Bill Gates recently predicted that online learning will make place-based colleges less significant, and five years from now, students will be able to find the best lectures in the world online. I applaud Mr. Gates. But what's taking us so long?

    As early as 1997, MIT (麻省理工) decided to post videos of all university lectures online, for free, for all people. But today, how many students have you met who mastered advanced mathematics or nuclear physics from an MIT online video? Unfortunately, the answer is not many.

    The problem is the poor quality of online education websites and the experience they provide to students. Those who go to the MIT website and watch courses online are surely very smart people, but it's not like playing a video game such as World of Warcraft. Only the most ardent students, those who are highly motivated, will devote themselves to studying these boring online videos.

    The real question is why we aren't spending more to develop better online education platforms. Where is the Avatar of education? Think about this. The market for Hollywood films per year is worth around 30 billion USD. Education in the world is a trillion-dollar-a-year market, hundreds of times bigger than Hollywood movies. Yet the most expensive digital learning system ever built cost well under 100 million dollars.

    Bill Gates' prediction is going to happen. There is no doubt about it. But it will only happen when we create high level educational content and experiences that engage and excite more than has ever been possible in the real world.

The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place

    Diet Coke ,diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet…We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.

    Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.

    On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink,we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.

    The danger of diet products lees not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products my not be nutritional,and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.

    Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.

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    E-mail has been widely used since its invention for its convenience, efficiency, and high speed. However, it is wise to remember how easily this wonderful technology can be misused, sometimes unintentionally, but can result in serious consequences.

    Now let's look at the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel , he decided to send his wife a quick E-mail. Unable to find the note with his wife's E-mail address, he did his best to type from his memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his E-mail was directed to an elderly lady whose husband had passed away (去世) only the day before. When the sad widow checked her E-mail, she took one look at the screen, let out a sharp cry, and fell to the floor in a dead faint (昏迷 ). At the sound , her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

    MY DEAREST WIFE： JUST GOT CHECKED IN. EVERYTHING PREPARED FOR YOUR ARRIVAL TOMORROW.

    P.S. SURE IS HOT DOWN HERE

    Wanted, Someone for a Kiss

    We're looking for producers to join us on the sound of London Kiss 100 FM. You'll work on the station's music programmes. Music production experience in radio is necessary, along with rich knowledge of modern dance music. Please apply in writing to Producer Vacancies, Kiss 100.

    Father Christmas

    We're looking for a very special person, preferably over 40, to fill our Father Christmas suit.

Working days: Every Saturday from November 24 to December 15 and every day from December 17 to December 24 except Sundays, 10:30-16:00.

    Excellent pay.

    Please contact (联系) the Enterprise Shopping Centre, Station Parade, Eastbourne.

    Accountants Assistant

    When you join the team in our Revenue Administration Unit, you will be providing assistance within all parts of the Revenue Division, dealing with post and other general duties. If you are educated to GCSE grade C level we would like to talk to you. This position is equally suitable for a school leaver or for somebody who has office experience.

    Wealden District Council

    Software Trainer

    If you are aged 24-45 and have experience in teaching and training, you could be the person we are looking for. You should be good at the computer and have some experience in programme writing. You will be allowed to make your own decisions, and to design courses as well as present them. Pay upwards of ￡15,000 for the right person. Please apply by sending your CV (简历) to Mrs R. Oglivie, Palmlace Limited.

    On a Friday night, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the New York railway station, playing his violin. The music was so great that many people stopped to put some money into the hat of the young man.

    The next day, the young artist came to the same place, and put his hat on the ground gracefully. Different from the day before, he took out a large piece of paper and laid it under his hat. Then he began to play the violin. It sounded more pleasant than ever.

       Soon he was surrounded with people who were attracted by the words on that paper. It said, “Last night, a gentleman named George Sang put an important thing into my hat by mistake. Please come to claim (认领) it soon.”

    After about half an hour, a middle-aged man rushed through the crowd to the violinist and said, “Yes, it's you. I knew that you were an honest man and would certainly come here.” The young violinist asked calmly, “Are you Mr George Sang?” The man nodded. The violinist asked, “Did you lose something?”“It's a lottery ticket,” said the man. The violinist took out a lottery ticket on which George Sang's name was seen. “Is it?” he asked. George nodded and took the lottery ticket and kissed it, then danced with the violinist.

    The violinist was a student at an arts college and had planned to attend advanced studies in Vienna. Later his classmate asked the violinist, “At that time you needed money to pay the tuition and you had to play the violin in the railway station every day to make money. Why didn't you keep the lottery ticket for yourself?”

    The violinist said, “Although I don't have much money, I live happily. But if I lose honesty I won't be happy forever.” Through our lives, we can gain a lot and lose so much. But being honest should always be with us.

    A new study suggests climate conditions in the Sahara Desert, one of hottest, driest and most deserted areas in the world, have changed from wet to dry a about every 20,000 years.

    But previous evidence has suggested the Sahara did not always experience such extreme heat and dry conditions. At times, the Sahara Ranged to a very wet climate. This permitted plants and animals to develop and grow and led to the creation of human settlements. Now, they have discovered more evidence, which, the lead researcher David Mc Gee says, supports the idea that the Sahara's climate kept changing between wet and dry about every 20,000, years.

    McGee reported these climate changes were mainly driven by changes in the Earth's(地轴)as the planet travels round the sun .This process affects the amount of sunlight between seasons. Every 20,000 years the Earth receives more strong summer sunlight. When the Earth's axis changes again, the amount of sunlight is reduced. This season change happened continuously every 20,000 years. The other part of the season produced rainy conditions, resulting in a wetter, greener, plant-rich environment. When the rainy activity weakens, the climate becomes hot and dry, like the Sahara remains today.

    The scientists based their research on dust collected from ocean sediment(沉积物)in the Atlantic Ocean bottom off the coast of West Africa. The dust contained layers (层)of ancient sediment built up over millions of years. Each layer could contain traces of Saharan dust as well as the remains of life forms. This information was used to assess over what time period the dust had built up. This led to the overall finding that the Saharan changes from wet to dry climates happened every 20,000 years.

David McGee said that today we only see the Sahara Desert as an extremely deserted and "inhospitable" place. The new study suggests that the area's climate has changes between grasslands and a much wetter environment, and back to dry climates, even over the last quarter million years. McGee says he thinks the latest research can be valuable in studying the Sahara's history as it relates to human settlement.