Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

Where: Becket, Massachusetts

When: June 15-Aug 24

    Each summer, this influential dance center presents a number of classes and performances by more than 50 companies from around the world. Highlights (最精彩的部分) this season include the Dance Theater of Harlem's production of Alvin Ailey's “The Lark Ascending”, which opens the festival.

    Many events are free. Ticketed performances start at $22. jacobspillow.org.

Moab Music Festival

Where: Moab, Utah

When: Aug 29-Sept 9

    This area is better known for mountain biking than for music. But since 1992, it has hosted a private festival that brings classical, jazz, Latin and other types of music to the land. This year there will be 16 concerts, including three “Grotto Concerts”, where guests take a 45-minute boat ride down the Colorado River to performances.

Events start at $25. moabmusicfest.org.

Cheyenne Frontier Days

Where: Cheyenne, Wyoming

When: July 19-28

    There's something for everyone at this 117-year-old festival, from an “Indian village” and Old West museum to country concerts. But the competition is still the main attraction, with cowboys and cowgirls competing for major money in the world's largest outdoor stage.

Competition tickets start at $18, and concert tickets at $23. cfdrodeo.com.

The Glimmerglass Festival

Where: Cooperstown, New York

When: July 6-Aug 24

    Each summer, opera lovers from around the country (and the world) travel to upstate New York to watch productions that include stars like Nathan Gunn and Ginger Costa-Jackson. This year's performances include Wagner's “The Flying Dutchman” and Verdi's “King for a Day”, in honor of the 200th birthdays of both composers (作曲家).

Tickets start at $26. glimmerglass.org.

    If you have spent any time living in or visiting a big city in China, you have most likely used the service that Didi provides. The convenient ride-sharing company, now known as Didi Chuxing, was praised last month by Fortune magazine. According to the magazine, it is changing the world with its environmentally friendly solution to getting around in major cities. As the magazine reported: “Didi concluded that last year its car-pooling services helped reduce total car trips in the country by 1 million a day, which saved 500 million liters of gas, cutting 13.5 million tons of carbon emissions (排放) per day.” The transport service was the only Chinese company to make the important magazine's list, and its influence can be felt in many parts of Chinese society.

    Didi is just one example of what is being called the “sharing economy”. The sharing economy is one in which regular people exchange goods and services, usually using an online marketplace. Other similar companies include companies that allow people to rent out their homes to strangers like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, and similar ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

    All of these services are possible partly because many people are realizing that they have underused assets in their lives. Millions of people around the world have started renting them out online to earn extra money. They rent their apartments while they are away for the weekend, lend people their cars for money and even sell their spare time.

    The sharing economy is the latest example of the Internet's value to customers. This model is now big enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its great potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

    One of the many great lines in the movie Apollo 13 came from Ed Harris, who played NASA Director of Operations, Gene Kranz. The famous line was, “Gentleman, failure is not an option.” He said the words because he had a clear purpose that the three astronauts trapped in space must be sent home safely. The driving force behind their seeking of a solution was motivated by a true purpose.

    Here is the simple principle. If you have a big enough 'why' in life, you will always figure out the 'how.' A person without a purpose in life is like a boat without a rudder, floating aimlessly without a direction and going nowhere. In all walks of life, when referring to someone's success, we often hear the words “focus and determination”. But Merriam Webster defines the word “purpose” as the reason why something is done, a feeling of being determined to achieve an outcome. There are many talented and intelligent people in the world that are unsuccessful because they lack direction. I believe that our life depends on our purpose. Whether you're single or in a team, having a purpose allows you to start, evaluate, and improve your talents or abilities helps you find your path in life and achieve your success finally.

    A friend of mine once told me that the most motivating speech he had ever heard was just three short words. It came from his wife when she said, “Honey I'm pregnant.” He said those few words instantly motivated him because he now had a big “why” in his life, a purpose to work hard to support his family. In fact, when your “why” gets bigger, you get better because you stop holding back and you'll go all out. It's why you often hear about some great people perform superhuman actions when failure is not an option!

    My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations' and is hesitant to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants, “Girls rule, boys drool.” But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon (三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

Shine on, sweet baby.

    MCDONALD'S drew ridicule（嘲笑）in China when it changed its registered name to Jingongmen, or “Golden Arches” in October, after it was sold to a Chinese company. Some on Weibo, a microblogging site, thought it sounded old-fashioned and awkward, others thought that it had hidden meanings of furniture. The fast-food chain was quick to reassure customer that its restaurants would continue to go by Maidanglao, a rough transliteration（音译）that has, over the years, become a recognizable brand name. But for most companies now entering Chinese markets, transliterations are a thing of the past, says Amanda Liu, vice-president of Labbrand, a consultant firm based in Shanghai that advises firms on brand names.

    Companies are instead choosing Chinese names with meanings that capture people's imagination. That often involves going beyond a direct translation. New entrants are taking inspiration from BMW, which is Baoma, or “treasure horse” in China, and from Coca-Cola, which is Kekoukele, or “delicious happiness”.

    The naming process is forcing companies to think harder about the image they want to project in China, says Ms Liu. LinkedIn, a professional networking site owned by Microsoft, chose the name Lingyin, or “leading elite（精英）” in 2014, meaning more uniqueness than its Western name. Her other corporate customers have included Airbnb, Marvel Comics and Haribo. Labbrand tests proposals with focus groups, ensuring that the name has no negative associations in any of the major Chinese dialects.

    A vital part of the process is checking that candidate names have not already been snapped up. The Chinese are energetic trademarkers: in 2015 there were 2.8 million trademarkapplications in China, more than three times those in America and the EU combined. Companiesconsidering entering the Chinese market might often find that their products have already beengiven local names, thanks, for example, to coverage in the press.

    Some even find that their Chinese name has already been trademarked, says Dresden of Harris Bricken, a law firm, either by their own distributors, competitors seeking to block its entry, or counterfeiters（伪造者）taking advantage of soundalikes, etc.

    Perhaps thanks to these mishaps, foreign firms are getting wiser to the importance of naming in China. More Chinese firms are also seeking advice on foreign names, says Ms Liu, as they seek to conquer Western markets. Both know that if they make a mistake, the social-media critics will be waiting.

    Wolves travel shorter distances and move slower during snowfall events, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists. The effects were most pronounced at night, when wolves hunt, and behaviour returned to normal within a day. Wolf tracks across snow in northeastern Alberta.

    "Our findings suggest that there is something about actively falling snow that causes wolves to slow down," said Amanda Droghini, a former MSc student in the Department of Biological Science and lead author on the study. "We don't know the exact mechanism behind that. It's unlikely that they were staying still because they were feasting on a recent kill. Instead, active precipitation(降雪量)might affect wolves' hunting abilities. Like rain, snow clears the air column of scent molecules. So, maybe falling snow makes it harder for wolves to detect the smell of prey."

    Over the course of two winters, the researchers used remote cameras to disclose snowfall events and estimate snow depth. To study wolf movement, they collected telemetry(测距仪) data from 17 wolves to calculate travel speed and duration, as well as resting periods. It is the first study to examine how large flesh-eating animals respond to snowfall events.

    With the effects of climate change on precipitation in the north forest region uncertain, it is difficult to predict the implications for wolf populations. Studies such as these increase our understanding of how large mammals react to normal snowfall events, but the type and amount of winter precipitation will likely have an impact on animal behavior and the energetic cost of movement.

    "Winter is already challenging for many wildlife species because moving through snow requires more energy. Snow can also make it harder for animals to access food resources," said Droghini, who conducted the research under the supervision of Professor Stan Boutin, Alberta Biodiversity Conservation Chair.

    "Anything that increases those costs, such as increased rain-on-snow events, could lead to lacking in nutrition, poor body condition, and even starvation as animals are unable to make up for those additional costs. That is one of the worst-case scenarios(设想)but, in truth, we know very little about potential changes to precipitation patterns and how wildlife will respond to those changes."