When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing oneperson. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.

Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.

        Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."

        Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.

    When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

    Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive（使人上瘾的） thing in modern life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their wishes to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

    With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away. It affects us in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined.

    Dr. Chris Knippers, an expert at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality.

    Sounds extreme, but we've all witnessed the evidence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?

    Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, he points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances(熟人) through the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

    If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. In 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use. Today, almost 300 million Americans carry them. The number of cell phones is far more than that of wired phones in the United States.

    Nola (August 21, 1974 -November 22, 2015) was a northern white rhino(犀牛) who lived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido, California. At her death, she was one of only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world. The other three lived in Kenya. World Rhino Day, held on September 2, is to raise awareness(意识) of the less than 30,000 other rhinos left on Earth.

    “Rhinos need our help today, not tomorrow,” Nola's lead keeper Jane Kennedy said. “Last year we lost over 1,200 rhinos just in South Africa. If we continue to lose more than 1,000 rhinos a year, in 10 to 20 years all the rhinos on the planet will be gone.”

    “Unfortunately, most animals are in danger of dying out because of humans,” Kennedy says.“ Humans have either poached animals, or because there are over seven billion of us, we've taken up too much of the world's resources ”. Poachers illegally hunt rhinos for their horns. They sell the horns for thousands of dollars per pound, to be used for art, jewelry, and decorations. Experts believe that one rhino is poached every eight hours.

    In 1975, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research started the Frozen Zoo, a program through which researchers have collected cell (细胞) samples from more than 8,000 different types of animals, including the northern white rhino. Scientists hope that by studying the rhino cells, they will get greater understanding of it, and will find ways to increase its numbers.

    Jane Kennedy describes World Rhino Day as “a celebration of rhinos along with an awareness campaign for everybody across the world to know that rhinos need our help.” At the San Diego Zoo, children and adults are welcome to visit and speak with zookeepers to learn about rhinos. But you don't have to live in San Diego to celebrate World Rhino Day. It is observed around the world, with zoos and wildlife parks holding special events and programs to teach people about rhinos, and enable them to see the animals up close. For more information, go to www.worldrhinoday.org.

    Sandi Patty has been a name synonymous (同义的) with Gospel music because of her singing ability since she released her first album in 1979.

    Patty's newest book. The Voice, takes a deep dive into parts of her life she's kept private for years. Surprisingly, The Voice is not primarily concerned with Patty's singing voice. Patty was always a talented singer. However, she struggled to find her inner voice and speak up for herself. "I was a shy kid. Words were hard for me," Patty said.

    One of the reasons why Patty found it so difficult to use her voice was a traumatic childhood experience. At age six, she was abused by a friend, an experience she opened up for the first time in the book.

    She is sharing the story of her experience now, hoping it will help other people feel less alone. "Feeling alone keeps everybody silent about the tough times in our lives, so we think we're the only ones," Patty said. She wrote in The Voice that she felt like it was her job to make everyone feel better.

    Friendships were essential for helping Patty find the courage to speak up. They reminded her that she didn't need to make others feel better because the people she loved didn't doubt she cared for them.

    Friends and family were crucial for helping Patty confront another struggle she faced—shame. She felt unpleasant for insecurities about her weight and her divorce. "I've heard it explain that guilt tells us we have done something wrong and shame says we are wrong," Patty said.

    "I want people to know that their stories and their voices matter," Patty said. "We have to figure out a way to take our pain away and put it where it needs to be, without letting it guide our lives. Pain is a part of our story. It describes us, but it doesn't need to define us."

    Do you have a talented young artist, photographer, or designer in your life? It's never too early to start helping them get their work out there! We've rounded up the top art competitions for kids and teens that can help these young creators share their first masterpiece with the world. Most of them are totally free to enter!

Global Canvas Children's Art Competition

    Ages: 16 and under Mediums: drawing, painting

    Organized by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, this art competition wants to inspire the next generation to be more mindful of how we take care of the earth. The judges are looking for artists to discover the wonderful places that wildlife calls home.

    Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

    Ages: 15 and under Mediums: drawing, painting

    Time to design a dream car! Toyota wants to get junior artists thinking about what the future of transportation might look like. Prizes include a chance to tour one of the Toyota car plants and experience various aspects of Japanese culture.

    Advena World Children's Art Competition

    Ages: 15 and under Mediums: drawing, painting, photos and other original artworks

    The competition aims to promote creativity and self-expression. Instead of a theme, it asks the participating artists to simply express their feelings—anything from sadness or joy to anger or excitement—through their chosen medium.

    Progressive Young Artists Awards

    Open to: high school and college students Mediums: drawing, painting, photograph, mixed media, sculpture

    PYAA is all about expressing and celebrating progressive values. So, if there is a creative teen in your life who wants to do good in the world, sign him or her up for this art competition. The prize is a scholarship that winners can put forwards their post-secondary schooling.

    Benjamin Franklin clearly knew how to get things done. After scanning the long list of Benjamin Franklin's achievements, one can only come to one conclusion that the American man probably never had a wasted day in his life. When he was 84 years old, he became a successful author, printer, politician, postmaster, inventor, musician, and diplomat.

    There's much we can learn from Benjarin Frankin's work habits and opinions on life that can increase our own productivity. Here are some ways Franklin overcame lazy, wasted days.

    Start a group and share knowledge. When Franklin was 21, he was a struggling printer in Philadelphia. To increase his connections and to learn more about his industry, he created a group. The group was in great need of books, but books were expensive. Franklin helped start a library where books were bought and lent to members. This sharing of knowledge, experience, and connections helped Franklin become a famous and respected printer in Philadelphia.

    Attack opportunities. "To succeed," Franklin wrote," jump as quickly at opportunities as you can." We can all agree, but when an opportunity comes we often look the other way. It's because the opportunity isn't dressed the way we expect. We often think that the opportunity was only in the form of a golden egg or a million-dollar lottery ticket or a new job offer. But more often than not, the opportunity comes in smaller, less beautiful packages.

    Time is something in short supply. Franklin wrote "Lost time is never found again." This may sound like it came from the pen of a poet, but it's really an inspirational call to action. Franklin worked, created, and lived knowing that time is scarce. He never put off his work.

    While Franklin was an able inventor we can be sure that his notebook contained a few unsuccessful ideas. Franklin wrote, "Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out."