Raised in a fatherless home, my father was extremely tightfisted towards us children. His attitude didn't soften as I grew into adulthood and went to college. I had to ride the bus whenever I came home. Though the bus stopped about two miles from home, Dad never met me, even in severe weather. If I grumbled, he'd say in his loudest father-voice, “That's what your legs are for!” The walk didn't bother me as much as the fear of walking alone along the highway and country roads. I also felt less than valued that my father didn't seem concerned about my safety. But that feeling was canceled one spring evening.

    It had been a particularly difficult week at college after long hours in labs. I longed for home. When the bus reached the stop, I stepped off and dragged my suitcase to begin the long journey home.

    A row of hedge（树篱）edged the driveway that climbed the hill to our house. Once I had turned off the highway to start the last lap of my journey, I always had a sense of relief to see the hedge because it meant that I was almost home. On that particular evening, the hedge had just come into view when I saw something gray moving along the top of the hedge, moving toward the house. Upon closer observation, I realized it was the top of my father's head. Then I knew, each time I'd come home, he had stood behind the hedge, watching, until he knew I had arrived safely. I swallowed hard against the tears. He did care, after all.

    On later visits, that spot of gray became my watchtower. I could hardly wait until I was close enough to watch for its secret movement above the greenery. Upon reaching home, I would find my father sitting innocently in his chair. “So! My son, it's you!” he'd say, his face lengthening into pretended surprise.

      I replied, “Yes, Dad, it's me. I'm home.”

    New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern of Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main lands—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Maui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu, and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometers east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometers south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. The country's varied topography（地形）and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while the city that has the largest population is Auckland.

    Polynesians settled in the islands that were to become New Zealand somewhere between 1250 and 1300 AD, and developed a unique Maori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer became the first European to sight New Zealand In 1840, representatives of the British Crown（王室） and Maori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent(血统), and the indigenous(土著的) Maori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly originated from Maori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Maori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant(主要的).

    New Zealand is a developed country with a market economy that mainly consists of the exports of dairy products, meat and wine, along with tourism. New Zealand is a high-income economy and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life.

    A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.

    “It's extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components,” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing the components together. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.

    They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, and then has to be matched well to everything it's connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.

    Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”

    Emily Temple-Wood was 12 years old the first time she was bullied(欺凌) online. They left ugly comments on her Wikipedia and Facebook pages about her looks “that would make my mother's hair curl.” says Temple-Wood, now 22 and in medical school. The reason? “I was a woman on the Internet,” she said.

    Over the years, she considered how she might take revenge(复仇). Then, as a freshman in college, it hit her: “What do misogynists (men who hate women) hate most?” she asked herself. “Women who are productive!” Her solution: For every rude comment she received, Temple-Wood would post a biography(传记) of a woman scientist, and thus, in 2012, Wiki Project Women Scientists was born. She wrote about her heroes, like Barbara McClintock, who received the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Caroline Still Anderson, one of the first African American women to become a doctor in the United States, in the late 1800s. With help from other women, many of them scientists who have also been bullied online, Temple-Wood has published hundreds of these biographies and women of all ages have taken notice.

    “When I was a kid, I could count the number of women scientists I knew about on one hand,” wrote Siko Bouterse, who used to work for the Wikimedia Foundation. “But our daughters have the chance to get much more knowledge about scientists who look like them because of Emily.

    The ugly comments still come, says Temple-Wood. Being a strong woman online is not easy. “We all have days when we break down and need to have a glass of wine,” she says. “I tell people who are being bullied that it's OK to be sad. But now you need to find a productive way to take revenge.”

    A new study warns that about thirty percent of the world's people may not have enough water by the year 2025.

    A private American organization called Population Action International did the new study. It says more than 335 million people lack enough water now. The people live in 28 countries. Most of the countries are in Africa or the Middle East.

    P-A-I researcher Robert Engelman says by the year 2025, about 3,000 million people may lack water. At least 18 more countries are expected to have severe water problems. The demand for water keeps increasing. Yet the amount of water on the earth stays the same.

    Mr. Engelman says the population in countries that lack water is growing faster than in other parts of the world. He says population growth in these countries will continue to increase.

    The report says lack of water in the future may result in several problems. It may increase health problems. Lack of water often means drinking water is not safe. Mr Engelman says there are problems all over the world because of diseases, such as cholera, which are carried in water. Lack of water may also result in more international conflict. Countries may have to compete for water in the future. Some countries now get sixty percent of their fresh water from other countries. This is true of Egypt, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Syria, Sudan, and Iraq. And the report says lack of water would affect the ability of developing to improve their economies. This is because new industries often need a large amount of water when they are beginning.

    The Population Action International study gives several solutions to the water problem. One way, it says, is to find ways to use water for more than one purpose. Another way is to teach people to be careful not to waste water. A third way is to use less water of agriculture.

    The report also says long-term solutions to the water problem must include controls on population growth. It says countries cannot provide clean water unless they slow population growth by limiting the number of children people have.

    Play is vital in every child's development, and for toddlers(蹒跚学步的小孩) the benefits of play especially come to life when they can connect with parents during playtime. To raise awareness and help parents create the time and attention span needed, LEGO and DUPLO launches a "Do not disturb playtime '' campaign. 21 days is what it takes on average to break a habit, so for 21 days the LEGO DUPLO team will not post on social media during "toddler playtime", defined as 5am-8pm.

    With social media being an integrated(不可或缺的) part and creative inspiration to modern family life, it is no surprise that researchers call out digital behavior as a concerning obstacle to quality playtime.

    "While we are hooked on our cell phones, we should think about turning them off when interacting with our young children. Kids learn so much from us and we don't want to get in the way of that. Take language learning for example. When nurturing caregivers talk to their children about what they are interested in, it helps them learn new words and new ways to express themselves. Our research shows that the use of a cell phone in a conversation between parent and child disturbs that child's word learning." advises Roberta Golinkoff, PhD: Professor, University of Delaware.

    Our research shows that parents today understand their significant role in ensuring their kids grow up to be happy, well-rounded, and equipped for the future. At the same time, many worry about not spending enough time with their toddlers. LEGO DUPLO wants to inspire parents to make the small moments memorable.

    "We know parents today feel more time-starved than ever before. Many feel guilty over not spending enough time with their little ones. Through the 'Do not disturb playtime' campaign, we hope to re-assure parents that it's not so much of the amount of time they spend with their kids, but the small meaningful moments they create during play", said Steffen Jensen, LEGO Group Senior Marketing Director.