Sam Allred suffers from a rare and incurable kidney (肾脏) disease. One day, when his sister was playing a song repeatedly, Sam sang along. His sister thought it was funny so she recorded it and posted the video online. The video — and Sam — became a hit. Only 8 years old at the time, he couldn't have expected the response.

    "The Doctors (The television show) called and wanted me on their show so they paid for me to go to California," says Sam, now 13, "and we got to stay in a hotel where all the movie stars stayed."

    During that visit to California, Angie Allred, Sam's mother, had an idea about Sam writing a children's book. Together, she and Sam wrote Opening Hearts, which tells Sam's experience of living with a chronic (慢性的) illness.

    "I wrote the book to teach people to be kinder to people," Sam says. Moreover, Sam wanted to send pillows to sick children staying in hospitals around the country to make their stay more comfortable, an idea that came from a time when he was in the hospital.

    "A few kind boys came in with pillows and they gave me one and it meant a lot to me that someone cared about kids in the hospital," says Sam.

    Angie thought of starting a nonprofit organization to provide a way for people to contribute money to realize Sam's ideas. She named the nonprofit Kindness for Kids.

    Since then, Sam has taken pillows to children staying at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.

    Sam's father, Scott Allred, owns a small business that contracts (承包) shipping services with FedEx Ground. He asked the company for help.

    "FedEx Ground learned about Sam's pillow project," says Erin Truxal, manager of public relations for FedEx Ground. "We thought, 'What a perfect way for us to get involved.' "

    The company provided shipping services for Sam to ship about 5,000 pillows to hospitals.

    Sam wants to send more pillows to all of the children's hospitals in every state. His goal is simple: "Kids in the hospital as happy as they were before they got sick," he says.

    After a few moments, my passenger started a conversation. It began ordinarily enough: "How do you like driving a cab?"

    "It's OK," I said. "I make a living and meet interesting people sometimes. How about you? His reply intrigued me.

    "I would not change jobs even if I could make twice as much money doing something else."

    I'd never heard that before. "What do you do?''

    "I'm in the neurology department at New York Hospital."

    Then I decided to ask for this man's help. We were not far from the airport.

    "Could I ask a big favor of you? I have a son, 15, a good kid. He wants a job, but a 15-year-old can't get hired unless his old man knows someone who owns a business, and I don't." I paused. "Is there any possibility that you could get him some kind of summer job?"

    He didn't respond for a while. Finally, he said: "Well, the medical students have a summer research project. Maybe he could fit in. Have him send me his school record." I tore off a piece of my brown lunch bag, and he scribbled his name on it and paid me. It was the last time I ever saw him.

    After I nagged, yelled, and finally threatened to cut off his pocket money, my son Robbie sent off his grades to the guy the next morning.

    Two weeks later, when I arrived home from work, my son was beaming. He handed me a letter from my passenger, saying he was to call my passenger's secretary for an interview.

    Robbie got the job. He did minor tasks, unpaid, but he fit in well. The following summer, he worked at the hospital again with more responsibility. As high school graduation neared, Dr Plum was kind enough to write letters of recommendation for Robbie and he was accepted by Brown University. Finally, Dr Robert Stern, the son of a taxicab driver, became OB-GYN chief president at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

    Some might call it fate, and I guess it was. But it shows that something as ordinary as a taxi ride can change your life.

    Fire Prevention Information

    The University of Adelaide employs a full-time staff of fire prevention professionals. They inspect all campus buildings and test and maintain all sprinkler(喷水灭火装置) systems, fire alarms, and fire extinguishers (灭火器). They also provide educational programs on fire safety in the residence halls. Whenever you move to a new area, you should locate the fire alarm pull stations and the two exits nearest your room.

    Fire Alarms

    The floors of all campus buildings are equipped with manual(手动的) fire alarm systems which include fire alarm pull stations and pipes. Most are also equipped with automatic fire alarm systems consisting of heat detectors, smoke detectors and sprinklers. For your safety, never tamper with(胡乱摆弄) these systems. False fire alarms are illegal and may lead to imprisonment.

    Fire Drills

    A fire drill will be conducted in your residence hall every semester. During a fire drill, please do the following:

    ·Take your room key and ID, close and lock the door to your room.

    ·Exit immediately from the nearest emergency exit; do not use a lift.

    ·Meet outside of your residence hall and wait for further instructions.

    Fire Extinguishers

    Fire extinguishers are located on each floor and in each apartment. Use a fire extinguisher only if you have been trained to do so. Irresponsible use of a fire extinguisher can create a dangerous situation for other residents and could result in damage to personal property. Misuse of a fire extinguisher will result in fines.

    Smoke Detectors

    A smoke detector is on the ceiling in your room. Some buildings also have heat detectors on the ceilings. Do the following to ensure the safe operation of your smoke detector:

    If your smoke detector is working properly, the red light should be on. If the red light is not blinking(闪动), contact residence hall staff immediately.

    Do not cover or block your smoke detector in any way.

    If a smoke detector sets off an alarm and there is no fire or smoke, inform your hall staff.

    Being able to land safely is a critically important skill for all flying animals. Comparatively speaking, ground living animals face no particular challenge when they need to stop running or crawling, while flying animals move at much higher speed, and they must be careful about how they land. Hitting the ground, or even water, at full flight speed would be quite dangerous. Before touching down, they must decrease their speed in order to land safely. Both bats and birds have mastered the skill of landing, but these two types of flyers go about it quite differently.

    In the past it was believed that, in terms of flying mechanics, there was little difference between bats and birds. This belief was based only on assumption, however, because for years nobody had actually studied in detail how bats move their wings. In recent years, though, researchers have discovered a number of interesting facts about bat flight. Bats are built differently from birds, and their wings are made up of both their front and hind limbs (肢体). This makes coordinating (协调) their limbs more difficult for bats and, as a result, they are not very good at flying over longer distances. However, they are much better at the ability to adjust themselves: a bat can quickly change its direction of flight or completely reverse it, something a bird cannot easily do.

    Another interesting characteristic of bat flight is the way in which bats land-upside down! Unlike birds which touch down on the ground or on tree branches, bats can be observed flying around and then suddenly hanging upside down from an object overhead. One downside to this landing routine is that the bats often land with some force, which probably causes pain. However, not all bats hit their landing spots with the same speed and force; these will vary depending on the area where a bat species makes its home. For example, a cave bat, which regularly lives on a hard stone ceiling, is more careful about its landing preparation than a bat more accustomed to landing in leafy treetops.

    Some people think going to the gym takes time and effort, it often hurts, and it can be extremely boring. Most weight-related exercises are a combination of sets and reps(几次几组). In order to see any significant change from any one exercise, it will probably need to be repeated six to eight times, for a minimum of three sets, for about three months: Then there's aerobics(有氧运动). For some, there's nothing more boring than endless miles spent running on a treadmill(跑步机).

    But what if there is a way to reduce the boredom of exercise while still getting a good workout? Luckily for us, there's virtual reality (VR).

"In the past, playing video games was a sedentary(久坐不动的) experience," says Jo Stauffer of the VR Heaitn-institute, but VR changes all of that. " Many VR games are played while standing In order to play properly, the players are forced to move around swinging their arms or using their legs. After an hour of this on a regular enough basis, it's not surprising, that many people unexpectedly find themselves a little fitter. There are already a number of virtual reality games which, deliberately or not, result in their player "getting a good sweat on" if played for enough time. For example, there's a music game which forces players to shadow box(做空拳攻防练习) in order to hit the notes—that's an upper-body workout.

    The benefit of VR has been noticed by one company. They want to take the whole experience into the gym. They are making a resistance machine, designed to be used in combination with a VR headset. Players challenge a virtual competitor in a series of games, which results in a 30-minute full-body workout. However, the cost of the equipment is expensive and there are safety concerns to be worked out, says J. P. Gownder from the consultancy Forrester.

    Although it's early days, for those: of us who struggle to overcome the boredom of exercise, a new solution could be coming. And a world where a person can exercise and have fun at the same time might be something that many people would want-virtual or not. So don't give up exercising.

Freshmen at Central Valley High in Ceres had a busy week of good deeds, tied to Pay It Forward Day, April 30, and an urge to show the world that teens can be awesome.

Kids in Success 101 spent first period making sandwiches for the homeless. The classes, taught by Natalie Rowell and Becky Lynch, got to hand 200 bagged sandwiches to the charity giving out the food. "They got to really see what an impact they had. It was inspiring and heartwarming," Rowell said. Besides, students also made blankets to send to soldiers, and created 45 flower arrangements for senior people at the Hale Aloha Home in Ceres. "They were nervous going into it. But when they saw how happy the elderly were, the reality of what they did really surfaced," Rowell said.

Rowell said she liked working with children. get to see how they learn. "It's different from how we learn, but we're kind of the same because they struggle in some of the subjects that we find hard as well."

Success 101 was tailor-made for students with that kind of insight. The first-period class includes study help, speakers on teen subjects and an overall focus on looking past high school, figuring out the steps to create their future. "Some kids need that little push. In this class, that's what we do, we give them that little push," Lynch added. "Success would be beneficial for all ninth-grade students. Since the start of the year, I really see a change in them."

Raquel Alfaro, a teen participant who worked with the younger kids, likes the Pay It Forward idea. "This helps us show adults, and also kids, that we're doing something different and that we're not as mean and selfish as they think we are," Alfaro said.