If you like texting and are trying to lose weight, a new study found that using texting(发短信) to track diet and exercise habits may help you lose weight.

    Previous research has shown that keeping food and exercise diaries improves the likelihood of success when you are using it to lose weight. Using a computer or a pen and paper to record information, however, can be a burden and cause some people to give up.

    Duke University researchers said using text messages to track eating and exercise habits can save time, and increase the chances that people will stick with their weight-loss rules.

    The study included 26 obese/fat women with an average age of 38. The women used daily texting as part of their weight-loss program. The text messages focused on tracking personalized goals, such as avoiding sugary drinks or walking 10,000 steps a day. Messages also provided brief feedback (反馈) and tips.

    Every morning, the women received a text from an automated system that said, “Please text yesterday's personal information of steps you walked and how many sugary drinks you had.” Based on the women's responses to the text message, the system sent another text with personalized feedback and tips.

    After six months, the women who used daily texting lost an average of nearly 3 pounds, while another group of women who used traditional methods to keep food and exercise diaries gained an average of 2.5 pounds, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

    “Text messaging has become popular and may be an effective method to simplify tracking of diet and exercise behavior,” Dori Steinberg, who was responsible for this research, said.

    Steinberg said, “Text messaging offers several advantages compared to other self-monitoring methods. Unlike web-based diet and exercise diaries, data in a text message can be entered quickly on nearly all cell phone platforms so it is very convenient to receive feedback. Besides, because of the limited number of words used in text messages, it saves time.”

Weekend Photography Workshop(研讨班): Seattle Aims

Learn new techniques from a great photographer

Take photos of Pike Place Market, Bainbridge Island, and more

Activity Details

    Seattle is a fantastic place to photograph. Spend the weekend taking photos of the historic Pike Place Market, get a new angle on the Space Needle, and photograph harbor views on Bainbridge Island.

    This workshop is led by a great photographer and a professional instructor and is designed for people who are interested in improving their digital photography. All participants must bring a digital SLR camera(单反相机), a laptop, and the software for organizing and presenting images. The workshop is limited to 25 participants.

Plan – 3 Days

Day 1—Thursday: Seattle

    Settle into our hotel or stay in accommodations of your choice. Gather tonight at a restaurant in town for a welcome dinner.

Day 2—Friday: Pike Place Market & Pioneer Square

    Start the day in the classroom with an instructive talk by our photographer. Our first task this afternoon takes us to the oldest running farmers' market in the country, Pike Place Market. Work on portraits, street scenes, and food photographing. Then photograph the stately 19^th century brick buildings of Pioneer Square, Seattle's historic center. End the day with an edit-and-critic meeting.

Day 3—Saturday: Olympic Sculpture Park & Space Needle

    Head out to the Olympic Sculpture Park. Then go to the streets of the downtown area to get a unique view of the Space Needle, and photograph city life against a background of diverse architectural styles. Tonight, we'll present our best images to the group, enjoy dinner at a local restaurant and end our journey.

Cost

    Meals noted in the plan are included in both options(with and without hotel)

Dates

Jul 11 – 14, 2013     Aug 08—11, 2013       Sep 26 – 29, 2013

Contact Information

    For questions about this workshop, please call 1-886-797-4686. Or you can visit the website: http://www. nationalgeographicexpeditions.com.

    You eat food and drink water, right? Skipping Rocks Lab is changing how you and your future generations will have water. Have you ever thought you could eat water? Think again, this is actually happening somewhere in the world.

    The group at Skipping Rocks Lab has made a water bottle you can eat. The product is called Ooho. Unlike plastic bottles, Oohos are neither tall nor hard. They look more like bubbles, or small, round, clear balls. They can hold liquid inside. People who drink Oohos can be surprised: the outside bursts in the mouth.

    Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez is with Skipping Rocks Lab. He explains that the outside, or the membrane, of Ooho is made of seaweed, a plant that grows in the ocean. “It's a membrane made of seaweed that can contain water or any kind of liquid. It's made from an extract (汁) of the brown seaweed.”

    The Ooho membrane is tasteless, and you can eat it. The company says even if you throw away the membrane, it will break down in about four weeks. Gonzalez says the membrane is strong, and good for the environment.

Every year, billions of plastic water bottles are thrown away, polluting land and waterways around the world. The typical water bottle made of plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade.

    Lise Honsinger is also with Skipping Rocks Lab. “Most people just grab a bottle of water, hold it for five minutes, drink it, and throw it away. How can that then exist for 700 years? So, yeah, this is absolutely a solution to that. We are very purist: we don't want to see this packaged in plastic.”

    There are limits to the Ooho. It cannot be refilled. Each bottle is small. And Oohos do not store for more than a few days. The Skipping Rocks Lab is working on those issues. “We're still working on things like extending the shelf life, looking at different options in terms of thickness, if we want to make one that stands up more, or more flexible for marathons where people just want to eat it whole.”

    Right now, Skipping Rocks Lab can make only a few thousand Oohos a day. But it is developing new technology that could increase that number to hundreds of thousands.

    I'm Caty Weaver. Kevin Enochs wrote this story. Anne Ball adapted it for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

    A spaceship is flying to the sun in summer 2018! It will be the first-ever to a star and will be one of the biggest achievements space exploration (探险) in human history. The purpose is to study the sun's outer atmosphere and better understand how stars work.

The spaceship, with no man inside, will fly within 4 million miles of the sun's surface - right into the solar atmosphere, where the temperature is over 4,500℃. To protect the spaceship, it is covered with a 12cm-thick coating.

    The spaceship is called Parker Solar Probe and it is named after Eugene Parker, a professor from the University of Chicago. It's the first NASA spaceship to be named after a researcher who is still alive. In 1958, Eugene Parker first created the term “solar wind”-the sun sending out a flow of particles (颗粒) and energy.

    “The spaceship is going where it has never been before. It's very exciting that we'll finally get to know more about the solar wind. I'm sure there will be some surprises. There always are,” said Professor Parker.

    Parker calls it a heroic scientific space adventure, and he means that the spaceship will have to experience high temperatures and sun radiation (辐射). “The spaceship is going to do the hottest and fastest work. I love to call it the coolest hottest work under the sun,” said Scientist Fox Nasa.

    Last year, around Labor Day, I read a “Happy Ad” in our local newspaper. There was a lady in a local nursing home for the aged, who was celebrating her 90th birthday and her family wanted everyone to know about it. It said that if you wanted to drop her a line, here was her address. So I did. I found a birthday card and dropped her a short note, wishing her a happy birthday.

    A week or so later, someone knocked at my front door. I opened the door and found a middle-aged man standing on my doorstep. He introduced himself as the son of this woman to whom I had sent the card. He explained that he just wanted to drop by in person and thank me for sending such a nice card to his mom. Apparently, like many older folks, she did not receive much mail and was quite excited to receive mine. I just didn't know what to say. I told him it was my pleasure and that I hoped his mom had enjoyed her birthday.

    That year, I did not send out any Christmas cards, except to this lovely old lady in the nursing home. I just told her that I was thinking about her and hoped that she had a nice holiday. I sent her a holiday card and also a couple of notes in between. I just thought she might like to have someone write to her, to get some mails.

    She passed away a couple of months ago. I never met this lady, but I did keep her and her family in my thoughts. I dropped them a line of sympathy. I hope that my few little notes were enough to brighten a couple of her days here on earth.

    The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7—that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

    It's a club with impressive features for teenagers：

    No account keeping fees！

    You're no millionaire so we don't expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!

    Excellent interest rates!

    You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month.

    Convenient!

    Teenagers are busy—we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet…You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!

    Magazine included!

    Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.

    The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool key-card) but it is easy. We can't wait to hear from you. It's the best way to choose to be a winner!