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CaliforniaCondor's Shocking Recovery

      California condors are North America's largest birds, with wing-length of up to 3 meters. In the 1980s, electrical lines and lead poisoning(铅中毒) nearly drove them to dying out. Now, electric shock training and medical treatment are helping to rescue these big birds.

      In the late 1980s, the last few condors were taken from the wild, and there are now more than 150 flying over California and nearby Arizona, Utah and Baja in Mexico.

Electrical lines have been killing them off. “As they go in to rest for the night, they just don't see the power lines,” says Bruce Rideout of San Diego Zoo. Their wings can bridge the gap between lines, resulting in electrocution(电死) if they touch two lines at once.

So scientists have come up with a shocking idea. Tall poles, placed in large training areas, teach the birds to stay clear of electrical lines by giving them a painful but undeadly electric shock. Before the training was introduced, 66% of set-freed condors died of electrocution. This has now dropped to 18%.

Lead poisonous has proved more difficult to deal with. When condors eat dead bodies of other animals containing lead, they absorb large quantities of lead. This affects their nervous systems and ability to produce baby birds, and can lead to kidney(肾) failures and death. So condors with high levels of lead are sent to Los Angeles Zoo, where they are treated with calcium EDTA, a chemical that removes lead from the blood over several days. This work is starting to pay off. The annual death rate for adult condors has dropped from 38% in 2000 to 5.4% in 2011.

Rideout's team thinks that the California condors' average survival time in the wild is now just under eight years. “Although these measures are not effective forever, they are vital for now,” he says. “They are truly good birds that are worth every effort we put into recovering them.”

    As the richest man in the world, Bill Gates is no stranger to success. So when the billionaire offers advice, it's smart to listen. On Monday, Bill Gates hosted an “AMA” or “ask me anything” session（会议） on Reddit, during which a participant asked, “If you could give 19-year-old Bill Gates some advice, what would it be?”

    Gates said: “I would explain that smartness is not single dimensional and not quite as important as I thought it was back then. I would say you might explore the developing world before you get into your forties. I wasn't very good socially back then, but I am not sure there is advice that would fix that--maybe I had to be awkward and just grow up...”

    In short: Intelligence isn't one-dimensional-and it's not the only ingredient required for success.

    This isn't the only time Gates has given out advice on navigating your years as a young adult. One of his best pieces of wisdom comes from fellow billionaire and friend Warren Buffett: Keep things simple. In a 2009 interview with CNBC. Gates said: “You look at his calendar; It's pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And if it gets less complicated, he feels like then it's something he'll choose to invest (投资) in. He picks the things that he's got a model of, a model that really is predictive and that's going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics —it's so amazing that he can do that. It's a special form of genius(天才).”

    American college students are becoming more adventuresome as they study abroad, showing less interests in English-speaking destinations such as Great Britain and Australia and more in such countries as China, India, Argentina and Brazil.

    Britain remained the most popular study destination in 2005, according to annual figures from the Institute of International Education, followed by Italy, Spain and France. But the number of American students studying in Britain and Australia descended a little, even as the number of American students abroad rose by 8%. The growth came in non-English speaking European countries and in Asia. China is now the eighth most popular destination for American students, attracting nearly 6,400 in 2005, up 35% from the number of the year before. Argentina and India saw increases of more than 50%.

    Allan Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, said that a range of factors contributed to the trend, from growing awareness of globalization after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to programs such as former President Bush's National Security Language Initiative, which trains soldiers, intelligence officers and diplomats in foreign languages. “What Americans are doing is waking up and discovering there's a world out there,” he said.

    Other figures showed the flow of students in the opposite direction, from foreign countries into American universities. The institute found that international enrollment (入学) in American higher education remained steady at about 565,000. The figures are of keen interest to universities, which depend on foreign students for teaching and research help, and to policy-makers, who consider it important, as future foreign leaders may be familiar with the United States. The year of 2005 saw big increases in students from South Korea, Mexico and Taiwan of China. India sends the most students and China is No.2. Other countries that show large percentage increases in the number of students sent to the US include Nepal and Vietnam, while Japan, Turkey and Malaysia saw declines. About 58% of international students in the US come from Asia.

    Springtime In Paris

    Departure: May 5, 12, 19 and June 9

    4 days for £129 per person

    Paris in the springtime was, is and always will be something rather special. Why not experience it for yourself with this excellent break for four days? This attractive city has something to offer everyone and with prices at just ￡129, it's great value too.

    Your break begins with executive coach transfer from regional pickup points and travel to Paris is via cross-channel ferry, arriving at your hotel in the evening. The hotel is an excellent quality one with private facilities in all rooms: satellite TV, radio, telephone and alarm clock. It has a bar and restaurant and is situated about two miles south of Notre Dame enabling you to explore Paris with ease.

    The following day, after continental breakfast(included), the coach takes you on a comprehensive sightseeing tour of the city, during which you will see the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and in fact almost every famous landmark you have ever heard of. You then leave Paris and take a short drive to the magnificent Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis XIV. The tour ends mid-afternoon back in Paris where you will have the remainder of the day at your leisure. In the evening there is a "Paris By Night" tour showing you the beautiful buildings with bright lights.

    Day three takes you to Montmartre, perhaps the most picturesque of Paris and home of the Saere Coeur and the Moulin Rouge. In the afternoon you are free to explore this beautiful city as you wish, perhaps a pleasure voyage on the River Seine, wander around the picturesque gardens or look through among the antique shops. In the evening you will have the opportunity to visit the best nightclub in the city, the splendid Paradis Latin. On the final day we're back to the U.K. via channel ferry.

    Included in the price of ￡129 per person

    Return executive coach travel to Paris

    Return ferry crossings

    3 nights accommodation in a twin bedded room in a Central Paris hotel with private facilities

    Continental breakfast during your stay

    Guided sightseeing tour of "Paris By Day" and "Paris By Night"

    Visit to Chateau of Versailles (admission not included)

    Tour on Montmartre

    Services of an experienced bi-lingual tour guide at all times

    Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website Book Crossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

    Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. Book Crossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public lace hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

    Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, "The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both."

    Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

    People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossing to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce peterson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

    BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the "real" and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

    Alice Robb is an American science journalist who has written for the Washington Post and the New Republic. Her new book, Why We Dream, encourages us to rethink the importance of dreams and to become dream interpreters ourselves.

    Reporter: Recently there's been a massive interest in the science of sleep. Sleep plays a role in maintaining our mental health. Are dreams part of that process?

    Alice Robb: Dreams play a big role in helping us cope with stress, grief and psychological problems. Dreams are an opportunity to work through things that frighten us in real life, to play out worst-case situations in an environment where they have no consequences.

    Reporter: Has anyone explained why dreams contain such surreal (超现实的) elements, strange pictures of time, people, geography and so on?

    Alice Robb：When we dream, the logic centres of our brain—the frontal lobes (大脑额叶) —go dark, and chemicals associated with self-control, like serotonin (血清素) and norepinephrine (去甲肾 上腺素) , drop. At the same time, the emotion centres light up：we have a perfect chemical canvas for dramatic, psychologically intense visions.

    Reporter：You say neglecting to consider our dreams is like "throwing away a gift from our brains without bothering to open it. " What is the gift?

    Alice Robb: When we're dreaming, we're thinking in a state we never have access to by day. Dreams offer the opportunity to think in a different way and show new answers to problems. They show us blind spots on things we might be neglecting in our personal lives.