The File 02

ARGENTINA / AUSTRALIA / AUSTRIA / BELGIUM / BRAZIL / CANADA / CHILE / CHINA COLOMBIA / COSTA RICA / CZECH REPUBLIC / DENMARK / ECUADOR / FINLAND FRANCE / GERMANY / GREECE / HONG KONG / HUNGARY / IRELAND / ISRAEL / ITALY JAPAN / KOREA / MEXICO / NETHERLANDS / NEW ZEALAND / NORWAY / PANAMA / PERU PHILIPPINES / POLAND / PORTUGAL / ROMANIA / RUSSIA / SINGAPORE / SLOVAKIA SOUTH AFRICA / SPAIN / SWEDEN / SWITZERLAND / TAIWAN / TURKEY / UKRAINE / UK / USA

A PERIODIC FOLIO OF IMAGES, STORIES AND OTHER DIVERSIONS MASTERFILE.COM / YOU AFRAID? / TALKING ABOUT LANGUAGE CHARLIE FISH’S “DEATH BY SCRABBLE” / ARTIST ANITA CLARK

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STRATEGIC IMAGES

Some stock agencies have a vast number of images.

But sheer numbers will not help you if you can’t find the ‘right’ image, the image that makes your creative come alive, the image that will sell your product – the strategic image.

Masterfile has a library of over 1,000,000 images, and it is still growing. But more importantly, it is a library that has been assembled with an experienced and critical eye. We reject many more images than we accept. Our goal is to provide you with as many poignant and compelling images as possible, not to make you wade through a mountain of rejects that you would never consider. Because, ultimately you need to find the perfect image, the memorable image, the image that will resonate with your audience – the strategic image.

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700-01200216 © OLIV

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FICTION

DEATH BY SCRABBLE

BY CHARLIE FISH

We’re playing Scrabble. That’s how bad it is. I’m 42 years old, it’s a blistering hot Sunday afternoon and all I can think of to do with my life is to play Scrabble.

I should be out, doing exercise, spending money, meeting people. I don’t think I’ve spoken to anyone except my wife since Thursday morning. On Thursday morning I spoke to the milkman.

My letters are crap.

I play, appropriately, BEGIN. With the N on the little pink star. Twenty-two points.

I watch my wife’s smug expression as she rearranges her letters. Clack, clack, clack. I hate her. If she wasn’t around, I’d be doing something interesting right now. I’d be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I’d be starring in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I’d be sailing the Vendée Globe on a 60-foot clipper called the New Horizons – I don’t know, but I’d be doing something.

She plays JINXED, with the J on a double-letter score. 30 points. She’s beating me already. Maybe I should kill her.

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700-00795403 © MASTERFILE

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700-00616975 © RUSSELL MONK

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FICTION

CHARLIE FISH CHARLIE FISH WAS BORN IN NEW YORK IN 1980, AND NOW LIVES IN SUNNY ENGLAND. HE HAS NEVER WON THE BOOKER PRIZE, THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE OR AN OSCAR. HOWEVER, HE HAS BEEN WRITING SHORT STORIES, NOVELLAS AND SCREENPLAYS EVER SINCE HE COULD HOLD A PEN. FIND MORE OF HIS WORK AT HIS WEBSITE, WWW.FICTIONONTHEWEB.CO.UK – THE LONGEST-RUNNING SHORT STORY SITE ON THE INTERNET. HIRE HIM AT GETAREACTION@HOTMAIL.COM AND MAYBE HE’LL GET THAT BOOKER.

If only I had a D, then I could play MURDER. That would be a sign. That would be permission.

I start chewing on my U. It’s a bad habit, I know. All the letters are frayed. I play WARMER for 22 points, mainly so I can keep chewing on my U. As I’m picking new letters from the bag, I find myself thinking – the letters will tell me what to do. If they spell out KILL, or STAB, or her name, or anything, I’ll do it right now. I’ll finish her off.

My rack spells MIHZPA. Plus the U in my mouth. Damn.

The heat of the sun is pushing at me through the window. I can hear buzzing insects outside. I hope they’re not bees. My cousin Harold swallowed a bee when he was nine, his throat swelled up and he died. I hope that if they are bees, they fly into my wife’s throat.

She plays SWEATIER, using all her letters. 24 points plus a 50 point bonus. If it wasn’t too hot to move I would strangle her right now.

I am getting sweatier. It needs to rain, to clear the air. As soon as that thought crosses my mind, I find a good word. HUMID on a double-word score, using the D of JINXED. The U makes a little splash of saliva when I put it down. Another 22 points. I hope she has lousy letters.

2 She tells me she has lousy letters. For some reason, I hate her more.

She plays FAN, with the F on a double-letter, and gets up to fill the kettle and turn on the air conditioning.

It’s the hottest day for ten years and my wife is turning on the kettle. This is why I hate my wife. I play ZAPS, with the Z doubled, and she gets a static shock off the air conditioning unit. I find this remarkably satisfying.

She sits back down with a heavy sigh and starts fiddling with her letters again.

Clack clack. Clack clack. I feel a terrible rage build up inside me. Some inner poison slowly spreading through my limbs, and when it gets to my fingertips I am going to jump out of my chair, spilling the Scrabble tiles over the floor, and I am going to start hitting her again and again and again.

The rage gets to my fingertips and passes. My heart is beating. I’m sweating.

I think my face actually twitches. Then I sigh, deeply, and sit back into my chair.

The kettle starts whistling. As the whistle builds it makes me feel hotter.

She plays READY on a double-word for 18 points, then goes to pour herself a cup of tea. No I do not want one.

I steal a blank tile from the letter bag when she’s not looking, and throw back a V from my rack. She gives me a suspicious look. She sits back down with her cup of tea, making a cup-ring on the table, as I play an 8-letter word: CHEATING, using the A of READY. 64 points, including the 50-point bonus, which means I’m beating her now.

She asks me if I cheated.

I really, really hate her.

She plays IGNORE on the triple-word for 21 points. The score is 153 to her, 155 to me.

The steam rising from her cup of tea makes me feel hotter. I try to make murderous words with the letters on my rack, but the best I can do is SLEEP. My wife sleeps all the time. She slept through an argument our next-door neighbors had that resulted in a broken door, a smashed TV and a Teletubby Lala doll with all the stuffing coming out. And then she bitched at me for being moody the next day from lack of sleep.

3 If only there was some way for me to get rid of her.

I spot a chance to use all my letters. EXPLODES, using the X of JINXED. 72 points. That’ll show her.

As I put the last letter down, there is a deafening bang and the air conditioning unit fails.

My heart is racing, but not from the shock of the bang. I don’t believe it – but it can’t be a coincidence. The letters made it happen. I played the word EXPLODES, and it happened – the air conditioning unit exploded. And before, I played the word CHEATING when I cheated. And ZAP when my wife got the electric shock.

The words are coming true. The letters are choosing their future. The whole game is – JINXED. My wife plays SIGN, with the N on a triple-letter, for 10 points.

I have to test this.

I have to play something and see if it happens. Something unlikely, to prove that the letters are making it happen. My rack is ABQYFWE. That doesn’t leave me with a lot of options. I start frantically chewing on the B. I play FLY, using the L of EXPLODES. I sit back in my chair and close my eyes, waiting for the sensation of rising up from my chair. Waiting to fly.

Stupid. I open my eyes, and there’s a fly. An insect, buzzing around above the Scrabble board, surfing the thermals from the tepid cup of tea. That proves nothing.

The fly could have been there anyway.

I need to play something unambiguous. Something that cannot be misinterpreted.

Something absolute and final. Something terminal. Something murderous.

My wife plays CAUTION, using a blank tile for the N. 18 points.

My rack is AQWEUK, plus the B in my mouth. I am awed by the power of the letters, and frustrated that I cannot wield it. Maybe I should cheat again, and pick out the letters I need to spell SLASH or SLAY. Then it hits me. The perfect word. A powerful, dangerous, terrible word.

I play QUAKE for 19 points.

I wonder if the strength of the quake will be proportionate to how many points it scored. I can feel the trembling energy of potential in my veins. I am commanding fate. I am manipulating destiny.

My wife plays DEATH for 34 points, just as the room starts to shake.

I gasp with surprise and vindication – and the B that I was chewing on gets lodged in my throat. I try to cough. My face goes red, then blue. My throat swells.

I draw blood clawing at my neck. The earthquake builds to a climax.

I fall to the floor. My wife just sits there, watching.

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700-00043989 © ALBERT NORMANDIN 700-00350297 © STEVE CRAFT

700-00179359 © ZORAN MILICH

700-00031686 © MILES ERTMAN

700-00179355 © ZORAN MILICH

700-00179361 © ZORAN MILICH

700-00609299 © CHAD JOHNSTON

700-01119726 © MASTERFILE

700-00521089 © JEREMY WOODHOUSE

700-00092229 © DAVID MENDELSOHN

700-00188923 © HANS BLOHM 700-00268355 © ZORAN MILICH

700-01235580 © ALBERT NORMANDIN

700-01223994 © RUSSELL MONK

700-00606749 © DARRELL LECORRE

700-00864883 © MICHAEL MAHOVLICH 700-00363939 © ANDREW KOLB

700-00150859 © ZORAN MILICH

700-00280921 © RUSSELL MONK 700-01248890 © STEVE PREZANT

700-00609300 © CHAD JOHNSTON

700-00317356 © GAIL MOONEY 700-00093887 © STEVE CRAFT

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THE FACTS

LANGUAGE

POOL KNOWLEDGE TO FIND THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE Linguists are calling for an online public database, similar to the human genome project, that would allow researchers to collaboratively share different studies of language impairment.

By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language.

Such a database might also help treat language disorders or help people learn foreign tongues, they say.

Language is one of the defining characters of our species, but we know virtually nothing about where it came from.

“We have a lot of theories, but we don’t have a lot of data,” admits Gary Marcus at New York University, US.

Language is one of the defining characters of our species, but we know virtually nothing about where it came from.

UNIQUE COMPLEXITY The biological basis of how people speak, listen and comprehend – and how all of this mental equipment evolved – is largely mysterious. Researchers can study animals to gain insights into many psychological abilities, but this is not possible with language as no animal communication systems are anywhere near as complex as ours.

“In short, we know it’s unique to humans and it evolved quickly,” says Marcus. We developed the skill after we split from our last common ancestor – shared with chimpanzees – seven million years ago. Nevertheless, he says, language probably evolved as recently as the last few hundred thousand years.

It has been difficult to gather data, but developmental studies could provide new clues, he believes. So-called knockout studies, where mice are genetically modified to lack certain genes, have helped tease out the origin of certain mental abilities and many genetic disorders.

Though such experiments are not ethically feasible in humans, detailed observational studies on people with naturallyoccurring genetic mutations related to language, could provide equivalent data, says Marcus.

A systematic collection of such studies would help us understand which parts of language share an origin with other mental abilities and which parts have evolved independently.

TALKING NUMBERS The most popular spoken languages. All figures in millions.

IMAGES TO THE RIGHT, FIRST COLUMN (TOP TO BOTTOM): 700-00553859, 700-00557409, 700-00182486, 700-00028657. SECOND COLUMN: 617-00543137, 700-00514974, 632-01133509, 700-00592865.

COGNITIVE MOSAICS MANDARIN CHINESE

874

ENGLISH

514

HINDUSTANI

496

SPANISH

425

RUSSIAN

275

ARABIC

256

BENGALI

215

PORTUGUESE

194

MALAY/INDONESIAN

176

FRENCH

129

For example, sufferers of William’s syndrome have difficulty perceiving the world and understanding why things happen – yet they have near-normal linguistic abilities. On the other hand, autistic people have difficulty understanding what other people have on their minds, and this can also affect linguistic abilities, such as ability to learn the names of objects.

Genetic disorders such as fragile-X syndrome and Down’s syndrome bestow a mosaic of cognitive and linguistic impairment. One entire family missing a gene called FOXP2 has problems with many language skills such as grammatical competence.

Research has been piecemeal until now, so Marcus and graduate student Hugh Rabagliati are calling for experts to create a database collecting key data on developmental disorders and how they affect, or do not affect, cognitive and linguistic abilities. They outline their proposal, which has similarities to the collaborative nature of the human genome project, in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The results could also help treat linguistic impairment and might hint at better ways for people to learn new languages, Marcus says.

“Developmental disorders could help us pinpoint which genes are involved in language,” comments geneticist Simon Fisher of Oxford University, UK, who was involved in the discovery of the FOXP2 gene. “They don’t recapture evolutionary history, but they do give us clues as to the origins of different language traits.”

A public database would be “extremely valuable” in understanding the basis of language, he says, “and anything that increases our understanding would also be helpful for targeting therapies.”

“The better we understand what language is, the better we understand ourselves,” says Marcus. NEW SCIENTIST MAGAZINE

SIGN LANGUAGE

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

SLANG IS A LANGUAGE THAT ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVES, SPITS ON ITS HANDS, AND GOES TO WORK. CARL SANDBURG

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

100,000

BC

When language began

INTERNET SLANG ANFSCD

And now for something completely different

BTDTGTTSAWIO

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and wore it out

CMIIW

Correct me if I’m wrong

DILLIGAD

Does it look like I give a damn

GBCW

Goodbye cruel world

IMHO

In my humble opinion

IYKWIM

If you know what I mean

KISS

Keep it simple stupid

KTHXBYE

OK, thanks, goodbye

MYOB

Mind your own business

OMFG

Oh my freaking God

OTOH

On the other hand

PMSL

Pissing myself laughing

SCNR

Sorry could not resist

T2UL

Talk to you later

WUBU2

What (have) you been up to

YOYO

You’re on your own

6912

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

250,000 The number of distinct words in the English language

321

The number of living languages

The number of languages the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been translated into

516

74

820

45

The number of living languages that are nearly extinct

The number of living languages in Papua New Guinea, the most in the world

The number of letters in Khmer, the world’s largest alphabet

The number of letters in pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the longest word in the English language

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700-01199207 © RUSSELL MONK

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700-00080226 © R. IAN LLOYD

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THE QUESTION

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? It is possible for an individual to develop a phobia over virtually anything. The name of a phobia generally contains a Greek word for whatever you fear plus the suffix -phobia.

Creating these terms is somewhat of a word game. Few of these terms are found in medical literature. However, this does not necessarily make it a non-psychological condition.

700-00528731 Š CHAD JOHNSTON

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Xenophobia

Glossophobia

Ornithophobia

Fear of strangers, foreigners, or aliens.

Fear of speaking in public.

Fear of birds.

700-00178713 © TOM FEILER

700-00028935 © DAVE ROBERTSON

700-00170380 © GREG STOTT

Androphobia

Taphophobia

Osmophobia

Fear of males.

Fear of being placed in a grave while still alive.

Fear of smells.

Arachnophobia 700-00152245 © MITCH TOBIAS

Fear of arachnids, usually specific to spiders.

700-00095015 © MARK TOMALTY

Ligyrophobia

Hoplophobia

Fear of loud noises.

Fear of firearms.

700-01196223 © PAUL KNIGHT

Coulrophobia

Mysophobia

Fear of clowns.

Fear of germs, contamination or dirt.

700-00089019 © TSUYOI

700-00285471 © TSUYOI

Astraphobia

Fear of thunder, lightning and storms.

700-00651476 © STEVEN PUETZER

700-00007943 © DOUGLAS E. WALKER

700-00429773 © NATASHA V

700-00911651 © MATTHIAS KULKA

Tokophobia

Nyctophobia

Pyrophobia

Triskaidekaphobia

Fear of childbirth.

Fear of darkness.

Fear of fire.

Fear of the number 13.

700-00284712 © TOM FEILER

700-00439263 © ROMMEL

700-00041591 © ROBERT KARPA

700-00426372 © MIKE DOBEL

Ophidiophobia

Fear of snakes.

Radiophobia

Musophobia

Fear of radiation or X-rays.

Fear of mice and/or rats.

700-00378168 © DAVID MENDELSOHN

Emetophobia

Gymnophobia

Fear of vomiting.

Fear of nudity.

700-00910224 © MASTERFILE

Odontophobia

Fear of dentists and dental procedures.

700-00150546 © KEATE

700-01164968 © MARK LEIBOWITZ

700-00955648 © GRAHAM FRENCH 700-00194652 © GARY RHIJNSBURGER

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7/31/07 7:01:56 PM

FEATURED ARTIST

ANITA CLARK Anita’s passion for photography is obvious to anyone who knows her. She drags most of her friends and family into her images.

She has photographed her 70 year old father skinny dipping on a beach and her mother with a stocking over her head (which can be seen on this page). Few escape including her photographer husband, Paul Wenham-Clarke, who she shot topless when he was suffering from Chicken Pox. Anita’s interest in photography started early at the age of seven. She even tried to develop her own color film by pulling it out of its cassette and running it under a cold tap! By the time she was 16 she had mastered the art of chemical processing and started a college course in photography. She went on to study a BA in Photography and Digital Imaging at Berkshire College of Art and Design. Her work was soon noticed when she was the Overall Winner of the Fuji Student Awards in 1997. After leaving art college Anita assisted for four years during which time she worked with many leading Advertising photographers in London. In the AOP Assistant Awards in 2001 Anita won a merit award for a series of very unusual images of people on glass.

Whether Anita is photographing people with their faces underwater or dinner ladies with forks in their hair, Anita is always looking to do things differently.

700-01196343 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163978 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163576 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163983 © ANITA CLARK

700-01196340 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163984 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163980 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163569 © ANITA CLARK

700-01236490 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163979 © ANITA CLARK

700-01236483 © ANITA CLARK

700-01163982 © ANITA CLARK

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700-01163577 © ANITA CLARK

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700-01296583 © MASTERFILE

JUST SHOT A huge fashion shoot with a cast of 50. We used three artists to capture different perspectives of the event: the runway, backstage preparations and models just hanging out.

These are a few images from ‘hanging out’.

700-01296586 © MASTERFILE 700-01296582 © MASTERFILE

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700-01296576 © MASTERFILE

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MASTERFILE.COM

PEOPLE’S CHOICE VS. EDITOR’S CHOICE PEOPLE’S CHOICE Check out People’s Choice... it’s new.

People’s Choice is our newest search result algorithm. It ranks images by what visitors to our site think is interesting.

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700-00179252 © TOM FEILER

NEED HELP? GIVE US A CALL

1 800 387 9010 EDITOR’S CHOICE Editors Choice option ranks images according to what our editors like.

The results can be very different for the same search so try both options and see which you like.

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DON’T PANIC. Our researchers can do the work and prepare a custom lightbox for you – usually within three business hours.

Then we’ll e-mail a link so you can view the recommended image selection on-line.

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700-00051983 © RON FEHLING

COPYRIGHT © 2007 MASTERFILE CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.

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FRONT COVER: 700-01248811 © WAYNE EARDLEY

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