Monks embrace web to reach recruits

Stew Milne for The New York Times

The Benedictine monks at the Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth have a problem. They are aging and their numbers have fallen to 12, from a peak of about 24 in 1969. So the monks have taken to the Internet with an elaborate ad campaign featuring videos, a blog and even a Gregorian chant ringtone. “If this is the way the younger generation are looking things up and are communicating, then this is the place to be”, said Abbot Caedmon Holmes, who has been in charge of the abbey since 2007. That place is far from the solitary lives that some may think monks live. In fact, in this age of social media, the monks have embraced what may be the most popular form of public self-expression: a Facebook page, where they have uploaded photos and video testimonials. Some monks will even write blogs.

TEXTO:

Anna had been depressed for much of her adult
life, seeking a range of treatments that might help her
condition. She took anti-depressants, underwent
psychotherapy and even experienced electroconvulsive
[5] therapy – which involves passing electricity through the
whole brain.
Treatments like these were only effective for short
periods, and her depression would soon return. Another
issue she faced was that she was morbidly obese,
[10] weighing 183kg. This resulted in severely limited
mobility which, naturally, exacerbated her depression,
putting in place a vicious circle of poor health.
Gastric bypass surgery helped her lose some
weight but not as much as expected from such a
[15] procedure, and it had little impact on her depression.
As a last resort treatment, psychiatrists took a drastic
decision to implant an electrical device in her brain, an
invasive therapy known as deep brain stimulation. It’s
a treatment that’s already frequently used to alleviate
[20] the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
Not only did this treatment significantly help her
depression, it had another astonishing outcome – she
lost more weight than she had with any previous
treatment, losing almost 50% more weight (2.8kg or
[25] 6.1lbs) per month than she had done after the gastric
bypass surgery. Thomas Munte, the neurologist who
treated Anna, says that while the initial goal was to treat
her depression, the weight loss was the “secondary
target” of the surgery. In her case, the two were
[30] seemingly linked.
That Anna successfully lost weight following the
treatment is opening up new discussions about how to
tackle what we know is a world-wide epidemic. It is
also revealing that in some rare cases, the brain can
[35] be “de-tuned” from debilitating behaviors, like addiction.

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Xennials, the microgeneration between

Gen X and Millennials

We’re all tired of hearing about millennials, but there’s a new group who we’re about to be talking about a lot more. Defined as the generation born between 1982 and 2004, millennials are aged between 13 and 35. The generation before, Gen X, spanned another 20 years, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1981.

Enter Xennials, the new term being used to describe people born between 1977 and 1983. Like the pessimistic Gen Xers before them, this microgeneration is not as tech savvy as the millennials who are considered digital natives. “The idea is there’s this micro or in-between generation between the Gen X group – who we think of as the depressed flanneletteshirt-wearing, grunge-listening children that came after the Baby Boomers and the millennials – who get described as optimistic, tech savvy and maybe a little bit too sure of themselves and too confident,” says Dan Woodman, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Melbourne.

Woodman went on to explain that while millennials have always grown up with technology, Xennials had to make an adjustment to embrace it. “It was a particularly unique experience. You have a childhood, youth and adolescence free of having to worry about social media posts and mobile phones... We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you still watch the evening news or read the newspaper,” he noted.

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“Violence against women causes suffering and misery to victims and their families and places a heavy burden on societies worldwide. It mostly happens within intimate relationships or between people known to each other. Violence against women is a social construction based on a societal consensus about the roles and rights of men and women. Two prevalent forms of violence against women are physical and sexual victimization by an intimate partner, and sexual victimization outside intimate relationships. Explanations of why men engage in aggressive behavior toward women address different levels, including the macro level of society, the micro level of dyadic interactions, and the individual level of perpetrator characteristics. Prevention efforts are needed that address each of these levels.”

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The photography exercise book by Bert Krages

Training your eye to shoot like a pro

A while ago I was asked if I’d like to have a look at Bert Krages’ book. My initial thought was that it would pretty much be a list of ‘try this’ exercises. Well in a way it is, in that you really need to go out and try the exercises, not just read about them. In much the same way that my piano playing won’t improve by just buying more books about playing the piano…

Try the technical exercises – a desk lamp and an egg really can teach you an enormous amount about the realities of lighting, shadows and reflected light. I’ve been a pro photographer since 2004 and taking the time to do some of the exercises has been of real benefit.

A well-written book that is packed with useful images to illustrate the matters at hand. It’s nice to see the author didn’t fall into the trap of only including ‘perfect’ photos – you will look at some and think ‘I could do better than that’ – good!

It’s a book for people who want to take more photos and increase their satisfaction from doing so. Definitely one to try if you feel you’re perhaps clinging to some of the technical aspects of photography as a bit of a safety blanket, to avoid the fluffy artsy stuff.

Book Author Info.

Bert Krages is a photographer and attorney who is the author of two previous photography books, Legal Handbook for Photographers and Heavenly Bodies: The Photographer’s Guide to Astrophotography.

Use o seu conhecimento sobre as conjunções, examine o contexto no texto dado e responda qual é a noção correta das conjunções, respectivamente.

While

But

Read the text below and answer the following questionbased on it.

Loneliness may harm sleep quality for young adults
Researchers from King's College London have found that young adults who reported feeling lonely were more likely to experience poor sleep quality, daytime tiredness, and poor concentration than their non-lonely counterparts.

Although loneliness is often perceived as a problem that primarily affects older adults, recent research has suggested that this is not the case.

However, according to the researchers of the new study, less is known about how loneliness affects the health of young adults - in particular, how it impacts sleep quality.

"In the present study, we tested associations between loneliness and sleep quality in a nationally representative sample of young adults," say Prof. Louise Arseneault, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's, and colleagues.

The researchers analyzed the data of 2,232 young adults aged 18 to 19 years. They asked the participants four questions to measure their feelings of loneliness, including, "How often do you feel that you lack companionship?" and "How often do you feel alone?"

Additionally, the researchers gathered information on the participants' sleep quality over the past month, including sleep duration, sleep disturbances, and how long it takes them to fall asleep.

The analysis revealed that the lonely participants were 10 percent more likely to have poor sleep quality than subjects who did not report loneliness, and they were 24 percent more likely to experience daytime tiredness and problems with concentration.

These findings remained after accounting for a number of possible confounding factors, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders.

Although the study was not designed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the link between loneliness and poor sleep quality, the researchers have some theories.

For example, they point to previous studies that have identified a link between loneliness and an increase in the "stress hormone" cortisol, which could lead to sleep disruption.
Adaptado de: < https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317563.php?sr> Acessado em 02 de abril de 2018.

Read the text and answer the questions as follows.

A top FBI official told a drone conference in Denver that criminals deliberately flew several small drones to block the rescue team's view of an unfolding situation.
The drones caused the FBI to lose sight of the attacker.
"We were then blind," Joseph Mazel, the FBI's operational technology law unit chief, told the AUVSI drone conference.
According to military news site Defense One, which attended the conference, the hostage situation occurred over the winter in the outskirts of a large US city.
The FBI had set up an elevated observation post to monitor the hostage situation, and suddenly drones appeared, carrying out a series of "high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them [out]," Mr Mazel said.
Criminal use of drones is rising, and the most popular use for unmanned aerial vehicles is for the smuggling of smartphones and drugs into prisons, according to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).
However, the law enforcement body is concerned that criminals could also use drones in other ways.
"As part of any operational planning for public events, police are now considering the malicious use of drones and how they will counter that risk," an NPCC spokesman told the BBC.
"From news reports, practical experience and events within the prison service, quite clearly we're seeing an increasing risk in drone usage, and that's why as an organisation we're doing something about it. "
In 2015, it was reported that criminals were using drones to scope out potential burglary targets in Suffolk, and, in 2017, news site Vice made a video documentary about people who were using heat-seeking drones to steal marijuana from illegal farms hidden in residential properties.
And in the US, drones are increasingly being used by criminal enterprises.
"I talk to a lot of people in the drone industry, and we've heard of the Mexican drug cartels using drones for at least 10 years to smuggle drugs across the border," Jeffrey Antonelli, a lead attorney specialising in drone and BitTorrent litigation at Antonelli Law told the BBC.
(Adapted from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44003860, Accessed on May 5th, 2018).w

Para que se possa efetuar a reciclagem do lixo, antes é necessário separá-lo. Uma dessas etapas, quando não se faz a coleta seletiva, é colocar o lixo sobre uma esteira, para que passe, por exemplo, por um imã.

Level of Public Investment in Brazil Is the Worst in the Last 10 Years
09/11/2017
MAELI PRADO
MARIANA CARNEIRO
FROM BRASÍLIA

The public investment in Brazil reached the lowest level __(I)__ the last ten years, which has contributed to push down the G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) even more.
__(II)__ a strong effort to reduce expenditure and meet the fiscal target, the investments made by the federal government in the first seven months of this year have totaled R$ 16.3 billion (US$ 5 billion), nearly R$ 10 billion (US$ 3.1 billion) less in comparison __(III)__ the same period in 2016 and the lowest amount since 2008, when the series began to be recorded by the National Treasury.
This total includes public construction and the purchases of new facilities for government agencies, as well as materials for permanent use, such as computers.
Investments are natural candidates to be cut __(IV)___ times of adjustment, as more than 90% of public expenditure follows outlay rules and cannot be reduced without a change in legislation.

On the other hand, they are an important factor to stimulate the economy.

Manoel Pires, an economist _(V)__ FGV and former secretary of Economic Policy of the Dilma Rousseff administration, says that cutting investment has a strong impact __(VI)__ the activity - much more than the decline in expenses related to civil service or subsidies.
“When subsidies are increased, the effect __(VII)___ the activity is marginal. In the cases of expenses related to public servants’ wages, it is between 0.6 and 0.7 [percent] of the G.D.P. For investments, that number reaches between 1.4 and 1.6 [percent].”
In other words, for every R$ 1 (US$ 0.3) spent __(VIII)__ the government with investment, the G.D.P. increases by R$ 1.60 (US$ 0.5). If there is as cut, it has an opposite effect.