Is work bad for you?Popular percept

Is work bad for you?Popular perception is that working conditions are now so over-regulated the only people likely to be injured at work are bosses, strangled by red tape. But beware a hidden epidemic raging in British workplaces. In this post-industrial age, when most jobs are in light industry, information technology and the service sector, we expect working life to be relatively comfortable and at the very least safe. We don’t expect to be maimed, laid off for life or work ourselves into the ground.Think again. In the UK there are still 1.6 million workplace injuries every year as well as 2.2 million cases of ill health caused by work. Some of these injuries wouldn’t have been out of place in Charles Dickens’ England. Last year 350 people died as a result of building site accidents, a large increase from previous years. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents 6,000 people die of workplace burns, and 2,000 cases of accidents involving chemicals are reported each year.But some of the worst dangers are the hidden ones. 400,000 cases of asthma are caused by working conditions, exposure to high levels of dust or traffic pollution, and asbestos still kills over 4,000 people a year. The Trade Union Congress calculates that around 1.4 million commercial and residential properties still contain asbestos. There are no regulations at present requiring owners to record the presence of asbestos, meaning that builders and firefighters have no way of asserting the problem. A not-for-profit organization has taken the issue with a new database launched in conjunction with the Trade Union Congress. Filling the gapRather than going straight from school to university, more and more school leavers are taking a year out so they can travel, learn some skills, or simply get further experience of life. The benefits of a gap year are obvious, Young people with some experience of life outside an educational institution, even if just for a year, will probably be better able to concentrate on their university studies and they will also improve their chances of employment after graduating .Clearly, if a company is faced with several candidates for a position, all similarly qualified, it makes sense to opt for the one who has gained extra skills during a gap year.However, students should consider carefully what they want to do during this year, and how to employ their time to the best advantage. Spending a year perfecting one’s surfing technique on the beaches of California, for instance, may be appealing but the skills gained in this way are hardly likely to impress Human Resources managers. Employers particularly like young people who have worked during their gap year, whether in paid employment or on a voluntary basis, since this will have helped them develop teamwork and communication skills. Many business people feel that universities, while providing a sound academic education, aren’t very effecting at teaching the ‘people skills’ necessary for a position in management. For this reason, voluntary service overseas with charities and aid organizations is becoming a popular choice for gap year students. They can develop the completive edge they want and at the same time do some genuinely useful work.Early map-makingSatellite navigation in cars means that our traditional reliance on printed maps and road atlases for finding our way to a destination is disappearing. Yet as objects of beauty to look at for both pleasure and serious research, maps, ancient and modern, still appeal strongly to our imaginations as they are the result of amazingly detailed observation of the real world. After the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, maps could be reproduced in greater numbers, and as mathematics and technology transformed surveying and navigation, their accuracy steadily improved.Hôm nay, nó là không chính xác trong các bản đồ đầu mà chúng tôi tìm thấy rất hấp dẫn. Nhà sản xuất bản đồ sẽ điền vào những khoảng trống lớn trong kiến thức của mình với phỏng đoán. Rộng ngu si đần độn của đại dương, ví dụ, sẽ được enlivened với bản vẽ của sinh vật biển tuyệt vời hoặc trẻ sơ sinh đầy đặn với phùng ra-out má thổi dọc theo tàu buồm đầy đủ.Tập bản đồ hiện đại đầu tiên của thế giới xuất hiện ở Antwerp năm 1570, sau khi đưa vào hoạt động một địa lý tên là Abraham Ortelius bản khắc của 53 của tốt nhất bản đồ tồn tại vào thời điểm đó và tổ chức chúng theo một thứ tự hợp lý trong một cuốn sách. Bản đồ này phản ánh các giới hạn của kiến thức hiện đại bằng cách hiển thị Úc như là một lục địa phía nam thám hiểm với nhãn hiệu 'chưa được biết đến vùng đất'. Trong 40 năm tiếp theo, bản đồ này được cập nhật thường xuyên và hơn 7.300 bản sao được in.

Is work bad for you?
Popular perception is that working conditions are now so over-regulated the only people likely to be injured at work are bosses, strangled by red tape. But beware a hidden epidemic raging in British workplaces. In this post-industrial age, when most jobs are in light industry, information technology and the service sector, we expect working life to be relatively comfortable and at the very least safe. We don’t expect to be maimed, laid off for life or work ourselves into the ground.
Think again. In the UK there are still 1.6 million workplace injuries every year as well as 2.2 million cases of ill health caused by work. Some of these injuries wouldn’t have been out of place in Charles Dickens’ England. Last year 350 people died as a result of building site accidents, a large increase from previous years. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents 6,000 people die of workplace burns, and 2,000 cases of accidents involving chemicals are reported each year.
But some of the worst dangers are the hidden ones. 400,000 cases of asthma are caused by working conditions, exposure to high levels of dust or traffic pollution, and asbestos still kills over 4,000 people a year. The Trade Union Congress calculates that around 1.4 million commercial and residential properties still contain asbestos. There are no regulations at present requiring owners to record the presence of asbestos, meaning that builders and firefighters have no way of asserting the problem. A not-for-profit organization has taken the issue with a new database launched in conjunction with the Trade Union Congress.
Filling the gap
Rather than going straight from school to university, more and more school leavers are taking a year out so they can travel, learn some skills, or simply get further experience of life. The benefits of a gap year are obvious, Young people with some experience of life outside an educational institution, even if just for a year, will probably be better able to concentrate on their university studies and they will also improve their chances of employment after graduating .Clearly, if a company is faced with several candidates for a position, all similarly qualified, it makes sense to opt for the one who has gained extra skills during a gap year.
However, students should consider carefully what they want to do during this year, and how to employ their time to the best advantage. Spending a year perfecting one’s surfing technique on the beaches of California, for instance, may be appealing but the skills gained in this way are hardly likely to impress Human Resources managers. Employers particularly like young people who have worked during their gap year, whether in paid employment or on a voluntary basis, since this will have helped them develop teamwork and communication skills. Many business people feel that universities, while providing a sound academic education, aren’t very effecting at teaching the ‘people skills’ necessary for a position in management. For this reason, voluntary service overseas with charities and aid organizations is becoming a popular choice for gap year students. They can develop the completive edge they want and at the same time do some genuinely useful work.
Early map-making
Satellite navigation in cars means that our traditional reliance on printed maps and road atlases for finding our way to a destination is disappearing. Yet as objects of beauty to look at for both pleasure and serious research, maps, ancient and modern, still appeal strongly to our imaginations as they are the result of amazingly detailed observation of the real world. After the invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century, maps could be reproduced in greater numbers, and as mathematics and technology transformed surveying and navigation, their accuracy steadily improved.
Today, it is the inaccuracies in these early maps that we find so fascinating. The map-maker would fill in the huge gaps in his knowledge with guesswork. Dull expanses of ocean, for example, would be enlivened with drawings of fantastic sea creatures or plump babies with puffed-out cheeks blowing along ships in full sail.
The world’s first modern atlas appeared in Antwerp in 1570, after a geographer named Abraham Ortelius commissioned engravings of 53 of the best maps in existence at that time and organized them in a logical sequence in a book. This atlas reflected the limits of contemporary knowledge by showing Australia as an uncharted southern continent labelled ‘not yet known southern land’. Over the next 40 years, this atlas was regularly updated and more than 7,300 copies were printed.