Global sleeping patterns revealed by app data.

It showed the Dutch have nearly an hour more in bed every night than people in Singapore or Japan.

The study, published in Science Advances, also found women routinely get more sleep than men, with middle-aged men getting the least of all.

The researchers say the findings could be used to deal with the "global sleep crisis".

The study found people in Japan and Singapore had an average of seven hours and 24 minutes sleep while the people in the Netherlands had eight hours and 12 minutes.

People in the UK averaged just under eight hours - a smidgen less than the French.

The later a country stays up into the night, the less sleep it gets. But what time a country wakes up seems to have little effect on sleep duration.

Prof Daniel Forger, one of the researchers, said there was a conflict between our desire to stay up late and our bodies urging us to get up in the morning.

The study also showed women had about 30 minutes more per night in bed than men, particularly between the ages of 30 and 60.

And that people who spend the most time in natural sunlight tended to go to bed earlier.

A strong effect of age on sleep was also detected. A wide range of sleep and wake-up times was found in young people but "that really narrows in old age," said Prof Forger.

"It highlights that although our body clocks are programming us to do certain things, we can't as we're ruled by social circumstances.

"We won't know the long-term consequences of this for many years."

Economists see Japan’s aging and declining population as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Shinso Abe’s quest to get the country growing again. Unemployment is near the lowest level in decades as open positions go unfilled. Yet many Japanese are reluctant to take manual-labor jobs at the wages available. Therefore, Japan has reassessed its immigration policy and is now welcoming workers from overseas to fill those job openings.

Nike: A Model of Success?

In the 1990s, Nike came under fire for the rock-bottom wages, abusive conditions and use of child labor at its overseas factories. Sales plummeted as angry customers held protests and boycotts. If Nike wanted to stay in business, it had to make big changes-and it did. Nike took stock of its behavior and today it has a team that monitors conditions in its factories. Inspection reports are made public online. Nike was also one of the first companies to publish the names and adresses of every overseas factory that makes its products.

Two dead after Rio de Janeiro bike lane, built ahead of Olympics, collapses

April 21^st -2016

Part of an elevated bike lane built ahead of the Olympic Games collapsed on Thursday, killing at least two people who were on it when cement gave way and crashed onto the beach below.

Rio is hosting the Summer Games beginning in August and the bike lane was among the projects built in preparation. While no Olympic event will be held on the path, the collapse will likely add to worries about the country´s readiness to host the games.

Since its inauguration the path has earned kudos for its spectacular views. But detractors complained it was dangerous, saying the narrowness of the path made cyclists prime targets for mugging in the weeks after it opened, local newspapers also featured photos of its speedy deterioration, showing missing handrails and rusting metal parts.

He is ridiculed for his mendacity and ostracized by his
peers. He presides over a free-falling currency and a rapidly
shrinking economy. International sanctions stop his
kleptocratic friends from holidaying in their ill-gotten
[5] Mediterranean villas. Judged against the objectives Vladimir
Putin purported to set on inheriting Russia´s presidency 15
years ago – prosperity, the rule of law, westward integration –
regarding him as a success might seem bleakly comical

But those are no longer his goals, if they ever really were.
[10] Look at the world form his perspective, and Mr. Putin is
winning. He remains the Kremlin´s undisputed master. He has
a throttlehold on Ukraine and domesticating Ukraine through
his routine tactics of threats and bribery was his first
preference, but the invasion has had its benefits. It has
[15] demonstrated the costs of insubordination to Russians. The
conflict has usefully shown who is boss in Russia. Best of all,
discord has been sown among Mr. Putin´s adversaries: among
Europeans and between them and America.

His aim is to divide and neuter that alliance. From his
[20] tantrums over the Middle East to his invasion of Georgia and
Ukraine, Mr. Putin has sometimes seemed to stumble into
accidental disputes with the West, driven by a paranoid fear of
encirclement. In hindsight it seems that, given his outlook,
confrontation may have been inevitable. Either way, the
[25] contest he insists on cannot be dodged. It did not begin in poor
Ukraine and will not end there. Prevailing will require far more
resolve than Western leaders have so far mustered.
(from The Economist, February 14^th, 2015.)

TEXTO:

Study: Thirdhand Smoke Could Cause Harm

A new study reveals that the so-called “thirdhand
smoke,” or the residue from cigarette smoke that lands
on surfaces after a smoker lights up, could be hazardous
to passers-by even well after the smoker has left the
[5] scene.
New research from the University of California
Riverside shows that the so-called “thirdhand smoke”
exposure harms organs in mice and increases symptoms
of hyperactivity — which suggests humans too might
[10] suffer similar negative consequences.
The researchers exposed lab mice to levels of
thirdhand smoke meant to imitate the levels humans
come into contact with in a smoking environment. They
found that the mice exhibited higher levels of lipids and
[15] fatty liver disease, as well as inflammation in their lungs.
The mice also had trouble healing wounds. Both of these
findings are found among people exposed to secondhand
smoke. Smokers also tend to take longer to heal their
wounds after a surgery.
[20] The researchers also noted increased levels of
hyperactivity in the mice, which they compared to similar
symptoms reported in children exposed to second and
thirdhand smoke. “It follows that children in environments
where smoking is, or has been allowed, are at significant
[25] risk for suffering from multiple short-term and longer health
problems, many of which may not manifest fully until
later in life,” the researchers conclude in the study,
published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Leia um trecho do poema de Edgar Allan Poe e as afirmações a seguir.

The Raven (by Edgar Allan Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless HERE for evermore.

POE, Edgar Allan. The Raven, 1845. Disponível em: <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713>. Acesso em: 23 out. 2015.

I. O poema de Edgar Allan Poe está na primeira pessoa do singular.

II. O trecho “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary”, pode ser traduzido como “Certa vez, numa meia-noite lúgubre, enquanto meditava, fraco e cansado”.

III. Bleak in “Distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December” pode ser substituído por black, sem perda do efeito de sentido.

IV. O pronome relativo whom em “For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore refere-se a anjos”.