Alaska’ Dirty Dollars

Exxon has spent more than $2bn cleaning up ….. oil which spilled from ….. tanker Exxon Valdez, making it one of ….. world's costliest industrial accidents. Much of this money has found its way into ….. pockets of ….. few thousand inhabitants who lived in ….. path of ….. oil slick. Yet Exxon's gold has not brought contentment to their small Alaskan fishing towns. It has set ….. neighbour against …... neighbour and led to ….. allegations that Exxon succeeded in buying off ….. anger of ….. local communities.

….. largest US-based oil company invented ….. novel technique last summer to clean up ….. public relations mess left by ….. March 24 spill. It sprayed dollars around ….. shores of ….. southern Alaska almost as liberally as its supertanker had sprayed ….. oil into ….. clear waters of ….. Prince William Sound. Spending on this scale opened up unsuspected fissures in Alaska's inward-looking towns. Pragmatists were pitched against idealists; newcomers against oldtimers; and, at its crudest, those who welcomed against 35 those who were appalled by ….. chance to take Exxon money. ….. idyllic self-image which these communities harboured - of ….. last great American frontier, where ….. hardy, self-reliant people came to escape ….. modern world - was shattered in ….. process.

….. town of Homer is typical. It has just enjoyed one of ….. most prosperous years since its foundation in 1896 by ….. gold-digging adventurer from Michigan. Yet, like ….. gold rush itself, it is ….. feverish sort of prosperity which has divided Homer's 4,000 inhabitants.

John P. Calhoun, Homer's nervy, chain-smoking mayor, has only recently felt up to ….. task of talking to strangers about ….. impact on his town. ….. economics of ….. spill in ….. short term were very positive. It infused more money into our town than normal. ….. trouble was that not everyone gained to ….. same extent,' explains Mayor Calhoun in his pint-sized office in Homer's city hall.

The Financial Times (BrE)

Pigeons ‘not so bird-brained’

Pigeons can recognize …..individual human faces and ….. expressions on them, showing that they are far more intelligent than hitherto suspected, ….. psychologist said yesterday. 'We showed ….. birds black-and-white photographs of four people, each exhibiting four emotions - happiness, anger, surprise and disgust,' said Prof Edward Wasserman of ….. University of Iowa.

In each experiment, ….. bird was shown ….. picture, and was taught to reply by pecking at one of …... four keys. 'After being rewarded with …..pinches of …..grain for each correct answer, they all learned to identify ….. person and ….. emotion correctly,' he said. If they made ….. wrong identification, they were 'punished' by not being given ….. grain. To make it more difficult, ….. faces were photographed without any special distinguishing features such as …..clothing or jewellery.'

….. people pictured were all about ….. same age; ….. two men and ….. two women, one of each fair-haired, ….. other dark-haired. Their slightly exaggerated expressions showed happiness, with ….. broad grins; anger, with ….. furious, threatening scowls; surprise, with ….. wide open mouths and staring eyes, and disgust, ….. with twisted lips and screwed-up eyes. After each bird had been shown ….. expression on one face, it was shown another photograph and 'asked' whether ….. new face had ….. same expression. Once ….. birds had recognized ….. expressions, they never mistook them.

'….. experiments show that ….. pigeons are more intelligent than any animals except for ….. dogs and primates, 'Prof Wasserman said. 'We suspected this since, in ….. countryside, they can tell ….. difference between ….. man with ….. shotgun and ….. man carrying ….. walking stick. They showed ….. same amount of ….. intelligence as ….. human babies, who are not born with ….. ability to recognize ….. expressions on ….. people's faces, but have to be taught it. Charles Darwin speculated in ….. last century that some birds might have this ability, but it's amazing to have it proved.'

The Daily Telegraph (BrE)

Fax-mad New Yorkers

Not so long ago, ….. typical New York sign-off used to be 'Have a nice day'. It is fast being replaced by ….. new one: 'What's your fax number?' From Tokyo to London to Los Angeles, ….. craze of ….. facsimile machine is sweeping ….. world, but no city seems to have gone as fax mad as New York. Radio stations, for example, are taking ….. record requests by ….. fax - ….. advantage is that ….. office workers can do it without ….. boss hearing them telephone. To order ….. lunch, you can zap off ….. completed 'le fax menu' to your favourite restaurant. If you are looking for ….. partner for ….. evening you fax your needs to ….. fax-dating service. Down in Greenwich Village, there are even ….. artists busy developing ….. genre of ….. fax art. Half ….. telephone calls from New York to Japan are between ….. fax machines. This being New York, you can also, of course, use ….. machine to communicate with your 'shrink' for some fax therapy.

….. craze, however, has its excesses and various spoilsports are already working on ways of reining in ….. more dubious joys of fax. First, there is ….. danger of faxing in ….. fast lane. ….. police have decreed that under no circumstances may you transmit from your car fax while on ….. move, though of course you may receive.

People in the fax industry are also expecting restrictions on ….. growing menace in ….. new culture - junk faxes. ….. advertising companies which pack your letter box with 'personalized' brochures and telephone you to offer their goods just as you are sitting down to ….. dinner, have latched on to ….. fax with ….. vengeance. Since they are presumed to be affluent, people with fax machines are ….. desirable target. Since machines cannot filter out unwanted callers, they are being increasingly clogged up with unsolicited advertising.

There is another hazard in faxing that can cause embarrassment - ….. wrong number. It can prove ticklish to fax ….. love letter to ….. office machine by …..mistake. More damaging, though, is ….. mis-faxed business letter. Things have gone so far that some experts are predicting ….. imminent 'fax-lash'.

The Times (BrE)