They may be teenagers, but 17-year-old Brittany Bull and 16-year-old Sesam Mngqengqiswa have grand ambitions(雄心) — to launch Africa's first private satellite (卫星) into space. They are part of a team of high school girls from Cape Town, South Africa, who have designed and built equipment for a satellite that will orbit over the earth's poles scanning Africa's surface.

    Once in space, the satellite will collect information on agriculture, and food security within the continent. Using the data/we can try to determine and predict (预测) the problems Africa will be facing in the future”, explains Bull, a student at Pelican Park High School.“Where our food is growing, where we can plant more trees and vegetation and also how we can monitor remote areas,” she says. “We have a lot of forest fires and floods but we don't always get out there in time.'' Information received twice a day will go towards disaster prevention.

    It's part of a project by South Africa's Meta Economic Development Organization (MEDO) working with Morehead State University in the US.

The girls (14 in total) are being trained by satellite engineers from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in an effort to encourage more African women into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

    Scheduled to launch in May 2017, if successful, it will make MEDO the first private company in Africa to build a satellite and send it into orbit.

    Mngqengqiswa comes from a single parent household. Her mother is a domestic worker. By becoming a space engineer or astronaut, the teenager hopes to make her mother proud. “Discovering space and seeing the Earth's atmosphere, it's not something many black Africans have been able to do, or get the opportunity to look at I want to see and experience these things for myself,” says Mngqengqiswa.

    Her team mate Bull agrees, “I want to show to fellow girls that we don't need to sit around or limit ourselves. Any career is possible-even aerospace.”

    What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定义) jokes as the pleasure that results from a feeling of triumph(胜利) by showing we're better than someone else in a certain way. According to Aristotle and many other philosophers，all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons—that is，putting it clearly，on showing that they are worse off than ourselves. Jokes raise our good opinion of ourselves at someone else's expense.

Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes. Someone may also use a joke to express their anger or their cruelty or any other kind of action that is not acceptable to us. We feel free to laugh when we hear about someone sliding on a banana skin. The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes，especially those involving cruelty，are so popular with certain people.

    Besides，all jokes depend on our enjoyment of laughing at something that is strange and out of place because it's different from things which are happening around it. The same situation can be either sad or pleasant，depending entirely on how strange and out of place it is. If a girl in a bathing suit falls into a swimming pool，we don't laugh because nothing unusual has happened. But if a man in a smart suit falls in，the situation is at once unusual in a pleasant way and we laugh. A good joke-teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens，and so we laugh.

    The Republic of Vanuatu is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. It was one of the poorest nations in the region. Within the last five years, however, it has become a hot spot for adventure travelers. In 2006 it was voted the happiest place on Earth. The reason is not that Vanuatu are the richest but that Vanuatu has white-sand islands, clear waters, the world's most accessible live volcano, great diving and food that grows faster than it can be picked.

    With a population of about 221,000, Vanuatu has 113 languages, which is a result of 3,000 years of immigration from many Pacific countries. There are three official languages: English, French, and Bislama. Bislama developed from South Pacific English, a simplified language that traders and other foreigners used it to communicate with speakers of the many local languages.

    Most of the islands are mountainous and of volcanic origin. There are several active volcanoes in Vanuatu, including Yasur on the island of Tanna, one of the world's most accessible volcanoes. If you've ever fancied getting close to a volcano, here's your chance.

    Vanuatu Post's Underwater Post Office has quickly become one of the busiest post offices for postcards in the world! Visitors from around the world want to experience the world's first under- water post office. The Post Office is only 50 meters offshore and at just three meters below the surface, very appealing to the young and young at heart. Since opening in 2003, the underwater post office has received about 100,000 visitors. They have posted one of the waterproof（防水的）postcards available in Vanuatu; these cards are collected regularly by one of Vanuatu Post's four trained divers. The underwater branch is manned daily for usually about an hour, longer with demand.

    BKLYN House Hotel

    There are works by Brooklyn artists in this hotel. The 116 rooms are of great value and Manhattan is only 20 minutes away by taxi or subway. The immediate surroundings feel urban—the hotel is by a high-rise public housing project while the nearest commercial street is under elevated（高的）subway tracks—but Bushwick's best bars and cafes/restaurants are near-by.

    Doubles from $99, room only. Tel: 718 3884433

    Archer Hotel

    Visitors eager to stay in the heart of Manhattan should try one of the bargain-priced rooms at this hotel. Some start from as low as $179 a night (if prepaying in full). Rooms are small but tasteful, with nice touches such as exposed brick. Some have close-up views of the Empire State Building.

    Doubles from $199, room only. Tel: 212 7194100

    Pod 39 Hotel

    In an elegant brick building in Manhattan's Murray Hill, this excellent budget（预算）option opened following the success of its sister hotel, The Pod. The rooms are called pods given for their small size and may not suit everyone. But with prices among the most competitive in Manhattan, budgeters will be happy.

    Doubles from $95, room only. Tel: 212 8655700

    CitizenM New York Times Square

    This is the first US location for a Netherlands-based concept hotel chain—CitizenM. The hotel features self check-in at its 230 little but comfortable rooms via touch screen “Mood-Pads”. There's a rooftop bar, a 24-hour grab-and-go cafeteria and an area with public iMac workspaces. Although New Yorkers avoid nearby Times Square, all the lights, cameras and action can make it a fun tourist experience.

    Doubles from $170, room only. Tel: 212 319 7000

    Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

    Visitor Information

    How to Get to Holker

By Car: Follow brown signs on A590 from J36, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere—--20 minutes, Kendal—--25 minutes, Lancaster—-45 minutes, Manchester—--1 hour 30 minutes.

    By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Carmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster and Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

    Opening Times

Sunday—Friday (closed on Saturday) 11:00am —4:00pm, 30^th March –2^nd November.

    Admission Charges

    Hall & Gardens   Gardens

    Adults:  £ 12.00    £ 8.00

    Groups  £9.00    £5.50

    Special Events

    Producers' Market 13^th April

    Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

    Holker Garden Festival 30^th May

    The event celebrates its 22^nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

    National Garden Day 28^th August

    Holker once again opens its gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

    Winter Market 8^th November

    This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifts while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

SuperCamps

    We are a leading provider of childcare in the UK, offering OFSTED registered holiday camps to children aged 4 to 14 throughout the school holidays. Operating at 60＋ locations, we have holiday camps available in London and the South East, as far south as Cornwall and all the way up to North Yorkshire. Whether you are looking for fun holiday clubs and kid activities, a five-day specialist holiday camp for older children or a combination of the two to keep your children entertained throughout the school holidays, we have your childcare covered!

    Our multi-activity holiday camps offer an abundance of fun, age-oriented(导向的)activities(4-5-year-olds, 6-9-year-olds and 10-12-year-olds), from swimming and go-karting to arts and crafts and LEGO workshops. These day camps are a great choice for parents looking for regular childcare service, available as individual days or a week at a time.

    For children looking for a school holiday experience, our specialist holiday camps are the ideal choice. Our Cookery: International Cuisine, a 5-day specialist course is a cookery camp with a difference, where children can really master their cooking skills!

    Bushcraft: Rainforest Adventure is the perfect outdoor adventure camp for children with a passion for bush craft and survival skills, with activities like Laser Tag and making campfires to inspire the interest of young adventurers!

    Meanwhile, our LEGO Play course is a holiday camp focusing on the art of building amazing creations with LEGO bricks. This camp really motivates the imagination of children in a way that only uses LEGO bricks!

    All new for 2019, our Chelsea Foundation FC Camps invite all football fans to take a shot at our Multi-Dimensional soccer camps! Children will receive hours of on-pitch training and competition with Chelsea FC approved coaches, as well as hours of off-pitch sessions around nutrition, recovery and lifestyle!

    To find your nearest holiday camp, simply enter your postcode or town in the box above or choose your camp by county here and BOOK ONLINE TODAY!