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2026年9月26日星期六

RP400 Cracking the Case

RP400 Cracking the Case
It is China in the year 1247. Song Ci has just written Washing Away of Wrongs, a book that contains the first written accounts of forensic science— the type of science that is used to answer legal questions. The book tells of an investigator who travels to a remote village in order to solve a murder mystery. After examining the murder victim's wound, he tries out various weapons on animal corpses to identify what kind of weapon the murderer used. He then gets the villagers to bring their scythes to the center of town. Flies start to accumulate on one of the scythes because it still has trace amounts of blood on it. The villager who owns the scythe breaks down and confesses to the murder.
Hundreds of years pass. It's late nineteenth century France. Alexandre Lacassagne conducts a study into the relationship between bullets and guns. His work lays the foundation for the modern practice of ballistic fingerprinting, which is how investigators match bullets to the gun that fired them.
Next, Argentine policeman Juan Vucetich shocks the world in 1892 when he uses a suspect's fingerprints to convict her for a murder. Mr. Vucetich's technique for classifying fingerprints would eventually spread to police departments all over the world.
Another breakthrough occurs in Germany about 15 years later. Margarethe Filbert's murderer is captured after investigators use soil samples taken from the murderer's shoes to verify his movements on the day that the crime took place.
In 1987, a British man named Colin Pitchfork becomes the first criminal to be convicted using DNA fingerprinting evidence. Investigators believe that a 17-year-old would have been wrongly convicted for the double murders if not for the DNA evidence proving he was innocent.
Nowadays, police forces the world over have taken these past breakthroughs and integrated them in order to facilitate police work. For example, American government agencies have created vast databases containing DNA, fingerprint, paint type, tire tread, and weapon and bullet manufacturing information.
It seems that the life of a criminal has gotten a lot harder since the days of just having to wash off your scythe thoroughly.

RP399 Loose Your Arrows

RP399 Loose Your Arrows!

Archery is the practice of firing an arrow into a target, living or otherwise, using a bow. The origins of archery possibly date back as far as 50,000 B.C., a theory supported by the discovery of prehistoric stone arrowheads in Africa. Since its invention, archery has been used primarily in hunting and war. The Mongol armies of Genghis Khan conquered Asia with their devastating mounted archers, and many gods and heroes of myth and legend are depicted as archers. The Greek demigod Hercules, the Chinese hero Houyi (who shot down nine of the ten suns), and the English folk hero Robin Hood are just some of the many archers celebrated in popular legends.
Despite the strong start, bows gradually lost their prominence as the long-range weapon of choice after the rapid development of portable firearms in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Soldiers could be trained to use guns much faster, and their ability to pierce armor easily caused the bow to become quickly obsolete. As such, modern archery is treated as a competitive sport rather than a combative skill, with participants firing at targets placed at set distances, then scored depending on their accuracy.
Commonly, an archer stands with his or her side facing the target with both feet at shoulder-width apart, providing a stable base for the shooter. The arrow is then loaded into the bow in a process called "nocking the arrow." The nock is the small groove at the end of the arrow that the string of the bow fits into. The bow is then raised, and the arrow is drawn back in one smooth motion. The left arm should be locked in a straight position, pointing toward the target, while the right arm, which draws the bow, should be bent with the elbow at shoulder height and in line with the arrow. If the drawing arm is too far back, the arrow will not fly straight on release.
You may be surprised to find out that the world record for the furthest arrow ever shot using a handheld, pulled bow is an astonishing 1,222.01 meters—that's over a kilometer! Not bad for just wood, string, and an arm, don't you think?

RP398 Apricot Kernels: the Cancer Buster

RP398 Apricot Kernels: the Cancer Buster?

In the war against cancer, allies can come from the most unlikely places. Take apricot kernels for example. These soft, bitter-tasting seeds are found by breaking open the hard pit of an apricot. While they may taste awful, some people are convinced that they can cure cancer.
The secret to the kernel's success is that it's high in amygdalin. Amygdalin contains two toxic substances, benzaldehyde and cyanide. Usually, these poisons are bound to other molecules so they can't hurt us. But when cancer cells show up, it's another story completely. Cancer cells contain an enzyme that unlocks the poison in amygdalin. That's bad news for the cancer cell. Therefore, amygdalin is kind of like a freelance killer that floats around your body looking for cancer cells to assassinate.
Most research pertaining to apricot kernels was originally conducted by an American biochemist named Ernst Krebs Jr. in the 1950s. Dr. Krebs claimed that people could remain cancer free if they just ate fifteen apricot kernels a day.
In 1996, an Australian named Paul Reid took Dr. Krebs's advice to heart. Paul had been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer that wasn't treatable using conventional radiation or chemotherapy. Instead of losing heart, Paul decided to explore alternative methods of treatment. He started a strict organic diet and ate 30 apricot kernels every day. Years later, Paul beat his cancer and went on to live well beyond the five years that his original diagnosis gave him.
Paul Reid isn't alone. There are many people who swear that alternative treatments like apricot kernels can cure cancer. However, there is no scientific evidence that proves apricot kernels are effective. In addition, the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency has ruled that a mere two apricot kernels a day is the maximum safe dose. Under these regulations, the 30 that Paul ate daily to treat his cancer would be considered a serious risk of cyanide poisoning.
More studies need to be conducted before we' ll know for sure whether or not apricot kernels are the next wonder drug in the fight against cancer.

RP397 The Hobbit

It lived over 12,000 years ago and was only the size of a three-year-old human child, and yet it hunted dwarf elephants weighing 1,000 kg and lived alongside giant dog-sized rats and killer lizards. Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the “Hobbit” because of its small size, lived on the island of Flores, Indonesia, and may have been the last species of early humans to interact with modern humans, Homo sapiens.
The species is probably descended from Homo erectus, an ancestor it shared with modern humans, which arrived on Flores around one million years ago. Hundreds of thousands of years later, Homo erectus had evolved into the tiny Hobbit probably because of a phenomenon known as insular dwarfism. On small islands, survival favors those who need a lower energy intake from the limited food available. Animals therefore tend to develop smaller body sizes.
The species was discovered in 2003 by archaeologists excavating a cave. They found a female skeleton, one meter tall, buried in the sediment covering the cave floor. Originally, they mistook it for that of a child. Later, eight additional skeletons were found in the cave along with stone tools and dwarf elephant bones.
Homo floresiensis differed from modern humans not only in height. Their arms were longer, and they had large feet and teeth, though not much of a chin. Their brains, however, were far smaller than ours and smaller even than the average chimpanzee's. In spite of this, they used sophisticated tools, fire, and probably even had language, evidenced by their complex group hunting strategies.
Most evidence points to Homo floresiensis becoming extinct about 12,000 years ago after a volcanic eruption destroyed many of the island's inhabitants. Modern human remains have been found dating from around 11,000 years ago, but not before, so it is unclear whether the two species ever mingled.
However, Flores's modern-day inhabitants have legends that tell of small, hairy humanlike creatures who lived in caves and spoke a strange primitive language. These creatures were thought to be alive as recent as the nineteenth century, leading archaeologists to infer that perhaps they were the surviving descendants of Homo floresiensis, and may still be living in the poorly explored forests of Indonesia.

RP396 Part of the Herd

It is said that there's safety in numbers.
Fish collect in huge schools, and zebras come together in large groups, blending into an uncountable mass to confuse predators. This kind of herd behavior, while apparently beneficial to the whole group, actually has a more selfish motive. Though a flock of birds may look majestic and graceful, seemingly moving as if with one mind, each individual animal is in fact looking out for itself and itself alone. Each animal is trying to get as close to the center of the herd as possible, effectively using its fellows as living shields. It is of course the unfortunate individual on the outer edges that inevitably gets eaten. Herd behavior is also seen in humans, with similarly selfish motives and potentially destructive results.
Crashes on the stock market are a result of human herd behavior. Panicked investors try to sell their stock before others, resulting in a financial disaster caused by individual fear. People have been trampled to death in supermarkets during frantic shopping seasons in a bid to get that last-in-stock product.
Being a part of a huge crowd can cause people to behave in ways that they wouldn't otherwise behave. An individual becomes less aware of the true effects of his or her actions, depending on raw emotion rather than reason and looking to the majority for signals on how to proceed. This kind of behavior has been labeled mob mentality and has led to acts of violence and destruction that people would not usually be willing to perform.
An experiment by a British illusionist recently explored the dark side of herd behavior. He set up a fake TV show for which the audience members were asked to vote for what should happen to an unsuspecting member of the public. They were given choices between something nice and something unpleasant, and as the show progressed the audience increasingly voted for the unpleasant option, resulting in the victim having his property destroyed, being told he had been fired, and in the end being kidnapped. This was done to show how uncharacteristically people can behave when they are an anonymous part of a crowd.

RP395 Troubled Waters

There is an environmental crisis that is brewing deep within the rivers, lakes, and oceans of our planet. It's called eutrophication, and it's what happens when excessive amounts of nitrates or phosphates are added to a body of water.
Eutrophication can ravage entire food chains in underwater ecosystems because it alters the delicate balance of life at its most basic level. Simple plant life like algae thrives in water that has undergone eutrophication. In fact, algae and phytoplankton grow so rapidly that nothing else can survive. As the algae grows and expands, it suck s all of the oxygen out of the water, suffocating more complicated forms of plant life. Consequently, fish and other aquatic life forms lose their primary source of food and starve to death.
As if that wasn't scary enough, scientists have also discovered that eutrophication is increasing acidity in the world's oceans. A recent study by the University of Georgia found that eutrophication increases the amount of carbon dioxide that oceans are able to absorb from the atmosphere. It concluded that the continued eutrophication of coastal waters could lead to the collapse of several species of crabs, snails, clams, and coral.
Eutrophication can occur in freshwater systems just as easily as it can in the open ocean. Surveys have shown that 54 percent of the lakes in Asia are eutrophic, as well as 53 percent in Europe and 48 percent in North America. Some of the world's largest and most well-known lakes are also considered to be eutrophic, such as Lake Erie in the United States and Tai Lake in China. Eutrophic water can be dangerous to drink. Thus, the more eutrophication there is in freshwater lakes, the less drinking water there will be for a global population that is already starting to get thirsty.
Though eutrophication can occur naturally, this crisis is the direct result of human activity. Farming in particular is thought to be a main reason why eutrophication is increasing. Most fertilizers contain either phosphates or nitrates, the two chemicals that cause eutrophication. According to some estimates, over 600,000,000 tonnes of phosphates were added to the earth's surface between 1950 and 1995. With numbers like these, it's not hard to see why eutrophication is becoming so widespread.

RP394 Humanity's First Words

The origin of language is a puzzle that has baffled theorists for hundreds of years. How did early humans go from producing animal-like howls and grunts to expressing abstract ideas and passing on complex skills? So far there has been no universally agreed upon conclusion, and the puzzle has been called "the hardest problem in science."
There are two main approaches to tackling the problem. The first assumes that language gradually evolved from preexisting systems used by our primate ancestors, such as mating calls or warning signals. The second is that language suddenly came out of nowhere, caused by a random mutation that reorganized the brain and emerged almost perfectly formed in a very short period of time.
Some scientists suggest that a basic form of language existed with early humans such as Homo ergaster (1.8 million years ago). This basic language was somewhere between a primate form of communication and modern language. It was probably mainly made up of commands and suggestions and also depended heavily on gestures.
Studies of chimpanzees have suggested that the emergence of language is linked to our ability to trust each other within a community. Chimps use a variety of sounds and calls to signal different meanings, but they also try to use these signals to deceive their fellows. Therefore, any sound whose meaning could be easily faked is often ignored and treated as a deception. It is only in a community in which the members trust each other enough to allow signals that express things other than involuntary natural or emotional reactions that language can flourish.
However, a phenomenon in Nicaragua has lent credibility to the theory that language may have appeared relatively suddenly. In 1980, an institute for the deaf was created in Nicaragua. The school focused on lip-reading, but the children, when allowed to play together, began creating their own basic sign language. The next generation of children built on this basic language, and it became more and more complex. This suggested that humans have a kind of innate grammar, and that it was possibly a mutation in the brain of early humans that gave rise to this remarkable ability to form sophisticated languages from scratch.

RP393 Journey to the Center of the Earth

Have you ever thought about how deep people can go toward the center of planet Earth? Just about every child has dreamed about digging a hole and coming out the other side of the planet. What's down there, and what would it look like? Well, Earth isn't just made up of stone and rock. It actually has three distinct layers, and each one of them has its own physical properties.
First, there's the outer layer. This is called Earth's crust. It's made of solid rock, and is divided into massive tectonic plates. Sometimes, energy from deep within the planet causes these plates to shift, and an earthquake is the result. On average, the earth's crust is about 80 km thick. It can be as thin as 5 km at the bottom of the ocean.
The layer under Earth's crust is the mantle. It is composed of an upper and lower section. In total, it's about 2,900 km thick. The harder upper part of the mantle and the earth's crust are collectively known as the lithosphere, after the Greek word for "rocky." The inner mantle is liquid that swirls and flows like honey. It is made up of silicon, oxygen, iron, and magnesium.
Sometimes, shifts in tectonic plates can create a passageway for superheated lava from the inner mantle to escape to the planet's surface. This is where volcanoes come from. Think of a volcanic eruption as Earth bleeding.
Then there's the core in the very center of the planet. This part is still somewhat of a mystery to scientists, but it is widely accepted that its density is very high. Experts also believe that the center of Earth is made of iron and nickel. It is said to be around the same temperature as the surface of the sun.
So next time when you hear of someone wanting to dig to the other side of the world, make sure you tell him he might want to bring a first aid kit and wear a T-shirt. It can get pretty hot down there.

RP392 Trapped in a Small Space

RP392 Trapped in a Small Space
Were you ever trapped in a small space as a child? Did you ever find yourself accidentally locked in a dark room or fall into a deep pool with no way out? For many people, these kinds of terrifying childhood experiences do not fade away with time. Instead they can leave behind a sometimes crippling condition called claustrophobia.
Claustrophobia is the irrational fear of confined spaces. Sufferers can become extremely panicked at even the thought of entering such a small space. Entering an elevator, taking the subway, or sitting on an airplane are all situations that can fill sufferers with a deep sense of terror. It is estimated that six percent of the world's population suffers from claustrophobia, though only a small number see any kind of treatment.
Claustrophobia occurs because the mind associates small spaces with that terrible childhood memory of being trapped, triggering a hysterical reaction whenever a confined space is encountered. This usually results in a panic attack which can cause the sufferer to sweat, feel light-headed or sick, begin to shake, and sometimes even faint.
For extreme sufferers, this condition can cause serious problems in their social lives, and often results in the sufferer deliberately avoiding certain situations because he or she fears experiencing a panic attack. Sufferers can also become depressed, feeling their lives are dominated by fear. They can become afraid of being in a crowded room at a party, and in some very extreme cases even fear a closed door.
One branch of research has suggested that claustrophobia is, in fact, a fear that's hidden in all of us. Fearing dangerous confined spaces was actually an important evolutionary advantage in early humans, and so we are now naturally prone to this kind of phobia.
The most effective treatment for claustrophobia has been exposure therapy. This kind of therapy gradually exposes the sufferer to the thing that they fear. The first session may introduce the subject to an elevator, convincing them that there is nothing to fear at being inside. Then the therapist gradually exposes the patient to smaller and smaller spaces until the subject is completely comfortable in even the most confined spaces.

RP391 A Tale of Two Chimps

Researchers at the University of Atlanta have discovered a side of chimpanzees that no one has seen before. Apparently, these distant relatives of human beings may not be as selfish and cruel as we thought.
Since chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, we tend to label them as the source of all of humanity's failings. So, it's true that we can be greedy, but chimpanzees are greedier. We can also be vengeful, but our talent for revenge is nothing compared to what chimpanzees display in the wild. And that's just to name a few flaws. Basically, when we think of the goodness of humankind, we think of the things that we've accomplished in spite of what we share with chimpanzees.
This negative view of chimpanzees is often reinforced by various studies. Chimpan society is often regarded as fission-fusion. This means that the only substantial social bonds in chimp society are those that exist between mothers and their offspring. Every other member of chimpanzee society would stab the next chimp in the back if there was a banana in it for them. Chimps have also been observed waging war for territory and killing each other for no apparent reason.
However, a groundbreaking study of chimpanzee behavior performed by the University of Atlanta is challenging these conventional views. Researchers performed an experiment for which two chimps were placed in two rooms separated by a wire mesh. A bucket full of different colored tokens was placed in front of each chimp. When a chimp handed a green token to the researchers, it would be rewarded with a treat. If it chose a blue token on the other hand, both chimps would get a treat. Under these circumstances, the chimps consistently chose blue tokens. They would rather help out their fellow chimp than dine alone. According to the researchers who organized this study, this proves that chimpanzees can put group welfare ahead of their own individual needs. In other words, it shows that chimpanzee behavior can be ethical. They may not choose the action that benefits the group every single time, but then again—neither do humans.

RP390 Korean Combat

With over 30 million practitioners spread across five continents, tae kwon do has become one of the most popular martial arts on the planet. But did you know that tae kwon do is not just one, but nine different schools (kwans) of Korean martial arts, each with its own long history?
The story of tae kwon do begins around the sixth century A.D. Back then, the Korean Peninsula was divided into three kingdoms: Silla, Koguryo and Paekche. Silla, the smallest kingdom, was worried about being conquered by its larger neighbors. This constant fear caused it to establish a group of elite warriors called the Hwarang, or "flower boys." These Hwarang didn't just pioneer unarmed combat techniques that focused on the foot, much like modern-day tae kwon do does. They also established a code of ethics that emphasized honor and obedience. Eventually, the flower boys helped Silla to defeat its neighbors and unify Korea under the Koryo dynasty in A.D. 918.
Korean martial arts continued to flourish under the Koryo dynasty. This is when early styles like subak and tae kyon made their first appearances. Their popularity spread like wildfire after the king established regular martial arts competitions and ordered that all soldiers be trained in the art of unarmed combat.
The rise of Japanese influence in Korea after 1910 marked a turning point in tae kwon do's historical development. This was a time when Korean martial arts were banned and Japanese styles such as karate were encouraged as alternatives. As a result, Korean martial arts absorbed some Japanese styles and tactics.
After Korea was liberated in 1945, Korean martial arts were once again allowed to flourish, but there was a diverse set of nine different schools at this point, each with its own fighting styles, tactics, and philosophies. Ultimately, these nine schools were combined into one when the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association was established in 1961. This started the process of standardizing and simplifying teaching methods, making the martial art more accessible to international audiences.
So next time you head out to your tae kwon do dojang for some practice, don't forget that you' re studying the sum of over 1,000 years of fighting wisdom.

RP389 Education Where It's Needed Most

After a near-death experience inspired him to see the world, Adam Braun began backpacking in some of the world's poorest countries. He traveled from the deprived townships of South Africa to the starving streets of Cambodia. But it was in India where the idea for Pencils of Promise struck him. A small beggar boy held out his hand for some money. Instead of immediately giving money, Braun asked the boy what he wanted most in the world. “A pencil,” the boy replied.
From that moment on, Braun would buy large stacks of pencils and pens wherever he went and would give them to the children who lived on the street. He quickly realized that pencils, the tools for an education, were far more valuable to these children than anything else.
In 2008, just before his 25th birthday, Braun put $25 into a savings account in the hope of starting a fund to build just one school in a poor area of the world. The reaction to his pledge, however, was quite extraordinary.
Within six months he had raised over $50,000 and had 75 volunteers ready to start building a preschool in Laos.
“It was funded by 2,000 individual contributions of less than $100 each. That is the grassroots-style movement we hope to create and build upon as we grow,” Braun said, encouraging the involvement of people at a local level.
The first school, built in 2009, was a great success. It took only three months to build and cost $18,000. This cost included teachers' salaries, school materials, and three years' maintenance costs. One of Pencils of Promise's policies is that the community in which the school is built must fund 10 percent of the project. They can do this by providing workers and building materials, and this ensures that the whole community is involved in and cares about the project.
But the organization is much more than just a construction company. It now trains teachers and provides long-term support for schools in Laos, Ghana, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, regularly checking in and testing students to ensure that standards remain high. It has also started a program called WASH, ensuring clean bathrooms are available and teaching children about water and health.
So far, Pencils of Promise has built over 400 schools, taking education to places where money is scarce but the desire for education is plentiful.

RP388 The Magic Social Number

From the earliest point in our evolution, we have been social animals. Living in hunter-gatherer groups, we created small societies based on complex interpersonal relationships and developed a broader collective of ideas dictating the rules of our social world.
Creating and maintaining these bonds requires a skill that sociologists have termed “social action.” These are actions which take into account the reactions of others and can be altered according to these reactions. This cause-and-effect-based behavior results in firm social structures within which individuals can better organize their lives, and set and achieve goals.
During the past 200 years, however, people have gone from living in relatively small rural societies to living in cities filled with millions of people. It is estimated that by 2050, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities. So how do human beings, who for most of our evolutionary history have lived in small societies, cope with the emergence of these city-centered super societies?
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Oxford, has suggested that there is actually a limit to the number of people we can maintain meaningful social interactions with. Dunbar says that human beings tend to form natural groups of about 150 people. This number is roughly the size of traditional hunter-gatherer tribes, the average size of a medieval village, and the number of friends the average person stays in contact with on Facebook.
Dunbar has divided this number into layers of intimate friends, good friends, friends, and acquaintances. The level of intimacy required between these 150 people is described by Dunbar as "people you wouldn't feel embarrassed about joining if you happened to find them at the bar in the transit lounge of Hong Kong airport at 3 a.m."
In recent years, people's social groups have tended to become stretched over countries or even continents due to job migration, attending universities far from home, and the Internet revolution.
This has led to theorists questioning the concept of community and its future, fearing that as the world grows farther apart, a lack of social interactions may leave us feeling quite alone in a very crowded world.

RP387 Speaking Spooks

In 1848, two sisters, Kate and Margaret Fox, said they could communicate with the dead. They claimed to hear loud tapping sounds coming from their house in Hydesville, New York. People who visited them confirmed the tapping and that the girls could indeed communicate with the noisy spirit.
Before long, thousands of mediums had emerged who claimed miraculous powers of being able to speak to the dead. In darkened rooms, with a small group of people, they would attempt to reach departed loved ones.
Mediums would use many different methods to indicate that a spirit was present. Bells and balls were placed on the table, and as the medium spoke, the ball would move around, or the bell would ring without being touched. Some mediums would use spirit slates—two blank chalkboards tied together that, after calling a spirit, would be opened to reveal a message written on the inside. However, many of these methods were exposed as common magic tricks.
Many modern seances now take place in front of large audiences, with the medium providing personal messages from the spirit world. The medium often displays an uncanny knowledge of the deceased as well as the audience member—sure proof that he is genuinely talking to the spirits!
However, skeptics insists that mediums are simply using a linguistic trick called “cold reading,” which gives the impression of telling someone information, when actually the information is mostly being provided by the audience member himself.
For example, a medium might claim to be hearing from a spirit whose name begins with P and who is repeatedly saying the number five. An audience member picks up on this information and says, “That must be my father, Peter, who had five brothers.” In fact, the letter P and number five could have applied to many audience members; meanwhile, the medium has actually not given any details at all, only appeared to do so.
It may not come as a surprise, then, that in 1888 Margaret Fox, who had started the entire phenomenon, confessed that the mysterious tapping was nothing more than she and her sister cracking the joints of their toes.

RP386 En Garde

RP386 En Garde!

"Sir, I demand satisfaction!" This cry, heard among the upper classes of early modern England, would be shouted by a man who felt his honor had been insulted. Unless an apology was swiftly offered by the offending party, a duel would follow to settle the score, sometimes resulting in death.
Fencing, a sport in which two people engage in close combat using one of three different kinds of swords, is the modern manifestation of these duels, which were fought in countries all over Europe.
Fencers stand on a piste, which is a long strip usually 2 meters wide and 14 meters long, with two lines on either side of the midpoint where the fencers take their starting positions. Fencers stand on these lines and salute each other, then, the referee calls" En garde!" This is the signal for the fencers to put on their protective masks and raise their swords. After the match begins, whoever manages to score a hit (called a "touch") on their opponent's body gains a point, and five points wins a match.
In medieval Europe, skill with a sword became unnecessary as the use of armor demanded strength, hacking, and heavy weapons to cut through an opponent's tough metal suit. However, the development of guns made armor useless, and swordplay became popular once again during the fifteenth century. The development of the rapier— a long, light sword— in the sixteenth century caused swordsmen to emphasize skill, speed, and technique over power. Later swords developed from the rapier were even lighter and pointed rather than sharp-edged, which encouraged thrusting attacks rather than slashing.
Modern fencing weapons consist of three swords: the foil, the épée, and the saber. The foil is light, flexible and pointed, the épée is slightly heavier, and the saber is an edged weapon, making it perfect for cutting as well as stabbing. In the past, fencing matches were scored by judges who would watch the match and shout if they saw a hit. However, this was unreliable and was replaced by the current electronic scoring system in which a flashing light is triggered when the system detects a hit, truly bringing the art of dueling into the modern era.

RP385 The Heroes Who Heal

In 1971 a group of French doctors and journalists created an international organization that would provide emergency medical care to victims of war, natural disasters, or disease regardless of their race, religion, or political beliefs. They named the organization Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, as it has become known in the United States.
Made up of all kinds of specialists from every aspect of the health industry, the organization provides vital medical support in some of the world's most deprived and war-torn countries.
These doctors, nurses, administrators, and planning experts are active in over 70 countries and operate under a firm code of ethics, which requires them to treat everyone equally without showing discrimination. The organization also remains strictly politically and religiously neutral and does not take sides in war. It does this so that it can remain free of any constraints that could affect its ability to give aid where it's most needed.
It also maintains its independence by making private donations its main source of income. There are over 5.7 million private donors that come from countries all around the world. Only 10 percent of its funds come from governments.
Often first on the scene in any crisis, Doctors Without Borders is constantly in the thick of disasters, be they man-made or natural, sometimes witnessing scenes of real brutality and violence. In order to provide the best medical care, they are continually in touch with local people on the ground. As such, they have a unique and thorough perspective on the world's most desperate situations.
Using this firsthand knowledge, the organization frequently speaks out against human rights abuses, medical neglect, and instances of violence that do not get sufficient attention from the media.
A peaceful organization, they have only ever called for military intervention once, during the 1994 massacre in Rwanda. However, they have also strongly condemned the actions of the governments of several African and Asian countries, often working directly with the United Nations.
In 1999, the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its exceptional humanitarian work around the world. And, true to form, it used the money to fund the fight against neglected diseases.

RP384 The Stolen Hour

“Give us back our stolen hour!” Britons demanded as they protested against the introduction of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the 1900s. The idea of altering the clocks to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening during summer has been controversial throughout its history. People have argued that the practice saves energy, reduces crime, and prevents traffic accidents. Others are not so convinced, and studies conducted over the past decade have shown mixed results.
The idea was first implemented in Germany during World War I in an attempt to conserve coal during wartime. Britain soon followed with its own Summer Time but so did confusion and chaos, with some institutions following the changes and some simply ignoring them. One writer resented the laws in a more poetic manner, expressing his distaste at being forced to favor the sun over the moon.
Despite the early controversy, more than 70 countries currently use DST. The United States moves its clocks forward an hour at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and back an hour on the first Sunday in November. Some states, however, still do not apply DST, and in the past even some areas within individual states refused to observe DST while the rest of the state did.
It was originally thought that DST would reduce energy consumption as people would use less electric lighting in the evening due to the increased hours of daylight. However, recent studies have suggested that this benefit has been offset by the increased use of home air conditioners, which people use for longer on long summer evenings.
Brighter evenings have reduced the number of traffic accidents in countries which observe DST, but studies have also noticed a spike in the number of accidents during the week after the clocks change, possibly due to the sudden interruption of people's sleeping patterns.
One certain good thing to come out of DST, however, happened in 1999, when a group of West Bank terrorists (on DST) delivered bombs to a cell in Israel (not on DST) but ignored the time difference when setting the timers for their bombs. The bombs went off one hour earlier than planned, killing three terrorists instead of the intended civilians.

RP383 Breaking the Habit

I'm Dave. I'm Dave. I'm Dave. Whoops, sorry about that. Looks like it happened again! My obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sometimes makes me write things three times for good luck.
I was first diagnosed with OCD five years ago. My problems began when I found myself developing all of these weird habits that I couldn't control. For example, I would be scared to go to bed if I didn't turn the lights on and off five times. That's also when I started saying and writing everything three times in a row. And let me assure you, this makes it hard to have normal conversations with people.
The doctor told me that OCD is very common. In fact, it's diagnosed almost as frequently as asthma. He said that it was nothing to be ashamed of. All of us have habits in life, like checking to make sure the door is locked before going to sleep. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder have habits that are... Well, let's just say their habits are a bit more exotic than normal people's.
He also told me that symptoms vary from person to person. Some OCD sufferers occasionally have a thought that won't go away. It may make them uncomfortable or anxious for a while, but it will eventually disappear. Other people experience much more serious OCD symptoms. They might have uncomfortable thoughts that make them anxious all of the time. They tend to develop habits in order to help put their mind at ease. One minute they' re feeling nervous, and the next they' re washing their hands for two hours before they' ll even touch their lunch.
I know what you' re thinking: Why aren't I writing everything in this article three times in a row? Well, the doctor didn't just tell me what OCD was; he also told me how I could treat it. I underwent two kinds of treatment— ritual prevention and exposure therapy. These treatments exposed me to circumstances that triggered my habits. Think of it as getting practice resisting the urge to indulge in my exotic habits. So far, the treatment has worked very well, but there's still some work to do. Still some work to— Hah! Gotcha!

RP382 Can the Future Really Be Known

RP382 Can the Future Really Be Known?

Some say Nostradamus (1503-1566) predicted the French Revolution, the rise of Adolf Hitler, the 9/11 attacks in the United States, and George W. Bush's presidency. Others dismiss his predictions as nonsense.
His most famous work, The Prophecies (published between 1555 and 1558), contains a future history of the world up to the year 3797. His most famous predictions (though there are over 1,000 in The Prophecies) are probably the following two: "Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers/Most of the battle will be against Hister," and "At forty-five degrees, the sky will burn/Fire will approach the great new city."
Believers are quick to point out the similarity between "Hister" and "Hitler," convinced that Nostradamus named the infamous dictator. However, "Hister" was the ancient name for the Danube River in central Europe, and has nothing to do with Hitler. The second prophesy is supposed to be a description of 9/11, and the "new city" New York, which lies at latitude 45°. In fact, New York is at latitude 40°43', and the "new city" probably refers to Naples, whose Greek name, Neapolis, actually means "new city."
The main criticism of Nostradamus's prophecies is that they are often repetitions of past events projected into the future in the assumption that history will repeat itself. It's also convenient that he left his prophecies undated and in no particular order. It has been suggested that the famous 9/11 prophesy is a repetition of the 1139 invasion of Naples in the same year that the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted.
His general statements, their overinterpretation, and lines taken out of context have all fed the myth of Nostradamus's mystical ability to see into the future.
In 2000, after George W. Bush was elected president of the United States, a verse apparently written by Nostradamus was circulated around the Internet, predicting Bush's election. "Come the millennium, month 12/In the home of the greatest power/The village idiot will come forth/To be acclaimed the leader." Incredible accuracy! It was later revealed, however, that this was written not by the great foreseer, but rather by an Internet prankster looking for a laugh.

RP381 Synthetic Signal Blockers

The human endocrine system is a complex series of glands and pathways that help hormones travel from one point in our body to another. Think of these hormones like workers in a tiny biological postal service. Their function is to deliver messages. For example, when you' re young, they deliver the message that it's time for your body to grow. After you grow old, they start delivering the less uplifting message that it's time for your body to shrink. The endocrine system is responsible for your growth, metabolism, and tissue function. It even affects whether you' re feeling happy or sad.
What happens when something starts interfering with the endocrine system? That's what scientists around the world are currently trying to figure out. They are studying the chemicals that block our body's biological postal service. These endocrine disruptors are synthetic chemicals that humans have created. They have seeped into natural environments all around the world. Endocrine disruptors are known to harm living organisms, and they have been linked to cancer and other reproductive disabilities in humans.
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, is a classic example of a synthetic chemical that is an endocrine disruptor. It was banned in the United States in 1972 after it was discovered that DDT caused birds to lay eggs with soft shells. DDT also harms human reproductive health. It is still being used in some parts of Africa.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released several reports outlining the threat that endocrine disruptors pose to wildlife. These reports show that mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish species are suffering from altered gender ratios, reproductive deficiencies, and growth disorders. However, the results aren't totally conclusive. Currently, there are so many pollutants in natural environments that it's difficult for these studies to determine what is and isn't being caused by endocrine disruptors.
Only studies that have been conducted in laboratories have proven that endocrine disruptors can harm humans. So far, there have been no conclusive studies linking human disease to endocrine disruptors that already exist in our environment. However, several studies have proven that endocrine disruptors are negatively impacting mammal species in their natural habitats. Since humans are mammals, doesn't that mean that we' re in trouble, too?

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