Check out some fun weekend activities from our friends at Arizona Parenting.

    Walk in the Wild: Walk or run for wildlife at the Phoenix Zoo's Walk in the Wild 2016. Put on your favorite animal dress and take part in the one mile or 5K,enjoying the sights and sounds of the Zoo. Walk in the Wild includes a morning full of unique activities you won't find at any other valley walk, including all-day zoo admission and a lakeside after-party. Register online. 6-10 am. Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix. 602-286-3800.

    Free Museum Day: It is hosted by Sesame Street and HBO at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. Kids can participate in activities, enjoy a performance by the Sesame Street Muppets and get to join the Everyday Heroes Club. An act of kindness is all it takes to become a member. Performances and activities will take place at 10:30—11:30 am and 1:30—2:30 pm.9 am—4 pm. Children's Museum of Phoenix, 215 N. 7th street, Phoenix. 602-253-0501.

    Sunday A'Fair: Sunday A'Fair features free outdoor concerts in Scottsdale Civic Center Park by top Arizona musicians, along with an arts-and-crafts market, fun activities for children and families, guided tours of the sculptures in the park and free admission to Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA). Guests are invited to bring blankets, lawn chairs or picnic baskets, and enjoy a relaxing afternoon of great entertainment. Delicious foods, snacks, beer, wine and soft drinks are also available for purchase.12-4 pm. Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 E. 2^nd St., Scottsdale. 480-994-ARTS (2787).

    There's no doubt that man is the smartest. But do you know what other animals are smart, too?

    Dolphins

    Dolphins are very smart. Most of the “tricks” they're taught to do are actually behavior they would engage in on their own. They love to play, race and generally enjoy their life to the fullest. They speak a language we have yet to completely understand and like all civilized creatures, dolphins' mothers always provide their young children with guidance and possibly, love.

    Great apes

    The great ape family primarily consists of gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans. Their brain chemistry is so similar to humans' that NASA once used chimpanzees in place of astronauts during many dangerous missions. Gorillas have been taught sign language and orangutans exist in complex familial relationships.

    Elephants

    Everyone has heard the phrase “an elephant never forgets”. Elephants establish long-term friendships, recognizing and remembering their friends years later. If an elephant comes upon a fallen friend, it has even been known to feel sad.

    Parrots

    As proved by this list, parrots are very smart. They are also the only animals listed that can actually hold a conversation. Some parrots know hundreds of words by imitating humans. The birds are also capable of remembering words and using them intelligently in response to situations.

    I now work 40 hours a week at a weather company and I love it Compared to when I became a mom, I don't feel bad about being away from my three kids. When I had my first child, I was a busy manager. My husband had a part-time job and cared for her the rest of the time. Once I became pregnant with my second kid, I quit my job to focus fully on writing.

    At first I felt like I was living the dream. I was a work-from-home mom who never had to be away from my children. But working from home can end up being more stressful than working full-time or being a stay-at-home mom.because you're frequently exhausted between work, keeping house and telling sweet faces you don't have time to play. Ever tried writing an article with a baby screaming? It was awful.

    I was so stressed that I eventually started taking my kids to 8 day care center a couple of days a week. The whole reason I worked so hard to be able to write for a living was to be at home with my kids and here I was taking them to a day care center.I thought I was a failure then.

    Over the past five years of being a freelancer(自由作家), I've realized a couple of things. As I wrote six months  ago, "I though I felt bad leaving my daughter for ten hours a day but now she is old enough to ask me to read her a story .Try telling your kid no, 20 times a day. It's cruel. You end up feeling worse for having to ignore them." I also realize not socializing with people weren't good for my mental well-being.

    Not only that, but I can now show my kids that Mom is important and has a job at a flashy office building, something they didn't realize when1 sat around in yoga pants typing on my computer all day long.

    Shree Bose is one of the most impressive kids graduating from Fort Worth Country Day High School this year. Bose has a large circle of friends, and there's one who you may have heard of: President Obama. He has twice publicly recognized her achievements in cancer research and spoken with her in the Oval Office.

    If that isn't enough, Bose recently gave a TED Talk about her work with the cancer drug Cisplatin, which also won her first prize at the Google Science Fair and recognition as one of Glamour magazine's Young Amazing Women of the Year.

    After watching her grandfather struggle with liver cancer, Bose was determined to help out in any way she could. As a high school student though, her scientific choices were limited. She reached out to various hospitals and research centers, but doctors turned down her requests because they felt she was too inexperienced medically.

    Only the North Texas Science Health Center respected her determination and chose to guide her. The results were amazing.

    Bose chose to study a protein (蛋白质) and its reaction with the cancer drug Cisplatin. She noticed that when she prevented this protein from growing, Cisplatin was allowed to begin destroying cancer cells once again.

    “My project not only contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the protein and Cisplatin, but also suggests a newer, more effective treatment for patients who resist Cisplatin,” Bose said.

    Bose's achievements aren't limited to the lab, though. She was also captain of her swim team and editor-in-chief of her school paper.

    Bose is currently getting practical experience at the National Institute of Health and she'll be attending Harvard in the fall. She plans to study molecular biology and go to medical school. Eventually, she would like to be a doctor.

The hottest cities in the world

    The locations below are the hottest and also travel destinations on the planet.

    Bangkok

    According to the data, Bangkok is the hottest city on the planet﹣not because of any particularly impressive high temperatures, but because it is consistently hot all the year round. The city has an average annual temperature of 29℃, coupled with high dampness and an average of 128rainy days per year; while the highest temperature on record is 40℃.

    Timbuktu, Mali

    Located on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, the African city of Timbuktu is similar to everything remote. It's also one of the hottest cities in the world, with a hot, dry climate offering record highs of 49℃. Throughout April, May and June, average maximum temperatures are beyond 40℃. Modern﹣day Timbuktu is slowly being swallowed by the desert and is certainly a shadow of the trade center that it once was.

    Ahvaz, Iran

    Built on the bank of the Karun River, Ahvaz is an industrial city with average highs of around 46℃ during July, its warmest month. The city's record high is 54℃, making it one of the world's hottest cities during the summer. Frequent sand and dust storms and an absence of rain from July to September mix with its sky﹣high temperatures.

    Kuwait City

    The wealthy capital of Kuwait is another competitor for the title of the world's hottest summertime city with average highs of over 45℃ from June to August. Nightfall brings little respite（缓解）, with after﹣dark low temperatures often over 30℃ during the summer months. Kuwait City's record high is 52℃, while it rains on an average of just 19 days per year.

    Half a year ago I came across a book called "Salt, Sugar and Fat. How the Food Giants Hooked US", but finished it only recently. I am far from being a fan of junk food, over-salty, or over-sweet stuff, and honestly this food doesn't appeal to me at all. Maybe it is related to the fact that I grew up in Russia and at that time we were not so exposed to the foreign, especially made in America foods. We knew Coca Cola, Pepsi, juice powder and Cheetos, but this stuff was not so cheap or available to buy it every day and we couldn't buy them in large quantities. We didn't know the word "fat" was not a bad thing but a normal of life for some people. We always had sweets and especially on holidays they were served as a dessert along with a cake. Russians like eating sweets when they drink tea. Even with my passion to desserts I still can't relate myself to the people Michale Moss was writing about, those consumers who could not say “no” when it came to junk food.

    What I found interesting in the book was that the author didn't focus on diets, necessity to exercise, sleep well at night and all other things we all are pretty aware of. The aim was not to teach people how to live but instead, after having made a huge research, interviewed more than 100 people in the food industry, Moss reveals the ugly of the food business. It puts all the facts in front of us and offers a choice: to buy or not to buy. However, the answer was known at the very beginning. Moss mentions the well-known food like Coca, Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and some others and tells how skillfully the consumers can be cheated when it comes to choosing what to put in the food basket in the supermarket. We like this taste of a chocolate, the crispy chips, and sweet porridges because it was all put on test by groups of scientists who made experiments to reveal what kind of taste will be most appealing to us. It involves brain, of course. Apart from scientific researches, it was also due to successful marketing strategies and plans that people prefer to buy food.

    In this companies' money race, the most vulnerable(易受伤害的)victims are kids. They can't tell good from bad and love everything that makes them feel good. Commercial ads of fast food particularly targeted kids and played on the fact that mothers can't fully control what their children eat because they spent all day at work. Mothers themselves buy chocolates bars and com flakes for their kids, guided by a powerful brainwashing that actually, these products were not unhealthy, on the contrary, it was encouraged to give them to kids, because fat and sugar provide energy, so they are good, right?

    Giving a credit to some food companies, they made attempts to fight the trend, but consumers, who already worked a habit of eating too salty, too fatting and too sweet products, didn't react to the changes. So the companies returned to the old policy. Surprisingly, such behavior was strongly backed up by the government.

    I would definitely recommend reading this book not only to those who struggle in the battle with his addiction to fast food but also people living healthily. It casts light on many things, including how vulnerable we can be in front of corporations and their powerful and accurate marketing strategies.