Whether you're up for a Crocodile Dundee's adventure or you'd just like a taste of the Australian sun, the beaches in and around Sydney can offer you all that and more.

Sydney Beach

    Sydney Beach is located at Sydney's northernmost tip on an extension(延伸) of land ending at Palm Beach. Before checking out the golden sand, take a quick tour of the houses of millionaires from the art and film industries.

Palm Beach

    Only about an hour from downtown Sydney, Palm Beach offers a long stretch(延伸) of clean sand and water. With parking near the center of the beach, that leaves the rest of it as a peaceful location with a sparse population, from which you can go surfing but take care — without the huge crowds of other Sydney's beaches, Palm Beach doesn't afford quite the safety level to be found elsewhere. Volunteer lifesavers are on duty only on weekends and holidays.

Bondi Beach

    For the famous beach, Bondi Beach has to be your choice. Parking is difficult to find even on slow days, so consider taking public transport to this world—known beach in the eastern Sydney suburbs. Easily reachable by taxi, bus, and rail, Bondi Beach offers sun bathing, swimming, snorkeling, and all sorts of water sports fun. If you're in the mood for a bit of exercise, two scenic coastal walks will afford you great views and sights along the shore. Take in views from Mackenzie's Point. It starts at Bondi and heads south to Bronte Beach. But don't try to swim in Mackenzie's Bay — it holds dangers such as hidden rocks.

Bronte Beach

    Your second choice for a scenic coastal walk covers a few miles and takes you from Bronte Beach to Waverly Cemetery, where many famous Australians are buried, including the poet Henry Lawson.

    When it comes to gifts, it's not easy to shop for someone when you're not sure what they're into. Thankfully, Crate and Barrel's sister store — the modern, fancy version — CB2 has a gift collection that is just as beautiful as it is practical. They're known for their modern designs. We've edited a list of some of our favorite gift ideas from CB2 so you'll know just what to get.

    Galactic Jewelry Box ($21)

    This jewelry box is not only a place to store your jewels, but it looks like one itself. “Designed by UK-based Seascape Curiosities, the jewelry box brings deep space to your room. Open storage space lined with light grey cotton velvet holds most-precious possessions,” CB2 states. The best part? It's under $25.

    Flamingo Catchall ($29.95)

    Designed by the British fashion designer Matthew Williamson, this flamingo catchall is a pop of color in every room and offers a secure place to store some of your favorite rings, earrings, or little items. Not only is it an awesome addition to just about any home, it's also a great conversation starter at dinner parties.

    Heritage Navy Leather Activity Ball ($49)

    It's a great gift for the man in your life who loves sports. Crafted with design and function in mind, handmade activity ball (think of it as a smaller basketball) stands up to years of play and even gets better looking with age. It's a super addition to any bookshelf.

    Black Nickel Cocktail Shaker ($24.95)

    This cocktail shaker starts off with a smoky black finish and fades into grey. It's fashionable, functional, and — above all — easy to clean.

    "Do you like my dress?" She asked of a passing stranger. "My mommy made it just for me." She said with a tear in her eye.

    "Well, I think it's very pretty, so, why are you crying?"

    With a tremble in her voice the little girl answered. "After mommy made me this dress, she had to go away."

    "Well, now," said the lady, "with a little girl like you waiting for her, I'm sure she'll be right back."

    "No Ma'am, you don't understand," said the child through her tears, "my daddy said she's up in heaven now with Grandfather."

    The woman realized what the child meant, and why she was crying. Kneeling down she gently gathered the child into her arms and together they cried for the mommy that was gone. As the woman intended to go, the little girl grabbed her sleeve, pointing to a spot on her dress, saying, "Here is where my mommy kissed my dress, and here," pointing to another spot, "and here is another kiss, and here, and here. Mommy said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would have her kisses whenever I cry."

    Then the lady realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress, she was looking at a mother who knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away the hurts that she knew her daughter would get. So she took all the love she had for her little girl and put them into this dress. She no longer saw a little girl in a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped in her mother's love.

    American high school students are terrible writers, and one education reform group thinks it has an answer: robots. Or, more accurately, robot-readers—computers programmed to scan students' essays and spit out a grade.

    Mark Shermis, professor of the College of Education at the University of Akron, is helping to hold a contest, set up by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (WFHF), which promises $ 100,000 in prize money to programmers who write the best automated grading software. "If you're a high school teacher and you give a writing task, you're walking home with 150 essays," Shermis said. "You're going to need some help."

    Automated essay grading was first proposed in the 1960s, but computers back then were not up to the task. In the late 1990s, as technology improved, several textbooks and testing companies jumped into the field. Today, computers are used to grade essays on South Dakota's student writing assessments and a handful of other exams, including the TOEFL test of English fluency, taken by foreign students.

    The Hewlett contest aims to show that computers can grade as well as English teachers—only much more quickly and without all that depressing red ink. "Automated essay scoring is objective," Shermis said. "And it can be done immediately. If students finish an essay at 10 pm, they will get a result at 10: 01 pm."

    Take, for instance, the Intelligent Essay Assessor, a web-based tool marketed by Pearson Education, Inc. Within seconds, it can analyze an essay for spelling, grammar, organization, and help students to make revisions. The program scans for key words and analyzes semantic (语义的) patterns, and Pearson claims that it can understand the meaning of text much the same as a human reader.

New Books Just Waiting for You!

An Insider's History of the Swingin' Medallions

Author: Carrol Blessoe

Hardback: $29.99

Paperback: $21.99

E-book at www.xlibris.com

    This book records the story of eight young guys, the Swingin' Medallions, born in a small town in America, who become a national sense in the music world.

Saving Nia

Author: G.B.Jones

Hardback: $34.99

Paperback: $23.99

E-book at www.authorhouse.com

    This book is based on a girl's true story. Separated from her happy home and placed with drug-addicted relatives, Nia sinks into a depression and attempts to set herself on fire.The love of another child lights up her darkness and brings her out!

Road to Freedom- My Life and Journey from a 3rd World Country

Author: Edward A.Nieto

Hardback: $27.99

Paperback: $19.99

E-book at www.xlibris.com

    This book details Edward A.Nieto's life and journey.It also includes his struggles with violence, corruption and the politics of living in a third world.

The Mister

Author: E.L.James

Hardback: $51.99

Paperback: $41.99

E-book at www.xlibris.com

    This is a new romantic story. Life has been easy for Maxim Trevelyan. But all that changes when he meets an unexpected, young woman who's recently arrived in England. After some awkward moments and dramatic incidents, he finally wins the lady's heart.

    It is reported that a record-breaking high-speed rail will connect Inner Mongolia in the north to Hainan in the south. According to the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission, the proposed line will operate at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour(217 mph).

    Beginning in Inner Mongolia's Baotou city and running through southern Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong, its final stop would be in Haikou city on Hainan Island, China's southernmost province.

    Though the exact length of the proposed route has not been released, it will likely become the world's longest high-speed rail line as the journey by road between Baotou and Haikou is approximately 3, 000 kilometers(1, 864 miles) long. Currently, the world's longest high-speed rail line is almost 2, 300 kilometers long (1, 429 miles), running from Beijing to Guangzhou.

    The proposed rail is part of China's aim to create another "Silk Road of the 21st Century" and improve the country's transportation network while driving land development and urbanization(城市化) in some provincial areas.

    Many of the provinces through which the high-speed trains will travel are near major bodies of water, such as the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi province, the Yangtzi River in Hubei and the South China Sea, where the line would end. It will also take passengers to popular tourist attractions including Zhangjiajie, Xi'an, Guilin and minority areas in western Hunan and Hubei.

    "The country is now shifting its focus and investing in the western regions and economically underdeveloped areas, making up for China's long debt to these areas, " Tan yuzhi, professor of the School of Economics and Management at Hubei University for Nationalities, told local media. " The project will significantly narrow regional disparities(差异) and solve minority issues."

    However, Deng Hongbing, director of China University of Geosciences' Center for Regional Economic and Investment Center, said that if the north-to-south railway is to go ahead, there needs to be a sound ecological program in place to ensure the protection of these underdeveloped and ecologically sensitive areas.