Volunteering abroad is a great way to help others, improve your skills and become a more confident, independent person. If you are interested in volunteering abroad, here are some places to go.

    Australia

    If you seek a life on the beach, in a great climate with friendly people, Australia might be your best bet. With thousands of volunteers already signing up to leave for Australia during the holidays, it will be a very popular option.

    Brazil

    This vast country has some great opportunities on offer and is especially popular this year. A lot of volunteer work is available in Brazil centers on conservation and ecological projects. With the world's largest rainforest in Brazil, of which huge part is in danger, there are lots of different jobs you can do.

    Kenya

    Kenya is the destination for those seeking an African experience. Generally volunteers in Kenya work in orphanages(孤儿院)or with local children living in slums(贫民窟). There is a great demand for volunteers in Africa because many people live in poverty, so if you truly feel like making a difference to a community, Kenya should be at the top of your list.

    Costa Rica

    Golden sandy beaches, clear coastlines and beautiful cities are what Costa Rica is all about. Because of its small size, you can see a lot of the country in just a short time. You can really make the most of your time as a volunteer. A lot of work is needed with wildlife and ecological work, so if you want to look after turtles on the beach, Costa Rica could be just the place for you

    In the tenth grade, I began working for free at a vet's that was run by a friend. I wanted to get experience for what I thought would be my future job. However，on one particular Saturday morning I learnt something perhaps more important.

    The hospital was in the middle of one of the poorer sections of the city and some people could only pay for the most basic treatments. On this Saturday，a man and his young son，who was probably about 7 years old，walked in with a small cat in a cardboard box. There was something wrong with the cat's left eye. But the man could not afford to pay for the cost of the medicine. He kept quiet for a while，and then he asked where the nearest animal shelter was. Hearing this，his son cried and started to argue with him. All of a sudden，an older woman who was sitting in the waiting room stood up，walked up to the counter，and told the man that she would pay for the cost. The man thanked her and the son got to keep a healthy cat.

    I always thought it was the right thing to help out a needy person，but I only saw people do acts of kindness on TV or in movies. What the woman did made me believe that these things do happen in real life，and quite often.

    Now，when I can't decide whether to help someone who is in need，I remember this woman，and then I have the courage to step up to the plate. Sometimes other people follow.

    Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is an important ecological screen for the north of China and even the whole country. Building a green great wall to ensure China's ecological security is one of the most important things of autonomous region.

The largest ecological function zone in the north of China, Inner Mongolia has a variety of landscapes, including forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers and lakes. In recent years, the region's environment has improved, with its forest and grassland area having increased and desert reduced.

    However, it still faces a number of challenges in ecological preservation. For instance, the region faces severe water shortages with the number of lakes dropping from 427 in 1987 to 145 in 2010. In addition to a lack of rainfall, huge water consumption in agricultural and industrial production has worsened the water shortage. Too much use of fertilizers has damaged the soil and affected the growth of grass, accelerating the expansion of the desert, which results from a lack of water.

The local government encourages planting trees on grassland as they can get more pay for trees than by growing grass. However, the trees they plant often have a low survival rate as they have a high water consumption rate. Also, to treat wetlands, some areas have planted a large number of a single tree species. This practice may damage biodiversity (生物多样性) and endanger the survival of certain animals.

Experts suggest taking the region's water resources and weather conditions into consideration in future ecological projects.

Labor Day Weekend at Paramount Pictures Studios

    This Labor Day weekend, join the Los Angeles Times for 3 evenings of amazing food, wine and chef experiences. Dozens of hand-picked local restaurants each evening will showcase our city's rich and diverse cooking scene by serving you their best. Taste and celebrate Southern California's most inviting food and drink. Your ticket is all-inclusive and is good for unlimited food, beer, wine & spirits tastings, plus all stage activities.

    PLEASE NOTE: ALL EVENTS AT THE TASTE ARE 21 YEARS AND OLDER ONLY AND ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

    A VIP Access level ticket gets you:

    • Convenient and free parking inside the Paramount Pictures gates (savings of $15)

    • Access to furnished lounge during the entire event

    • Behind the scenes tour of Paramount Pictures Studios

    • First in the door access to the main event

    Due to the nature of this event, we are not able to offer refunds.

SCHEDULE

    Friday, August 31: 7: 30 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Saturday, September 1: 8: 00 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Sunday, September 2: 8: 00 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Make sure to also save the date for our new Costa Mesa weekend of Los Angeles Times The Taste on October 19 to 21. Details here.

Let's face it. No one drinks diet sodas for the taste. People drink diet sodas in the hope that it will help them lose weight or at least keep them from gaining it. Yet it seems to have exactly the opposite effect, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Texas said those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had waist size increases that were six times greater than those who didn't drink diet sodas. "What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drank, the more weight they were likely to gain," said Sharon Fowler.

The study was based on data from 474 participants in a large, ongoing research project, where the participants were followed for nearly 10 years.

While the findings are surprising, they also offer some explanations.

Nutrition expert, Melanie Rogers, who works with overweight patients in New York, has found that when patients are switched from regular to diet sodas, they don't lose weight at all. "We weren't seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us," said Rogers.

So why would diet soda cause weight gain？No one knows for sure yet, but it could be that people think they can eat more if they drink diet sodas, and so over﹣compensate (补偿) for the missing calories.

A related study found some sweeteners (甜味剂) raised blood sugar levels in some mice. "Data from this and other potential studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners may be risky," said Helen P. Hazuda, professor at the University of Texas's school of medicine." They may be free of calories, but not of consequences. "

Brilliant Ways to Deliver Secret Messages

Many effective ways are used now to deliver secret messages. But in the past when the science and technology was not developing, especially during the war, how did people send secret and important messages?

Shoelaces

In the 1950s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency created a book of tips to teach spies ways to communicate in public. One tip: Lace up your shoes. Tied one way, the laces might mean "I have information": tied another, "Follow me". The spies could communicate while everyone else probably thought, "That guy can't tie his shoes correctly!"

Tattooed (刺文身) Head

Around 513 B.C., Histiaeus was forced out as the ruler of an ancient city. So he wanted to send a message to his supporters: Rebel against the king who took away his power.

Histiaeus called in a slave, shaved his head and tattooed the message onto the man's skin on the top of head. After the slave's hair grew back, he travelled to Greece with orders to shave his head again. Message received!

Orange Juice

In 1597, John Gerard was imprisoned in the Tower of London in England. He asked the prison guard to let him send letters written in charcoal (木炭). But then he wrote another message on top using the juice from an orange-which was only visible when the juice was dry and the page heated. With his invisible ink, he escaped successfully.

Songs

In the 1800s, African American slaves couldn't talk openly about their plans to escape to freedom—so they secretly sang about it.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot might sound like a religious song. But for slaves, the "sweet chariot" was the code for the Underground Railroad, the network of people who helped slaves head to northern states and Canada. The song Wade in the Water warned escaped slaves to get in the water so dogs wouldn't smell them. With these songs, hundreds of people escaped slavery.