Many blind people use guide dogs to help them get safely from place to place and to warn them of danger. But what can blind people do if they are allergic(过敏的) to dogs or just don't like them? For these people, they can turn to the Guide Horse Foundation.

    Janet and Don Burleson founded(成立) the organization in 1999. They began training miniature horses to help guide blind people. Miniature horses look just like common horses, only much smaller. They are generally less than 34 inches tall.

    Cuddles was the foundation's first guide horse in full service. She became 45-year-old Dan Shaw's helper. Shaw has an eye disease and his sight is very poor. One night, while filling out a form to get a guide dog, Shaw heard a news story on TV about people training horses to guide the blind. Shaw loves horses and wanted a guide animal that would live a long time. So he applied(申请)，and a year later, Cuddles and Shaw began training as a team.

    On a trip to New York, Cuddles helped Shaw safely visit many places of interest .They even traveled on a boat and on the subway system.

    Shaw says that he is very lucky to have Cuddles. He believes that Cuddles has changed his life for the better by giving him the chance to do things himself and making him feel much more confident about himself.

    A great French writer says that we should help everyone as much as possible because we often need help ourselves. The small even can help the great. Then he tells a simple story. An ant is drinking at a small stream and falls in. She tries to reach the side but makes no progress at all. The poor ant, almost exhausted, is still doing her best when a bird sees her. Moved with pity the bird throws a blade of grass into the water. It supports(支撑) the ant like a boat, and the ant reaches the bank. When she is having a rest in the grass, she sees a man walking along barefooted and carrying a gun in his hand. He wants to kill the bird nearby. When he raises his gun to fire, the ant bites him in the foot. So he stops to look down and the bird flies away quickly. It is an animal much weaker and smaller than herself that has saved her life.

    Everyone should choose the right hair dryer for fine hair, because an unsuitable hair dryer can damage our hair. You can buy hair dryers from a recognized discount store or from online discount stores. If not, it is always better to buy it from a reliable and well-known beauty store in your area. Here are some of the top products.

    Conair iSeries Infiniti Hair Dryer

    It is designed with the technology which is quite useful for less curly and more manageable hair. Some other features of this hair dryer include 3 heat and 2 speed settings, a foldable handle and removable filter(过滤器). It also comes with 2 years' guarantee. The average cost of it is around $38.

    Click here for more information.

    Sedu Revolution Pro 6000i Dryer

    This is the latest model of dryers from Sedu, and comes with powerful air flow.

    It is one of the most popular professional dryers in the market. It comes with 6 heat settings, a long-lasting AC motor and the instant cold shot button. This dryer has 2 years' guarantee and is available at $160.

    Click here for more information.

    CHI Nano Dual Air Flow Hair Dryer

    It is lightweight hair dryer that comes with infrared(红外线的)technology indicator lights and a noise-free speed motor. This hair dryer also comes with a year's guarantee. The average cost of it is around $255.

    Click here for more information.

    BabylissPro Carrera 2 Hair Dryer

    If you want a hair dryer which helps achieve smooth and curly-free hair, then BabylissPro Carrera 2 Hair Dryer is a good choice. It has compact(简洁的)design and various powerful styling features. This dryer is available at $100.

    Click here for more information.

    To protect your hair, remove the excess (过多的)water with a towel before using the dryer. Work on the lowest setting, as more heat can cause damage to the hair. Whenever drying your hair, you should keep moving the hair dryer.

    It was only -28℃ when we landed in Siberia. That was cold enough to make breathing difficult. Five minutes later, I asked for a second pair of gloves and pulled my scarf tight over my nose and mouth. Clearly, I was a complete beginner to this. At the bus station, Mikhail laughed when we asked him why he wasn't freezing. He had spent the whole day outside only with his fur hat and a sheepskin coat for warmth. It was mid-afternoon and icicles（冰柱）were hanging from his beard.

    In Siberia, there's a belief that enough vodka（伏特加酒）will save you from the cold. However, it's wrong. The local hospital is crowded. Even here, icicles are hanging down on the inside of the windows, though the heating is at full power. The doctors are too busy to talk to us.

    The winter here is cruel —and this one is especially so. After her work as a teacher, Natasha Fillipova comes home. It is a freezing house. She shows us the bedroom — where ice has built up on the inside walls. One night, Natasha washed her hair before going to bed. When she woke up, it was frozen hard to the wall. Now the children are doing their homework in the bathroom — the only room warm enough to sit in. Natasha doesn't want to complain. But she is angry with the government and the architects for building terrible houses.

    The houses here are supposed to stand up to -40℃, but they don't. And her children are ill with coughs and colds. Of course, Natasha's anger is brief, and she seems embarrassed about it. According to her, Siberians are used to the cold weather. People here prefer to depend on themselves and the knowledge that spring will come in the end.

Baths in Japan

    In many western countries people do not bathe (沐浴) every day. Sometimes they bathe only once a week. Sometimes they bathe two or three times a week. They do not bathe often because the weather is cold or because hot water is expensive. They use electricity or wood to boil the water. Electricity and wood cost a lot of money. In cold countries people usually do not feel they are dirty if they do not have a bath.

    In Japan people bathe very often. Most people have a bath every day. When the weather is hot they sometimes have two or three baths a day. They bathe in very hot water. Usually the water is almost boiling. They believe that these very hot baths also stop them from falling ill.

    Each house has its own bathroom but there are also big bathhouses for everybody. They are found everywhere in Japan. In the bathhouse there is one part for men and one part for women. The bath is usually three meters wide, three meters long and about one meter deep: halfway down there is a narrow (狭窄的) seat that goes all the way around the bath. Many people use the bath but it is not dirty. Before a person gets into the big bath, they wash themselves first, and then get into the big bath. The person stays there for a short time. When they get out of the bath, they wash their body with soap and water. After the soap is all washed away, the person gets into the big bath again. Soap is not used in the big bath.

    The water in the big bath is changed quite often. The water is also very hot. In some places people hit the water with sticks first. They do this to make the water cooler. Then the men get into the bath very slowly and carefully. When a man gets into a bath, he says. "Excuse me." He does this because most of the hot water comes directly out of the ground. In other places people boil the water with a big fire. In a small bath at home sometimes people light a fire under the bath. When the water is hot, people in the family take a bath one by one.

Nick Torrance, a junior in high school, suffers from muscular dystrophy, and attends school in a specialized wheelchair. The muscle disease prevents him from accomplishing many everyday tasks, such as carrying his books and putting things away in his locker. So he had a fellow student assigned to help him. But Amy Smith, the school's occupational therapist, thought that being able to do something simple like opening his locker on his own would be empowering.

Amy initially thought they would be able to buy a device to help. But searching online turned up nothing that could meet their needs—everything needed a keycode or some other physical action, things her disabled student couldn't do. After the outside search for a method came up short, she looked within the school itself for an answer. Amy turned to the school's robotics instructor.

The instructor, in turn, suggested that two of his most capable students take on the project: Micah Stuhldreher and Wyatt Smrcka. They took first place in a national robotics competition, so they were a natural choice to tackle the locker door problem with a robotics solution. Micah and Wyatt wasted no time getting down to work and for an hour each school day, the boys brainstormed, built, and rebuilt various versions of the device until they landed on the perfect solution one year later.

Like in any device development, it took a lot of trial and error for Micah and Wyatt to make something that would work for their target audience. For example, they initially built a locker-opening button, but Nick wasn't strong enough to push it, so they replaced it with a sensor.

Now, between classes Nick steers his electric wheelchair to his locker and waves his hand over a sensor on the arm of the wheelchair. A few seconds later, the locker door swings open. Another wave closes the door. Nick can make it with ease—it may be a small thing, but it gives him a sense of independence.