The production of coffee beans is a huge, profitable business, but, unfortunately, full-sun production is taking over the industry and
bringing about a lot of damage. The change in how coffee is grown from shade-grown，production to full-sun production endangers the very existence of, certain animals and birds, and even disturbs the world's ecological balance.
On a local level, the damage of the forest required by full-sun fields affects the area's birds and animals. The shade of the forest trees provides a home for birds and other special(物种) that depend on the trees' flowers and fruits. Full-sun coffee growers destroy this forest home. As a result, many special are quickly dying out.
On a more global level, the destruction of the rainforest for full-sun coffee fields also threatens(威胁)human life. Medical research often makes use of the forests' plant and animal life, and the destruction of such species could prevent researchers from finding cures for certain diseases. In addition, new coffee-growing techniques are poisoning the water locally, and eventually the world's groundwater.
Both locally and globally, the continued spread of full-sun coffee plantations (种植园)could mean the destruction of the rainforest ecology. The loss of shade trees is already causing a slight change in the world's climate,
and studies show that loss of oxygen-giving trees also leads to air pollution and global warming. Moreover, the new growing techniques are contributing to acidic(酸性的) soil conditions.
It is obvious that the way much coffee is grown affects many aspects many aspects of life, from the local environment to the global ecology.
But consumers do have a choice. They can purchase shade-grown coffee whenever possible, although at a higher cost. The future health of
the planet and mankind is surely worth more than an inexpensive cup of coffee.

    Computer programmer David Jones earns $35.000 a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a bank ready to let him have a credit card. Instead he has been told to wait another two years until he is 18. The 16-year-old works for a small firm in Liverpool where the problem of most young people of his age is finding a job. David's firm releases two new games for the fast growing computer market each month.

    But David's biggest headache is what to do with his money. Even though he earns a lot he cannot drive a car, take out a mortgage（抵押贷款）, or get credit cards. David got his job with the Liverpool-based company four months ago, a year after leaving school with six O-levels and working for a time in a computer shop. “I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs”, he said. David spends some of his money on records and clothes and gives his mother 50 pounds a week. But most of his spare time is spent working.

    “Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school”, he said “But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway.” David added, “I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement is a possibility. You never know when the market might disappear.”

    “You're leaving again?” asked my daughter as she saw me packing my carry-on.

More than her words, it was her face that pierced (刺穿) my heart —I could see how crestfallen she was.

    “It's only for two nights, “I explained.

    But that didn't matter to her. It was just one more trip after barely being home for five days. I decided in that moment to travel less whenever possible and I managed to avoid flying altogether for most of the summer. As a result, it was a summer full of discoveries. I realized that my kids really were proud of me. In their time away from me they had learned lessons I couldn't have imagined.

    Recently I began traveling a lot again. But this time it was different, mainly due to the fact that I had seen firsthand that my children value strong female role models. They realize that hard work pays off. Being away from them even for a day at a time in many ways had done them a lot of good.

In particular, being a working mom is teaching my daughter how important it is to be independent and that you can follow your dreams. In many ways, her idea of a professional woman is much more realistic than what I imagined when I was her age. I think that even at nine years old she already knows that for all the success you might achieve, there is a price to pay, whether it's long hours, spending time away from those you love, or simply not having the energy to have fun at times. I know the wishes I would devote all of my time to her, but honestly, even if I didn't work I would rather she learned not to depend on me for everything, She needs to realize that she can fly on her own — and that isn't possible if I am hovering over her every single second of the day .

    I have also realized that having a career sets a good example for my son. He is not afraid of a strong woman, and has a great respect for them. When he's older, this will help him build healthier relationship.

    Therefore, for all the working moms out there who work long hours, remember to value the positive lessons you might be teaching your kids.

    Average humans can consume 15 or more drinks in plastic bottles a month. If you were born after 1978, and live until 80 years old, you will leave behind a minimum of 14,400 plastic bottles on this planet. These bottles take hundreds of years to break down into tiny pieces of plastic, never to completely disappear. Most of the waste is consumed by fish and birds, which has shortened their lifetime greatly.

The Plastic Bottle Village is just a great idea that might finally save us from being buried in plastic. It's a community in Panama that is going to be made of used bottles. The design process begins with building steel frames, which are then filled with these bottles. Once this step is complete, and electrical and plumbing (管道装置) lines are put inside, the plastic walls are covered by concrete—both inside and outside. So no one will actually be able to tell that the walls are made of plastic. Besides, the material will keep the house 17℃ cooler than the outside, which is the biggest benefit to people living inside.

    The village is the brainchild (主意) of Robert Bezeau with the intention of setting up several environmental projects. Having started a recycling program four years ago, during which a number of plastic bottles were collected, he started to think of how they could be put to use. Soon enough, he decided to use them to build houses, and came up with a basic idea for the construction process.

    The project hopes to make people conscious of the waste that these bottles create so that they can do more to protect the environment. The village will also create an education center that will teach individuals from the world how to reuse plastic bottles as construction materials for shelter. Recycled bottles could neutralize the negative effect of your passage on this planet, and move closer to leaving only your “footprints”.

    It was many years ago. I was a young dad sitting on the couch reading a fairy tale to my little girl. She sat next to me with her head on my arm as I told the tale. When it came to the end I finished with those famous words: "And they lived happily ever after." As I looked over to her with her wavy(鬈曲的), brown hair and big, innocent eyes I could see the smile on her face and I never wanted it to end. Then it dawned on me that the ending of the book was what I wanted for her. I wanted her to "live happily ever after".

    Still, deep in my heart I knew that this couldn't always be so. I knew that there would be times when her heart was broken. I knew there would be times when she cried in grief and I couldn't comfort her. I knew there would be times when all she felt was fear, sadness, sorrow, and despair. As I stroked her hair and smiled at her I hoped that those times would be brief and that she would have joy in her life more often than not. Living happily ever after, though, seemed out of the question.

    It takes me a lot of years to realize that it is possible to live happily ever after. You just have to do it "one day at a time". Happiness you see isn't some reward that you get at the end of your journey. Happiness isn't something that depends on what life you own. Happiness is something you create in your life choice by choice and day by day.

    The truth is happiness comes when you love. Love is a gift from God. It is love that mends broken hearts. It is love that heals grief. It is love that gives us joy. Choose to "live happily ever after, one day at a time".

    Thirteen vehicles lined up last March to race across the Mojave Desert, seeking a million in prize money. To win, they had to finish the 142-mile race in less than 10 hours. Teams and watchers knew there might be no winner at all, because these vehicles were missing a key part－drivers.

    DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields. But the Grand Challenge, as it was called, just proved how difficult it is to get a car to speed across an unfamiliar desert without human guidance. One had its brake lock up in the starting area. Another began by throwing itself onto a wall. Another got tied up by bushes near the road after 1.9 miles.

    One turned upside down. One took off in entirely the wrong direction and had to be disabled by remote control. One went a little more than a mile and rushed into a fence; another managed to go for six miles but stuck on a rock. The "winner," if there was any, reached 7.8 miles before it ran into a long, narrow hole, and the front wheels caught on fire.

    "You get a lot of respect for natural abilities of the living things," says Reinhold Behringer, who helped design two of the car-size vehicles for a company called Sci-Autonics. "Even ants (蚂蚁) can do all these tasks effortlessly. It's very hard for us to put these abilities into our machines."

    The robotic vehicles, though with necessary modern equipment such as advanced computers and GPS guidance, had trouble figuring out fast enough the blocks ahead that a two-year-old human recognizes immediately. Sure, that very young child, who has just only learned to walk, may not think to wipe apple juice off her face, but she already knows that when there's a cookie in the kitchen she has to climb up the table, and that when she gets to the cookie it will taste good. She is more advanced, even months old, than any machine humans have designed.