Picturesque Yellowstone National Park, one of the most beautiful natural tourist destinations in the world, sits atop one of the largest super volcanoes on the planet. If it erupted, the consequences for the entire planet would be catastrophic. What are the chances it will erupt soon? Geologists say it has an eruption cycle of about 600,000 years and last erupted about 640,000 years ago… meaning, it’s well overdue. And it’s been estimated that Yellowstone’s next eruption could be 2,500 times greater than the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. According to The Discovery Channel, which broadcast a documentary about the Yellowstone volcano, “a full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone hot spot would result in a disaster of global proportions." Ash would cover the entire Western half of the United States; the park would be completely wiped out, along with any nearby towns; the plume of ash would reach 32,19 kilometers into the atmosphere, lowering global temperatures and plunging us all into a volcanic winter.
Global Warming – Ice Age
Despite the Bush administration’s denial of the facts, most climatologists agree that the Earth is warming.
2005 was the warmest year on record. So what? We’d all like to be a bit warmer, right? It might not work that way. Global warming, ironically, could result in another Ice Age. That seems contradictory, but Art Bell and Whitley Strieber predict in their book “The Coming Global Superstorm” (on which the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” was based), that global warming could alter important ocean currents, which to a great degree regulate the Earth’s temperature. These changes in atmosphere and ocean currents will result in devastating storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and more – some of which we are beginning to see in today’s ever more violent weather. It could all lead to a new Ice Age.
Now that I’ve cheered you up, how can we face these catastrophes? The first three are out of our control, if they are going to happen at all in our lifetimes, so there’s not much to be done, unless you want to become an obsessive survivalist. There may be a chance of stopping or slowing global warming, but that will require changes in government and corporate policies. Yet we can all do our part.
Other than that, we can all enjoy every blessed day.
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HOW THE EURO WORKS
Where Did the Idea Come From?
The original seed was planted in 1946 when Winston Churchill suggested the creation of the "United States of Europe." His goals were primarily political, in that he hoped a unified government would bring about peace for a continent that had been torn apart by two world wars.
The process of creating the Euro got its start in 1989, when the Delors Report was published by Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission. This important report outlined a three-stage transition plan that would create a single European currency.
National currencies are vitally important to the way modern economies operate. They allow us to consistently express the value of an item across borders of countries, oceans, and cultures. Wealth can be easily stored or transported as currency.
Currencies are also deeply embedded in our cultures and our psyche. Think about how familiar you are with the price of things. If you've grown up in the United States, you think of everything in "dollars," just like you think about distances in inches and miles.
On January 1, 2002, the euro became the single currency of 12 member states of the European Union. This will make it the second largest currency in the world (the U.S. dollar being the largest). It will also be the largest currency event in the history of the world. Twelve national currencies will evaporate and be replaced by the euro.
Designing the Euro
The European Commission (EC) was given the task of creating the euro symbol as part of its communications work. There were three things the design had to accomplish:
· It had to be easily recognized.
· It had to be easily written by hand.
· It had to be pleasing to look at.
The EC had more than 30 designs drawn up. They selected 10 from those and let the public vote, which narrowed those 10 down to two. From there they made their final selection. The design that was selected is based on the Greek letter epsilon, and also resembles the "e" as the first letter of the word "Europe." The two parallel lines through the center of the "c" represent stability.
The euro is abbreviated as EUR. This was established through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Bank-note Designs
There are seven euro bank notes. Their design was also the result of a contest. Designers were nominated by the national central banks, and the competitors turned out designs for the seven bank notes based on either the theme of "Ages and Styles of Europe" or an abstract modern theme.
Robert Kalina of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank won the competition. His designs were selected at the Dublin European Council in December of 1996. He based his designs on the theme of seven important architectural periods in Europe's cultural history.
The seven bank notes are printed in different sizes and shapes for easier identification.
Coin Designs
There are eight euro coins ranging in value from 1 cent to 2 euros. They also vary in size and thickness according to their values to promote easier identification. As with the bank notes, there was a Europe-wide competition for the coin design. Luc Luycx of the Royal Belgium Mint had the winning designs for the side of the coins that is common to all 12 member states.
The design features one of three maps of Europe surrounded by the 12 stars representing the Euro member states. The opposite side of the coins has designs specific to each country, also surrounded by the 12 stars. Although each country has its own coin design, each coin is accepted in any member state.
The European central banks paid for the initial supply of currency to be produced - a staggering 50 billion euro coins and 14.5 billion euro bank notes!
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COMPUTER SPAM
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the growing problem of receiving unwanted sales messages on your computer’s electronic mail.
Twenty-five years ago, a man named Gary Thuerk worked for a company called Digital Equipment. One day he used his computer to send the same message to three-hundred-ninety-seven other computers. These computers all were linked to an electronic network called Arpanet. The Arpanet computer system was used to aid communication among scientists, researchers and government officials.
The message sent by Gary Thuerk told about the products his company was selling. Many of the people who got the message became angry. But several others used their computers to tell him they were interested in receiving information about Digital Equipment’s products. This was the very beginning of what computer users now call “spam.”
I suppose we should explain the word “spam.” SPAM is the name of a food product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation in Austin, Minnesota. SPAM is processed pork meat. It is sold in small blue cans in more than forty-one countries around the world. The Hormel Corporation has produced this popular food product since nineteen-thirty-seven. The word “SPAM” was the winning name in a contest the company held to name the new pork meat product.
Computer users who receive unwanted electronic information call this kind of electronic mail “spam.” Computer users named it spam because of a funny joke on a popular British television program called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”
In one program, a group of people was sitting in an eating place that served only the processed meat called SPAM. Every time they tried to say something, another group of people would sing, very loudly, “SPAM—SPAM—SPAM, Wonderful SPAM.”
This interfered with people’s conversations in the same way that e-mail spam makes computer communication more difficult. Computer users began using the word to mean unwanted electronic information they did not ask for and did not want.
The Hormel Corporation has kept a sense of humor about this use of its product’s name. Company officials say they do not care. Hormel sells more than six-million cans of their pork meat every year.
The use of electronic spam to sell products has become a major problem for many computer users. A recent study showed that most computer users receive about one-hundred unwanted electronic mail messages or spam each week. Some people receive much more.
It would be difficult to count all of the spam sent across the Internet computer communications system each day. Some experts estimate that more than seven-thousand-million spam messages are sent around the world each day. Some experts say more than half of all e-mail sent is spam.
Internet service providers must buy larger and more powerful computers in an effort to deal with this huge amount of electronic mail. The cost is paid by everyone who uses a computer linked to the Internet.
Many companies send sales information or advertising on the Internet to people who are interested in receiving it. This information tries to influence people to buy almost any product or service possible. The products include shoes, clothing and food.
You may open your electronic mail and find information about how to buy medicine, cheap airline tickets, books, and, of course, computers and computer products. There may also be offers for investment deals, bank loans and special holidays.
Many companies who want to send a great deal of advertising might use the services of a “spammer.” A spammer is a person or company that uses computers to send out millions of copies of the same sales information. Spammers find e-mail addresses from Web sites, newsgroups and “chat rooms” where people send messages to each other.
Most spam is sent by companies who are trying to get you to buy their products. Some of these are honest companies that offer good products or services for a fair price. These companies can offer their products at a cheaper price than you might find in a store. However, much of the spam on the Internet is sent by criminals who are trying to sell products that do not exist or offer services they will not provide. They are only interested in stealing your money.
Spam has become a major problem for many computer users. Many angry people have begun to fight back. Among these are private citizens, Internet service provider companies and several state governments. The federal government is also considering anti-spam legislation.
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