Discovering Tasmania

    The island of Tasmania is separated from mainland Australia by the Bass Strait. The island is a place of natural beauty and has more than 2,000 km of walking tracks and 18 national parks. If you go on a tour, you'll discover a wild and beautiful place where the people are friendly and the food is delicious. If you don't like walking, there are other tours you can choose from including a river cruise and cycling. You can also combine your tour with fishing, sailing or sunbathing on the beach. 

    One of the most incredible places to walk is along the Tarkine coast which is located in the north-west of Tasmania. It's such a wild and remote area that you can easily complete your walk without seeing anyone apart from the members of your group and your two guides. The area contains the largest temperate rainforest in Australia which is home to more than 50 endangered species. It is also home to many Aboriginal Heritage Sites. Your guides will provide you with plenty of information about the area as you complete that part of your tour. During your tour, you'll come across rivers, mountain ranges, spectacular waterfalls, wildlife and long wild beaches. It will be an experience you won't easily forget. 

Tour Itinerary:

Day 1:

    You're picked up from your hotel in the town of Launceston and driven to the Tarkine. You then complete a three-hour walk through the forest before arriving at your camp at Mystery Creek. There you will enjoy a delicious meal cooked by your guides.

Day 2:

    After breakfast, you continue deeper into the rainforest, passing some of the tallest trees in the world as you go, and stopping for lunch and then camp in the evening.

Day 3:

    The highlight of today's hike is the Tarkine Falls, a beautiful 15-metre waterfall.

Day 4:

    Today you can stay at the camp and bathe in the Tarkine Falls, or you can go for a day hike for more fantastic views of the forest.

Day 5:

    After a last hike through the forest, you are picked up at about 4:00 p.m. and you arrive in Launceston at around 7:00 p.m.

    The tour includes two professional guides, transport to and from the rainforest, all food while on the tours and all safety equipment. You should buy or hire recommended camping equipment including: backpacks, sleeping bags, sleep mats, head torches, rain coats and trousers.

Revolutionary TV Ears

    TV Ears has helped thousands of people with various degrees of hearing loss hear the television clearly without turning up the volume(音量) and now it's better and more affordable than ever! With TV Ears wireless technology, you set your own headset volume, while other TV listeners hear the television at a volume level that's comfortable for them. You can even listen through the headset only and put the TV on mute(静音) if the situation calls for a quiet environment —maybe the baby is sleeping. Or perhaps you are the only one who is interested in listening to the ballgame.

    TV Ears patented(有专利权的) technology includes a revolutionary noise reduction ear tip, not used in any other commercially available headset. This tip reduces outside noise so that television dialogue is clear and understandable. Get the technology that has proven to help the most demanding customers. That's why TV Ears has earned the trust and confidence of audiologists(听觉学家) nationwide as well as world-famous doctors.

Doctor Recommended TV Ears!

    “My wife and I have used TV Ears almost daily for the past two years and find them a great help in our enjoyment of television . As a retired ear doctor, I heartily recommend TV Ears to people with normal hearing as well as those with hearing loss.”

    — Robert Forbes, M. D, CA

    Customer Recommended TV Ears!

    “Now my husband can have the volume as loud as he needs and I can have the TV at my hearing level. TV Ears is so comfortable that Jack forgets he has them on ! He can once again hear and understand the dialogue.”

    — Darlene & Jack B, CA

    Risk Free Trial! TV Ears comes with a 30-day risk free trial.

    Special Offer — Now ＄59.95.

    If you're not satisfied, return it.

    Money-back guarantee!

    Call now! 800-123-7832

    Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it's because we have mirror neurons (神经元) in our brains.

    Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate it, whether or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further: mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions, they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.

    Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains, but especially in the area which relate to our ability to use languages, and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to (for example: “The hand took hold of the ball”), the same mirror neurons were triggered as when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).

    Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much research suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.

    Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information concerning how humans behave and interact. Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent for neuroscience of what Einstein's theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does-well, perhaps you'll understand why.

The Rapid Rise and Fall of Robot Babysitters

    During the winter of 2017, an 18-year old college student named Canon Reeves spent much of his time trailing a knee-high robot around Fayetteville, Arkansas, as it delivered Amazon packages to students. The robot, created by a start-up called Starship Technologies in 2014, is basically a cooler on wheels; it uses radars, sensors, and nine cameras to make deliveries. Reeves's job was to monitor how it handled various grounds, field comments from the public, and press the off switch if necessary. He said, "People would also ask if it could deliver beer." It couldn't.

    Broadly speaking, jobs of caring for robots fall under the umbrella of careers in automation, which include maintenance, engineering and programming. The demand for people with this skill set is considerable, with 20 million to 50 million new jobs to be expected in this category by 2030, according to the Mckinsey Global Institute. In the year that ended in June 2018, Indeed.com had almost three times the number of positions on the recruitment committee that ended in June 2016.

    Over the last year, a 34-year-old businessman named David Rodriguez spent hundreds of hours following a machine called the KiwiBot around UC Berkeley's campus while it delivered Red bull and other drinks to students. To retrieve (检索) orders, the app encourages students to give the robot a wave; the robot's digital eyes will roll depending on its mood. Rodriguez, who heads business development for the start-up, was tasked, early on, with monitoring the KiwiBot for problems – even carrying it, should the motors fail. Since April 2018, though, the KiwiBot has largely been left unattended, and the majority of human interactions involve technical checks and loading food into the robot. To eliminate the boring work, the team is developing a restaurant robot to collect and load orders – which could happen in 2020. However, Rodriguez assured me that his staff won't be out of work. Everyone holds double roles in the company. Greater robot self-governing just means employees will shift their focus to accounting, engineering, and design.

    Mckinsey estimates that millions of jobs globally could be lost to automation by 2030. "A huge number of jobs will be produced as autonomous vehicles are released into the environment," Ramsey said. In 2016, Bosch started training students from Schoolcraft College, a community college in Michigan, in autonomous-vehicle repair; Toyota has trained students in maintenance as well. "We might even see a return to low-level jobs where people come and fuel the car for you," Ramsey said. "Until we can wirelessly charge, someone needs to refuel them." The hardest-to-automate industries, as it happens, are the ones that require looking after humans, such as childcare, education and health care. Robot babysitters might feel like they have scored the job of the future, but in fact, they might be better positioned.

Labor Day Weekend at Paramount Pictures Studios

    This Labor Day weekend, join the Los Angeles Times for 3 evenings of amazing food, wine and chef experiences. Dozens of hand-picked local restaurants each evening will showcase our city's rich and diverse cooking scene by serving you their best. Taste and celebrate Southern California's most inviting food and drink. Your ticket is all-inclusive and is good for unlimited food, beer, wine & spirits tastings, plus all stage activities.

    PLEASE NOTE: ALL EVENTS AT THE TASTE ARE 21 YEARS AND OLDER ONLY AND ALL SALES ARE FINAL.

    A VIP Access level ticket gets you:

    • Convenient and free parking inside the Paramount Pictures gates (savings of $15)

    • Access to furnished lounge during the entire event

    • Behind the scenes tour of Paramount Pictures Studios

    • First in the door access to the main event

    Due to the nature of this event, we are not able to offer refunds.

SCHEDULE

    Friday, August 31: 7: 30 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Saturday, September 1: 8: 00 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Sunday, September 2: 8: 00 p. m.-10: 30p. m.

    Make sure to also save the date for our new Costa Mesa weekend of Los Angeles Times The Taste on October 19 to 21. Details here.

    Twenty years ago, most experts believed that differences in how boys and girls behaved were mainly due to differences in how they were treated by their parents, teachers, and friends. It's hard to cling to that belief today. Recent research has shown that there are biological differences between boys and girls. Understanding these differences is important in raising and educating children.

    For example, girls are born with more sensitive hearing than boys, and the difference increases as kids grow up. So when a grown man speaks to a girl in what he thinks is a normal voice, she may hear it as yelling. Conversely (反过来), boys who appear to be inattentive in class may just be sitting too far away too hear the teacher.

    Likewise, girls are better in their expression of feelings. Studies reveal that negative emotions are seated in an area of the brain called the amygdala. Girls develop all early connection between this area and the cerebral cortex (大脑皮层), enabling them to talk about their feelings. In boys these links develop later. So if you ask a troubled adolescent boy to tell you what his feelings are, he often cannot say much.

    Dr. Sax, an advocate of single-sex education, points out that keeping boys and girls separate in the classroom has yielded striking educational, social, and interpersonal benefits. Therefore, parents and teachers should try to recognize, understand, and make use of the biological differences that make a girl a girl, and a boy a boy.