HOLIDAY FUN AT THE POWERHOUSE

500 HARRIS STREET ULTIMO·TELEPHONE

( 02 ) 9217 0111

    Join in the holiday fun at the Powerhouse this month linked to our new exhibition, Evolution & Revolution: Chinese dress 1700s to now. DON'T FORGET our other special event, the Club Med Circus School which is part of the Circus(马戏团)！150 years  of circus in Australia exhibition experience!

◆Chinese Folk Dancing: Colourful Chinese dance and musical performances by The Chinese Folk Dancing School of Sydney. Dances include: the Golden stick dance and the Chinese drum dance. A feature will be the Qin Dynasty Emperor's court dance. Also included is a show of face painting for Beijing opera performances.

    Sunday 29 June and Wednesday 2 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11：30 am & 1：30 pm.

◆Australian Chinese Children's Arts Theatre: Well­known children's play experts from Shanghai lead this dynamic youth group. Performances include Chinese fairy tales and plays.

    Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11：30 am & 1：30 pm.

◆Chinese Youth League: A traditional performing arts group featuring performance highlights such as Red scarf and Spring flower dances, and a musician playing Er Hu.

    Sunday 6 to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 11：30 am to 1：30 pm.

◆Kids Activity: Make a Paper Horse: Young children make a paper horse cut­out. (The horse is a frequent theme in Chinese painting, indicating a kind of advancement.) Suitable for ages 8～12 years.

    Saturday 28 June to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 12：00 pm to 1：00 pm.

◆Club Med Circus School: Learn circus skills, including the trapeze, trampolining and magic. Note only for children over 5. There are 40 places available in each 1 hour session and these must be booked at the front desk, level 4, on the day.

Tuesday 1 to Saturday 5 July at 11：30 am & 1：00 pm.

    Enjoy unlimited free visits and many other benefits by becoming a family member of the Powerhouse. Our family memberships cover two adults and all children under the age of 16 years at the one address.

    Members receive Powerline, our monthly magazine, discounts in the shops and the restaurants, as well as free admission to the Museum. All this for as little as $50.00 a year! Call (02)9217 0600 for more details.

    Last week I took a journey deep into space, to the end of the solar system, and was pulled into a black hole. Then I took a trip to Brazil and experienced surviving an airplane crash in the jungle. After that, I joined some divers and went to the bottom of the ocean to see strange blind creatures that have never seen sunlight. For a break, I took part in some car racing and then skied down some of the most difficult mountains in the world. I ended my travels by meeting face to face with a dinosaur, the terrible T-Rex, and survived the experience!

    I did all this in one great day at Futuroscope. Opened in 1987, Futuroscope is one of the largest space age parks in the world. This science and technology-based theme park in France uses the most advanced technology. Its 3-D cinemas and giant movie screens provide brand new experiences of the earth and beyond. Visitors can get close to parts of the world they have never experienced, going to the bottom of the ocean, flying through the jungle or visiting the edges of the solar system. The amazing, up-to-date information together with many opportunities for hands-on learning makes the world come to life in a completely new way for visitors. Learning centers throughout the park let visitors try their own scientific experiments, as well as learn more about space travel, the undersea world and much more.

    I bought tickets for myself and my friends at the park's entrance, but tickets are also available online. Futuroscope is not only for indiviudals, but is also the perfect mix of fun and learning for class outings. Classes or other large groups that let Futuroscope know their plans in advance can get the group admission rate. For anyone coming from out of town, Futuroscope has many excellent hotels, most of which provide a shuttle service to the park. If driving, Futuroscope is within easy reach of the freeway. Plan your trip well before starting, since Futuroscope has so many shows, activities and great souvenir shops that it is difficult to see them all. Come ready to walk a lot—be sure to wear some comfortable sneakers or other walking shoes!

    Some people seem to have extraordinary memories. Zheng Aiqiang, a "memory athlete" on TV show Super Brain, can remember 2,660 numbers in just one hour!

    You would think people like this have special brains. But according to a recent study by researchers from the US and the Netherlands, the brain structures of ordinary people and 23 of the world's leading memory athletes show no difference.

    That's because good memories can be trained. New research in the journal Neuron(神经元期刊) suggests that you can become a super memorizer with just six weeks of hard training.

    Researchers found that technique(技巧) called loci, invented by ancient Greeks, can greatly help improve memory. By using loci, you are using your imagination to improve the brain's memory networks. You can link(关联) something you need to remember with a place that you know very well. For example, to remember a list of numbers, imagine yourself walking through your house. Each thing is linked to a number. For example, zero could be handle(把手) on the door and five could be the painting on the wall.

    In one study, some ordinary people were given 20 minutes to remember 72 words. First they could only remember 26 of them. But when they were taught loci, they could remember 62 words.

    "Not everyone can become a memory champion. But everyone using the technique can improve a lot from the level they're at," said Boris Konrad, one of the researchers in the study.

    If you find yourself checking your phone first thing in the morning, if you find you're text-messaging while driving, checking your phone instead of working on an important assignment—you are addicted.

    Don't worry. The new NoPhone might be just the thing you need. It looks and feels exactly like a smartphone, but it does nothing. It's just a piece of plastic that you can carry around in your hand to fool yourself.

    NoPhone is currently a prototype(手机模型) that will cost only $12 once it hits the market. Its makers are trying to raise $30,000 in order to cover the production and marketing costs.

    Dutch designer Ingmar Larsen, who helped create the NoPhone, said that he had the idea as a joke along with his friends Van Gould and Ben Langveld. To their great surprise, the idea received a lot of attention online and people from all over the world started placing requests for NoPhone of their own, so that's when the three friends decided to raise money for mass production.

    David H said," I used to sleep with my phone in my hand, but my night terrors would cause me to throw it across the room in an unconscious panic. With the NoPhone, I can still enjoy the comfort of holding a phone in my sleep, without waking up to a broken screen, thanks, NoPhone."

    If you're interested in NoPhone, but concerned about not being able to take selfies anymore, don't worry. The makers do have an update at no extra charge—the mirror sticker. That way, they say, you can enjoy "real-time" selfies with your friends when they're standing right behind you.

    Elizabeth and I are 18 now, and about to graduate. I think about our elementary school friendship, but some memories have blurred(模糊). What happened that day in the fifth grade when Beth suddenly stopped speaking to me? Does she know that I've been thinking about her for seven years? If only we could go back, and discover what ended our relationship.

    I have to speak with Beth. I see her sometimes, and find out school is "fine". It's not the same. It never will be. Someone says that she's Liz now, what happened to Beth?

    I can't call her. Should I write? What if she doesn't answer me? How will I know what she's thinking?

    Yes, I'll write her a letter. These things are easier to express in writing. "Dear Be-," no, "Dear Li-" no, "Dear Elizabeth," I begin. The words flow freely, as seven-year-old memories are reborn. I ask her all the questions that have been left unanswered in my mind, and pray she will answer. I seal my thoughts in the perfect white envelope, and imagine Beth looking into the mailbox. Will she know why I'm writing? Maybe she once thought of writing the same letter.

    As the mailman takes my envelope from me forever, I wonder if I've made the right decision. Do I have the right to force myself into Beth's life again? Am I simply part of the past? I have taken the first stop. Beth has control of the situation now.

    One day has passed. Are my words lying on the bottom of the post office floor.

    Two days are gone. I'm lost in thought and don't even hear the phone ring.

    "Hello? It's Elizabeth"

    They still bite, but new research shows lab-grown mosquitoes are fighting dengue fever — a dangerous disease that they normally would spread. Dengue infections appear to be dropping fast in communities in Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil and Australia that are filled with the specially grown mosquitoes.

    Researchers first injected (注射)mosquito eggs with Wolbachia bacteria that's common in insects and harmless to people in a lab. Infected females then pass the bacteria on through their eggs. Releasing enough Wolbachia carriers, both the females that bite and the males that don't, allows mating(交配)to spread the bacteria through a local mosquito population.

    Rather than using chemicals to wipe out pests, "this is really about transforming the mosquito," said Cameron Simmons of the nonprofit World Mosquito Program, which is conducting the research.

    The first success came from Australia. Mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia were released in parts of North Queensland starting in 2011, and gradually spread through the local mosquito population. Dengue is spread when a mosquito bites someone who is infected, and then bites another person, but somehow Wolbachia blocks that — and local spread has nearly disappeared in those North Queensland Communities, Simmons said.

    The studies are continuing in other countries. But the findings, presented at a meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, suggest it's possible to turn at least some mosquitoes from a public health threat into annoying biters.

    The work marks "exciting progress," said Michigan State University professor Zhiyong Xi, who wasn't involved with the project but has long studied how Wolbachia can turn mosquitoes against themselves.

    More research is needed, specialists cautioned. "The results are pretty exciting — strong levels of reductions — but there clearly are going to be things to be learned from the areas where the reductions are not as great," said Penn State University professor Elizabeth McGraw.