Three Boys and a Dad
      Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park.” he'd told his wife. “I'll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom.”

Things started well, but just after eight o'clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex — came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” When food had not appeared on within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex's head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat(节拍) . Mike chanted “Where's my toast, where's my toast” in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.

    Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy's underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their eyes. Someone named “Not me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.

    By ten o'clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the fish bowl refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating kitchen wall with his color pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the sitting room, but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realized that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.

    At exactly 11:17, Brad called the daycare center(日托所).“I suddenly have to go into work and my wife is away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.

    My daughter had a bullying(欺凌) problem a couple of years ago. She kept receiving rude text messages from kids at school. Dealing with school bullying wasn't easy, but I finally ended it. When you realize things are serious, it is no time to be silent.

    If your kids are also receiving such text messages, take them directly to the headmaster and show him. Describe to him how it is affecting your kids. Tell him you will not tolerate it and that you want him to put an end to it now.

    School bullying is a dangerous and serious issue these days, and any good headmaster will take your charges seriously. He will probably address the issues with the parents. If they are crappy(糟糕的) parents, then they may do nothing to their child. You may have to repeat this process several times, but you need to keep a check on those text messages and don't allow your child to delete them.

    Now it is time to draw your child close and take care of him/her, because he/she needs it. My daughter did not like me being involved either, but you are the only person your kid can depend on to solve this problem, so do it and mean business. Always be polite, but straightforward. The headmaster and parents must know you mean business.

    If repeated meetings with the headmaster (and parents, if he allows it) do not work, then I would consider hiring a lawyer. That will send the message loud and clear. When you are talking about financial loss, most parents will stand up and take notice and act to keep their kids under control!

    I know a lawyer is a big expense and not something you do lightly, but when bad things like school bullying are happening to your children, you must act and act quickly.

    A new study shows that rising levels of planet-warming gases may reduce important nutrients in food crops.

    Researchers studied the effects of one such gas—carbon dioxide—on rice. The researchers grew rice plants in a controlled environment. They set carbon dioxide levels to what scientists are predicting for our planet by the end of the century. They found that the resulting rice crops had lower than normal levels of vitamins, minerals and protein. The researchers said the effects of planet-warming gases would be most severe for the poorest citizens in some of the least developed countries. These people generally eat the most rice and have the least complex diets, they noted.

    In the experiment, scientists grew 18 kinds of rice in fields in China and Japan. They pumped carbon dioxide gas over the plants in an effort to create the atmosphere of the future. Rice grown under high carbon dioxide conditions had, on average, 13 to 30 percent lower levels of four B vitamins and 10 percent less protein. The crops also had 8 percent less iron and 5 percent less zinc（锌）an rice grown under normal conditions. However, vitamin E levels increased by about 13 percent on average.

    The results are bad news, “especially for the nutrition of the poorer population in less-developed countries,” said the University of Tokyo's Kazuhiko Kobayashi, who helped to write the report. That includes about 600 million people in Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos and other nations, mainly in Southeast Asia, the report said.

    One of the scientists is Sam Myers of Harvard University in the American state of Massachusetts. He said that findings like this are an example of the surprises climate change create. “My concern is there are many more surprises to come,” he said.

    Myers noted that pollution, loss of some species, destruction of forests, and other human activities are likely to produce unexpected problems. He said that you cannot completely change all the natural systems that living organisms have grown to depend on over millions of years without having effects come back to affect our own health.

    The new study suggests a way to lower the nutritional harm of climate change. One way, Kobayashi said, is grow different forms of rice that have shown to be more resistant to higher carbon dioxide levels.

    Songs that make our hearts happy can make them stronger too, US researchers reported on Tuesday.

    They found that when people listened to their favorite music, their blood vessels (血管) dilated in much the same way as when they are laughing, or taking blood medications.

    “We have a pretty impressive effect,” said Dr Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology (心脏病学) at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

    “Blood vessel diameter improved,” he said.“The vessel opened up pretty significantly. You can see the vessels opening up with other activities such as exercise.” A similar effect is seen with drugs such as statins.

    When blood vessels open up more, blood flows more smoothly and is less likely to form the clots (凝块) that cause heart attacks and strokes. “We are not saying to stop your statins or not to exercise but rather to add this to an overall program of heart health,” said Miller, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans.

    Miller's team tested 10 healthy, non-smoking men and women, who were told to bring their favorite music.They spent half an hour listening to the recordings and half an hour listening to music they said made them feel anxious while the researchers did ultrasound tests designed to show blood vessel function.

    Compared to their normal baseline measurements, blood vessel diameter increased 26 percent on average when the volunteers heard their joyful music.Listening to music they disliked — in most cases in this group — blood vessels narrowed by six percent, Miller said.

    Miller said he came up with the idea after discovering that laughter caused blood to literally flow more smoothly. “I asked myself what other things make us feel really good, besides calories from dark chocolate of course.Music came to mind. It makes me feel really good,” he said.

    Most of the volunteers chose country music but Miller said the style is not so important rather than what pleases each individual.

    City trees grow faster and die younger than trees in rural forestry, a new study finds. Over their lifetimes, then, urban trees will likely absorb less CO₂ from the air than forest trees.

    As we all know, the earth would be freezing or burning hot without CO₂. However, CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, meaning it traps energy from the sun as/heat. That makes temperatures near the ground rise. Human activities, especially the widespread burning-of fossil(化石)fuels, have been sending extra greenhouse gases into the air. This has led to a rise in average temperatures across the globe.

    Studies had shown forests readily absorb CO₂, but there hadn't been much data on whether city trees grow, die and absorb CO₂ at the same rate as forest trees do. So some researchers decided to find out.

    To figure out how quickly trees were growing, researchers tracked their diameters (the width of their trunks) between 2005 and 2014. A tree's diameter increases as it grows, just as a person's waist size increases as they gain weight. About half the weight of a tree is carbon, research has shown. Most of the rest is water. Over the nine years' tracking, the researchers found city trees absorbed four times as much carbon from the air as forest trees. However, they were twice as likely to die. So over the lifetime of each type of tree, forest trees actually absorbed more CO₂.

    City trees grew faster because they had less competition for light from their neighbors. In a forest，trees tend to grow close together，shading their neighbors. Street trees also benefit from higher levels of nitrogen (氮)in rainwater. Nitrogen helps plants grow. Waste gases from gas-burning cars also contain nitrogen, thus enriching city air with nitrogen. Later, rainwater may wash much of it to the ground. Some street trees may also have better access to water than trees in the country because the underground water pipes can leak.

Richard Browning has been attracted by flight ever since his father took him into the hills to fly gliders (滑翔机). He has certainly been an adventurer. Richard took it upon himself to develop his own jet suit and began to experiment with some of his friends. He made quick progress. In 2017, he felt confident enough to start a company called Gravity Industries that could make jet suits. It took 15 months to develop the very first one. 

Five very small jet engines are built into the jet suit. These are powered by kerosene (煤油). Two engines are located on the pilot's arms and one is placed on the back. Each engine weighs less than two kilos and can produce22 kilos of thrust(推力). 

The pilot is able to control the direction and speed of the flight. He does this by small movements of the arms which require hours of practice. One wrong move and you could end up falling to the ground. 

Richard is not only in charge of his company; he is also the chief test pilot. He has spent hours and hours perfecting the correct moves to create a perfect flight. He was able to enter the Guinness Book of World Records in 2017 when he became the fastest man in a jet suit and flew at 51 kilometres per hour. Since then, he has presented his jet suit at 60 events in 20 different countries around the world. More recently, he flew alongside Brighton Pier on the south coast of England at 136 kilometres per hour! 

The objective of Richard's company has been to build a suit which members of the public can buy. The first went on sale in a department store in 2018 for f 340, 000. If you want to jet around your own hometown, it's time to start saving—or to work for Richard Browning.