After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys, Jaco Boshoff may be on the verge of a nearly unheard-of discovery: the wreck of a Dutch slave ship that broke apart 239 years ago on this forbidding, windswept coast after a violent revolt by the slaves.Boshoff, 39, a marine archaeologist with the government-run Iziko Museums, will not find out until he starts digging on this deserted beach on Africa´ s southernmost point, probably later this year.After three years of surveys with sensitive magnetometers, he knows, at least, where to look: at a cluster of magnetic abnormalities, three beneath the beach and one beneath the surf, near the mouth of the Heuningries River, where the 450-ton slave ship, the Meermin, ran aground in 1766.If he is right, it will be a find for the history books 一especially if he recovers shackles, spears and iron guns that shed light on how 147 Malagasy slaves seized their captors´ vessel, only to be recaptured. Although European countries shipped millions of slaves from Africa over four centuries, archaeologists estimate that fewer than 10 slave shipwrecks have been found worldwide. If he is wrong, Boshoff said in an interview, “I will have a lot of explaining to do. ”He will, however, have an excuse. Historical records indicate that at least 30 ships have run aground in the treacherous waters off Struis Bay， the earliest of them in 1673. Although Boshoff says he believes beyond doubt that the remains of a ship are buried on this beach— the jagged timbers of a wreck are sometimes uncovered during September´ s spring tide 一 there is always the prospect that his surveys have found the wrong one."Finding shipwrecks is just so difficult in the first place, " said Madeleine Burnside, the author of Spirits of the Passage, a book on the slave trade, and executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society in Key West, Florida. "Usually — not always — they are located by accident. , , Other slave-ship finds have produced compelling evidence of both the brutality and the lucrative nature of the slave trade.

05-19

There they come, trudging along, straight upright on stubby legs, shoulders swinging back and forth with each step， coming into focus on the screen just as I´ m eating my first bite of popcorn. Then Morgan Freeman´ s voice informs us that these beings are on a long and difficult journey in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, and that they are driven by their "quest for love. ” I´ ve long known the story of the emperor penguin, but to see the sheer beauty and wonder of it all come into focus in the March of the Penguins, the sleeper summer hit, still took my breath away. As the movie continues, everything about these animals seems on the surface utterly different from human existence；and yet at the same time the closer one looks the more everything also seems familiar.Stepping back and considering within the context of the vast diversity of millions of other organisms that have evolved on the tree of life 一 grass, trees, tapeworms, hornets, jelly-fish, tuna and elephants 一 these animals marching across the screen are practically kissing cousins to us.Love is a feeling or emotion 一 like hate, jealousy, hunger, thirst 一 necessary where rationality alone would not suffice to carry the day.Could rationality alone induce a penguin to trek 70 miles over the ice in order to mate and then balance an egg on his toes while fasting for four months in total darkness and enduring temperatures of minus-80 degrees Fahrenheit?Even humans require an overpowering love to do the remarkable things that parents do for their children. The penguins´ drive to persist in behavior bordering on the bizarre also suggests that they love to an inordinate degree.I suspect that the new breed of nature film will become increasingly mainstream because, as we learn more about ourselves from other animals and find out that we are more like them than was previously supposed, we are now allowed to "relate" to them, and therefore to empathize.If we gain more exposure to the real 一 and if the producers and studios invest half as much care and expense into portraying animals as they do into showing ourselves — I suspect the results will be as profitable, in economic as well as emotional and intellectual terms —as the March of the Penguins.

05-19

The first outline of The Ascent of Man was written in July 1969 and the last foot of film was shot in December 1972. An undertaking as large as this, though wonderfully exhilarating, is not entered lightly. It demands an unflagging intellectual and physical vigour, a total immersion, which I had to be sure that I could sustain with pleasure; for instance, I had to put off researches that I had already begun; and I ought to explain what moved me to do so.There has been a deep change in the temper of science in the last 20 years: the focus of attention has shifted from the physical to the life sciences. As a result, science is drawn more and more to the study ofindividuality. But the interested spectator is hardly aware yet how far-reaching the effect is in changing the image of man that science moulds. As a mathematician trained in physics, I too would have been unaware, had not a series of lucky chances taken me into the life sciences in middle age. I owe a debt for the good fortune that carried me into two seminal fields of science in one lifetime; and though I do not know to whom the debt is due, I conceived The Ascent of Man in gratitude to repay it.The invitation to me from the British Broadcasting Corporation was to present the development of science in a series of television programmes to match those of Lord Clark on Civilisation. Television is an admirable medium for exposition in several ways: powerful and immediate to the eye, able to take the spectator bodily into the places and processes that are described, and conversational enough to make him conscious that what he witnesses are not events but the actions of people. The last of these merits is to my mind the most cogent, and it weighed most with me in agreeing to cast a personal biography of ideas in the form of television essays. The point is that knowledge in general and science in particular does not consist of abstract but of man-made ideas, all the way from its beginnings to its modern and idiosyncratic models. Therefore the underlying concepts that unlock nature must be shown to arise early and in the simplest cultures of man from his basic and specific faculties. And the development of science which joins them in more and more complex conjunctions must be seen to be equally human: discoveries are made by men, not merely by minds, so that they are alive and charged with individuality. If television is not used to make these thoughts concrete, it is wasted.

05-19

It´ s not that we are afraid of seeing him stumble, of scribbling a mustache over his career. Sure, the nice part of us wants Mike to know we appreciate him, that he still reigns, at least in our memory. The truth, though, is that we don´ t want him to come back because even for Michael Jordan, this would be an act of hubris so monumental as to make his trademark confidence twist into conceit. We don´ t want him back on the court because no one likes a show-off. The stumbling? That will be fun.But we are nice people, we Americans, with 225 years of optimism at our backs. Days ago when M. J. said he had made a decision about returning to the NBA in September, we got excited. He had said the day before, "I look forward to playing, and hopefully I can get to that point where I can make that decision. It´ s O. K. to have some doubt, and it´ s O. K. to have some nervousness. " A Time/´ CNN poll last week has Americans, 2 to 1, saying they would like him on the court ASAP. And only 21 percent thought that if he came back and just completely bombed, it would damage his legend. In fact only 28 percent think athletes should retire at their peak.Sources close to him tell Time that when Jordan first talked about a comeback with the Washington Wizards, the team Jordan co-owns and would play for, some of his trusted advisers privately tried to discourage him. "But they say if they try to stop him, it will only firm up his resolve, " says an NBA source.The problem with Jordan´ s return is not only that he can´ t possibly live up to the storybook ending he gave up in 1998 — earning his sixth ring with a last-second championship-winning shot. The problem is that the motives for coming back — needing the attention, needing to play even when his 38-year-old body does not — violate the very myth of Jordan, the myth of absolute control. Babe Ruth, the 20th century´ s firststar, was a gust of fat bravado and drunken talent, while Jordan ended the century by proving the elegance of resolve; Babe´ s pointing to the bleachers replaced by the charm of a backpedaling shoulder shrug. Jordan symbolized success by not sullying his brand with his politics, his opinion or superstar personality. To be a Jordan fan was to be a fan of classiness and confidence.To come back when he knows that playing for Wizards won´ t get him anywhere near the second round of the play-offs, when he knows that he won´ t be the league scoring leader, that´ s a loss of control.Jordan does not care what we think. Friends say that he takes articles that tell him not to come back and tacks them all on his refrigerator as inspiration. So why bother writing something telling him not to come back? He is still Michael Jordan.

05-19

Most of the world´ s victims of AIDS live — and, at an alarming rate, die— in Africa. The number of people living with AIDS in Africa was estimated at 26. 6 million in late 2003. New figures to be published by the United Nations Joint Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) , the special UN agency set up to deal with the pandemic, will probably confirm its continued spread in Africa, but they will also show whether the rate of spread is constant, increasing or falling.AIDS is most prevalent in Eastern and Southern Africa, with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya having the greatest numbers of sufferers; other countries severely affected include Botswana and Zambia. AIDS was raging in Eastern Africa — where it was called "slim" after the appearance of victims wasting away — within a few years after its emergence was established in the world in 1981. One theory of the origin of the virusand syndrome suggests that they started in the eastern Congo basin; however, the conflicting theories about the origin of AIDS are highly controversial and politicized, and the controversy is far from being settled.Measures being taken all over Africa include, first of all, campaigns of public awareness and device, including advice to remain faithful to one sexual partner and to use condoms. The latter advice is widely ignored or resisted owing to natural and cultural aversion to condoms and to Christian and Muslim teaching, which places emphasis instead on self-restraint.An important part of anti-AIDS campaigns, whether organized by governments, nongovernmental organizations or both, is the extension of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) . In addition, medical research has found a way to help sufferers, though not to cure them.Funds for anti-AIDS efforts are provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities around theworld; the fund was launched following a call by the UN Secretary-General in 2001. However, much more is needed if the spread of the pandemic is to be at least halted.

05-19

Until recently, scientists knew little about life in the deep sea, nor had they reason to believe that it was being threatened. Now, with the benefit of technology that allows for deeper exploration, researchers have uncovered a remarkable array of species inhabiting the ocean floor at depths of more than 660 feet, or about 200 meters. At the same time, however, technology has also enabled fishermen to reach far deeper than ever before, into areas where bottom trawls can destroy in minutes what has taken nature hundreds and in some cases thousands of years to build. Many of the world´ s coral species, for example, are found at depths of more than 200 meters. It is also estimated that roughly half of the world´ s highest seamounts — areas that rise from the ocean floor and are particularly rich in marine life — are also found in the deep ocean.These deep sea ecosystems provide shelter, spawning and breeding areas for fish and other creatures, as well as protection from strong currents and predators. Moreover, they are believed to harbor some of themost extensive reservoirs of life on earth, with estimates ranging from 500, 000 to 100 million species inhabiting these largely unexplored and highly fragile ecosystems. Yet just as we are beginning to recognize the tremendous diversity of life in these areas, along with the potential benefits newly found species may hold for human society in the form of potential food products and new medicines, they are at risk of being lost forever. With enhanced ability both to identify where these species-rich areas are located and to trawl in deeper water than before, commercial fishing vessels are now beginning to reach down with nets the size of football fields, catching everything in their path while simultaneously crushing fragile corals and breaking up the delicate structure of reefs and seamounts that provide critical habitat to the countless species of fish and other marine life that inhabit the deep ocean floor.Because deep sea bottom trawling is a recent phenomenon, the damage that has been done is still limited. If steps are taken quickly to prevent this kind of destructive activity from occurring on the high seas, the benefits both to the marine environment and to future generations are incalculable. And they far outweigh the short-term costs to the fishing industry.

05-19

Ever since the economist David Ricardo offered the basic theory in 1817, economic scripture has taught that open trade — free of tariffs, quotas, subsidies or other government distortions — improves the well-being of both parties. U. S. policy has implemented this doctrine with a vengeance. Why is free trade said to be universally beneficial? The answer is a doctrine called "comparative advantage".Here´ s a simple analogy. If a surgeon is highly skilled both at doing operations and performing routine blood tests, it´ s more efficient for the surgeon to concentrate on the surgery and pay a less efficient technician to do the tests, since that allows the surgeon to make the most efficient use of her own time.By extension, even if the United States is efficient both at inventing advanced biotechnologies and at the routine manufacture of medicines, it makes sense for the United States to let the production work migrate to countries that can make the stuff more cheaply. Americans get the benefit of the cheaper products and get to spend their resources on even more valuable pursuits. That, anyway, has always been the premise. But here Samuelson dissents. What if the lower-wage country also captures the advanced industry?If enough higher-paying jobs are lost by American workers to outsourcing, he calculates, then the gain from the cheaper prices may not compensate for the loss in U. S. purchasing power."Free trade is not always a win-win situation, " Samuelson concludes. It is particularly a problem, he says, in a world where large countries with far lower wages, like India and China, are increasingly able to make almost any product or offer almost any service performed in the United States.If America trades freely with them, then the powerful drag of their far lower wages will begin dragging down U. S. average wages. The U. S. economy may still grow, he calculates, but at a lower rate than it otherwise would have.

05-19

It was one of those days that the peasant fishermen on this tributary of the Amazon River dream about.With water levels falling rapidly at the peak of the dry season, a giant school of bass, a tasty fish that fetches a good price at markets, was swimming right into the nets being cast from a dozen small canoes here."With a bit of luck, you can make $350 on a day like this, " Lauro Souza Almeida, a leader of the local fishermen´ s cooperative, exulted as he moved into position. "That is a fortune for people like us, " he said, the equivalent of four months at the minimum wage earned by those fortunate enough to find work.But hovering nearby was a large commercial fishing vessel, a " mother boat" equipped with large ice chests for storage and hauling more than a dozen smaller craft. The crew on board was just waiting for theremainder of the fish to move into the river´ s main channel, where they intended to scoop up as many as they could with their efficient gill nets.A symbol of abundance to the rest of the world, the Amazon is experiencing a crisis of overfishing. As stocks of the most popular species diminish to worrisome levels, tensions are growing between subsistence fishermen and their commercial rivals, who are eager to enrich their bottom line and satisfy the growing appetite for fish of city-dwellers in Brazil and abroad.In response, peasants up and down the Amazon, here in Brazil and in neighboring countries like Peru, are forming cooperatives to control fish catches and restock their rivers and lakes. But that effort, increasinglysuccessful, has only encouraged the commercial fishing operations, as well as some of the peasants´ less disciplined neighbors, to step up their depredations."The industrial fishing boats, the big 20-to 30-ton vessels, they have a different mentality than us artisanal fishermen, who have learned to take the protection of the environment into account, " said the president of the local fishermen´ s union. "They want to sweep everything up with their dragnets and then move on, benefiting from our work and sacrifice and leaving us with nothing. "

05-19

There they come, trudging along, straight upright on stubby legs,shoulders swinging back and forth with each step, coming into focus onthe screen just as I' m eating my first bite of popcorn. Then Morgan Freeman's voice informs us that these beings are on a long and difficult journeyin one of the most inhospitable places on earth, and that they are drivenby their "quest for love. "I've long known the story of the emperor penguin, but to see thesheer beauty and wonder of it all come into focus in the March of thePenguins, the sleeper summer hit, still took my breath away. As the moviecontinues, everything about these animals seems on the surface utterlydifferent from human existence; and yet at the same time the closer onelooks the more everything also seems familiar.Stepping back and considering within the context of the vastdiversity of millions of other organisms that have evolved on the treeof life — grass, trees, tapeworms, hornets, jelly-fish, tuna andelephants — these animals marching across the screen are practicallykissing cousins to us.Love is a feeling or emotion — like hate, jealousy, hunger,thirst — necessary where rationality alone would not suffice to carrythe day.Could rationality alone induce a penguin to trek 70 miles overthe ice in order to mate and then balance an egg on his toes while fastingfor four months in total darkness and enduring temperatures of minus-80degrees Fahrenheit?Even humans require an overpowering love to do the remarkablethings that parents do for their children. The penguins' drive to persistin behavior bordering on the bizarre also suggests that they love to aninordinate degree.I suspect that the new breed of nature film will becomeincreasingly mainstream because, as we learn more about ourselves fromother animals and find out that we are more like them than was previouslysupposed, we are now allowed to "relate" to them, and therefore toempathize.If we gain more exposure to the real — and if the producers andstudios invest half as much care and expense into portraying animals asthey do into showing ourselves — I suspect the results will be as profitable, in economic as well as emotional and intellectual terms —as the March of the Penguins.

05-19

After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys, Jaco Boshoff may be on the verge of a nearly unheard-of discovery: the wreck of a Dutch slave ship that broke apart 239 years ago on this forbidding, windswept coast after a violent revolt by the slaves.Boshoff, 39, a marine archaeologist with the government-run Iziko Museums, will not find out until he starts digging on this deserted beach on Africa´ s southernmost point, probably later this year.After three years of surveys with sensitive magnetometers, he knows, at least, where to look: at a cluster of magnetic abnormalities, three beneath the beach and one beneath the surf, near the mouth of the Heuningries River, where the 450-ton slave ship, the Meermin, ran aground in 1766.If he is right, it will be a find for the history books —especially if he recovers shackles, spears and iron guns that shed light on how 147 Malagasy slaves seized their captors´ vessel, only to be recaptured. Although European countries shipped millions of slaves from Africa over four centuries, archaeologists estimate that fewer than 10 slave shipwrecks have been found worldwide. If he is wrong, Boshoff said in an interview, "I will have a lot of explaining to do. "He will, however, have an excuse. Historical records indicate that at least 30 ships have run aground in the treacherous waters off Struis Bay, the earliest of them in 1673. Although Boshoff says he believes beyond doubt that the remains of a ship are buried on this beach — the jagged timbers of a wreck are sometimes uncovered during September´ s spring tide — there is always the prospect that his surveys have foundthe wrong one."Finding shipwrecks is just so difficult in the first place, " said Madeleine Burnside, the author of Spirits of the Passage, a book on the slave trade, and executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society in Key West, Florida. "Usually — not always — they are located by accident. "Other slave-ship finds have produced compelling evidence of both the brutality and the lucrative nature of the slave trade.

05-19