Texting while walking is something that most of us are guilty of. We can't help replying to that message we just received. However, while it's fun to keep up with the latest gossip, we may actually be putting ourselves in danger.

    A team of researchers from two UK universities recently found that people who use their phones while on the move walk differently than usual.

    “Recently, a person in front of me was walking very slowly and weaving (迂回行进), and I thought, 'Is this person drunk?'” Matthew Timmis, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.

    It turned out that the person was just texting. Inspired by this, Timmis and his team set out to discover the effects of phone use on how we navigate streets.

    A group of 21 volunteers were asked to walk around a simulated (模拟的) street, complete with obstacles such as a step. The participants traveled the course a total of 12 times each, either writing or reading a message, making a call, or with no phone at all.

    It took the volunteers 118 percent longer to complete the course when using a phone. They also focused on the step obstacle 60 percent more and paid attention to the travel path 51 percent more when they weren't using a phone.

    Although there were no accidents, Timmis believes we should still be aware of what's going on around us.

    “The big risk here is suddenly-appearing hazards (危险), like a pedestrian (行人) suddenly walking in front of you,” he told the Guardian. “You are not going to be able to respond to that as efficiently, which increases the risk of injury.”

    To bring attention to the dangers of “text walking”, a temporary “texting lane” was set up in Antwerp, Belgium in 2015. And earlier this year, a special crosswalk featuring flashing red lights on the ground to get the attention of texters was set up in Wuhan, Hubei province.

    “Texting while walking can lead to collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could even be endangering your own life when you cross the street without looking up,” a spokesperson for the company that made the Antwerp texting lane told Yahoo News.

    The following are the top things to do in Tampa Bay on the weekend.

    When I was 19 years old, I was at a dance club. As we were walking to my car one cold night, a man walked up to us. Behind him was a woman carrying a small child. The child had a jacket on but it wasn't buttoned up（扣上）. The man began to tell us he wanted to borrow some money for the night to get his wife and kid into a hotel. He had a job but no place to live in and was waiting for the first paycheck. He said he could get our mailing address and mail the money back.

    The guy I was with reached into his pocket to give this man a $20 bill. As the other man was extending his hand out to take the money, I put my hand on my new friends' hand and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute？"

    I told him that every day people asked my mother for money on her way to work. She said they made more money than she did, simply begging for money. These people were scamming those with soft hearts. And if they were truly worried about their child suffering from the cold, they would have at least buttoned his jacket or covered him with his blanket.

    My new friend looked at me with disappointment and said, “Michelle, I know there are people out there that take advantage of others. I also know there are people out there that are one paycheck away from being homeless. If I give $ 20 to 10 people and only one of them really needs it and uses it for the right thing, it is worth it.”

    I am now 37 years old and have never forgotten what he said to me. I don't even remember his name. But I do remember that that experience changed the way I look at different situations.

    Imagine you went to a restaurant with a date, had a burger, paid with a credit card, and left. The next time you go there, the waiter or waitress, armed with your profile data, greets you with, "Hey Joe, how are you? Mary is over there in the seat you sat in last time. Would you like to join her for dinner again?" Then you find out that your burger has been cooked and your drink is on the table. Forget the fact that you are with another date and are on a diet that doesn't include burgers. Sound a little odd? To some, it is the same with the Internet. The Nets ability to profile you through your visits to and interactions at websites provides marketers with an enormous amount of data on you--some of which you may not want them to have.

    Are you aware that almost every time you access a website you get a "cookie"? Unfortunately, it's not the Mrs.

    Reid's type. A cookie on the Internet is a computer code sent by the site to your computer--usually without your knowledge. During the entire period of time that you are at the site, the cookie is collecting information about your interaction, including where you visit, how long you stay there. How frequently you return to certain pages, and even your electronic address. Fill out a survey to collect free information or samples, and marketers know even more about you--like your name, address, and any other information you provide. While this may sound scary enough, cookies aren't even the latest in technology. A new system called I-librarian Alexa--named for the legendary third century.

    B. C. library in Alexandria, Egypt--does even more. While cookies track what you are doing at one site, Alexa collects data on all your Web activity, such as which sites you visit next, how long you stay there, whether you click on ads, etc. All this information is available to marketers, who use it to market more effectively to you. Not only do you not get paid for providing the information, you probably don't even know that you are giving it.

    This year's flu season is pretty scary. To try to minimize the effects, public officials are still urging anyone who hasn't yet gotten their flu shot to get one as soon as possible. However, even if every single person got a shot in the arm, the vaccine(疫苗)—with its excellent 36 percent effectiveness—would not prevent everyone from getting infected with the annoying virus. Knowledge is power, so here's what goes on in your body when you come down with the flu.

    The influenza virus primarily attacks your nose, throat, and the tubes that lead to your lungs. But the flu is so much more than that. Your muscles ache, your head hurts, and your appetite goes down, among other things. To our surprise, almost all of these symptoms have less to do with the virus itself than with your immune(免疫的)response to them. Unfortunately, the very defense you have in place to get rid of the flu is the reason you feel so painful when you recover.

    The virus usually enters through your mouth, typically by way of your hands But it takes a few days for symptoms to set in. While this process might cause some harm to your nose and throat, it's nothing major, and nothing like the symptoms that typically accompany a bad or even mild case of the flu.

    The real fun starts when your immune system begins to fight. Your immune system comes in two parts: the innate system and the adaptive. The innate immune system is essentially an all-purpose tool. As soon as your body senses the presence of any injury or invader (入侵者), the innate immune system launches into action by producing tiny proteins called cytokines and chemokines. The cytokines reproduce almost immediately and start to attack the virus. This increase in immune cells creates an serious inflammation(炎症) throughout the body. But the worst is still to come. Meanwhile, the chemokines work with the adaptive immune system to help create T cells. These cells are a special type of white blood cell that works in a much more specific way: They find the influenza virus, identify what's special about it, and create something unique on their surface that finds and destroys similar invaders.

Restless in their seat, glancing around and never looking you in the eye. We think we know when someone is lying, but do we really?

A study showed that people's ability to tell if someone is lying is little better than 50%. Interestingly, another research suggests that we are actually quite good at unconsciously (无意识地) spotting liars, but our conscious thoughts overrule this. Scientist R. Edward points out that training in recognising liars doesn't always help, saying "quick, inadequate training sessions lead people to over-analyse and to do worse than if they go with their gut reactions (本能)". 

One reason for this may be "truth bias". Experts have suggested that we are usually biased to believe that people are telling us the truth. Another reason that might make us bad at identifying liars is that there are many myths around body language and lying. Many of us believe that liars are unlikely to look us in the eye or will be uneasy in their seat. However, this isn't necessarily the case. It may be that not looking away, or sitting more still than usual, are actually the giveaways that someone is lying. 

To see how someone's behaviour really changes as they lie, many experts recommend observing people talking about things known to be true. This allows us to establish a baseline of their normal behaviours while speaking. Any differences to this baseline behaviour could show that someone is lying. This is why it's much harder to lie to people who know us well.

As liars may be working hard to conceal their behaviours, some psychologists have suggested increasing the effort needed for this by asking them to tell their story again backwards. When facing this increased cognitive (认知的) load, any behavioural tell-tale signs are magnified (放大).

It can be hard to spot liars. We are likely to trust people, and behaviours can be hidden, but if we know someone well, and if someone is working too hard to stick to their story, it's possible to see through people who are not telling the truth.