In the spring of my career, I found myself questioning the choice of my life's work. The students did not appear to be motivated; the paperwork was overwhelming (巨大的) and the constant changes of educational direction were discouraging. But I just could not bring myself to do anything else. “Next year,” I would say, “next year I will switch jobs, make more money and have far less stress.” Next year just never came. I am now in my forties. And while I am no longer in the classroom or at the schoolhouse, I remain an educator. It finally dawns on me that there is no other profession that will let me change children's minds and have an impact on their future. For every student that finally “got it”, for every new teacher that said, “You inspired me to stay,” I get the raise that has never quite made it to my paycheck.

    I was on a plane recently and the flight attendant asked my name. When I told him, he said, “I knew that was you! You taught at my elementary school. You made me take my cap off in the building and told me I was handsome.” He then paused and said, “I think I kept my hat on until you saw me, just so I could get that compliment (赞美). Thank you for making me feel special.”

    We have now entered an age where nothing is private and secrets are hard to keep. Your “friends” are counted by simply clicking a button. Face-to-face interactions are seen by many as unnecessary and time-consuming. Of course, we can do anything online, including teaching and learning. But I guess I am just old school. I want to look into your eyes when the answer finally dawns on you.

    Protection Publications

    To above prices, please add $3 for first book and $1 for each additional book for postage & handling. Foreign countries add $5 per book. Send orders to Quackwatch, P. O. Box 1747, Allen Avenue, NY 18105. The checks must be in US dollars. We cannot process credit card orders. Please use our order form from amazon.com and include your email address.

    Even if trees cannot walk, they are still on the move.

    In parts of the Arctic, entire forests are moving northward. Across the Arctic, temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the world. As that happens, the tree line that marks where forests stop and the treeless tundra (冻原) starts has been shifting northward. Trees growing along the tree line must protect themselves from the cold wind. To dothis, plants tend to grow horizontal (水平的) branches low to the ground. The energy it takes for trees to grow this way means they don't have enough energy to make seeds.

    But as Earth's climate has been warming, trees no longer have to just grow horizontally. Many can instead grow up toward the sky. This takes less energy. And with all that leftover energy, these trees have started producing more seeds. This happens especially in places where white spruce (白云杉) grows.

    White spruce, which is a North American tree, is quite able to produce a lot of seeds, which can move long distances in the wind. When wind­blown seeds end up on the tundra beyond the tree line, they eventually can sprout(发芽) new trees. This explains how a forest can move. Of course, the process would work only if the tundra were warm enough. But in recent years, the whole planet has been warming.

    New trees will provide shelters for some snow. Keeping the sun's rays from making the white surface disappear. Instead, the trees absorb the sun's heat. This warms the surrounding air. The extra warmth encourages even more trees to produce seeds. That further boosts a forest's ability to expand. In addition, more trees will trap more snow, preventing much of it from being blown away. Snow can trap heat in the soil below, which encourages trees to grow. The recent rise of temperatures has helped more trees grow past the tree line. People worry about impacts on the animals that depend on frozen conditions for food and shelter.

AFTER AMAZON ECHO MISFIRE, WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR OWN PRIVACY

    Revelations that an Amazon Echo smart speaker accidentally sent a family's private conversation to an acquaintance highlights some unexpected privacy risks of new voice-enabled technologies. There's no way to totally avoid these sorts of privacy risks except unplugging them entirely, but you can minimize the unpleasant privacy surprises with these tips:

    KILL THE MIC: Most smart speakers have a physical button to disable the microphone, so a private conversation can't be recorded to begin with. You can hit that when you're having sensitive conversations. It doesn't make sense to keep the mic disabled throughout the day, though.

    LIMIT THE MIC: Disabling the microphone isn't practical on a smartphone, but you can limit what apps have access to it. Go to the settings and turn off mic access to all but essential apps such as voice recorders or video conferencing.

    ABOUT THAT CAMERA: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously puts a piece of tape over his laptop's camera to prevent spying if anyone were to hack his device. Buy yourself a roll. Or use bandages. If you have a home-security camera that's connected to the Internet, turn the camera to the wall when you're home.

    BLOCK THE SIGNALS: For smartphones and other gadgets you carry with you, a "Faraday bag" can help prevent unwanted spying. The good ones will block cellular and other signals, meaning privacy-compromising information such as your location won't leak out either. However, your phone won't get any calls while it's in the bag.

    Of course, the safest approach is not to buy a new gadget in the first place. That might not be practical these days, but do you really need a smart speaker or a television set that's connected to the Internet?

    Congratulations on having been offered, and accepting, a place to study at Cambridge! This page offers some tips that will hopefully make your arrival at Cambridge as stress-free as possible.

    Before you arrive

    Your College or Department will send you all the information you need to prepare yourself for your time in Cambridge, including College information, for example, accommodation, course information, and similar related details. You will be sent an email asking you to complete the University's Student Registration exercise. It will only take a few minutes.

    Pre-arrival Freshers' Events this summer

    Around the world in August and September, Cambridge Alumni（毕业生）Groups will be hosting pre-arrival Freshers' Events for new students coming to Cambridge this autumn. These events are a great opportunity to prepare for university and make some friends before you arrive. There will be the chance to meet current students and alumni from whom you can get tips and advice for living and studying in Cambridge.

    Arrival and registration

    Most courses start in October. The term between October and December is known as Michaelmas Term in Cambridge. Officially, the first day of the Michaelmas Term is 1 October and this date will be shown on your offer letter. Your College or your Department will advise you about when to arrive. Ceremony activities begin around 1 October for most students. When you arrive in Cambridge, you should go first to your College. They will be glad to know that you have arrived safely and will advise you on what to do next.

    Matriculation

    Matriculation marks the formal admission of a student to membership of the University, and a College may not normally allow an unmatriculatied student to be a resident member of the College. Every freshman for matriculation must agree with the following belief by signing the Matriculation Registration Form:

    I promise to observe the Statutes and Ordinances of the University as far as they concern me, and to pay due respect and obedience to the Chancellor and other officers of the University.

    Both honeybees and ants are social insects that live in groups called colonies. They survive by means of their collective intelligence. Their decision-making power is distributed throughout the group; that is, no one ant or bee makes decisions for the group. Instead, they work together. As Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, says," Ants aren't smart. Ant colonies are."

    The same is true for bee colonies. Although bees and ants are quite different physically, they have a lot in common in terms of their social behavior. Specifically, honeybees and ants have similar roles within the colony, both have communication systems, and both have the capacity for learning.

    Ants communicate by using chemicals called pheromones, which can alert others to danger or to a food source. For example, when worker ants find a promising source, they let the rest of the colony know how to find it by leaving a trail of pheromones on the way back to the colony. The other ants pick up the message using their sense of smell. Bees, on the other hand, use movement to communicate with each other. Worker bees send messages to each other by means of a "dance". Different speeds and movements send different messages. For example, when worker bees called scouts go out to find a new home for the colony, they return and do a dance for the other worker bees that indicates the location of the new home and how suitable it is. The faster the scouts dance, the better the new location is.

    Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning. One Chinese study found that bees can be trained to learn and remember a route to a food source. The researchers also found that bees can be taught to recognize hidden objects and use the concepts of "sameness" and" difference" to accomplish certain tasks. Ants take this one step further. Recent American research has shown that ants not only have the ability to learn, but also can teach their foraging skills to other younger ants.

They observed that older ants accompany young ants in search of food and teach them the route and how to avoid obstacles.

    As we can see, the social behavior of honeybees and ants is quite similar. Both coordinate complex actions and accomplish crucial survival tasks by cooperating in groups consisting of many individuals. Unintelligent as they may be as individuals, as groups they often show amazing brilliance as they go about their everyday activities.