Dutch woman and had five children with her, but he left European styles behind early in his art career. He grew tired of classical European perspective and subtle coloring. Influenced by Japanese prints and folk art, he began to move toward cloisonnism. Cloisonnism is a painting style named after a glass technique in which colored glass is put into blocks or cells to create a picture. Cloisonnism painting uses bold colors and black outlines to define objects clearly. Gauguin's painting The Yellow Christ is considered the greatest example of a cloisonniste work.

In 1891, a frustrated Gauguin left Europe and sailed to the tropics. He lived most of the rest of his life in Polynesia. He painted many of his most famous works there, including Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, which many believe to be his masterpiece. His works from this time in his life depict Polynesian life—usually from a biased point of view that shows Polynesia as a paradise—and also use a variety of religious symbols.

Gauguin may not have had a conventionally successful life: he never made much money, and his family fell apart. However, the distance he put between himself and his culture certainly paid off in his art.

RP165 The Terra-Cotta Army

Ying Zheng was born in 259 BC, a time of great chaos and fighting in Chinese history. Ying was part of the Qin Dynasty, which united China for the first time. Ying became the first emperor of China and renamed himself First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang).

First Emperor had spent his entire life fighting, so perhaps it makes sense that he went into the afterlife prepared to fight. When he was 13 or 14 years old, the emperor ordered the construction of a massive terra-cotta army for his tomb, and he specifically stated that no two soldiers were to look alike.

Craftsmen began the great task. Arms, legs, and torsos were made in molds and assembled later (the soldiers are all life-sized, between five feet eight inches and six feet two inches tall). The faces are of eight different basic types, which were then modified to make each face distinct. Some people believe the faces were modeled after real Qin warriors. Their clothing and hairstyles reflect their different ranks. The soldiers are fierce-looking and lifelike.

The soldiers were placed in a massive city of the dead that First Emperor built for himself. Around 700,000 workers built the emperor's great resting place. The city included a palace, administrative buildings, and anything else the emperor might need, including his army. Archaeologists have found more than 1,000 warriors so far, but they estimate that there are 7,000 or 8,000 of them in total. There are also horses, chariots, and weapons. The army is arranged tactically, as though it is ready to spring into battle. A warrior from beginning to end, First Emperor would not be defeated, not even in death.

RP164 Concrete's Glowing Future

We can all agree that concrete buildings are almost universally ugly. Concrete may be a cheap and convenient building material, but it's not going to win any beauty contests. That, however, could be about to change. A Mexican scientist named José Carlos Rubio Avalos has invented a type of concrete that, amazingly, glows in the dark!

Avalos accomplished this by inserting cells that absorb light into cement, a key ingredient in concrete. By day the concrete absorbs light, and when the sun goes down it begins to glow. It's said to work even on cloudy days. Currently, Avalos's concrete can emit blue or green light, but he's working on versions that will glow white, red, and even purple.

Avalos's invention has city governments and architects very excited. Having glowing buildings could save cities millions of dollars on electricity. And architects will have a whole new visual tool to experiment with. Can you imagine how beautiful the buildings of the future might be, covered in glowing rainbow patterns?

There is, however, one problem: the cost. Glow-in-the-dark concrete is currently five times more expensive to produce than regular concrete. But there is no need to build an entire building out of glowing concrete. Instead, existing Avalos's concrete can emit either blue or green light structures could be coated with a thin layer of Avalos's special material. This would make creating a glow-in-the-dark building a lot cheaper. But how often, you might ask, would you have to reapply the concrete? Would it be worth the cost and the effort? Fear not! According to Avalos, his concrete can retain its glowing effect for around a hundred years! That's free light for a century! Thanks to José Avalos, the future of concrete looks very bright indeed.

RP163 Winter Blues

The days get shorter, the air gets colder, and we all get stuck inside a lot more. Who wouldn't find winter just a little bit depressing?

Many of us may get a bit blue in the winter, living in the dark, unable to enjoy the weather very much. But for some people, these blues can become something quite serious. Seasonal affective disorder (appropriately shortened to “SAD”) is the name for a mood disorder that causes normally mentally healthy people to become seriously depressed in winter.

People with SAD may start to have trouble waking up on winter mornings. Some of them may even feel sick in the morning. They may lose their energy, especially in the afternoon, and they may move slowly and sluggishly. Unlike with other types of depression, people with SAD feel hungrier than usual and desire carbohydrates. One sign of SAD, in fact, is gaining significant weight in winter. SAD sufferers may often become irritable and stop wanting to see friends and family.

Doctors don't know exactly why people get SAD, but two things are probably important causes: sunlight and hormones in the body. Sunlight is important in several ways. It tells us when to sleep and when to wake up. This may explain the problems SAD sufferers have waking up. Sunlight can also affect how much serotonin our brains produce. Serotonin influences happiness. The lack of sunlight may also cause people to make more melanin, a hormone which makes us slow and sleepy.

People fight SAD in different ways. Some take medication. Others use exercise, bright light treatment, or a healthy diet to keep themselves balanced during the SAD season. If you feel winter blues coming on this year, take them seriously. Fight them with things that cheer you up and keep you excited about the coming spring.

RP162 Skateboarding

Sometime in the 1950s in California, surfers got bored. The water was flat and still. They wanted something to surf, so they decided to surf the streets! They took planks of wood, attached roller-skate wheels to them, and without knowing it, started a new trend. Skateboarding was born!

Of course, these surfers didn't know it yet. Skateboarding was still called "sidewalk surfing" and it was just something to do for fun when you couldn't surf. The boards were basic and not very safe. People got hurt, but people loved the new sport anyway. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, skateboarding grew. Skateboarding competitions were held and skate shops opened up. In 1972, proper skateboard wheels were developed and boards became safer and lighter.

In the 1950s and 1960s, skateboarding stuck close to the ground. However, in the 1970s, skaters began to use empty swimming pools to get faster and higher. The age of vertical skate tricks was born. Over time, skaters created tricks like the ollie (jumping in the air without using your hands), kickflips (flipping the board lengthwise while you are in the air), and slides or grinds (sliding down a rail on the board), among others.

These tricks make skateboarding athletic, exciting, and fun to watch, but they also make it dangerous. The most common skateboarding injuries are to the wrist, ankle, and face, but skateboarding can also cause serious head injuries. Nowadays, there are protective helmets and other gear to help prevent injuries. If you want to try this sport, which involves moving very quickly over hard surfaces, wearing something to protect your body is a good idea.

RP161 Easter Island

If you wanted to get as far away from other people as you possibly could, Easter Island would be a good place to go. It's about 2,000 kilometers from its nearest neighbors, out in the southern Pacific Ocean.

Easter Island is a small triangle about 3,500 kilometers west of Chile. Easter Island is a special territory of Chile. It was discovered by a Dutch explorer in 1722, but it had been inhabited for about 1,000 years before that. Scientists think that the first settlers on Easter Island came from the Marquesas Islands, more than 3,000 kilometers away. Imagine making that journey in a small canoe!

Easter Island is famous for its huge stone statues, called moai, that line many of the island's coasts. The moai are statues of men with huge heads and stern faces. Archaeologists believe the statues represent ancestors. Easter Islanders put the statues up to allow the ancestors to continue to watch over their lands. The moai were made between AD 1100 and AD 1680. Amazingly, Easter Islanders used only hand tools, like chisels, to make them! Some of these statues weigh more than 80 tons! Archaeologists aren't sure how these statues were moved. It must have taken many people working together to transport them.

In addition to the moai, Easter Island has other stone carvings, stone buildings, and wood carvings. This unique culture developed its own written language, though most of it has been lost. Easter Island has suffered many tragedies, including war, hunger, slavery, disease, and environmental disasters. It can be difficult to be so far from the rest of the world. But Easter Islanders seem hardy and strong, like their statues. They are preserving their ancient culture while connecting more and more with the outside world.

RP160 Greek Theater and Dionysus

Hollywood blockbusters, musicals, one-man plays— in fact, the entire tradition of Western theater— can be traced back to one Greek god. Dionysus was the god of wine and fertility. His followers would drink, dance, and become wild, moving and singing as though they had lost control.

Dionysus was supposed to be worshipped by satyrs, mythical creatures that were part goat, part man. During festivals, the human followers of Dionysus would dress up as these satyrs. They would sing and dance as a chorus, telling stories about their god. This ensemble was always performed as a group until one day about 2,500 years ago, when one person stepped forward to speak lines on his own. It may have been a priest called Thespis. Whoever it was, he told a story in words, rather than song. He was the first actor.

Theater became popular after that. It evolved into three types: tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. Originally, Greek theater had three very distinct parts. It would start with a prologue or speech about the play, then the chorus would enter, and then the scenes of the play would be performed. At first, only a few actors were allowed on stage at one time. The chorus was very important for giving information to the audience.

These new performances needed space. One of the first spaces was the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. It was built into a slope of a hill. The stage was set below the seats on the hillside, where 25,000 people could sit and hear all the action happening!

Theaters and acting evolved from that point, eventually becoming the variety of styles we have today. Next time you watch things blow up at the cinema, remember Dionysus and his wild worshippers, and maybe whisper a quick "thank you."

RP159 Body Language Across Cultures

“Do you know where my father is?” Jady asked her friend Karen. “There,” Karen said, and pointed at Jady's father with her finger.

Jady turned to Karen and frowned. Then she walked away. She didn't speak to Karen much for the rest of the party. Karen couldn't understand what went wrong. That's because Karen forgot about body language.

We all know how difficult it can be to speak to people from other cultures. But there's also a language of movement called body language. For Karen from Canada, it was no problem to point at someone who is older than she is. But for Jady, it was very rude.

Different cultures have many different rules about body language. Kissing is one important example. In France and much of Europe, you should kiss new friends on one or both cheeks. But in India and much of the Middle East, a man kissing a woman in public would be shocking.

Think about how you treat little children. In many parts of the world, people often pat children on the head. But that would be unacceptable in most of Southeast Asia. You must also never show the soles of your feet in that part of the world, so you couldn't sit back at your desk with your feet up, as is okay in the United States.

When you listen to a story, do you look the storyteller in the eye? In the United States, you should from time to time. In the Middle East, it is normal to make eye contact for a long period of time. But in Japan and Korea, that would be rude.

Communication doesn't stop at our mouths. We use our whole bodies to communicate. Remember that there are as many rules for body language as for spoken language.

RP158 Dr. Bronner's Soaps

Dr. Bronner's Soaps is a company that makes a variety of soaps. It was founded in 1948, and members of the Bronner family still run the business. Though Dr. Bronner's may seem like any other company, the business is actually rather unusual.

First, Dr.Bronner's believes in fair business practices and giving back. It says that, over the past five years, it has donated almost as much money to charity as it has earned in profits. The company also limits executives' salaries. That means that the highest paid employees of the company can only earn up to five times the amount of the lowest paid employees. Therefore, the difference between the highest earners and the lowest earners is minimized. This is an uncommon rule for a company to have.

Dr.Bronner's likes to work fairly around the world, too. For that reason, Dr. Bronner's became a certified Fair Trade business. This means the supplies it gets from around the world come from farmers or other workers who are paid fairly and work under good conditions.

Finally, the founder of the company believed deeply that all living things on Earth should be united. To spread his message, the company printed his beliefs on the labels of his soaps. His ideas are still on every soap bottle label. They can be summed up in two sentences:

1. Constructive capitalism is where you share the profits with the workers and the earth.

2. We are all brothers and sisters and we should take care of each other and the earth.

Dr. Bronner's Soaps believes making money and doing good should go hand in hand. While this is not a typical business belief, Dr. Bronner's proves that a company can be successful and charitable. After all, its philosophy has been working for over 60 years.

RP157 Music and Mood

“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast.” Even centuries ago, people knew music could change their moods. Generally, loud music makes us feel powerful, soft melodies are calming, and happy beats make our feet move and our faces smile. Now, we' re figuring out why.

Scientists have found that music affects how the brain produces the chemical dopamine. Dopamine is associated with pleasure. When we listen to music we like, our brains make more dopamine. The chemical makes us feel good. Even just thinking about listening to a song we love can get the dopamine flowing. In a strange way, this suggests that music can be slightly addictive.

Researchers at McGill University studied how music affects us. First, they measured how people's bodies responded to music. They found that when people listen to music they like, their heart, pulse, and breathing rates change. Sometimes, they feel chills. These changes also happen when people feel strong emotions.

Since dopamine is connected with emotions, the McGill team guessed that music would cause the production of dopamine. To test their theory, they asked eight music lovers to bring in some of their favorite songs. After the participants had listened to the music for a while, the team injected them with a substance that would go to the parts of the brain that collect dopamine. If those parts were already full of dopamine, the substance would have nowhere to go. Sure enough, the participants' brains were already flooded with dopamine. To be sure, they tested them again the next day, but with music participants didn't like. That time, the substance did flow to the dopamine collectors, because participants' brains hadn't made dopamine.

Even early humans knew how to play good music for a pick-me-up. Now we know why!

RP156 Bats and Bees Are Dying

One can sting. One lives in dark caves and reminds us of Dracula. So why should we care if bats and bees are dying?

There are a lot of reasons, actually. Bees pollinate crops. Without enough bees, crops may be less productive and our food supply may be threatened. Bats, on the other hand, eat insects. They keep down pest levels. Without bats to eat pests, we may face a world full of mosquitoes and other harmful bugs.

Scientists know that bees and bats are important, which is why they' re trying to figure out what's wrong with them. So far, however, the problems remain mysterious. We still don't know the cause of Colony collapse Disorder, in which bees from a colony simply disappear. This phenomenon is happening all over the world now. It may be caused by pesticides or malnutrition. It may be related to new human technologies, like cell phones and genetically-modified crops. We must remember how our actions can affect the creatures around us, and how their actions can affect us!

The death of bats is also troubling. Bats are developing White Nose Syndrome, in which a white fungus grows around sick bats' noses. However, the fungus may only be a sign of the real problem, not the cause of the problem. For some reason, bats are starving to death. What we don't know yet is whether they don't have food, can't find their food, or are being stressed to death for some other reason.

We truly are connected to every other living thing on Earth: bats protect us and our food from bugs; bees help our crops flourish. Cute, cuddly animals are not the only ones that are important. All animals deserve respect, and we create problems for ourselves when we forget that.

RP155 Man or Machine The Strange New World of E-Skin

RP155 Man or Machine? The Strange New World of E-Skin

Chances are you own a computer, smartphone, or some other device which gives you information on a screen. But what if you could be such a device yourself? With the development of e-skin technology, our path to becoming cyborgs may have just gotten a lot shorter.

Electronic skin, or e-skin, was first created for use on artificial limbs and robots. Recent improvements, however, have produced a highly flexible plastic film less than two millionths of a meter thick. This film can be worn directly on human skin and connected to sensors which measure one's heart rate and blood oxygen level. These measurements are then displayed on the film just as they would be on a computer screen. And since this new e-skin keeps out water and oxygen, it can be worn for several days. This allows a person's physical condition to be tracked over time.

But we humans aren't the only ones who could be changed by this strange new technology. Scientists believe e-skin will soon have the power to give robots an actual sense of touch. This might enable them to perform surgery and other very delicate tasks without any human involvement at all!

Needless to say, non-medical uses for e-skin are already being planned. Scientists imagine a time when our feelings and states of mind will be shown right on our bodies. Tech companies are looking into replacing handheld devices with wearable gadgets whose displays will appear on a person's arm or hand. The possibilities are amazing, but also more than a little scary. Right now we can still believe that people control machines. But if people are the machines, who will control us?

2026年5月13日星期三

RP154 Science Fiction

What would happen if time travel became possible or if robots developed real intelligence? What if we discovered a new planet with a more advanced type of species?

These questions are the reason that science fiction exists. Science fiction takes possibilities like these and explores how human beings would react. Science fiction (sci-fi) is fiction that takes place in a world that is somewhat like ours, but changed in important ways. Those changes have to do with science and technology. But sci-fi is really interested in people, not just technology. It tries to show how people, as we are now, would behave in strange new situations. “The literature of ideas” is what science fiction is often called, because it goes beyond reality.

Science fiction is also called “the literature of change.” This is because it usually becomes popular in times of change. When big changes are happening in a society, writers often try to explore them. Sometimes the changes are too new or dangerous to write about. Science fiction writers, therefore, create metaphors. They use their imaginary technological changes to represent real social changes or problems. Science fiction was born in a time of change— the beginning of the Age of Reason in the West. People's beliefs were being challenged by new scientific theories and developments. Writers wanted to explore those changes. That era was when famous early sci-fi books like Gulliver's Travels were written.

Science fiction has been going strong since then. Some famous sci-fi writers are Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Phillip K. Dick, H. G. Wells, and Ursula K. Le Guin, though there are many more. If you like imagination and new ideas, sci-fi may be for you.

RP153 Unusual Taboos

All cultures have taboos—things that are not allowed. Many taboos come from religion and ancient traditions. What may be perfectly normal in one culture can be terribly offensive in another. Many taboos are about food and clothing.

Are you eating now? What time is it? In Portugal, you shouldn't eat oranges at night; in Cape Verde, they say the same thing about sweet potatoes. Some taboos are about what you shouldn't eat. In America, eating dog or horse meat is taboo, as is eating most insects. In other places, these foods are fine. Many people in India would never eat beef, but in most of the rest of the world, people raise cows for meat. The way people eat is also ruled by taboos. In China you can eat with your mouth open, whereas in Europe this is rude. In many parts of the world, eating with the left hand is taboo, because it is used for washing yourself.

Clothing taboos often show social status. Many cultures use colors to show rank. In ancient Rome, only senators could wear purple. Some taboos are about what skin people can show. In the past, to see a woman's ankle was taboo. Now, we have bikinis! In India, traditional saris show women's stomachs, but these clothes would be taboo in much of the Middle East. And in Tonga, it is illegal for a man to go without a shirt in public!

Understanding taboos helps us understand other cultures' histories, since most taboos come from the distant past. Learning about other cultures' taboos also helps us understand our own. After all, any one of our taboos could seem strange to a foreigner.

RP152 The Northern Lights

The beautiful northern lights sweep across the northern skies. Sometimes they look like blue or green smoke. Sometimes they look like a vast white scarf shaken out between the stars. They appear mysterious, as if from another world, and they have been inspiring mankind for centuries.

The Cree people called them the “Dance of the Spirits.” Some ancient Norse thought the lights were reflections off the shield of fallen ancient soldiers going to their paradise. Others thought they were oceans surrounded by fire. The red lights can also look like a breath of fire from a dragon. In fact, they may be a source of dragon myths. Red lights were often thought to predict wars. Some cultures hide when the northern lights are in the sky; others watch them with respect. Many Asian cultures believe children born under northern lights will be lucky, but some European cultures believed the opposite.

These mysterious lights that inspire our imaginations really do come from another world—they come from the sun. The northern lights—or “aurora borealis” their scientific name—result from solar wind connecting with particles high in Earth's atmosphere. This connection causes the particles to give off different substances. When there are storms on the sun, we see more auroras, because there's more solar wind. The different colors of the auroras are a result of different particles releasing different substances. All this activity can cause problems for radios and other electronic tools, though it creates unbelievable art in the sky.

The northern lights are still a source of inspiration for human beings. Photographers, painters, writers—they all try to capture the awe that these lights create. However, these lights are difficult to pin down on paper. You may just have to see them for yourself.

RP151 Wired for Love

RP151 Wired for Love?

In 2016, newspapers reported that a French woman had said something very strange. She was "engaged" to a robot and planned to marry it as soon as robot-human marriage became legal.

A strange story, yes. But in fact, people falling in love with non-human objects is nothing new. People have "married" the Eifel Tower, the Berlin Wall, and even the Statue of Liberty. In the past, these affairs were seen as strange and the people involved in them rather odd. Technology is now so advanced, however, that certain objects (such as computers and robots) can seem almost human. The question is no longer a joke. Could there be a future in which human-robot relationships not only exist, but are considered normal?

The fact is, over the past 20 years we have been interacting with technology in ever-more-intimate ways. The Tamagotchi craze of the 1990s had people giving up their lives to take care of tiny digital "pets." In the early 2000s, Sony's robot dog AIBO stole people's hearts. And in 2011, Apple's Siri gave iPhones voices and personalities. Nowadays, we often spend more time with our phones than we do with other people. Artificial intelligence will continue to simulate human personalities and behavior ever more accurately. And the barriers against falling in love with artificial humans may soon fall away altogether as a result. Indeed, surveys show that 30% of people feel they could fall in love with robots in the future. One scientist even predicts that human-robot marriages will be legal by 2050.

Technology is, of course, meant to make our lives easier. In this case, however, it seems the more advanced technology gets, the more complicated the situation might become. But then again, when was true love ever simple?

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