"How to Let Co of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change" is the latest movie from film-maker and climate activist Josh Fox.The movie is the third film in a three-part series about climate change.

    In 2010,Fox's documentary "Gasland" was appointed for the highest award-an Oscar. "Gasland" explored the hotly debated process of removing natural gas from the ground.He examined the subject again in "Gasland Ⅱ".

    Fox was in Washington,D.C.recently to present his third film.He was arrested during a protest against a new fuel pipeline.In the film,Fox says pollution from fossil fuels must be reduced.Without limits,there will be more extreme weather,like severe storms and dry weather,rising sea levels,causing shortages of food and water, "When you really encounter that head on,it causes an in-credible crisis."

    In the new film,Fox travels through a sunless forest in the Amazon with local activists to measure oil spills.He goes to a village in Ecuador to learn how people there stopped a pipeline from being built.He joins young people in Australia to stop boats from entering the port of Newcastle.

    "You should probably know the downside of what we're about to do.This is the short list: drowning,being arrested: being run over by boats,drifting away in currents out into the Pacific Ocean,cultural disrespect,big waves."

    Also in the film,Fox talks to Ella Zhou,an energy expert.She explained the importance of what she calls "moral imagination"."I think that it forces us to get out of our box of thinking about,for instance,what is being successful.It allows us to have a moral value about what you want as a person.What do you want to do for the world and for yourself?"

    In Korea, it is rude to wear shoes inside someone's house because it is considered dirty. In Saudi Arabia, you should not bring food to someone's house because taking food or drink suggests that you think the host cannot afford the meal. More and more people around the world are travelling abroad to study, to go on vacation, or to work, and while it can be a great way to learn about other cultures, there may be times when travelers accidentally annoy their host.

    The same gesture can have very different meanings in different countries. The gesture meaning OK in the United States means something completely different in Brazil as Ella Yao discovered. Ella had travelled to Brazil to study and was living with a host family. During dinner, her host asked Ella if she was enjoying the meal. Because her mouth was full of food, Ella made a sign with her hand that to her meant OK. Although Ella meant the food was good, this symbol in Brazilian culture is extremely rude and her host was deeply annoyed.

    While travelling in Thailand, Elizabeth Brown learned that there are differences in food in the United States and Thailand. She stopped at a small, family-owned restaurant in Chiang Mai and ordered spring rolls. She was really enjoying eating them until she got the last one and noticed that there was an insect inside. She complained to the server. Later, she discovered that although insects are disgusting to most Americans, they are considered a delicacy(佳肴) in some countries.

    All these mistakes can be avoided with some research on cultural differences before you go abroad. However, if you do accidentally annoy someone, quickly apologize, and learn from your mistake.

    Our brains work in complex and strange ways.There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years,but who cannot add two plus two.Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once,but they cannot read or write.

    Dr.J.Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887.He called these people idiot savants.An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment（损伤）,such as in autism（孤独症，自闭症）or retardation.At the same time,the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills,which are unusual for most people.The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics,or having a photographic memory.

    One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr.Benjamin Rush, an American doctor.His patient,Thomas Fuller,was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724.It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years,17 days,and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability,he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

    Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s.Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words,but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.

    In the excellent movie Rain Man,made in 1988 and available on video cassette,Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise,with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

    Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment.Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills.Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills.However few people wish to participate in such experiments.There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain.The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate.Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

    I've loved my mother's desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it as Mother sat doing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be the most wonderful thing in the world.

    Years later, during her final illness, Mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,” she said again, “is for Elizabeth.”

    I never saw her angry, never saw her cry, I knew she loved me; she showed it in action. But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter. It never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional”. But she lived “on the surface”. As years passed and I had my own family, I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way if she chose that she did forgive me. I posted the letter and waited for her answer. None came. My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally, peace—it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn't be sure the letter had even got to Mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.

    Now the present of her desk told me, as she'd never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside—a photo of my father and a one-page letter folded and refolded many times. She had given me an answer in a way she chose. Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.

    The vast majority of us spend our entire lives pulled down by gravity. Then there are astronauts.

This small population of space travelers has given researchers a rare look at what happens to the human body when it's able to spend large amounts of time outside the downward pull of the Earth. This week, a study on one of the largest groups of astronauts yet —34 participants—was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

    In the new study, a team of international radiologists supported by NASA looked at MRIs of the brains of astronauts before and after their trips to space. The scientists found that upon returning to Earth, many of the astronauts' brains had become repositioned inside their skulls, floating higher than before. In addition, the space between certain brain areas appeared to have shrunk. The changes were more common in astronauts who took longer trips into space.

    The team characterized astronaut trips as short (an average of less than 14 days) or long (an average of about 165 days). Radiologists who didn't know each astronaut's duration（持续时间）in space compared MRIs from before and after their trips.

    Of the 34 total astronauts involved in the study, 18 took long trips to space—spending most of that time on the International Space Station —and of those, 17 returned to Earth with smaller areas between the frontal lobe（脑前额叶）and parietal lobe（顶叶）. The same area of the brain also shrank for three of the 16 astronauts who took shorter trips with the US Space Shuttle Program. The researchers also found that 12 of the ISS astronauts and six of the space-shuttle astronauts returned home with their brains sitting slightly higher in their skulls than before.

    It's not clear what, if anything, these brain changes mean for the health of space travelers. In general, it appears the human body tolerates space travel fairly well: the time astronauts have spent in zero-gravity environments so far doesn't seem to have had any strong or long-lasting effects.