English Recordings

For centuries, the tusk of the narwhal has fascinated and baffled. The word narwhal (pronounced NAR-wall or NAR-way-l) is said to derive from words meaning "corpse whale," apparently because the animal’s coloring reminded people of the color of drowned sailors.

Narwhal tusks, up to nine feet long, were sold as unicorn horns in ages past, often for many times their weight in gold since they were said to possess magic powers. ln the 16th gentury, Queen Elizabeth received a tusk valued at the cost of a castle.

Scientists have long tried to explain why a whale that lives in arctic waters, feeding on fish that live around the ice, should have such a long tusk. The theories about how the narwhal uses the tusk have included breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, attracting females, defending baby narwhals and establishing authority.

But a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has now made a surprising discovery: the tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making it one of the planet’s most remarkable. The find came when the team used an electron microscope to examine the tusk and found new subtleties of dental anatomy. The close-ups showed that 10 million nerve endings lead from the tusk`s core toward its outer surface, communicating with the outside world. The scientists say the nerves can detect subtle changes of temperature, pressure and probably much else.

Today, Dr. Nweeia is presenting the team`s findings at a professional conference. James G. Mead, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where Dr. Nweeia is a research associate, said the exposed nerve endings appear to be unique in nature. Dr. Mead said, "lt’s something new. It just goes to show just how little we know about whales and dolphins." He noted that no theory about the tusk’s function has ever considered its use as a sensory organ.

In the Canadian wilds, the team recently conducted a study on a captured narwhal. Changes in the amount of salt around the animal`s tusk produced signs of altered brain waves, giving preliminary support to the sensor hypothesis. The unharmed whale was then released. The team is now working to understand how the narwhal uses the information. One theory is that the tusk can detect salt levels that tell if ice is freezing, a hazard that has killed hundreds of narwhals. Tusk readings may also help the whales track environments that favor their preferred foods.

Little about the narwhal`s appearance or behavior offers clues to the tusk’s sensory importance. The whale has eyes, though small ones. It also has a thick layer of fat and no fin on the top of its body, so it can swim easily under the ice. Like any whale, it must surface occasionally to breathe air. And as in dolphins,it's mouth looks like it is always smiling.

Though shy of humans, the animals are quite social. They often travel in groups of 20 or 30. Males weigh up to 1.5 tons, grow about l5 feet long and are conspicuous by their tusks, which can grow from six to nine feet in length. A few females have tusks and, in rare cases, narwhals can have two of the long teeth. Though often perfectly straight, the tusks always grow in tight spirals.

Narwhals live mainly in the icy channels of northern Canada and northwestern Greenland, but they are found eastward as far as Siberia. The whale‘s close cousin. the snowy white beluga*, lives happily in captivity. The shy narwhal tends to die.

Arctic explorers have often observed them at a distance because narwhals frequently raise their heads above the water, their tusks held high. Jens Rosing, in his book, tells of seeing them during expeditions off Greenland. There the whales would play and apparently mate. "Over`a hundred can be seen at once," he wrote. "'I`hey often rise vertically out of the water, lifting themselves with strong movements of their tail fin so that half their body is above water."

Around 1000 A.D.. the narwhal tusk entered history as a profitable lie. Dishonest traders passed them off as one of the most prized objects of all time: unicorn horns. The ancient Chinese, Greeks, Romans and other peoples had accepted the unicorn as real, and the arrival of the beautifully spiraled objects seemed to prove the (3)animal`s existence. The supposed horns sparked huge interest because they were gid to have the power to cure ills and neutralize poisons. Kings and emperors, eager to prevent assassination, had cups and eating utensils made of the precious horns. A London doctor advertised a drink made from powdered tusks that could supposedly cure many ills.

The horns became a symbol of power, both earthly and divine, in part because of their religious associations, In medieval times, the unicorn was seen as a symbol of great purity and of Christ. The fantastic beast appeared in many thousands of images. One author and explorer wrote, "All carry a horn that is unmistakably a narwhal tusk, the only long, spiraled horn in all creation" Churches put small pieces of "unicorn horn" in holy water, giving sick people hope of miracle cures.

The horns became a symbol of power, both earthly and divine, in part because of their religious associations, In medieval times, the unicorn was seen as a symbol of great purity and of Christ. The fantastic beast appeared in many thousands of images. One author and explorer wrote, "All carry a horn that is unmistakably a narwhal tusk, the only long, spiraled horn in all creation" Churches put small pieces of "unicorn horn" in holy water, giving sick people hope of miracle cures. By the 17th century, the deception began to falter with the expansion of New World exploration and multiplying reports of strange whales that had long tusks. A Danish zoologist investigated and in 1638 exposed the horn`s true origins in a public lecture. As the unicorn myth died a slow death, the reputation of the narwhal grew larger than life. Explorers claimed its tusk could punch holes in thick ice, and that males battled with their long tusks.

Eight years ago, Dr. Nweeia began to wonder about narwhals and their tusks. "They defied most of the principles and properties of teeth," he recalled. ln 2000, he decided to investigate the animal closely and first went to its icy home in 2002. There he met an Inuit*guide. Under international agreement, the lnuits are allowed to hunt narwhals, which they eat and harvest for their tusks. During expeditions in 2003 and 2004, Nweeia was able to gather head and tusk samples, which he brought back for analysis. He and his colleagues tracked a clear nerve connection between the animal’s brain and tusk, finding the long tooth heavily supplied with nerves. But why it should be so remained a mystery.

Rough deposits of calcified algae and plankton coated the outside of the tusks. The scientists decided to remove them in an acid bath to get down to the surface of the tooth before viewing it under an electron microscope. First, however, they decided to give the uncleaned tusk a quick microscopic examination.

It was a shock. There, contrary to all known rules of tooth anatomy, they found open tubes leading down through the coating to the (4)tooth's inner nerves. "That surprised us," recalled Frederick C. Eichmiller. "Tubesf5in healthy teeth never go to the surface." Extrapolating from a count of open tubes over one part of the tooth's surface, the team estimated that the average narwhal tusk had millions of openings that led down to inner nerves. "No onc knew that they were connecting to the outside environmer1t," Dr. Nweeia said. "To find that was extraordinary."

The scientists, noting that the males often hold their tusks high in the air, wonder if the long teeth might sometimes serve as sophisticated weather stations, letting the animals sense changes in temperature and air pressure that would tell of the arrival of cold weather and the likelihood that open ice channels might soon freeze up.

The discovery does not eliminate some early theories of the narwhal's behavior. Tugks acting as sophisticated sensors, Dr. Nweeia said, may still play a role in mating rituals or determining male hierarchies. He added that the nerve endings, in addition to other readings, undoubtedly produce sensations when the tusk is rubbed or touched, and that these might be pleasurable. This tactile sense might explain why narwhals engage in what is known as "tusking," where two males gently rub tusks together, Dr. Nweeia said. He added that the Inuit seldom report aggressive contact, weakening ideas of battle. Dr. Nweeia said that gentle tusking might also be a way that males clean their tusks so tubes stay open, allowing them to better function as sensors.

He called the basic discovery amazing: especially given the freezing teniperatures of the Arctic, "This is one of the last places you`d expect to find such a thing," Dr. Nweeia said of the large sensory organs. "Cold is one of the things that the tubes are most sensitive to," as people sometimes discover when diseased gums of human teeth expose the tubes. "Of all the places you’d think you'd want to do the most to protect yourself from that outside environment," he said, "this guy has gone out of his way to open himself up to it."

Richard Wrangham was lying beside a fire at home on a cold winter night 10 years ago when his mind wandered to the first hominids to cook food. As ai Harvard University primatologist who studies wild chimpanzees in Africa, Wrangham knew that cooking is one of the few uniquely human abilities. He also knew that our habit of preparing our food by heating it allows us to spend less energy on digestion. And he suddenly realized that cooking is not merely the basis of culinary culture. It would have given our ancestors a big` evolutionary advantage. He arguesnthat cooking paved the way for the dramatic expansion _of the human brain and eventually fueled intellectual accomplishments such as cave painting, writing symphonies, and inventing the Internet. ln fact, Wrangham presents cooking as one of the answers to a longstanding riddle in human evolution: Where did humans get the extra energy to support their large brains?

Expanding the brain demands a new supply of energy, because human brains are voracious. Thebrain consumes 60% of the energy expended by a resting newborn baby. And a resting adult’s brain uses 25% of its energy, as opposed to 8% used on average by ape brains. But humans consume about the same amount of calories as smaller?brained mammals of similar body size.

One classic explanation is that humans saved energy by shrinking their digestive organs, effectively trading brains for guts as they shifted to a higher quality diet of more meat. That theory is now gaililering additional support. Wrangham thinks that in addition, our ancestors got cooking, giving them the same number of calories for less effort.

Other researchers are enthusiastic about the new results. But many aren’t convinced by Wrangham’s arguments that the first cooked meal was prepared 1.9 million to 1.6 million years ago, when the brain began to expand dramatically in Homo erectus (H.erectus*). They think that although saving energy by shrinking the gut may have been important, the culinary explosion came later, perhaps during the evolution of our own species less than half a million years ago. Even those unsure about the role of cooking in human evolution agree that something crucial must have happened to our ancestors energy budget. Line up the skulls of early hominids and you’ll see why: From 1.9 million to 200,000 years l ago, our ancestors tripled their brain size.

The earliest members of the human family, including the Australopithecines* that lived from 4 million to 1.2 million years ago, had brains about the size of chimpanzees. The brain didn’t expand significantly until just after H.erectus appeared in Africa about 1.9 million years ago, with a brain that eventually averaged 1000 cc, or about twice the size of a chimpanzee’s. The next increase in brain capacity came 500,000 to 200,000 years ago with the evolution of our own species, whose brains average 1300 cc, and of Neanderthals (1500 cc).

What spurred this dramatic growth in the H.erectus skull? Meat, according to a longstanding body of evidence. The first stone tools appear about 2.7 million years ago, along with evidence that hominids were using them to cut up animals they had killed. But big changes don’t appear in human diiatomy until more than 1 million years later, when a 1.6-million-year-old skull of H.erectus shows it was twice the size of an Australopithecine’s skull, says anthropologist Alan Walker. At about that time, archaeological sites show that H.erectus was moving animal bodies to campsites for further preparation and sharing; its teeth, jaws, and guts all got smaller. The traditional explanation is that H.erectus was a better hunter and ate more raw meat than its small?brained ancestors.

But a diet high in raw meat alone isn’t enough to account for these dramatic chgiges, says Wrangham. He notes that H.crectus had small teeth-smaller than those of its ancestors-unlike other camivoras that adapted to eating raw meat by increasing tooth size. He argues that whereas earlier ancestors ate raw meat, H. erectus must have been cooking it. "Cooking produces soft, energy-rich f0ods," he says.

To support his ideas, Wrangham went to the lab to measure the nutritional impact of cooking. He found almost nothing in food science literature and began to work with physiologist Stephen Secor, who studies digestive physiology in animals. Secor’s team fed 24 snakes one of four diets consisting of the same number of calories of beef: cooked ground beef, cooked intact beef, raw ground beef, or raw intact beef. Then they estimated the energy the snakes consumed before, during, and after they digested the meat. Snakes fed cooked beef spent 12, 7% less eneyrgy digestingpit and 23, 4% less energy if the meat was both cooked and ground. "By eating cooked meat, less energy is expended on digestion; therefore, more energy can be used for other activities and growth," says Secor.

Secor also helped Wrangham design a study in which they found that mice raised on cooked meat gained 29% more weight than mice fed raw meat over 5 weeks. The mice eating cooked food were also 4% longer on average, according to early results. Mice that ate raw chow weighed less even though they consumed more calories than those fed cooked food.

The heat from cooking makes the food easier to chew, and the calories in the fodd easier to absorb. This translates into less time spent chewing: Chimpanzees spend 5 hours on average chewing their food whereas hunter-gatherers who cook spend l hour chewing per day.

The immediate changes in body sizes in the mice also suggest that our ancestors would have been able to get rapid benefits out of cooking, says Wrangham. That’s why he thinks there would be little time between learning to cook and seeing anatomical changes in humans-and why he thinks early H.ereectus must have been cooking. Less chewing would lead to smaller jaws and teeth, as well as to a reduction in gut size-changes seen in H. erectus. Those changes would be favored by selection.

Wrangham's analysis of nutritional, archaeological, and primatological data adds up to a hypothesis that hot cuisine fueled the brain. "It’s such a nice explanation," says anthropologist Leslie Aiello. She says the smaller teeth in H. erectus indicate to her that it wasn’t chewing much tough raw food: “S0mething must be going on. If only thge were evidence for fire."

And that's the stumbling block to Wrangham’s theories: Cooking requires fire. Clear evidence of habitual cooking requires stone hearths or even clay. cooking pots. Solid evidence for hearths, with stones or bones circling patches of dark ground or ash, has been found no earlier than 250,000 years ago in several sites in southern Europe. Burned bones, stones, ash, and charcoal 300,000 to 500,000 years ago have also been assigned to hearths. And burned flints*, seeds, and wood found in a hearth-like pattern have been cited as signs of controlled fire 790,000 years ago. But even the earliest of those dates are long after the dramatic anatomical changes seen in H. erectus, says Wrangham. He notes that evidence for fire is often ambiguous and argues that humans were roasting meat and roots around the campfire as early as 1.9 million years ago.

Indeed, there are a dozen claims for campfires almost that ancient. Anthropologist Jack Harris has presented evidenceof burned stone tools 1.5 million years ago, along with burned clay at two sites. H.erectus has been found at both sites. Claims by other researchers include animal bones burned at high temperatures 1.5 million years ago, and clay burnt at high temperatures 1.41 million years ago. But whererthere is smoke there isn’t necessarily cooking fire: None of these teams can rule out beyond a doubt that the burns came from natural fires, although Harris argues that cooking fires burn hot at 600℃ to 800℃ and leave a trail different from that of bush fires, which often burn as low as 100℃.

All the same, those most familiar with H.erectus aren`t convinced they were chefs. Walker says that if the species was cooking with fire, he and others should have found campfires associated with its bones and stone tools. Others agree: Loring Brace notes that less than 200,000 years ago is about the time evidence appears for earth-oven cookery: "While fire has been under control back near 800,000 years, its use in the systematic preparation of food has only been over the last 100,000-plus years.”

Others think that cooking may have played an important role early on, along with other adaptations to expand human brainpower. As Aiello observes, the big brain was apparently the lucky accident of several converging factors that accentuate each other. Critical sources of energy to fuel the brain came from several sources-more meat, reduced guts, cooking, and perhaps more efficient upright walking and running. The order in which our ancestors adopted these energy-saving adaptations is under hot debate, with the timing for cooking hardest to test.

The working day of a western scrub-jay does not look very impressive. Like many birds and mammals, these members of the crow family put considerable time and effort into hiding food, which they recover later. That in itself is not the problem. It is the scrub-jay's habit of returning to a cache-a secretly hidden collection of items-digging them up and then hiding them again somewhere new that seems so inefficient.

Nicky Clayton first witnessed this strange behaviour on the campus of the University of California, Davis, where the birds would rush to discarded remains of student picnics and then secrete the scraps in nearby bushes. When she noticed that individuals sometimes returned later to secretly rebury the acquisitions, she wondered why they would go to so much trouble.

Now a professor at the University of Cambridge, Clayton. is well aware that crows and related birds, known collectively as corvids, are among the most intelligent of all animals. As well HS caching food, scrub-jays habitually steal hidden items from one another. She suspected that the re-hiding might be a way of foiling potential thieves. lf so, studying it could be a good way of finding out what these birds understand about the perceptions and intentions of others. What Clayton and her colleagues-including myself-have since discovered has caused some controversy because it challenges the belief that complex social intelligence is unique to great apes.

The crow family extends far beyond the black-feathered crows. In fact, it encompasses around 120 species-including the colourful jays-and they are found in every environment except the polar ice caps, Their intelligence is well known and is often explained as an evolutionary adaptation to group living. Many species live in a complex social environment where it is necessary to keep track of not only their own relationships but also those of the others in their group. They are playful, especially the young birds who have a long developmental period during which they learn from group members. Several species have even been observed making tools-a talent that was thought to be unique to primates. Corvids also display levels of flexibility to rival great apes when solving novel problems.

Clearly, corvids are no birdbrains, yet getting an insight into the mental life of an animal so different from humans is not easy. Studying the food-hiding and stealing habits of scrub-jays and other corvids was the perfect opportunity to do just that.

In 2001, Clayton, working with colleague and husband Nathan Emery, carried out the first of many studies of the tactics scrub-jays use to protect their hoards. They allowed jays to hide worms either while they were alone or when another bird was watching, and to recover the hidden items in private later. The jay's favourite food is worms, so the researchers anticipated that birds would make every effort to protect their stores. They found that when jays were allowed to return to their cache, those that haizci hidden worms while being watched by another bird moved them to new sites. Birds did not move worms they had hidden in private, however. “By selectively re-hiding those items others witnessed being cached, scrub-jays prevent their competitor using memory to relocate and steal their hoards," says Emery.

Re-hiding appears to be a strategy to limit the chances of being burgled-and it is not the only trick jays use to outwii potential thieves. In a study I carried out with Clayton and Emery, we found that when hiding worms with another bird around, jays prefer to cache their meal behind a barrier that blocks their rival's view. That might not sound very clever, but it suggests they may be able to see things from the visual perspective of another individual. In other words, they might understand that another bird learns about the world through its sense of vision. This is an insight into the mind of another that has traditionally been thought to be limited to great apes. There is an alternative explanation, however. Perhaps jays don't think about their rival when they do not see their rival.

In another experiment we gave jays the option of hiding nuts in well-lit or shady sites. When no rival was watching, they showed no preference between the two, but when watched by a potential thief, the jays shunned bright sites, preferring to hide their nuts in the shadows. The potential thieves were always in view, suggesting that the decision to cache nuts in hard-to-see places does arise from an understanding of the visual perspective of others, rather than merely forgetting about those one can not see.

Given corvid feeding behaviour, you might expect the social life of these birds to be filled with suspicion and mistrust. You would be wrong. Members of the crow family are famed for their fidelity, often mating for life. Recognising your partner and maintaining that relationship is an important ability for a social animal. For jays this extends to caching: mated pairs are less likely to re-hide items that they have hidden while their partner was present, and even go so far as to chase potential thieves away from the stores of their spouse.

This got us wondering to what extent these birds can keep track of the competition. Remembering which other birds have witnessed particular items being hidden wouid increase a storer's ability to protect its cache. To look at whether jays are capable of this mental task, Clayton, Emery and I conducted another experiment in which jays hid food in two successive sessions, each in the presence of a different observer. Later that day, the hiders were allowed to return to their caches in the presence of one of the two observers. We discovered that jays tended to re?hide items if watched by the same bird that had seen them hiding the stash the first time. But they did not disclose the location of items hidden in the presence of the other bird by moving them. The discovery that jays can remember who was present when they hid a cache suggests they can discriminate between individuals with different knowledge states.

Our studies have revealed much about the intelligence of caching jays, but the reason why hiding behaviour is so interesting is that it involves social interaction between two birds-the hider and the thief. Thomas Bugnyar and Kurt Kotrschal, who study caching in ravens, liken it to a “cognitive arms race”. In these games of hideand-steal, each bird has a dual role. “Eve1y player not only needs to develop strategies to prevent other birds burgling their own caches but also must gather information on others' caches, perhaps through spying,” Bugnyar says.

Like us, Bugnyar sees striking parallels between the human world of spies and that of feathered thieves. Just as secret service agents engage in covert surveillance, raven thieves keep their distance when spying on caching birds, Bugnyar and Kotrschal have observed. Watching from the edge of trees and rocks, these stealthy competitors generally wait for cachers to leave the scene before stealing their hoards.

The fact that both hiders and thieves can implement a wide variety of strategies flexibly, depending on the presence or absence of specific individuals, does indicate that they are more than simple instincts. So how do corvids acquire these behaviours?

In trying to answer this question, Clayton and Emery have made the exciting discovery that not all individuals re-hide food. While experienced thieves engage in high levels of re-caching after being observed hiding food, birds that had never stolen another bird's cache move few, if any, items. It would appear that it takes a thief to know a thief. This suggests that scrub-jays use their past experiences of, say, having been a thief, to predict what another individual, in this case the potential thief, might do. "Experience projection has yet to be demonstrated in any of the great apes other than humans," says Clayton. "Most people have assumed that it was a uniquely human trait, but the jay studies challenge this assumption"

The possibility that scrub-jays appear able to simulate another's viewpoint is ruffling some feathers. If corvids can understand each other in ways that were once thought exclusive to great apes, then this challenges our assumptions about the evolution of social intelligence. Our common ancestor with these birds lived over 300 million years ago, so the capacity for social intelligence would have had to evolve independently at least twice. This evolutionary convergence in intelligence is all the more exciting given the divergent structures of the mammalian and avian$ ^*$ brain.

We don’t know the extent to which social competition was responsible for shaping the advanced cognitive abilities of corvids. It is generally accepted, however, that so-called Machiavellian intelligence has been an important factor in the evolution of our own big brains. Recognising the parallels between apes and crows might give new insights into the evolution of both. "Corvids and apes are so similar in many aspects of behaviour and cognition that crows could be considered feathered apes," says Emery.

In the mid-1990s, the mayor of New York and his police commissioner focused on fighting signs of disorder and petty crime. Graffiti was removed, streets were cleaned, and signs of vandalism were cleared. This campaign was based on the broken windows theory (BWT). The BWT suggests that signs of disorder like broken windows, litter, and graffiti cause other types of disorder and petty crime. It was thought that removing signs of disorder would take away an important trigger of disorderly and petty criminal behavior. After the introduction of the campaign, petty crime rates in New York dropped. Since then, approaches based on the BWT have become popular worldwide (e.g., in various cities in the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and South Africa).

The BWT is popular, but it lacks scientific support. Studies designed to test it have provided mixed results. There is also little evidence that broken window policing contributed to the sharp decrease in petty crime in New York. The BWT suggests that a setting with disorder triggers disorderly and petty criminal behavior, but it might be the other way around or both may be caused by a third variable.

Social norms(i.e., rules or conventions) refer either to the perception of common approval or disapproval of a particular kind of behavior (injunctive norm) or to particular behavior common in a setting (descriptive norm). Injunctive norms affect behavior because they provide information about which behavior is most appropriate. For example, the anti-litter norm is a widely held injunctive norm. The extent to which an injunctive norm affects behavior depends on how much the norm is on people's minds. An anti-litter norm will be more on people's minds when they see someone picking up a piece of litter or see the norm stated on a sign. Descriptive norms affect behavior because they provide information about which behavior is most common in a given situation. A littered setting shows that it is common to litter and will therefore enhance littering. Injunctive and descriptive norms can be in conflict, for example in setting where it is common to litter even though littering is disapproved of. Thus, settings described in the BWT as disorderly (e.g., a littered settings) can be thought of as settings where descriptive and injunctive norms are in conflict. The next question then is how behavior is influenced by it.

Injunctive norm information is more effective when accompanied by descriptive norm information that is consistent with that message. For example, a sign drawing attention to the anti-litter norm is more influential when placed in a non-littered setting. Thus, a setting with graffiti can trigger the creation of more graffiti because it inhibits the injunctive, anti-graffiti norm. The important question for the BWT is whether or not it also causes disorderly or petty criminal behavior in general. The question we will address is: Do more people litter in a setting where the anti-graffiti norm (injunctive norm) is in conflict with the descriptive norm (a setting where it is common to spray graffiti)?

Much conformity to injunctive norms is the result of people pursuing the goal of acting appropriately. However, people can also pursue a selfish goal directed at feeling better or at improving one's resources. All three goals can be conflict, and the weakening of one is likely to allow another to have more influence. In a given situation, the goal to act appropriately is weakened when people observe that others did not pursue the goal to act appropriately. In turn, a weakening of this goal strengthens conflicting selfish goals. For example, we predict that when people observe that others have painted graffiti, their concern for appropriateness will be weakened and selfish goals will be strengthened. Thus people don't necessarily copy the inappropriate behavior but may let concerns other than appropriateness take priority. In this way, one norm violation fosters violations of other norms, and disorder spreads from one kind of inappropriate behavior to other kinds.

We conducted experiments in common public spaces. There were no signs in any of the studies that the subjects were aware of being observed by the experimenter. We distinguished between a contextual norm (which the participant witnessed having been violated) and a target norm (a violation committed by the participant). We manipulated indications that the contextual norm was being violated. We predicted that disorder (violation of contextual norm) would spread (violation of target norm). For ease of description, ket us call the situation in which the contextual norm is violated (i.e., inappropriate behavior by others is being displayed) the "disorder condition" and the one in which it is not violated the "order condition".

In study 1, the setting was an alley located in a shopping area and commonly used to park bicycles. In the order condition, the walls of the alley were clean, whereas in the disorder condtion they were covered with graffiti. A standard sign prohibiting graffiti was in the alley, and every subject entering the setting at least glanced at it. Participants were all people who came to collect their bicycles. In their absence, a flyer had been to be removed to easily use the handlebar. Because there were no trash cans in the alley, "not littering" meant taking it with them. We counted throwing the flyer on the ground or hanging it on another bicycle as littering. The effect of violating the anti-graffiti norm on littering was quite substantial. Of the participants in the order condition (non-graffiti), 33% littered compared with 69% of the participants in the disorder condition (graffiti on the walls).

For study 2, we used a police rule as a contextual norm and "no trespassing" (as ordered by the police) as the target norm in the setting of a car park. Thus, both contextual and target norms were not general social norms but rules set up by the local police. A temporary fence closed off the main entrance for people who came to pick up their car, but a gap of about 50 centimeters was ledt open in the fence. We attached two signs to the temporary fence directly next ti the gap. One sign (our contextual norm) indicated that it was prohibited to lock bicycles toe the fence. The other sign (our target norm) mede clear that it was prohibited to use this entrance and that people had to use an alternative entrance to the car park, which required walking an extra 200 meters. In the order condition, four bicycles standing one meter in front of the fence were not locked to the fence. In the dislorder condition, the four bicycles were locked to the fence. The outcome variable was whether pedestrians followed the "no trespassing" sing (the target norm) and walked the extra 200 meters. Again, there was a clear effect. Oh the participants in the order condition, 27% stepped through the gap in the fence, compared with 82% of the participants in the disorder condition.

Would this also hold for a rule set by a private company that is not enforced with punishments? In study 3, a parking garage adjacent to a supermarket and health club was used in which the contextual norm established by the private company is to return shopping carts to the supermarket after loading groceries into one's car. A very visible sticker with the text: "please return your shopping carts" at the entrance doors of the parking garage focused attention on this request. In the order condition, the garage was clear of shopping carts. In the disorder condition, there were four unreturned shopping carts standing around in disarray. The target norm was the anti-litter norm. The outcome variable was whether or not participant littered a flyer that was placed under the driver's side windshield wiper of their parked car. Of the participants in the condition without shopping carts, 30% littered the flyer, compared with 58% of the participants where unreturned shopping carts were visible.

Is disorder only linked to visual cues$ \*$ of norm violation? Would the effect occur if the contextual norm was only audible? In our fourth study, we focused on a national law as a contextual norm. In the Netherlands it is prohibited by law to set off fireworks in the weeks before New Year's Eve. We wanted to find out, two weeks before New Year's Day, whether an offense against this national law would cause people to litter. The law about fireworks is well known, and its violation would immediately make the law salient in people's minds. The setting was a bicycle shed near a train station. In the order condition, there was no sound of fireworks. In the disorder condition, we set off firecrackers well within hearing distance of the participants but out of sight to prevent any visual cues. Of the subjects in the order condition, 52% littered the flyer compared with 80% of the subjects that heard fireworks being set off as they entered the bicycle shed.

Our conclusion is that, as certain norm-violatin behaviors become more common, they will negatively influence conformity to other norms and rules.

If this was revolution, it was a remarkably calm affair. When the man sometimes billed as Spain's most dangerous leftwing politician, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, led his utopian army of marchers through the baking southern heat into the small town of Albolote, the biggest fuss was among those jostling for photographs beside the charismatic revolutionary.

Riot police stood by, but the 500-odd tired, sweaty marchers simply dropped their banners, flopped under the cool trees of the town's Guaynabo Park and reached for their water bottles.

Gordillo's reputation as a modern-day Robin Hood has grown this summer after a series of "workers' marches" across southern Andalucía saw followers raid food from two supermarkets and hand it to the poor.

Flash occupations of bank branches and an empty luxury country hotel have kept his small Andalucian Workers' Union in the headlines as debate rages about a style of direct action that attracts those seeking radical change to Spain's current diet of soaring unemployment, recession and harsh austerity.

"The right likes to make out that we are a dangerous bunch of criminals, a sort of modern Pancho Villa," bearded Gordillo said, his trademark Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf hanging in immaculate folds. "But that is the same strategy as always. First they criminalise you and then they try to get rid of you."

After more than half a dozen arrests over three decades spent fighting for the rights of landless Andalucian labourers, 60-year-old Gordillo will not be easily put off his latest crusade.

While the marchers ate and snoozed, staff at the Mercadona supermarket just around the corner were clearly nervous. A guard armed with a baton admitted that security had been beefed up. Armed police were parked across the street.

Ever since Gordillo' s marchers took a dozen trolleys of food from a Mercadona in Ecija on 7 August, their presence has provoked concern that – even though they are avowedly peaceful – trouble might break out.

"If they are taking to give to the poor, then I think that is great," said Antonio Martínez, an Albolote pensioner who applauded the marchers as they reached the midpoint of a two-day, 20-mile march.

Prosecutors do not seem to agree. Gordillo, who has been mayor of the country town of Marinaleda for the past 33 years and is a deputy in the regional Andalucian parliament, expects to be formally charged. "I wasn't in the supermarket, but they say I encouraged them," he said. He and seven others reportedly face prison sentences of up to five years.

Gordillo and his lieutenant Diego Cañamero insist that the supermarket raids at Ecija and in nearby Arcos were symbolic. The idea had been to highlight how, instead, the rich are now stealing from the poor.

"This is the biggest rip-off in the history of capitalism," said Gordillo. "The banks created huge amounts of private debt which went toxic. Now they are using public money, taken from the poor, to rescue them. That is what the cuts to health and education are about.

"We want to show that this crisis has a human face. People are losing everything – their jobs, their homes, and some don't even have enough to eat."

The marchers' ranks have now been swollen by Spaniards arriving from outside Andalucía. "We've spent a few days in Marinaleda, seeing how things can be done differently," explained Yanira Bratos, from the northern city of Aranda del Duero. "And now we wanted to join the march."

Gordillo's protest movement chimes with the peaceful indignado protesters who filled city squares last year. Indignado T-shirts abound, along with Republican flags and a banner bearing the face of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "The situation is critical and I think there is now a chance of change. The system cannot resolve people's problems," said Gordillo.

Unlike other preachers of change, Gordillo has both a track record and a shop window for the movement's achievements in Marinaleda.

His election in 1979 appalled conservatives and former Francoists in a country which, only four years earlier, had been ruled by the dictator General Francisco Franco. At a local level he has led landless labourers into occupying, and eventually winning control of, estates owned by absent aristocrats and has also overseen a system of self-built homes.

Now Gordillo is back on the national stage. He is invited on to mainstream television debate shows and the conservative press is, once more, outraged. What has changed? "Unemployment in Spain is 25%, but in Andalucía it is 35%," he explained. "And in some places we have visited it is close to 50%."

Marchers admit they get mixed reactions. "I have seen old women weep when we arrive," explained Bratos.

In some places, however, shops are shuttered up and insults hurled. "I don't understand why other working people have been so rude, or why some shops close," complained Eva Bermúdez, a jobbing farm worker from Marinaleda. "I have heard people call us thieves, bastards and sons of bitches."

As Spain's recession deepens the Andalucian Workers' Union, and its methods, look set to become more popular. "These people are peaceful," said Martínez. "But if things get worse I can see others turning to violence."

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/31/spanish-robin-hood-marchers-andalusia?INTCMP=SRCH. 31/08/2012)

There are some Japanese words that really bother interpreters who translate English into Japanese.

I had a chance to talk with a professional interpreter, and she mentioned that "sister" or "brother" was one of the most difficult words to translate. Funny to find out about something like that, isn't it? Those words sound so easy and fundamental!

Actually, the translation of "sister" in Japanese is different depending on if she is older or younger than you. The older sister is called "ane," and the younger is "imo-to." This is why interpreters have trouble when they translate the word "sister" into Japanese when they don't know if she is older or younger.

I hear that westerners say, "My sister is coming" more often than "My older/younger sister is coming." It seems like the concept of who is older or younger than you isdifferent between Western countries and Japan.

In Japan, I am certain that people are itching to know other's ages. In a group, especially in a women's group, it seems like the first thing they want to do is find out each other's ages, which disgusts me( pisses me off/ irritates me.) They are just dying to seperate into groups.

I know that I should think of it as part of Japanese culture, but I cannot accept it no matter what.

I am eager to build genuine friendships with people from western countries, and I've found that one of the biggest reasons why is because they will make friends with me regardless of my age.

Thank you for reading.

How to Dehydrate Food Using Your Oven

Dehydrating food is a method of food preservation that removes all water from the food. This prevents bacteria and microorganisms from growing. There are many ways to dehydrate your food at home including, electric dehydrators and backyard solar dehydrators. However using your oven is also an acceptable method, even though it may not be as energy efficient.

Drying preserves food, even in the absence of refrigeration, and significantly lengthens its shelf life. When fresh fruit and vegetables are unavailable, impractical, or out of season, dried food can provide an alternative.

Why Should I Dehydrate My Food?
•It saves money. You can now buy fresh fruit and vegetables in bulk and not worry about them spoiling.
•Preserve food you grow. If you have a home garden, you may have more food than you can eat before the majority spoils. Dehydrating food ensures that your harvest will last.
•You can create a food supply. In a financial crisis or or a natural disaster, can be priceless.
•You will save space. 20 to 25 dried bell peppers or 16 to 20 dried tomatoes will fit inside a 1-quart jar.

Getting Started

1. First be sure your oven can achieve a temperature lower than 200 degrees, most ovens have a “Warm” setting.

2. You need to leave the oven door propped open to allow moisture and water vapors to leave during the dehydration process.

3. You may place a fan next to the oven to increase the air flow and temperature control.

Next you need to prepare whatever it is you will be dehydrating. Wash, sort, pare, peel, and make sure that the inner tissue is exposed to the air. Some fruits require you to “pre-treat” them in order to preserve color, flavor, and nutritional value. The easiest method I found is mix 3 tablespoons of lemon juice with water. Dip your fruits in the solution from 30-60 seconds and that’s it.

Be careful when you are chopping in slicing, to cut pieces with appropriate size and shape. During first round of dehydrating apples I unknowingly cut all the pieces into triangle shapes. As a result the tips would be finished much sooner than the middle. This caused some burnt tips and moist centers.

Temperature

Meats and Fish: 145°F and above
Fruits and Vegetables: 130°F to 140°F
Herbs and flowers: 100°F to 110°F

The lower the air temperature inside the dehydrator, the longer the drying time. Raising the temperature in the unit will increase the amount of water removed from the food and decrease the length of time it will take to dry. The temperature should be high enough to draw the moisture from the food but not high enough to cook it. Temperatures that are too low may cause food to spoil; temperatures that are too high may cause the surface area of the food to harden and prevent moisture from escaping.

Conclusion

Dehydrating food is a great way to store up fresh nutritious foods for any occasion. Camping, hiking, or just storing up for winter. It’s important to remember that you don’t need an expensive food dehydrator to get the job done, but it will make things easier.

Dehydrating food also takes alot of practice. I suggest further reading before you store up 6 months worth of home dried food. Improper techniques can result in contamination with bacteria or microorganisms.

1856. Wearing yukata is common in summer events.
At summer events, many people wear yukata.
1857. Yukata is a casual cotton kimono.
1870. The creek water is cold.
The water in the creek is cold.
1871. I'll go to Karuizawa to escape the heat.
To escape from the heat, I’ll go to Karuizawa.
1872. The rice plants grow tall in a nourishing environment.
With nourishment from the sun, soil, and water, the rice plants grow tall.
1873. I need to renew my passport.
I need to renew my passport if l want to travel abroad.
I need to renew my passport if I want to travel internationally.
1874. This is my first time overseas.
This is my first overseas trip.
1875. I'm well traveled.
I travel to many places.
I've traveled a bit.
1876. Food was the best part of my trip.
The best part of my trip was all the great food.
1878. I'm all alone on this summer night.
On this summer night, I'm all alone.

1879. The Gion Festival will be held in Yasaka Shrine.
1880. The Gion Festival is every year from July 17th to 24th.
1881. Charcoal-broiled eels are good this time of year.
Charcoal-broiled eels are good at this time of year.
1882. I'll help you cut the watermelon in half.
I'll help you cut the watermelon in two.
1883. I love chilled watermelon!
1884. This watermelon is sweet.
1888. Two ice creams, please.
1890. Which flavor do you want, chocolate?
What kind do you want, chocolate?
Do you want chocolate?
1891. I'll take vanilla.
I'll have vanilla.
I think I'll have vanilla.
1892. Can I try your ice cream?
Let me taste your ice cream.
1330. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now.
1335. Cherry blossoms are best just before they start to fall.
Cherry blossoms are best when their petals are about to fall.

MY MOTHERLAND COMES FIRST

There was a great political leader named Vallabh Bhai Patel. He was one of the righthand men of Gandhi and everybody admired him. He had tremendous will and was known as the iron man of India. He encouraged and inspired millions of people to fight against the British rule.

Once he was giving a talk about the freedom of India. He spoke of how India could have freedom and liberate itself from the British. In the middle of the talk a mailman gave him a telegram. He opened it.
Then he only learnt of the unexpected death of his wife. But Vallabh Bhai Patel didn’t say a word to anyone. He continued lecturing for an hour or so. Then he answered everyone’s questions with utmost calm and quiet.

Afterwards, tears were flowing from his eyes. Everybody came up to him, asking, “What happened?” He showed them the telegram.
“How could you answer questions so calmly and quietly? How could you finish such an inspiring lecture?” they asked.

The great political leader replied, “Duty comes first. My Motherland comes first. My wife was dear to me, but my Motherland is infinitely dearer. Therefore, I have done my duty to my Motherland first. This is infinitely more important than to think of one’s wife. I have done my first and foremost duty. Now I am performing my next duty: I am crying for my wife.”
He cried and cried.