Questões de Inglês

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    As he was about to leave Koimelemong to visit the great Mount Roraima, Theodor Koch-Grünberg was contacted by Mayuluaípu, a Taurepang Indian “dressed in a clean linen suit” (Koch-Grünberg 1928, 138). Mayuluaípu (or José, his Brazilian name) offered the German naturalist his services, which included his wide knowledge of different Pemon dialects and a good command of Portuguese. A few weeks later, the expedition would gain yet another important member: Mõseuaípu, better known by his nickname Akúli (agouti or cutia, a small rodent), a young Arekuna shaman who could not speak a word of Portuguese. This encounter between the two Carib Pemon Indians and the German naturalist would later play an important part in the Brazilian literary scene: the stories that Mayauluaípu and Akúli told Koch-Grünberg, collected in the second volume of the naturalist’s Vom Roroima zum Orinoco (1924), became the basis of Mário de Andrade’s 1928 Macunaíma, a turning point in the history of Brazilian contemporary narrative.

    Macunaíma is the biography, so to speak, of its eponymous protagonist, “a hero with no character” (sem nenhum caráter), as the subtitle has it. He is born in the region of Roraima, near the Uraricoera river, into the Tapanhumas, a native Amazonian tribe with Carib name yet unusually dark skin which was described by the German traveler von den Steinen. The hero reveals his special nature from birth and in childhood adventures with his mother, brothers and their wives, setting up sibling rivalries that run through the novel. He marries Ci, the Mother of the Forest, who died of sadness upon losing their only son: before dying, Ci gives him a green stone amulet or muiraquitã, which brings him power as “Emperor of the Forest” as well as luck; but the amulet then falls into the river to be swallowed by a turtle. Macunaíma and his brothers then embark on a journey south to São Paulo in order to recover the amulet, which had fallen into the hands of the Peruvian (with an Italian name) Wenceslau Pietro Pietra, also known as the ogre Piaimã. After many adventures in the metropolis, with its strange language and customs, they recover the amulet and go back north to the Amazon. Back home, Macunaíma finds his people gone, gets into a new dispute with his brother Jiguë, who changes into the vulture-king, and destroys all members of the family, except for Macunaíma. Plagued by Vei, the sun, for having spurned one of her daughters, he loses his right leg and is badly mutilated. The amulet is again swallowed by a water beast, this time for good. Lonely, and “tired of this life,” he decides to become a star, but not before telling his life story to a parrot, who tells it to the author of the book.

(Fragment from “Makunaima and the native tricksters”, by Lúcia Sá, Brazil Institute Special Report, Washington, November, 2008, http://wilsoncenter.org/brazil)

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Amazon keeps expanding its empire

Elizabeth Weise

 

Amazon has doubled the number of air freight cargo planes it is leasing, a further build out of its internal delivery system.

Atlas Air Worldwide on Thursday said it had signed an agreement with the Seattle internet retailer to operate 20 Boeing 767 for the company for ten years.

Operations under the agreements are expected to begin in the second half of 2016 and ramp up to full service through 2018, Atlas said.

In addition, Amazon will acquire as much as 20% of Atlas.

The planes will be used to move packages between Amazon’s fulfillment centers, which package goods, to its sortation centers, which sort them into local delivery pallets that can be taken to the Post Office for bulk delivery, the company said.

The planes will also be used by Amazon to move goods between its fulfillment centers across the country to other centers where they are needed for one- and two-day delivery, as no one Amazon center can stock the 20 million items Amazon typically has available for two-day delivery.

The deal isn't surprising, said John Haber, CEO of Spend Management Experts, a supply chain management consulting firm.

“This is just the most recent step in Amazon building out a massive logistics network designed to move more of their transportation and distribution under their direct control," he said.

Available in: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/05/06/amazon-further-builds-out-air-freight-network/84035574/. Access on: May 2016.

 

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Dreaming brain rhythms lock in memories

 

It is the clearest evidence to date that REM sleep is critical for memory. By switching off certain brain cells, the researchers silenced a particular, rhythmic type of brain function - without waking the mice. If they did this during REM sleep, the mice failed subsequent memory tests. The research is reported in the journal Science.

REM sleep is the phase during which, at least in humans, dreams take place - but the question of whether it is important for settling new memories has been difficult to answer. Recent studies have tended to focus on deep, non-REM sleep instead, during which brain cells fire in various patterns that reflect memory consolidation and "re-play" of the day's experiences. During REM sleep, while our eyes flicker and our muscles relax, exactly what the brain is doing is something of a mystery. But it is a type of sleep seen across the animal kingdom, in mammals and birds and even lizards.

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Zika virus makes Rio Olympics a threat in Brazil and abroad, health expert says

 

Amir Attaran calls for postponement or moving of Games and says biggest risk is spreading the virus to countries without adequate healthcare infrastructure.

As Brazil reels from a spiraling political crisis and its deepest recession in decades, a public health specialist in Canada has added to the country’s woes with a high-profile call for the 2016 summer Olympics – slated to kick off in Rio de Janeiro in early August – to be postponed or moved due to the Zika outbreak. Speaking to the Guardian on Thursday, Attaran described the idea of going ahead with the games as both “indescribably foolish” and “monstrously unethical”. The potential risks to visitors range from braindamaged children to death in rare instances, he added. “Is this what the Olympics stand for?”

Adapted from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/12/rio-olympics-zika-amir-attaran-public-health-threat

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Portable devices
Buddy, can you spare a watt?

 

Trading power could free users from dead-battery tyranny

 

ONE of the most annoying features of smartphones is that they run out of power just when you need it most. After a day of e-mailing, streaming music, downloading podcasts, watching cat videos and snapping selfies, a device can easily be left without enough charge to make an emergency call. What would help, reckons Paul Worgan of the University of Bristol, in England, is to give portable devices the ability to share some of their power.

Mr Worgan and his colleagues have come up with a wireless-charging system which they call PowerShake. To use it someone holds a phone with an expiring battery against another device—a phone, or even a smartwatch or a fitness band—and this initiates a power transfer from one to the other. Some 12 seconds of contact provides enough juice to make a one-minute telephone call. One minute of contact would allow, say, a four minute music video to be watched. The researchers will present their idea to CHI2016, a conference on computer-human interaction, in San Jose, California, in May.

Available in: http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21697800-trading-power-could-free-users-dead-batterytyranny-buddy-can-you-spare. Access on: may 2016.

 

I. New smartphones will have power to spare.
II. PowerShake wireless-charging system will help you to charge your out of power smartphone.
III. You have to plug in both phones for 12 seconds.
IV. This new feature will allow you to make a short phone call.
V. The researchers will present this new idea at their university, in San Jose, California. 

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Improving with age? How city design is adapting to older populations

 

There is no denying it: like it or not we are all getting older. According to the UN World Population Prospects report, the global population of older people is growing at an unprecedented rate. By 2050, for the first time in human history, there will be more over-65s than children under 15. The number of people over 100 will increase by 1,000%. And as by then 70% of the world’s population will likely live in cites, this will present huge challenges, and cities will need to adapt. “Small innovations can make a difference,” Recalcati adds. “Older people are less likely to drive, favouring public transport and walking. The average person over 65 manages a walking speed of 3km/hour. At 80 that goes down to 2km/hour, compared with the average for a working age person of 4.8km/hour. Reducing the distance between transport stops, shops, benches, trees for shade, public toilets and improving pavements and allowing more time to cross the road all encourage older people to go out.” In the UK, the government has just announced the building of 10 new towns designed to address ageing and health issues such as obesity. As well as encouraging more active lifestyles, the designs could include wider pavements, few trip hazards and moving LCD signs, making the streets easier to navigate for people with dementia and other age-related conditions. London-based charity Living Streets has also been working alongside communities carrying out street audits with older residents to see what improvements could be made, as well as campaigning at a strategic level to influence positive legislative and infrastructure changes. Their project Time to Cross campaigned to increase pedestrian crossing times which resulted in Transport for London (TfL) agreeing to a review.

www.thegardian.com/cities/2016/ap/25/improving-with-age-how-city-design-is-adapting-to-older-populations.

 

I. Old people walk slowly, so they prefer driving.
II. The adaptions mentioned refer not only to elderly but also to obese people.
III. Population is helping to make improvements.
IV. US Policy makers think elderly people should move to smaller cities.
V. There will be more adults than children by 2050.