Reading — 2026 Jan–Apr Recall Set 87

The first step toward today’s bar codes came in 1948, when Bernard Silver, a graduate student in the USA, overheard a conversation in the halls of Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Technology. The president of a food chain was pleading with a professor to undertake research on a method of capturing product information automatically at store checkouts. The professor turned down the request, but Bernard Silver mentioned the conversation to his friend Norman Woodland, a twenty-seven-year-old teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated the two friends, and they set about thinking of a solution. Their first idea was to use patterns printed with an ink that would glow under ultraviolet light, and they built a device to test the concept. It worked, but the printing costs were high and the patterns faded over time. Nonetheless, they were convinced they had a workable idea. After several months of work they came up with the linear bar code, using elements from two established technologies: Morse code, in which letters and numbers are coded into a system of dots and dashes, and the method used to record soundtracks in movies. Silver and Woodland patented the idea in 1952, describing their invention as ‘article classification… through the medium of identifying patterns’. But the cost, together with the fact that their scanning equipment was rather unreliable, made the idea a non-starter at that time. Scanning systems made little progress until the 1970s, when lasers became affordable. Following this, various systems came into use around the world in stores, libraries, factories, and the like, each with its own proprietary code, but there was no standardization. A consortium of grocery manufacturers and retailers therefore set up a committee to look into bar codes, and to standardize what became known formally as the Universal Product Code (UPC). At the heart of the committee’s guidelines were a few basic principles. To make life easier for the cashier, bar codes would have to be readable from almost any angle and at a range of distances. Because they would be reproduced by the million, the labels would have to be cheap and easy to print. And to be affordable, automated checkout systems would have to pay for themselves in two and a half years. The committee considered more than a dozen versions of bar codes, including one based on multi-colored dots and another using a circular bull’s-eye design with lines radiating from a central point. On April 1, 1973, they unanimously agreed on a standardized UPC, a combination of black and white lines and numbers, based on Woodland and Silver’s idea but developed by George Laurer at IBM. Alan Haberman, who headed the subcommittee as president of First National Stores, described the bar code as a kind of world language that worked for everyone. He recalls proudly, ‘We showed that it could be done on a massive scale, that cooperation… was possible for the common good, and that business didn’t need the government to shove them in the right direction.’ The investment involved in the bar-code revolution was huge. Each of the tens of thousands of grocery outlets in the US had to spend at least $200,000 on new scanning equipment. Chains had to install new data processing centers and retrain their employees. Printers had to develop the new types of ink, plates, and other technology to reproduce the code with the exact tolerances it requires, and manufacturers had to spend millions of dollars a year on the labels. On June 26, 1974, all the tests were done, all the proposals were complete, all the standards were set, and at a supermarket in Ohio, a single pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first retail product sold with the help of a bar code scanner. Decades of schemes and billions of dollars in investment now became a practical reality. The bar code on any product could be read and understood in every suitably equipped store. The advantages of the system were not clear immediately, as wholesalers, retailers and customers remained suspicious. Some customers believed bar codes were a form of surveillance. During the early weeks, Business Week magazine ran the headline ‘The Supermarket Scanner That Failed’. However, the benefits eventually became apparent. ‘It turns out there were massive savings in labor and other areas,’ Haberman says. These included checking out items at twice the speed compared to using traditional equipment, which meant shorter lines. And it did not take supermarkets too long to see that, as well as vastly improving customer service, the bar code could hugely reduce the amount of time spent checking inventory. Now, every day more than 5 billion bar codes are scanned in retail outlets throughout the world. Passengers’ luggage is tagged with bar codes by airlines. Staff attach them to babies to ensure the right babies go home from hospitals with the right mothers. Runners in major marathons set off with bar codes on their vests, and librarians rely on them. Tiny bar codes have even been mounted on bees by researchers to track their movements. As for that original pack of Juicy Fruit, it is now, unchewed and unopened, in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History in Washington.

A It is not unusual to have sleep troubles from time to time. But, if you feel you do not get enough sleep or satisfying sleep, you may have insomnia, a sleep disorder. People with insomnia have one or more of the following: difficulty falling asleep, waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning and unrefreshing sleep. Insomnia is not defined by the number of hours you sleep every night. The amount of sleep a person needs varies. While most people need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep a night, some people do well with less, and some need more. B Insomnia occurs most frequently in people over age 60, in people with a history of depression, and in women, especially after menopause. Severe emotional trauma can also cause insomnia with divorced, widowed and separated people being the most likely to suffer from this sleep disorder. Stress, anxiety, illness, and other sleep disorders such as restless legs syndrome are the most common causes of insomnia. An irregular work schedule, jet lag or brain damage from a stroke or Alzheimer's disease can also cause insomnia as well as excessive use of alcohol or illicit drugs. It can also accompany a variety of mental illnesses. C The mechanism that induces sleep is not known. When it becomes dark, the pineal gland in the brain secretes a hormone called melatonin, which is thought to induce sleep. Exactly why sleep is necessary for good health and efficient mental functioning is unknown. We do know that sleep consists of two very different states: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. In REM sleep, dreams occur, the eyes move under the closed lids and there is an increase in oxygen consumption, blood flow, and neural activity. REM sleep occurs four or five times during a night. Beginning periods last about ten to fifteen minutes but the periods get longer as the night goes on. The periods of REM sleep alternate with longer periods of non-REM sleep, when the body functions slowly. Non-REM sleep has four stages. During the deepest stages (3 and 4) it is hard to rouse a sleeper. As the night goes on, the periods of non-REM sleep become progressively lighter. Sleep in stages 1 and 2 are felt to be restorative as during this time the body repairs itself utilizing a hormone called somatostatin. Lack of stage 4 sleep is believed to be important in chronically painful conditions such as fibromyalgia. D Healthcare providers diagnose insomnia in several ways. One way is to categorize insomnia by how often it occurs. Another way is to identify insomnia by what is causing sleep deprivation. The two main types of insomnia have been described as Primary Insomnia and Secondary Insomnia. Primary Insomnia is a chronic condition with little apparent association with stress or a medical problem. The most common form of primary insomnia is psychophysiological insomnia. Secondary insomnia is caused by symptoms that accompany a medical condition such as anxiety, depression, or pain. E Improving one's sleep hygiene helps improve insomnia in all patients. Relaxing during the hour before you go to sleep and creating a comfortable environment suited for sleep can be helpful. Older people who wake up earlier than normal or have trouble falling asleep may need less sleep than they used to. Changing one's sleep pattern, either by going to bed later or waking up earlier, can be effective in dealing with insomnia in older people. Therapy also depends on the cause and severity of insomnia. Transient and intermittent insomnia may not require any direct action since these conditions last only a few days at a time. However, if insomnia interferes with a person's daily activities, something should be done. Usually, the best method of dealing with insomnia is by attacking the underlying cause. For example, people who are depressed often have insomnia, and looking at this problem may eliminate it. F Not getting enough sleep can make you less productive, irritable, and unable to concentrate. Lack of sleep can make it seem as if you "got up out of the wrong side of the bed." Early morning headaches and waking up feeling as if you never went to sleep can result in frustration. Stress can cause insomnia but insomnia also increases stress. Insomnia can make driving unsafe as well. Insomnia can result in missed work, which can cause you to become less productive and miss promotions. It can leave you feeling as if you just can't get enough done. Insomnia can also mask serious mental disorders. People with insomnia may think that not getting enough sleep is their only problem, but insomnia may actually be one symptom of a larger disorder, such as depression. Studies show that people with insomnia are four times more likely to be depressed than people with a healthy sleeping pattern. In addition, lack of sleep can tax the heart and lead to serious conditions like heart disease. All of these are important problems that can affect every part of your life. G Establishing certain set routines can help insomniacs get better sleep. Examples of these routines include: going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, avoiding napping, avoiding caffeine, nicotine, alcohol and eating heavily late in the day, exercising regularly and making your bedroom comfortable in terms of the bed, noise and temperature. Insomniacs should also only use their bedroom for sleep so that their bodies associate the room with sleep. Finally, if you can't get to sleep, don't toss and turn all night. Get up and read or do something that is not overly stimulating until you feel really sleepy again.

As its title suggests, Architecture in the United States is an ambitious work, and there are few scholars as qualified to undertake such a project as Dell Upton, a distinguished scholar of American architectural history who, having a background in American studies, is as knowledgeable in vernacular architecture as high style. The book is structured into five themes: Community, Nature, Technology, Money, and Art. The usefulness of this technique becomes apparent as one progresses through the book and realizes that Upton discusses not only houses and farm and commercial buildings but also landscape architecture, gardens, bridges, public sculpture, and whole cities. His thematic structure is also well coordinated with his intention to examine architecture not primarily as a form of art but as an integral part of social and economic history. The first chapter, "An American Icon," is devoted to the house. Upton's discussion of this elemental unit of architecture and its importance to the primary social structure of the family is an effective introduction to the broad topic of architecture in relationship to society. While much of the chapter focuses on examples of elite houses, in particular Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Upton incorporates much essential information about folk houses into his interpretations. This chapter, like the succeeding four, follows a loose chronological orientation in its analysis of several examples of homes from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, while integrating discussion of form and style with social and economic processes. The subsequent chapters expand the scope. "Community" explores how architectural forms—from New England meeting houses to suburban subdivisions—reflect and shape social organization and collective identity. "Nature" examines the complex relationship between the built environment and the natural world, tracing attitudes from colonial land use to the modern environmental movement. "Technology" details how innovations in materials and construction methods, from balloon framing to steel skeletons, enabled new architectural possibilities and reflected broader industrial changes. "Money" analyzes architecture as a product of economic forces, discussing everything from slave-built plantations to speculative real estate development and corporate skyscrapers. Upton’s great strength is his ability to weave together diverse elements into a coherent narrative. He avoids the traditional, style-centric survey that often prioritizes famous architects and landmark buildings. Instead, he presents a more democratic view of the American built environment, giving equal weight to the ordinary and the extraordinary. A farmhouse, a highway, a shopping mall, and a national monument are all treated as significant texts that reveal cultural values, power dynamics, and historical change. This approach makes the book particularly valuable for students and general readers seeking to understand how the spaces Americans have created and inhabited tell the story of the nation itself. Some critics might argue that the thematic organization sacrifices a clear linear timeline, making it occasionally challenging to trace precise historical developments. However, Upton’s method ultimately provides a richer, more interconnected understanding of architectural history. Architecture in the United States succeeds not as a mere catalog of buildings, but as a compelling analysis of how architecture functions within American life. It is an essential volume for anyone interested in the intersection of design, history, and culture.