What Will Be Done-With All This Denim?

    All the denim (牛仔布) will be donated to Cotton From Blue to Green, which recycles jeans into UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation (纤维隔热材料), which is used to help build houses in places that have been damaged by hurricanes and other natural disasters. Your jeans will help keep clothes out of landfills (垃圾场), and build houses for families to live in! UltraTouch is made of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, natural cotton fiber insulation.

It's a Fact

    It takes about 500 pairs of jeans to recycle enough denim to insulate one average-size U.S house.

Here's How You Can Get Involved!

1). Get a parent's permission and select as many denim jeans as you like. (Any denim clothing is OK)

2). The denim must be used.

3). The denim can be any brand.

4). The denim can be any color or size but must have been worn by a human (no doll clothes!).

5). Jeans must be received by June 30, 2017.

    By donating denim, you can give it a “new life” by converting it into UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation. Click here for more information about the denim drive.

    UltraTouch is composed of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, non- itch natural cotton fiber insulation. For more information about UltraTouch, click here.

    Dry Ice is a unique substance which has many uses. Essentially, dry ice is frozen CO2. The first report of what we now call dry ice came from the French chemist Charles Thilorier in 1834. In 1924, the Drylee Corporation of America named the solid form of CO2 as "Dry Ice", which is what it is popularly called today.

    At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2changes directly from solid to gas. It skips the liquid phase（阶段）which makes regular ice wet. Frozen CO2is also much colder than regular ice. But regular ice freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, CO2 changes from gas to solid at -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This extremely cold temperature makes it very dangerous to handle with bare hands. It can cause frostbite in a very short period of time.

    Dry ice has been used for a variety of purposes throughout the past century. Its primary use is to refrigerate food when electrical refrigeration isn't available. Through the process of sublimation (when CO2 changes from solid to gas), it can maintain cold food for a long time.

    If you've ever been to a play and seen heavy fog on the ground, it is likely that you have seen dry ice in action. This effect can be achieved because CO2 is heavier than air, so evaporated （挥发的）CO2 will sink and accumulate on the ground.

    Another interesting use for this substance is to bait（诱杀）insects like mosquitoes. These insects have sensors which guide them to CO2. They find the high concentration of CO2 in dry ice quite attractive.

    Mars has long been a mystery for human beings. We have been looking for evidence of life on Mars. In the 1960s scientists guessed that the polar ice cap of Mars was made of frozen CO2. More recent observations have shown that while the topmost layer consists of frozen CO2, the most of it is probably regular frozen water.

    Recently, American President Trump announced his budget. One of the budgets would cut all funding to the Institute of Museum and Library services and libraries across the United States. However, as far as I'm concerned, we need to save our libraries.

    Libraries provide books and after-school programs for children. They encourage literacy (识字）with summer programs. They help inspire a life-time love of learning and reading in children of all ages. Without them, where will kids with no Internet at home do their homework? Where will kids have a place to study or borrow books after school? Therefore, we need libraries for our kids. We need them so that kids can grow up with a place, other than school, where learning and exploration is encouraged. For adults, libraries serve as a place where they can use the Internet to apply for jobs, get job training, early voting centers as well as book clubs to help make new friends. It can also serve as a place to pick up a book and learn something new. What's more，they can also borrow a book and get away from it all.

    Libraries save our information for the next generation. When we live in an age of alternative (选择性的）facts, where science is ignored in favor of personal feelings, we need libraries now more than ever. We need them to educate ourselves on the facts and hold the government responsible for them. We need them to have strong public participation(参与).

    If you agree with me，you shouldn't be silent on this issue. You can write or call directly to tell the president to save our libraries. You can also write to both your state Senators (参议员）and your district representative. If you do not know who they are, you can find out here. Let them know this is a beneficial issue because all people use public libraries in their daily life.

    Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. Or, in summer, they may think it is the heat. However, the real reason lies inside their bodies. At that time – about eight hours after you wake up – your body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleep habits in experiments where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern. They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.

    In many parts of the world, people take naps in the middle of the day. This is especially true in warmer climates where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate. A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind and therefore is good for health in general. In countries where naps are traditional, people often suffer less from problem such as heart disease.

    Many working people, unfortunately, have no time to take naps. Though doctors may advise taking naps, employers do not allow it! If you do have the chance, however, here are a few tips about making the most of your nap. Remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time, try a short nap – even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.

How the Elderly Are Treated Around the World

    How cultures view and treat their elderly is closely linked to their most prized values and qualities. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    In the US and UK, Protestantism (新教) is at play. Western cultures tend to be youth-centric, stressing qualities like independence. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It ties a person's value to his or her ability to work – something that becomes weaker in old age. As their health becomes worse, the elderly in these cultures often move to old people's homes and nursing homes.

    In France, parents are protected by law. It is difficult to imagine an Elderly Rights Law being a focus in the laws of many Western cultures. France did, however, pass a similar law in 2004. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} One was a group of official statistics showing France had the highest rate of pensioner suicides in Europe, and the other was the aftermath of a heat wave that killed 15,000 people, most of whom were elderly and had been dead for weeks before they were found.

     {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Native American cultures traditionally accept death as a fact of life. In many Native American areas, elders are respected for their wisdom and life experiences. Within Native American families, it's common for the elders to be expected to pass down their learning to younger members of the family.

    The way to care for Chinese elders is changing. Chinese families traditionally view respect for one's elders as the highest virtue, according to the Confucian tradition. Adult children are generally expected to care for their parents in their old age. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Nursing homes are beginning to become a more socially acceptable option for elderly care.

A. However, this tradition is beginning to break down due to rising lifetime and an aging population.

B. In the African-American area, death is seen as an opportunity to celebrate life.

C. Here's what we can learn from other cultures about treating the elderly.

D. But China faces the unique problem of tending to an increasingly elderly population.

E. Native American elders pass down their knowledge.

F. It was only passed following two disturbing events, though.

G. This relates back to the Protestant work rules.

    Large gatherings such as weddings and conferences can be socially stressful. Pressure to learn people's names only adds to the stress. A new facial-recognition app could come to the rescue, but privacy experts recommend going on with caution.

    The app, called SocialRecall, connects names with faces via smartphone cameras and facial recognition, potentially avoiding the need for formal introductions. "It breaks down these social barriers we all have when meeting somebody," says Barry Sandrew, who created the app and tested it at an event attended by about 1,000 people.

    After receiving an invitation to download SocialRecall from an event organizer, the user is asked to take two selfies and sign in via social media. At the event, the app is active within a previously defined geographical area. When a user points his or her phone camera at an attendee's face, the app identifies the individual displays the person's name, and links to his or her social media profile. To protect privacy, it recognizes only those who have agreed to participate. And the app's creators say it automatically deletes users' data after an event.

    Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert who runs the Privacy by Design Center of Excellence praises the app's creators for these protective measures. She cautions, however, that when people choose to share their personal information with the app they should know that there may be unintended consequences down the road with that information being used in another context that might come back to bite you."

    The start-up has also developed a version of the app for individuals who suffer from prosopagnosia, or "face blindness", a condition that prevents people from recognizing individuals they have met. To use this app a person first acquires an image of someone's face, from either the smartphone's camera or a photograph, and then tags it with a name. When the camera spots that same face in real life, the previously entered information is displayed. The collected data are stored only on a user's phone, according to the team behind the app.