Now women are free to enter any career that attracts them, and working can bring them pride, confidence and independence. Working women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and 51 percent of professional workers, like doctors, lawyers, nurses and accountants, are female. While climbing the career ladder can be rewarding, it often comes with one big disadvantage: weight gain!

    New research published this week in the International Journal of Obesity shows that working women are more likely to be overweight, and the more you work, the more pounds you're likely to pile on. Like many women, I work... a lot! As a self-employed nutrition communications specialist, I sit at my desk, in front of a computer, for hours on end. Sitting alone is one of the worst things you can do for your health, and it's directly linked to being overweight and increased fatness, so the fact that women in the workforce gain weight isn't that surprising. If you work, you have less time to move around. Obesity researchers are revealing many other ways that employment is harmful to your diet and waistline(腰围).

    In the International Journal of Obesity study, some 9,276 Australian women aged 45-50 had their body weight and employment status monitored for two years. Results? Those who worked more than 35 hours were likely to gain weight compared to those who worked fewer hours or were out of the workforce. What's more, the more hours a woman worked in a week, the more weight she gained.

    The authors of the Australian study attribute weight gain among working women to inactivity, lack of time for food preparation, more use of prepared foods, high levels of stress, lack of sleep and consuming more alcohol. I'll also add in travel, meals eaten out and working at night as other factors that I can find to make balancing work with a healthy diet a challenge.

    Clothes can make phone calls, play music, dial your pal's number, keep you warm during cold weather and operate your computer?

    This is not a fantasy. A British company, called Electrotextiles, has created a wide range of clothes—clothes that have minds of their own! Scientists, working for the company, have invented a kind of cloth that can be mixed with flexible (有弹性的) electronic materials to create intelligent clothing. The results are electronic garments (衣服).

    If you think the wearer has to be wired to different devices, think again. These designer clothes are wire-free, soft to touch and washable! Like any electronic device, these high-tech clothes have to be powered. Currently, a tiny nine-volt battery serves the purpose. But the researchers hope that in the near future the clothes will produce electricity by using body heat. These clothes are 100 percent shock proof, they say.

    The Electrotextiles team has also created the world's first cloth keyboard. This keyboard can be sewn into your trousers or skirt. To use this device, you will have to sit down and tap on your lap! These 'lap-tap' gadgets (器具), are all set to take over laptop computers!

    Another useful garment is the shirt-cum-mobile phone. This handy invention enables drivers to chat comfortably with others at the wheel! Other popular electronic wear include the denim (牛仔布) jacket with flexible earphones sewn into the hood and the electronic ski jacket with a built-in heater. The ski jacket is also programmed to send signals to a satellite. This technology is known as global positioning system and can be used to track lost skiers and wandering kids.

    Having completed the cloth keyboard, scientists have already started to work on a new project—a necktie that can be used as a computer mouse. What is the next? Do you have any idea?

    There is always no lack of ordinary people taking action for extraordinary change. Aghan Oscar is just among them. Thirteen years ago, Aghan bothered by the ever-increasing quantity of plastic waste in this low-income suburb of Nairobi, decided to find a way to recycle it.

    Nou his company. Continental Renewable Energy Co.Ltd(COREC) produces poles for use in construction, farming and road signs. So far he's sold 96,000, and he says his potential or growth is limited only by the considerable expense of setting up plastic recycling plants.

    Most of Aghan's customers are farmers and developers who once used wooden fence poles. Customers say they have other benefits as well. "I have fenced my piece of land three times using wood posts, but most of the time the fence was vandalized(故意破坏)by villagers who used the posts as firewood." said Caleb Kapten. Now plastic posts have stopped the problem, he said.

    The Kenya National Highways Authority is one of COREC s biggest customers. It approached the company after road signs were vandalized by criminals who sold the metal poles to steel manufacturing companies. Aghan reckons (估计)that COREC's products have saved the government millions of shillings, besides preventing road accidents. And he also points out that COREC has been able to conserve large numbers of trees by producing plastic poles.

    When Aghan started this recycling business in 2003, most of his employees were his family members due to financial constraint(限制).Now he employs 250 young people to collect plastic waste. Fifty more youths work on the production line, where the waste is sorted according to quality before being crushed and washed, melted and cast into different shapes. The poles arc then arranged by shape and size for sale in the yard of the recycling plant.

    Donald Watson was a man who thought very much about the food he ate. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in September 1910. And he died in November 2005, at the age of 95. That is a very great age. Watson explained that it was because he never ate any food from animals.

    When he was a boy, Watson stayed on a farm. .He loved to see the animals. He said that they gave so much to people. And all the animals were so friendly. Then, one day, he saw a man killing a pig. He was very sad. From then on, Watson decided that he would never again eat meat. Twenty years later he decided that he wouldn't eat anything from animals, such as milk, cheese or eggs. He became vegan (素食主义者).

    Watson formed a group called "The Vegan Society". In its newspaper, The Vegan Society thought it was terrible and wrong to eat food from animals. At first, there were not many people who agreed with him. They thought it was crazy to do it. Most people thought it was too difficult and unhealthy. However, over time, more and more people began to agree with Watson and The Vegan Society.

    People become vegans for many reasons. Watson and his friend stopped eating because they loved animals. They believed that it was wrong to hurt another living thing.

    Now, people also become vegans for environmental reasons. Keeping animals takes a lot of resources(资源), including water and food. Also, in some places, people are cutting down trees to create more land for cows. By avoiding food from animals, vegans hope to protect these forest areas.

    Finally, just like Watson, some people believe that being a vegan is healthier. They believe that food from animals causes heart problems, a high body weight and many other health problems.

    Working or learning in a foreign country can be a difficult experience. The hardest part of working abroad isn't finding a place to stay or learning the language. It's learning to overcome the culture shock.

    These things are part of everyday life, and include many signs, gestures, facial expressions, and customs. When we enter a new culture, these cues (提示)are usually not present or so different that they're no longer understandable to us.

    "When a person enters a foreign culture," wrote Oberg, "all or most of these familiar cues are eliminated. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded he or she may be, lots of props(支柱) have been knocked out from the environment."

    This is what happened to Lara, a young IT consultant (顾问) from America moved last year to their company in southern Europe. Three weeks after she arrived in Europe. Lara sent a desperate e-mail begging to return home. "The people are so unfriendly, "Lara wrote ,"They eat at strange hours and I'm starting to get allergic (过敏的)to the local food. I can't get anything done because their way of doing business is so disorganized and so inefficient and I have a terrible skin itch because of the water. I want to come home! "

    What Lara and other IT consultants meet on their first assignment abroad is a culture shock. While you can't prevent the culture shock from happening, you can take some measures to cut down its effects.

    Yoga is an ancient physical and spiritual practice originating in India. The word '"yoga" comes from Sanskrit (梵文) and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and mind. Today it is practiced in various forms around the world and continues to grow in popularity. Recognizing its universal appeal, the United Nations declared 21 June as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.

    Yoga is an invaluable gift from an ancient tradition. It's not just about exercise but a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself nature and the world. There is no written record of who invented yoga. Yoga practitioners (从业者) passed down the principles to their students. The earliest written record of yoga is generally believed to have been written by Patanjali, an Indian master who lived somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.

    Various yoga types give you multiple choices. Hatha yoga is the most widely practiced type and is excellent for beginners. It is gentle with slow and smooth movements. Kundalini yoga combines a singing session besides body and mental control. Bikram yoga is practiced in a heated room. It is to loosen muscles and to sweat to clean the body and remove symptoms of disease and pain. Ashtanga yoga is taught as a difficult workout where you move quickly from one gesture to another to build strength and patience.

    In recent years, the World Health Organization has urged countries to help their citizens reduce physical inactivity, which is among the top ten leading causes of death worldwide, and a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. Yoga is a proper exercise. It is known for its ability to ease stress and anxiety. It may also help reduce several risk factors for heart diseases and promote a better sleep.