A biography of Kilian Jornet

When you picture mountain climbers scaling Mount Everest, what probably
comes to mind are teams of climbers with Sherpa guides leading them to
the summit, equipped with oxygen masks, supplies and tents. And in most
cases you'd be right, as 97 per cent of climbers use oxygen to ascend to
Everest's summit at 8,850 metres above sea level. The thin air at high
altitudes makes most people breathless at 3,500 metres, and the vast
majority of climbers use oxygen past 7,000 metres. A typical climbing group
will have 8–15 people in it, with an almost equal number of guides, and
they'll spend weeks to get to the top after reaching Base Camp.
But ultra-distance and mountain runner Kilian Jornet Burgada ascended the
mountain in May 2017 alone, without an oxygen mask or fixed ropes for
climbing.
Oh, and he did it in 26 hours.
With food poisoning.
And then, five days later, he did it again, this time in only 17 hours.
Born in 1987, Kilian has been training for Everest his whole life. And that
really does mean his whole life, as he grew up 2,000 metres above sea
level in the Pyrenees in the ski resort of Lles de Cerdanya in Catalonia,
north-eastern Spain. While other children his age were learning to walk,
Kilian was on skis. At one and a half years old he did a five-hour hike with
his mother, entirely under his own steam. He left his peers even further
behind when he climbed his first mountain and competed in his first cross-
country ski race at age three. By age seven, he had scaled a 4,000er and,
at ten, he did a 42-day crossing of the Pyrenees.
He was 13 when he says he started to take it 'seriously' and trained with the
Ski Mountaineering Technical Centre (CTEMC) in Catalonia, entering
competitions and working with a coach. At 18, he took over his own ski-
mountaineering and trail-running training, with a schedule that only allows a
couple of weeks of rest a year. He does as many as 1,140 hours of
endurance training a year, plus strength training and technical workouts as
well as specific training in the week before a race. For his record-breaking
ascent and descent of the Matterhorn, he prepared by climbing the
mountain ten times until he knew every detail of it, even including where the
sun would be shining at every part of the day.
Sleeping only seven hours a night, Kilian Jornet seems almost
superhuman. His resting heartbeat is extremely low at 33 beats per minute,
compared with the average man's 60 per minute or an athlete's 40 per
minute. He breathes more efficiently than average people too, taking in
more oxygen per breath, and he has a much faster recovery time after
exercise as his body quickly breaks down lactic acid – the acid in muscles
that causes pain after exercise.
All this is thanks to his childhood in the mountains and to genetics, but it is
his mental strength that sets him apart. He often sets himself challenges to
see how long he can endure difficult conditions in order to truly understand
what his body and mind can cope with. For example, he almost gave
himself kidney failure after only drinking 3.5 litres of water on a 100km run
in temperatures of around 40°C.
It would take a book to list all the races and awards he's won and the
mountains he's climbed. And even here, Kilian’s achievements exceed the
average person as, somehow, he finds time to record his career on his blog
and has written three books, Run or Die, The Invisible Border and Summits
of My Life.
A threat to bananas

In the 1950s, Central American commercial banana growers were facing

the death of their most lucrative product, the Gros Michel banana, known as
Big Mike. And now it’s happening again to Big Mike’s successor – the
Cavendish.
With its easily transported, thick-skinned and sweet-tasting fruit, the Gros
Michel banana plant dominated the plantations of Central America. United
Fruit, the main grower and exporter in South America at the time, mass-
produced its bananas in the most efficient way possible: it cloned shoots
from the stems of plants instead of growing plants from seeds, and
cultivated them in densely packed fields.
Unfortunately, these conditions are also perfect for the spread of the
fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, which attacks the plant’s roots
and prevents it from transporting water to the stem and leaves. The TR-1
strain of the fungus was resistant to crop sprays and travelled around on
boots or the tyres of trucks, slowly infecting plantations across the region. In
an attempt to escape the fungus, farmers abandoned infected fields,
flooded them and then replanted crops somewhere else, often cutting down
rainforest to do so.
Their efforts failed. So, instead, they searched for a variety of banana that
the fungus didn’t affect. They found the Cavendish, as it was called, in the
greenhouse of a British duke. It wasn’t as well suited to shipping as the
Gros Michel, but its bananas tasted good enough to keep consumers
happy. Most importantly, TR-1 didn’t seem to affect it. In a few years,
United Fruit had saved itself from bankruptcy by filling its plantations with
thousands of the new plants, copying the same monoculture growing
conditions Gros Michel had thrived in.
While the operation was a huge success for the Latin American industry,
the Cavendish banana itself is far from safe. In 2014, South East Asia,
another major banana producer, exported four million tons of Cavendish
bananas. But, in 2015, its exports had dropped by 46 per cent thanks to a
combination of another strain of the fungus, TR-4, and bad weather.
Growing practices in South East Asia haven’t helped matters. Growers can’t
always afford the expensive lab-based methods to clone plants from shoots
without spreading the disease. Also, they often aren’t strict enough about
cleaning farm equipment and quarantining infected fields. As a result, the
fungus has spread to Australia, the Middle East and Mozambique – and
Latin America, heavily dependent on its monoculture Cavendish crops,
could easily be next.
Racing against the inevitable, scientists are working on solving the problem
by genetically modifying the Cavendish with genes from TR-4-resistant
banana species. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology
have successfully grown two kinds of modified plant which have remained
resistant for three years so far. But some experts think this is just a
sophisticated version of the same temporary solution the original Cavendish
provided. If the new bananas are planted in the same monocultures as the
Cavendish and the Gros Michel before it, the risk is that another strain of
the disease may rise up to threaten the modified plants too.
Cultural behaviour in business

Much of today's business is conducted across international borders, and

while the majority of the global business community might share the use of
English as a common language, the nuances and expectations of business
communication might differ greatly from culture to culture. A lack of
understanding of the cultural norms and practices of our business
acquaintances can result in unfair judgements, misunderstandings and
breakdowns in communication. Here are three basic areas of differences in
the business etiquette around the world that could help stand you in good
stead when you next find yourself working with someone from a different
culture.

Addressing someone
When discussing this topic in a training course, a German trainee and a
British trainee got into a hot debate about whether it was appropriate for
someone with a doctorate to use the corresponding title on their business
card. The British trainee maintained that anyone who wasn't a medical
doctor expecting to be addressed as 'Dr' was disgustingly pompous and full
of themselves. The German trainee, however, argued that the hard work
and years of education put into earning that PhD should give them full rights
to expect to be addressed as 'Dr'.
This stark difference in opinion over something that could be conceived as
minor and thus easily overlooked goes to show that we often attach
meaning to even the most mundane practices. When things that we are
used to are done differently, it could spark the strongest reactions in us.
While many Continental Europeans and Latin Americans prefer to be
addressed with a title, for example Mr or Ms and their surname when
meeting someone in a business context for the first time, Americans, and
increasingly the British, now tend to prefer using their first names. The best
thing to do is to listen and observe how your conversation partner
addresses you and, if you are still unsure, do not be afraid to ask them how
they would like to be addressed.

Smiling
A so-called 'smile of respect' is seen as insincere and often regarded with
suspicion in Russia. A famous Russian proverb even states that 'laughing
without reason is a sign of idiocy'. Yet in countries like the United States,
Australia and Britain, smiling is often interpreted as a sign of openness,
friendship and respect, and is frequently used to break the ice.

In a piece of research done on smiles across cultures, the researchers

found that smiling individuals were considered more intelligent than non-
smiling people in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, China and
Malaysia. However, in countries like Russia, Japan, South Korea and Iran,
pictures of smiling faces were rated as less intelligent than the non-smiling
ones. Meanwhile, in countries like India, Argentina and the Maldives,
smiling was associated with dishonesty.

Eye contact
An American or British person might be looking their client in the eye to
show that they are paying full attention to what is being said, but if that
client is from Japan or Korea, they might find the direct eye contact
awkward or even disrespectful. In parts of South America and Africa,
prolonged eye contact could also be seen as challenging authority. In the
Middle East, eye contact across genders is considered inappropriate,
although eye contact within a gender could signify honesty and truthfulness.
Having an increased awareness of the possible differences in expectations
and behaviour can help us avoid cases of miscommunication, but it is vital
that we also remember that cultural stereotypes can be detrimental to
building good business relationships. Although national cultures could play
a part in shaping the way we behave and think, we are also largely
influenced by the region we come from, the communities we associate with,
our age and gender, our corporate culture and our individual experiences of
the world. The knowledge of the potential differences should therefore be
something we keep at the back of our minds, rather than something that we
use to pigeonhole the individuals of an entire nation.
Four book summaries

Four positive books about the world

Factfulness – Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and
Anna Rosling Rönnlund
In Factfulness, Professor Hans Rosling, along with two collaborators, asks
simple questions about the world. Questions like 'How many girls finish
school?' and 'What percentage of the world's population is poor?' It turns
out the majority of us get the answers to these questions completely wrong.
Why does this happen? Factfulness sets out to explain why, showing that
there are several instincts humans have that distort our perspective.
For example, most people divide the world into US and THEM. In addition,
we often believe that things are getting worse. And we are consuming large
amounts of media that use a sales model based on making us afraid.
But according to the authors, the world isn't as bad as we think. Yes, there
are real concerns. But we should adopt a mindset of factfulness – only
carrying opinions that are supported by strong facts. This book is not
concerned with the underlying reasons for poverty or progress, or what
should be done about these issues. It focuses on our instinctive biases,
offering practical advice to help us see the good as well as the bad in the
world.

Enlightenment Now – Steven Pinker

Are things getting worse every day? Is progress an impossible goal?
In Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker looks at the big picture of human
progress and finds good news. We are living longer, healthier, freer and
happier lives.
Pinker asks us to stop paying so much attention to negative headlines and
news that declares the end of the world. Instead, he shows us some
carefully selected data. In 75 surprising graphs, we see that safety, peace,
knowledge and health are getting better all over the world. When the
evidence does not support his argument, however, he dismisses it.
Economic inequality, he claims, is not really a problem, because it is not
actually that important for human well-being. One cannot help wondering
how many people actually living in poverty would agree.
The real problem, Pinker argues, is that the Enlightenment values of reason
and science are under attack. When commentators and demagogues
appeal to people's tribalism, fatalism and distrust, then we are in danger of
causing irreparable damage to important institutions like democracy and
world co-operation.

The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley

For more than two hundred years the pessimists have been winning the
public debate. They tell us that things are getting worse. But in fact, life is
getting better. Income, food availability and lifespan are rising; disease,
violence and child mortality are falling. These trends are happening all
around the world. Africa is slowly coming out of poverty, just as Asia did
before. The internet, mobile phones and worldwide trade are making the
lives of millions of people much better.
Best-selling author Matt Ridley doesn't only explain how things are getting
better; he gives us reasons why as well. He shows us how human culture
evolves in a positive direction thanks to the exchange of ideas and
specialisation. This bold book looks at the entirety of human history – from
the Stone Age to the 21st century – and changes the notion that it's all
going downhill. The glass really is half-full.

The Great Surge – Steven Radelet

The majority of people believe that developing countries are in a terrible
situation: suffering from incredible poverty, governed by dictators and with
little hope for any meaningful change. But, surprisingly, this is far from the
truth. The reality is that a great transformation is occurring. Over the past 20
years, more than 700 million people have increased their income and come
out of poverty. Additionally, six million fewer children die every year from
disease, millions more girls are in school and millions of people have
access to clean water.
This is happening across developing countries around the world. The end of
the Cold War, the development of new technologies and brave new
leadership have helped to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of
people in poor countries.
The Great Surge describes how all of this is happening and, more
importantly, it shows us how we can accelerate the process.
Giving and receiving positive feedback
Your manager stops you and says she needs to have a word about your
performance in the recent project. You worry about it all weekend,
wondering what you might have done wrong. When you step into her office
on Monday morning she begins by praising you for the good work you've
done on the project, and you wonder if this is the obligatory praise that
starts off the typical 'feedback sandwich'. You know how the feedback
sandwich goes: say something nice, say what you really want to say, say
something nice again.
In an attempt to inject some positivity into their feedback, many managers
rely on sandwiching negative feedback between two positive comments.
However, when feedback becomes such a routine, employees can start to
perceive positive feedback as simply a form of sugarcoating the negatives,
thus diminishing its value. Instead, positive feedback should not simply be
seen as something to cushion the negative, but should be delivered so as
to reinforce and encourage good performance. Below are three tips to help
you make positive feedback count.

1. Don't always follow positive feedback with

negative feedback
When positive and negative feedback always appear to go hand in hand,
the positives can become devalued and ignored. Ensure there are times
when positive feedback is given for its own sake and resist the temptation
to offer constructive criticism.

2. Cultivate a 'growth mindset'

Psychologist and 'growth mindset' proponent Carol Dweck spoke of the
plasticity of the brain and our ability to develop skills and talents that we
might not have been good at to start with. Many of us tend to focus our
praise on the end result and seemingly innate talents, e.g. 'You really have
an eye for details' or 'You have a real talent for organising events'.
However, research suggests that by focusing on the process of how things
are done – praising effort, experimentation and problem-solving strategies –
we can encourage the development of new skills and the continued honing
of talents.

3. Create a culture of offering positive feedback

Make giving positive feedback part of your team/department/company
culture. Don't just wait for special moments like appraisals to give feedback.
Offer informal positive feedback when making small talk or when walking
down a corridor. Feedback doesn't have to only come from the higher ranks
either. Encourage peer feedback among team members and colleagues
and actively ask them for positive comments on each other's performances
on tasks.
It might take time to counter the effects of an environment where there is a
cynical view of positive feedback, but in the long run, by embracing positive
feedback, you can not only enhance working performance but also enrich
the quality of life in the workplace.
Horror film clichés

Five horror film clichés

Since almost the beginning of cinema, we have had scary films. Of all the
genres that exist, horror is perhaps one of the most conventional. Many
horror films rely on specific plot devices, also called tropes, to make their
audience frightened. When a trope is used too much, it can become a
cliché. But when used well, it can really make us jump out of our skin. Here
are some of the most used, and perhaps abused, clichés in horror films.

1
No matter what kind of house it is, the basement is a scary place in horror
films. That's usually where something is hiding or where the evil psychopath
has hidden their tools. Basements are always dark and often damp. You
can only reach them by a narrow staircase. And basements are always
creepy, even when there isn't anything down there.

2
In older horror films, when protagonists were in desperation, it was difficult
or impossible for them to call for help or call the police. Mobile phones have
made that situation a bit less believable now. What's the solution to
maintain suspense? No phone coverage! If you're a hero in a horror film, it's
almost certain that at a key moment, just when you absolutely need to call
for help, you will not have any coverage at all. Or your phone battery will die
just as you are making the call. Or both.

3
Horror films love uninhabited places. This could be an abandoned hospital,
a scary empty house or a ghost town. There's something about lonely,
empty places. What was it like when people lived there? Why did they
leave? Maybe it's also that they are so quiet, which can be very scary too.
Of course, abandoned places are also handy for horror film directors in that
it's more believable that you will have no phone coverage there either (see
above).
4
The hero has been driving for hours. It's night-time and it's beginning to
rain. Suddenly he sees a person on the side of the road. Maybe the
company will keep him awake? In horror films, giving anybody a ride is
asking for trouble. The hero always does it, and it always ends badly.

5
This horror film cliché was especially popular with horror films of the late
20th century. It starts with a group of teenagers all enjoying themselves,
and it ends with everyone dead except one girl. At the beginning the girl is
usually innocent, shy and not particularly strong. By the end, she has
become the toughest and most resourceful person in the world. The last girl
almost always wins in the end.
How humans evolved language

A
Thanks to the field of linguistics we know much about the development of
the 5,000 plus languages in existence today. We can describe their
grammar and pronunciation and see how their spoken and written forms
have changed over time. For example, we understand the origins of the
Indo-European group of languages, which includes Norwegian, Hindi and
English, and can trace them back to tribes in eastern Europe in about 3000
BC.

So, we have mapped out a great deal of the history of language, but there
are still areas we know little about. Experts are beginning to look to the field
of evolutionary biology to find out how the human species developed to be
able to use language. So far, there are far more questions and half-theories
than answers.

B
We know that human language is far more complex than that of even our
nearest and most intelligent relatives like chimpanzees. We can express
complex thoughts, convey subtle emotions and communicate about
abstract concepts such as past and future. And we do this following a set of
structural rules, known as grammar. Do only humans use an innate system
of rules to govern the order of words? Perhaps not, as some research may
suggest dolphins share this capability because they are able to recognise
when these rules are broken.
C
If we want to know where our capability for complex language came from,
we need to look at how our brains are different from other animals. This
relates to more than just brain size; it is important what other things our
brains can do and when and why they evolved that way. And for this there
are very few physical clues; artefacts left by our ancestors don't tell us what
speech they were capable of making. One thing we can see in the remains
of early humans, however, is the development of the mouth, throat and
tongue. By about 100,000 years ago, humans had evolved the ability to
create complex sounds. Before that, evolutionary biologists can only guess
whether or not early humans communicated using more basic sounds.

D
Another question is, what is it about human brains that allowed language to
evolve in a way that it did not in other primates? At some point, our brains
became able to make our mouths produce vowel and consonant sounds,
and we developed the capacity to invent words to name things around us.
These were the basic ingredients for complex language. The next change
would have been to put those words into sentences, similar to the
'protolanguage' children use when they first learn to speak. No one knows if
the next step – adding grammar to signal past, present and future, for
example, or plurals and relative clauses – required a further development in
the human brain or was simply a response to our increasingly civilised way
of living together.

Between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, though, we start to see the
evidence of early human civilisation, through cave paintings for example; no
one knows the connection between this and language. Brains didn't
suddenly get bigger, yet humans did become more complex and more
intelligent. Was it using language that caused their brains to develop? Or
did their more complex brains start producing language?

E
More questions lie in looking at the influence of genetics on brain and
language development. Are there genes that mutated and gave us
language ability? Researchers have found a gene mutation that occurred
between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, which seems to have a
connection with speaking and how our brains control our mouths and face.
Monkeys have a similar gene, but it did not undergo this mutation. It's too
early to say how much influence genes have on language, but one day the
answers might be found in our DNA.
Life on Mars
A new study published in the journal Science shows definitive evidence of
organic matter on the surface of Mars. The data was collected by NASA's
nuclear-powered rover Curiosity. It confirms earlier findings that the Red
Planet once contained carbon-based compounds. These compounds – also
called organic molecules – are essential ingredients for life as scientists
understand it.
The organic molecules were found in Mars's Gale Crater, a large area that
may have been a watery lake over three billion years ago. The rover
encountered traces of the molecule in rocks extracted from the area. The
rocks also contain sulfur, which scientists speculate helped preserve the
organics even when the rocks were exposed to the harsh radiation on the
surface of the planet.

Scientists are quick to state that the presence of these organic molecules is
not sufficient evidence for ancient life on Mars, as the molecules could have
been formed by non-living processes. But it's still one of the most
astonishing discoveries, which could lead to future revelations. Especially
when one considers the other startling find that Curiosity uncovered around
five years ago.

The rover analyses the air around it periodically, and in 2014 it found the air
contained another of the most basic organic molecules and a key ingredient
of natural gas: methane. One of the characteristics of methane is that it only
survives a few hundred years. This means that something, somewhere on
Mars, is replenishing the supply. According to NASA, Mars emits thousands
of tons of methane at a time. The level of methane rises and falls at
seasonal intervals in the year, almost as if the planet is breathing it.

NASA suspects the methane comes from deep under the surface of the
planet. The variations in temperature on the surface of Mars cause the
molecule to flow upwards at higher or lower levels. For example, in the
Martian winter the gas could get trapped in underground icy crystals. These
crystals, called clathrates, melt in the summer and release the gas.
However, the source of the methane is still a complete mystery.

The world of astrobiology considers both of these studies as historical

milestones. According to this information, Mars is not a dead planet. On the
contrary, it is quite active and may be changing and becoming more
habitable.

Of course, this means further research is necessary. Scientists say they

need to send new equipment to Mars, equipment that can measure the air
and soil with more precision. There are already missions underway. The
European Space Agency's ExoMars ship lands in 2020 and will be able to
drill into the ground on Mars to analyse what it finds. Additionally, NASA is
sending another Mars Rover in the same year to collect samples of Martian
soil and return them to Earth.

The possibility of life on Mars has fascinated humans for generations. It has
been the subject of endless science-fiction novels and films. Are we alone
in the universe or have there been other life forms within our Solar System?
If the current missions to the Red Planet continue, it looks as if we may
discover the answer very soon.
Managing a problem

From: Jo Backhouse
To: Karl Anderson
Date: 17 October
Subject: Support for Judy
Dear Karl,
I received a call from Judy a couple of days ago to discuss some of the
issues that she was having and I thought I'd give you a heads-up on what
was said, seeing that you are Judy's project team leader.
Judy really enjoys working with you and the team and finds the project very
interesting, but I think she's feeling a bit lost and struggling to see the big
picture. It seems that she's been given a fair amount of autonomy to carry
out the tasks that you've given her, and of course this level of delegation is
not uncommon in your branch. But I believe in her Tokyo office, she is used
to a bit more managerial direction and guidance and so is finding this
international project quite daunting.
When I asked her about meeting her deadlines, she mentioned that due to
the recent changes to the project timeline, her goalposts have been moved,
and she doesn't seem to really understand why this has happened. Bearing
in mind that she's also facing simultaneous deadlines from her department
in Tokyo, we can presume that she might be feeling a bit stretched.
Looking ahead, I was wondering if we could make it easier for Judy by
offering her more direction when setting her tasks, at least until she learns
the ropes and gets used to working unsupervised. I think she'd also
appreciate you giving her a clearer idea on how her role in the team fits into
the overview of things. Do you think you could maybe outline the group and
individual targets at your next team meeting and that way, everyone not
only gets a reminder of the end goal, but each team member, including
Judy, might have a more holistic view of the whole project?
I was also thinking it might help to touch base with her every so often to
make sure that she's up to date with any changes to the overall plan of
attack. In the meantime, I'll write to her manager in the Tokyo office and see
how aware they are of the deadlines you've given her, and if they could in
some way review her responsibilities and co-ordinate her tasks so that she
doesn't constantly feel pulled in both directions.
Judy is an extremely conscientious worker and is eager to contribute
positively to the team. Personally, I think she is someone with high potential
and will be an asset to our international projects if properly mentored. I'm
keen to know your thoughts on the matter and am open to any suggestions
on how we could better support Judy so that she has a more smooth-sailing
experience on the team.
Best regards,
Jo Backhouse
Head of Department
International Projects
Political manifestos

A – Rufus Loredo
Westwend is a changing town. People come to Westwend to build a better
and more prosperous future for themselves and their family.
As your representative I pledge to:

 fight to improve public schooling for our children

 work to ensure that Westwend is connected more effectively: both its
transport and digital connections
 listen to each and every citizen's problems and help them overcome
them.

Westwend needs someone who represents all of our communities and not
only the wealthy, who puts people before politics and who keeps their
promises.
Let me be that person.
B – Lona Williams
My goal is to restore full services at our local hospital and create free
parking for visitors. I pledge to provide better care for the elderly and the
most vulnerable in our town.
I will create jobs in Westwend by reducing taxes and red tape. Together we
will help families overcome the high cost of living by tackling job insecurity
and extending free childcare for working parents.
I will fight for our services and to keep our streets safe.
I will support our rural communities and local businesses.
My priority is people. My priority is you.
C – Jamar Repaci
My first goal is to press for a minimum wage of £10 by next year, and ban
zero-hours contracts, which contribute greatly to job insecurity. I will join the
fight to scrap highly prohibitive university tuition fees. A good education and
a good job should be available to all the citizens of Westwend.
Our planet is in a moment of crisis, and Westwend can play its part. I
am committed to investment in renewable energy and will provide tax
credits to small businesses that engage in green practices. I will also fight to
protect the wildlands around Westwend.
I will fight for fairness in government. I will work to protect our planet.
D – Cliff Slater
I pledge to be a full-time, unsponsored representative for the communities
of Westwend. I will give you straight answers to your questions, without
using jargon or meaningless statistics. I will maintain a full-time office and
hold regular open-door sessions with the people of Westwend.
I promise to promote Westwend as a beacon for business and tourism. I will
seek to reduce the unnecessary restrictions government places on people
and companies. I will campaign for a more simple and transparent tax
system for all.
The time of empty promises is over. Let's bring change to our town. Change
for the better.