Mobile phone users have in recent years enjoyed plummeting rates for local and long-distance calling thanks to new technology and fierce competition among cellular companies. Now several entrepreneurs want to use Internet technology to reduce to pennies the cost of using cellphones to call overseas.
Dialing internationally on cellphones is typically so expensive that the service is used mostly by Businesspeople on expense accounts. But a two-year-old company called i2Telecom, based in Boca Raton, Fla., plans to release a modemlike device this month that effectively turns an international call into a local one by routing it over the Internet.
Another company, Skype Technologies, recently introduced free software that lets people turn hand-held computers into mobile phones by sending calls over the Internet.
Both ventures take to a new level the market-disrupting potential of the technology called voice over Internet protocol. And both will be on center stage at VON Canada 2004, a conference on Internet telephony opening in Toronto tomorrow that will bring together telecommunications heavyweights like Nortel and Bell Canada, as well as dozens of entrepreneurs and media companies.
Using the Internet to route calls could significantly reduce costs, in part, because data and voice traffic will use a single network, advocates say. The shift presents a threat to traditional telephone companies, which have invested heavily in their networks.
Now upstart companies like i2Telecom hope to shake up the cellphone industry in much the same way that Internet calling is challenging long-distance carriers.
"It puts the cellphone providers under attack for the first time," said Rick Scherle, vice president for marketing at i2Telecom. "The land-line guys have been wrestling this technology," he said. "We're telling the cellphone guys that you have to grapple with it now, too."
I2Telecom's product, the InternetTalker MG-3, is about the size of a hand-held electronic organizer and will cost less than $100. Once connected to a phone and a broadband Internet connection, the router can be programmed to recognize three phone numbers, including those of cellular handsets.
When cellphone users call the phone where the InternetTalker is installed, they receive a second dial tone and access to an Internet calling network from which they can dial any phone number in the world. Instead of paying, say, $1.75 a minute to call London directly by cellphone, people using the InternetTalker would pay for only the local call to their Home and just 3 cents a minute, the price of an Internet call on i2Telecom's network. Users can call other i2Telecom subscribers free.
Curiously, cellphone calls routed through the Internet to other cellphones have cleaner signals than cellphone calls sent directly to other cellphones, Mr. Scherle said. Engineers at i2Telecom, who discovered this accidentally, say they believe that by redigitizing the signal, extraneous noise is eliminated.
The new service, however, will not eliminate roaming charges when cellphone users are outside their coverage area. Nor is it likely to offer much savings on long-distance calls if a user has a cellphone plan with unlimited long-distance calling. But the InternetTalker could erode the amount of Business cellular carriers have in connecting international calls. It could also hurt overseas phone companies that rely on fees from American carriers to connect international calls.
"There's a huge impact on the international carriers because a lot of carriers subsidize their capital spending with high fees from international voice traffic," said Daniel Briere, the chief executive of TeleChoice, a consulting firm in Mansfield Center, Conn.
Many long-distance carriers have tried to prevent Internet calls from coming into their country, Mr. Briere said, but that requires checking every data packet traveling over their networks, an impractical task.
Wireless carriers in the United States say Internet-based cellular calls will not affect their Business because the vast majority of the calls they connect are within North America. They also say the quality of calls traveling over their networks is superior to that of calls routed over the Internet.
"We're a Business that trades on quality," said Edward Salas, vice president for network planning at Verizon Wireless. He added that while the Internet technology "has been there for some time, I'm not sure we're ready for prime time to make it a mainstream way of moving traffic." Mr. Salas said the wide-scale use of that technology is about 10 years away.
Skype, a company founded by the creators of Kazaa, the digital music sharing software, also hopes to create software that can route Internet calls from mobile phones. But for now, the company is focused on distributing software that lets people place Internet-based calls through wireless connections to hand-held computers that use the Microsoft PocketPC operating system. Once the software is installed, users attach a headphone to the hand-held computer to make calls.
To use the Skype technology, both the caller and the recipient need the software. But the company plans to make it possible for callers to reach people outside the Skype network. Niklas Zennstrom, Skype's chief executive, said Internet technology eliminates any price difference between calls traveling one mile or thousands of miles. "The concept of national borders," Mr. Zennstrom said, "is disappearing because on the Internet there are no borders."
9.10.08
Lightweight
The base installation of Infiniflow, at less than 150kb per compute resource, offers an adaptive lightweight alternative to the traditional bloated and brittle application server and middleware deployment. The runtime real estate for any computer running Infiniflow depends upon the nature of the task you are asking it do, but Infiniflow's component-based architecture means that each compute resource only needs to install the code to deliver the functionality required at that moment - no more, no less.
Infiniflow's sophisticated Provisioner Service ensures that components that have specific minimum memory or CPU requirements only get deployed on those compute resources that can meet or exceed these criteria. Infiniflow also automatically uninstalls all unused services once the job is completed, and resources are returned to a clean state, ready to be automatically configured for the next requirement.
Infiniflow's sophisticated Provisioner Service ensures that components that have specific minimum memory or CPU requirements only get deployed on those compute resources that can meet or exceed these criteria. Infiniflow also automatically uninstalls all unused services once the job is completed, and resources are returned to a clean state, ready to be automatically configured for the next requirement.
16.9.08
The Story of the Three Genjias
Once upon a time in a certain place there lived three men who all had the same name -- Genjia. One was the tribal chief, the second a carpenter, and the third the chief's steward.
Genjia the carpenter was married to an exceptionally beautiful woman. Genjia the steward fancied her and dreamt day and night of having her for himself. But she was a very upright woman and would not let him get anywhere near her. Finally, he was driven to find some way of killing the carpenter in order to attain his end.
After a while, the father of Genjia the chief died. The steward saw in this a golden opportunity for eliminating the carpenter. Every day he secretly studied the calligraphy of the Buddhist scriptures and succeeded in reproducing the old-fashioned and esoteric style in which they were written. He then wrote a document in this style and handed it to the chief, saying, "Master, here is a document I came across the other day. I cannot understand a word of it and have brought it here specially for you to decipher."
Genjia the chief was baffled by the writing and passed it on to his secretary in charge of documents. After reading it, the secretary said, "This document claims to be from the old chief. In it he says that he has ascended to heaven and is now serving as an official there, but he doesn't have an official mansion. He asks you, Master, to send him a carpenter -- the most skilled you have -- to direct the construction of such a mansion."
Genjia the chief thought constantly of his father and was most concerned to hear that he had nowhere to lay his head in heaven. He sent for Genjia the carpenter, showed him the document and ordered him to go to heaven at once.
Genjia the carpenter was greatly startled. He dared not refuse, however, and could only plead for time, "How could I disobey your order, Master! But I need some time to prepare. Please allow me seven days. After that time, please hold a Twig Burning Ceremony in the hemp field behind my house to send me off. Then I'll be able to ascend to heaven to build the mansion for the old chief."
Genjia the chief considered this request reasonable and willingly agreed.
When Genjia the carpenter left, he went round making a few investigations. He wanted to find out where the chief had got this idea. He eventually discovered that it had originated in a classical document found by Genjia the steward. He put two and two together and concluded that it must be a sinister plot against him hatched by the steward.
He went home and consulted with his wife. "The most absurd thing has happened. The chief wants me to go and build a mansion in heaven. He must have been tricked into it by Genjia the steward. I did not dare refuse, but asked him to hold a Twig Burning Ceremony behind our house before I go. It would be no use trying to disobey him now. There is only one way for me to get out of this alive. The two of us must dig a tunnel under cover of night leading from the field to our bedroom, and then you can hide me there later. In a year's time I will find some way to get even."
The wife was shocked by this tale. Hatred for the steward filled the very marrow of her bones. She was willing to do anything to save her husband. So every day when night fell, the two of them dug the tunnel in secret. On the seventh day it was completed. They sealed the entrance with a slab of stone and scattered soil on it, so that people wouldn't notice it.
The eighth day came, the day for the carpenter to ascend to heaven. At the head of a retinue of elders and stewards and with a great din of bugles and drums, the chief came to send him off. They made a pile of faggots in the hemp field and asked Genjia the carpenter to sling his tool-kit over his shoulder and carry his bag in one hand. They made him stand in the middle, lit the faggots and watched the smoke rise, "carrying him up to heaven".
Genjia the steward was afraid that as soon as the faggots were lit, the carpenter would spoil everything by crying out in terror. "Come on !" he shouted to the crowd. "Blow your bugles and beat your drums! Laugh and cheer! Genjia the carpenter is on his way to heaven to build a mansion for our old chief. Isn't that a wonderful thing!"
The chief came over to have a look. Genjia the steward pointed gleefully to the rising smoke and said, "Master, you see, there goes his horse. Genjia the carpenter is on his way to heaven."
The chief was delighted.
The moment the faggots were lit and the smoke began rising into the sky, Genjia the carpenter raised the slab and escaped through the tunnel back to his own bedroom.
He confined himself to his house for a whole year. His wife went to great lengths to find milk, butter and other nutritious food for him; and as he did no work, by the end of that year he was plumper and fairer-skinned than ever.
Meanwhile, Genjia the steward tried a thousand and one ways of seducing the carpenter's wife, and she tried a thousand and one ways of avoiding him. He failed completely to attain his goal.
While Genjia the carpenter was hiding at home, he diligently practiced the calligraphy of the Buddhist scriptures. He prepared a document written in the authentic style and kept it on his person. On the first anniversary of his "ascent to heaven" he went and stood on the very spot where he was supposed to have been burned, the same tool-kit on his shoulder and the same bag in his hand. He called out, "How is everybody? I've just got back from heaven."
His wife was the first to come out. She pretended to be extremely surprised and hurried over to report the news to the chief.
The chief was very happy when he heard that Genjia the carpenter was back. He gave him a hero's welcome with bugles and drums, and invited him to stay in his mansion. He wanted to find out how his father was faring in heaven.
On meeting the chief, Genjia the carpenter said in a very serious tone of voice, "When I was constructing the official mansion in heaven, the old chief treated me with exceptional kindness, just as you always do, Master. That's why I'm in such good shape! The mansion is finished, and what a magnificent building it is -- ten times the size of an earthly mansion! Only one thing is lacking: a steward. The old chief misses his old steward dearly. He very much wants the steward to go up to heaven and manage things for him. After a period of time he can come back." This said, he promptly produced the document and showed it to the chief, adding that it was the old chief who had asked him to bring it down.
Genjia the chief read the document and was totally convinced by the whole story. Presently he sent for Genjia the steward and asked him to go and work for the old chief in his newly-built mansion in heaven.
When Genjia the steward saw Genjia the carpenter standing there and looking so well after his "ascent to heaven," and when he heard the vivid description of heaven given by the carpenter, he just didn't know what to think. "Perhaps I really possess some sort of magic power", he thought to himself. "It was my idea for him to go to heaven, and he actually seems to have done so! Perhaps it really is possible to fly to heaven, and the old chief really does have a new mansion there!"
He followed the carpenter's example and asked for seven days to get ready, and a Twig Burning Ceremony to be held in the hemp field behind his house to send him off to heaven. He thought that since Genjia the carpenter could come back, he could too. On the eighth day, as on the previous occasion, Genjia the steward stood in the middle of the faggots with a box on his shoulder and a bag in his hand. As on the previous occasion, there was a great din of bugles and drums, and the chief gave the order to light the faggots and send him off to heaven.
But the outcome this time was somewhat different. One difference was that after everything was over, a pile of charred bones was found among the ashes. Another difference was that the steward never came back. He stayed on in heaven forever to help the old chief run his mansion.
Genjia the carpenter was married to an exceptionally beautiful woman. Genjia the steward fancied her and dreamt day and night of having her for himself. But she was a very upright woman and would not let him get anywhere near her. Finally, he was driven to find some way of killing the carpenter in order to attain his end.
After a while, the father of Genjia the chief died. The steward saw in this a golden opportunity for eliminating the carpenter. Every day he secretly studied the calligraphy of the Buddhist scriptures and succeeded in reproducing the old-fashioned and esoteric style in which they were written. He then wrote a document in this style and handed it to the chief, saying, "Master, here is a document I came across the other day. I cannot understand a word of it and have brought it here specially for you to decipher."
Genjia the chief was baffled by the writing and passed it on to his secretary in charge of documents. After reading it, the secretary said, "This document claims to be from the old chief. In it he says that he has ascended to heaven and is now serving as an official there, but he doesn't have an official mansion. He asks you, Master, to send him a carpenter -- the most skilled you have -- to direct the construction of such a mansion."
Genjia the chief thought constantly of his father and was most concerned to hear that he had nowhere to lay his head in heaven. He sent for Genjia the carpenter, showed him the document and ordered him to go to heaven at once.
Genjia the carpenter was greatly startled. He dared not refuse, however, and could only plead for time, "How could I disobey your order, Master! But I need some time to prepare. Please allow me seven days. After that time, please hold a Twig Burning Ceremony in the hemp field behind my house to send me off. Then I'll be able to ascend to heaven to build the mansion for the old chief."
Genjia the chief considered this request reasonable and willingly agreed.
When Genjia the carpenter left, he went round making a few investigations. He wanted to find out where the chief had got this idea. He eventually discovered that it had originated in a classical document found by Genjia the steward. He put two and two together and concluded that it must be a sinister plot against him hatched by the steward.
He went home and consulted with his wife. "The most absurd thing has happened. The chief wants me to go and build a mansion in heaven. He must have been tricked into it by Genjia the steward. I did not dare refuse, but asked him to hold a Twig Burning Ceremony behind our house before I go. It would be no use trying to disobey him now. There is only one way for me to get out of this alive. The two of us must dig a tunnel under cover of night leading from the field to our bedroom, and then you can hide me there later. In a year's time I will find some way to get even."
The wife was shocked by this tale. Hatred for the steward filled the very marrow of her bones. She was willing to do anything to save her husband. So every day when night fell, the two of them dug the tunnel in secret. On the seventh day it was completed. They sealed the entrance with a slab of stone and scattered soil on it, so that people wouldn't notice it.
The eighth day came, the day for the carpenter to ascend to heaven. At the head of a retinue of elders and stewards and with a great din of bugles and drums, the chief came to send him off. They made a pile of faggots in the hemp field and asked Genjia the carpenter to sling his tool-kit over his shoulder and carry his bag in one hand. They made him stand in the middle, lit the faggots and watched the smoke rise, "carrying him up to heaven".
Genjia the steward was afraid that as soon as the faggots were lit, the carpenter would spoil everything by crying out in terror. "Come on !" he shouted to the crowd. "Blow your bugles and beat your drums! Laugh and cheer! Genjia the carpenter is on his way to heaven to build a mansion for our old chief. Isn't that a wonderful thing!"
The chief came over to have a look. Genjia the steward pointed gleefully to the rising smoke and said, "Master, you see, there goes his horse. Genjia the carpenter is on his way to heaven."
The chief was delighted.
The moment the faggots were lit and the smoke began rising into the sky, Genjia the carpenter raised the slab and escaped through the tunnel back to his own bedroom.
He confined himself to his house for a whole year. His wife went to great lengths to find milk, butter and other nutritious food for him; and as he did no work, by the end of that year he was plumper and fairer-skinned than ever.
Meanwhile, Genjia the steward tried a thousand and one ways of seducing the carpenter's wife, and she tried a thousand and one ways of avoiding him. He failed completely to attain his goal.
While Genjia the carpenter was hiding at home, he diligently practiced the calligraphy of the Buddhist scriptures. He prepared a document written in the authentic style and kept it on his person. On the first anniversary of his "ascent to heaven" he went and stood on the very spot where he was supposed to have been burned, the same tool-kit on his shoulder and the same bag in his hand. He called out, "How is everybody? I've just got back from heaven."
His wife was the first to come out. She pretended to be extremely surprised and hurried over to report the news to the chief.
The chief was very happy when he heard that Genjia the carpenter was back. He gave him a hero's welcome with bugles and drums, and invited him to stay in his mansion. He wanted to find out how his father was faring in heaven.
On meeting the chief, Genjia the carpenter said in a very serious tone of voice, "When I was constructing the official mansion in heaven, the old chief treated me with exceptional kindness, just as you always do, Master. That's why I'm in such good shape! The mansion is finished, and what a magnificent building it is -- ten times the size of an earthly mansion! Only one thing is lacking: a steward. The old chief misses his old steward dearly. He very much wants the steward to go up to heaven and manage things for him. After a period of time he can come back." This said, he promptly produced the document and showed it to the chief, adding that it was the old chief who had asked him to bring it down.
Genjia the chief read the document and was totally convinced by the whole story. Presently he sent for Genjia the steward and asked him to go and work for the old chief in his newly-built mansion in heaven.
When Genjia the steward saw Genjia the carpenter standing there and looking so well after his "ascent to heaven," and when he heard the vivid description of heaven given by the carpenter, he just didn't know what to think. "Perhaps I really possess some sort of magic power", he thought to himself. "It was my idea for him to go to heaven, and he actually seems to have done so! Perhaps it really is possible to fly to heaven, and the old chief really does have a new mansion there!"
He followed the carpenter's example and asked for seven days to get ready, and a Twig Burning Ceremony to be held in the hemp field behind his house to send him off to heaven. He thought that since Genjia the carpenter could come back, he could too. On the eighth day, as on the previous occasion, Genjia the steward stood in the middle of the faggots with a box on his shoulder and a bag in his hand. As on the previous occasion, there was a great din of bugles and drums, and the chief gave the order to light the faggots and send him off to heaven.
But the outcome this time was somewhat different. One difference was that after everything was over, a pile of charred bones was found among the ashes. Another difference was that the steward never came back. He stayed on in heaven forever to help the old chief run his mansion.
8.9.08
Ate green vegetables help hearing
Age-related deafness, and hearing loss caused by loud noise, may be reduced by the antioxidants in red wine, green tea and aspirin, it was claimed yesterday.
The compounds they contain could help protect the delicate hairs of the inner ear that are vital to hearing, new research suggests.
Destructive chemical agents called oxygen-free radicals, produced by normal cellular processes and in response to loud noise and exposure to powerful antibiotics, can damage the hairs.
But antioxidants such as resveratrol, found in red wine and green tea, and salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin, should be able to neutralise them.
To test whether this was the case, scientists in the United States used salicylate to prevent damage to hair cells in patients' ears caused by the strong antibiotic, gentamicin.
Hearing loss affected just 3 per cent of patients who were given gentamicin plus aspirin for acute ear infections, compared with 13 per cent treated with the antibiotic plus a non-active placebo.
The compounds they contain could help protect the delicate hairs of the inner ear that are vital to hearing, new research suggests.
Destructive chemical agents called oxygen-free radicals, produced by normal cellular processes and in response to loud noise and exposure to powerful antibiotics, can damage the hairs.
But antioxidants such as resveratrol, found in red wine and green tea, and salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin, should be able to neutralise them.
To test whether this was the case, scientists in the United States used salicylate to prevent damage to hair cells in patients' ears caused by the strong antibiotic, gentamicin.
Hearing loss affected just 3 per cent of patients who were given gentamicin plus aspirin for acute ear infections, compared with 13 per cent treated with the antibiotic plus a non-active placebo.
1.9.08
Rats will be companions of the emotional
Scientists in Canada have discovered that mice could be capable of showing empathy for each other.
The discovery was made during experiments in which well-acquainted mice were caused to suffer pain together. The findings have been published in the latest issue of New Scientist magazine.
In one experiment two mice were fed vinegar, which caused mild stomach-ache for around 30 minutes making the creatures wriggle in discomfort.
Researchers at the McGill University observed that cage-mates that had previously spent time together wriggled more, and seemed to synchronize their wriggling.
But in tests where the mice were strangers to each other, they displayed few signs of pain.
It is thought that this masking of pain is done to avoid revealing vulnerability to a potential rival.
The discovery was made during experiments in which well-acquainted mice were caused to suffer pain together. The findings have been published in the latest issue of New Scientist magazine.
In one experiment two mice were fed vinegar, which caused mild stomach-ache for around 30 minutes making the creatures wriggle in discomfort.
Researchers at the McGill University observed that cage-mates that had previously spent time together wriggled more, and seemed to synchronize their wriggling.
But in tests where the mice were strangers to each other, they displayed few signs of pain.
It is thought that this masking of pain is done to avoid revealing vulnerability to a potential rival.
18.8.08
The World Population
A very important world problem--in fact, I think it may be the most important of all the great world problems which face us at the present time--is rapidly increasing pressure of population on the land.
Suppose we first take a look at the map of the world. The position today is very different from what it was only, shalI we say, 150 or 200 years ago. If we go back to that time, there were large parts of the world which had not then been explored. For example, Australia was unknown; the great west of Canada and the United States had not been opened up; the heart of South America was almost entirely unknown;and on the map of the period you will find the heart of Africa is just marked as unexplored.
The position at the present day is absolutely different. We now know roughly the actual extent of the earth's surface. Even the outline of the Antarctic continent is shown in a solid line on the latest maps. It is only in the last two or three years that we have been able to remove the last doubtful lines, and have settled down to the idea that the earth's land surface is something fixed,and will not extend any more.
But what about population? The population of the world today is about 6000000000. That is an enormous number, yet it is known quite accurately, because there are very few parts of the world which have not carried out a modern census.China was the big unknown quantity untill 1953, when a census was carried out. The population is over 1200000000.
The important thing is not so much the actual population of the world,but its rate of increase. It works out to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers this means something like forty to forty-five million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million--rather less than six month' s increase in world population. Take Australia . There are ten million people in Australia . So it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoplesthat vast country. Let us take our own crowded country, England and Wales --forty-five to fifty million people. This is just about a year's supply.
By this time tomorrow, and every day, there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people--just about the population of the city of York .
This enormous increase of population will create immense problems. By AD. 2020, unless something terrible happens, there will be as many as 7000000000 people on the surface of the earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.
Suppose we first take a look at the map of the world. The position today is very different from what it was only, shalI we say, 150 or 200 years ago. If we go back to that time, there were large parts of the world which had not then been explored. For example, Australia was unknown; the great west of Canada and the United States had not been opened up; the heart of South America was almost entirely unknown;and on the map of the period you will find the heart of Africa is just marked as unexplored.
The position at the present day is absolutely different. We now know roughly the actual extent of the earth's surface. Even the outline of the Antarctic continent is shown in a solid line on the latest maps. It is only in the last two or three years that we have been able to remove the last doubtful lines, and have settled down to the idea that the earth's land surface is something fixed,and will not extend any more.
But what about population? The population of the world today is about 6000000000. That is an enormous number, yet it is known quite accurately, because there are very few parts of the world which have not carried out a modern census.China was the big unknown quantity untill 1953, when a census was carried out. The population is over 1200000000.
The important thing is not so much the actual population of the world,but its rate of increase. It works out to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers this means something like forty to forty-five million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million--rather less than six month' s increase in world population. Take Australia . There are ten million people in Australia . So it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoplesthat vast country. Let us take our own crowded country, England and Wales --forty-five to fifty million people. This is just about a year's supply.
By this time tomorrow, and every day, there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people--just about the population of the city of York .
This enormous increase of population will create immense problems. By AD. 2020, unless something terrible happens, there will be as many as 7000000000 people on the surface of the earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.
The World Population
A very important world problem--in fact, I think it may be the most important of all the great world problems which face us at the present time--is rapidly increasing pressure of population on the land.
Suppose we first take a look at the map of the world. The position today is very different from what it was only, shalI we say, 150 or 200 years ago. If we go back to that time, there were large parts of the world which had not then been explored. For example, Australia was unknown; the great west of Canada and the United States had not been opened up; the heart of South America was almost entirely unknown;and on the map of the period you will find the heart of Africa is just marked as unexplored.
The position at the present day is absolutely different. We now know roughly the actual extent of the earth's surface. Even the outline of the Antarctic continent is shown in a solid line on the latest maps. It is only in the last two or three years that we have been able to remove the last doubtful lines, and have settled down to the idea that the earth's land surface is something fixed,and will not extend any more.
But what about population? The population of the world today is about 6000000000. That is an enormous number, yet it is known quite accurately, because there are very few parts of the world which have not carried out a modern census.China was the big unknown quantity untill 1953, when a census was carried out. The population is over 1200000000.
The important thing is not so much the actual population of the world,but its rate of increase. It works out to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers this means something like forty to forty-five million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million--rather less than six month' s increase in world population. Take Australia . There are ten million people in Australia . So it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoplesthat vast country. Let us take our own crowded country, England and Wales --forty-five to fifty million people. This is just about a year's supply.
By this time tomorrow, and every day, there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people--just about the population of the city of York .
This enormous increase of population will create immense problems. By AD. 2020, unless something terrible happens, there will be as many as 7000000000 people on the surface of the earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.
Suppose we first take a look at the map of the world. The position today is very different from what it was only, shalI we say, 150 or 200 years ago. If we go back to that time, there were large parts of the world which had not then been explored. For example, Australia was unknown; the great west of Canada and the United States had not been opened up; the heart of South America was almost entirely unknown;and on the map of the period you will find the heart of Africa is just marked as unexplored.
The position at the present day is absolutely different. We now know roughly the actual extent of the earth's surface. Even the outline of the Antarctic continent is shown in a solid line on the latest maps. It is only in the last two or three years that we have been able to remove the last doubtful lines, and have settled down to the idea that the earth's land surface is something fixed,and will not extend any more.
But what about population? The population of the world today is about 6000000000. That is an enormous number, yet it is known quite accurately, because there are very few parts of the world which have not carried out a modern census.China was the big unknown quantity untill 1953, when a census was carried out. The population is over 1200000000.
The important thing is not so much the actual population of the world,but its rate of increase. It works out to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers this means something like forty to forty-five million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million--rather less than six month' s increase in world population. Take Australia . There are ten million people in Australia . So it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoplesthat vast country. Let us take our own crowded country, England and Wales --forty-five to fifty million people. This is just about a year's supply.
By this time tomorrow, and every day, there will be added to the earth about 120,000 extra people--just about the population of the city of York .
This enormous increase of population will create immense problems. By AD. 2020, unless something terrible happens, there will be as many as 7000000000 people on the surface of the earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.
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