The plants grown by Wageningen University researchers in Mars-like soil back in March have been analyzed and the results are excellent: at least four of the crops do not contain harmful heavy metal levels and are perfectly safe to eat, the University researchers report.

    If you've seen The Martian, you can remember how much Matt Damon got done living off of his poo-powered crop of potatoes. It just goes to show how important it is for a long-term colony to be able to grow their own food locally. We've taken one step closer to that goal in March, when Netherlands' Wageningen University reported that they've managed to grow ten different crops in Mars-like soil.

    However, growing food doesn't do us much good if eating it kills us, and researchers were worried that these crops contained dangerous heavy metals like lead or cadmium(镉) from the martian soil. But future colonists are delighted, as lab analysis of the crops determined that at least four of them are safe to eat.

    Led by ecologist Wieger Wamelink, the team tested radishes, tomatoes, rye, and peas. They looked at cadmium, lead, aluminium(铝), nickel(镍), copper, chrome(铬), iron, arsenic(砷), manganese(锰), and zinc(锌) contents in the plants, and didn't find any in dangerous levels. In fact, some of these vegetables have lower levels of heavy metals than those grown in regular potting soil. The plants were also tested for vitamins, alkaloids(生物碱), and flavonoids(类黄酮), with good results. While there are six more crops to test, Wamelink himself said that the results up to now are “very promising.”

    “Growing food locally is especially important to our mission of permanent settlement, as we have to ensure sustainable food production on Mars. The results of Dr. Wamelink and his team at Wageningen University & Research are significant progress towards that goal,” said Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp in a press release.

    A crowdfunding campaign is underway (and will be until the end of August) to fund the test of the remaining crops, potatoes included. If all the crops test out safe, with concentrations of heavy metal the FDA and the Dutch Food Agency consider as safe, Wamelink's team will host a “Martian dinner” at the Wageningen greenhouse. But I've seen the movie. Stay clear of the potatoes.

    It seems the more time we have, the longer we put off living the life we see in our heads, because we feel like we've got some time to kill.

    I know where you think I'm going with this, and I also know you've heard it all before: seize the day, make the most of it, live life to its fullest, and so on. But that's the problem. You've heard it all before. These ideas have their impact and have become a cliché. Luckily, that's not my thing.

    The real answers wake something up inside you. They make you think. That's what I want to give you today, the story of Bobby Darin, which wakes you up to the truth.

    If you haven't heard of the man, I know you've heard his songs. Among his many hits are Mack the Knife, Beyond the Sea, Dream Lover, and Splish Splash.

    If seven years, Darin had several top ten hit songs, was nominated(提名) for four Grammy Awards (winning two), nominated for four Golden Globes (winning one), and even nominated for an Oscar.

    So what was his secret?

    All his life, Darin had a heart condition that developed from a childhood illness. The doctors at the time said he would be lucky to live to 16. In other words, his time was limited. And this was secret. He knew the truth. He knew that we all have such a hard time accepting: Life is short. You can't just say it; you can't just hear it. You have to know it, believe it, and feel it. Because Darin knew his time was limited, he packed as much life as he could into the time he had. But he had an unfair advantage. He knew, without a doubt, his time was limited.

    There was no fooling himself, no putting it off. It was now or never.

    Even though it's not the most popular time of year to get married, I allow my thoughts to wander and consider the most unusual marriage habits across the world.

    In some parts of India it is believed that ghosts can stay with certain people of the living world. In general, girls who are born with a baby tooth and girls who are very ugly or have some facial damage are believed to be owned by ghosts. The only way to free from the ghosts is for the girl to marry an animal, typically a goat or a dog. She is free to marry a man later on, when the ghosts are proven to be freed from her. I wonder who makes this decision and how they come to their conclusion.

    In Korea, it is a custom for grooms to request that their successfully married friends carve them wooden ducks as a symbol of great marriage. Hand-carving a wooden duck can't be easy. This leads me to wonder why it's a duck and not another animal.

    Imagine being as young as 5 and already your parents are sending you to a fat farm where you are forced to eat too much food until you vomit (呕吐). Then, the old woman watching you eat forces you to eat that vomit. This is not a TV show. This is really happening in some parts of Africa. Men there want women fat; the fatter the better. It doesn't matter if it ruins their health or make them live shorter lives. All that matters is that the woman is as large as possible in order to sell her for a high price when she reaches the age for marrying.

    It has been around for centuries, but up until very recently, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wasn't fully accepted abroad. Proof of this can be found in The Treatment (《刮痧》), a 2001 film that tells the story of a Chinese man in the US who's accused of abuse after he uses guasha, a form of TCM treatment, to cure his grandson's disease.

    During the last 10 years or so, however, TCM has been getting increasingly popular all over the world. A report released by the State Council Information Office on Dec. 6 says this style of health care, which includes different forms like herbal medicine and exercise, has spread to 183 countries and regions.

    "We have set up 10 TCM centers outside China, and all of them are popular among locals," Wang Guoqiang, head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said at a news conference on Dec 6. "Governments of 86 countries and regions have signed agreements with the Chinese government on TCM corporation."

    One of the reasons behind the growing popularity of TCM is the increase of scientific research into it. And after Tu Youyou, the Chinese scientist who discovered the anti-malaria (抗疟疾) drug qinghaosu (青蒿素), won the Nobel Prize in 2015, TCM became even more famous internationally.

    However, all these achievements in TCM don't mean that it's problem-free. Over the years, TCM has faced challenges in being able to prove that it has certain effects.

    Some researchers have suggested TCM should be more exact and work together with Western medicine.

    "Bringing together with Western medicine and TCM, rather than being in competition, is where the potential for great effects is," said Bernhard Schwartlander, the China representative of the World Health Organization.

    I have learned something about myself since I moved from Long Island to Florida three years ago. Even though I own a home in Port St, Lucie just minutes from the ocean, an un-controllable urge wells up to return to Long Island even as others make their way south. I guess I am a snowbird stuck in reverse. Instead of enjoying Florida's mild winters, I willingly endure the severe weather on Long Island, the place I called home for 65 years.

    I'm like a migratory bird (候鸟) that has lost its sense of timing and direction, my wings flapping against season.

    So what makes me fly against the tide of snowbirds? The answer has a lot to do with my reluctance to give up the things that define who I am. Once I hear that the temperature on Long Island has dipped into the range of 40 to 50 degrees, I begin to long for the sight and crackling sound of a wood fire. I also long for the bright display of colors-first in the fall trees, and then in the lights around homes and at Rockefeller Center. Floridians decorate too, but can't create the special feel of a New England winter.

    I suppose the biggest reason why I return is to celebrate the holidays with people I haven't seen in months. What could be better than sitting with family and friends for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or watching neighbors children excitedly open gifts on Christmas? Even the first snowfall seems special. I especially enjoy seeing a bright red bird settling on a snow-covered branch. (My wife and I spend winters at a retirement community in Ridge, and I'm grateful that I don't have to shovel.)

    While these simple pleasures are not unique to Long Island, they are some of the reasons why I come back. Who says you can't go home?

Perhaps thousands of people have searched for a bronze chest full of gold and jewels hidden in the Rocky Mountains between Santa Fe and the Canadian border hidden by a millionaire adventurer. At least four people died in their search for the treasure.

But it's all over now. Fenn's Treasure has been found. The 89-year-old adventurer named Forrest Fenn, who created the treasure hunt, announced the news via his website. "I don't know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot," Fenn wrote. "The treasure was confirmed by a photograph the lucky finder sent me."

Forrest Fenn, the man who started the hunt, lives in Santa Fe. He was a pilot in the Vietnam War and later accumulated his wealth as a dealer in art and antiques. Fenn was diagnosed(诊断) with cancer in 1988 and had planned to die peacefully in the woods with his treasure. But when his cancer became less serious, he changed his plan, eventually writing the poem that described his dream resting place, which is where he hid the treasure. The poem appeared in a memoir called The Thrill of the Chase. Fenn said that the chest wouldn't be found by accident; only a treasure hunter who correctly interpreted the clues(线索) would find it.

Several treasure hunters went missing while attempting to find the chest, including hunter Jeff Murphy and Mike Petersen, both of whom went missing in Yellowstone National Park in 2017. Fenn said that he had never been to the Yellowstone National Park, and that the treasure was not in a dangerous place. "It was in the thick forest of the Rocky Mountains and had not been moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago," Fenn wrote on his website. It is illegal to remove anything from a national park, which would cause trouble in legally claiming the treasure if it was found there.