Harvard University health policy researcher Ellen Meara says scholars have found some clues as to why some groups of people have more or less disease than others. She says one important factor in people's health is the amount of education they have.

    In her most recent paper, Meara looked at data from the United States census(人口普查). These counts of people occur every 10 years. Meara and her colleagues examined data from several decades.

    Meara says they found that in 1990, a 25-year-old who only had some secondary school could expect to live for a total of 75 years. In 2000, a 25 year old with some secondary education could also expect to live to the age of 75.

    In contrast, for a better educated 25-year-old, they could expect to live to the age of 80 in 1990. Someone with a similar education level in the year 2000 could expect to live to be more than 81 years, 81.6 years to be exact.

    Meara says, not only do better-educated people live longer to begin with, but in the past ten years, more educated people have made gains in the length of their lives. Meanwhile, the life expectancy hasn't changed for less educated people.

    Some of these gains can be explained. Meara says researchers know that people who are more educated are more likely to quit smoking cigarettes, or not start at all, compared to people with less education.

    “I think it's a reminder not to be satisfactory,” Meara says. “Just because a population overall appears to be getting healthier, it doesn't always mean that those advantages and successes that many people have enjoyed really extend into all parts of the population. And I think that's something to really pay attention to regardless of whether you live in the US or elsewhere.”

    Meara points out that education can often determine income — people with more education frequently make more money. This makes them aware of health care, and purchase other resources and services that can keep them healthier. But the data on income do not show that people who make more money are automatically healthier. Meara says education is key. People need to be educated in order to take advantage of opportunities for better health.

    Title: The Amount of Education  {#blank#}1{#/blank#} to People's Health.

    It's time to stop complaining. The economy might be melting down like butter in a hot pot, but for some people — you , maybe? — this could be a very good thing.

    Here's why. At no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of company. Possibly a very profitable company. Let's call these start-ups LILOs, for “a little in, a lot out;” These are Web-based businesses that cost almost nothing to get off the ground yet can turn into great moneymakers.

    How do you get started? All that's required is a great idea for a product that will fill a need in the 21st century. These days you'd do best if your idea either makes people money or saves them money. And launching now will make your company stronger later — you'll learn to survive on fumes until the economy improves.

    That's what John Tayman is doing. He's an author who lives in San Francisco, where I met him; he wrote reviews for a business magazine I edited. Tayman knew little about technology and even less about business. And yet he dreamed of a website that would summarize car reviews from other sources and rank every model of new car. “It'll be like RottenTomatoes.com meets Kelley Blue Book,” he explained to me during lunch one day last June. Tayman said he intended to build the site on the side while continuing to write for a living. He'd work on his new company only at night and on weekends. Oh, yes, and he had only about $10,000. “Good luck with that!” I thought. Ideas are much easier to produce than they are to put into practice.

    Tayman went to work with nothing more than his PowerBook laptop. A very well-organized fellow, he quickly discovered a bunch of free stuff online — instructional manuals and sites that walk you through the process from start to finish. Within months, Tayman had a staff of 20 employees working for him in five different countries. MotorMouths.com went live in January. Tayman figures he has worked about 10 hours a week on it and hasn't spent a cent on marketing or advertising. Growth is modest but steady: nearly 10,000 people visit each week.

    Come to the AG Society's expedition (探险) program and you will surely get unique experiences!

    Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists have long debated why. A new study finds that these big－winged birds carefully position their wingtips and flap(拍动) at the same rate, probably to catch the upward movement of air and save energy during flight.

    There are two reasons birds might fly in a V formation: It may make flight easier, or they're simply following the leader. Squadrons(中 队) of planes can save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same. Models that treated flapping birds like fixed－wing airplanes show that they probably save energy by drafting off each other, but currents created by airplanes are far more stable than those coming off of birds.

    Just as aerodynamic(气动力) calculations would predict, the birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to the side of the bird in front, timing their wing flaps to catch the uplifting eddies(涡流). When a bird flew directly behind another, the timing of the flapping reversed(相反) so that it could minimize the effects of the downdraft coming off the back of the bird's body. “We didn't think this was possible,” Usherwood says, considering that the difficult achievement requires careful flight and incredible awareness of one's neighbors. “Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and down.”

    The findings likely apply to other long－winged birds, such as pelicans and geese, Usherwood says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes(尾波) that would make drafting too difficult. The researchers did not attempt to calculate the birds' energy savings because the necessary physiological measurements would be too invasive for an endangered species. Previous studies show that birds can use 20% to 30% less energy while flying in a V.

    Scientists do not know how the birds find that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that the animals line themselves up either by sight or by sensing air currents through their feathers. In future studies, the researchers will switch to more common birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to investigate how the animals decide who sets the course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to cause traffic jams.

    Want a wonderful travel in London? Don't miss the following!

    The Guards Museum

    The Guards Museum was created as an educational tool for the newest intake of the Guards and includes exhibits of uniform for the five Roval regiments (团) dating from the Civil War, with details of the nature and origin of their ceremonial duties right up to their contemporary role. To anyone interested in these world-famous soldiers this London tourist attraction is a must-see.

    Telephone: 020 7414 3428

    Toy theatre

    Toy theatre (or paper theatre) was most popular in the 1800s, and consists of paper theatres, some with an extraordinary level of detail, allowing children to stage their own productions at home, usually with cut-out sheets of figures for the scenery, props (道具) and various characters in the play.

    Telephone: 020-7967-1066

    Charles Dickens Museum

    The Charles Dickens Museum, an author's house museum at Doughty Street, is a celebration of one of the greatest novelists in British history. The museum exhibits over 100, 000 items from personal items to artworks (艺术品) from some of his books. It is said that Dickens wrote 3 of his most famous stories while living here, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers. The building is the writer's only surviving London house and we can get to know what life in the household would have been like.

    Telephone: 020-7405-2127

    Foundling Museum

    The Foundling Museum was originally one of the first houses in London for abandoned children and housed over 27, 000 children before its closure (关闭). Since then this London attraction has transformed (转化) itself into one special London museum with a large collection of artworks and social history relating to the children taken in and the terrible social problems that led to children being abandoned by their parents.

    Telephone: 020-7841-3600

    This morning my family and I went to a friend's home to help her get things back in order. She was one of the unfortunate people whose home was recently destroyed by a tornado(龙卷风). One side of her home fell off and the roof was gone over a large part of the house. Torrential rain fell the rest of the night and all of the next day following the tornado, creating even more damage to her belongings. The home is a total loss. Still, there is much that is valuable, and our job today was to help her sort through the remain and find anything with actual value that she may want to take with her.

    My husband helped to move furniture and other things to the storeroom while our two younger children helped clean up the yard. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend helped as well, and my another daughter with me swept up all of the areas of debris, sorting it for things that are important. We worked systematically, clearing the main living space first, then moving on to the kitchen, laundry area, then the master bedroom.

    By the time we were done today, though there was no denying the home had met with disaster, we had gone far to restore order from the loss that had been there before.

    My thought in entering the day was that our friend, who had been having trouble sleeping, was being affected by that loss negatively. I hoped that if we could restore order, she would finally start to feel some sense of peace and her mind would quiet and allow her the much-needed rest she so deserves.

    She posted on Facebook just a little while ago that for the first time she was sleeping at night. For me, what a wonderful and deeply meaningful way to begin the New Year!