The family has some pests which damage plants of interest to humans. The most famous weevil is the boll weevil, which ruins cotton crops.
The "Ips" genus, feeding on Ponderosa pine, introduces a fungus to the tree. The fungus blocks resin canals, which leaves the weevil free to eat. Resin would normally wash the insects out; it is a defence mechanism. The fungus often kills the tree, and groups of dead trees are a focus for forest fires. In this way the insect is indirectly responsible for serious fires.
The maize weevil, "Sitophilus zeamais", is a major pest. It attacks both standing crops and stored cereal products, including wheat, rice, sorghum, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, peas, and cottonseed.
Over 100 new species of weevil have been found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
4D
4D, meaning the common 4 dimensions, is a concept in mathematics. which has been studied by mathematics and philosophers since the 18th century. Mathematicians who studied four-dimension space in the 19th century include Möbius, Schläfi, Bernhard Riemann, and Charles Howard Hinton.
In geometry, the fourth dimension is related to the other three dimensions of length, width, and depth by imagining another direction through space. Just as the dimension of depth can be added to a square to create a cube, a fourth dimension can be added to a cube to create a tesseract.
4D is also an important idea in physics, developed in the 20th century. In physics, it refers to the idea of time as a fourth dimension, added to the (3D) spatial dimensions. Albert Einstein developed the idea of spacetime by connecting space and time together. The difference is that spacetime is not a Euclidean space, but instead is called "Minkowski spacetime".
Profiling
Profiling is collecting information about someone in order to describe them and/or predict their behaviour and actions. It is often used for criminals or people believed to behaving illegally. More recently used on employees in the work place to improve success
A basic profile consists of an all points bulletin (APB). It is a visual description based on eyewitness information.
A psychological profile is created in the absence of eyewitness information, or in addition to, using evidence to create a picture of the suspect and help the police force to understand how the suspect is behaving.
Predictive profiling attempts to predict which people might commit crimes in the future.
Criminal profiling – criminal profiling is a tool used by police forces to create a picture or idea of a suspect based on eyewitness information and any other evidence they have.
Some people fear profiling is taken too far by police forces and can lead to harassment and arrest based on skin colour, religious beliefs, culture, nation of origin, or any social type or group that can be stereotyped by characteristic behaviour.
Behavioural profiling is used in business to help recruit the right person for a job, to understand how to improve morale and to drive down staff turnover, pinpoint who is ready for development and in precisely which areas; and boost people management abilities.
Kula ring
Kula is a traditional trade method that takes place in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
The Kula Exchange takes place on eighteen islands, including the Trobriand Islands, and involves thousands of people. The traders involved travel by canoe over hundreds of miles to exchange their Kula valuables. These valuables can be in the form of red shells that are traded to the North of the Islands, or in the form of white-shell armbands, which travel to the South of the Islands. Therefore creating a ‘ring’ of moving valuables throughout the islands. The terms of trade change in different regions. For example, some traders have to exchange a white armband for a necklace or must trade a red shell for a white shell armband. There are also differences on who can take part in the trading process such as in the Trobriand Islands their chiefs mainly take part in the exchange process, whereas in Dobu, anyone can take part.
The Kula valuables are mainly traded for social status and recognition in the Island region. The people that an individual trades with become trusted trade partners, creating a strong, potentially life-long relationship between the exchange parties. These relationships need trust to be provided on both sides of the trade and also a mutual agreement of safety and support for each other.
Kula valuables are usually passed on to their trade partners after a certain amount of time, therefore the valuables are always moving around the Kula Ring. The person who originally owned the valuable has full ownership and rights over the item, so he can keep it, sell it or even break it. Every person who therefore receives the item, does not fully own it, as there is always a true owner. This creates a sense of responsibility over how the object is handled by other traders toward the original owner. However, the original owner is sometimes unknown, lost in the Kula Ring.
The ability to take part in the Kula Exchange is not immediately given to just anyone. An individual must “buy” into the system by getting involved in lower trade circles than the Kula.
The Kula valuables are rated by value and age and so are the relationships created through their exchange. Traders will often try to collect valuable and notorious Kula objects that will boost the status of the trader’s name in the Kula Ring. Kula Exchange is based on trust, strong social obligations and the cultural value system. Those who hold on too long to their Kula valuables gain a bad reputation in the system.
The Kula Exchange system determines many social hierarchies and authoritative positions among the trade islands. For example the chiefs living on the Trobriand Islands in the 1970s owned the most shells and also the most valuable shells. Therefore they were responsible for most of the organization and direction of the trade systems in their region. (The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea (1988) by Annette B. Weiner) Also, the ten most influential men among all the islands control about 90 per cent of the Kula items. With this amount of control and competition, relationships between traders become fragile and ruined by manipulation and deceit. (Malinowski, B. (1920). "Kula; the Circulating Exchange of Valuables in the Archipelagoes of Eastern New Guinea". Man (Man, Vol. 20) 20: 97–105).
Fa’afafine
A fa’afafine is a boy who is raised as a girl all the way through adulthood. Historically, this has been classified as a third gender in the tradition of Samoan society.
This usually occurs when there are too many sons and not enough daughters in a family. They identify themselves as females in a male’s body. People from societies that do not recognize a third gender may mistake them for being either homosexual or transsexual.
They take on the role of both male and female in the society e.g. teaching, construction and also domestic work. They tend to have sexual intercourse with both sexes, however rarely with another fa’afafine.
Maslenitsa
Maslenitsa is one of the most popular and cheerful religious holidays in Russia. It originated from pagan times before Russia was converted to Christianity. At first, this holiday was a symbol of the spring solstice but nowadays it is considered a Christian holiday which goes right before the Great Lent. During Maslenitsa people enjoy almost any food, except meat. Usually Maslenitsa lasts for seven days and on the last day of this holiday people burn a doll which is made of branches and straw and dressed in bright clothes. This doll is called “Maslenitsa” and it symbolizes the cold and severe winter. By burning “Maslenitsa” people say goodbye to winter and greet a warm spring.