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It’s a childhood riddle: Where would you end up if you dug a hole to the other side of the world? (Of course, that’s assuming one could survive tunneling through the molten innards of the Earth.) Kids in the United States are usually led to imagine that they’d pop up like groundhogs in a rice field in China. Wrong. One look at a map of antipodes—places on exact opposite sides of the globe—shows that an American digger would end up in the Indian Ocean. As for sandbox fantasists in China, some would luck out and emerge on land in Chile.

For centuries sandbags have stopped floods. They can fill in a divot in a dike or stand tall on uneven terrain. But hundreds of volunteers are needed to fill the bags—sometimes funneling sand through an upside-down traffic cone—and to schlep them to build walls. Inventors are devising more efficient devices: plastic modules filled with sand by a front loader, rubber tubes pumped full of water to weigh them down. Don Ward tests these higher-tech options for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and says they work well. “I’m amazed we still use sandbags,” he adds.

Recent correspondence from persnickety readers who care about the finer points of usage have yielded these comments on the misuse of the English language:

Baited breath

Logo designers love hidden symbols. Take Fedex. In 1994, when Lindon Leader—then senior design director at Landor Associates, San Francisco—was developing concepts for the new Federal Express logo, he realized, “If you put a lower-case ‘x’ to the right of a capital ‘E’ (Ex) you can begin to see a hint of an arrow, though it is clumsy and extremely abstract.”

Magazine designers enjoy type tricks, too. In our new June issue, design editor Elaine Bradley found a clever way to arrange the headline for a story about a 9th-century Chinese shipwreck.

Why was Eosimias, shown here, left out of a scientific discussion about the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans and the recent announcement of Darwinius? The answer depends on who you ask. Model by Brian Cooley.  Photograph by author.

Behind the over-hyped quotes about a “missing link” (which I thought we all learned does not exist in nature) is an intriguing story about a longstanding scientific debate. The argument concerns what group anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans) evolved from. Yesterday, scientists presented Darwinius masillae, a superbly preserved fossil from the world famous Messel fossil site in Germany, as evidence to support the idea that anthropoids could have evolved from adapoids, a group of arboreal quadrupeds that lived over 55 million years ago. Proponents of this idea include two giants in the study of early mammals, Elywn Simons of Duke University and Philip Gingerich of the University of Michigan (an author on the paper published in PLoS One), among others. Both Simons and Gingerich are grantees of the National Geographic Society. On the other side of the debate are scientists who see evidence that the adapoids were the ancestors of lemurs and lorises, not anthropoids. Instead, they argue that the ancestor of anthropoids evolved from the omomyoids, another group of arboreal quadrupeds that lived at the same time as the adapoids during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (66 to 35 million years ago).

 
Corn is now a genetically modified king, along with soybeans and cotton. Over the past ten years, crops engineered to tolerate herbicides or resist pests have become a good chunk of the market. The edible products go mainly for animal feed. Environmentalists have warned that genes could leak from modified crops and create superweeds. So far, that has not happened.

Most of the cropland is in the Americas, where the public is relatively accepting of genetic modification. China may soon OK its first modified rice, which could become the largest GM crop for human consumption—and could cross borders illegally. Even without government approval, farmers eager for the GM edge have obtained seeds. “In 30 years,” says food policy expert Robert Paarlberg, “GM crops will be pervasive.” —Jim Giles

Mark your maps: The finals of the National Geographic Bee take place on May 20 at NG headquarters in Washington, D.C. They’re also broadcast live on the National Geographic Channel, and subsequently on PBS (check your local station for details). As the contestants do their late-minute cramming, we asked the geographers and educators who come up with the questions for their insights. Here’s what we learned from Jo Erikson, Geoffrey Hatchard, and the rest of the Bee content team.

Where do you get ideas for the geography-bee questions?

We sit down to have a brainstorming session to come up with ideas. We get ideas from National Geographic products, our colleagues and peers at the Society, current events, and outside geographic sources.

For our recent article on Fermi estimation (April 2009), we invited readers to guess the number of jelly beans in a cylindrical jar. Some wrote to us to gloat about their guesses. Others wondered how on Earth we came up with an exact total of 4,466 jelly beans. In truth, I counted every single bean by hand, marking each hundred on a scrap of paper. It took nearly two hours.

Here’s the real question: How long did it take 10 staff members to eat 4,466 jelly beans? (Hint: On average, I ate about 12 a day, four times more than anyone else.)

Submit your guesses in the comments below. I’ll post the answer there on Wednesday.

—Oliver Uberti

One person's trash is another person's treasure at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, where abandoned wells became trash pits. Shown here are trade beads and other odds and ends found in what archaeologists think might be Jamestown's first well. Photograph © Paula Neely and Preservation Virginia.

I last visited the historic site of Jamestown, located near Williamsburg, Virginia in 2007 to celebrate its 400th annivesary. Excitement filled the air at that time since wonderful artifacts, including pistols and swords, were pouring out of the excavations. One particularly promising excavation was a trash-filled hole archaeologists hoped might be the first well dug by colonists at Jamestown. The artifacts from that hole turned out to be a few years too young for it to be the first well. After the anniversary things quieted down. But now, thanks to the passion of Director of Archaeology Bill Kelso and Curator Bly Straube, things are revving up again. The team at Jamestown has discovered another deposit of trash that might well be John Smith's first well. This first well had a profound impact on the health and fate of the colonists. If archaeologists have found this first well, it could also have a profound impact on our understanding of Jamestown's first years. This update is from guest blogger Paula Neely of Mechanicsville, Virginia. Paula has closely followed developments at Jamestown for many years.—Chris Sloan

See a highlight reel from the latest National Geographic. In this issue: the exodus of Arab Christians, the end of plenty, river dolphins, deep southern caves, artifacts from a Chinese shipwreck, and a park where the forest floor outshines the sky.

You can also explore the full issue online.

Don Belt is the magazine's senior editor for foreign affairs and author of the Arab Christians story in this month's issue of National Geographic. He shares his thoughts on the Pope's recent visit to the Holy Land.

This was their moment. For native Christians in the Holy Land—that small, beleaguered Arab community whose ancestors, on this very soil, were among the first to follow Jesus of Nazareth—the visit of Pope Benedict XVI was nothing less than a godsend.

Finally, here was a western Christian who understood their predicament.

“You have to get up early if you want to beat Otto” was the saying in Oregon’s Rogue River Valley, where I grew up. Otto was Otto Bohnert, “an awesome farmer—always experimenting,” says Dick Dunn, his nephew, also a farmer. Otto was famous for his 120-bushel-an-acre wheat crop in the late 1960s—in the midst of the green revolution, the movement to increase food yields by using new technology. His yields, thanks to superior wheat varieties, irrigation, and chemical fertilizers, were double the normal in our valley.

Press play to watch the design evolve.

How did you make this map? —Kelly J
Kelly, I'm glad you asked. Our design process begins and ends with research.

In the spring of 2008, one of our editors read that the U.S. Board on Geographical Names had renamed 16 valleys, creeks, and other sites employing the term “squaw” because, as it turns out, many Native Americans consider “the S word” a profane term for female genitalia. Intrigued, we wondered what other placenames really mean.

By July, an eager intern had assembled a few pages of Native American placenames—and what seemed like their translations. But we soon learned that finding an accurate translation isn’t easy. Centuries worth of conflicting theories abound.

In zero gravity, astronauts crave earthly comforts. That’s why they strap their heads to foam “pillows” at night. Alas, liquids pool or slosh and must be ingested from a pouch via straw. “You feel like an insect sucking juices out of another insect,” says astronaut Don Pettit. So, on a mission last November, he made a cup from a plastic sheet sealed with tape.

But we at National Geographic wanted to know one thing: How green were they? We asked every star we met, "Did you do anything green this weekend?" A few of the leading lights did share their thoughts.

“The word data is a queer fish,” Webster’s Dictionary of Usage points out. Data can be singular or plural; usage depends on context. Strictly speaking, data is the plural of datum. Datum is rarely used these days, though, and data is often used as a collective noun referring to information, statistics, and the like: “The data show.” In scientific contexts, the plural prevails: “These data are.”

Every Star Trek fan knows that ye canna change the laws of physics. But if you're director J.J. Abrams, you can change the U.S.S. Enterprise.

For the new movie, designers wanted to give the original NCC-1701 a "hot rod" look. The sleek curves and stylized interior will no doubt raise a few pointy eyebrows. Abrams has said the revamped bridge—a blur of bright white walls, flashing lights, and broad expanses of chrome and glass—makes the modernistic Apple store look "uncool." (Apple store fans may not agree.)

We asked the film's designers and model-makers how they re-imagined the iconic starship, and talked to a NASA engineer about the ways the ship does and does not fit current standards of spacecraft design.

Meave and Louise Leakey. Photograph by Mike Hettwer.

Having a kid can open up previously unimagined worlds of discovery, so it’s fair to say that every mom is an explorer. Plus, every explorer has a mom and sometimes is a mom to boot. With Mother’s Day coming up in the U.S. on Sunday (dates vary in other countries), we asked a few of National Geographic’s best-known explorers their thoughts about this holiday.

It kills at least 50,000 people worldwide each year, mostly children. Dogs are the main culprits. But in the United States, where pet vaccination and stray-dog control programs are strong, rabies has a different face: Raccoons and skunks are by far the top four-legged viral hosts.

When photo editor Susan Welchman and I were asked to produce a page (above, right) on the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, our first thought—as always—was "What's the picture?" Oil-covered birds? Too predictable.
    "Susan," I said, "why don't we make our own oil spill?"
    I was only half-joking.

Hi. My name is Oliver. I'd like to welcome you to a new blog here on ngm.com, called The Process. Every so often I'll share stories behind the award-winning art, maps and designs of National Geographic. Does a painting or graphic or photo in the magazine ever make you wonder, "How did they do that?" Let me know. I'll dig around and report back.

—Oliver Uberti

Extra: Explore more names in our interactive U.S. map.

Native American words echo in the names of lakes, rivers, mountains, states, cities, and small towns across the United States. The first settlers, who put many European words on the map, also borrowed names from local tribes. They often mispronounced what they heard—that’s how the Washoe word dá’aw, or lake, became Tahoe. In some cases they changed Indian terms so much that linguists can’t identify the original language or meaning. Laypeople have often stepped into the scholarly void with fanciful interpretations that have become part of American folklore. Chesapeake, for example, is sometimes translated as"great shellfish bay." But no one knows what the word meant to the Indians who coined it.

And to think that I saw it on 17th Street!

With apologies to Dr. Seuss, I will say that nothing in his Mulberry Street children’s book can top the sight outside National Geographic’s windows last Friday afternoon in downtown Washington, D.C.

A groom was riding an elephant—in rush hour, yet!—to his wedding at the Mayflower Hotel. Indian music filled the air. Wedding guests and curious onlookers filled the streets. Commuters looked unhappy. A couple of government sharpshooters stood on the periphery, rifles at the ready.

The G8 group wrapped up meetings in Toronto on Saturday, June 26th, and criticized nuclear weapons development in North Korea and Iran. This raises the question of how many nations in the world have nuclear capability. It also brings to mind some recent content about the relationship Iranians have with their own history, and life behind the iron curtain of North Korea.

NGM -- 2009 February. Escape From North Korea. 74-99. Defection is daunting. So is starting a new, free life. Tom O'Neill provides an in-depth look at what the trip over the border is like, and the difficulty of starting life over in a new country; amazing photos by Chien-Chi Chang. 

NGM -- 2008 August. Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran. 34-67. The glories of Persia inspire the modern nation. Pages 48-49 discuss the country's nuclear ambitions; also a portfolio by Simon Norfolk of ancient Persian culture. 

NGM -- 2005 August. Living With the Bomb. 98-113. (The online link offers a short excerpt and photo gallery.) In 2005 it had been 60 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today nuclear weapons stoke nations' dreams of power - and give their citizens nightmares. This is a global overview of the state of nuclear weapons, and the world map on pages 104-105 illustrates which nations have nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons facilities, or nuclear weapons potential; also a list of close calls with smuggled nuclear fissile materials.

In 2008 apparel imports to the United States totaled almost $72 billion.

 “Apparel always chases the low-cost needle.” The garment industry tagline explains why more than 90 percent of clothing sold in the United States is made offshore, says Mike Todaro of the American Apparel Producers’ Network. U.S. apparel manufacturing started in New England and New York in the 1800s, shifted to Pennsylvania, then headed south after the turn of the century to states where labor was cheap and unions were weak. From there, it jumped the border to even cheaper labor pools in Mexico and the Caribbean.