American researchers say that a nasal spray containing the ‘Love hormone’ oxytocin could help children with autism behave more normally in social situations. Scans of autistic children showed that the chemical made the brain respond better to faces. This could make social interactions easierfor them.
The researchers said oxytocin might help other treatments that are used to help people with autism in social situations. “Over time, there would be more normal social responding. Autistic people would be more interested in interacting with other people; there would be more eye contact and more conversation,” said Kevin Pelphrey, of Yale University.
Autism is a disorder that one in 100 people have. It affects people in different ways, but causes difficulties in social interaction and communication. So far, there is no effective treatment for the social problems that autism causes.
Researchers at Yale have studied the brain chemical oxytocin. They say it is a possible treatment for the social problems caused by autism because it plays an important role in bonding and trust. But not all results are positive: one recent study found no significant benefit for young people who took the chemical for several days. But Pelphrey said oxytocin might help the brain learn from social interactions; it would work best when used together with therapies that encourage people with autism to interact more socially, he said.
Scientists tested 17 young people aged eight to 16 with autism. They gave them either oxytocin or a placebo through a nose spray. Then, the scientists scanned their brains while they looked at images of cars or the eyes of people expressing different emotions.
The scans showed that some parts of the children’s brains behaved more normally after oxytocin: they were more active when the person was looking at faces and less active when the person was looking at the cars.
“The study suggests that oxytocin might treat basic social motivation. This is something for which we don’t have a treatment in autism,” said Pelphrey. He said that it was too early to use oxytocin as a treatment for the social difficulties caused by autism and said people should not buy oxytocin online. “We don’t want them to try oxytocin at home. It is impossible to say what they are buying. This is not a treatment yet. It needs more research,” he said. But, the scientists were surprised to find that oxytocin did not help the children in social recognition tasks. It is also not known yet if oxytocin only has benefits for people with autism or has any bad side effects. Finally, oxytocin effects only last about 45 minutes, so it might be difficult to use it as a treatment.
“This study has a lot of evidence from animal and human work to show that oxytocin helps, but we need more research.” Said Simon Baron-Cohen.
Uta Frith, who studies autism at University College London, said: “According to this study, oxytocin may make faces more interesting. Disappointingly, this effect is seen only in brain activity and not in behaviour.” She said that, if we want oxytocin to become an important treatment for autism, we need to show that is has an effect on behaviour.


Intermediate
Women have traditionally played a minor role in professional football, but this may be changing. France has just appointed its first female professional team manager. It did not matter that it was a second-division club. It did not matter if it was, as some people suggested, just a publicity stunt for a minor team, Clermont Foot 63, which is currently 14th out of the 20 teams in its league.
What mattered was that Helena Costa had been given the top job  an act that saw her make football history by becoming the first female manager to be appointed in the highest two divisions of any professional European league. As a woman, its made me happy, Vronique Soulier, president of the clubs supporters association, told journalists. When I first heard the news, I was rather surprised, but, once that passed, we were pretty unanimous that its good news. We all agree that a woman at the head of a group of men is no bad thing.
The new manager of Clermont Foot 63, whose average home crowd is around 3,800, was born in Alhandra, Portugal and graduated with a masters degree in sports science. She is also a UEFAlicensed coach. She previously coached Benficas male youth teams, the Qatar womens team and, more recently, the Iranian womens national side, which she left in September 2013.
Costa, 36, was appointed on a two-year contract by the president of Clermont Foot 63, Claude Michy, who is a champion at grabbing the headlines for his club. In 2013, he announced the team had signed Messi. They had. Not the Argentinian and FC Barcelona record-breaking striker Lionel Messi, but Junior Messi Enguene, a 20-year-old midfielder from Cameroon. Frances womens minister, Najat Vallaud- Belkacem, tweeted: Bravo to Clermont Foot for understanding that giving women a place is the future of professional football.
Carolina Morace, an Italian who was the only previous woman coach of a mens professional team, said: I dont know Helena, but if she has been hired by a team then it means that she knows how to do her job. I hope that, one day, this can become normal. Morace was an outstanding player in the womens game, playing for Italy in 153 internationals. In 1999, she was named as the coach of the mens team Viterbese. But, after only two games, she resigned from the job because of a disagreement with the clubs proprietor. She added: For the time being, I see too many men, even in the womens game, who are working despite not having the same expertise as women, who, by contrast, are not working.
Raymond Domenech, former manager of the French national team, said: Women know how to play football and how to manage and are good at doing it. Why shouldnt they manage mens teams? The opposite happens and doesnt cause any problems. Its a natural choice and reflects our society in which women are equal to men. I say well done to President Michy. I told myself that, if I took charge of a club again, Id hire a woman as my number two. He beat me to it.
A statement on Clermont Foot 63s website said Costas appointment would allow the club to enter a new era. On the club supporters website, reaction to Costas appointment was a mix of surprise and a certain cynicism. In my opinion, its just a publicity stunt to get people talking about the club and she wont last the season. I find it hard to believe shell be able to get the players respect, above all when shes the same age as the oldest, wrote one fan. Her CV isnt bad, but now the question is: will she be good enough? added another. A third wrote: I wish her welcome and success but I think itll be hard for her to make her mark as a woman in such a macho business.
But Soulier was hopeful: Hopefully, with the new manager, the club can find the motivation theyre lacking at the moment, she said. The boys in the team can be difficult to manage. With a woman in charge, maybe theyll be less demanding.
If Costas reputation is anything to go by, she will be the one making the demands. After doing work experience at Chelsea during her compatriot Jos Mourinhos first time as manager of the club between 2004 and 2007, she was described as Mourinho in a skirt. Costa quickly dismissed the description. Like Mourinho, I always want to win. As far as thats concerned, yes, Im happy to be compared with him, she said.


1 Passing clouds
One of the good things about flying is seeing clouds very close. They seem to be light, but they carry a lot of water – around 500 tonnes in a small cloud. And water is heavier than air. So why don’t clouds fall out of the sky like rain? They do, but they take a very long time. An average cloud would take a year to fall one metre.
2 On cloud nine
Most of us are happy to call clouds “fluffy ones” or “nasty black ones”, but there are more than 50 cloud types. The 50 cloud types fit into nine categories. Cloud nine is the very big cumulonimbus, so to be “on cloud nine” means that you are on top of the world or very,
very happy.
3 Around the rainbow
The best place to see a rainbow is from a plane. Rainbows are made when sunlight hits raindrops. We see a bow because the Earth is in the way, but, from a plane, a rainbow is a complete circle.
4 Mr blue sky
Sunlight is white. It includes all the colours of the spectrum. As it passes through air, some of the light is scattered. Blue light scatters more than other colours, so the blue looks like it comes from the sky.
5 There’s life out there
We usually only see clouds and other planes from a flying aircraft’s window, but the air is full of bacteria – 1,800 different types of bacteria.
6 Turbulence terror
Even someone who flies all the time can feel sick because of turbulence. The good news is that no modern airliner has ever crashed because of these sudden and violent movements of air. People have been hurt when they are not strapped in or falling luggage may hit them – but the plane is not going to fall out of the sky.
7 You can’t cure jet lag
The world is divided into time zones. When you take a long flight, the difference between local time and your body’s time causes jet lag. But jet lag can be reduced if you keep food bland for 24 hours before travel, drink a lot and live on your destination time from the moment you get on the aircraft.
8 Supersonic 747s
Many of us have travelled faster than sound. There are many jet streams in the air around the Earth, especially on the journey from the US to Europe. A jet stream can move as fast as 250 miles per hour. If an airliner flying at 550mph enters a jet stream, the result can be that the plane flies at 800mph. That’s faster than the speed of sound.
9 Flying through time
Flying across time zones means that we travel through time. But this time travel is so small that crossing the Atlantic every week for 40 years would only move you 1/1,000th of a second into the future.
10 Terrible tea
Don’t blame the cabin attendant if your tea isn’t great. Water should be just under 100°C when you pour it on to tea leaves – but that isn’t possible on a plane. It’s impossible to get water hotter than 90°C during flight – so choose coffee.
11 I can’t hear my food
People often say that airline food is bland and without taste. But some of the problem may not be bad food. A plane is a noisy place and food loses some of its taste when there are loud noises.
12 Needle in a haystack
With modern technology, it seems strange that Malaysian flight MH370 could disappear – but finding a missing aircraft is a needle-in-a- haystack problem. The plane knows where it is but it does not send this information anywhere. The problem is not technology – the problem is that there is no law that says that planes must send this information.
13 Volcanic fallout
Air travel can be cancelled by volcanic activity. Ash melts in the heat of the engine, then solidifies on the rotors. It is very dangerous to ignore the volcanic ash.
14 The wing myth
For many years, we taught the wrong explanation for the way wings keep planes in the air. But now we know that a plane stays in the air because of Newton’s Third Law of Motion. The shape of the wing pushes air down. As the air is pushed down, the wing gets an equal and opposite push up, and this lifts the plane.


Japanese entrepreneur Takahito Iguchi thinks Google Glasses are not cool. He may be right. There’s already a website with pictures of people wearing them – the people look ridiculous or smug or, more often, both. If you search Google Images for Google Glasses, one of the first pictures is of a large, naked man wearing them in the shower. Iguchi hopes that this is Google’s weak point. He has designed some glasses that are a bit more stylish and a bit more Japanese.
Iguchi’s glasses aren’t really glasses – they are a piece of metal with a camera and a very small projector. The glasses are called Telepathy One. Since he first presented them to the public in Texas, they have attracted $5 million from investors. Like Glass, you will be able to buy Telepathy One in 2014.
It’s a more simple version of Google Glass. Glass has many uses – you can surf the internet, read emails, take photographs – but Telepathy will be “more of a communication machine”. Connected to your phone, it will allow real-time visual and audio sharing. You’ll be able to post photos and videos of what you see on Facebook or send them as an email. Or see and speak to a video image of a friend.
“It will help bring you close to your friends and family. We are very focused on the communication and sharing possibilities,” says Iguchi, who has worked in the Japanese technology industry for 20 years. “I’m a visionary,” he says. “I have a dream that people will understand other people. When I go to London, I am a stranger. But I believe that everyone wants people to understand them and to understand other people. And, with the glasses, you can know more information about people before you even speak to them.”
When Iguchi was growing up, Japanese technology ruled the world: they had the Sony Walkman, which was as popular as the iPhone. Now, to compete, he has had to leave Tokyo and go to Silicon Valley. “Tokyo is very rich in fashion and culture, but it’s still an island. It’s isolated. There is no way to expand. But, in Silicon Valley, everyone is from everywhere. It’s where you come to connect with the world.” They will make the glasses in Japan and the software in the US.
It was easy to build the prototype of Telepathy One, Iguchi says. “We have every sort of technology in Tokyo. The problem is presenting it to the world.” The top manufacturers all want to work with him, he says, because they have the technology, they just find it difficult to sell it. “There needs to be a story to the product. Apple had a story with the iPod – 1,000 songs in your pocket. And Steve Jobs was inspired by Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, and he inspired me, so maybe it will come in a circle.”
Like Steve Jobs, Iguchi is a confident man, but his strong Japanese accent makes it difficult to understand him. It is possible that this fact helped him to find the idea for Telepathy One. When he visited London, he stayed with someone he didn’t know. “He was not my friend, but I talked with him for three hours, and now he is my friend. That is how long it takes to understand each other, to share our feelings, and background, and career. Maybe Telepathy makes that quicker. If you are getting information from the cloud and social networks, that will happen more easily.”
Iguchi hopes that Telepathy One will help people see other people’s point of view.
As a student, he explains, he studied philosophy during the day and taught himself how to code at night. “And, one day, I opened the door of my apartment and I suddenly realized that everything is code. Everything is coded and can be shared between humans. And everything can be encoded and decoded. And, if code can be exchanged between humans, that will end all war.”


A new report says that almost one billion people will remain in extreme poverty by 2030 if countries don’t try to solve the social, economic and cultural problems that keep them poor. The report by the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network says that many people may rise above the poverty line of $1.25 a day, but fall back again when they have problems such as drought or illness and insecurity or conflict.
The report found that, in parts of rural Kenya and in South Africa, 30 to 40% of people who escaped from poverty fell back again. This percentage rose to 60% in some areas of Ethiopia between 1999 and 2009. Even in successful countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, the proportion was 20%.
Individual examples show how easy it is for people to fall back into poverty. Amin is from a village in Bangladesh. His income has fallen slowly, because of his illness and his wife’s illness, the cost of his son’s marriage, the death of his father and loss of goods such as fishing nets. Lovemore, from Zimbabwe, is now one of the poorest people in his village. He recently lost his job because of ill health and has to look after his five grandchildren after the death of his daughters.
“We need to make sure that people who come out of poverty remain above the poverty line permanently. Too many families return to poverty when they have personal or bigger problems. Governments shouldn’t assume that, just because somebody’s income hits $1.25, that means the problem is solved,” said Andrew Shepherd, the main author of the report.
According to the UN, the goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 is still possible. But the report says that countries need to make changes to achieve zero poverty. There was a drop in extreme poverty from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 1.2 billion in 2010, but the report says that progress in the next 15 years will be much more difficult. There has been a lot of progress in China but there will probably not be similar progress in other parts of the world.
The report says countries should try to help the chronically poor – those who are poor for many years or their entire lives – and stop people becoming poor. “Governments have been quite good at moving people over the poverty line because that is quite easy. But they have avoided the more difficult job of trying to reduce chronic poverty,” said Shepherd.
The report says progress on poverty reduction has helped people who were already closer to the poverty line, but has helped the chronically poor much less. It will not be possible to get to zero poverty if development policies don’t focus on the chronically poor, it adds. The report suggests three ideas. They all cost a lot of money.
The first is social help – to bring the poorest people closer to a good-enough standard of living. The second is education, from early childhood to the start of work, so people can escape and stay out of poverty. The third is economic growth policies that make sure that the benefits of increasing national wealth reach the poorest people.
All this will cost money and the report says higher taxes will be necessary. Aid will also be necessary for the start-up costs for social assistance, healthcare for everyone and to finance education. “There remains a huge role for aid in the next 20 years, as many developing countries spend less than $500 on each of their citizens a year. Even Nigeria, with its oil wealth, spends only $650 per person,” Shepherd said.
The authors say governments should have a national development plan and make sure the poorest people are represented politically as well as trying to stop difficult social customs, such as dowries and witchcraft, that make extreme poverty worse.


Intermediate
A lonely old man living on the moon is the unusual focus of John Lewiss 2015 Christmas advert.
There is increasing hype around John Lewiss seasonal ad, which has come to mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season for many. The department store will aim to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Age UK. It will also encourage staff and customers to join up with their local branch of the charity to care for elderly people who might be alone over the holiday.
The department store has spent 7m on a campaign that ranges from the TV ad to a smartphone game and merchandise, including glow-in-the-dark pyjamas, as well as making areas that look like the surface of the moon in 11 of their stores.
After two years of successful ads with cuddly animals  a bear and hare, then a penguin  this time, the store is tugging at the heartstrings with a story of a young girl, Lily, who spots an old man living in a shack on the moon through her telescope. The determined child tries sending him a letter and firing a note via bow and arrow, before floating him a present of a telescope tied to balloons, which finally allows them to make contact.
The ads message is: Show someone theyre loved this Christmas, which echoes Age UKs own campaign: No one should have no one at Christmas. Profits from three products  a mug, gift tag and card  will go to the charity.
Rachel Swift, head of marketing at John Lewis, said that people talk about the charity at this time of year and the ad makes you think about someone who lives on your street that might not see anybody.
The campaign features the Oasis track Half the World Away reinterpreted by Norwegian artist Aurora.
The ad cost 1m to make. The moon scenes were shot at the Warner Bros Studios, where the Harry Potter films were made, and the specially built set was created by one of the team behind the latest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.
As in the last few years, John Lewis has drummed up interest in their most recent ad with a teaser campaign on TV and social media using the hashtag #OnTheMoon. A full moon will fall on Christmas Day 2015  a complete coincidence, according to Swift.
In 2014, the retailer also spent 7m on a campaign with a realistic animated penguin and a young boy playing together to the tune of John Lennons Real Love, sung by British singer-songwriter Tom Odell. It had drummed up 22m views on YouTube by the first week of January  more than the 16.6m views of Sainsburys ad with First World War soldiers sharing a bar of chocolate, the UKs second most popular ad of 2014.
Swift said that, despite the hype, John Lewis had kept the same strategy for the last five years. Its all about thoughtful gifting and going the extra mile for someone you love at Christmas, she said. We dont go into it thinking, This is going to be huge, just getting something right for the brand at this time of year and something we hope customers really love.
Sarah Vizard, news editor of trade journal Marketing Week, said John Lewis appeared to have simplified efforts this time, with a lower-key presence in stores despite a growing number of competitors. There are definitely a lot more brands doing Christmas ads this year but I think a lot of those brands who tried to compete with John Lewis by doing something emotional and creative have gone back to what you can buy in store, she said. John Lewis still does the emotional piece the best. This campaign is another great way of communicating that in a way that customers can relate to. I think people will think it is really cute.


Intermediate
You can see a thick layer of bird droppings inside one of Britains most expensive properties. Pigeon skeletons lie among shattered mirrors and water streams through broken walls. This is The Tower, a 30m palace in Billionaires Row in north London, whose spectacular ruin has been kept secret until now.
It is one of ten mansions in the middle of The Bishops Avenue that have stood almost completely vacant since they were bought a quarter of a century ago, it is believed for members of the Saudi Arabian royal family. Their Grecian columns are cracking into pieces and mosaic-tiled swimming pools are filled with rubble. Nature has taken over and owls have moved in.
It is a sad scene repeated up and down the avenue that Lloyds Bank has calculated is the second most expensive street in Britain. While more and more people struggle to get on to Londons property ladder as house prices rise at 11.2% a year, 16 mansions on the most expensive part of The Bishops Avenue are empty, many behind locked gates, their overgrown grounds guarded by dogs.
Across the street stands another derelict mansion, worth 18m, with smashed windows and walls painted with anti-climb paint. Metal grilles block the windows of another, which has been sold for 20m.
The sight of the derelict properties can be agonizing for people who are struggling to keep a roof above their heads in one of the worlds most expensive cities. One security guard who works on the avenue said it was exasperating to see so many properties  enough to house dozens of people  falling apart.
Oil-rich royals from Nigeria and Saudi Arabia were among the first to come to this road near Hampstead Heath. Iranians fled here after the fall of the shah. Now, Chinese house hunters are following Russians and Kazakhs who have spent millions to get an address that estate agents tell them is as world famous as the Champs Elyses and Rodeo Drive. Recently, two mansions have been on sale for 65m and 38m, promising endless Italian marble, leather-padded lifts and luxury panic rooms.
However, in the gardens of the empty mansions, stone fountains crumble. Inside one mansion, water drips through a huge crystal chandelier onto a thick carpet rotting under sections of collapsed ceiling. Moss grows through shattered bricks and mirrored tiles are lying on a bathroom floor. The swimming pool is filled with dirty water and has flowers growing through its tiles. The wood in the sauna is coming off the walls.
But it is the ruin of The Towers, a grand mansion set among acres of trees, that is most dramatic. Its huge, high-ceiling halls are occupied by pigeons and its walls have been turned bright green by algae. Unopened wooden boxes marked bullet-proof glass show the security fears of the previous owners.
Today, very few people live on The Bishops Avenue full time. A security guard patrolling the pavement outside one mansion said that the owners were not there. Another, outside Royal Mansion, would not say if anyone was home, while a member of staff at another mansion simply warned the Guardian about the guard dogs. Magdy Adib Ishak-Hannah, whose personal wealth is 45m, said he was in the minority of permanent residents.
Its not a neighbourly place, where you can chat over the fence, he said. To be honest, I have never seen what my neighbours look like. Next door, a Saudi princess spent 35m on a new house and Ive never seen her. There are about three houses that are lived in 24/7 and half of the properties are occupied three to six months a year. The other half, who knows if they come or not?
The multimillion-pound ruins are evidence of a property culture in which the worlds richest people see British property as investments.
Nevertheless, the talk on the avenue is about building 5m apartments, instead of 50m mansions, in an effort to bring people back.
Anil Varma, a local property developer, has decided to rebuild one of the most valuable sites on the avenue as a collection of 20 apartments with a concierge, maid service, 25-metre pool, spa and cinema.
If you build a big house and try and sell for 30m to 40m, it wont sell, he said. Locals wont buy and so you have to bring in overseas buyers.
But nobody plans to use the avenues empty property to help solve the housing crisis. Andrew Harper, a local Conservative politician, laughed when he was asked whether some of the derelict housing could become cheap homes. He said the price of the land is far too high.


Intermediate
An international agreement to improve safety in Bangladeshs clothing factories could face legal action because factory owners are demanding compensation for the cost of closures and repair work. Some repair programmes are expected to take months and factory owners say they cannot pay staff while factories are closed, as well as paying for major works needed to ensure that buildings are safe. The building repairs are happening in the wake of the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, in 2013, in which 1,138 people were killed.
The problems come as hundreds of Bangladeshi clothing factories per month are inspected for firesafety and structural problems under the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which is supported by over 170 international brands, including Primark and Marks & Spencer, and international trade unions, including IndustriALL.
The owner of one Dhaka-based factory, Softex Cotton, has said he will take legal action against the Accord because his factory was closed down due to structural problems. He is demanding $100m in compensation.
Another factory owner said that, once a factory closed its doors, even for a few months, it would lose orders and close permanently: There is no such thing as temporary closure, he said. The factory owner said that the Accord agreement had pussyfooted around the issue of who paid for factory closures because they just wanted to get as many brands as possible to sign up to a deal in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster. He said there was no clear process in place to pay the costs involved.
Jenny Holdcroft, policy director for IndustriALL, which has been closely involved in the Accord, said that the agreement ensured that factories would not lose orders during closure because brands had committed to maintain orders with suppliers for two years.
Twelve factories have been identified by the Accord as needing significant work so far, but Holdcroft said many of those only needed partial closure and production could continue on other floors. The Accord also legally requires brands to ensure that workers are paid during factory closures. She said the detail on who would make payments had been left open in order to ensure that all those factory owners who could afford to pay for repairs and compensation for workers made the necessary payments.
This was always going to be a topic of negotiation. Brands dont want to commit to paying so that rich factory owners who have just pocketed the profits and not been spending on their factories for years continue to do so. There was obviously going to be disruption. If there was no disruption, there would be no change, she said. A spokesman for the Accord said negotiations over payments and even legal action would not hold up its work to improve safety in factories.
However, pressure on the Accord to contribute to the payment of displaced workers has increased after a rival factory-safety group, backed by US retailers including Walmart and Gap, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, set aside $5m to help pay factory workers for up to two months while buildings are improved. It has, so far, identified five factories in four buildings where production needed to be suspended.
The Alliance is sharing the workers salary along with entrepreneurs so now there is a big confusion. We had a big meeting with the Accord to make them understand they have to come forward or how will we help our workers? said Shaidullah Azim, a director of the Bangladeshi Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.


Intermediate
After being told again that the beer she wanted would be too dark and too strong for you  have something sweeter, Rebecka Singerer was really annoyed.
No, I dont want a fruit beer. Women can drink whatever they want, she says.
Now Singerer, a childminder, has joined FemAle, a group of like-minded drinkers in Gothenburg, to make and sell Swedens  rst beer made by women.
We Can Do It, a bottled pale ale, has just gone on sale in stores across Sweden. Its label is similar to Rosie the Riveter, the creation of a US Second World War propaganda campaign that became a symbol of womens power at work.
The groups founder is Elin Carlsson, 25, who paints cars at the Volvo factory outside the city. We Can Do It is not a female beer but a beer brewed by women that anyone can drink, she says. Its nothing to do with feminism; its about equality  we wanted to show we can do it.
FemAle is up against decades of prejudice in the beer world. Carlsberg and other big brewers have spent millions in recent years trying to sell beer to women, attempting to appeal to what the companies believe women want. Carlsbergs Eve and Copenhagen beers, Fosters Radler and Coorss Animee were some of the lighter,  avoured and even bloat-resistant beers that were unsuccessful.
FemAles approach is different. They have women-only tastings that allow potential customers to experiment with  avours and styles of beer that they may not normally try. This education process is the way to get more girls into the beer world, the group says. Bring your mother, sister, girlfriend, aunt and grandmother so we all can learn more about beer.
The idea for FemAle came after the women kept seeing each other at beer festivals.
We Can Do It was the brainchild of Felicia Nordstro_m, a bar worker who says she was fed up with male beer snobs telling her: What do you know about beer, sweetie? She talked to FemAle, and they teamed up with Ocean, a local independent micro-brewery. One weekend they came up with the recipe and the next weekend they brewed 1,600 litres.
This is not a beer that is aimed at women  its our hoppiest brew, says Thomas Bingebo, the head brewer at Ocean. When the big breweries target women, it usually fails. This is something completely different.
The rstbottlesofWeCanDoItweresoldout almost before they were brewed. FemAle has already been approached by other breweries who want to brew new beers with them.
Women choose a glass of wine because they dont know what beer is all about; they dont know what to order, says Carlsson. We open up new worlds to them."
The women are part of a brewing explosion in Sweden, which is developing a passion for craft beers. The standard stor stark (large strong) lager is now almost extinct in Gothenburg, the women say, as pubs and bars replace the big brands with a choice of specialist beers.
All the girls are different  there is no typical woman beer-lover. Anyone can do it, says Emma Henriksson, 22, a group member who works in a garden equipment company.
Every pub wants to learn how to reach women, adds Singerer. And Elin has found the way. Its awesome. We feel so proud.


Intermediate
A degree in Spanish got me my fi rst job as a journalist, with an international press agency in Mexico City, but it didnt stop me from making mistakes as a young reporter.
I had just arrived in the Mexican capital after a Greyhound bus journey all the way from New York and the job interview was a test of my language skills. In my new role, day shifts were spent on the streets in political rallies and nights were spent alone in the offi ce, coordinating the news from areas of fi ghting in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the rest of Central America. But, I also had to report on occasional disasters: fi res, fl oods and explosions at firework factories.
It was as a reporter that I soon found out that I was as bad at understanding numbers in Spanish as I was at calculating them in English. Once, when I meant to call the police, I got a Mexican grandmother out of bed at 2am because I had misunderstood a number and dialled a wrong digit. Even worse, there were too many victims in my stories  almost 83 dead in a fi re at 6pm turned out to be as few as 38 by 7pm; 12 people injured in a coach crash soon became two and so it went on. Finally, I got a call from the main offi ce in Washington. I dont know what training you have had, an editor shouted, but has no one ever told you a death toll cant go down?!
Why are numbers in another language such a problem? It may be because of different numbering systems. In German, for example, which belongs to the same Indo-European language family as English, 2.30pm becomes halb drei (half of three) and 21 becomes einundzwanzig (one and twenty). Different number systems can clearly cause confusion.
Some experts believe there is a link between dyscalculia  the diffi culty in understanding arithmetic  and problems learning foreign languages, particularly if languages are learnt by rote. But, some students who struggle to learn languages with a grammar textbook may thrive in a foreign-language setting, where learning is more natural and less reliant on sequences of adjectives, prepositions and so on. In my case, I have always found languages quite easy, apart from the numbers.
But, perhaps its also because you often hear numbers in a non-native language out of context or in isolation. The listener might have switched off from the foreign language and be unable to suddenly tune in. I talked to multilingual friends and found that many can be fl uent in French or Italian when ordering from a restaurant menu, for example, but freeze if they have to communicate numbers, especially over the phone. Numbers seem to be taxing, but no one could really say why.
In my case, my problems with numbers in a foreign language followed me from Mexico to other countries and from Spanish to German and Portuguese. But, in that fi rst journalism job, getting the numbers wrong didnt always add up to failure.
One night, a Mexican colleague learnt that the American consul in the port city of Veracruz was being held hostage at gunpoint in his offi ce. With no senior English-speaking reporter in the offi ce, I had to try to reach the consulate by phone. I got the phone number wrong and I was put through to an extension elsewhere in the building. The identity of the person who took my call was unmistakable: I chatted for 15 minutes to the gunman. I didnt persuade him to put away his gun  but my reputation as a reporter rose overnight.


In Canada’s Arctic, summers are marked by a bright light that bathes the treeless tundra for more than 20 hours a day. For some, it’s a welcome change from the unrelenting darkness of winter. But, for the small but growing Muslim community of Iqaluit, Nunavut, life in the land of the midnight sun poses a real challenge during the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims typically fast from sunrise to sunset.
“I haven’t fainted once,” said 29-year-old Abdul Karim, one of the few in the city who has carefully timed his Ramadan fast to the Arctic sun since moving from Ottawa in 2011. This year, that means eating at about 1.30am before the sun rises and breaking his fast at about 11pm when the sun sets. “The only reason to stop would be if it hurts my health,” Karim said. Pointing to his sizable frame, he laughed as he added: “But, looking at my condition, I don’t think fasting will hurt me.”
As the end of Ramadan draws near for Muslims around the world, much of the holy month’s focus on community work, prayer and reflection has been a constant in communities around the world. But in Iqaluit and the other Muslim communities in the Arctic, the long days have forced a shift in how the element of fasting is approached.
Most in Iqaluit adhere to the timetable followed by Muslims in Ottawa, some 1,300 miles south of the city – following the advice of Muslim scholars who have said Muslims in the far north should observe Ramadan using the timetable of Mecca or the nearest Muslim city. It still means fasting for some 18 hours a day, said Atif Jilani, who moved to Iqaluit from Toronto in 2015. “It’s long days, but more manageable.”
Many in the 100-strong community break their fast together, gathering in the city’s brand new mosque – completed in February amid temperatures that dropped as low as -50C with wind chill – for nightly suppers. As they tuck into traditional foods such as dates and goat or lamb curries, the sun shines brightly through the windows.
It’s a scene that plays out across Canada’s northernmost mosques during Ramadan, as Muslim communities wrestle with the country’s unique geography. The 300 or so Muslims in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories, have several options when it comes to fasting during Ramadan, said Nazim Awan, president of the Yellowknife Islamic Centre, with exceptions made for those who are pregnant or ill. “There might be some superhumans who want to fast for 23 hours, but the other option is to follow the intent and spirit of fasting by following nearby cities or they can follow the times of Mecca and Medina.” In recent years, much of the community has opted to follow the Ramadan timetable of Edmonton, in Alberta. Some, such as Awan – a father of two young children, including a 12-year-old who recently started fasting – follow the timings of Mecca. He hopes to encourage his son with the more manageable timetable of about 15 hours of fasting as compared with about 18 hours in Edmonton.
“If I fast Yellowknife or Edmonton times, my son might say, 'Papa, you are really insane. What are you doing?'” he said. Faced with the impossibility of following the local movements of the sun, the 100 or so Muslims in Inuvik, a small town that sits 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle, have also been following Edmonton’s timetable. “We currently have 24 hours a day of sun,” said Ahmad Alkhalaf. “There’s no sunrise or sunset.”
The adherence to Edmonton’s schedule was already in place in 2001 when he moved from Toronto to the small northern community of 3,500 people. “My first Ramadan here was in December. There’s no sun at that time; it’s dark all day and night. So we used Edmonton time.” At times, it can be psychologically challenging to follow the clock rather than what is happening outside, Alkhalaf said. “You’re supposed to break your fast when it’s dusk and we eat when the sun is out. It’s not usual to have iftar [the meal breaking the fast] when the sun is up,” he said. In Inuvik, where much of the population is Inuit, the Muslim community has sought to strike a balance between Ramadan and the local culture and traditions. The iftar meal includes dates and rich curries – as well as local game such as reindeer, prepared in accordance with Islamic law. “We make a soup or curry … but instead of using beef, we use reindeer.”
In Iqaluit, as the Muslim community prepares to mark the end of Ramadan, some reflect that 2016’s timing – stretching across some of the longest days of the year – has made it one of the more challenging of recent years. It’s particularly true for those like Karim who have determinedly followed the local sunrise and sunset. But, his efforts will be rewarded years from now, said Karim, thanks to the lunar calendar. Ramadan will eventually fall during winter, which, in Iqaluit, sees the sun rise and set within a few hours each day. “I’ll follow those hours, too,” he said with a laugh. “Oh yes, definitely.”


Intermediate
Margaret Thatcher, the best known British prime minister since Winston Churchill in 1940 and a global supporter of free market economics, has died. The British government announced that she would receive a ceremonial funeral at St Pauls Cathedral.
The British prime minister, David Cameron, said: It was with great sadness that l learned of Lady Thatchers death. Weve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton. He added: As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and she didnt just lead our country, she saved our country. He added that he believed she would be remembered as the greatest British peacetime prime minister.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said, Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we can shape the currents of history with our moral beliefs, courage and iron will.
The first woman elected to lead a major western state, Margaret Thatcher served 11 years at No 10 Downing Street before members of her own party removed her in 1990.
Thatcher, who was 87, had been in poor health for some years, suffering from dementia. When they heard of her death, politicians from all parties sent tributes.
Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, said: She will be remembered as a unique figure. She reshaped the politics of a whole generation. She was Britains first woman prime minister. She moved the centre ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage. The Labour Party disagreed with a lot of what she did and she will always be a controversial figure. But we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength.
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said: Margaret Thatcher was one of the most important figures in modern British politics. Whatever party you support, no one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served.
Describing her as a political phenomenon, the former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major said: Her outstanding characteristics will always be remembered by those who worked closely with her: courage and determination in politics, and humanity and generosity of spirit in private.
The Iron Lady was a cold war ally of the US president Ronald Reagan in the final showdown with the Soviet Union, which broke up as a result of reformist pressures led by Mikhail Gorbachev, a Kremlin leader with whom Thatcher famously said she could do business. As a result, many ordinary voters in ex-Soviet bloc states saw her as someone who supported their liberty.
Thatcher was an unremarkable Conservative until she unexpectedly became party leader in 1975. Within ten years, she had become known around the world  both admired and hated  for her pro-market reforms in the UK and her implacable attitudes in foreign policy, including her long battle with the IRA, which almost succeeded in murdering her with a bomb in 1984.
At home, Thatcher was associated with denationalization of state-owned industry  the new word privatization became used in many countries  and defeat of militant trade unions, particularly the National Union of Miners, whose one-year strike (198485) was traumatic. With money from Britains North Sea oil fields, Thatcher was able to change the ageing industrial economy and she used the opportunity to defeat her enemies  including moderate members of her own party.
In the European Union she got a rebate for Britain  my money as she called it. She was less successful in controlling the European Commission, who wanted to centralize power in Europe, especially in the years when it was led by the French socialist Jacques Delors.
As the British economy recovered from the very bad recession that her policies had caused, she seemed invincible for a short time. But unlimited power and the defeat or retirement of allies led to mistakes and increasing unpopularity. When her deputy finally fell out with her  mainly on the subject of Europe  his damaging resignation speech led to a leadership challenge. After a vote among Conservative MPs failed to support her, John Major took control of the party.
After she retired, she wrote highly successful memoirs and campaigned energetically for the Thatcher Foundation, which aimed to promote her values around the world.


A fifth of young adults in the UK are staying in the family home until they are at least 26 and a fifth are not paying any rent. A recent survey found that the percentage of adults who live at home was different in different parts of the country – it was less than 9% in the East Midlands and more than double that in London, where house prices and rents are highest. Many young people pay their parents some money to live at home but 20% pay nothing at all.
Young adults are suffering from low wages and high rents. The cost of renting is too much so young people who want to buy a house can’t save enough to get on the property ladder. Recent research showed half of tenants were unable to save any money for a deposit and a quarter could only save £100 or less each month. Mortgages are cheaper than ever before but people who have large deposits still get the best mortgages.
As a result of this, more and more young adults are returning to the family home to save money. And, parents who cannot afford to give their children money for a deposit seem happy to let them live at home again. The survey found that 28% of adults live at home because they are trying to save for a deposit. But it also found that 30% are not saving any money.
Michael Day, 30, who lives with his parents in Bristol, says it’s difficult to save for a mortgage deposit when rents are so high. Rents for a one- bedroom home in the city are between £500 and £800 a month. Buying a similar flat would cost about £130,000. “I don’t really want to move out to rent because it’s more than a mortgage but you need such a big deposit to get a mortgage.”
Sue Green, who works for Saga, a business that sells insurance to people over 50, said most parents did not think their children would live with them in their 20s or 30s. “Most will be more than happy to have them in the family home rent-free because it might help their kids get on the property ladder sooner,” she said. “Children who don’t pay rent may pay for other things like groceries or they may do odd jobs around the home.”
Angus Hanton, of the Intergenerational Foundation, said older people caused the housing crisis and we should not blame younger people for staying at home. “The under-30s earn, on average, 20% less since the 2008 downturn. Rents and car insurance have never been so high,” he said, “and many jobs – zero-hour and short-term contracts – turn younger workers into second-class citizens.”
Jenna Gavin, 29, lives in the family home where she grew up. She works as a medical receptionist nearby so she wants to stay in the area. But renting a one-bedroom flat would cost more than £420 a month not including bills, which would use a lot of her earnings. “I don’t want to rent – I don’t want to spend all that money and have nothing at the end,” she said. “I’ve thought about buying and seen mortgage advisers but I just can’t borrow enough to get on the property ladder.”
She is trying to save for a deposit. “It’s difficult to save enough money – even a 5% deposit is such a lot of money,” she said. Her parents are happy not to ask her to pay rent. “They want me to try to save and I do other things – I buy food and I do things around the house.” She gets on with her parents and has the same room that she had when she was 14 but she said she had always imagined she would have her own home before she was 30.


Women have traditionally had a minor role in professional football but this may be changing. France has just employed its first female professional team manager. It did not matter that it was a second-division club. It did not matter if it was, as some people suggested, just a publicity stunt for a minor team, Clermont Foot 63. Clermont is 14th out of the 20 teams in its league at the moment.
What mattered was that they gave Helena Costa the top job. This has made football history because she is the first female manager in the top two divisions of any professional European league. “As a woman, it’s made me happy,” said Véronique Soulier, president of the club’s supporters’ association. “When I first heard the news, I was surprised, but, then, we all agreed that it’s good news. We all agree that a woman at the head of a group of men is no bad thing.”
The new manager of Clermont Foot 63 was born in Alhandra, Portugal and has a master’s degree in sports science. She is also a UEFA-licensed coach. She previously coached Benfica’s male youth teams, the Qatar women’s team and, more recently, the Iranian women’s national team.
The president of Clermont Foot 63, Claude Michy, gave Costa, 36, a two-year contract. Michy is very good at keeping his club in the news. In 2013, he told everyone the team had signed Messi. They had. Not the Argentinian and Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, but Junior Messi Enguene, a 20-year-old midfielder from Cameroon.
Carolina Morace, an Italian who was the only previous woman coach of a men’s professional team, said: “I don’t know Helena, but, if she has been hired by a team, then it means that she knows how to do her job. I hope that, one day, this can become normal.” Morace played for Italy in 153 internationals. In 1999, she became coach of the men’s team Viterbese. But, after only two games, she resigned from the job because of a disagreement with the club’s owner. She added: “I see too many men, even in the women’s game, who do not have the same expertise as women but are working. And the women are not working.”
Raymond Domenech, former manager of the French national team, said: “Women know how to play football and how to manage and are good at doing it. Why shouldn’t they manage men’s teams? The opposite happens and doesn’t cause any problems. It’s a natural choice and reflects our society in which women are equal to men. I say well done to President Michy. I told myself that, if I took control of a club again, I’d hire a woman as my number two. Michy did it first.”
Clermont Foot 63 says that Costa’s becoming the team’s manager will allow the club to enter “a new era”. On the club supporters’ website, reaction to Costa’s becoming the manager was mixed. “In my opinion, it’s just a publicity stunt to get people talking about the club. I find it hard to believe she’ll be able to get the players’ respect, above all when she’s the same age as the oldest,” wrote one fan. “Her CV isn’t bad, but now the question is: will she be good enough?” added another. A third wrote: “I wish her welcome and success but I think it’ll be hard for her to do well as a woman in such a macho business.”
But Soulier was hopeful: “Hopefully, with the new manager, the club can find the motivation they don’t have at the moment,” she said. “The boys in the team can be difficult to manage. With a woman in control, maybe they will be less demanding.”
If we believe Costa’s reputation, she will be the person making the demands. After doing work experience at Chelsea during José Mourinho’s first time as manager of the club between 2004 and 2007, people described her as “Mourinho in a skirt”. Costa’s comment on that description was: “Like Mourinho, I always want to win. In that way, yes, I’m happy to be compared with him.”


When two people on a remote Pacific island saw a small boat washed up on the beach, they decided to take a closer look. Inside the boat, they found a very thin man with long hair and a beard, who said he drifted for 16 months after leaving Mexico, more than 12,500km away.
The man, who was wearing only underpants, told his rescuers that he drifted in the 7.3-metre boat since he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012. A friend died at sea several months before, he said.
“His health isn’t good, but he’s getting better,” said Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student doing research on Ebon Island, one of the Marshall Islands. The man said his name was José Ivan. He said he survived by catching turtles and birds. There was no fishing equipment on the boat, but a turtle was inside when it washed up. “The boat looks like it has been in the water for a long time,” Fjeldstad said.
According to Fjeldstad, the people who found the man took him to a nearby island – which is so remote it has only one phone line and no internet – to meet the mayor. The mayor contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Majuro, the Marshall Islands capital. People at the ministry said that they were waiting for more details and that the man will probably go to the capital.
“He’s staying at the local council house and a family is feeding him,” said Fjeldstad. He also said that the man had a basic health check and had low blood pressure but no serious problems and was able to walk. “We’re giving him a lot of water and he’s getting stronger.”
Fraser Christian, who teaches people how to survive at sea, said that if the man’s story was true, it would be amazing but not unique. It was possible to catch turtles or small fish by hand, he said, because “they will come close to a small boat to shelter underneath it”. Christian advises people who have to eat turtles to start with their eyes – “lots of fluid” – then drink the blood.
The main dangers for castaways are cold and a lack of drinking water. “The basic rule is: no water, no food. You need water to digest protein. If you have no fresh water and it doesn’t rain for a few days, so you can’t collect rainwater, you will die.” Also, some people are more able to survive than others.
Stories of survival in the Pacific Ocean are not rare. In 2006, three Mexicans made international headlines when they were found drifting near the Marshall Islands, also in a small boat. They said they survived for nine months at sea on a diet of rainwater, raw fish and seabirds. But Cliff Downing, who teaches sea survival to sailors, said he wasn’t sure about the latest story. “It just doesn’t sound right to me. There are 1,001 hazards that would make his survival for so long very unlikely.”
More castaways Poon Lim, a Chinese sailor from a British ship that was sunk by a German submarine in 1942, survived 133 days on a wooden boat floating in the South Atlantic. Brazilian fishermen rescued him. In 1971, Scottish sailor Dougal Robertson and his family were sailing to the Galápagos Islands from Panama when their boat was sunk by killer whales. They survived 38 days on a lifeboat. A fishing boat rescued them. In 2006, three Mexican fishermen were found drifting in a small boat near the Marshall Islands, nine months after setting out on a shark-fishing trip. In 2011, two fishermen, aged 26 and 53, from the Republic of Kiribati drifted for 33 days. The US coastguard rescued them. A Panamanian fisherman sued Princess Cruises in 2012 after one of their ships ignored cries for help from him and two other people in their broken boat. He survived 28 days at sea, but his friends both died of thirst.


Intermediate
The UK prime minister, David Cameron, has declared a clear result in the Scottish independence referendum  Scotland voted by a 10.6-point margin against ending the 307-year- old union with England and Wales. The prime minister promised a devolution revolution in Great Britain, as he welcomed Scotlands decision to remain inside the UK. There can be no disputes, no reruns  we have heard the will of the Scottish people, he said in a statement.
Earlier, Scotlands  rst minister, Alex Salmond, remained de ant at a Scottish National Party rally in Edinburgh  he said he accepted Scotland had not, at this stage, decided to vote for independence. He said the referendum was a triumph for democratic politics and he would work with the government in London in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK. We have touched sections of the community who have never before been touched by politics, he said.
The yes campaign won four big successes  it won 53% of the vote in Scotlands largest city, Glasgow, 57% in Dundee and 51% in North Lanarkshire. However, the no campaign was victorious in 28 authorities. It won easily in areas where it was expected to do well, including Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire and Borders, but also in areas that could have gone to the yes campaign, including the Western Isles. In the  nal count, the no camp won 2,001,926 votes (55.3%) and the yes camp won 1,617,989 votes (44.7%).
In his speech, Cameron made clear that there would be constitutional reforms, including in Scotland, but not until after the general election. He also said that Scottish measures would happen in tandem with changes in England. We have heard the voice of Scotland and, now, the millions of voices of England must be heard, he said.
Cameron added: The people of Scotland have spoken and it is a clear result. They have kept our country of four nations together and, like millions of other people, I am delighted. As I said during the campaign, it would have broken my heart to see our United Kingdom come to an end. And I know that feeling was shared by people not just across our country but around the world because of what we have achieved together in the past and what we can do together in the future. So, now, it is time for our United Kingdom to come together and to move forward. A vital part of that will be a balanced settlement, fair to people in Scotland and, importantly, to everyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well.
Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, said the referendum was a vote from the Scottish people for change. We know our country needs to change. We will deliver stronger powers for a stronger Scottish parliament, a strong Scotland. But he said that would go beyond Scotland. We will also meet the desire for change across England, across Wales, across the whole of the United Kingdom.
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said the referendum was not only a new chapter for Scotland within the UK but also wider constitutional reform across the union. He said a vote against independence was not a vote against change. We must now deliver on time and in full the radical package of newly devolved powers to Scotland, he added.
Yet that result raises the risk of further problems  MPs from Camerons Conservative Party are threatening to vote against the prime ministers promise to quickly increase the Scottish parliaments powers and protect its spending.
The UK Independence Party leader, Nigel Farage, said Camerons offer of more devolution for England did not go far enough. The English are 86% by population of this union. Theyve been left out of all of this for the last 18 years. We still have a situation where Scottish MPs can vote in the House of Commons on English-only issues. I think what most English people want is a fair settlement, he said.
Cameron will try to calm tensions when he makes another statement on the result. The prime minister will explain how he will deliver further devolution to Scotland, including giving greater powers over tax and welfare to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. The prime minister wants to move fast to show that the three main UK party leaders will meet the commitments they made during the referendum campaign.
For the no campaign, there was relief: a number of opinion polls in the  nal days of the campaign had said the vote was on a knife-edge. This brought Yes Scotland within touching distance of victory after a dramatic surge in support.


Is this the moment when streaming goes mainstream?
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), only 41 million subscribers used music streaming services around the world in 2014. In the record business, it is the area that is growing the fastest but it is still quite small. Also, many subscribers have streaming as part of a mobile phone package so nobody knows if they use the service or not. Apple hopes to reach 100 million subscribers. The subscription fee would be $120 per year so Apple would earn $12 billion a year. By comparison, the entire global worth of recorded music in 2014 was just under $15 billion. Apple is good at making products go mainstream but it’s not that good.
Is this the end of downloading?
The iTunes Store arrived in 2003 (2004 in Europe). Apple was able to persuade consumers to pay for downloads and it grew a really big business with an estimated 70% market share. Downloads were still 52% of total digital income in 2014, according to IFPI. Apple has most of this – this means it is the biggest music retailer in the world. But download earnings reached their highest point in 2013 in the UK at £283 million and fell to £249 million in 2014.
Download sales fell in the US in 2013 so Apple bought Beats in 2014 because it wanted to move from music ownership (downloads) to music access (subscription streaming). Apple, and the record industry, cannot afford to get rid of the download market yet – so streaming and downloading will have to coexist under the Apple brand. Most people like music but don’t love it enough to pay $120 a year to listen to it. On average, people in the UK, for example, spent just £39.52 on music in 2014. Even Apple will find it very difficult to make people triple the money they spend on recorded music.
Has Apple Connect made Apple the most artist-friendly service?
Apple Connect is somewhere in the middle of YouTube, Facebook and SoundCloud. It allows artists to post music, videos, photos and more to their profile pages. Apple has good relations with the music industry and, also, with artists. It has a good reputation among artists. This is a bit different from Spotify – artists from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke to Taylor Swift have criticized Spotify. There is probably going to be a revolution and Apple is trying to make sure it has the support of artists.
Where are the artist exclusives?
Artist exclusives is going to be the interesting bit when Apple Music opens. It will be very important for streaming to have exclusive rights to big albums. Spotify paid a lot of money to get Led Zeppelin and Metallica exclusively. Apple already has the music of AC/DC and the Beatles for download on iTunes but it is uncertain if these two will want to move to streaming. It was an easy decision for artists to give iTunes the download exclusive on an album because most people download music using iTunes. But trying to do that in streaming is not the same thing.
Is this going to kill Spotify?
Some people already believe that Apple Music will destroy competitors like Spotify. But it’s not that simple. Other companies have been offering music streaming for many years but Apple hasn’t – it has no experience of music streaming. The winner of this battle will not be the company with the best service; it will be the company with the most money. Apple’s competitors have an advantage but they are losing a lot of money. Spotify, for example, lost €93.1 million in 2013. But Apple is different – it started 2015 by becoming the most profitable company in business history. It had $178 billion in the bank.


Intermediate
In 2010, the police would only enter the old city in Srinagar wearing body armour. It was at the centre of uprisings by violent separatists, who were fighting for an independent Kashmir. More than 100 people died.
How quickly things change. The same streets are now full of tourists. The Nowhatta mosque is where young people would meet to throw stones at the security forces. Now the mosque will be part of an official walking tour focused on heritage, crafts and markets. Visitors can have their picture taken in the beautiful gardens by the lake. Until the snow melted, the ski resorts nearby were packed with rich Russians, too.
In 2002, only just over 27,000 tourists dared to visit the Kashmir Valley. People were frightened by the anti-Indian insurgency, in which almost 70,000 people have died. So far in 2012, the area has received almost one million tourists  more than 23,000 of them from outside India. But there were fewer than 150 Britons  mainly because the UKs Foreign Office advice deters most travellers by giving a list of recent security problems in the region.
Omar Abdullah, the UK-born Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has asked the British High Commission in Delhi to change its guidelines, but without success. Its frustrating, admitted Abdullah, who has been in charge of Indias most sensitive state since early 2009. Today, unfortunately, as a result of that travel advice, peoples insurance isnt valid when they visit here. 1995 was the last time foreign tourists were murdered in J&K. Six westerners, including two Britons, were kidnapped by Al-Faran, a Kashmiri militant Islamist group. Only one survived.
British citizens have been killed more recently in countries that you still havent stopped people from visiting. I mean, how many British citizens did you lose in 9/11? Did you stop people from visiting New York? Youve lost them in Spain, in Bali, said Abdullah. Weve lost Indians in London. There is still a possibility that al-Qaida could do something stupid, but we havent stopped Indians from travelling to London. There is no reason to say Jammu and Kashmir, or even Srinagar, is an unsafe destination.
Germany relaxed its guidelines for travellers to the region in 2011. Foreigners are usually not direct targets, said Germanys amended advice. At the time, many thought it was a bold thing to say, less than a year after the 2010 disturbances finally calmed down. There was a national holiday on 15 August to celebrate 65 years of Indian independence  in the past, a day fraught with danger in a state where many do not feel part of India. But there was no trouble at the independence celebrations.
Abdullah is confident that tourists are safe in the state, if you take the normal sort of precautions. In other words, do not go trekking near the border that separates the Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of Kasmir. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of the pro-Kashmiri independence party, disagrees with Abdullahs politics. But the two men agree about tourism. At the start of the summer season, Geelani wrote an open letter to tourists that said: Whatever your faith, whatever language you speak and to whatever region you belong  you are our honoured guest, and respecting and protecting guests is not only our moral obligation but an article of faith.
Some visitors may worry about the ethics of having fun in a place where the local people are suffering from record levels of anxiety and mental health problems. But the locals in Srinagar seem to be in favour of tourism. Amjid Gulzar, 26, said Abdullah could search for truth and reconciliation as well as encouraging foreign visitors. He must do both; but without tourism, our economy will be in chaos, he said.
We need better infrastructure, better roads, reliable electricity. We need more for tourists to do in the evening  we dont even have one cinema in this city, he said. But will tourists feel welcome? In June, a local Islamic group created a dress code for foreign tourists. Abdullah sighs when I mention this. Nobody wants tourists to come here and cover their faces. I think their basic point was: be sensitive to our cultural identity and dress appropriately. I think thats common sense.
Abdullah said tourism would help the economy. J&Ks economy is in a dire state after more than two decades of conflict. The state receives just 72 million each year in taxes but 155 million is paid in salaries to 500,000 public employees. It is clear why he needs to find more money, fast. But, at the moment, he is just pleased to see tourists back.Im not suggesting that one million tourists here is a sign that everything is back to normal, he said. But it gives me some satisfaction that people can come, have a nice time, and go back.


Intermediate
Swedish prisons have long had a reputation around the world for being progressive. But are the countrys prisons a soft option?
The head of Swedens prison and probation service, Nils Oberg, said in November 2013 that four Swedish prisons will close due to an out of the ordinary fall in prisoner numbers.
Although there has been no fall in crime rates, between 2011 and 2012 there was a 6% fall in Swedens prisoner population, now a little over 4,500. A similar decrease is expected in 2013 and 2014. Oberg said he was puzzled by the unexpected fall, but hoped that the reason was to do with how his prisons are run. We certainly hope that the efforts we put into rehabilitation and preventing criminals from reoffending has made a difference, he said.
The modern prison service in Sweden is very different from when I joined as a young prison officer in 1978, says Kenneth Gustafsson, governor of Kumla Prison, Swedens most secure jail, 130 miles west of Stockholm. However, he doesnt think the system has gone soft. When I joined, the focus was very much on humanity in prisons. Prisoners were treated well  maybe too well, some might say. But, after a number of escapes in 2004, we had to place more emphasis on security.
The Swedes still have a humane approach to sentencing, even of the most serious offenders: jail sentences are not usually more than ten years. Those who receive life imprisonment can still apply to the courts after a decade to have the sentence changed to a fixed sentence, usually between 18 and 25 years. Sweden was the first country in Europe to introduce the electronic tagging of convicted criminals and continues to keep prison sentences short wherever possible by using community-based measures. These have been effective at stopping criminals from reoffending.
The overall reoffending rate in Sweden is between 30 and 40% over three years  to compare that with another European country, the number is around half that of the UK. One thing that has kept reoffending down and the number of prisoners in Sweden below 70 per 100,000 people is that the age of criminal responsibility is 15. In the UK, for example, children aged ten to 17 and young people under the age of 21 have the highest reoffending rates. In Sweden, no young person under the age of 21 can be sentenced to life  this is not the case in many other countries  and they try to keep young offenders out of prison.
One strong reason for the fall in prison numbers might be the amount of post-prison support available in Sweden. A government-run probation service supervises people on probation and provides treatment programmes for offenders with drug, alcohol or violence problems. The service is helped by around 4,500 members of the public who volunteer to befriend and support offenders under supervision.
I spoke to a former prisoner who now runs a group called X-Cons Sweden. Peter Soderlund served almost three years of a four-year sentence for drug and weapons offences before he was released in 1998. He was helped by an organization run by other former prisoners called Kris (Criminals Return Into Society).
Both organizations work with the same goal: helping prisoners successfully fit back into society after they have been released. And what is life like for the prisoner in Sweden? When I was inside, I was lucky. says Soderlund. In Osteraker Prison, where I served my sentence, we were treated well. But I knew that not all Swedish prisons were like that. I met so many people in there who needed help  after I received help from Kris, I knew I wanted to help others. With X-Cons, we meet them at the prison gate and support them into accommodation and offer a network of support.
In Sweden, we believe very much in the idea of rehabilitation, says Gustafsson. Of course, there are some people who will not or cannot change. But, in my experience, the majority of prisoners want to change and we must do what we can to help them.


The Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a bill that would provide for increased transparency of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of US phone records but allow the controversial practice to continue. Sponsored by Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, the bill lets the NSA continue to collect phone metadata of millions of Americans for renewable 90-day periods and allows the government to retain it. Some legislators have alternatively proposed letting phone companies hold the metadata. It passed the committee by an 11-4 vote, paving the way for a full Senate vote.
The bill allows analysts to search through the data if they suspect there is a 'reasonable suspicion' that a suspect is associated with international terrorism. Additionally, the bill allows the NSA to continue surveillance begun on foreigners outside the US if they enter the country 'for a transitory period not to exceed 72 hours'.
The bill is a direct challenge to one introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy that would end domestic phone-records collection. It was also opposed by leading Intelligence Committee member Mark Udall, who said it did not go far enough. “The NSA’s invasive surveillance of Americans’ private information does not respect our constitutional values and needs fundamental reform, not incidental changes. Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee does not go far enough to address the NSA’s overreaching domestic surveillance programmes,” Udall said.
Another Democratic member of the committee, Ron Wyden, said the bill maintains “business as usual” and “remains far from anything that could be considered meaningful reform”. Feinstein defended the NSA bulk collection programme, but said there was a need to rebuild public trust. “The NSA call-records programme is legal and subject to extensive congressional and judicial oversight, and I believe it contributes to our national security,” she said in a statement. “But more can, and should, be done to increase transparency and build public support for privacy protections in place.”
In her statement, Feinstein said the bill would also make a number of improvements to transparency and oversight on the NSA, including: requiring an annual public report of the total number of queries of NSA’s telephone metadata database and the number of times the programme leads to an FBI investigation or probable cause order; requiring that the foreign intelligence surveillance court impose limits on the number of people at NSA who may authorize or query the call-records database; establishing criminal penalties of up to ten years in prison for intentional unauthorized access to data acquired under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by the United States; mandating the FISA court impose a limit on the number of contacts an analyst can receive in response to a query of bulk communication records.
After the committee’s hearing had ended, Feinstein strongly endorsed the NSA’s main domestic programme. “I think there’s huge misunderstanding about this NSA database programme, and how vital it is to protecting this country,” she told reporters.
Concern over the Intelligence Committee’s bill was expressed by independent legal experts, who said the stage was now set for a showdown with the USA Freedom Act, a bill introduced by Leahy and Jim Sensenbrenner that would prohibit bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records.
Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice said: “The Intelligence Committee bill and the USA Freedom Act present two opposing visions of the relationship between law-abiding Americans and the national security state. The fundamental question is: should the government have some reason to suspect wrongdoing before sweeping up Americans’ most personal information to feed into its databases? Leahy and Sensenbrenner say yes; Feinstein says no.” Wyden suggested that recent concern about NSA spying on foreign leaders had distracted from the real focus on mass domestic surveillance in the US. “The statements that American intelligence officials have made about collecting on the intentions of foreign leadership, that’s consistent with the understanding I’ve had for years, as a member of the Intelligence Committee,” he said. “That has implications for foreign policy. My top priority is ending the mass surveillance, digital surveillance, of millions and millions of law- abiding Americans.”
Feinstein unexpectedly announced that she was “totally opposed” to the foreign leader spying of the sort the NSA conducts of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Feinstein has been a staunch supporter of the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
“Americans are making it clear, that they never – repeat, never – agreed to give up their constitutional liberties for the appearance of security,” Wyden said. “We’re just going to keep fighting this battle. It’s going to be a long one.”
Separately, Feinstein said that James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, had agreed to provide her in writing with a statement about a Washington Post story that alleged the NSA had intercepted data in transmission between Google and Yahoo data centres. She said she was withholding judgement on the story until she saw Clapper’s rebuttal. Her strong endorsement of the domestic phone records collection indicates that the powerful Senate Democrat is not yet prepared to expand the criticism of the NSA that she has launched, “totally opposing” its surveillance of foreign allied leaders – a more traditional intelligence activity than bulk phone metadata surveillance.
Wyden would not comment on the Washington Post report on the Google and Yahoo intercepts. But the senators suggested it had implications for the privacy of Americans’ communication. “Decades ago, countries had their own kinds of communication systems. Now that you’ve had the merger of global communications, I think you’re going to have a lot more challenges spying on foreigners with implications for US citizens,” Wyden said.


Noise emanating from passing ships may disturb animals such as killer whales and dolphins far more than previously thought, with new research showing that the animals’ communication and ability to find prey could be hampered by the underwater din. The low rumble of passing ships has long been connected to the disturbance of large whales. But, US researchers have documented persistent noise also occurring at medium and higher frequencies, including at 20,000Hz where killer whales, also known as orcas, hear best.
These noise disturbances could be hindering the ability of killer whales to communicate and echolocate – the process of using sound to bounce off objects such as prey and identify where they are. Dolphins and porpoises, which also operate at higher frequencies, may be suffering the same problems. The findings suggest that the noise could well affect the endangered population of killer whales that are found near the shipping lanes. A population of just 84 killer whales forage up the US west coast and into Puget Sound.
“The main concern relating to this is that even a slight increase in sound may make echolocation more difficult for whales,” said Scott Veirs of Beamreach, who led the research. “That’s worrying because their prey, chinook salmon, is already quite scarce. Hearing a click off a salmon is probably one of the most challenging things a killer whale does. Hearing that subtle click is harder if there’s a lot of noise around you.”
The researchers used underwater microphones to measure the noise created by about 1,600 individual ships as they passed through Haro Strait, in Washington State. The two-year study captured the sounds made by 12 different types of vessel, including cruise ships, container ships and military vehicles, that passed through the strait about 20 times a day.
Some ships are quieter than others but the average intensity of noise next to all the ships was 173 underwater decibels, equivalent to 111 decibels through the air – about the sound of a loud rock concert. Whales are not usually located right next to ships and so would be subjected to noise of about 60 to 90 decibels – around the level of a lawnmower or a vacuum cleaner.
Veirs said scientists have already identified the impact of underwater noise upon baleen whales – a class of fauna containing the largest animals on Earth. But, the new research underlines the threat posed to smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises. “Ships have been thought of as low- frequency sources of noise, like the rumbling of lorries or trains,” he said. “Most noise is at that low frequency but the background noise of the ocean is raised even in the high frequencies. This could be causing a significant problem that we need to look into more.”
There are several knock-on consequences of a noisy marine environment. Whales may have to group together more closely in order to hear each other. And, should they fail to find prey as effectively, they will need to use up their stores of excess blubber. This is problematic as this blubber often contains manmade pollutants that are toxic to whales if released fully into their systems.
Veirs said more work needs to be done to identify how badly the noise is affecting whales and also to quieten the ships that pass near the cetaceans. “It should be easy to reduce noise pollution,” he said. “Military ships are quite a bit quieter and there could be straightforward ways of transferring that technology to the commercial fleet. Another way to reduce noise is to slow down. Decreasing speed by six knots could decrease noise intensity by half.”
While the fortunes of some whale species, such as humpbacks and blue whales, the largest mammal on Earth, have improved as whaling has declined, others are still under threat from a range of factors. The US federal government has recently protected nearly 40,000 square miles of the Atlantic in an attempt to avoid losing the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, a species with just 500 individuals left.
In Europe, killer whales are carrying dangerously high levels of banned polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) chemicals in their blubber. Scientists are still trying to determine whether pollutants caused the deaths of five sperm whales that became stranded on the east coast of Britain in January 2016. Meanwhile, around the coast of Australia, whales face an increased threat from ship strikes and oil and gas drilling, as well as Japan’s recent pledge to resume whaling in Antarctic waters.


The balls have dropped down the chute and all six numbers match, so it’s time to buy that Audi, book the holiday in the US and phone the estate agent. At least, that’s what most lottery millionaires do, according to an analysis of spending and investment by jackpot winners.
Since its launch in 1994, the lottery has created 3,000 millionaires who have won more than £8.5bn in total, at an average of £2.8m each. The trickle-down effect means that between them they have created a further 3,780 millionaires among their children, family and friends, according to the authors of the study, Oxford Economics.
Most winners (59%) give up work straight away, but 19% carry on doing the day job and 31% do unpaid voluntary work. The good news for the economy is that 98% of winners’ spending remained in the UK. Through their spending on property, vehicles and holidays, it is estimated that each winner keeps six people in a full-time job for a year.
Winners have contributed almost £750m to gross domestic product (GDP), and generated more than £500m in tax receipts for the Exchequer. The bulk of the money went on property, with £2.72bn spent on winners’ main properties, and £170m in paying off existing debt and mortgages.
Maintaining income was a priority, with £2.125bn spent on investments. Gifts to family and friends accounted for £1.17bn, and £680m was spent on cars and holidays.
The study, commissioned by Camelot, the operators of the UK National Lottery, to mark the 3,000-winners milestone, was based on research from 100 £1m-plus winners. It found that in total the 3,000 winners have purchased 7,958 houses or flats in the UK, or 2.7 each, spending £3.3bn. Most winners (82%) changed their main residence, spending an average £900,000.
The new home is likely to come with a hot tub, with almost a third (29%) putting that on their shopping list. A walk-in wardrobe was a must for 28%, almost a quarter (24%) opted for a property behind electric gates, and 22% had a games room, with 7% installing a snooker table.
Larger properties need maintaining, and 30% of winners employed a cleaner and 24% a gardener. A small proportion (5%) employed a beautician.
Audis were the favourite cars of 16% of winners, with Range Rovers and BMWs also popular purchases (11% each), as well as Mercedes (10%) and Land Rovers (5%). Winners spent £463m on 17,190 cars, with the average price of their favourite being £46,116.
Holidays were also a priority. The majority (68%) choose five-star hotels overseas. The US was the favoured destination for 27%, followed by the Caribbean (9%). Closer to home, however, UK caravan sales have benefited. Over the past 18 years, 10% of millionaires have bought a caravan, generating sales worth about £7.4m.
Some winners (15%) have started their own businesses, 9% have helped others to do so, and 6% have invested in or bought other people’s businesses. Businesses started or supported by lottery winners employ 3,195 people, according to the study.
Andy Logan, author of the report, said: “The effect of a win spreads much further and wider than we anticipated. Not only does it transform the lives of friends and family, but each win has a measurable effect on the UK economy, especially with so much of it being spent in the UK. The use of each win creates a ripple effect across this generation and very often the next.”


Intermediate
It is no longer legal to smoke a cigarette inside a bar in the worlds drinking capital, New Orleans, Louisiana. Many other cities have banned indoor smoking but New Orleans is different  it attracts tourists with a let the good times roll attitude. An indoor smoking ban in New Orleans could have unique consequences.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans city government has begun trying to turn down the volume a bit. With the support of neighbourhood groups, the city has begun policing bars and nightclubs more strictly, while, at the same time,  ghting to implement a new noise ordinance.
This is just the wrong time for something like this, complains bar-owner William Walker, who hates the anti-smoking law. Forcing people outside the bar to smoke is going to increase the tension thats already there.
Many of New Orleanss best bars and live music venues are in quiet residential neighbourhoods. This neighbourly coexistence is a big part of what makes New Orleans different and charming. But, recently, this unique social contract has become unacceptable for some people and the fate of New Orleanss musical personality feels at risk.
Martha Wood lives beside a loud bar that hosts live music. I bought the house partly because of the bar so I wont ever complain about the noise, says Wood, who also manages a live-music bar. This bar became one of New Orleanss  rst ever bars legally banned from serving drinks to go, after a series of noise issues in 2013  including complaints about the loud smokers outside.
The Maple Leaf club went smoke-free voluntarily in 2014. The same happened at another club where artists had been demanding smoke-free nights. A lot of the performance venues were already starting to show that consideration to performers so I wish the city would have just let that happen instead of forcing the ban into every corner bar that doesnt host music, says Zalia BeVille, manager of the All Ways Lounge.
Luckily, All Ways has an outdoor patio, unlike Lost Love Lounge, whose owner, Geoff Douville, loves the ban  hed previously felt forced to live with smoke to keep his bar going. Theres no way I could have banned smoking in my bar without a ban throughout the whole city, says Douville. People act like I have that choice, as a business owner. But, if I make that rule, customers walk down the block to a bar with smoking.
Many small business owners also fear smoke- free revenue loss. Smoker Neil Timms owns an English pub and met the smoking ban before, in England. Back home in England, every pub I knew closed within a year of the smoking ban, remembers Timms of the UKs ban, begun in 2007. He doesnt want his pub to close so hes spending money to build a patio.
But Douville feels the ban could be a great business opportunity. There are lots of people who would enjoy coming out to our bar, with our food, but would never come because they didnt want to smell like smoke for the next seven days  were now an option for all those people. Nor does Douville worry about noise complaints: No court is going to say a bar is a nuisance after the city has rati ed a smoking ban that requires you to go outside! he says.
Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, who introduced the ban, disagrees: The responsibility is on the bar-owner to keep their customers respectful outside as well, she says. The owners and bartenders need to tell them to go and have a smoke but be respectful to their communities. The idea that we cant have clean air because it will cause noise problems is ridiculous. We can have clean air without noise problems  I think its about communication and creating partnerships between the communities and the businesses.
Cantrell recognizes that the city is different. How is New Orleans different from the rest of the country? New Orleans is known as a place where you can relax and have fun, she says. New Orleans needs to stand up and say We care about our people. The most vulnerable people who are working in smoky conditions are the backbone of our hospitality industry, which drives the economy in the state of Louisiana.
Many were worried that the police would not have time to enforce the ban. So the health department   will handle bar warnings and  nes. Bar customers are encouraged to  ll out a form or call 311 and to include photographs of illegal smoking. For this reason alone, Neil Timms says hell comply with the ban: I dont want someone to be sitting in the corner smoking and someone takes a photo and gets beaten up.
Unworried, Geoff Douville says that hes used to noise complaints by now. You will see: the nosy neighbours who complain about the noise now are going to be the same ones who wanted the smoking ban. In the end, Douville shares Cantrells optimism. Of course theyre going to complain, he accepts. But it doesnt mean theyre going to win.


DNA taken from the wisdom tooth of a European hunter-gatherer has given scientists an unprecedented glimpse of modern humans before the rise of farming. The Mesolithic man, who lived in Spain around 7,000 years ago, had an unusual mix of blue eyes, black or brown hair and dark skin, according to analyses of his genetic make-up.
He was probably lactose intolerant and had more difﬁculty digesting starchy foods than the farmers who transformed diets and lifestyles when they took up tools in the ﬁrst agricultural revolution. The invention of farming brought humans and animals into much closer contact and humans likely evolved more robust immune systems to fend off infections that the animals passed on. But scientists may have overestimated the impact farming had in shaping the human immune system, because tests on the hunter-gatherer’s DNA found that he already carried mutations that boost the immune system to tackle various nasty bugs. Some live on in modern Europeans today. “Before we started this work, I had some ideas of what we were going to ﬁnd,” said Carles Lalueza-Fox, who led the study at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona. “Most of those ideas turned out to be completely wrong.”
The Spanish team started their work after a group of cavers stumbled upon two skeletons in a deep and complex cave system high up in the Cantabrian Mountains of northwest Spain in 2006. The human remains, which belonged to two men in their early 30s, had been extremely well preserved by the cool environment of the cave. Carbon dating put the remains at around 7,000 years old, before farming had swept into Europe from the Middle East. The timing ﬁtted with ancient artefacts found at the site, including perforated reindeer teeth that were strung and hung from the people’s clothing.
The scientists focused their efforts on the better preserved of the two skeletons. After several failed attempts, they managed to reconstruct the man’s entire genome from DNA found in the root of a third molar. It is the ﬁrst time researchers have obtained the complete genome of a modern European who lived before the Neolithic revolution.
The DNA threw up a series of surprises. When Lalueza-Fox looked at the genome, he found that, rather than having light skin, the man had gene variants that tend to produce much darker skin. “This guy had to be darker than any modern European, but we don’t know how dark,” the scientist said.
Another surprise ﬁ nding was that the man had blue eyes. That was unexpected, said Lalueza-Fox, because the mutation for blue eyes was thought to have arisen more recently than the mutations that cause lighter skin colour. The results suggest that blue eye colour came ﬁrst in Europe, with the transition to lighter skin ongoing through Mesolithic times.
On top of the scientiﬁc impact, artists might have to rethink their drawings of the people. “You see a lot of reconstructions of these people hunting and gathering and they look like modern Europeans with light skin. You never see a reconstruction of a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eye colour,” Lalueza-Fox said.
The Spanish team went on to compare the genome of the hunter-gatherer to those of modern Europeans from different regions to see how they might be related. They found that the ancient DNA most closely matched the genetic make-up of people living in northern Europe, in particular Sweden and Finland.
The discovery of mutations that bolstered the immune system against bacteria and viruses suggests that the shift to a farming culture in Neolithic times did not drive all of the changes in immunity genes that Europeans carry today. At least some of those genetic changes have a history that stretches further back. “One thing we don’t know is what sort of pathogens were affecting these people,” said Lalueza-Fox.
Martin Jones, professor of archaeological science at Cambridge University, said the immunity genes were the most striking result. “There is a no doubt oversimpliﬁed grand narrative that the move from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled farming was initially bad for our health. A number of factors contributed, particularly living closely together with other humans and animals, shrinking the food web and crowding out water supplies. The authors are drawing attention to the role of pathogens in pre-agricultural lives and that is interesting.”