El Nifio, a Spanish term for “the Christ child", was named by South American fishermen who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nifio sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.

        The weather effects, both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nifio, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nifio in 1997 helped American's economy grow by $15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural incomes in rich countries is greater than the fall in poor ones.

          But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.

The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute(ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards.This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.

Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr. Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino's harmful effects—and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.

    Our brains work in complex and strange ways.There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years,but who cannot add two plus two.Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once,but they cannot read or write.

    Dr.J.Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887.He called these people idiot savants.An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment（损伤）,such as in autism（孤独症，自闭症）or retardation.At the same time,the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills,which are unusual for most people.The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics,or having a photographic memory.

    One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr.Benjamin Rush, an American doctor.His patient,Thomas Fuller,was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724.It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years,17 days,and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability,he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

    Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s.Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words,but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.

    In the excellent movie Rain Man,made in 1988 and available on video cassette,Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise,with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

    Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment.Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills.Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills.However few people wish to participate in such experiments.There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain.The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate.Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

    Whether in the home or the workplace, social robots are going to become a lot more common in the next few years. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.

    While household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much more like companions than mere tools. For example, these robots will be able to distinguish when someone is happy or sad. This allows them to respond more appropriately to the user.

    The Jibo robot, arranged to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn't just deliver general answers to questions; it responds based on what it learns about each individual in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.

    Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential applications in everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these spaces.

Fellow Robots is one company bringing social robots to the market. The company's “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product's location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.

    The more interaction the robot has with humans, the more it learns. But Oshbot, like other social robots, is not intended to replace workers, but to work alongside other employees.“We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.

    If you are hungry, what do you do? Grab a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet after that?{#blank#}1{#/blank#}But it never lets you know, because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover or favorite star. So it silently serves your needs and never lets itself grow. When mind loses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}  Now why reading and not watching TV? Because reading has been the most educative tool used by us right from the childhood. Just like that to develop other aspects of our life, we have to get help from reading.

    Once you read a book, you just don't run your eyes through the lines, but even your mind decodes it and explains it to you. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Now this seed is unknowingly used by you in your future to develop new ideas. The same seed if used many times, can help you link and relate a lot of things, of which you would have never thought in your wildest dreams!

    This is nothing but creativity. More the number of books you read, your mind will open up like never before. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Within no time you start speaking English or any language fluently with your friends or other people and you never seem to run out of the right words at the right time.

    So guys do join me and give food for your thoughts by reading, reading and more reading. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Go, grab a book, and let me know!

A. Just like your stomach, even your mind is hungry.

B. Why not do some reading while you are hungry?

C. The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed.

D. Now what are you waiting for?

E. Also this makes a significant contribution to your vocabulary.

F. Reading can help you make more friends, too.

G. Hunger of the mind can be actually satisfied through wide reading.

    Can dogs and cats get along well in the same home? People who are thinking about getting a dog as a friend for their cat are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found that if the cat is taken back home before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. In two-thirds of the homes cats and dogs have a good relationship.

    However, it wasn't all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression(侵略，好斗) and fighting were found in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body languages are just different. For example, when a cat turns its head away it means aggression, while a dog doing the same means submission(顺从).

    In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers found a surprising behavior. They are learning how to talk each other's language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk "Dog", and dogs can learn how to talk "Cat".

    What's interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to become smarter. They can learn to read each other's body languages, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was expected. Once familiar with each other's body language, cats and dogs can play together, and enjoy sleeping together on the sofa.

    The importance of this research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets — to people who don't get along well, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even countries. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.

    Nowadays, there is a trend that more and more people spend their holidays in foreign countries. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So read our travel tips that are simple and practical, and you can always enjoy your travels.

    On a business card, write down the emergency contact's information and place it in your wallet. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Give your emergency contact a copy of your travel plan, a passport data page, and the visa information. Give each piece of your luggage a unique look: tie a bright handkerchief to a handle or purchase a colored luggage tag. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}If you don't speak the local language, carry a matchbox, or a brochure with the name and address of your destination. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    To avoid being a target of crime, don't wear eye catching clothing: dress conservatively (保守地), and don't wear or carry obvious signs of wealth (gold watches, expensive jewelry and etc.) and don't carry more cash than necessary. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    To make sure of a safe journey and avoid some unnecessary trouble when traveling in foreign countries, you could never be too careful.