John was part of my childhood growing up in the 1970s and a link to sunny, fun-filled days spent on the beach at Bangor in Northern Ireland where we went for our summer holidays. To many, he was a mystery. Every afternoon John would wander to the end of the pier (码头) where he fed the seagulls and delighted in the sound of their excited cries as they flew around his head.

    Often I asked my family questions regarding John. Eventually I gave up as no one could tell me anything about him. As I grew up, my visits to the beach became less frequent, and my memories of John buried in a child's imagination.

    Last year memories came flooding back as I walked along the coastline, where I noticed a lady feeding the seagulls on the pier, and I decided to introduce myself. Then I came to know that the lady was John's daughter, and after John left this world she carried out the ritual (惯例), which had held such importance for her father.

    In some strange way I felt we shared a bond, each needing to remember. In return, Lucy told me of John's life, his days in the British Navy (海军) during World War I and how he almost lost hope when his ship was attacked by a German U-boat in the North Sea and he found himself in a lifeboat with five others.

    Close to death, he thought he heard the sound of wings. He put up his hands, only to catch a seagull that had landed on the side of the boat. The seagull saved the lives of the six men as it was used to catch fish, which kept them alive until they reached land. This period of John's life was one he never talked about. But the ritual he first performed as a young man remained a part of him until he died.

    Now I visit Lucy as often as I can, just to chat or very often walk along the beach to the pier end. We enjoy the comfortable silence, each lost in special memories.

    Wetlands are ecosystems found in low, flat areas. Often they border ponds, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Wetlands include marshes, swamps, and bogs.

    No trees grow in a marsh, but there are lots of grassy plants. Ducks, turtles, and many different bugs (虫子) live there, too. Florida has the world's biggest freshwater marsh. The Everglades covers 4,000 square miles. The Everglades is not entirely fresh water, however. Near the sea the fresh water and salt water mix. Some plants and animals can live only in this brackish water.

    Saltwater marshes lie along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. During high tide these marshes are under water. During low tide these marshes can be seen. The water rushes out, carrying bits of plants, dead animals, and minerals necessary for sea animals. Many plants and animals depend upon this ever-changing environment.

    Swamps are forested wetlands. Like marshes, they are often found near rivers or lakes and have mineral soil that drain very slowly. Unlike marshes, they have trees and bushes. Swamps have trees that grow with their roots underwater. But the trees will die if their roots stay underwater too long. Animals such as water snakes and frogs live in swamps.

    Bogs have damp, soft soil. So many dead plants have piled up that there is no longer any standing water. This rotting plant matter turns into peat (泥炭). In Ireland and Scotland peat is dried and burned to heat homes. Bog soil is useful for growing wild rice. Lots of insects live there.

    Most people do not find wetlands beautiful. But wetlands are important. Marshes and swamps store water, thus reducing the flooding a heavy rain can cause. About one-third of all of America's endangered plants and animals live in wetlands. Now laws protect some wetlands. More than a dozen wetlands in the US are refuges (保护区) and wildlife preserves.

    A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

    According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

    The Airline Passenger Experience Association ( APEX) spoke to around 1500 people, aged 18 and older, who have travelled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia or Brazil.

The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the sea-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to reach for their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively —when not drinking —choosing to work while flying a 350000 feet.

Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers — spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via e-mail, messaging apps or social media.

    Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers claiming to read them.

    The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and onboard service, and passengers are accepting those improvements,” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey,” he added.

    Best Southern winter Beer Festivals to Challenge Your Taste

    Bluffton International Craft Beer Festival

    This festival is considered to be "The Best Little Beer Fest in the US". This festival shows over 125 beers from more than 40 breweries (啤酒厂) across the US and focuses on unique and new beers that you usually can't find in a grocery store. The festival even has hourly surprises of a limited quantity of rare beers as well as food for those who can arrive in time.

    Bayou Beer Fest

    The Bayou Beer Fest is the premier beer festival in the Bayou Region of southern Louisiana and is held at the historic 19th century sugar farm, making it a truly memorable beer festival. The festival will provide hundreds of beers from state-based, national, and even international breweries, of course, there will also be food to purchase, and several Louisiana-style musical acts to keep the festival alive.

    Key Largo Brew on the Bay

    It's actually winter at this beer festival held in the largest section of the Florida Keys. The festival covers two days, and will feature at least 40 different breweries, including local breweries. Besides, because it does harm to your health to enjoy beer on an empty stomach, Brew on the Bay will feature a food court, with fresh Florida lionfish, fish sandwiches and shellfish.

    Yaga's Chili (辣椒) Quest& Beer Fest

    Beer and chili go together like peas and carrots, so you will not want to miss the annual Yaga's Chili Quest Beer Fest. The festival will feature over 100 import beers, including rare finds and a few surprises prepared for all people present. Of course, there will also be a variety of tasty chili for you to try.

Three Feet From Gold

    Darby's uncle was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold—rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. After months of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore (矿石). He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. So, with the "strike", he returned home. And with the help of Darby, he borrowed a lot of money. After buying the machinery and having it shipped, Uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

    The first car of ore was mined. And the returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Uncle and Darby!

    Then something happened! The vein (矿脉) of gold ore disappeared! They drilled on, but all in vain. Finally, they decided to quit and sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars. The junk man called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer's calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! The junk man took millions of dollars in the vein, because he knew enough to seek experts' advice before giving up.

    Most of the money which went into the machinery was borrowed through the efforts of Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

    Long afterwards, Mr. Darby made another discovery that desire can be changed into gold. This discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, for he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance."

    Darby sold more than million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his "stick-ability" to the lesson he learned from his "quit-ability" in the gold mining business.

It is the stock response to a parent struggling with a crying baby or a bad-tempered teenager: "Treasure every moment because they grow up so fast." Now researchers have found there may be something in the old saying. Watching children grow up really does seem to make time fly. Scientists have found that parents feel time passing more quickly than non-parents.

The findings could be due to the fact that children change fast. "Over ten years, children go through dramatic changes not only in their physical appearance, but also in their understanding abilities and their status," the researchers said. The results could also be a consequence of parents spending a large amount of their time on their children, they said, even though they found no difference in the time pressures recorded by parents compared with non-parents in the study.

For the study, published in the journal Timing & Time Perception (感知), the researchers asked 431 people aged from 20 to 59 to fill in a subjective time questionnaire, a tool used by psychologists to measure time perception. They were asked: "How fast did the last ten years pass for you?" An answer of very slowly gave a score of-2; slowly was-I; neither fast nor slow was 0; fast was I and very fast scored 2. So the higher the score, the faster they felt time had passed. The parents had an average score of I. 22, compared with 0. 76 for the non-parents.

Participants were also asked how quickly the last year, month and week had passed, but there were no differences between the groups for these shorter intervals (间隔). Previous studies have suggested that time also seems to speed up when we get older. Research published in 2019 by Duke University in North Carolina suggests this could be due to physical changes in our bodies, with a slowdown in image processing speeding up our perception of time passing.

Days that seemed to last forever in our youth were "not due to experiences being much deeper or meaningful", the researcher Adrian Bejan said, "but due to the fact that they were being processed rapidly."