The health of millions could be at risk because supplies of medicinal plants are being used up. These plants are used to make traditional medicine, including drugs to fight cancer. “The loss of medicinal plants is a quiet disaster,” says Sara Oldfield, secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

    Most people worldwide rely on herbal (药草制的) medicines which are got mostly from wild plants. But some 15,000 of the 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of dying out, according to report from the international conservation group Plantlife. Shortages have been reported in China, India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.

    Over-harvesting does the most harm, though pollution and competition from invasive species (入侵物种) and habitat destruction all contribute. Businessmen generally harvest medicinal plants, not caring about sustainability (可持续性),” the Plantlife report says, “damage is serious partly because they have no idea about it. but it is mainly because such collection is unorganized” Medicinal trees at risk include the Himalayan yew (紫衫) and the African cherry, which are used to treat some cancers.

    The solution, says the report's author, Alan Hamilton, is to encourage local people to protect these plants. Ten projects studied by Plantlife in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Uganda and Kenya showed this method can succeed. In Uganda, the project has kept a sustainable supply of low-cost cancer treatments, and in China a public-run medicinal plant project has been created for the first time.”

    “Improving health, earning an income and keeping cultural traditions are important in encouraging people to protect medicinal plants,” says Hamilton, “You have to pay attention to what people are interested in.”

    Ghillean Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, agrees that medicinal plants are in need of protection. “Not nearly enough is being done,” he told New Scientist. “We are destroying the very plants that are of most use to us.”

    BEIJING—Lu Na thinks that the 4,000 yuan ($630) she spent in traveling to the Republic of Korea(ROK) was worth every penny.

    “Apart from the exotic outfits and tasty kimchi, I really appreciated local people's friendliness and the convenient language environment there,” said the 27-year-old woman, who traveled to the country in October 2011 and came back with bags of fashionable dresses and cosmetics.

    “We have provided many services to Chinese visitors, including free transport cards, handbooks for individual tourists, and more liberal visa policies.”

    “We believe that no country can compare with the ROK in providing services for individual Chinese travelers,” said Zhu Linlin, media manager of the Korea Tourism Organization's Beijing branch.

    Favorable visa policies contribute to the popularity of the ROK as a destination for Chinese tourists. Only a passport and an ID card are needed for a Chinese citizen to get a visa to the ROK.

    However, some suggest that ROK hotels should provide special dining rooms for Chinese customers due to different eating habits. “ROK people often cross their legs when they have meals, but for most Chinese people, especially those who are elderly or fat, it's very hard for them to sit cross-legged without feeling numb.”

    In 1998, China granted the ROK approved destination status, which allowed Chinese citizens to travel to the country in tour groups.

    According to statistics from China Tourism Academy, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the ROK reached more than 2 million by the end of October 2011, up 19. 9 percent compared with that of the same period last year. China recently became the Republic of Korea's main source of foreign tourists in both number and spending.

    I grew up without a father. Well, sort of. My parents divorced (离婚) in the 1960s when I was a small child, and I stayed with my mother in Los Angeles. My father remarried and moved to a small suburb of Atlanta. For one month out of the year in the summer, I would fly back and spend time with my dad, so I had a father at times.

    Further, I had a series of stepfathers who ranged from wonderful guys to alcoholics to dangerous individuals. Having lived through such experiences, I find it amusing when people say that children really need a father in the home. Well, if he is a good father and a good man, then I agree completely. If he is not, then the child might actually be better off without him. We don't just need fathers — we need good fathers.

    I feel it fair to say I ended up a very successful adult, at least that's what people tell me. So how did I do it? I think it started with me having a bit of a chip on my shoulder. Normally this is not a good thing, but in my case it was rocket fuel for achievement. Not having a father in my life gave me something to prove, and it motivated me in an “I'll show you” way.

    I also tried very hard, even as a little boy to be self-sufficient. And that means I did not rely upon my parents except to the extent necessary. This kind of independence I believe is highly missed in this age of highly managed children with “helicopter” parents hovering (盘旋) above them constantly.

    I also think I never wanted not having a father in my life to be an excuse for myself. We make and allow excuses constantly these days, but I just never felt that feeling sorry for myself was going to get me anywhere, I think if children can adopt such mindsets early in their lives it can be helpful.

    Does your older brother think he's cleverer than you? Well, he's probably right. According to a new research published in the journal Intelligence, the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs and the youngest the lowest.

    A number of studies have suggested that IQ scores decline with birth order. In the most recent study, at Vrije University, Amsterdam, researchers looked at men and women whose IQ had been tested at the ages of 5, 12, and 18.

    The results, which show a trend for the oldest to score better than the youngest in each test, involved about 200,000 people. That showed that first-borns had a three-point IQ advantage over the second-born, who was a point ahead of the next in line.

    The order of birth can also affect personality, achievement, and career, with first-borns being more academically successful and more likely to win Nobel prizes. However, eldest children are less likely to be radical(不同凡响的) and pioneering. Charles Darwin, for example, was the fifth child of six.

    Exactly why there should be such differences is not clear, and there are a number of theories on environmental influences on the child.

    The so-called dilution(稀释法) theory suggests that as family resources, both emotional and physical, as well as economic, are limited, it follows that, as a result , as more children come along, the levels of parental attention and encouragement will drop. Another theory is that the intellectual environment in the family favors the first-born who has, at least for some time, the benefit of individual care and help.

    The theory which enjoys the most support is that the extra time and patience that the earlier-borned get from their parents, compared with those arriving later, gives them an advantage.

    On my first day of high school, going into math class, I was pointed and laughed at by two of my classmates. I initially thought my fly was open, or that something was stuck in my teeth. But as I took my seat, I heard one student whisper, "Why is a black boy taking Honors?" So, my fly wasn't open. An honors level class had simply been taken by a student whose skin was brown.

    Many people think my clothes should be big enough for me to live in, or expect me to listen to only "black music." In seventh grade, a group of my classmates fixed their cold stares on my clothes. They called out to me, "Go get your gangsta clothes." In one of my Spanish classes, the teacher asked me, "Do you like rap music or rock music more?" I replied, "Rock." The look of shock on my classmates' faces made me uncomfortable.

    Now I still take all Honors courses. I still wear clothes that fit me. My music library covers from rock to pop to techno, and almost everything in between. When it comes to choosing my friends, I am still colorblind. I continue to do my best to work in school in order to reach my goals; and yet, when I look in the mirror, I still see skin of that same brown.

    I believe in being myself. I believe that I myself should decide who I am and what actions I take in life. In high school, popularity often depends on your willingness to follow trends. And I've been told that it doesn't get much easier going into adulthood. But the only other option is to sacrifice my personality for the satisfaction and approval of others. This can be appealing, but I'm not going to do that.

Norwegians would perhaps highlight their custom of "gå på tur"— going on a journey on foot or on skis. In Denmark, everyone knows what "hygge" is — to freely enjoy the good life with the people you love. They're the issues of "intangible cultural heritage", things that cannot be physically touched such as traditions, stories, music, dance and craft skills.

In 2003, UNESCO, the education, science and culture organization of the United Nations, adopted an agreement to "preserve the intangible" and many developing-world countries were quick to get their traditions included on the official list. But it would take almost 10 years for "Agreement for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage" to be approved by the Scandinavian countries.

Annika Sjöberg is responsible for managing the work of the agency in Sweden. She has been, and continues to be, flooded with suggestions of intangible cultural heritage worthy of protection, submitted by committed citizens and organizations wanting to see their particular traditions included on the list that should be ready sometime in the next couple of years.

Suggestions have also been received concerning various maritime traditions: old shipwright skills such as the building of wooden hulled vessels, are in decline and at risk of being lost forever.

"Our work has attracted considerable attention as it is regarded as being a little out in left field," says Sjöberg. "In addition, it's also opened people's eyes to the fact that the things we can't physically touch indeed have a major bearing on the way in which we live. Even in an urbanized society, there is knowledge we carry with us that we've inherited from previous generations-knowledge that's important to preserve and take care of."

Sjöberg explains that the point is not to preserve this cultural heritage in a stony rigid form, as traditions must be allowed to change and evolve. She also emphasizes that her work should not be interpreted as a nationalistic project, rather as a means of multicultural spreading.

It's actually a matter of documenting the knowledge that exists in the various traditions. What is most exciting is the diversity that now exists and the ways in which different cultures interact with each other.