Joseph Francis Charles Rock (1884–1962) was an Austrian-American explorer, botanist, and anthropologist(人类学家). For more than 25 years, he travelled extensively through Tibet and Yunnan, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces in China before finally leaving in 1949.

    In 1924, Harvard sent Joseph Francis Rock on a treasure hunt through China's southwestern provinces—the Wild West of their day. But gold and silver weren't his task: Rock, a distinguished botanist, sought only to fill his bags with all the seeds, saplings, and shrubs he could find. During his three-year expedition, he collected 20,000 specimens for the Arnold Arboretum(阿诺德植物园).

    Botany, though, was just one of Rock's strengths. As an ethnologist(民族学者), he took hundreds of photographs of the Naxi, a tribe in Yunnan province, recording their now-lost way of life for both Harvard and National Geographic, and took notes for an eventual 500-page dictionary of their language. His hand-drawn map of his travels through China's “Cho-Ni” territory, in the Harvard Map Collection, includes more than a thousand rivers, towns, and mountains indicated in both English and Chinese, and was so well made that the U.S. government used it to plan aerial missions in World War II.

    Scientist, linguist, cartographer, photographer, writer—Rock was not a wallflower in any sense. Arrogant and self-possessed, he would walk into a village or warlord's place “as if he owned the place,” said Lisa Pearson, the Arboretum's head librarian.

    In declaring his successful return under the headline “Seeking Strange Flowers, in the Far Reaches of the World,” the Boston Evening Transcript ran a large photo of the daring explorer wearing in a woolly coat and fox-skin hat. “In discussing his heroism including hair-raising escapes from death either from mountain slides, snow slides and robber armies, he waves the idea away as if it is of no importance.”

    The Arboretum and Rock parted ways after 1927, mainly because his trip cost Harvard a fortune—about $900,000 in today's dollars. Fortunately, many of his specimens, many of his amazing photos, and his great stories remain.

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    A wonderful Cornish self catering holiday cottage Cider Cottage is the perfect place to escape and unwind.

    It is ideally located to explore and enjoy all that Cornwall has to offer.

    Cider Cottage sleeps five in a lovely countryside setting, with all home comforts. Recently fully renovated to a high standard, the Cottage was awarded a 4 Star rating by Visit England.

    It is a detached property full of character, with exposed feature stone walls and ceiling beams.

    In the past the building was used to store and crush apples to produce local Cornish cider.

    One step inside the door and you will know you have found somewhere special to spend your holiday.

    Cider Cottage has three comfortable bedrooms, of which the Master bedroom has a king size bed and an en-suite bathroom.

    A spacious fully equipped Kitchen and Dining room fitted with a ceramic hob and oven, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer. We also supply all those kitchen essentials that you won't want to pack.

    Down a flight of steps is the large cosy Lounge, with exposed feature stone walling and beams that date back hundreds of years.

    Set between the south Cornwall coast and enigmatic Bodmin Moor, in lovely countryside, Cider Cottage is just 1 mile from the historic town of Liskeard and a short drive from the lovely fishing village of Looe with its wonderful sandy beach.

    The cottage is ideal for families and couples alike, whether you just want to relax or enjoy the wide variety of activities and attractions or nearby outdoor pursuits such as cycling and horseriding.

    The ancient market town of Liskeard has a choice of cafes, restaurants, takeaways, pubs & supermarkets. A main line Railway Station also serves the town, giving the opportunity for car free days out.

    Anew international study shows that some peopled biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.

Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.

    Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analyse blood samples collected from 13,000 people and estimate their lifespan.

    A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.

    “You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young,” Horvath said in a statement. “We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate.”

    The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.

    “The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate,” Horvath said, adding that “this is an important milestone to realizing this dream.

    Want to explore new cultures, meet new people and do something worthwhile at the same time? You can do all the three with Global Development Association (GDA).Whatever stage of life you're at, wherever you go and whatever project you do in GDA, you'll create positive changes in a poor and remote community (社区).

    We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Most of our volunteers are aged 17-24. Now we need volunteer managers aged 25-75.They are extremely important in the safe and effective running of our programmes. We have such roles as project managers, mountain leaders, and communication officers.

    Depending on which role you choose, you could help to increase a community's access to safe drinking water, or help to protect valuable local cultures. You might also design an adventure challenge to train young volunteers.

    Not only will you help our young volunteers to develop personally, you'll also learn new skills and increase your cultural awareness. You may have chances to meet new people who'll become your lifelong friends.

    This summer we have both 4-week and 7-week programmes:

    GDA ensures that volunteers work with community members and local project partners where our help is needed. All our projects aim to promote the development of poor and remote communities.

    There is no other chance like a GDA programme. Join us as a volunteer manager to develop your own skills while bringing benefits to the communities.

    Find out more about joining a GDA programme:

    Website: www.glodeve.org

    Email: humanresources@glodeve.org

    If you are a teenager without a job, you probably do not have much extra money. Sometimes parents will give their children a pocket money for doing small housework, but it is often not enough once the children grow into teenagers and want to do things with their friends all of the time. How to make money is an important thing for teens to learn. If you're wondering how a teenager can make good money, some ideas might be:

    Getting a part-time job at a local restaurant or store is always a sure way to make money as a teen. But getting a job somewhere like this might be hard, considering many jobs in local stores are being taken by adults more and more often.

    Doing landscaping (绿化) is something that most adults do not like to do, and teens can usually find jobs around their neighborhood doing the landscaping of friends and family.

    Some teens are good at something such as writing or photography. These teens can make money by doing things such as writing articles for newspapers or magazines or selling their photos online.

    Teens who live in a country area can earn money by helping out on farms, or they can try raising their own animals such as chickens, and selling them or their products.

    Looking for jobs can seem hard at first, but if you have a try, it should not be too hard to find a job or way to make money.