In the depths of the French Guianese rainforest, there still remain unusual groups of indigenous(土著的) people. Surprisingly, these people live largely by their own laws and their own social customs. And yet, people in this area are in fact French citizens because it has been a colony(殖民地) of the French Republic since 1946. In theory, they should live by the French law is often ignored or unknown, thus making them into an interesting area of “lawlessness” in the world.

        The lives ofthese people have finally been recorded thanks to the effects of a Frenchman form Paris called Gin. Gin spent five months in early 2015 exploring the most remote corners of this area, which sits on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, with half its population of only 250,000 living in its capital, Cayenne.

“I have a special love for the French Guianese people. I have worked there on and off for almost ten years,” says Gin. “I've been able to keep firm friendships with them. Thus I have been allowed to gain access to their living environment. I don't see it as a lawless land. But rather I see it as an area of freedom.”

“I wantedto show the audience a photographic record touching upon the uncivilized life,” continues Gin. “I prefer to work in black and white, which allows me to show different specific worlds more clearly.”

His black-and-white pictures present a world almost lost in time. These pictures show people seemingly pushed into a world that they were unprepared for. These local citizens now have to balance their traditional self-supporting hunting lifestyle with the lifestyle offered by the modern French Republic, which brings with it not only necessary state welfare, but also alcoholism, betrayal and even suicide.

    When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not usually news. Rather, it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody pays heed to them. However, when the Lascaux cave complex was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and, most noticeably, horses, which appear in more than 300 wall images, by far outnumbering all other animals.

    Early artists drawing these animals achieved a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing steep walls or going on hands and knees into narrow passages in the Lascaux complex.

    Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed to the destructive action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.

    Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images have deteriorated and are hardly recognizable. To prevent further damage, the site was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.

    Recently, we have already shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.

    What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.

    Sea Level rise attributable to climate change-some of which is due to coastal subsidence(下沉) caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling-is more than half a foot(15cm) over the past few decades. That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.

    In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C(close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30C(86F) to 30.5C(87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures(30.5-31C, or 87-88F). There is a simple thermodynamic(热力学的) relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5C of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1C warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5C warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture(水分) in the atmosphere. That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.

    Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It's creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere. Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge.

    Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating(毁灭性的) storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to strike Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless flood, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft(1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done. The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change. More tenuous(微弱的), but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies(both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change.

    In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey, what we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

    In 1988, after being diagnosed with kidney cancer, Fenn, a high-end gallery owner, came up with a crazy plan: He would bury some of his favorite artifacts somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and then die next to them. "My desire was to hide the treasure and let my body stay there and go back to the soil," he explains.

    The contents are worth somewhere between $I million and $5 million. Then he took his treasure chest out into the Rockies and hid it.He wanted it to be found. But he wasn't going to just give it away.

    In 2010, Fenn self-published a book, The Thrill of the Chase, which includes a 24-line poem that Fenn claims contains nine clues that "will lead to my treasure."

    At first, nobody really noticed. But word spread, and the chase was on.(The book is now out of print, and copies show up on Amazon for as much as $3,200.) Fenn estimates that 350,000 people from across the globe have searched or are currently searching for his treasure. Yet nobody has found it.

    The problem with Fenn's poem is that the "clues" can be interpreted a million different ways. The "home of Brown," for instance, could be Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado, or Brown Hill in New Mexico. Or a cabin or a bear.(Don't laugh; several people have already looked.)

    "It's all in the poem," some have recently started sharing more details," and the treasure isn't in a mine, I mean, they have snakes in' em. It's between 5,000 feet and 10,200 feet above sea level. It's not in Canada or Idaho or Utah or a grave-yard."

    Why are Fenn's treasure hunters so into what seems like a ridiculous thing to do with their time? Many are quick to say that their lives have been enriched by their experiences. "It's changed us," Neitzel says. "made us more confident, and even saved our marriages. Nothing scares us anymore." They thank Fenn for giving them a reason to take a risk, for giving their lives meaning. Many claim that even if they found Fenn's chest, they wouldn't necessarily spend the money—and might even rehide the chest. Another hunter had this tantalizing insight: "I hope that I never find the treasure. The journey will be treasure enough."

    And so the hunt continues.

    A year back I received a full scholarship (奖学金) to attend the University of San Francisco. All of my hard work paid off. My mom had spent a lot on my attending a private high school, so I made sure to push myself: I volunteered, took part in various clubs, and graduated with honors. I was so excited to start a new part of my life.

    Soon enough, the big day came, but it wasn't like what I had thought. The first two weeks were the most difficult days of my entire life. Every night I would cry myself to sleep. I was missing my family, my home and everything in my hometown so much and I didn't know how to deal with my broken heart.

    To distract myself, I threw myself into my studies. I also found a ton of jobs. In any free time, I started forcing myself to go to the gym. I wanted to keep every part of my day busy so I wouldn't think about how lonely I felt. Soon after, I began to control my eating, considering it another solution to my homesickness(想家). But soon there was something wrong with me.

    Finally, I went to see a doctor. When the doctor told me I had no choice but to take time away from school, I started to fear. How could I stop? School was what I was best at. "I'm not so bad," I thought in my head. But the result was that I was taken to hospital again a month later and my mother came heartbrokenly. I had to take a semester off from school, and go to the treatment center near my home.

    If there are girls who are suffering similarly, I hope you know that there is hope and that you should have a positive attitude towards life. Though you may feel alone, there are so many people who can understand your struggle. That's why I want to share my story.

    Science has a lot of uses. It can uncover laws of nature, cure diseases, make bombs, and help bridges to stand up. Indeed science is so good at what it does that there's always a temptation(诱惑) to drag it into problems where it may not be helpful. David Brooks, author of The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, appears to be the latest in a long line of writers who have failed to resist the temptation.

    Brooks gained fame for several books. His latest book The Social Animal, however, is more ambitious and serious than his earlier books. It is an attempt to deal with a set of weighty topics. The book focuses on big questions: What has science revealed about human nature? What are the sources of character? And why are some people happy and successful while others aren't?

    To answer these questions, Brooks surveys a wide range of disciplines(学科). Considering this, you might expect the book to be a dry recitation of facts. But Brooks has structured his book in an unorthodox(非常规的), and perhaps unfortunate, way. Instead of introducing scientific theories, he tells a story, within which he tries to make his points, perhaps in order to keep the reader's attention. So as Harold and Erica, the hero and heroine in his story, live through childhood, we hear about the science of child development and as they begin to date we hear about the theory of sexual attraction. Brooks carries this through to the death of one of his characters.

    On the whole, Brooks' story is acceptable if uninspired. As one would expect, his writing is mostly clear and, to be fair, some chapters stand out above the rest. I enjoyed, for instance, the chapter in which Harold discovers how to think on his own. While Harold and Erica are certainly not strong or memorable characters, the more serious problems with The Social Animal lie elsewhere. These problems partly involve Brooks' attempt to translate his tale into science.