A small group of people around the world have started implanting(移植) microchips to link the body and the computer.

    Mr. Donelson and three friends, who had driven 100 miles from their homes in Loockport, New York, to have the implants put in by Dr. Jesse Villemaire, whom they had persuaded to do the work, are part of a small group, about 30 people around the world, who have independently put in microchips into their bodies, according to Web-based reports.

    At a shop William Donelson was having a four-millimeter-wide needle put into his left hand. “I'm set,”he said with a deep breath. He watched as the needle pierced(刺穿) the fleshy webbing between his thumb and a microchip was set under his skin. At last he would be able to do what he had long imagined: strengthen his body's powers through technology.

    By putting the chip inside—a radio frequency identification device (RFID)—Mr. Donelson would have at his fingertips the same magic that makes safety gates open with a knock of a card, and bridge and tunnel traffic flow smoothly with an E-Zpass. With a wave of his hand he plans to connect with his computer, open doors and unlock his car.

    Implanting the chip was relatively simple task but very meaningful to Mr. Doneselson, a 21-year-old computer networking student so interested in the link between technology and the body that he has data-input jacks(数据输入插空) inside his body. They might lead to an imagined future when people can be connected directly into computers. His new chip is enclosed in a glass container no bigger than a piece of rice and has a small memory where he has stored the words “Technology”.

    Some doctors have done the piercing in people's homes, and others have implanted chips in their offices after patients signed forms showing the fact that long-term studies have not been done on their safety. Piercers treat the implants much like any other medical operation steps, instructing people to keep the site dry, and advising them that swelling and redness should last a week.

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    The world's population is more mobile (移动的)today than ever before. In 2010, more than 200 million people left their home countries to live in a new country. This is about 3 percent of the total world population. Some experts believe that number will swell to 400 million by 2050. Rates of immigration have remained strong for the last 300 years, but patterns of immigration have changed since World War II. The backgrounds and experiences of today's immigrants are different from those of the typical European immigrant of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contemporary immigrants range from unskilled laborers to highly skilled professionals, and they come from and go to countries all over the world.

    In the nineteenth century and until World War II, immigration was primarily in one direction- from the Old World to the New World. This is no longer the case. Countries such as Russia and China, which have long been, and continue to be, significant source countries, are now also destination countries. There is also considerable mobility inside regions, such as from one European country to another, or among the countries of the former Soviet Union.

    In spite of such differences, the push and pull factors for immigration remain essentially the same as they were 100 years ago. Most people move to another country because they want a better life. For the majority of immigrants, this means better economic conditions. As in past generations, a labor shortage in one country often draws workers from another country, especially if wages are significantly higher. In some small countries, for example, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, there are more jobs than citizens. The demand for labor is so high that the majority of the population consists of foreign-born workers, ranging from highly skilled engineers and financial experts to domestic and construction workers.

    In traditional destination countries, such as the United States, however, labor needs have changed. Today, although there is still demand for unskilled labor, there is increasing demand for people with a high level of skill and education. The need for less skilled labor has shifted to other countries. As work on farms and in industry in the United States and Canada once drew workers from all over the world, now work in factories in Taiwan and south Korea attracts workers from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

    Most global immigration is legal: however, a large number of people also move across national borders illegally in pursuit of(寻找) employment. Experts estimate that about 15 to 20 percent of immigrants worldwide are in their new countries illegally. The United States has the largest number of these immigrants, followed by South Africa, with significant numbers also in Northern and Western Europe and Mexico. These immigrants face particular challenges because they often must hide from the authorities who might deport them back to their home countries. Their illegal status also means that employers may take advantage of them by forcing them to work longer hours and paying them less than the legal minimum wage.

    Although economics remains the most important motivation in all forms of immigrant, other factors are also important. Some people decide to leave their home countries because their actions or political beliefs make it dangerous for them to remain. Others choose to leave because their home country has become too dangerous and unstable, often because of war or political unrest. They wish to find a place that is secure for themselves and their families. Education is also a significant factor for many modern immigrants. They want to raise their children in a place where they can get a good education, which, in turn, they hope will provide them with better prospects for the future. Finally, family and community ties also play a role in immigration decisions. As in the past, once a group of people from one country establishes a community in a new country, more people from that country is likely to follow.

    The pattern, direction, and rate of immigration may change as the global economy changes. However, as long as life in a new country is more attractive than life in the old country, immigration will continue.

    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.

    Why is pink or purple a color for girls and blue or brown for boys?

    The answer depends largely on cultural values as well as personal experiences. To the Egyptians, green was a color that represented the hope and joy of spring, while for Muslims, it means heaven. Red is a symbol of good luck in many cultures. In China, children are given money in a red envelope to bring good fortune in the New Year. For many nations, blue is a symbol of protection and religious beliefs. Greek people often wear a blue necklace hoping to protect themselves against evils(灾祸).

    People's choice of colors is also influenced by their bodies' reactions toward them. Green is said to be the most restful color. It has the ability to reduce pain and relax people both mentally and physically. People who work in green environments have been found to have fewer stomachaches.

    Red can cause a person's blood pressure to rise and increase people's appetites(食欲). Many decorators will include different shades of red in the restaurant. Similarly, many commercial websites will have a red “Buy Now” button because red is a color that easily catches a person's eye.

    Blue is another calming color. Unlike red, blue can cause people to lose appetite. So if you want to eat less, some suggest that eating from blue plates can help.

    The next time you are deciding on what to wear or what color to decorate your room, think about the color carefully.

    Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki has become the first female artist in the Arab world to be nominated (提名)for an Academy Award ,or Oscar.

    Labaki directed the film Capernaum ,a film about a Syrian refugee (难民)boy and a Kenyan baby who live without parents on the streets of Beirut. It was nominated for best foreign language film.

Labaki will be one of the few female directors to compete for an Oscar this year. She told the Associated press "I wish there were a lot more women filmmakers this year represented, nominated in the Oscars. But I am sure in a few years we won't be having this problem anymore."

    Unlike in the West, women filmmakers are industry leaders in Lebanon.

Capernaum received a 15-minute standing ovation (热烈欢迎)at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It won the Jury Prize—the third-highest award given at Cannes.

    The United Nations has publicly praised the film. Lebanon's Foreign Minister said.

    Capernaum put a Lebanese touch on the international film industry.

    The Oscar nomination of Capernaum is the second for Lebanon in two years in the film group. It demonstrates the country's rising star power.

    Labaki called making the movie a life-changing experience. She said Capernaum helps humanize the real struggles of refugees only briefly talked about in the news.

    We can't help but acknowledge that there is a fear of refugees in general around the world and there are these walls we are building, and this fear that keeps growing," Labaki said.

    Capernaum will compete against four other films for the Oscar, including awards season favorite Roma. Directed by Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron, it earned 10 Oscar nominations, including for best picture.

    I'm a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories.

    I grew up reading British and American children's books. When I began to write, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they ate apples and talked a lot about the weather, despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria. We ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather. Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them. Things changed when I discovered African books. Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my idea of literature. I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things I recognized. So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are. The year I turned eight, we got a new house boy Fide from a nearby rural village. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say，"Finish your food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family. Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit, and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket that his brother had made. I was astonished. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. Their poverty was my single story of them.

    Years later, when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States, my American roommate asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe.

    Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe, and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

    So what if my mother had told us that Fide's family was poor and hardworking? What if we had an African television network that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world? What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Muhtar Bakare, a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house? What if my roommate knew about my friend Funmi Iyanda, a fearless woman who hosts a TV show, and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget?

    My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit called Farafina Trust, and we have big dreams of building libraries and providing books for state schools, and also of organizing lots of workshops in reading and writing, for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories.

    Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity. When we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.