2018 FIRST Robotics Competition Game—FIRST POWER UPSM

    The adventure begins on January 6, 2018. Play for real! Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors(严酷)of science and technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you'll ever have”.

    Team Basics

    The really cool thing about FIRST Robotics Competition is that all skill levels are welcomed and needed, technical or non-technical. Read more about team basics, time frame, commitment, and skills required.

    Cost & Registration

    What does it cost to participate? There are costs involved with forming a FIRST Robotics Competition team and they can vary from team to team and region to region depending on what level of participation the team chooses.

Here are some basic cost standards:

    There are never any “per student” fees; all costs for individual team members are assumed by the team as a group.

    The annual fees for team registration, a robot kit of parts, and event participation are $5,000—$6,000. Additional costs for travel, food, team shirts and other optional items will vary.

    Scholarships

    A big advantage of participating in FIRST is gaining access to millions in college scholarships made available by colleges, universities, and corporations who support FIRST. This is exclusive financial help open only to FIRST team members, giving them a competitive leg up on other students seeking educational funds.

2018 Music Festivals, UK

    The Green Gathering

    Date:15^th Aug. —22^nd Aug.

    Location: Chepstow Center

    Details: Over 100 live bands plus DJs on five private solar-powered stages. A wonderful site in a wooded area of outstanding natural beauty. 8 days of inspiration and relaxation are about traditional crafts, campaign stalls(活动摊位), and a magical kids' area.

    Sport Beat Music Festival

    Date: 20^th Aug. —29^th Aug.

    Location: Oxstalls Sports Park

    Details: Time for fun in the sun with Sport Beat. The festival is for those who wish there are volleyball and netball games that take place over the weekend. Attractions include: ball coaching, food village, and bars. Please see details for VIP passes on our website.

    Creamfields Festival

    Date: 26^th Aug.—28^th Aug.

    Location: Daresbury Court

    Details: Creamfields is the world's leading dance music festival. Creamfields is famous for many things, not just its traditional world class dancing but its unbeatable atmosphere! The festival mixes together style breaking pioneers from across the DJ and live music spectrum(声谱).

    Wilkestock Charity(慈善)Music Festival

    Date: 27^th Aug.—31^st Aug.

    Location: Wilkestock Stadium

    Details: With entertainment this year from mystery jets to a huge electronic lineup(阵容), this festival keeps turning up the heat year on year while keeping all profits donated direct to charity.

    ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida's busiest airport is becoming the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, including US citizens, according to officials there. The expected announcement Thursday at Orlando International Airport alarms some privacy supporters. They say there are no formal rules in place for handling data collected from the scans, nor formal guidelines on what should happen if a passenger is wrongly prevented from boarding.

    Airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Washington D.C. already use face scans for some departing international flights, but they don't involve all international travelers at the airports like the program's expansion in Orlando would. The image(图像) from the face scan is compared to a Department of Homeland Security database that has images of people who should be on the flight, in order to check the traveler's identity.

    US citizens at these airports can refuse to be scanned, but the agency “doesn't seem to be doing an adequate job letting Americans know they can,” said Harrison Rudolph, an expert at the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center.

    US citizens at the Orlando airport will be able to refuse face scans just like at the other airports if they don't want to provide their photograph, Jennifer Gabris, a spokeswoman for the US Customs and Border Protection said in an email. However, a notice about a possible rule change for the program states that “US citizens may be required to provide photographs upon entering or departing the United States.”

    “We're not talking about one gate,” Rudolph said. “We're talking about every international departure gate, which is a huge expansion of the number of people who will be scanned. Errors tend to go up as uses go up.”

    Two US senators（参议员） last month sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, urging that formal rules be carried out before the program is expanded. “It will also ensure a full test of this potentially sweeping program that could influence every American leaving the country by airport,” said the letter from the senators.

    Ray Tokuda, a 54-year-old Japanese American, is proud of the title his school has given him. He is a Shifu, a Chinese word literally meaning a master, mentor or senior practioner of martial arts.

    Tokuda has reason to be proud. He has been involved with Chinese martial arts for almost four decades. After learning them at the martial arts school in New Mexico State, today he is among the most experienced kung fu teachers of the school.

    Practicing martial arts two to three hours and helping students improve their skills have become Tokuda's daily routine. He expects to practice and teach martial arts for the rest of his life. "I'm still learning. It's worth more than a lifetime to learn Chinese martial arts," he said. "Once I started, I just couldn't stop. I think it's also the magic of Chinese culture."

    Tokuda was sent to the martial arts school when he was 10. He still remembers how unwilling he was when starting out. "My father had always wanted to learn Chinese martial arts but never got the chance, so he put his kid in," he said. "I was so afraid at that time because I thought kung fu was all about fighting."

    But things changed after he learned that martial arts were more than punching and kicking.

    "One of the things martial arts teach me is overcoming adversity," Tokuda said. "As a little kid, my first lesson was like, oh, look, this is a thing that I can get through by diligence, perseverance（毅力）and dedication, and that was priceless for my life."

    Learning Chinese martial arts opened a gateway for him to better understand Chinese culture because he could hear a lot of ancient Chinese kung fu-related stories. "It is like in America, where we hear stories about knights in shining armor and King Arthur and noble deeds done," he said. "I feel martial arts preserve something of ancient China that can't be found in books. They are sort of an oral history."

    Tokuda has also been invited to various events in his home state to showcase traditional Chinese culture, including the dragon dance and lion dance, which he also learnt at the martial arts school. Because of this, he is now considered a cultural envoy (使者) in the eyes of the public.

    My challenge for you is this: to read a book for 15minutes every single day for a month.

    Let me explain a bit, by telling you where the challenge came from. I have many things in common with my dad, like music taste and sense of humor, but sadly reading isn't one of them. I can happily spend a whole day with a book, but my dad can't read a book for longer than about 5 minute. He reads emails, websites and papers for work, but not book. He's busy, so I think sitting down to read for just 15minutes a day is a good way to relax and to introduce him to reading.

    My dad is not the only person who avoids book. I know lots of people would rather relax on their computers or in front of the TV. Everyone is different and has their own interests, but I think there are lots of benefits to reading, which screen﹣based activities don't have.

    Firstly, it's better for your eye. Looking at screens can be very stressful for your eye muscles, and clearly you should avoid looking at screens for an hour before bed, to get a good night's sleep.

    One thing I personally love reading, is being transported to another world﹣I often forget the time or things around me! Reading is a great way to switch off before you go to bed, because you think more about the world of the book, rather than the real world, so you can truly relax. I know you can be transported to a different world in a film or a TV show, but I think books do it better.

    I also enjoy hearing what people are doing and finding out what they think. Reading gives me the chance to get to know hundreds of new people! It also teaches you to see things from other people's point of view, and understand other people's decisions or opinion. With a book, you can hear everything a character is thinking or feeling﹣you really can be inside someone else's head!

    So give it a go! Take 15 minutes when you are waking up, going to bed, eating lunch, or having a coffee. If you read a lot, why not try 15 minutes of an English book, or pass the challenge on to someone else？ Good luck, and happy reading!

    An experimental cleanup device called RemoveDEBRIS has successfully cast a net around a dummy (仿真的) satellite, imitating a technique that could one day collect spaceborne garbage.

    The test, which was carried out this week, is widely believed to be the first successful demonstration of space cleanup technology, experts told CNN. And it symbolizes an early step toward solving what has already been a critical issue: junk in space.

    Millions of pieces of junk are turning around in orbit the result of 50 years of space travel and few regulations to keep space clean. At orbital speeds, even a small bit of paint crashing with a satellite can cause critical damage.

    Various companies have plans to send thousands of new satellites into low-Earth orbit, already the most crowded area.

    The RemoveDEBRIS experiment is run by a company and researchers led by the U. K.'s Surrey Space Center and includes Airbus, Airbus-owned Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and France's ArianeGroup.

    Guglielmo Aglietti, the director of Surrey Space Center, said that an operational version of the RemoveDEBRlS technology would cast a net that remains fastened to the main satellite so the debris can be dragged out of orbit. It could target large pieces of junk, including dead satellites up to 10 meters long.

    The RemoveDEBRIS satellite will conduct a few more experiments in the coming months, including testing navigation features that could help guide the satellite to a specific piece of debris.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the success of this week's experiment was exciting, but he cautioned against "over- publicizing" it.

    There are still enormous barriers to clear before operational cleanup tasks are underway, he said, and the most discouraging is figuring out how to fund such projects.

    Aglietti, the Surrey professor who helped lead the RemoveDEBRIS project, said "The challenge will lie in persuading the relevant authorities to sponsor these tasks." Aglietti said he hopes RemoveDEBRIS will conduct a few cleanup tasks per year, targeting the largest pieces of junk in the most crowded orbits.