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Allan McNish returned to sportscar racing this season, looking for more wins to add to his already prestigious2 endurance racing3 record. The 1998 Le Mans winner and 2000 American Le Mans Series champion did not let the grass grow under his racing shoes when he found himself without a ride in any racing series after F1 4 .
Audi UK Sport Team Veloqx 'called
and McNish was ready with helmet6 in hand to climb back into the cockpit7 — this time in an Audi R8. The 34-year old Scotsman will run the full Le Mans Endurance Series8 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and has already run the 285 ALMSSebring12 Hours9.
"I returned to endurance racing at the same level I left it, at the top level with the best team," said McNish. "Over the years I kept in touch with Audi and Porsche as I had made a lot of friends in the United Kingdom with Team Joest10 and the German factory support group. This offer was ideal for me. "
McNish has a background in karting"and open-wheel racing, yet his venture into endurance racing has not only won him awards but also a fan base. One of the favorite drivers in any series due to his outgoing12 nature, McNish has pulled a prank 13or two on his fellow drivers in the past. And yet, when in the race car, he is very serious.
" I have been very fortunate to drive for the best people in many forms of rac-ing," McNish explained as he reflected on his past performance and wins. " In endurance racing, I have driven for very very good people and I am lucky to be doing so again. I have a heck of a lot of fun in every element of racing, but being in the car is serious business and we are out for the same goal — the win and the championship!"
When asked about his first Le Mans 24 victory, McNish answered with one word: "Relief!" He went on to reflect on the long build-up to Le Mans and the pressure. Top of the normal pressure of the prestigious and demanding Le
Mans race with the fact that in 1 998 , it was the 50th anniversary of Porsche and the 100th anniversary of Michelin and one can understand his simple statement14. Indeed to have won the race was "relief" \
Not one to rest on his laurels'5 , McNish was on the winning team for Porsche at the inaugural Petit Le Mans later that same year — the birth of the ALMS. In 1 999 , McNish remained in the new series with the Porsche 91 1 GT1 Evo pro¬totype. He competed in four races that year.
The Scotsman wrapped up his winning season at the ALMS banquet by wear-ing his national dress. A kilt! 17"You are what you are and people should be proud of where they came from. It is my national dress to wear a kilt. And I had a great time," he said with a smile.
With his past performance, will McNish still show the mark of the champion on his return to endurance racing? One would imagine that to be the case as the Scotsman said it in his own words; "I love sportscar endurance racing. I am very pleased to be back where the competition is very good. That makes the racing exciting!"
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After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley J.U of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her, "Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. " So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes your strength so great, and how you could be bound, so that one could subdue you. " ?Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried out, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else. " Then the lords of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not dried out, and she bound him with them. 9 While men were lying in wait in an inner chamber, she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson ]" But he snapped the bowstrings , as a strand of fiber snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.
Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have mocked me and told me lies; please tell me how you could be bound.
He said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else. " 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" (The men lying in wait were in an inner chamber. ) But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
13Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you could be bound. " He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and make it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak, and be like anyone else. " 14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web, and made them tight with the pin. Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson'" But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.
15Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great. " Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death. l?So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else. "
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The physician knows well the usual development of events in a fatal sickness, but his personal reaction to the death of the patient is a variable thing. It is influenced by such considerations as the duration of his relationship with the patient, the age of the person dying, and the nature of the final disease.
The physician is usually not too upset by the likely death of a patient who has enjoyed a long* pleasant, and productive life; and he may accept calmly the death of a person in a younger age group who's gotten seriously injured. However, he is always saddened by the death of a child or young adult for any reason.
The doctor cannot help feeling disturbed if he has to ask himself whether the patient' s death has been related to his treatment or lack of it. When a person under medical treatment dies, the internist can always comfort himself with the idea that his patient' s disease was just incurable with the medicine ready for use. On the other hand, when death follows an operation, the surgeon usually gives at least a passing thought to the possibility that his patient might have been kept alive if he had not been treated with such an operation.
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They are found wherever things seem to disappear wholesale without leaving a trace. Ever since Princeton physicist John Wheeler coined the term in 1967 to describe an object whose gravity is so powerful that it swallows everything around it — even light — this bizarre concept, which first emerged from Einstein's equations of general relativity, has been part of everyday language.
While journalists and ordinary folks have been throwing the expression around loosely, astronomers have been searching for the real thing. The evidence so far has been tantalizing but circumstantial. Last week, however, NASA announced that the newly sharp-eyed Hubble Space Telescope has found something strange lurking about 50 million light-years away, at the core of galaxy M87 — something with the mass of more than 2 billion stars the size of the sun crammed into a space no bigger than our solar system. The only thing scientists know of that could possibly fit this descriptions gigantic black hole.
The astronomers didn't actually see the hole, of course, since it is invisible by definition. What they detected was a diskshaped cloud of gas rotaing at a dizzying 1.2 million miles an hour. A disk of gas is just what researchers expect to see around a black hole: any star that ventures too close will first be ripped apart by the hole's intense gravity and then start to spiral in,the way water spirals down a bathtub drain. As it is being sucked in,the gas should be compressed and heated — and in fact the gas disk in M87 is glowing with a temperature of about 18,000°F.
It was the speed, though, that convinced astronomers that they had nabbed their black hole at last. The rules of celestial mechanics dictate that the speed of an orbiting body must depend on the mass of whatever it is orbiting and the distance between the two. Given the incredible velocity and 60-light-year diameter of the gas cloud in question, it has to be circling something of unprecedented mass and density.
How did the black hole form in the first place? It could have started with a large star that burned out its nuclear fuel and then collapsed. If the star was big enough, the implosion would have been crushed out of existence. The entire star would have been squeezed into an immeasurably small size, and its density and gravity would have increased enormously. Over the universe's 15 billion-year history, billions of other stars could have ventured too close and been sucked in, making the hole grow ever more massive and powerful.
Though M87 is the first supermassive black hole ever discovered, astronomers are convinced that such objects lie at the heart of many galaxies. The powerful forces unleashed as the holes gobble up stars and gas may be the source of quasars, mysterious beacons of light so bright that they're visible across the universe. There are even hints of a giant black hole in our own Milky Way. But the sun is too far away to be in any danger of falling in. The only "black holes" we have to fear are the metaphorical ones here on Earth.
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To be fair, this observation is also frequently made of Canada and Canadians , and should best be considered North American . There are , of course, exceptions. Small-minded officials, rude waiters, and ill-mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.
For a long period of time and in many parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break in an otherwise dull existence. Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the families who generally lived distant from one another. Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion, and brought news of the outside world.
The harsh realities of the frontier also shaped this tradition of hospitality. Someone trave-ling alone, if hungry, injured, or ill, often had nowhere to turn except to the nearest cabin or settlement. It was not a matter of choice for the traveler or merely a charitable impulse on the part of the settlers. It reflected the harshness of daily life if you didn' t take in the stranger and take care of him, there was no one else who would. And someday, remember, you might be in the same situation.
Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in helping the weary traveler. Yet, the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is still very strong in the US, especially in the smaller cities and towns away from the busy tourist trails. " I was just traveling through, got talking with this American, and pretty soon he invited me home for dinner-amazing. " Such observations reported by visitors to the US are not uncommon, but are not always understood properly. The casual friendliness of many Americans should be interpreted neither as superficial nor as artificial, but as the result of a historically developed cultural tradition.
As is true of any developed society, in America a complex set of cultural signals, assumptions , and conventions underlies all social interrelationships. And, of course, speaking a language does not necessarily mean that someone understands social and cultural patterns. Visitors who fail to "translate" cultural meanings properly often draw wrong conclusions. For example, when an American uses the word "friend" , the cultural implications of the word may be quite different from those it has in the visitor' s language and culture. It takes more than a brief encounter on a bus to distinguish between courteous convention and individual interest. Yet, being friendly is a virtue that many Americans value highly and expect from both neighbors and strangers.
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Few of us are content to accept ourselves as we are, and few are brave enough to ignore the trends of fashion. Most fashion magazines or TV advertisements try to persuade us that we should dress in a certain way or behave in a certain manner. If we do, they tell us, we will be able to meet new people with confidence and deal with every situation confidently and without embarrassment. Changing fashion, of course, does not apply just to dress. A barber today does not cut a boy' s hair in the same way as he used to, and girls do not make up in the same way as their mothers and grandmothers did. The advertisers show us the latest fashionable styles and we ire constantly under pressure to follow the fashion in :ase our friends think we are odd or dull.
What causes fashions to change? Sometimes mvenience or practical necessity or just the fancy ' an influential person can establish a fashion, like hats, for example. In cold climates, early
buildings were cold inside, so people wore hats in-doors as well as outside. In recent times, the late President Kennedy caused a depression in the American hat industry by not wearing hats: more American men followed his example.
There is also a cyclical pattern in fashion. In the 1920s in Europe and America, short skirts became fashionable. After World War H , they dropped to ankle length. Then they got shorter and shorter until the miniskirt was in fashion. After a few more years, skirts became longer again.
Today, society is much freer and easier than it used to be. It is no longer necessary to dress like everyone else. Within reason, you can dress as you like or do your hair the way you like instead of the way you should because it is the fashion. The popularity of jeans and the "untidy" look seems to be a reaction against the increasingly expensive fashions of the top fashion houses.
At the same time, appearance is still important in certain circumstances and then we must choose our clothes carefully. It would be foolish to go to an interview for a job in a law firm wearing jeans and a sweater; and it would be discourteous to visit some distinguished scholar looking as if we were going to the beach or a night club. However, you need never feel depressed if you don' t look like the latest fashion photo. Look around you and you' 11 see that no one else does either!
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Today, there is no list of 'wonders' for the modern world. Still, there are some interesting buildings or landmarks1 that are called 'wonders.' These landmarks are easily recognized by people everywhere. Here are some of them.
The Taj Mahal
Built: A.D. 1631-1648
The Taj Mahal in India is made of white marble and precious stones.2 About 20,000 people worked to build this giant tomb for the king's wife.
The Great Wall of China
Built: Some sections were started around the 7th century B.C., but most of it was built between 1386 and 1536. This outstanding wall is over 6,300 kilometers long and was built to keep out invaders.
The Statue of Liberty
People everywhere recognize this statue. Inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, it stands over 45 meters tall. The French gave it to the United States as a gift of friendship in 1886. It stands in New York Harbor and represents freedom.
The Pyramid at Chichen Itza3
Built: sometime between A.D. 800-900
The Mayans4 used this 24-meter high pyramid to study the sky and as an enormous solar calendar.
The Sydney Opera House
Built: A.D. 1959-1973
Fhis opera house has over one thousand rooms, and is built to look like a huge sailing boat/Many people think it is one of the nost beautiful landmarks in the world.
The Channel Tunnel
Built: A.D. 1986-1994
three tunnels, which run mostly under the sea bed,6 connect England and France. A high-speed train journey to Paris from Condon takes about three hours.
these sites and structures are just a few that are on the voting list is possibilities for the seven modern-day wonders of the world. Which would you vote for?
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However, federal rules forbid the practice of making ads louder than the programming. In addition, television stations always operate at the highest sound level allowed for reasons of efficiency. According to one NBC executive, no difference exists in the peak sound level of ads and programming. Given this information, why do commercials sound so loud?
The sensation of sound involves a variety of factors in addition to its speak level. Advertisers are skillful at creating the impression of loudness through their expert use of such factors. One major contributor to the perceived loudness of commercials is that much less variation in sound level occurs during a commercial. In regular programming the intensity of sound varies over a large range. However, sound levels in commercials tend to stay at or near peak levels.
Other "tricks of the trade" are also used. Because low-frequency sounds can mask higher frequency sounds, advertisers filter out any noises that may drown out the primary message. In addition, the human voice has more auditory impact in the middle frequency ranges. Advertisers electronically vary voice sounds so that they stay within such a frequency band. Another approach is to write the script so that lots of consonants are used, because people are more aware of consonants than vowel sounds. Finally, advertisers try to begin commercials with sounds that are highly different from those of the programming within which the commercial is buried. Because people become adapted to the type of sounds coming from programming, a dramatic change in sound quality draws viewer's attention. For example, notice how many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some type.
The attention-getting property of commercials can be seen by observing one-to two-year-old children who happen to be playing around a television set. They may totally ignore the programming. However, when a commercial comes on, their attention is immediately drawn to it because of its dramatic sound quality.
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Schools have always been fertile ground for lawsuits over religious observance and free speech. But educators say the volume of suits is on the rise. One-quarter of elementary school principals surveyed by the American Tort Reform Association in 1999 had faced a lawsuit or out-of-court settlement in the previous two years. Not all observers agree that the situation is dire. Lehigh University school-law professor Perry Zirkel says the number of lawsuits isn't necessarily increasing, with the exception of suits involving disabled students.
A number of factors may be linked to the frequency of suits. For one, aggressive zero-tolerance discipline policies that punish or expel students after only one offense invite lawsuits, say some observers. With the stakes so high, parents are more likely to bring lawyers along to student appeal hearings, says Julie Vogt of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.
Many schools are also drug-testing more students. First limited to student athletes, drug testing in the past five years has expanded to include those participating in any extra-:urricular activity. That means up to 80 percent of students at affected schools may qualify for—and eventually challenge—the tests.
Privacy is another flash point for conflict. This fall, the United States Supreme Court s likely to hear arguments in the case of the suburban Tulsa, Okla. , high school students ,vho graded classmates assignments. The mother of three students says sharing grades in :lass violates federal student-privacy laws. Educational records cannot be released without jarental consent.
Whatever the volume, litigation is certainly on the minds of educators like Edward Wiggins, principal of Carver Middle School in Raymond, Miss. , who has been sued four times in the past 10 years. In one case, students hurt themselves off campus after cutting class without permission. "We did what we're supposed to do, but we're still held accountable for the child. Those are the kind of cases that make us pull the hair out of our head," Mr. Wiggins says. Even though none of the cases ever went to court, Wiggins says he spent hours gathering records and meeting with lawyers.
Simply bringing a lawsuit, of course, isn't the same as winning in court. Most students who sue claiming their rights were deprived when they didn't make a sports team, for example, can expect their cases to be thrown out of court. In fact, schools usually wind up winning, particularly those that have written policies, says Charles Russo, a professor at Ohio's University of Dayton School of Education. "To the extent that school districts are doing their homework, those are the schools that tend to prevail," Professor Russo says. "If you have a policy in place, you're going to win." Increasingly, he adds, "students are checking their rights at the schoolhouse gate," noting that courts have seemed more willing in the past two decades to side with schools.
