When I found out I was moving to India, it was beyond a nightmare. It was something I couldn't even imagine. The impression I had of India were only based upon a few summer visits to my grandparents, filled with heat, pollution and dirt. Even though I was only six years old, I know this would be a complete change from my comfortable life in Maryland.

    During my first six months in India, my expectations were met almost exactly. I hated my new apartment; I missed my school and friends back in Maryland, and I was sick of all the dirty marketplaces that filled the streets of New Delhi.

    After those six months were over I finally realized that I was going to be in India for a while. I knew that I had to start making the most of my new life. It was then that I became completely involved in my school. My school, the American Embassy School, was filled with international students: Europeans, Australians, Chinese, and Americans just like me. But they all welcomed me with open arms. It was amazing to be among such diverse students, who had such incredible experiences to share.

    Now, when I look back at my time in India, all I can think about is how fortunate I am to have had such a wonderful experience. My move to India not only allowed me to see a completely different side of the world, but I was also able to establish unbreakable bonds with so many interesting and amazing people. Even now, after quite some years, I am still in contact with my closest friends from the American Embassy School. I cannot even imagine what I would be like without having lived in India. I would have missed out on meeting so many extraordinary people, and I would be a completely different person today.

    Recently I and other Red Cross volunteers met a group of victims from Hurricane Katrina. We were there, as mental health professionals, to offer “psychological first aid” and I was struck by the simple healing power of presence. As we walked in the gate to the shelter, we were greeted with a burst of gratitude from the first person we met. I felt appreciated, but also guilty, because I hadn't really done anything yet.

    I first realized the power of presence many years ago when a friend's mother passed away unexpectedly. I received a call saying she had just passed away. I wanted to rush down there immediately, but didn't want to intrude(打扰) on this very personal period of sadness. I was torn about what to do. Another friend with me then said, “Just go. Just be there.” I did, and I will never regret it.

    Since then, I have not hesitated to be in the presence of others. Once I sat at the bedside of a young man suffering from the pain of his AIDS-ralated dying. He was not awake, and obviously unaware of others' presence. However, the atmosphere was by no means solenm. His family, playing guitars and singing, allowed him to be present with them as though he were still fully alive.

    In my life, I am repeatedly struck by the healing power of presence. In it, none of us are truly alone. It not only is something we give to others but also changes me for the better.

    We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices (装置)well after they go out of style. That's bad news for the environment—and our wallets—as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.

    To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life—from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s.Devices were grouped by generation. Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992.Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997.And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.

    As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones.“The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids' room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house,” said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007.We're not just keeping these old devices—we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (排放)more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.

    So what's the solution (解决方案)?The team's data only went up to 2007,but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.

    The School has become aware that many students are being prevented from doing their work because of other students playing games and watching movies. We're sorry it's come to this, but we don't have enough resources to support everything, and our educational mission comes first.

    NO RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES, SUCH AS GAMES AND MOVIES, ARE ALLOWED IN ANY OF THE LABS 8:30 AM TO 4:30 PM WEEKDAYS.

    Work on course-related game development is excepted. Note that it is usually very obvious whether game activity is recreational.

    MULTIPLE LOGINS AT THE SAME TIME ON THE SAME USER ACCOUNT ARE FORBIDDEN.

    If you have a course-related need for an exception to this rule, please contact the tech staff （supportatsignscs. carleton. ca）.

    For our general policy on lab usage, please see scs. carleton. ca/ labpolicy. Note that it includes:

    NO FOOD（except dry snacks and bottled drinks）

    NO PROPPING DOORS OPEN

    You've heard the old advice that skipping meals is a sure-fire way to ruin a weight loss plan, but a new study presented this week at the annual Obesity Society Meeting in New Orleans suggests that perhaps we've overlooked the benefits of selective fasting. According to the research, eating during a smaller window of time each day and skipping your evening meal could have a positive health effect.

    The study concluded that overweight individuals who ate during the day and fasted during the evening reported fewer hunger swings and burned more fat at night, WebMD reported. However, although this diet plan results in more fat burned in the evenings, it did not seem to increase fat burning overall. Due to this, at this moment it's still unclear as to how this eating schedule can affect general weight loss.

    "At this point, we are not sure whether or not total fat burning is increased," study lead author Courtney Peterson told Medical Daily in a recent email." We will need to do a larger study to find out for certain whether or not time-restricted feeding improves fat burning."

    Still, although the results do not indicate a clear association between nighttime fasting and weight loss, they are still important for the world of nutrition. For example, Peterson told Medical Daily that she was surprised to find that participants did not report being hungrier than average, or have above-average swings in hunger levels, despite fasting daily for 18 hours.

    "So we overturned the belief that fasting for longer period each day when the same number of total calories are eaten makes a person hungrier, "wrote Peterson.

    While the effects of fasting and time-restricted feeding have been studied and proven to work in a rodent(贴齿动物)model, research on human subjects is still in its early stages. For this reason, Peterson explained that it is far too early to say, with factual evidence as backing, that time-restricted feeding will improve weight loss in humans. Still, Peterson explained that practicing this eating behavior does have obvious benefits, such as reducing overall food intake, and suggested that practicing time restricted eating a few times a week could be both practicable and healthy.

    "It could be used for short-term goals or longer-term goals，"concluded Peterson." As far as we know，it is safe for adults，although pregnant women and children should not try it."

Foldable phones are once again facing questions about their durability(耐久性).The Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola Razr are now both available to buy in the US-but early reports suggest the screens are easily damaged.

One media published photos of two layers of the Razr's display separating, affecting the touch screen. The Galaxy flip, meanwhile, boasts(自夸)a "flexible glass" display—but tests appear to show it scratching(刮擦)as easily as plastic.

In a statement, Samsung said the display had a protective layer, and had undergone extensive testing. "While the display does bend, it should be handled with care, "it said.

The Z Flip's "pretty thin glass" is one of Samsung's primary marketing messages for the new phone. But a durability test conducted by popular Zack Nelson, a regular buyer, suggested it was no more durable than soft plastic screen, and could even be dented(痕)by fingernail.

Nelson said Samsung's screen scratched exactly how plastic screen would react. "I don't know what material this is, but Samsung definitely shouldn't be calling it glass," he said. He found that the screen of the Motorola Razr scratched as easily but it is not marketed as "glass".

The Motorola Razr was put on sale 13 days ago in the US, but Raymond Wong, an editor says the flexible screen on his handset has already broken. The upper layer of the Razr's screen separated from the bottom, creating "a giant horizontal air bubble" for no apparent reason. He wrote that the fault appeared after 45-minute train ride during which the phone was in his pocket. The screen was completely warped from hinge-to-hinge with the top layer raised like a poorly applied screen protector. But Mr. Wong said that apart from the visual problem, the damage has affected the responsiveness of the touchscreen.