There is a growing number of kidults—or adults who wear themask of maturity but prefer to pander(迎合) to their inner child.

    They feel ill equipped for parenthood, because they don't see what values or lessons they could honestly pass on to their young, besides self-centeredness and a passion for the good things in life. They are trying to live by not acting their age.

    As Ms Jane put it in her letter: I'm married, in my late 20s and enjoy a lifestyle other married graduate couples enjoy: winning and dining, tasteful clothes, travel and a career. Why give up all these for a baby?

    It is reported that when asked whether they were adults, most people in their 20s answered they were not sure. This reflected a global economy in which people chased more papers to get better jobs that would comfortably support middle class living.

    Being a kidult is not all about being selfish, though. With the untold uncertainties of war, fluctuating(波动) markets, disease and terrorism, many see this world as a poor place to live in—let alone bring kids up in. This seems especially so in urban living. All anyone wants after a long, hard day at work is some peace and quiet.

    My classmate, Jenny, mused(沉思) recently howour friends living in small Malaysian towns were onto their second or third kids. Maybe they just loved having children around. Or maybe, in their own way, they wanted to leave the world a better place than they found it.

    That's how you, I and everyone know we have the chance tobreathe air, touch grass and see sky. I think out parents understand that just being alive is an experience worth passing on.

    As I enter my 40s, I've noticed many of my parents' generation think social networking is something they are simply unable to understand. They fear that, should they try, they will somehow get it wrong; they will say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing or behave in a way that causes embarrassment(尴尬). But here's the first secret of social media: Everyone feels this way.

    I recently met a young actor who was complaining that her work demands that she join Microblog, but she always feels like she doesn't have anything smart to say. It's the same resistance (抵制)I hear from the older generation, who, however, have somehow believed that age is the barrier(障碍), rather than the differences of personal taste.

    Here's the second secret of social media: everybody uses it for more or less the same reasons. Older generations often sign up to stay in touch with children and relatives. We talk about this kind of communication like it's some old-fashioned activity, but it is exactly why younger people use social media. The truth is that most people use social media to gently keep an eye on one another, to see how those they care about are doing without needing to ring them up on the phone every night.

    And this is the last secret of social media: everyone gets to use them in their own way. Newcomers—younger and older—who worry about “getting it right” are thinking that there's a right way to get them. But actually there isn't. Personally, I talk a lot on Microblog. And some people post nothing and they use social media every day as readers. Social media companies would rather see people decorating their networks with pictures and posts, but there's no rule against being a fly on the wall. It's also a fine way to get involved.

    We're quick to forget that the web wasn't invented by 13-year-olds; it was created by today's seniors. I'd never try forcing those with no interest in social networks to use Microblog. But don't let the talk of age divides put you off. There's nothing to stop the older generation from joining in the network their own generation created.

    My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, and is hesitant(犹豫的) to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants. But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane (习泳区） in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon (三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated （主宰） that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

    Shine on, sweet baby.

Jennifer Fish, a weather forecaster may soon be replaced by something truly fishier—the shark.

    Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms.

    Laura Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark's ability to sense pressure.

    If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behaviour of sharks to predict bad weather.

    Miss Smith had previously studied the behaviour of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.

    She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish (猫鲨), for further research at Aberdeen University.

Her work—thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory—resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.

    Miss Smith said: “I've always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”

“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there's so much more we need to understand—but it certainly opens the way to more research.”

    It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.

    At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.

In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal (潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish—none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic (模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.

    She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.

    “Mayday! We got Mayday!” Frank Pisano screamed over the microphone to the air control tower at the airport. One of the two engines on his plane had failed, and he was now going down towards one of the busiest highways in America—Interstate 405, just south of Los Angeles—and there was no stopping it.

    Driving south on the 405, near the airport's runway, was John Meffert, a fire department captain. He was heading home from his shift when suddenly a low—flying plane caught his eye. After he took a second glance, a thought crossed his mind：“This plane's going to hit me.”

    He was right. The plane slammed into the road, popped up a few feet, and then clipped the front of Meffert's car. It finally stopped after hitting the divider(隔栏). Meffert pulled over. He was unhurt, and his car had received only a large scratch, so he turned his attention to the plane. He ran towards the smoke, and then he saw Frank's wife, Janan Pisano, pop her head up on the passenger side.

    By the time Meffert reached the aircraft, part of it was on fire and Janan, who was covered in blood, was on the wing trying to pull her husband from the wreck. Meffert, afraid the plane would explode, guided her to safety behind it. Then, he ran back for Frank, who had been knocked out by the initial crash, lying across both seats.

    Meffert carefully positioned himself under the pilot's arms and lifted him from the cockpit. Then he dragged the pilot off the wing and carried him to safety, where they could see the plane in flames.

    The Pisanos spent three weeks in the hospital. Remarkably, Meffert's car was the only one hit by the plane. Had Meffert been a second or two faster, Frank said, the left propeller(螺旋桨))would have ripped the top off his car and killed him.

    “I play all the what-ifs—going slower, going faster. It could have been a very different result,” Meffert said. “We just had a lot of angels.”

    In the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen's apple and falls victim to a curse(诅咒);in Shakespeare's novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pellets(药丸)that contained mercury(水银), believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.

    Poison(毒药) has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?

    An exhibition, The Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison.

    The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars(毛毛虫), frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren't much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered with a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.

    "Poisons can be bad for some things," Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. "Yet they can also be good for others."

    A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol.

    The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances(物质)that we regularly ingest(摄入)-chili, coffee and chocolate-owe their special flavors or stimulating(提神的)effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects.