Day 1

    I first heard of “Show Racism (种族歧视) the Red Card” when my friend Jill asked me to support their work. Basically, it's an organization which uses professional (职业的) footballers to help fight racism in sport and society. A few weeks later, he asked me if I wanted to do a bit more for them. I thought he probably meant for me to give money or do some voluntary work. But then he told me that a group of about 20 people were getting sponsored (赞助) to play the highest ever game of rugby (橄榄球) at 5,140 meters on Mount Everest.

Day 4

    We're making our way up to the base camp — that's where most climbers start their final climb to the top — and then, we'll play our game. Today we started out at 8 am. We had to cross three suspension bridges (悬索桥). One of them was so high that you couldn't see the bottom. Then we walked through some beautiful forest areas before we started a two-hour uphill hike to Namche Bazaar.

Day 10

    Base camp is basically just a lot of stones and tents. The walk up was really exhausting. Maybe if I was fitter, I wouldn't find this so hard, but then it was not just me — all of us got very short of breath.

Day 11

    Today we played our game. It was supposed to be a “friendly” game, and last night, we had agreed we'd just walk and not run. However, it was a really heated game and two players were even sent off. We only played for 14 minutes. I think someone would have got hurt if we'd played any longer! My team won and I scored the last try! Of course, none of this matters. What's really important is that we did it and we've raised a load of money.

    One day a little boy, annoyed by his father's decision for him to become a grocer, decides that he will never grow up. Grocery is a dull job and staying a child is his protest against it. This strange little boy-man, never separated from a tin drum he is always banging, is our hero of the table. It covers three crucial decades of 20th century history. Little Oscar Matzerath will experience love, war and imprisonment in a story that paints an unforgettable picture of Central Europe between 1923 and 1954.

    This is an overview of the story of The Tin Drum, the most famous work by the German Nobel-winning author Günter Grass, who passed away on April 13 at the age of 87. The Tin Drum also established Grass as one of the leading authors of Germany. It also set a high bar of comparison for all of his following works. Just as his best-known fiction is both the story of an individual and of an age, so it is that Grass' life cannot be understood without referring to the history of Germany. He was called "Germany's conscience", because he reminded Germans of a past during the Second World War (1933-1945) that many would have rather forgotten.

    This sometimes made him unpopular. Many Germans did not agree in 1989 when he said that East Germany and West Germany should remain separate, as a united country would be too strong and threaten the world's peace. And Grass was called a hypocrite when he revealed in his memoir

    Peeling the Onion (2006) that he had been a teenage member of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi (纳粹) Party's fighting force. The man who had blamed the actions of others had a less-than-perfect record himself.

    Grass was a man of the pen and the page and also a man with a gift for speaking to the public.

    His writing was noisy and annoying, but one had to listen to it, a little like the sound of the drum banged by his most famous literary creation.

    Behind most of the bad things we do to our bodies as adults, eating more than we should is the idea we carry with us from childhood. On one hand, we assume that we are indestructible. On the other hand, we think that any damage we impose on ourselves can be undone when wβfinally clean up our act.

    If the evidence for how wrong the first idea is isn't apparent when you stand naked in front of the mirror, just wait. But what if you eat right and drop all your bad habits? Is there still time to repair the damage?

    To a surprising degree, the answer is yes. Over the past five years, scientists have collected a wealth of data about what happens when aging people with bad habits decide to turn their lives around.

    The heartening conclusion: the body has an amazing ability to heal itself, provided the damage is not too great.

    The effects of some bad habits-smoking, in particular-can haunt you for decades. But the damage from other habits can be largely healed.

    “Any time you improve your behavior and make lifestyle changes, they make a difference from that point on.” says Dr. Jeffey Koplan. “Maybe not right away. It's like slamming on the brakes. You do need a certain distance.”

But the distance can be remarkably short. Consider the recent announcements from the front lines of medical research: —A study concluded that women who consume as little as two servings of fish a week cut their risk of suffering a stroke to half that of women who eat less than one serving of fish a month. —The day you quit smoking, the carbon monoxide levels in your body drop dramatically. Within weeks, your blood becomes less sticky and your risk of dying from a heart attack starts to decline ... Adopting healthy habits won't cure all that bothers you, of course. But doctors believe that many chronic diseases-from high blood pressure to heart disease and even some cancers-can be warded off with a few sensible changes in lifestyle.

    Not sure where to start? Surprisingly, it doesn't matter, since one positive change usually leads to another. Make enough changes, and you'll discover you've adopted a new way of life.

    A group of scientists is gathering today in the U. K. to discuss a thick piece of ice that's cracking in Antarctica, which is of the size of Delaware.

    The ice shelf is called Larsen C, and it now has a 90-mile crack running through it. The big rift (裂缝) is slicing the ice shelf from top to bottom. But this is not just another sad climate change story. It's more complicated. "A lot of things are going on deep inside the ice," says Adrian Luckman, a glaciologist.

    Luckman says climate change is certainly influencing this region. Larsen C used to have two neighbors to the north, Larsen A and Larsen B. As the air and water warmed, those ice shelves started melting and then disappeared in 1995 and 2002. But the crack in Larsen C seems to have happened on its own, for different reasons.

    Larsen C has many cracks. All ice shelves do. This particular crack has been around since at least the 1960s. The unusual part is that in 2014, this crack — and only this crack — started growing quickly. Why?

    "Well, that is a little bit of a mystery and that's why it drew itself to our attention," says Luckman. One puzzling aspect is how it managed to cut through areas of softer ice that bind (连接) the ice from neighboring glaciers into one giant sheet. Starting in 2014, that soft ice did very little to slow down this rift.

    Scientists are split on how important this crack is for the stability of the whole ice shelf. Some say if this giant section breaks off, it won't make a difference. Others disagree.

    "Ice shelves are the gates of Antarctica in a way, and the gatekeepers of Antarctica. The ice shelves are already floating, so if they fall apart it does not immediately affect sea levels. It's what they hold back -water from all the inland glaciers — that could be problematic. If all the water packed in those glaciers made their way to the sea, it could significantly raise global sea levels," says Ala Khazendar, a geophysicist.

Things to Do in Atlanta

    Need a rundown of the top things to do this weekend? Here is what's on in Atlanta.

    In the Mood

    Date: May 22 through May 26, 2019

    Time: 2:00 p.m. ~ 5:30 p.m.

Phone: 770-916-2800

    If you love the music of the 1940s, then here's what you need to do this Sunday. Go to a 1940s musical show at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. The music of Glenn Miller has a distinctive sound. No need to ask me twice. Are you “In the mood”?

    Party With the Penguins (企鹅)

    Date: May 20 through May 25, 2019

    Time: 11:30 a.m. ~ 2:00 p.m.

Phone: 404-581-4000

Celebrate Penguin Awareness Day at Georgia Aquariums annual party with the penguins. The party will feature fun activities, including the chance to see an African penguin up close and learn how to help protect these endangered species.

    Callanwolde Arts Festival

    Date: May 21 to May 22, 2019

    Time: 10:30 a.m. ~ 5:30 p.m.

Phone: 404-872-5338

    Located at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, this event is a festival for artists and by artists, letting them have a voice in the creation and operations of the festival. If you are of the artistic persuasion or enjoy a creative scene, don't miss out.

    Foollio's Hoodilly Storytime

    Date: May 21 through May 27, 2019

    Time: 1:00 p.m. ~ 4:30 p.m.

Phone: 404-523-3141

    We make up a brand-new story every week. Come and enjoy a new story each time at Dad's Garage Theater. Little ones will get to help provide key parts of the story and even add in their own jokes. Interactive and out-of-the-ordinary fun for kids and parents!

    Technology offers conveniences such as opening the garage door from your car or changing the television station without touching the TV.

    Now one American company is offering its employees a new convenience: a microchip implanted (植入) in their hands. Employees who have these chips can do all kinds of things just by waving their hands. Three Square Market is offering to implant microchips in all of their employees for free. Each chip costs $300 and Three Square Market will pay for the chip. Employees can volunteer to have the chips implanted in their hands. About 50 out of 80 employees have chosen to do so. The president of the company, his wife and their children are also getting chips implanted in their hands.

    The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. Implanting the chip only takes about a second and is said to hurt only very briefly. The chips go under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. With a chip in the hand, a person can enter the office building, buy food, sign into computers and more, simply by waving that hand near a scanner. The chips will be also used to identify employees. Employees who want convenience, but do not want to have a microchip implanted under their skin, can wear a wristband (腕带) or a ring with a chip instead. They can perform the same tasks with a wave of their hands as if they had an implanted chip.

    Three Square Market is the first company in the United States to offer to implant chips in its employees. Epicenter, a company in Sweden, has been implanting chips in its employees for a while.

    Three Square Market says the chip cannot track the employees. The company says scanners can read the chips only when they are within a few inches of them. "The chips protect against identity theft, similar to credit cards." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips back in 2004, so they should be safe for humans, according to the company.

    In the future, people with the chips may be able to do more with them, even outside the office. Todd Westby is Chief Executive Officer of Three Square Market. He says, "Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc."