On a Sunday morning, I was driving down a road and saw something I couldn't believe. A little girl, less than two, was pushing her stroller (婴儿车) across the road. It was Sunday morning and traffic was not heavy.

    I stopped my car at once and ran toward her. This little girl knew enough to run from a stranger. I tried to catch her in order that I could get her out of the road. Suddenly her father came running down a hill across the road from where I had parked my car. He ran right to her and caught her up, saying “bad girl” to her. I picked up the stroller and gave it to him. The father grabbed（抓住） the stroller and walked toward where he came from without a word. I went back and sat in my car for a few minutes with my son. My hands were shaking and tears were about to run out of my eyes. “Do you feel cold, Mom?” asked my son. I just shook my head.

    After this happened, I thought about how thankful I am. Even though the father didn't say thank you, I feel that I did something good. Doing something for someone else is pleasing, even when it's only a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I didn't really “save” her, but I feel like it was important that I happened to be there. It is sad that I was the only one who stopped. It really made me a little disappointed that no one else stopped to help.

    A Samoan airline says that it is the world's first carrier to charge passengers by their weight. Samoa Air, which opened in 2012, asks passengers to give their personal weight during booking, which is then charged according to the length of a flight. The customers will also be weighed just before they board the plane.

    "It is believed that all people throughout the world are the same size," Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton said. "Airplanes always run on weight, not seats."

    "There is no doubt in my mind that this is the concept of the future. This is the fairest way of your travelling with your family or yourself."

    Though the airline introduced the plan last November, it caught people's attention last week when the carrier began international flights to neighboring American Samoa.

    Almost at the same time, a Norwegian economist, Bharat Bhatta, published a report suggesting that airlines should charge obese passengers more.

    The Pacific Islands contain some of the world's most common countries for obesity, many ranking in the top 10, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Samoa is ranked number four, with 59.6 percent of the population considered obese, said the most recent WHO report.

    According to Samoa Air's latest schedule, the airline charges up to $0.57 per kg for flights in Samoa and $1.03 per kg for its only international flight to American Samoa, around 250 miles.

    Children under 12 are charged 75 percent of the adult rate, with fares also based on weight. Any overweight baggage is calculated at the same rate as the passenger's personal weight.

    The plan could actually prove cheaper in some cases, such as for families travelling with small children, and Langton said customer reaction has mainly been "amazingly positive".

    The idea of charging passengers by weight has been hotly discussed before, and in the US some airlines require those who do not fit into a seat comfortably to buy a second seat.

    Maybe ten-year-old Elizabeth put it best when she said to her father, "But, Dad, you can't be healthy if you're dead."

    Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run, had forgotten to wear his safety belt－a mistake 75% of US population makes every day. The big question is why.

    There have been many myths about safety belt ever since their first appearance in cars some forty years ago. The following are three of the most common.

    Myth the Number One: It's best to be "thrown clear" of a serious accident.

    Truth: Sorry, but any accident serious enough to "throw you clear" is able to be serious enough to give you a very bad landing. And chances are you'll have traveled through a windshield(挡风玻璃) or door to do it. Studies show that chances of dying after a car accident are twenty－five times in cases where people are "thrown clear".

    Myth Number Two: Safety-belts "trap" people in cars that are burning or sinking in water.

    Truth: Sorry again, but studies show that people knocked unconscious(昏迷) due to not wearing safety belts have a greater chance of dying in these accidents. People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having in these accidents. People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having a clear head to free themselves from such dangerous situation, not to be trapped in them.

    Myth Number Three: Safety belts aren't needed at speeds of less than 30 miles per hour(mph).

    Truth: When two cars traveling at 30 mph hit each other, an unbelted driver would meet the windshield with a force equal to diving headfirst into the ground from a height of 10 metres.

    TODAY, Friday, November 12

JAZZ with the Mike Thomas Jazz Band at The Derby Arms Uepper Richmond Road West, Sheen DISCO Satin Sound Dieo. Free at The Lord NApier, Mort Iake High St., from 8 a.m. to 8p.m. Tel: 682—1158.

    SATURDAY, November 13

    JAZZ Lysis at The Bull's Head, Barnes. Admission 60p.

    MUSIC HALL at The Star and Garter, Lower Richmond Road, Putney, provided by the Aba Daba Music Hall company, Good food and entertainment fair price, Tel: 789-6749

    FAMILY night out? Join the sing along at The Black Horse. Sheen Road. Richmond.

    JAZZ The John Bennett Big Band at The Bull's Head, Barnes .Admission 80p.

    THE DERBY ARMS, Upper Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion (手风琴). Tel: 789-4536

    SUNDAY, November 14

    DISCO Satin Sounds Disco, free at The Lord Napier, Mort Lake High Street, from 8am. to 8 pm.

    FOLK MUSIC at The Derby Arms. The Short Stuff and residents the Norman Chop Trio. Non-remembers 70p. Tel: 688-4626

    HEAVY MUSIC with Tony Simon at The Bull, Upper Richmond Road West, East Sheen.

    THE DERBY ARMS, UpPer Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion.

    That little "a" with a circle around it that is found in e-mail addresses is most commonly referred to as the "at" symbol. Surprisingly though, there is no official, universal name for this sign. There are lots of strange terms to describe the @ symbol.

Before it became the fixed symbol for e-mail, the symbol was mostly used to represent the cost or weight of something. For instance, if you bought 6 apples, you might write it as 6 apples @ $1.11 each.

    With the introduction of e-mail came the popularity of the @ symbol. The @ symbol separates a person's online user name from his mail server address, for instance joe@uselessknowledge.com. Its widespread use on the Internet made it necessary to put this symbol on keyboards in countries that had never seen or used the symbol before. As a result, there is really no official name for this symbol.

    The actual origin of the @ symbol remains unknown. History tells us that the @ symbol came from the tired hands of the monks(僧侣) in the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages when there were no printing presses, every letter of a word had to be copied by hand for each copy of a published book. The monks that performed these long and boring copying duties looked for ways to reduce the number of strokes (笔划) per word for common words.

    Although the word "at" is quite short, it was such a common word in texts and documents that monks in the Middle Ages thought it would be good idea to shorten the word "at" even more. As a result, the monks left out the "t" and created a circle — getting rid of two strokes.

    Regardless of how far we'd like to believe gender（性别）equality in the workplace has come, there's still a yawning gap between male and female leaders in the professional world. A 2018 statistic shows that women nowadays hold just 5.8 percent of CEOs positions at S&P 500 companies, according to Catalyst.

    While it's not a huge shock that women are somewhat underrepresented in leadership positions, what is surprising though, is the fact that females may actually be better suited to lead in almost every area, at least according to new findings from the BI Norwegian Business School.

    In their research, Professor Oyvind L. Martinsen and Professor Lars Glas surveyed (调查) 2,900 managers with a special focus on personality types. The results were clear: Women scored higher than men in four of the five major leadership-centric categories.

    While some people believe that men inherently make better leaders — probably because they picture a leader with a commanding voice, which is more typical of men than women — this piece of research suggests that women are better at methodical management and goal-setting, openness, sociability and supportiveness, as well as ability to communicate clearly.

    There was one area in which men scored higher than women, though, and that was on emotional stability and ability to face job-related pressure and stress. The results suggest that women are more sensitive to the effects of high-pressure or highly emotional situations.

    Obviously, it's important to consider individual (个人的) differences. Anyone, regardless of gender, may be an inspiring leader and a competent boss. But next time you're hiring for a management position, you just might want to give the resumes (简历) from female candidates a harder look.