Papa, as a son of a dirt-poor farmer, left school early and went to work in a factory, for education was for the rich then. So, the world became his school. With great interest, he read everything he could lay his hands on, listened to the town elders and learned about the world beyond his tiny hometown. “There's so much to learn,” he'd say. “Though we are born stupid, only the stupid remain that way.'' He was determined that none of his children would be denied an education.

    Thus, Papa insisted that we learn at least one new thing each day. Though, as children, we thought this was crazy, it would never have occurred to us to deny Papa a request. And dinner time seemed perfect for sharing what we had learned. We would talk about the news of the day; no matter how insignificant, it was never taken lightly. Papa would listen carefully and was ready with some comment, always to the point.

    Then came the moment-the time to share the day's new learning.

Papa, at the head of the table, would push back his chair and pour a glass of red wine, ready to listen.

    “Felice,” he'd say. “tell me what you learned today.”

    “I learned that the population of Nepal is...”

Silence.

    Papa was thinking about what was said, as if the salvation (拯救) of the world would depend upon it. “The population of Nepal. Hmm. Well...” he'd say. “Get the map; let's see where Nepal is.” And the whole family went on a search for Nepal.

    This same experience was repeated until each family member had a turn. Dinner ended only after we had a clear understanding of at least half a dozen such facts.

    As children, we thought very little about these educational wonders. Our family, however, was growing together, sharing experiences and participating in one another's education. And by looking at us, listening to us, respecting our input, affirming (打定) our value, giving us a sense of dignity. Papa was unquestionably our most influential teacher.

    Later during my training as a future teacher, I studied with some of the most famous educators. They were imparting what Papa had known all along-the value of continual learning. His technique has served me well all my life. Not a single day has been wasted, though I can never tell when knowing the population of Nepal might prove useful.

    Johnny Jennings is 86 years old, but he first visited the Georgia Baptist Children's Home when he was 18, and the visit changed his life forever.

    A child ran up to Jennings, begging to be adopted, and it was at that moment that Jennings realized his life's mission. From that day forward, Jennings did everything he could to help, and that turned out to be quite a lot. Since he wasn't ready to adopt a child of his own, he decided to contribute financially. Since he wasn't wealthy, he did so by collecting paper and aluminum (铝) products and cashing them in for money. That may not sound like it would amount to much, but Jennings has donated more than US$400,000 over the past 30 years. That's a lot of paper products.

    Over those 30 years Jennings has become a cornerstone of the children's home.

But how does he get all that paper? Now that people know about his efforts, the paper pretty much comes to him. People drop it off at his house after collecting it through churches, organizations or in their own lives. Jennings also collected pennies, and as they say: A penny saved is a penny earned. Well, he's saved 24 miles' worth of pennies. It's the truth. "84,480 is a mile of pennies," Jennings said. "We finished 24 miles. We had most people from church collecting pennies." Each and every mile was a donation to the church.

    One of Jennings' favorite events is the church's annual meeting, which is when he presents his check each year. During this time, the kids who live in the children's home are also in attendance and he loves the opportunity to spend time with them. Jennings has served on the board for 45-year terms. "I've been a trustee for 20 years," Jennings said. "I'm just part of the family." And what a special family it is, thanks in large part to Johnny Jennings.

    There are several ways from which to choose for you to keep your kids safe in your neighborhood. But the first step to keep your child safe in your neighborhood is to know your neighbors.

    Knowing your neighbors can save you a lot of worry. It lets you know that the car that has just driven down the street belongs to “the yellow house on the corner”, or the truck that has just driven by the playground looks unfamiliar, but the guy in the passenger seat resides two doors down. It's these simple things that keep you from going out of your mind whenever you see someone driving by where children are playing.

    But you shouldn't just know what they look like. The next step is to know them well. What do they do? How do they act? You might be OK with them driving by the playground since they live in the neighborhood, but are you OK with them being on the playground? Knowing your neighbors solves several things. First you find out what kind of people they are. This helps you know if you should let your child go out in an area where they gather. Let us face it: you do not want your child to play around people or people's children that curse (咒骂) or hit each other. Sometimes you have to protect your child against your own neighbors.

    Knowing them also makes them know you. Being neighbors is an interesting thing. You might not like them or have the same views as them, but we all usually protect those that we consider our own. If you know your neighbors, they know you. They are more likely to look after the child of the nice lady down the street in the brick (砖) house, than the people, in the house on the corner, who no one ever sees.

    Honey from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious. Most people, and many animals, like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees' nest and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper-a little bird called a honey guide.

    The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax in the beehives(蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees' nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or person as it leads them to the nest. When they finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey, and the wax(蜂蜡), always falls to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.

    Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.

    In this Pennsylvania city, Pittsburgh is shrinking but getting wealthier. Since 2000, its population has declined by 95,000 while its income per capita (人均) has shot up 24 percent. The trend is taking hold in many other cities, like Buffalo in New York, Providence in Rhode Island and New Orleans.

    Some of these areas have created more high-paying jobs in energy, health care or education. Others have managed to reshape their producing industry for a new economy. Higher-paying jobs have a greater effect because they create demand for additional services. "The story in Pittsburgh is very positive, and other areas are looking at it as an example of the transformation that might be possible,” said Guhan Venkatu, who wrote an economic history of the area called “Rust and Renewal” for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have helped bring tech jobs and innovation(革新) to the area by sponsoring tech centers that help graduates start companies without moving to Silicon Valley or San Francisco. This has helped keep Pittsburgh's educated young population growing even as the entire population in the city has dropped.

    Pittsburgh has more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs than other shrinking cities, about 80, 000 or 7% of all jobs. STEM jobs add productivity and income growth to the area. Manufacturers of high-tech medical equipment in the Pittsburgh area also have doubled employment in the last 10 years.

    However, some experts question whether growing income per capita can really make up for a declining population. According to Patrick Adler, a researcher at the University of Toronto, population loss does matter if it means lower-skilled workers have fled because of a lack of opportunity. What's more, high-paying jobs in education and health care can disappear if the population declines too greatly. So it'd be wise to find ways to increase the population.

    Fashions have a lot of rules. Most of them, however, are just wrong. But there's one rule that goes beyond tradition and into the field of scientific study of the brain: Black clothes are slimming. It all comes down to how your visual system processes the light. The below holes in each square are the same in size, yet the white hole looks bigger than the black hole.

    In the 1500s, Galileo Galilei noticed that some of the planets looked larger when viewed with the naked eye than they did when viewed through a telescope, making the white light of Venus appear eight to ten times larger than Jupiter in the night sky. He knew something strange must be going on with his vision to cause this illusion, but he wasn't sure what it was. Luckily, scientists never stopped wondering, and in 2014, they figured it out.

    Our visual system operates via two main channels: "on" neurons (神经元) that are sensitive to light things and "off" neurons that are sensitive to dark things. When it came to the dark "off" neurons, the researchers found that they responded predictably to dark shapes on a light background the greater the contrast between the two, the more active these neurons were. But the light on" neurons behaved unpredictably. Even with the same amount of contrast, light objects on a dark background caused a greater response in these neurons.

    This phenomenon makes some sense, evolutionarily speaking. In the dark of night, you'd want to be able to take in every bit of light you can get, so a visual system that enlarges light objects on a dark background could be very useful. However, it's not that hard to see dark objects in the light of day. It has some effects in the colors of your clothes and in the appearance of the planets—the brighter appearance of Venus in the night sky makes it look bigger than the darker Jupiter.