Can Buildings Be Designed to Resist Terrorist Attack In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are trying hard to solve a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable:Can building be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists? Ten days after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research(MCEER)headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. Visiting the site as part of an MCEER reconnaissance visit, they spent two days beginning the task of formulating ideas about how to design such structures and searching for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged, but still are standing. “Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage, “said M. Bruneau.Ph. D. “ Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks, “he added. Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate in startling detail the monumental damage inflicted on the World Trade Center towers and buildings in the vicinity. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. “This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column there that used to be part of that building“, explained A. Whittaker.Ph. D. “The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor. “ The visit to the area also revealed some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing systems in one of the adjacent buildings was quite rugged, allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris to remain intact. “Highly redundant ductile framing systems may provide a simple, but robust strategy for blast resistance, “he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. “We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse“, said A. Whittaker. “We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it. “ A. Reinhorn.Ph. D. noted that“earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of many buildings in the past. It induces dynamic response and extremely high stresses and deformations in structural components. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may be directly applicable to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now at UB is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present. “

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Telepathy—mind to mind contact 1. Telepathy is the ability to communicate without the use of the five senses(sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste). It is an instinct, and although quite dormant in many of us, we are often capable of tapping into our latent abilities in times of emergency or need. 2. Where this instinct lies is uncertain. Some say that it is located in the huge area of our brains that are wholly unused, whereas others argue that instinct existed before the brain evolved and must therefore lie else—where in the body. 3. When we intuitively know that something is happening, or about to happen, our instinct has kicked in. We are drawing upon resources within the unconscious mind. When the resources of two unconscious minds link together into the same frequency, we call it Telepathy. 4. Telepathy can be either projective or perceptive, we either send or receive. If you know who is calling before you answer the ringing phone, you are probably a good receiver. If you think of a person, and they call you, you are most likely better at sending. 5. You can easily put your abilities to the test. Think of somebody and will them to contact you. Be patient, the other person may not be a good receiver, but they should contact you much earlier than would normally be expected. Or whenever the phone rings, try “feeling“ who’s contacting you. Don’t guess, try to feel the vibrations. However, if neither of these work for you, that doesn’t mean that you are not capable of telepathy. As mentioned earlier, telepathy is most likely to kick in under circumstances of emergency. 6. Telepathic Dreams. Dreams often contain telepathic messages. Two people may both dream of the other, and find that their dreams had a distinct connection. These people are probably mutually linking to the unconscious mind. A projection of the mind a form of astral projection. 7. Telepathy&Relationships. The more people spend time together, the more likely they are to be able to link up to the others mind, especially when separated. There are two reasons for this. One is that they understand the others, mind through time spent together;the other is that there is usually a strong desire to communicate. A. Telepathy is very common in our life B. How does Telepathy formed C. You can test telepathy in daily life D. Telepathy can be sent or received E. Relationships affected Telepathy F. Telepathic Dreams

A. when separated B. when they both dream of the other C. when our instinct and resources within the unconscious mind link together D. only some people have E. to communicate without the use of the five senses F. If you know who is calling before you answer the ringing phone

The Old Gate In the Middle Ages the vast majority of European cities had walls around them. This was partly for defensive【C1】______but another factor was the need to keep out anyone regarded as undesirable, like people with contagious【C2】______. The Old City of London gates were all【C3】______by the end of the 18th century. The last of London’s gates was removed a century ago, but by a【C4】______of luck, it was never destroyed. This gate is, in【C5】______fact, not called a gate at all; its name is Temple Bar, and it marked the【C6】______between the Old City of London and Westminster. In 1878 the Council of London took the Bar down, numbered the stones and put the gate in【C7】______because its design was 【C8】______it was expensive to【C9】______and it was blocking the traffic. The Temple Bar Trust was【C10】______in the 1970’s with the intention of returning the gate home. The aim of the trust is the【C11】______of the nation’s architectural heritage. Transporting the gate will mean physically pulling it【C12】______, stone by stone, removing and rebuilding it near St Paul’s Cathedral. Most of the facade of the gate will probably be【C13】______, though there is a good【C14】______that the basic structure will be sound. The hardest【C15】______ of all, however, will be to recreate the statues of the monarchs that once stood on top of the gate.

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The National Trust The National Trust in Britain plays an increasingly important part in the preservation for public enjoyment of the best that is left unspoiled of the British countryside. Although the Trust has received practical and moral support from the Government.it is not a rich Government department. It is a voluntary association of people who care for the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings of Britain. It is charity which depends for its existence on voluntary support from members of the public. Its primary duty is to protect places of great natural beauty and places of historical interest. The attention of the public was first drawn to the dangers threatening the great old houses and castles of Britain by the death of Lord Lothian, who left his great seventeenth-century house to the Trust together with the 4, 500-acre park and estate surrounding it. This gift attracted wide publicity and started the TrustVCountry House Scheme“. Under this scheme, with the help of the Government and the general public, the Trust has been able to save and make accessible to the public about one hundred and fifty of these old houses. Last year about one and three quarters of a million people paid to visit these historic houses, usually at a very small charge. In addition to country houses and open spaces the Trust now owns some examples of ancient wind and water mills, nature reserves, five hundred and forty farms and nearly two thousand five hundred cottages or small village houses, as well as some complete villages. In these villages no one is allowed to build, develop or disturb the old village environment in any way and all the houses are maintained in their original sixteenth-century style. Over four hundred thousand acres of coastline, woodland, and hill country are protected by the Trust and no development or disturbances of any kind are permitted. The public has free access to these areas and is only asked to respect the peace, beauty and wildlife. So it is that over the past eighty years the Trust has become a big and important organization and an essential and respected part of national life, preserving all that is of great natural beauty and of historical significance not only for future generations of Britons but also for the millions of tourists who each year invade Britain in search of a great historic and cultural heritage.

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Pool Watch Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning. When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a pool-side monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager. In trials at a pool in Ancenis.near Nantes.it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies. Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overheard video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers trajectories. To do this reliably.it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool. “The underwater environment is a very dynamic one, with many shadows and reflections dancing around. “ says McQuade. The software does this by“projecting“a shape in its field of view onto an image of the far wall of the pool. It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory. To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s “pre-alert“ list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen. The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe. Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools, and he was once an underwater escapologist with a circus. “I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives, “he says. But he adds that any local authority spending ￡30, 000-plus on a Poseidon system ought to be investing similar amounts in teaching children to swim.

The question raised in the first paragraph is one______.

The project funded by the National Science Foundation______.

The column mentioned by Dr. Whittaker______.

A surprising discovery made by the investigators during their visit to ground zero is that______.

What Dr. Reinhorn said in the last paragraph may imply all the following EXCEPT that .