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On top of the World-Imagine Dragons

If you love somebody
Better tell them why they’re here cause
They just may run away from you
You will never know what went well
Then again it just depends on
How long of time is left for you
I’ve had the highest mountains
I’ve had the deepest rivers
You can have it all but not til you move it
Now take it in but don’t look down.

www.vagalume.com.br

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FROM PARIS TO BERLIN

    Public transport is increasingly becoming one of the most crucial forms of transport in the world, with most major cities having a vast network connecting millions. But, for all their perks and uses, they are often plagued with technical issues, delays and overcrowding.

    Now, researchers at the Polytechnic University of Turin have ranked the world’s largest networks to find which move quickest and to identify the most sluggish.

    Berlin and Paris take gold and silver, respectively, in a top ten list dominated by European capital cities. Their average speed was found to be 6.2 and 5.8 km/h whereas Mexico City, languishing at the bottom of the list with a docile 2.4km/h.

    Only Melbourne (ten) and New York (eight) break up the European monopoly when it comes to average travel velocity.

    The study, published in Royal Society Open Science, found that London came out at number seven.

    The English capital fell behind Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Athens and Prague. The top ten was rounded out by New York, Madrid and Melbourne.

    The authors Indaco Biazzo, Bernardo Monechi and Vittorio Loreto write in the study: “In the last decades, the acceleration of urban growth has led to an unprecedented level of urban interactions and interdependence”.

    “This situation calls for a significant effort among the scientific community to come up with engaging and meaningful visualisations and accessible scenario simulation engines”.

    “The present paper gives a contribution in this direction by providing general methods to evaluate accessibility in cities based on public transportation data”.

Adapted from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7399879/European-capital-cities-dominate-list-worlds-FASTEST-public-transport-systems.html Last access: August, 29, 2019.

Is breakfast always a good idea?

By Philippa Roxby

Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but eating it won’t help you lose weight, research suggests

    Those who ate breakfast consumed 260 more
[5] calories per day and gained 1 lb. (approximately 500
kilograms) more than those who skipped it, a review
of previous studies found. But experts say a healthy
breakfast can be a good source of calcium and fiber.
It has also been shown to improve concentration and
[10] attention levels, particularly in children. Breakfast
gives you energy, stops you snacking later in the day
and supplies essential nutrients – so we are told.
Its reputation as the nutritional backstop to our day
stems from observational studies showing a positive
[15] link between people eating breakfast and having a
healthy weight.

    But this new Australian research in the British
Medical Journal, which reviewed the results of 13
separate trials on breakfast eating, weight change
[20] and energy intake, found little evidence for those
views. The findings of the Monash University research
team suggest that skipping breakfast might in fact be
a good way to reduce total daily calorie intake. They
found that breakfast eaters consumed more calories
[25] overall and breakfast skippers did not have a greater
appetite in the afternoon. And they say caution is
needed when recommending breakfast for weight
loss in adults – because it could have the opposite
effect. However, the researchers added that there
[30] were limitations to their study. The participants in the
studies were only followed for short periods – from
between two and 16 weeks – and the difference in
calorie intake between breakfast eaters and skippers
was small. The researchers concluded that working
[35] out the long-term effect of skipping or adding breakfast
to diets still needed more research.

Calcium and fiber boost

    Prof Kevin Whelan, dietetics expert and head
of King College of London’s nutritional sciences
[40] department, says we should not get too hung up on
calorie intake first thing in the morning. “This study
does not say breakfast is bad for the health,” he said.
“Breakfast is important for nutrient intake, such as
cereals and milk which are good for calcium and fiber.”
[45] But the BMJ research did not look at this aspect of
breakfast. “We are not talking about breakfast being
the cause of obesity,” he said.

Available at: https:www.bbc.com/news/health-47070173?intlink_ from_url. Retrieved on: Jan. 31, 2019. Adapted.

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The fantastic appeal of fantasy

The fantasy genre starts where science ends

    Few things can brighten up a dark morning in a Scottish seaside resort during an Atlantic storm. Yet while sheltering in a bookshop from the rain, I had a moment of sunny revelation. Stacked almost as high as my 11-year-old self were copies of The Lord of the Rings, with a cover illustration that promised mystery and magic. That chance discovery started a lifelong love of the fantasy genre¹, both as reader and writer.

    The fantasy genre has had more and more success, but today we’re in the middle of an unprecedented fantasy boom. Sales continue to rise and it is now the biggest genre in publishing. The more rational the world gets, with super-science all around us, the more we demand the irrational in our fiction.

    Fantasy is not simply a case of swords² and sorcery³. Yes, there is that by the shelf. But the genre is as broad as the imagination. The genre starts where science ends.

    “In these modern times, where most of us sit at computers, fantasy books offer a chance to break out of mundane moments,” says Mark Newton, an editor with the genre. “People like to explore themes that go beyond the limited palette that literary fiction claims to offer.”

    A search for the origins of fantasy will usually have academics muttering about Beowulf or Homer’s The Iliad, but they come from a time when all stories were fantasy: gods and monsters and supernatural artefacts with humanity caught in the middle. The first modern fantasy writer is usually considered to be William Morris, in the late 19th Century. But it was the early 20th Century where fantasy really started to gain status.

    Fantasy fiction has always been about visionary ideas. You can get artful words in plenty of literary fiction, but being able to see beyond the boundaries⁴ of the world around us — now that’s a special skill.

    I don’t write fantasy fiction simply to provide a trapdoor⁵ from the real world. For me, the genre is about the reality. But instead of coming up against it, fantasy maps the unconscious aspirations of our modern society through allegory in story- -forms as old as humanity. It’s about turning off the mobile phone and the computer and remembering who we are in the deepest parts of ourselves.

(Mark Chadbourn. www.telegraph.co.uk, 12.04.2008. Adaptado.)

¹genre: gênero. Categoria distintiva de composição literária, como romance, poesia etc.
²sword: espada.
³sorcery: feitiçaria.
⁴boundary: fronteira.
⁵trapdoor: alçapão.

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    The Brazilian culture is one of the world’s most varied and diverse. This is due to its being a melting pot of nationalities, as a result of centuries of European domination as well as slavery, which brought hordes of African migrants across Brazil’s borders to live in and influence the local cultures with their ancient customs and ideas. The European settlers also brought ideas, innovations and belief systems with them, shaping the local societies significantly. All of these different influences have meant that the modern-day Brazilian culture is unique and very complex. 

    At present, Brazil has a population of about 190 million people. Of these, more than half are white (which includes Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish etc... individuals), just fewer than 40% are mixed Afro-Brazilian and white and less than 10% are Afro-Brazilian.

    Brazilians, as a nation, focus much importance on the family structure and the values that are entrenched within that institution. Families are usually large, and even extended family members are close with one another, providing much-needed help and support to each other whenever and however necessary.

    Brazilians are usually rather affectionate, tactile people. Men shake hands with one another, while women are going to kiss each others’ cheeks in greeting. They are going to start with the left cheek and then kiss the right. In business relationships, Brazilian businessmen are going to know one another before committing to long-term business dealings, as they want to know those with whom they deal.

(Texto Adaptado. Disponível em: https://www.brazil.org.za/brazil-culture.html#:~:text=Th e%20Brazilian%20culture%20is%20one%20of%20the%20wo rld's%20most%20varied%20and%20diverse.&text=At%20pr esent%2C%20Brazil%20has%20a,less%20than%2010%25% 20are%20black.. Acesso em: 15 dez. 2020).