Discovery Channel Magazine - March 2014 In

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TO HELLAND BACK

BEAR GRYLLS LEADS US THROUGH EPIC STORIESOF REAL-LIFE SURVIVAL — INCLUDING HIS OWN

C H A N N E L M A G A Z I N E I N D I A

THE C-WORD 72CURING CANCER

SECRET LIVES 36BECOME A SUPER SPY

ACTION CAR 88WHY THE JEEP RULES

UNUSUAL TRAVEL 58EUROPE'S SMALLEST NATIONS

PG 100

MARCH 2014 I ` 150 Invitation price ` 100


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DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

A QUESTION OFMULTIPLE ANSWERS

As a student in high school,I liked Multiple ChoiceQuestions the most.I was lazy and fairly bright, so it took mehardly any time to tick the boxes, I’d neverbother rechecking, and plan my escape. ThatPOA worked well until I started studyinghumanities and attempting papers thatelicited ‘soft answers’; nothing here was blackand white, what was right for one could bewrong for another.

The tick and the cross in the multiplechoice: why do we tick, while several otherscross? Why are citizens of the USA the onlyones in the world who “month their date”before the day—not even their Canadiancousins follow suit. And why do admirers raveabout the Monalisa smile, while critics stare atthe same face and call the shaved eyebrows—afashion trend at that time—ugly?

The fact is that questions with no clearanswers are the most intriguing ones of themall. Yarns are spun and myths are inventedto explain the inexplicable, and logic is oftengiven a break. And while each tale has its shareof magic and entertainment, in the end, it isthe story that throws up even more intriguingquestions that wins the day.

The magazine you hold in your hands is atreasure trove of such trivia that will captureyour imagination. Take, for instance, ourtravel feature through Europe. While everyother magazine continues to rewrite tomes onwhere to go in Switzerland and Spain, we bringto you ve of Europe’s smallest countries:Have you thought of exploring the ski slopes

of Andorra wedged in the Pyrenees betweenFrance and Spain? Or, have you visited SanMarino (population: 32,448!) land-locked byItaly, which is one of the few sovereign statesin the world with no national debt? Wouldn’t

you want to visit Liechtenstein once we toldyou that this entire European country, untilrecently, could be rented for just US$70,000per day, less than what you’d pay for a top endhotel room for a few days?!

Those of us into spy thrillers and rerunsof Homeland will enjoy the fast-paced storyon ‘How to be an international super spy…’. And all of us who brave city traffic everymorning will take in the photo feature ongridlocks in cities all over the world withcuriosity and comparison.

Last but not the least, you’ll meet Discovery Channel’s daredevil superstarBear Grylls in a no-holds-barred interviewon what allows him the courage to livethrough death-defying adventures thatmake up his hit show Escape from Hell. The

rush is palpable through the story, whichultimately begets the question: is adrenalineor precaution a better route to survival?

Again, that’s a question withmultiple answers.

Jamal Shaikh

Editorial Director

C H A N N E L M A G A Z I N E I N D I A

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 2Discovery Channel Magazine reserves all rights throughoutthe world. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, inEnglish or other languages, is prohibited. Discovery Channel

Magazine does not take responsibility for returning unsolicitedpublication material. • Published and distributed monthly by LivingMedia India Ltd. (Regd. Ofce: K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi –110001) under license granted by Discovery Networks Asia-Paci cPte Ltd., 21 Media Circle #8-01, Singapore 138562. • All DiscoveryChannel logos © 2014 Discovery Communications, LLC. DiscoveryChannel and the Discovery Channel logo are trademarks of DiscoveryCommunications, LLC, used under licence. All rights reserved.• The views and opinions expressed or implied in Discovery ChannelMagazine do not necessarily reect those of Living Media India Ltd.,MediaCorp Pte Ltd or Discovery Networks Asia-Paci c, including theirdirectors and editorial staff. • All information is correct at the time ofgoing to print. • All disputes are subject to t he exclusive jurisdiction ofcompetent courts and forums in Delhi / New Delhi only. • Published& printed by Ashish Bagga on behalf of Living Media India Limited.Printed at Thomson Press India Limited 18 - 35, Milestone, Delhi -Mathura Road, Faridabad - 121 007, (Haryana). Published at K - 9,Connaught Circus, New Delhi - 110 001. • Editor: Jamal Shaikh

Subscription/Customer CareEmail: [email protected]: +91 120 246 9900Mail: Discovery Channel Magazine India,A 61, Sector 57, Noida 201 301

Editorial BoardPresident and Managing Director Arjan HoekstraSVP Content Group Kevin DickieSVP and CFO Shitiz JainSVP and GM, South Asia Rahul JohriVP, Marketing, South Asia Rajiv BakshiVP, Communications Charles YapVP, Programming Charmaine KwanVP, Marketing Magdalene Ng

Editorial (Novus Media Solutions)Editor Luke ClarkDesign Director Richard MacLeanChief Subeditor Josephine PangStaff Writer Daniel SeifertPhoto Editor Haryati MahmoodSenior Designer Bessy Kim

Editor-in-Chief Aroon PurieGroup Chief Executive Ofcer Ashish BaggaGroup Synergy and Creative Ofcer Kalli Purie

Editorial Director Jamal Shaikh Associate Editor Seetha NateshArt Director Piyush GargAsst Art Director Rahul SharmaDesigner Kishore Rawat

Impact (Advertising)Group Business Head Manoj SharmaAssociate Publisher (Impact) Anil FernandesSenior General Managers Kaustav Chatterjee(East), Jitendra Lad (West), Head (North)Subhashis RoyGeneral Manager Shailender Nehru (Bangalore),General Manager Velu Balasubramaniam (Chennai)

BusinessHead, CRM/CMS & Senior GM Vikas MalhotraChief Manager, Operations GL Ravik Kumar

Marketing Managers Kunal Bag, Anuradha RanaProduction Anuj Jamdegni

News stand SalesChief General Manager DVS Rama RaoGeneral Manager - National Deepak BhattSr Manager - North Manish ShrivastavaSr Manager - East Joydeep RoyGeneral Manager - West Rajesh MenonGeneral Manager - Operations Rakesh Sharma

DISCOVERY NETWORKS ASIA PACIFIC

EDITOR'S LETTER


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CONTENTSISSUE 03/14

DEPARTMENTS

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

THE GRID 15 DANCING CROSSINGGUARDS, PIRANHA ATTACKSAND THE UNLUCKIEST LOTTERYPLAYER IN RECENT HISTORY

PRISON TECH 20 JUSTBECAUSE YOU'RE IN JAILDOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'TMAKE YOUR OWN SHOTGUN

QUOTE UNQUOTE 16 TERRIFIEDOF SCORPIONS? WELL, UNLESSYOU'RE REALLY UNLUCKY, ASCORPION STING PROBABLYWON'T KILL YOU

ICON! 24 THE TWO MINUTESOLUTION TO HUNGER AND SOMENOODLE FACTS

IN A TWIST 24 STEFANIESHATTUCK HUFNAGEL'SSNEAKY PLOT TO MAKE YOURTONGUE EXPLODE

TIMEFRAME 25 IT IS 8.13PM,AND THE MOST SUCCESSFULSKYJACKER IN HISTORY ISMAKING HIS AWESOME GETAWAY

I FEEL NOTHING 16 WARNING:BOTOX WILL MAKE YOU PRETTY,YET ROBOTIC

WHAT'S ON 118 JOURNEYTHROUGH AFRICA, IMMERSEYOURSELF IN AN ALIEN WORLD,HUNT FOR GOLD, AND ESCAPEFROM HELL WITH BEAR GRYLLS

FRONTIERS

10-TONNE TRASH

14Cleaning up whale carcasses

is a far more explosive affair thanyou might expect

SO YOU WANT TO BE A

HACKER

18Fancy hacking your way to infamy?First, choose your headgear.

Second, shave a yak

ADVENTURE

AFGHAN SKATER

22 Afghanistan is home to horrendous

conict, inequality — andthe the highest ratio of female

skaters in the world

HISTORY

EGG ASTRONOMY

27Think you know what the Moon

really looks like? Think again.

THE TWO SIDES OF

DANCING

28Shake loose. Bust a move. Boogie

down. Just exercise caution toavoid grave injury.

22

15

27

22

25


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10DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

88 50 100



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11FEBRUARY 2014

36 72

ISSUE 03/14FEATURES

PHOTO FEATURE

WORLDWIDE JAM

50Feel like your morning commute is getting

worse? You're not the only one. EvenRussian millionaires are feeling the crush

COVER STORY: ADVENTURE

A DATE WITHBEAR GRYLLS

100 With a new show set to launch,

the global survival phenomenon speaks upexclusively on what makes his adrnalinerush, and want more...

TRAVEL

SIZE ISN'TEVERYTHING

58Five European micro-cities, four days,

one rented Skoda. Will our intrepidcorrespondent complete his mission of

visiting each obscure principality?

CARS

BUILT FOR BATTLE88

Why has the iconoic Jeep remained a chariotof choice for adventure lovers?

SCIENCE

SLEEPING WITHTHE ENEMY

72 A cure for cancer may remain a distant hope.Yet, more people are living with cancer than

dying from it!

MYSTERY

SO YOU WANT TO BE ANINTERNATIONAL SPY?

36They have secret jobs, gadgets and girls?

What does it take to become a super spy? And can you?

11MARCH 2014


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PHOTO

ONA

WO


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MARCH 2014

Spiders are famous forspinning webs to catch theirprey, but many spider specieshave abandoned this strategyand instead seize their preydirectly. So how do they doit? A team of biologists fromthe University of Kiel, inGermany, suggested thatperhaps the secret lies in thehairy adhesive pads known asscopulae, which are found atthe end of a spider's legs.

As blogger JyotiMadhusoodanan wrote onthe PLOS ONE communityblog: "The researchers useda phylogenetic analysisof spider family trees tocorrelate different species’prey capture strategies withthe presence or absence ofadhesive pads on their legs."The study was published inthe May 2013 issue of PLOSONE scientic journal.

She notes they foundthat most spiders known to

science "either built webs orwere free-ranging hunters —and that the latter were mostoften found to have adhesivehairs on their legs". In otherwords, scopulae (pictured)have helped many speciesswitch from using webs toactive hunting, by enablingthem to grab and holdonto prey that are literallystruggling for their lives.

THERE ISNO ESCAPE

WOW


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A video clip making the rounds recently showed a beached whalecorpse exploding as a museum worker tried to cut up the body.Gross, yes, but the incident highlighted a very real problem thatauthorities are faced with. How do you get rid of a multi-tonnecorpse that deposits itself on your shore? Tow the body awayand tides could send it back. Bury it, and the decomposing whalecould leak substances that attract hungry sharks.

Or, you can blow it up. In 1970, the US Oregon Departmentof Transportation tried to dispose of an eight-tonne sperm

whale by wiring it with half a tonne of dynamite. Boom! Hugechunks of blubber rained down on the area, one of themattening a car. Surveying his Buick, the owner sighed, “Myinsurance company is never going to believe this.” In short,removing a rotting animal the size of a bus is tricky. No doubtthat’s why even the scientists who wrote the 2005 version of Marine Mammals Ashore: A Field Guide for Stranding s noted,“The simplest way for a carcass to disappear is to turn your backon it and walk away.” Seriously...?

FR O NTIERS

BEACHED WHALESBEG AFTER-LIFE PROTOCOL

ISSUE 03/14


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MARCH 2014

HONOUR AMONGTHIEVES Spanish police saythey received tapes from an oldSuper 8 camera from an unlikelysource: a burglar. The criminalhad broken into a house andfound the tapes, which depictedscenes of graphic child abuse.Calling from a public phone,the thief directed police to anenvelope with the stash. The au-thorities have since arrested thesuspected molester, and are stilllooking for the burglar — “theone with the conscience,” said apolice officer.

LUCKY NUMBERS LastDecember’s Friday the 13 th proved to be an unlucky dayindeed for one French lotteryplayer. The pensioner, whoplayed the same lucky num-ber each week for the “SuperLoto” national lottery decided,for once, to switch to anotherlottery game, the Euromillions,which had a US$58 millionprize. Her number didn’t winthe Euromillions — but it wasthe number picked for thatweek’s Super Loto, its top prizeUS$10.9 million.

WAVE BYE TO WIPERSIn a few years, your car couldhave a new way to wipe rain offthe windshield: sound waves.Carmaker McLaren is designinga system adapted from ghter jets to repel water, insects andmud. High-frequency soundwaves continually create a forceeld that cleans the glass. Thetechnology is set to debut inMcLaren’s P13 supercar. “Thewindscreen wiper,” the com-pany’s design director tuttedto press, “is an archaic piece oftechnology.”

MECHANICS WITH ABANG Yemen is the secondmost heavily-armed countryin the world per capita, withover 54 guns owned per 100people (one report estimatedit had 61 guns per 100 people).So it may not be surprisingthat guns are used as a rangeof tools, aside from shootingthings. A video released late lastyear shows two Yemeni police-men using their AK-47s to linkbatteries between two cars, soas to jump-start the unreliableengine of one cruiser.

KINKURU CURSES Paul Apowida, a British Army soldierborn in Ghana, was branded akinkuru , a child possessed byevil spirits after he survivedtwo poisonings before age ve.Eight of his relatives died of thesame poisoning. The rst timehe was saved by a local nun. Asoothsayer then told his step-mother to give him a lethal doseof herbs, which he also survived.It is thought his eight relativessuccumbed to meningitis. Now27 years old, Apowida works tohave the practice banned.

P O L I C E

BLACK MAGIC BILLMonths after one of its keycampaigners was shot dead,a bill to curb superstitiouspractices was approved in thestate of Maharashtra. Knownas the anti-black magic bill, ithas attracted fervent naysay-ers, as well as proponents. Thebill aims to clamp down on holymen who claim to “cure” incur-able diseases, or exploit theircustomers — nonetheless, thebill has made exemptions forastrologers, palm readers andother religious practices.

S U P E R S T I T I O N

S O U N D

HERE, KITTY! Cat ownersmight be unsurprised by thendings of a research at theUniversity of Tokyo, Japan.Cats recognise their owner’s voices — but many choose to ig-nore them. Researchers studied20 housecats and noted theirresponse to voice recordingscalling their names. Comparingthe response from an owner’s voice to a stranger’s, theyfound that cats show a greaterresponse to the owner callingtheir name — though they stilldidn’t move.

A CASE OF DRUGGING: A gangster known as VikramParas escaped police custody ata Delhi railway station recently— by offering drug contami-nated food to the policemen onduty. Paras was being escortedback to Delhi, after a court ap-pearance when he and possiblydiguised accomplices, offeredthe police tid bits laced withsedatives. Paras had previouslyed police, after “luring his es-corts into a store on the prom-ise of buying them brandedapparel”.

Frightened of Fridays the 13th?CHARMS OR RITUALS MAY BOOST CONFIDENCE, BUT AN “UNLUCKY” NUMBER CAN NIX IT. IN 1993, RESEARCHERS NEARLONDON REPORTED THAT, OVER A THREE YEAR PERIOD, HIGHWAY TRAFFIC WAS LIGHTER ON FRIDAY THE 13TH THAN ONFRIDAY THE 6TH. YET, INEXPLICABLY, ON THE 13TH, ROAD ACCIDENTS SENT 52 PERCENT MORE PEOPLE TO HOSPITALS.

T H E G R I D STRANGE AND SERIOUS EVENTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLDASI A-PACIFI C MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA AMERICASEUROPE

BUST A MOVE Such is thehigh level of safety in Canadathat sometimes its local copsset off on some strange mis-sions. Canadian police recentlytold a female crossing guard,well-known for her penchantfor dancing on the job, to stopbreaking out her rhythmicmoves, for fear of distractingmotorists leading to accidents.Spoilsports! Disappointedcitizens urged the cops to “lether dance”. One netizen wrotedryly, “I’m surprised theydidn’t taser her as well.”

THE AIDS TABOO Whilethere have been improvementsin South Africa in the ghtagainst AIDS, such as a hugecampaign to deliver anti-retro- viral drugs to 2.4 million people,the country is still mired insuperstitions about the disease.Speaking to CBS News, CarolDiyani, an aid worker who runsa care centre in the country,noted, “Some people will takeit as witchcraft. Believe it ornot, some people will say, ‘No,no, there’s just somebody who’sactually killing our family.’”

PIEZO POWER The roar ofa jet engine is a bane to anyonewho lives near an airport. Butsoon, that roar could be used tomute itself. Aerospace contrac-tors in Alabama, in the US, havefound that the 130-decibel noisecan be harnessed using piezo-electrics. Piezoelectric materi-als use energy from movement— in this case, the vibrationfrom sound waves — to gener-ate electricity, which can powersensors that dampen enginenoise by cancelling out certainfrequencies.

NEWS


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NEWS OUTLETS IN CHINARECENTLY DREW FLAKFOR SUGGESTING THATCOUNTRY’S SMOG PROBLEM HAD RESULTED INFIVE BENEFITS

DRONES: the newdelivery boysRobots delivering goodsto your doorstep mightone day be a reality, withAmazon’s announcementabout their “octocopter”plan. CEO Jeff Bezosdescribed the idea to usesmall ying drones todeliver light packages tonearby customers within30 minutes.

Very exciting. Yet,Prime Air, as the planis called, is not likelyto see the light of dayanytime soon. Theannouncement sparkedmany fears, includingdrones being shotdown, malfunctioningunits dropping items onchildren’s heads, droneshijacked to deliverbombs, bird strike, theft,and so on.

Maybe we shouldn’tbe too quick to dismissthe idea: Octocopters,says Bezos, can carry alittle over two kilograms,“which covers 86 percent of the items thatwe deliver”. While youmight think it seemslazy to wait for a robotto y a DVD to you, it’senvironmentally sound;cleaner than drivingyour carbon monoxide-

spewing car; and fuellingtrafc woes.

Some research has alsoshown that you’re lesslikely to buy unneededgoods online than in reallife. Maybe Amazon isonto something after all.

BEST REACTIONSTO PRIME AIROwls

Book retailer Waterstonescreated their own

spoof delivery system,the OrnithologicalWaterstones LandingService where, like inHarry Potter, owls deliveryour stuff. Although theyadmit, “Putting OWLS intocommercial use will takea number of years as ittakes ages to train owlsand we only just thoughtof it this morning!”

MISSED DELIVERYNote

The Twitter jokesterQuantumPirate posted

a note from a misseddrone delivery. Thepackage could not bedropped off because“drone reached sentienceand defected to jointhe machines in theupcoming revolutionagainst mankind”. As aresult, “The worker whoarranged this delivery willbe punished.”(!)

ROBOTIC POST

Members of the 501 st Legion, a Star Wars costuming organisation, dressed asstormtroopers for a promotional videopublicising the world’s rst comprehensivesci- museum at Seattle, Washington.

Museumof ScienceFiction

Never Say Never Again? Itshould’ve been “I’ll neverdrink again”, suggestsDavies and colleagues atNottingham UniversityHospitals, UK. The teamanalysed James Bond’salcohol intake in 14 of

"ALTHOUGH WEAPPRECIATE

THE SOCIETALPRESSURES

TO CONSUMEALCOHOL WHEN

WORKING WITHINTERNATIONAL

TERRORISTSAND HIGH STAKE

GAMBLERS,WE WOULD

ADVISE BONDTO BE REFERRED

FOR FURTHERASSESSMENT OF

HIS ALCOHOLINTAKE"

DR PATRICK DAVIES

AND COLLEAGUES

THE SMOGHAS UNITEDTHE CHINESELIKE NEVERBEFORE

IN THEFACE OFSMOG,EVERYONEIS EQUAL

THE SMOGHAS INDUCEDA SENSE OFHUMOURAMONG THECHINESE

IT HAS ALSOMADE THEMMOREKNOWLEDGEABLE1 2

IT HAS MADETHE CHINESEPEOPLEMORE CLEARHEADED3 4 5

NEWS

BRIGHT SIDE OF SMOG?

QuoteUnquote

Ian Fleming’s novels.Unsurprisingly, thesuper-spy was found tobe a boozehound. Theyfound 007 drank 92 unitsof alcohol per week, fourtimes the recommendedamount in Britain. Theresearch notes thatBond would have beencrippled by his addiction,

with memory problems,tremors, cirrhosis of theliver, and a high risk ofheart attack or stroke.“Here is a man whodrinks the equivalentof a bottle and a halfof wine every day,”they wrote, “yet whois required to defusenuclear bombs. You cando one of those things,but you can’t do both.”

NEWS


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First up, do not do anythingillegal. Note, that not allhackers are “bad guys”.The so-called whitehats use their skills toprotect companies andorganisations from thedevious black-hat hackers,who often work for illicitprots, or just to causechaos. We’ll assume thatyou want to be a good guy,someone who sniffs outweaknesses in systemsand helps design betterprotective software. Also don’t assume thatyou have to be like KeanuReeves in The Matrix, livinga solitary, friendless life.Most white-hat hackers arefamily guys with steady paycheques, tied into a socialcommunity.

Hacking conferences arebeing held everywhere,including at DEF CON, aLas Vegas annual, whichin 2013 saw 13,000 peopleattend it.

Incidentally, learning tohack isn’t necessarily easy,but the tools to access theskill aren’t esoteric either.Hackthissite.org is a legalsite where users can learnand test their skills in asafe environment. Also,feel free to root aroundFacebook’s system — theyencourage it, and, as their /whitehat/bounty pagesays, if you nd a bug,“our minimum reward isUS$500”, and “there is nomaximum reward: eachbug is awarded a bountybased on its severity andcreativity”. Google doeshave a maximum rewardfor bug-nding, though,which is US$20,000.

TIME NEEDEDTO HACKPASSWORDS

Doxing: publishingdocuments (“dox”) of ahacked victim, such as

emails, to reveal details oftheir personal life

Hog: a program that eats upa system’s resources,

slowing it down

Social engineering: usingnon-technological ways togain access to a system,such as pretending to be

the IT guy, or simply readingthe password off a victim’s

notebook

SIXLOWERCASELETTERS

10 MINUTES

SEVENLOWERCASEANDUPPERCASELETTERS

23 DAYS

jargon

CONTAINS EIGHTUPPERCASE ANDLOWERCASE LETTERS,IN ADDITION TO NUMBERSAND SYMBOLS

463 YEARS HOWEVER, HACKERS AREGETTING FASTER ALL THETIME, WITH ONE MANAGINGTO CRACK JUST OVER2,700 PASSWORDS IN FIVEHOURS AND 12 MINUTESEARLY LAST YEAR

OCCUPATIONS

2,600 hertzIn 1972, a hacker named

John Draper found he coulduse the whistle toy from

Cap’n Crunch cereal boxesto hack phone lines and

make free calls. The whistle,pitched at 2,600 hertz,

patched him through to the“operator” mode.

Early phone hacking wasknown as “phreaking”

HACKERWHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A

You’ve watched Tron , The Matrix , and the 1983lm WarGames , and decided this hacking larkis for you. What should you do...?

TECHNOLOGY


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Labels + SurfaceMessage notes can beconduited by stickingthem to the back ofsticky labels (from adeodorant can) andtaped to the bottomof a table.

Necessity, they say, isthe mother of invention.So, if you give prisonersa lot of free time andincentive, they can comeup with jaw droppingsolutions

INMATEINNOVATIONSPrisoners engineer more than

just escapes

Powered by Gravity

CROWDSOURCING

LOVE Facebook’sForce Rememberwhere you were onNew Year’s Eve, 2012?Reese McKee certainlydoes. He was partyingin Hong Kong whenhe came across acrying American lass.Being a gentleman,

he consoled her, theychatted, sparks ew —then she left. But notbefore whispering twowords: “Find me.” All he had was a

photo and her name:Katie. So he turned tosocial media, startinga Facebook campaign,sharing her photo in

the hope that someonewould know her. “Ifnothing else, it would just be great to get intouch with her and say‘thank you’,” he said.

The campaignworked — perhaps toowell. “We found thegirl,” he told press, butshe was apparently

rather bemused byall the attention, andhad taken down allher online proles. Whether Katie will getin touch with McKeeand understand thegesture remains to beseen, but it certainlyattests to the power ofthe internet. It took

just a couple of daysfor McKee's page to beshared 8,700 times —and a week to nd her.

THE STALKINGEFFORT SCALE

“INFINITY” AND “LIGHT BULBS” AREN’T TWO WORDS YOU USUALLY HEAR INTHE SAME SENTENCE. UNLESS YOU’RE TALKING ABOUTGRAVITYLIGHT, AREVOLUTIONARY DEVICE THAT GENERATES LIGHT USING THE POWER OF GRIT COSTS NOTHING TO POWER, AND WILL ESSENTIALLY RUN FOREVER. A BAGUNDER THE LIGHT IS FILLED WITH 10 KILOGRAMS OF ANY FOUND MATERIALWEIGHT THEN DRAGS THE BAG DOWN SLOWLY, TURNING GEARS THIS POWTHE LIGHT FOR AROUND 30 MINUTES. SELLING FOR AROUND US$10, GRAVITYPAYS FOR ITSELF IN JUST A FEW MONTHS, AS USERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRNO LONGER NEED TO BUY ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY, AND POTENTIALUNG DAMAGING KEROSENE FUEL.DCM QUITE LIKES THE IDEA OF USING SEETHROUGH BAGS AND FILLING THEM WITH WATER AND PYROSOMES, JELLYFILIKE BIOLUMINESCENT CREATURES THAT ARE CONSIDERED AMONG THEBRIGHTEST ORGANISMS IN THE OCEAN. HENCE THE NAME “PYRO” FROM “FIRHEY PRESTO YOU’VE GOT A GRAVITY POWERED LAVA LAMP.

Shiv + ScoringSome prisoners cleverlyscore a glass or plasticblade so that it breaks offwhen they stab an enemy,allowing the perpetratorto escape without leavingngerprints.

Chocolate = PainBy melting caramelchocolate bars, inmateshave created a boilingweapon to throw intosomeone’s face. The stickycaramel makes it hard towash off, and increasesthe risk of a deep burn.

Bedposts + Match HeadsIn 1984, German prisonersimprovised a shotgun andmanaged to escape. Theyused an iron bedpost forthe stock, bullets fromscavenged steel and

match heads, and a ringmechanism triggered bybatteries and a brokenlight bulb.

Batteries + NeedleAdding a bunch of needles

to a small motor stolenfrom a vibrating consolecontroller in the rec roomresulting in a tattoo gunfor some fashionableprison ink.

Fruit + Plastic BagPruno, or prison wine,

is brewed by fermentingfruit and sugar in aplastic bag, sometimeswith bread or ketchup,for about 72 hours. Theresulting alcohol contentis as high as 12 per cent.A blogger who tried itdescribed it as “brushingyour teeth, slamming aglass of grapefruit juice,throwing it up, thendrinking it again”.

0 “SHE LEFT; I CAN’TFIND HER. GUESS I’LLGIVE UP”

4 “I’LL POST A ‘MISSEDCONNECTION’ ON

CRAIGSLIST”6 “MAYBE I’LL POST HERPHOTO ALL OVER THEINTERNET”

9 “I SHOULD PROBABLYPRINT OUT SHOTS ANDSTICK THEM ON STREETLIGHTS, TOO”

10 “TOMORROW I WILLLOOK UP PRIVATEINVESTIGATORS IN THEYELLOW PAGES”

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

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In 2007, Australian skate-boarder Oliver Percovicharrived in Afghanistanwith his boards, and soonattracted dozens of streetchildren who would shriekwith excitement and begfor rides. So was bornSkateistan, a charity in Afghanistan and Cambodiaaiming to empower youthand street kids. Afghangirls aren’t allowed to ridebikes — but they can rideskateboards. Nearly halfof Skateistan students aregirls, giving Afghanistanthe highest rate offemale participation inskateboarding.

So, why skateboarding?Their site explains, it’s away to engage youngstersand direct them towardsthe charity’s education,community and leadershipefforts. Most importantly,“All children deserve theright to play.” DCM spoketo Rhianon Bader, aninstructor at Skateistan,about the power of highsocks and skateboarding.

Is there a local twist to theburgeoning skater culturein Afghanistan? The kidshave developed their ownstyle, in clothing, slang,tricks and also music.It’s a mix of local youthcultures and adaptations

from YouTube. You alsosee the younger studentsemulating the styles of theirteachers who become defacto trendsetters. Merza,our long-time skate teacherin Kabul, made rolledup pants and high sockspopular for a while. Thekids see the best skaters asidols and role models — andthat’s really positive.

What's been your greatestmoment so far? I was verylucky and got to take the

students on their rst tripto Europe, chaperoningfour Afghan girls on atrip to Italy in 2011. Theyperformed skate demosaround the country, spoketo the media, participatedin panel discussions andlearned to breakdance. Iwas so proud of the girlsand Skateistan for makingit happen.

Skateistan suffered greatlosses from bombings.How hard was it to keepgoing after the explosionsin 2012 killed and injuredyour students for thesecond time? We are luckyto be doing somethingpositive and importantfor a lot of young Afghans.Many feel helpless becausethere seems no light atthe end of the tunnel. Incontrast, we were able toget stronger because weactually help to preventsuch losses, by taking kidsoff the streets and into asafe place, even if only fora few hours a week.

SKATEBOARDINGFOR PEACEEncouraged and motivated Afghan girls begin to prove their mettle

It looks like evil on legs, the stuffnightmares are made of. So what arethe chances that this critter wouldkill you? High, surely? Nope. Outof some 1,500 species of scorpion,a mere 50 have been identied asdangerous to humans — some saythe number is as low as 20. So if onestings you, there’s a 3.33 per centchance you’re in danger, and that's inthe worst case scenario.

ThisScorpionis NotDangerous

"OW"

SOME SCORPION MOTHERS HAVE AGESTATION PERIOD AROUND THE

SAME LENGTH AS HUMANS

"AWW"

THEY CAN GIVE BIRTH TO UP TO AHUNDRED BABIES, WHO CROWDAROUND THEIR MOTHER’S TAIL

FOR PROTECTION

"ICK"IF HUNGRY, THE MOTHER

MAY CHOW DOWN ON SOME OFHER KIDS

"OOO"

ARE YOU AN ARACHNIDCOLLECTOR? FINDING SCORPIONSIS EASY. THEY’RE FLUORESCENTUNDER ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT. NO

ONE KNOWS WHY, BUT COULD IT BEBECAUSE THEY LOVE RAVE MUSIC?

NEWS

LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING

ADVENTURE


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NEWS

Throughout the world, just today alone, people

will eat an estimated 270 million servings ofinstant ramen noodles. Each serving costs justa few cents. Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando would be proud — in 1958, he producedthe rst prototype of instant ramen noodles byfrying them in hot palm oil, thus drying themout for future rehydration.In post-war Japan, where food supplieswere still not plentiful, Ando’s goal was tocreate a cheap meal that could be stored nearindenitely. Having succeeded, his producthas blossomed in popularity ever since. In2000, the Japanese voted karaoke, and theSony Walkman, as the second and third most

important national inventions of the 20 th century. No prizes for guessing what came in atnumber ichi (one). In creating a dish beloved bybusy office workers and students everywhere, Ando was guided by a higher set of principles:“Peace will come when people have food,” hesaid wisely.

The World Instant Noodles Association, WINA, agrees. WINA operates to ferry instantnoodles to those who need them most. When a7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Sichuan,in China, WINA got around 240,000 packagesof ramen into victims’ hands before you couldsay “cup noodle”.

Yet ramen has a downside — at 49 percentsaturated fat, palm oil is hardly healthy. Palmoil cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysiahas led to the loss of habitats of endangeredspecies, and farmers often clear plantationsby burning them to the ground, creating acridhaze that pollutes the air and people’s lungs. When Singapore’s haze monitor hit a recordhigh of 401 (above 100 is unhealthy), palmplantation res were blamed.

Noodle BoonThe two-minute solutionto hunger

Is there anything to be gained fromthese mumbo-jumbos?

“Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.”Even reading that sentence gave youa bit of a headache, didn’t it? As wellit should. That jumble of word mushwas crafted by researchers at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology,in the United States, who wereinvestigating the link between speecherrors and brain functions. Yes, theycreated their own tongue-twister, oneso difcult that not one of their testsubjects could perfectly repeat it.True, it loses points because thesentence doesn’t actually make sense,which we think is cheating a little. Butthat fact actually added to its difculty,meaning that many subjects juststopped talking altogether.And the study gains extra pointsbecause one of the lead researchershas a name just waiting to be used ina tongue-twister: Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel*.Why do tongue-twisters niggle atus like a piece of corn in a tooth?Partly because they’re the auditory

equivalent of watching someonethread a needle: we always think wecan do it better. But there’s also thecheekiness factor built into manytwisters, where saying it incorrectlyoften leads to a lot of involuntaryswearing. “I slit the sheet, the sheet Islit; and on the slitted sheet Isit,” is one very charming example.Such is the magnetic siren call of thetongue-twister that they even make itinto ctional languages, such as Gameof Thrones’s Dothraki. If a handsomebarbarian ever tells you “Qafak qovkaffe qif qiya ni kaf faggies fakaya”,you’ll know it means “the tremblingquestioner crushed the bleeding boarthat squished a kicking corn bunting”.

*Here’s DCM’s attempt: StefanieShattuck-Hufnagel’s short truckshot towards the six sitting ducks’untucked shirts, though Shattuck’struck swerved through swiftly. Say itthrice, quickly and with no errors, andyou’ll earn our undying respect.

TONGUETWISTERS

OBSESSIONS

LANGUAGE ICON: RAMEN


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25MARCH 2014

The quiet, middle-agedhijacker who calledhimself Dan Cooperwore a snazzy suitand a skinny tie with amother-of-pearl clip.A few minutes into theUS domestic ight fromPortland, Oregon, toSeattle, he handed oneof the stewardesses anote, which said he washijacking the plane.Unfortunately, shethought it was a pickupattempt, and tucked itinto her pocket unread.

“You’d better read that,miss. I have a bomb,” hemurmured. He gestured

to his briefcase, lledwith wires and whatlooked like sticks ofdynamite.

8:13pmNovember 24, 1971The Case of theElusive Skyjacker

YOU SLEEP ONLYTWICE Are you the kind of person who wakes up at 2am and can’t get back tosleep? You’re experiencing a bimodal sleep pattern, or segmented sleep.Many animals practise it, and we used to, as well, until the IndustrialRevolution, after which light bulbs burnt all night, and our sleep rhythmswent bananas. Prior to this, the terms “rst sleep” and “second sleep”were used around the world. During the short periods of wakefulness,it was common to eat, pray, or even socialise. So, if you pop a pill tosleep (some of which have been linked to a 300 per cent to 500 per centincreased risk of early death), take note. You might not actually need one.

TRADITIONALLY, WHEN ACONDEMNED MAN WASTO DIE BY FIRING SQUAD,ONE BULLET WOULD BEMADE OF A HARMLESSMATERIAL, SO NOEXECUTOR WOULD KNOWWHO KILLED HIM

DON’T DO IT!

4 secondsTime it takes to drop into the wateroff the Golden Gate Bridge in theUnited States, one of the world’smost popular suicide destinations

1 regretThose who jump and survive oftenreport an instant regret

93%Of those people who have attemptedsuicide, an estimated 93 per cent donot make a second attempt

THIS WAS PRACTISED ASRECENTLY AS 2010, WHENFIVE US POLICE MARKSMENEXECUTED DEATH ROWINMATE RONNIE LEEGARDNER. EACH RECEIVEDA SPECIAL COIN FORCARRYING OUT HIS DUTY

5

TIMEFRAME

his demands, and theplane took off again with just Cooper and the crew.

He ordered the pilotsto y at 10,000 feet(three kilometres) and150 knots (close to 278kilometres per hour),conditions favourable toa skydive.

SAVED BY AN OVEN Here’s a scary fact.

In a 2001 study of suicide survivors, 13per cent said that they had thought ofkilling themselves for longer than eighthours. Seventy per cent said they hadthought about it for less than an hour.Nearly a quarter said the idea occurredto them just ve minutes before theattempt. That’s the decision to end yourown life, made in less time than it takesto cook a hard-boiled egg.

Suicide, it turns out, is often highlyopportunistic. A strange anecdote bearsthis out. Until the 1970s, England had

a fairly high suicide rate. Then, in just months, it plummeted by about30 per cent, and hasn’t changedsince. What happened? Ovens hadbeen converted from coal gas, whichcontains deadly carbon monoxide, tonatural gas. Just like that, the mostcommon method of self-destructionhad been removed from everydaylife, and many people didn’t seekout another. Some 17,000 peopleend their lives with a rearm inthe United States, about half ofall national suicides. What wouldhappen if civilian access to guns wasremoved? If similar studies are to bebelieved, you could save 17,000 lives.

IN 1815, ONE OFNAPOLEON BONAPARTE’SCONDEMNED MARSHALSGAVE THE ORDER TO FIREON HIMSELF

1815KILLER JAMES W RODGERSWAS NOT GRANTEDHIS LAST REQUESTBEFORE BEING SHOT: ABULLETPROOF VEST

1960RUSSIAN ROULETTE

The note demanded

US$200,000 and twosets of parachutes, to bedelivered by authoritiesupon landing. Theyconsidered giving Cooperfake parachutes, andhey presto — one deadhijacker. But what if hestrapped a hostage intothe second ‘chute?

The plane soon landed,and the other passengersdisembarked. Cooper got

At about 8:13 pm,he opened the aftstairway of the craft and jumped, with around9.5 kilograms worth ofUS$20 bills strappedto him. He was neverseen again, and to thisday there are no cluesto his identity. It is the

only unsolved airplanehijacking case in UShistory — unlike the slewof copycats that Cooperinspired. Fifteen otherstried to emulate Cooperin 1972. All failed.

A BAD TIME TO FLYIn 1968, there were 36hijackings of aircraft in theUnited States. In 1969, thatnumber had gone up to 71,and in 1970 to 69.

HISTORY


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SO WHY SHOULDI CARE ABOUT...

“THE PRESS PROVIDES ANESSENTIAL CHECK ON ALLASPECTS OF PUBLIC LIFE.THAT IS WHY ANY FAILUREWITHIN THE MEDIA AFFECTSALL OF US.”

LORD JUSTICE LEVESON,OPENING HIS ENQUIRY IN2011 INTO THE ROLE OFTHE UK PRESS AND POLICEIN THE COUNTRY’S PHONEHACKING SCANDAL

On any list of the world’s mostadmired professions, you willnd journalists generally nearthe bottom of an increasinglymurky barrel. Ahead of carsalesmen, but behind lawyers.

Fair enough, 2013 wasn’ta good year for journalists.The Leveson enquiry in theUK exposed dirty dealings by journalists, while the criminaltrials of high-ranking News

Limited editors revealed thelurid world of phone hackingof celebrities, sports star andBritish royals. No wondermany have been questioningthe value of journalists.

But for every phonehacker, there are scores ofinvestigative journalistsshedding light on illegal,immoral, and highly suspectactivities.

Think Bob Woodward andCarl Bernstein's reporting onthe Watergate break-in andother Nixon administration-related crimes for TheWashington Post . Thinkof the reporters who haverisked life and limb to bringstories from violent conictsin the Middle East. Amongthem, Christiane Amanpour,

international reporter forCNN and ABC News; Kate Adie, the BBC's former chiefnews correspondent; andMarie Colvin, a Sunday Times journalist in the UK, who waskilled in the besieged Syriancity of Homs.

In 2010, Colvin spokeabout the dangers of reportingon war zones. “Craters.Burned houses. Mutilated

bodies. Women weeping forchildren and husbands. Menfor their wives, mothers,children. Our mission is toreport these horrors of warwith accuracy and withoutprejudice,” she said. “We haveto ask ourselves whetherthe level of risk is worth thestory.” “Journalists coveringcombat shoulder great

responsibilities and facedifficult choices. Sometimesthey pay the ultimate price,”she added.

Today, reporters areexpected to do more — blog,tweet, and take pictures —to feed the 24-hour newscycle. There is less time forpainstaking investigative journalism. But at a time ofinformation overload, there

is an even greater need forprofessionals who can sort thefacts from the oss.

We journalists can live withour poor popularity ratings.But the world would not bea better place if the likes of Woodward and Bernstein,Colvin, Adie and Amanpour,and others like them, hadchosen a different profession.

A 3 MINUTE PITCH BY IAN JARRETT

JOURNALISTS

48HOURSLife or Death

Students at NorthwesternUniversity, United States, havean intriguing investigative journalism course. They splitinto teams, and see if they canunearth wrongful convictionsin capital punishment cases.They have saved the lives ofmany innocent prisoners, evensucceeding in helping secure astay of execution for a man 48hours away from death. Theirfurther investigations laterproved his innocence, and freedhim from 17 years in jail.

OPINION


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27MARCH 2014

One grain of sand isclearly not a heap.Neither is two, oreven 20. But you keepadding grain upongrain until you get to1,000, and think, “Yep,that is now a heap ofsand.” What happensif you take away asingle grain? Does itcease to be a heap?

This isn’t as banalas you might think. It’sknown as the soritesparadox, and has beendebated by ancientGreek philosopherswho were as wise astheir beards werelong. This way ofmeasurement affectseverything fromcriminal law rightdown to food safety.

Let’s take rat hairin your peanut butteras an example. TheUS Food and DrugAdministration (FDA)will only take actionto remove a certainpeanut butter fromthe shelves if thereis found to be “anaverage of one ormore rodent hairsper 100 grams”. If theaverage is one hairper 150 grams, forexample, they don’thave to take action,as it’s deemed an

acceptable levelof contamination.

Same with “insectlth”, where anythingunder an average of30 or more “insectfragments” per 100grams is ne.

Once you startthinking in terms ofthe sorites paradox,the world seemsstrange. In someplaces, if a malecommits a murderaged 17 and 360 daysand is caught, hecannot be executedas he is a “minor”.If he had murderedsomeone a weeklater, his execution bya court of law wouldbe deemed legal.Small changes, yet bigdifferences.

Is “when is a heap nota heap” too deep foryou? There are sillierphilosophical questionsout there, courtesy ofthe internet and itsmost thoughtful meme,Philosoraptor

If a mime commitssuicide, does he usea silencer?

If a picture is worth athousand words, what isa picture of a thousandwords worth?

If revenge is a dishbest served cold, andrevenge is sweet, isrevenge ice cream?

SAFETY INNUMBERS?Limitations of laws that

presumably protect us

THE BOTOX EFFECT We live in a crazyworld, where the mosttoxic substance isalso the most popularcosmetic enhancer.Just one kilo of thebotulinum toxin is saidto be enough to killevery single humanbeing on Earth. Withtwo teaspoons, youcould eradicate thepopulation of theUnited Kingdom. Yet,as Botox, it is injectedinto millions of faceseach year, as it is

fantastic at smoothingout wrinkles, whendelivered in dosesof a few billionths ofa gram dissolved insaline. But with a at,expressionless facecomes two potentialproblems. Botox usersreport a curtailedability to expressemotions facially—frowning, smiling,and so on. The otheris that this blandnessseems to transferitself emotionally, too.By being unable to

mirror other people’sexpressions, Botoxusers are also less ableto empathise withtheir emotions. Turnsout the “mirroringeffect” we often engagein unconsciously isn’t just good etiquette.

BOTOX CAPITAL

The ‘Botox capital’ ofthe world is Westport,Ireland, producingnearly the entire

planet’s supply in thissingle area, population6,063.

PICTURE THE MOON. ARE YOU IMAGINING A ROUND, SILVERY OBJECT?THOUSANDS OF ASTRONOMERS AROUND THE WORLD ARE TUTTING AT YOU.MOON ISN’T ROUND, IT’S EGG SHAPED. AT NIGHT, WHEN YOU LOOK UP AT THMOON, YOU’RE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT ONE END OF THE “EGG” POINTING ATIN NATURE, EGG SHAPES CONFER MANY ADVANTAGES. IT'S NO WONDER THENTHAT BIRDS ARE SO FOND OF THEM. PERFECTLY ROUND EGGS WOULD ROLL O

OF NESTS FAR EASIER, WHEREAS THEIR ASYMMETRY MEANS THAT A KNOCKEEGG WILL ROLL IN A TIGHT CIRCLE. CLIFF DWELLING BIRDS, FOR EXAMPLE,LAY EVEN MORE OVAL LIKE EGGS THAN BIRDS THAT LIVE ELSEWHERE. EITHWAY, PERHAPS IT’S TIME WE STOPPED THE FANCIFUL MYTH THAT THE MOON MADE OF CHEESE AND START REALISING THAT IT COULD MAKE POSSIBLY TGREATEST OMELETTE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.

T E S T Y O U R E M PAT H Y !D O Y O U F E E L W H AT T H E S E E M O T I C O N S A R E E X P R E S S I N G ?

Embarrassed. See theblushing cheeks?

Crying. Yes, you'reright, there's the tears

Preoccupied HomerSimpson (look at it

sideways)

#^.^# ; _ ; 8 |

KICK HITLER!

HISTORY

Egg in the Sky


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28DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA28

Shake loose. Cut a rug. Bust a move. Boogie down. Boysand girls, it’s time to hit the dance oor — just be cautious

of head injuries, or any mention of Kevin Bacon

DANCING

THE TWOSIDES OF

Dancing and yourhigh school prom

will always belinked in your

memory, causingnuclear levels ofembarrassment

A Hollywood producer’sevaluation of Fred

Astaire’s rst screentest: “Can’t act. Can’t

sing. Balding. Candance a little.”

We're not so certainwe disagree

The moonwalk: amove so cool thateven a type of bird(the red-capped

manakin, Pipramentalis ) uses it toimpress the ladies

Various studies havefound that dancinggenerally helps toimprove physical

health, boosts

happiness, andincreases cognitivefunction — as ifwe needed more

reasons to enjoy it

In 1518, a “dancingplague” in the European

city of Strasbourg saw 400people dancing for weeks

in what was thought tobe an outbreak of mass

hysteria. Many died fromexhaustion. Historiansstill aren’t sure how it

came about

At the risk of soundinglike your mother ( seeleft ), metalheads takenote: headbanging hasbeen associated withneck pain, spasms,

aneurysms and whiplash— although not muchformal research has

been conducted

To disguise the factthat their impressivemoves were actuallya ferocious martial

art called capoeira,slaves in Brazil settheir moves to music,so that it looked likean acrobatic dance

Watch Evolution ofDance , a YouTube video

where a comediandiscos through some ofthe most iconic moves

of the past ve decades.History has never been

so funky

A sustainable danceoor in Canada

generates electricityfrom the energy ofdancers’ feet. After

its installation in2010, in six days itgenerated enough juice to power 80homes for a day

The fact that yourparents dance, ever,is a major reason to

proceed with caution.Especially any time

that Footloose isinvolved

As one Japaneseproverb puts it,

“We’re fools whetherwe dance or not. So

we might as welldance”


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FEATURES36 100


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35MARCH 2014

72

50

88

PAGE 72 HOW CLOSE AREWE TO CURING CANCER?

PAGE 100 LIVING ON THEEDGE: BEAR GRYLLS’ STORY

PAGE 58 ON THE ROADS OFEUROPE’S TINY NATIONS

PAGE 50 THE TRAFFIC TRIALS:A GLOBAL PHENOMENON

PAGE 88 THE MIGHT OF THEMIGHTY JEEP

PAGE 36 THE SECRETS OF THELEGENDARY SPIES


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36


They have secret jobs,and names, globetrotting

assignments and mind blowing gadgetry. Just how does one becomean international super

spy? Cain Nunns meetsinternational spies, who

have lived the high voltagelife through the glorious

years of espionage

SO YOU WATO BE ANINTERNATIOSUPER SPY?


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37

MARCH 2014

SPY GAMES

T

NAL


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he only other thing out of theordinary about Vincent isthat he is an “asset”. That is,he passes on information to acontroller, or eld officer, of an Asian intelligence agency — herefuses to say which one — forcash or favours.

Our man in Shanghai isa small cog in the everydaymachine that keepsgovernments and civilisationsrunning. It is the grey-areaside of our bureaucracies thatremains lled with mystery

and intrigue — and wheredeception has been elevatedto an art form. A realm wherepeople are never who they saythey are, and where slivers ofinformation have the powerto save an empire, or spark aglobal war.

The agencies that runthe show, the alphabet soupcomprising the US-based CIA(Central Intelligence Agency)and NSA (National Security Agency); MI6 and MI5 inBritain; plus the KGB of the

former Soviet Union and FSB(Federal Security Serviceof the Russian Federation)of modern-day Russia, are just some of the headlinerstopping a bill that is supportedby basically every governmentand their own intelligenceagencies today.

“I’ve done business in Asia for decades, and meta lot of people from a lot ofdifferent walks of life. I guessthose connections are worthsomething,” says Vincent. He

There is no razor-cut sharpSavile Row suit. No Patek PhilippeCelestial, with built-in lasers andsonic weapons implanted into itsUS$2,00,000 watch face. Nor did he leap out of a bullet-riddled AstonMartin, a leggy blonde Russianmodel in one hand and a briefcasein the other.

He climbed out of a taxi, sportinga backpack, an ill-tting Hawaiianshirt and comfy tracksuit pants.

Heavyset, he is in his late 50s, withthe sort of ruddy face formed by hard drinking sessions, and not by volcanic ash and tea tree oilspa treatments.

In fact, there isn’t really anythingout of the ordinary about the manthat we’ll call Vincent, apart from his thick ginger beard, and imposingsize. He is huge. A veritable man-mountain, he has hands the size ofdinner plates, and a back-slap thatcould almost knock the dents outof car panels.


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39MARCH 2014

refers to a Western friend ashis introduction into life as anintelligence asset.

“My father had workedfor naval intelligence, and Ithought it would be excitingto get involved,” he explains.“Not many people get to saythey have done this typeof work. The travel perksmade it a really attractiveoption as well,” he adds, inbetween huge gulps of coffeeand smatterings of nervouslaughter. “I look at it like due

diligence or political risk work— both of which are standardin the corporate world Icome from. I’m not stealinggovernment or corporatesecrets, and I don’t provideinformation if I suspectsomeone might be directlyhurt by it. That is my numberone rule,” he asserts.

Vincent insists that he onlycollects targeted information,primarily about publicgures including politicians,ambassadors, businessmen

and civic leaders. “It’s mainlypersonality traits or trends.Is this guy a womaniser? Isthis group gaining or waningin popularity? Is this personcorrupt? I’m not askingsources to sell me top-secretinformation,” he says.

The rst thing you need toknow about spies is that youcan’t believe everything yousee in those James Bondmovies. An average day for aninternational spy entailstedious, detailed

“I DON’TPROVIDEINFORMATIONIF I SUSPECT

SOMEONEMIGHT BEDIRECTLY HURTBY IT. THAT ISMY NUMBERONE RULE”

SPY GAMES


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work, observation, and drybureaucratic procedures.

While propaganda andcovert missions are part of the job description, the majority ofa spy’s responsibilities centreon assessing and recruiting

sources, who provide theminformation. Like a bureauchief, intelligence officerskeep the information pipelineopen, pay their sources, andthen report everything back totheir headquarters.

In the United States forexample, CIA operativesundergo intense trainingat a specially built facilitycalled the “Farm”. Mostof the training focuses ongathering intelligence, thoughparamilitary classes suchas hand-to-hand combat,weapons training, defensivedriving, amphibious landings,parachuting and extractiontechniques also make uppart of the curriculum. Sadly,the fun stuff is the exceptionrather than the norm.

Lindsay Moran, a formerCIA case officer and authorof the book Blowing MyCover: My Life as a CIA Spy ,always wanted to be a spy. She

obsessed over the Harriet theSpy book series as a little girl —even fashioning her early lifeafter the ctional character.So it wasn’t much of a leap forMoran to approach the agencyafter graduating from Harvard

University, Massachusetts, US.“I envisaged myself in a

black catsuit climbing walls.The reality is very different.It’s more like a gloriedsalesman — but what you’reselling is espionage,” she says.“You nd people and assetsthat have information youwant, and you essentially usethem. Develop a friendship,and then the part that is verydistasteful, nd out what theirweaknesses are.”

According to Moran,case officers need to haveextremely analytical minds,a generous supply of streetsmarts, be able to assimilateand generate contacts, andhave acute observation skills. And most importantly, be amaster manipulator. “Peopleask me all the time, ‘Whendid you fear for your life?’Honestly, it was very rare thatthat happened, because thepeople who are actually takingthe risks are the people youhave recruited to give youthe information.”

Moran says that aside fromreal or imagined dangers, overtime, other stresses of the jobdo take a massive toll on spies.“Personal relationships are very difficult. I was naive aboutthe strain that it puts on youwhen you lead a double life.It’s so hard to establish anykind of relationship, becauseyou can’t tell anyone whatyou do. Lying becomes yourdefault rather thanthe exception.”

Most operatives also worktwo jobs, a cover assignment,on top of their intelligencegig — which often results ina punishing workload thatdemands your attention 24hours a day, seven days a week.

“You’re out on the streets

meeting agents or looking forplaces to meet agents, or youare incessantly cultivatingcontacts — writing up everymeeting you have, and every-thing you do,” she explains. “Inaddition to that, a lot of our

lives are spent on surveillancedetection routes, which meansdriving around for one to threehours at a time, to make sureyou are not being followed.”

MESOPOTAMIAN SPOOKS

While Vincent claims that heisn’t actively looking for highlyclassied information, manyothers are, and have. In fact,they always have. The realityis, we have had espionageas long as we have hadorganised states and politicalorganisations.

According to Dr VejasGabriel Liulevicius, a historyprofessor at the University ofTennessee and the directorof the Center for the Study of War and Society, in the UnitedStates, the earliest traces ofintelligence work date back toabout 2,000 BC Mesopotamia.“The Bible is full of espionageactivities, especially in thecapture of Jericho,” saysLiulevicius, who teachesonline on spies and spying.

“The Greek historianHerodotus records that theGreeks sent spies to learn thesize of the Persian army ofKing Xerxes,” he notes. “Whenthese spies were captured,Xerxes did not have themexecuted, as was usual — butinstead had them led abouthis camps, shown the power ofhis forces, and then set free toreturn to Greece. He explainedto his shocked advisorsthat in this way, the Greekswould learn that he was evenmightier than they had feared,and would not go to war. Thiswas psychological warfare of ahigh order, using transparencyas a weapon.”

Centuries later, and by1909, spy agencies in the Westwere being established on a M A

I N P H O T O :

G E T T Y I M A G E S

CASE OFFICERSNEED TO HAVEEXTREMELYANALYTICAL

MINDS, AGENEROUSSUPPLY OFSTREET SMARTS, BE ABLE TOASSIMILATECONTACTS,AND ACUTEOBSERVATIONSKILLS. MOST

IMPORTANTLY,BE A MASTERMANIPULATOR


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41MARCH 2014

The Anti-007Hailed as a far morerealistic iteration of aspy than James Bond,George Smiley is thebrainchild of authorJohn le Carré. Small andowlish, Smiley might nothave had much luck withthe ladies, but his razor-

sharp memory andability to blend into acrowd made him a forceto be reckoned with.The MI6 intelligenceofcer rst appearedin le Carré’s 1961 novelCall for the Dead, andhas been portrayed indozens of books, TVand movies.

The Criminal TurnedDouble AgentA British thief who wascaught by the police,Eddie Chapman was in jail when the Germansinvaded the island ofJersey in 1940. TheNazis trained him as aspy and parachuted himinto England, wherehe promptly turneddouble agent, workingfor MI5. Appropriatelynamed Agent Zigzag,he became one of themost important agentsof the war, feeding theGermans reams of fakeinformation. Chapmanoffered to undertakea suicide mission, andassassinate Hitler atone of his rallies.

The Sneaky LoverHe’s justiably famousfor having bedded 122women (by his count),but 18th century Italianadventurer Casanovawas also a spy, whogathered intelligence forthe French government.Known as a garrulous,

party-loving ladies’ man,Casanova had a greatmany opportunities toobtain information. Inhis autobiography, henoted, “I often hadno scruples aboutdeceiving nitwitsand scoundrels andfools when I found itnecessary.”

The Chinese TacticianAlthough not a spyhimself, Sun Tzu,author of the infamousmilitary strategy manualThe Art of War, was astrong proponent ofespionage. To shortena war, foreknowledgewas vital, he wrote.“Foreknowledge cannotbe gotten from ghostsand spirits, cannotbe had by analogy,cannot be found outby calculation. It mustbe obtained frompeople,” he said. TheChinese strategist andphilosopher wrote, “Youmust seek out enemyagents bribe them tostay with you and usethem as reverse spies.”

SHADOWS OF HISTORY

FOUR FAMOUS SPY FIGURES, FROM THEFAMOUS TO THE FICTIONAL

SPY GAMES

UNKILLABLEHERO?

Over the course of adozen novels, Agent 007

has consumed an alcoholicbeverage every seven pages onaverage — 317 in total. He's also

smoked up to 70 strong cigarettes aday, sometimes “cutting back” to 20

a day. So in real life, the super-spywould likely have been a cancerous

wreck with a liver like an oldsponge — assuming he survived

the dangers inherent to the job and lived to tell the

tale, of course.to play.


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SHOE WITH HEEL TRANSMITTERROMANIAN SECRET SERVICE

1960 S –1970 SSECRETLY OBTAINING AN AMERICAN DIPLOMAT’SSHOES, THE ROMANIANS OUTFITTED THEM WITH AHIDDEN MICROPHONE AND TRANSMITTER, THUSENABLING THEM TO MONITOR THE CONVERSATIONSOF THE UNSUSPECTING TARGET

permanent basis. Initially,most of these were set upbefore World War I asinstruments of combat inanticipation of the horriccarnage that would soon tearEurope apart. It was not until

the run up to, and conclusionof, World War II that majorpeacetime intelligencecapabilities were initiated.The CIA and the UnitedKingdom’s code-breakingorganisation, the GCHQ(GovernmentCommunicationsHeadquarters), were chiefamong these.

“The CIA was formedin 1947 from the Office ofStrategic Services,” saysPeter Earnest, a 35-yearCIA veteran and foundingexecutive director of theInternational Spy Museum in Washington DC, in the UnitedStates. He says the agencywas established very quickly.“Some recruits came fromthe FBI (US Federal Bureauof Investigation), some fromthe universities. It was heavilyreliant on the Ivy Leagueschools, because they werepeople much like themselves,who had travelled or knewanother language.”

And indeed, the agencyneeded to be quick. Soonafter formal hostilities ended,the long chill of the Cold War began. The world’s twodivergent superpowers, theUnited States and the formerSoviet Union, along with theirallies and proxies, squaredoff in a battle for global and

ideological supremacy. It wasa battle that would only reallystart to wind down around thefall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

INTELLIGENCE HEYDAY

From the outset, the Cold War was a time demandingthe collection of criticalinformation from the oppositeideological side of the fence. Agents became key playersin this international drama,with counter-intelligence andcovert operations becomingthe order of the day, mostlydriven by the nuclear armsrace. Each side wanted toprotect its secrets, whilelearning as much as possibleabout the enemy, in particularthe pace of their nuclearweapons development.

Winston Churchilldescribed this as “the battleof the conjurors”, andintelligence officers as beingthose who were practised inthe art of deception. While theUS and the Soviet Union neverformally engaged each otheron the battleeld, proxy warscosting millions of lives anddollars sprouted all over the

CAMERA CONCEALEDIN BRIEFCASESTASI

1970 S –1980 STHIS CAMERA WAS DESIGNED TO USEINFRARED FILM AND ALLOW STASIAGENTS TO TAKE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHSWITHOUT USING ANY VISIBLE LIGHT

THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM PRESENTS: TOOLS OF THE TRADE

AGENTS

BECAME KEYPLAYERS INTHE COLD WAR,WITH COVERTOPERATIONSBECOMINGTHE ORDER OFTHE DAY


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TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Archaeology, in Scotland.“It was seen as a golden

age by the fans of covertoperations,” adds Jeffreys-Jones. “People often say:things were great then. Wewere able to overthrow

regimes and run things theway we wanted to,” he says.“And it’s all got verymessy since.”

Driven by Cold War angstand the nancial fuel ofthe 1980s economic boom,the order of the day backthen was double and eventriple agents, with spiesinvolved in everythingfrom assassinations andpropaganda, to bribery andthe propping up or tearingdown of political gures, whowere often replaced by equallyshady individuals.

Jeffreys-Jones, who wrotethe recently published InSpies We Trust: The Storyof Western Intelligence,says the atmosphere wasby now quite distinct fromintelligence in the 1950s.“They were aggressive in

different ways. Yes, it wasoverthrowing regimes, but atthe same time it was fulllingan important intelligencefunction. You could say that ithad a restraining inuence onpolicy,” he explains. “The US

military would say thatthe Soviets were buildingmore missile bases andballistic missiles — but theCIA as a civilian organisationwould pour cold water onthose claims.”

However, he says therewas a huge price to be paidby both sides for theircovert operations, and theirinterference in the internalpolitics of foreign countries.For the CIA, he says, theagency’s reliance on thecloistered world of Ivy Leaguegraduates began to evolve, dueto a series of embarrassinggaffes, as well as changes in thetechnology landscape.

“First, the Bay of Pigsdisaster discredited them,”Jeffreys-Jones notes. “Andthen technology came on in abig way. There were alreadymassive computers employedby the NSA for code-breakingpurposes, but intelligencebecame a lot more technical— with high-altitude ights,high-denition photographyand satellite surveillance.So what they needed morethan human intelligenceand spies on the ground,were technocrats. And thesetechnocrats weren’t comingfrom Harvard and Yale. Theywere coming from MIT andStanford,” he says.

SPIES LIKE US

Earnest says the present-dayenvironment for internationalspies is a reection of thepost-Cold War world — withmany current relationshipsand conicts a direct result

of the new world orderwhen the Wall came down.“Paraphrasing Jim Woolsey,who was my former directorat the CIA, it’s as if we haveslain a dragon and have foundourselves in a jungle full ofpoisonous snakes. And inmany ways the snakes areharder to keep track of.”

As for the spies themselves,one of the major changesis probably a social anddemographic one. For Western intelligence agencies,the traditional Cold War spywas typically a younger whitemale, educated at an eliteuniversity. Today’s spy onthe other hand is often older,comes from a growing numberof ethnic and educationalbackgrounds, is more adeptat using technology — and isincreasingly female.

Far from being thecloistered “old boys’ clubs”of yesteryear, agencies havemoved with the recruitmenttimes. Today, candidatescan apply online, agencieshold recruitment drives atuniversities — and someeven advertise in newspapersand magazines. It will likelycontinue to evolve thisway. You only have to lookat the change in the ethniccomposition of countries.Soon the population of

BECOMING ASPY IN TODAY’SWORLD COMESDOWN TODRIVE ANDINTELLECT.YOUR HEADIS YOUR MOSTVALUABLEGADGET

M A I N P H O T O :


UMBRELLA DARTKGB

1978IN 1978 THE KGB ALLEGEDLY USEDAN UMBRELLA MODIFIED TO FIRE ATINY PELLET FILLED WITH POISONTO ASSASSINATE DISSIDENT GEORGIMARKOV ON THE STREETS OF LONDON

GLOVE PISTOLUNITED STATES NAVY

CIRCA 1942–1945ARMED WITH A GLOVE PISTOL, ANOPERATIVE STILL HAD BOTH HANDSFREE. TO FIRE THE PISTOL, THEWEARER PUSHED THE PLUNGERINTO AN ATTACKER’S BODY

DEAD DROP SPIKESCIA

1960 S –1990 STHESE SPIKES COULD BE FILLED WITHANYTHING FROM MONEY TO MICRODOTCAMERAS. THEY WERE HIDDEN BYPUSHING THEM INTO THE GROUND ATA PREARRANGED LOCATION


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STEINECK ABC WRISTWATCH CAMERAGERMANY

CIRCA 1949THIS SUBMINIATURE CAMERA ALLOWED AN AGENT TO TAKE PHOTOS,WHILE PRETENDING TO CHECK THE TIME. AN AGENT WOULDCAREFULLY AIM THE CAMERA NO EASY FEAT SINCE THERE WAS NOVIEWFINDER AND PRESS A BUTTON ON THE WATCH TO CAPTURETHE PHOTO. ITS FILM DISK COULD PRODUCE EIGHT EXPOSURES

TOBACCO PIPE PISTOLBRITISH SPECIAL FORCES

CIRCA 1939–1945THIS ORDINARY LOOKING PIPE FIRED ASMALL PROJECTILE THAT COULD KILL APERSON AT CLOSE RANGE. THOUGH ITMIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA TOTRY AND USE IT TO SMOKE

FEMME FATALE

When 28-year-oldAnna Chapman was arrested

as a spy in 2010 in the US, sheunderstandably nabbed headlines.Press dubbed the beautiful Russiannational “the Red Head”, and made

much of the fact that her beauty didn'tpreclude having brains — a fact she made

abundantly clear, with an IQ of 162. Shewas soon deported back to Russia, whereshe is something of a celebrity. Last July,

she made headlines again when shetweeted “Snowden, will you marryme?!” to the NSA's secret-leaker.

She later tweeted “@nsawill you look after our

children?”

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

the Cold War. But it was theoverhead reconnaissance,and being able to see into andcount the submarine pens,that really paid off,”he explains.

As such, agencies relied

heavily on private sectorresearch and development.“One of the deningbenchmarks of that timewas the matchup betweenthe agencies and the privatesector in developing tech. Theintelligence community hasstrived to stay ahead of thecurve,” he says.

Indeed, for decades,unbeknown to the rest of us,intelligence agencies havestayed beyond the technologycurve. If history is anythingto go by, then whatever theirresearch and developmentprogrammes are working oncurrently will likely not seecommercial application foryears to come.

The imperatives of spywork often resulted intechnology breakthroughs.For instance, high-denitionphotography and high-altitude air travel both cameabout as a result of espionageresearch, as indeed did thesatellite. Similarly, the rstlarge-scale computer and therst solid-state computer(the forerunner to modernlaptops) were derived fromcryptanalytic research.

The NSA’s pioneering workin exible storage capabilitieseventually led to the inventionof the cassette tape. It alsocontributed to huge leaps in

semiconductor technology,face-recognition technologyand the development of therst optical transistor. Andyou should probably bear inmind that those are just someof the inventions that we

actually know about.

FUTURE SPOOK

But where will it all lead?Some point to the furoreover on-the-run whistle-blower Edward Snowden’sclaims of passive listeningand detection programs usedon millions of emails andphone calls as just the startof a new era of computer-based intelligence — whichmay even render mosttraditional intelligence jobsredundant. Then again, bythat same logic, many moreopportunities will open up fortech-savvy applicants.

The CIA has been usinggame theory algorithms fordecades, similar to ones usedin complex high-nanceformulas. Insiders say thatfor espionage, these willlearn patterns by correlatingelectronic communicationswith breakings news stories,terrorist threats and eventson the ground.

New York Universitypolitical science professorDr Bruce Bueno de Mesquitahas been credited with muchof the theory used by the CIA. Writing in a Guardian articlein June 2013, ChristopherSteiner, author of AutomateThis: How AlgorithmsCame to Rule Our World,


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47MARCH 2014

noted Bueno de Mesquitacontended that humanintelligence was awed, sincewe rely on “gossip, innuendoand backstories,” as well aspreconceived notions abouta source’s worth through

shared relationships.In comparison, Steiner

argued, all algorithmscare about is nding datastreams that are impossiblefor humans to detect. Theadded bonus is that theywork 24 hours a day, sevendays a week — and, unlikeSnowden, are not prone towhistle-blowing or counter-espionage. According to thearticle, a CIA study of morethan 1,700 predictions offuture intelligence eventsmade by Bueno de Mesquita'salgorithms were right twiceas often as the agency ’sown analysts.

“It makes perfect sense— as our own lives areincreasingly lived throughtechnological media, so toointelligence work shiftsin this direction,” saysLiulevicius animatedly. “Andit does so at a high level ofabstraction, as experts siftthrough millions of electriccommunications, seekingmetadata to interpret.”

It's important, however,to note that this need notautomatically mean the endof living, breathing esh andblood spies. “To the extentthat the interpretation of datawill have as its ultimate goalan understanding of humandecisions and plans, the

human element will have toremain,” argues Liulevicius.“And that human element isas changeable and mysteriousas it has been since thehuman race began.”

Moran too agrees thattechnology, howeveradvanced, will nevercompletely replacehumans in intelligenceroles, simply because weare so unpredictable. “Tocreate algorithms that cancompletely predict humanemotions and vulnerabilities,which are constantlychanging and affected by amyriad of factors? I don’tthink that’s possible.”

People such as man-mountain Vincent had betterhope she’s correct. Otherwisehe, like many of his ilk, mightnd themselves looking fora new job. Not to mention asmarter shirt.

TESSINA CAMERA AND CIGARETTE CASE CONCEALMENTSTASI

1960 STHE TESSINA CAMERA WAS EASILY CONCEALED IN A MODIFIED CIGARETTE PACK.THIS MODEL CONTAINS ALMOST 400 PARTS, INCLUDING RUBY CHIPS TO REDUCEFRICTION AND WEAR. TINY HOLES IN THE SIDE OF THE PACK ALIGNED WITHTHE CAMERA LENS, WHICH MEANS A SPY COULD REACH IN TO GRAB A REALCIGARETTE, ALSO STORED IN THE CASE, AND SIMULTANEOUSLY CAPTURE A PHOTO

LIPSTICK PISTOLKGB

CIRCA 1965USED BY KGB OPERATIVESDURING THE COLD WAR, THISIS A 4.5 MILLIMETRE SINGLESHOT WEAPON. IT DELIVEREDTHE ULTIMATE “KISS OF DEATH” M A

I N P H O T O :


BOTH HIGH-DEFINITIONPHOTOGRAPHYAND HIGH-ALTITUDE AIRTRAVEL CAMEABOUT AS ARESULT OFESPIONAGERESEARCH, AS

INDEED DIDTHE SATELLITEAND THECOMPUTERS.

SPY GAMES


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YOU DO KNOW, THEY DON’T JUST HIRE ANYBODYTO JOIN THE US NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY ORMOSSAD. LIVING THE LIFE OF A SUPER SPY TAKESA WELL-HONED SET OF SKILLS, AND POSITIVELYA SHARP SET OF STEEL NERVES

2 GET GOOD AT EAVESDROPPINGYou’d be surprised how much cupping a

hand over your ears can increase perceived volume (up to 12 decibels). But do it subtly

GOOD A quick pretend earlobe scratch thatallows you to catch the exact digits of thenuclear launch codesBAD Duct-taping traffic cones to the side ofyour headWORSE Tapping the shoulder of your targetand sheepishly whispering, “Sorry, I didn’tquite catch that”

3 TALK LIKE A SPYReporting back to HQ? Don’t say, “Ifollowed him and he called the policeand they were like stop, and I was likeaaaargh, and I ran away. It was reallyscary.” Instead say, “Project is blown.The ants have joined the picnic and thepotato salad is sour”

FROM ZEROTO HERO: HOW

TO BECOME ASUPER SPY

NUMBER 853 / BYDANIEL L. SEIFERT / ILLUSTRATION BY MARK M CORMICK

1 TRAIN YOUR PERIPHERAL VISIONStaring will be painfully obvious, whereas180-degree vision is sneakily effective. And it’snot all down to biology — peripheral vision canbe trained. Jugglers are great at it. Lady jugglersin particular, as some research says womenhave a wider angle of vision than men. Guys,meanwhile, seem to be better at spottingthings from a distance


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MARCH 2014

6 MASTER THE ART OF DECEIT Again, set yourself crazy tests andsee how far you can go. Can you bluffyour way in to the after-party at theOscars, based purely on your passingresemblance to Jean-Claude vanDamme? Well done. Especially if youare a woman

7 EVALUATE YOUR LOOKS Are you stunningly attractive?Then your forte might be seducinginformation out of unwitting assets. Isyour face so bland that it is regularlymistaken for an emoticon? You’reprobably better suited to tailing asuspected terrorist

4 LEARN LANGUAGESThere’s a job posting on the officialUS Central Intelligence Agency sitefor “Foreign Language Instructors of Arabic, Chinese/Mandarin, Dari/Pashto,French, German, Italian, Korean, Persian,Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanishand Turkish.” So get uent, and youcan “decode” transcripts that read, “Jasamdvostruki agent (Serbian for 'I am adouble agent'), bwahahaha!”

5 BE A SECRET MAGNETPick a random person to talk toduring your evening commute. Yourchallenge is to glean three bits ofpersonal information. If within 10minutes you can uncover the nameof this stranger’s pet parakeet,their thoughts on Mars bars versus

Snickers, and if they’ve ever cheatedon their wife (or husband), then youare well on your way to 007-ness.Good luck !

THE MANUAL


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MARCH 2014

GRIDLOCK. IT ’ S A SITUATION WE ’ VEFACED FOR AS LONG AS THERE HAS BEEN

TRAFFIC OF PEOPLE AND CARS.IRONICALLY, IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE

ANYTIME SOON. DANIEL SEIFERT GETSSTUCK IN A PHENOMENON THAT PLAGUES

PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD

CRUSH HOUR

CRUSHHOUR

P H O T O S :

R E U T E R S


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53MARCH 2014

INCREASE IN JOURNEYTIME DURING PEAK HOURS(AS COMPARED TO NON-CONGESTED HOURS) IN THESECOND QUARTER OF 2013,ACCORDING TO A REPORTBY GPS MANUFACTURERTOMTOM, WHICH EXAMINED169 CITIES ACROSS SIXCONTINENTS

MOSCOW, RUSSIA JOURNEY TIME INCREASES BY

65 PERCENT

ISTANBUL, TURKEY JOURNEY TIME IS 57 PERCENT

LONGER

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZJOURNEY TIME IS 50 PERCENT

LONGER

WARSAW, POLANDJOURNEY TIME IS 44 PERCENT

LONGER

PALERMO, ITALYJOURNEY TIME IS 40 PERCENT

LONGER

MARSEILLE, FRANCEJOURNEY TIME IS 40 PERCENT

LONGER

SÃO PAULO, BRAZILJOURNEY TIME IS 39 PERCENT

LONGER

ROME, ITALYJOURNEY TIME IS 36 PERCENT

LONGER

PARIS, FRANCEJOURNEY TIME IS 36 PERCENT

LONGER

STOCKHOLM, SWEDENJOURNEY TIME IS 36 PERCENT

LONGER

ABOVE: MOTORISTS STOPPED ATA JUNCTION DURING RUSH HOURIN TAIPEI, TAIWAN. THE MAJORITYOF TAIWAN'S VEHICLES ANDRESIDENTS ARE CRAMMED INTO ASMALL PORTION OF THE ISLAND'S

FULL AREA, CONTRIBUTINGTO HIGH CONCENTRATIONS OFPOLLUTANTS NEAR WHEREPEOPLE LIVE AND WORKLEFT: COMMUTERS WAIT FOR THETRAIN AT A SUBWAY STATION INDOWNTOWN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL.THE CITY HAS SOME OF THEWORLD'S WORST TRAFFIC JAMS,WITH TRAVELLERS SOMETIMESNEEDING THREE HOURS TOTRAVERSE 14 KILOMETRES ACROSSTHE CITYRIGHT:STATION WORKERS HELPA PASSENGER SQUEEZE INTO ACROWDED SUBWAY TRAIN CAR ATTHE IKEBUKURO STATION DURINGRUSH HOUR IN TOKYO, JAPAN

WORLD'S 10MOST CONGESTEDCITIES

CRUSH HOUR

8.15 A.M.

TOKYO


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MARCH 2014

ABOVE: THE THIRD RING ROAD INBEIJING, CHINA IS NOTORIOUS FOR

ITS TERRIBLE TRAFFIC JAMSLEFT: COMMUTERS WITH BICYCLES,ELECTRIC BIKES AND MOPEDS MAKETHEIR WAY ACROSS THE STREETIN SHANGHAI, CHINA. WHILE CARSINCREASINGLY TAKE UP ROAD SPACEIN THE COUNTRY, THE BICYCLE ISFAR FROM DEAD. IN FACT, FOR MANYCHINESE, PEDAL POWER REMAINS AMAINSTAY FOR GETTING FROM PLACETO PLACERIGHT: IN MANY CITIES ANDCOUNTRIES WORLDWIDE,COMMUTERS ARE TURNING TOALTERNATIVE FORMS OF TRANSPORTSUCH AS BICYCLES. CYCLING CAN GETYOU WHERE YOU NEED TO GO AND, ASA BONUS, HELPS YOU KEEP FIT

innovations and researchthat seem to offer tantalisingsolutions.

For example, an analysisof drivers and traffic inBoston, in the United States,found that if you removed

just one percent of peoplefrom the road, it wouldequate to an 18 percentimprovement in traffic ow.

Many also hold theopinion that driverless cars,which are very likely tostart hitting roads in greaternumbers by the end of thedecade, will be a boon, whatwith their sensors and cold,computerised logic aboutroad rules, braking timesand average speed settings.It may be prudent to reserve judgement on that though.On roads with a vast majorityof automated cars, such vehicles may indeed helpsmooth out traffic ow, butit remains to be seen if amixture of old-fashionedcars and driverless ones justdoubles the chaos.

And as for getting thatone percent of drivers offthe roads, well, that’s trickytoo. We often get attachedto our automobiles, withsome people thinking, “Hey,I paid money for it, I might aswell use it.” Driving yourselfalso gives many people theworld around a sense ofindependence, that we arein control of our travel —despite the fact that this isagrantly untrue.

Tom Vanderbilt, authorof Traffic: Why We Drivethe Way We Do, states the

obvious: “The individualdriver cannot hope tounderstand the larger trafficsystem.” How could we?You’re just a single salmonswimming upstream, afterall. And even that metaphormight be the wrong wayround. “You’re not drivinginto a traffic jam,” writes Vanderbilt. “A traffic jam isbasically driving into you.”

Discouraging carpurchases, incentivising theuse of bicycles and publictransport, structuringcommute times and space-age cars — these are alllarge-scale solutions that

might work, given time andproper planning, thoughRussia is already trying outa few schemes. Last year,a few select machines inthe Moscow metro woulddispense free tickets — onceusers had completed 30squats in under two minutes. Word is that Russianauthorities also intend tointroduce bicycles thatcharge your mobile phonewhile you ride.

While these efforts wereprimarily a public relationsmove for the 2014 WinterOlympics, they display aninnovative understandingof the incentives peoplemight need to give up theircars for alternative modesof transport. And with autoownership increasing aroundthe world, the clock is ticking.

In Beijing alone, more

than 1,200 new sets of wheelshit the road every day — andthis number is on the rise.Yet relatively recent guresshow how far China wouldstill have to go to match carownership in the UnitedStates: there was one car forevery 17.2 people in Beijing in2011, compared to one car forevery 1.3 people in the US atthe time.

UNITED STATES

A 1966 STUDY OF AMERICANSNOTED AVERAGE PROXEMICSZONES PEOPLE FOUNDCOMFORTABLE

14–45 CMINTIMATE DISTANCE

45–120 CMPERSONAL DISTANCE

1.2–3.5 MSOCIAL DISTANCE

LONDON

20–40 CMAVERAGE PERSONALSPACE BOUNDARY AROUNDSUBJECTS TESTED IN THECITY OF LONDON, ENGLAND.NOTE THAT THIS IS LIKELY TOVARY GREATLY DEPENDINGON THE COUNTRY OF STUDY

BEIJING

10NUMBER OF PEOPLE PERSQUARE METRE OF SPACE ONBEIJING SUBWAYS DURINGRUSH HOUR

ARTHUR BALFOUR,FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THEUNITED KINGDOM, SAID CIRCA 1910

“The motor car will help solvethe congestion of traffic”

DRIVERLESSCARS, WHICHARE VERYLIKELY TO STARTHITTING ROADSIN GREATERNUMBERS BYTHE END OF THEDECADE, WILL

BE A BOON

PERSONAL SPACE

CRUSH HOUR

7.30 P.M.

BEIJING


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For now at least, problem-solving as relating to traffic jams remains inventive, yetsmall-scale. In China, forexample, there’s a specialnumber you can call that

will deliver an unusualservice. Within minutes(hopefully) of your phonecall, two men will zip to yourlocation on a motorbike,nimbly navigating throughthe throngs of immobile vehicles to get to yourtrapped car. One man hopsoff, and takes your place in

the jam, prepared to waitfor as long as it takes beforedelivering your car home.Meanwhile, you hop ontothe back of the motorbike— riding pillion — and aredriven to your destination.

If that doesn’t take yourfancy, you could always seekout a counterfeit ambulanceservice. Which, we shouldpoint out, is patently illegal.

2009THE YEAR TWO BICKERINGMAYORS IN NEIGHBOURINGSUBURBS OF PARIS

DECLARED THE SAME ROADONE-WAY, IN DIFFERENTDIRECTIONS

ZERONUMBER OF TRAFFIC LIGHTSIN THIMPU, BHUTAN'S CAPITAL

10%–70%UP TO 70 PERCENT OFPEOPLE DRIVING INAMERICAN URBAN TRAFFICARE SIMPLY LOOKING FORPARKING

1 IN 5URBAN CRASHES ARERELATED TO THE SEARCHFOR PARKING

80/10MORE THAN 80 PERCENT OFTRAFFIC IN A TYPICAL CITYRUNS ON 10 PERCENT OF THEROADS

HIT THE ROAD 7.15 A.M.

JAKARTA


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ABOVE & FACING PAGE: MUCH OF INDONESIA ISPLAGUED BY TRANSPORTPROBLEMS, AND ASTHE NUMBER OF TRAINPASSENGERS OFTEN

GREATLY EXCEEDS THECAPACITY OF THE RAILNETWORK, SO CALLED"ROOF TRAVELLERS" FARRIGHT ARE COMMON,DESPITE THE FACT THATTHIS METHOD OF TRAVELIS BOTH DANGEROUS ANDILLEGAL. IN AN EQUALLYDANGEROUS MOVE,COMMUTERS SOMETIMESHANG ONTO AN ENTRANCEOF A COMMUTER TRAINLEFT: AT PEAK PERIOD,MOSCOW'S PROSPEKTMIRA METRO STATION ISALMOST LITERALLY A SEAOF PEOPLE

CRUSH HOUR

7.15 A.M.

JAKARTA

8.00 A.M.

MOSCOW


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THE TINIEST NATIONS IN EUROPEARE THE MOST COLOURFUL ONESAFTER ALL. ROAD REPORTERCHRIS WRIGHT HIGHLIGHTS THECURIOUS LINKAGES THAT BRINGTOGETHER THE CONTINENT’S MOREMYSTERIOUS STATES


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TRAVELSTHROUGH

UNEXPLOREDEUROPE

P H O T O : C O R B I S

A LANDSCAPE SHOT OFTHE TOWN OF VADUZ,

LIECHTENSTEIN

ROAD TRIP

8/20/2019 Discovery Channel M

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