Music

    Opera at Music Hall： 1243 Elm Street. The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 241 -2742. http://www.cityopera.com

    Chamber Orchestra： The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 106 Elm Street, which offers several conceits from March through June. Call 723-1182 for more information. http://www.chamberorch.com.

    Symphony Orchestra： At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381-3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall in summer al Riverbend. http://www.symphony.org/honie.asp.

    College Conservatory Of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well-known LaSalle Quarter, CMM's Philharmonic Orchesira, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modem music. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by calling the box office at 556-4183. http://www.ccm. uc.edu/events/calendar.

    Rivebent Music Theater.6295 Kellogg Ave« Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference ). Big name shows all summer long! Phone: 232-6220. http://www.riverbendmusic.com

    It is true that world population is growing, but this is not the cause of our current and future global problems. Believing this will cause us to ignore the real problem and risk long-term damage to our planet.

    Let me start by explaining why overpopulation is a myth. For one thing, the UN Population Division regularly predicts population growth but provides a low variant (变量), medium variant, and high variant to factor in various possibilities. In the 2010 revision, their high variant suggests that the world population will be almost 16 billion in 2100, but the low variant predicts it will peak（达到顶峰） at 8 billion and decrease to just over 6 billion by 2100. In most cases, it is the low variant that has come true in the past, suggesting the same will be true of their future population predictions. In addition to this, the size of families is actually decreasing.

    For another, if the Earth is overpopulated, there needs to be insufficient (短缺) food, water, and space for humans to live. However, Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is able to increase crop produce to the point of providing the entire world's food supply. The World Food Programme confirms that there is sufficient food grown to feed the world and there is the same amount of fresh water on the planet now as there was 10,000 years ago. So how is it possible that the number of people in the world is affecting our planet?

    Therefore, it is not an increase in population but an increase in consumption that is a severe threat. Materialism and overconsumption are facts of life for everybody in the western world, as possessions reflect a person's status in society and people strive to obtain happiness through owning the latest fashionable goods. Not only that, but waste is a common occurrence which has a huge effect on our resources. It is a sad truth that 80% of the world's resources are currently used by just 20% of the world's population.

    Our overconsumption must be addressed now to make our lives more sustainable and avoid continuing the terrible damage to the environment we are causing. The key is education. If we do not work towards this but instead focus on the wrong issue, we may find ourselves living on a planet that can no longer sustain human life.

    The Asian country announced yesterday that China was putting tariffs or taxes on about $3 billion worth of imports from the U.S. The tariffs are on 128 American-made products, ranging from pork and fruit to steel pipes. This will make it more expensive for America businesses to sell those products in China. And China says this was done as a response to the tariffs that the U.S. recently put on imports of Chinese steel and aluminum.

    Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump says more tariffs, new ones worth as much a $50 billion are being planned by the U.S. on additional goods from China. So, one big question is, will all this cause a trade war, when countries take turns putting tariffs on each other 's goods, causing prices to rise?

    We don't know yet. The U.S. and China ship hundreds of billions of dollars of goods back and forth every year. So, the tariffs we've seen so far are a tiny part of that. And America's treasury secretary says the U.S. and China are talking behind the scenes about how to prevent a possible trade war.

    But a number of experts are concerned this could turn into one and so are some stock investors. The Chinese tariffs were a major factor in a drop of the U.S. stock market yesterday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 459 points. But just like it's hard to tell if a trade war is on the horizon, it's also hard to tell what kind of effects one could have decades down the road.

    Why do you go to the library? For books, yes－but you like books because they tell stories. You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else's life. At one type of library, you can do just that－even though there's not a single book.

    At a Human Library, instead of books, you can "borrow" people. Individuals volunteer as human "books" and participants in the event can "read" the book－meaning they would have a one-on-one conversation with the volunteer and share in a dialogue about that individual's experience. "Books" are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination (歧视) based on race, religion, class, gender identity, age, lifestyle choices, disability and other aspects of their life.

    For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating and as attractive as any you can find in a book. Many of the stories have to do with some kind of stereotype. You can speak with a refugee (难民), a soldier suffering from PTSD, a homeless person or a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people to challenge their own long-held beliefs to truly get to know, and learn from someone they might otherwise make a quick judgment about.

    According to its website, the Human Library is "a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered." It provides the opportunity for the community to share and understand the experiences of others in their community.

    The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. Ronni Abergel and his colleagues hosted a four-day event during a major Northern European festival, hoping to raise awareness about violence among youth. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, which has been growing ever since.

    Though there are a few permanent human libraries, most aren't places at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don't need a library card－anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio.

    The stories these "books" tell range from fascinating to heartbreaking and everything in between. And that's the very point of the organization－to prove that no person can be summed up in just one word. It seeks to show people that you truly can't judge a book by its cover－or by its title or label.

    We bet that on cold winter days, many of you love to stay in your warm home and, every now and then, come out into the kitchen for a snack. Unfortunately, plenty of small insects like to do the same thing! Winter is the time when small insects enter your house without an invitation. The season can be difficult for such creatures. In winter the air is cold, the ground is hard and many trees have no leaves. So small insects do what they have to do to survive.

    Monarch butterflies head south to warmer climates. Ants crowd in deep underground colonies and eat food they have been storing all year. Many insects go into a deep sleep called diapauses. There're different kinds of diapauses, but all are similar to hibernation, a time when bigger animals become inactive in the cold. Insects go into an inactive period, too, but it often isn't when the temperature drops.

    They rely on more dependable signals in the environment. For example, many insects can tell how much sunlight there's each day. They use that to tell themselves when to shut down. Insects are cold-blooded, meaning that their inside temperature is the same as the outside. They can't move much when it gets below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. So they search for any warm place.

    They're looking for protection. These guys have been doing this for 300 million years, so they don't really know they're coming into your house. The home is a recent event in terms of their evolutionary (进化的) behavior. They enter through tiny cracks or come in unnoticed on your clothes or shoes. Remember that they may be entering your homes for warmth and food, but they don't care about humans.

    While IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tells you how smart you are. EQ (Emotional Quotient) tells you how well you use your smartness. Professor Salovery, the psychologist who created the term, EQ, says that it is IQ that gets you hired but it is EQ that gets you promoted.

    Supported by his research, he suggested that when predicting future successes, a person's brainpower, as measured by IQ tests, might actually matter less than a person's character, or EQ. Professor Salovery may be correct. For example, have you ever wondered why some of the best and smartest students in your class end up failing exams? Perhaps it is because of their EQ. People often make the mistake of thinking that EQ is the opposite of IQ. It is not. Although it is hoped that people have both high EQs and IQs, there is little doubt that those with low EQs have a hard time surviving in life.

    For a long time, researchers discussed if a person's IQ could be raised. The geneticists said no, while the social scientists said yes. Furthermore, the social scientists said that it was possible to improve a person's EQ, particularly in terms of "people skills", such as understanding and communication.

    Recently, a professor released the findings of a study on senior high school students. When some normal students were introduced to some disabled students, they found that afterwards they were more willing to help people in difficulties. At the same time, there was a marked change in the disabled students' attitudes. They became more positive about their disabilities and were more eager to try new things. People with high EQs often have positive attitudes towards life and are open to different ideas, so they tend to be more creative in their thinking. Please remember that having a high IQ is helpful but having a high EQ might even be more helpful.