While dog keepers realize their dogs can read their moods accurately, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.

    For their study, biologist Corson Miller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half got their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.

    Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That's because the scientists believe humans show their emotions on their entire face.

    After some training like how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face. The researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.

    They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to withdraw quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer "game" that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.

    The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touchscreen models were all females, this confirmed what has been observed in previous studies—dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.

    I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive (连续的）days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁）calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

    At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的）woman said to me, “If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “If only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead.”

    You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

    There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.

    The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

    A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.

    The team I work in just has 2 new interns（实习生）, and I happen to be their supervisor.

    After today's lunch break, I saw that one of them was reading things on her smart-phone, maybe on some social network, I guessed. I went to her and said “There's another document here needing translation. Do you have time to finish it for me?”

    That document was not in her assigned workload. But I thought I could let her challenge herself a little bit with it, seeing that she seemed to have time.

    “Yes, I do have time.” She said, “But I'm just an intern.”

    I didn't quite know what to say back then. After a while I mumbled（咕哝） “Right. Yes.” And I turned around and left.

    I recalled the time when I was an intern for the first time. I, too, managed to finish my workload so fast, just like her. So I asked my supervisor “Is there anything else that I can help?” And she happened to have a plan to make. But she didn't have time. So she let me do the research and make a draft for her.

    I was not very familiar with the job but still tried to carry it out based on my understanding and make it as professional as possible. And my supervisor was really satisfied with the draft. Later, she told me “You saved me a lot of time. I didn't need to create it from scratch.” And she told me in details how I should have done the plan differently. I learned a lot about the operation in the process. After that, she had come to trust me completely. I got my current job all because of her recommendation.

    Yes, I was just an intern with a low salary. But I bought a better future with my extra labor.

    There's a kind of poverty called shortsightedness.

    A medical study has shown that excess(过度的)coffee drinking could cause heart attacks in people who do not metabolize(使新陈代谢)caffeine fast enough.

    The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says an enzyme(酶)that metabolizes caffeine in the liver works differently in some people, depending on the make­up of the gene(基因). People who have a slow version (版本)of the enzyme are at a greater risk(风险)of a heart attack when they drink more coffee. The risk had something to do with a person's age and how many cups of coffee he drinks.

    The team from the University of Toronto in Canada studied 4,024 people living in coffee­rich Costa Rica between 1994 and 2004, of whom half suffered non­fatal(非致命的)heart attacks. They found slightly more than half had the slow version of the gene, while the rest had the fast form.

    Two to three cups of coffee a day increased the possibilities of a heart attack by 36 percent for those with the slow­acting gene and four or more cups a day lifted it by 64 percent.

    But those under 50 who had the fast version of the gene had a lower risk of heart disease, even with four or more cups a day.

    Those with the fast­acting gene who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had 22 percent reduced possibilities of having a heart attack, but drinking four or more cups a day only lessened the risk by 1 percent. Scientists recommend limiting coffee consumption(消耗量)to within four cups a day.

Top Music Festivals

    Festival season is just kicking off, and there is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months.

    Pitchfork Music Festival

    Anyone who likes indie (独立的) music and up-and-coming artists will have an amazing time at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park. This is an indie rock heaven that explores more underground and lesser known bands than the other big Chicago summer festival, Lollapalooza.

    Date: July 14-16

    Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Music Type: Indie rock

    Price: $126- $2,700

    Essence Music Festival

    No matter what time of the year it is, New Orleans is an amazing place if you love live music. The Essence Music Festival is a celebration of well-known artists like Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, and Mary J.Blige.

    Date: June 29-July 2

    Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Music Type: R& B, soul, rock

    Price: $75-$365

    Sziget Festival

    Budapest knows how to hold a party, and Sziget is one of the biggest celebrations of music and culture in all of Europe. You can expect to find favorite artists like Bad Religion and Mac DeMarco playing here during this three day festival.

Date: August 9-11

    Location: Budapest, Hungary

    Music Type: Eclectic, Indie rock

    Price: $70-$296

    Flow Festival

    The Flow Festival is a great excuse to explore the city of Helsinki. Artists including Lana Del Rey and The XX will be playing, among many others. Come to this festival to enjoy yourselves with an earth-friendly belief.

    Date: August 11-13, 2018

    Location Helsinki, Finland

    Music Type: Rock, soul, jazz

    Price: $106-$199

    I have a story about raising free-range (自由放养) kids. This past Columbus Day, my husband and I went fishing with some friends on their boat while our10 and 8-year-old kids were in school. We left the house all at the same time, about 7 a. m. My children walked to and from school every day and we knew they would be OK for a couple hours by themselves anyway. We told them to go home after school and we would be home around 4 p. m.

    We live on the Gulf Coast, and since it was a beautiful day, all of the adults decided to go fishing off-shore. At around 2 p. m. after a good harvest from the sea, we started back to the shore and unfortunately after some time, we ran out of gas. We were out of cellphone service, and what was even worse was that 911 wasn't working. We didn't have a radio either. Therefore, we were stuck waiting for someone to pass by. We were out there until 10 p. m. All the while my children were at home, expecting us to return shortly after they got home. At about 7 p. m. , when it was getting dark, my 10-year-old daughter thought something might be wrong so she walked to each house on the street until someone answered the door and asked the person what they should do. This was how we were finally found by the game warden (管理员) on the coast and "rescued".

    Talking with that neighbor the next day, I was never so proud of my children. This neighbour explained to me, "What calmness both of your children showed when explaining the situation and how impressed I was with your children seeking help, even though they didn't know me." I never doubted him for a minute, though next time we go fishing we'll monitor the gas more carefully.