Zebra crossings－the alternating dark and light stripes on the road surface－are meant to remind drivers that pedestrians may be trying to get across. Unfortunately, they are not very effective. A 1998 study done by the Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering at Sweden's Lund University revealed that three out of four drivers maintained the same speed or even speeded up as they were approaching a crossing. Even worse, only 5% stopped even when they saw someone trying to get across.

    Now a mother-daughter team in Ahmedabad, India has come up with a clever way to get drivers to pay more attention－a 3-D zebra crossing with an optical illusion (视错觉).

    Artists Saumya Pandya Thakkar and Shakuntala Pandya were asked to paint the crosswalks by IL&FS, an Indian company that manages the highways in Ahmedabad. The corporation was looking for a creative solution to help the city's residents to cross the busy accident-prone  (易出事故的) roads safely. Thakkar and Pandya, who had previously seen images of 3-D zebra crossings that gave drivers the illusion of logs(原木)of wood on the streets in Taizhou, China, decided to test if a similar way would work in India.

    Sure enough, in the six months that the 3-D crosswalks have been painted across four of the city's most dangerous highways, there have been no accidents reported! The artists say that while it may appear that the zebra crossing could cause the drivers to brake suddenly and endanger the vehicles behind, such is not the case. Because of the way the human eye works, the illusion is only visible from a distance. As they get closer, the painting looks just like any other ordinary zebra crossing. The creators hope that their smart design will become increasingly common throughout India and perhaps even the world. So let's look forward to it.

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Current Culture: Is Common Culture Alive?

    The digitizing and globalizing world is changing the working of culture. As some see it, cities and nations are losing their common culture and their general spirit: people can no longer count on those around them valuing any of the same music or films. Others argue that a common culture is not dying so much as changing forms: it is less and less attached to a particular area and ever more linked to global networks.

    The facts lead to the change that anyone can become a cultural producer today, that the culture is increasingly available everywhere you want it, and whenever you want it, not just in the two months after the movie or book came out. Cultural possibilities have multiplied as a result, but the change also means fewer cultural moments. It is easy to find the change in terms of loss of diversity of society. So what will it mean if globalization turns us into one wide world culture?

    For the enthusiasts of these changes, culture is not about popular artists or books, but centers on platforms like Google and Wikipedia, where every variety of culture brings about the exchange of knowledge and ideas, and makes connections across boundaries. It is perhaps debatable whether two people who have participated in such websites, but in totally different corners of them, have had a cultural experience in common. In fact, these platforms become very successful with a large crowd of people, who build things together, share information, and forward articles back and forth. Here are still more questions. What does it mean for the future of countries that culture now goes beyond the limits of the nation? Is there anything to defend and preserve in the passing cultural world, or is that merely to favor pen over printing press, horse over automobile?

    Up to now a growing quantity of culture has been globally spreading and developing. More individuals (个人) than ever have the chances to be makers of culture, even if that means more to choose from and fewer standards to be reached in common. What it means is this strange feeling: that of being more connected than ever, with one-click access to so much of the cultural harvest around the world, and yet, of being starved for having similar interests and opinions with others, concerned only with ourselves.

    Ali, the boxing legend, died on Friday night at 74，after a Long battle with Parkinson's disease.

    Cassius Clay (Ali) was just 12 years old in 1954 when he got ready to beat the boy who stole his bicycle in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. But a local policeman warned him that he'd need to learn to box first. At just 89 pounds, Clay had his first fight and his first win just weeks later, according to Bleacher Report. By 1964, he was the heavyweight champion of the world, alter upsetting Sonny Liston.

    In 1969, he was forbidden to do boxing over his refusal to join the army and go to Vietnam. Ali was reportedly drowning in debt and still appealing his conviction(上诉).He made pocket change by touring colleges to discuss the war, and, as Playbill points out, he starred in the Broadway musical, Buck White.

Ali sang nearly every song in the musical, playing a black lecturer addressing a meeting organized by a black political group. But he would never return to the stage after his conviction was cancelled.

    In November 1990, Ali met with Iraq president Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on a "good-will tour" in an attempt to negotiate the release of 15 Americans held hostage(人质)in and Kuwait.  Ali was criticized by then-President George H. W, Bush and The New York Times, both of whom expressed concerns that he was fueling propaganda (宣传) machine.

    Despite running out of medicine for his disease and waiting more than a week to talk to Hus-rein, Ali was able to bring all 15 of a group of American war prisoners home.

    Africa is a very diverse land with many different tribes. One tradition that many of these groups share is painting or marking their bodies and faces in color. They do this for many reasons. Some marks are used to identify people as part of the group. Other marks are used for ceremonies such as wedding and during times of war. Let's look at some different examples of body painting.

    Red is a common color in body painting because it often represents health and long life. Among the Masai of East Africa, when men are old enough to marry and make decisions for their people, they participate in a special ceremony in which they paint their heads and faces red. This ceremony takes place every seven to fourteen years, so there is not an exact age for participating in it.

    The Samburu, also from East Africa, like to paint their faces and hair red because they think it looks pretty.

    The Masai men also have a unique way of showing that they are brave. To show that he has killed a lion, a man will paint his body with a natural white material, making special marks to represent this accomplishment. The Masai men also use this white to show that they are no longer boys and are considered adults.

    One quite unusual example of face painting is done by the Wodaabe people of West Africa. Once a year, they have a beauty contest for men. The men paint their faces yellow and red. Then they add white and black circles and lines. Black paint is used near the eyes and on the lips to draw attention to the whiteness of their eyes and teeth, which the Wodaabe consider most beautiful. The women then decide which man they like best.

    As you travel, enjoy the beautiful and bright colors of Africa.

    Corporate culture is the values and beliefs a company develops over time. The role of corporate culture is to improve a company's mission and strategies, with long-term hopes of improvements in a company's profit. Mostly corporate culture comes from a company's top management.

    One role of corporate culture is to influence employee behavior, honesty, and compliance（服从）. A company does not have to necessarily create a direct influence for these actions. A direct influence may be a set of written regulations or other policies, and while these may be in place, the corporate culture is usually more of an indirect influence.

    While many companies try to create corporate culture through the use of written policies, its role is harder to define. The human factor has an influence on how corporate culture is expressed. The way uppermanagement acts and reacts to various situations defines how lower-level employees will act, and this aspect may be more important than any written policy.

    A company's corporate culture can also extend beyond the walls of the business. Consumers who believe a company to be honest and forthright（直率）may be more loyal in their buying behavior. Employees in a company's customer service department can also exhibit positive corporate culture to outside individuals. In this case, the culture creates a link between the company's employees and its customers. How customers react may be a direct result from the company's corporate culture.

    Product quality can also be influenced by a company's corporate culture. Companies that focus only on profits may decide to avoid high-quality materials in products, but try to suggest that the products are of higher quality than they really are. This negative culture can then result in lower brand loyalty with consumers.