Not so long ago, a sailor sailing across the cold waters of the northern Pacific Ocean might have had every chance of being confronted by a sea cow. This cow would have measured 10 meters long, and weighed between five and ten tones. And it would spend most of its day cruising the seas, eating grass growing underwater. The cow in question was known as Steller's sea cow, which is now extinct.

    Today, many people are unaware that such an extraordinary creature once existed, or don't know its incredible story. But scientists have discovered many fundamental facts about this mystical animal.

    Surprisingly, the first recorded sighting of a Steller's sea cow didn't happen until 1741, when a sailing expedition was stuck on an uninhabited island, later named Bering Island. The sailor survived by hunting and eating the huge sea cow. Like its modern relatives, the sea cow lived in herds. That and its slow-moving behaviour made it easy to be caught.

    Those sailors that escaped Bering Island spread word of the bounty(大量) of meat to be found off its shores. As a result, more and more expeditions came to hunt the animals. One report stated that one sea cow could feed 33 men for a month.

    Incredibly, just 27 years after the island and species had been discovered by modern man, the last sea cow was reported killed. That makes the Steller's sea cow one of the few truly large mammals known to have been driven extinct in the modern age.

    We're Hiring Shift Workers For Our Production Plant Looking for a career with a company that values its employees, and promotes from within? Then Black Cat Blades is the company for you!

Cutting Operators

CNC Operators

Heat Treat Operators

    Full training provided, starting at $14.50 per hour, with the potential to move to $18.16 in one year.

    We also require a Skilled Welder (焊接工),to work 12-hour rotating shifts (轮班) in our cutting Department. The successful candidate must be a registered journeyman（熟练工人) within the Province of Alberta or a Red Seal.

    We offer a great benefit package, including health, dental and RRSP's. Numerous motivations: Profit Sharing, Pay for Years of Service, Fitness Program Allowance, and fun social events for you and your family.

    Apply in person, and we'll take you on a tour of our Production equipment or forward your personal information by fax or e-mail.

    Black Cat Blades Ltd.

    HR@ blackcatblades.com

5604-59 St., Edmonton, AB T6B 3C3

Fax: (780) 465-9595

    Teens who are preparing to undergo cosmetic surgery(整容手术) often have unrealistic expectations. The growing numbers of makeover television shows which make cosmetic surgery seem simple，have encouraged adolescents to pursue surgery to improve their physical appearance. As a result, more teenagers are going under the knife to achieve a desired look.

    When teens feel the need to have plastic surgery, they believe that it is not a huge deal, but they may not be mature enough to make such a life altering decision. If teens feel inadequate before surgery，they will most likely feel disappointed afterwards. Not only is surgery complex and risky for mature adults，it is extremely dangerous for younger people，and some doctors are performing these procedures on kids as young as fourteen！

    The cost of procedures can add up to thousands of dollars. Insurance does not cover the costs of these procedures. Teenagers often pay for surgery themselves 一 a very costly purchase for a young person. Not only can surgery become addictive for insecure teens，the consequence can be disappointing. When surgery takes an unexpected wrong turn, irreparable (不可挽回的）damage can occur. Any surgery on a young，undeveloped person has a risk of complication (并发症）such as infection (感染），which can lead to death.  Even if . there are no complications, there is no guarantee that surgery will provide the perfect nose or sculpted body. No matter how minor the procedure, it is not as effortless as it appears.

    Of course, there are cases where plastic surgery is appropriate. If a child has a serious injury or scarring from an accident，it can be beneficial. In all cases, parents must be involved in the process for the welfare of their child, and must guide them in the right direction. Fortunately, parents or legal guardians (监护人）must sign documents allowing their child to have plastic surgery. Doctors also need to be a part of the decision. Most experienced and trust-worthy physicians turn down the opportunity to operate on a teenager unnecessarily.

    Plastic surgery is a life-changing experience.  Hopefully, more teens will realize that there is more to a person than physical beauty, and learn to accept themselves for who they are.

    Turning the lights out or wearing a blindfold while eating could be a quick way to lose weight, according to scientists. The simple trick works because it stops diners eating for pleasure rather than for calories. It also triggers (引发) a part of the brain that is worried that unseen food may go bad.

    An experiment by the University of Konstanz, in Germany, found that people who were blindfolded consumed nine percent fewer calories before they felt full, compared to those who could see. They also vastly overestimated how much they had eaten because they could not see how much was left on the plate. Blindfolded volunteers estimated(估计) they had eaten 88 percent more than they actually had.

    Scientists believe that not seeing food on the table also allows the body to know when it is full in real time rather than remembering past experiences where it might have taken a full plate to feel full.

    In the experiment, 50 people were blindfolded and 40 were allowed to see their food. All were told not to eat within two hours of the experiment. They were then given three 95g bowls of chocolate ice cream and invited to eat for 15 minutes. Their bowls were taken away and the remaining ice-cream weighed, while the participants were quizzed on how much they thought they had eaten.

    On average the group who could see ate 116g while the blindfolded groups ate 105g. However, the blindfolded group believed they had eaten 197g while compared with 159g for the non-blind volunteers. They were also asked how pleasant the ice-cream tasted and the blindfolded group rated lower than those who could see.

    “The experienced pleasure of eating was significantly lower in the blindfolded group. Not seeing the food might have decreased the appetite. Sight plays an important role in the eating experience and in the overall dining experience.”

    Previous studies have shown that the visual influence of food plays a large part in the taste. While restaurants that allow diners to eat in the dark state that it triggers other senses, in fact eating in darkness is likely to taste far milder than usual.

    All of us know that smoking does harm to our health. But do you think everything will be OK as long as you quit smoking?

    Unfortunately, the answer is NO.

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes (基因) will stay there for a much longer time. In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7, 000 genes of smokers had changed—a number that is one-third of known human genes. According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their daily lives while doing things like smoking. When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years. This means your body is trying to heal (治愈) itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years, It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement (水泥)—it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry. Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer risks.

    When it comes to learning a foreign language, many people wonder if they will be able to memorize enough vocabulary. But this question never happens about their mother tongue, and yet, it was a foreign language once. However, among all the questions that new parents ask, no doctor has ever heard: "Will my baby be able to learn my language?" Be honest, do you know all the words of your mother tongue? The answer is: "no".

    New words, and new ways of using old words, appear every day. Twenty years ago, who could have been able to understand a sentence like this: "Click here to download your digital book."? Nobody. You never stop learning new vocabulary and you never know how long you will need it.

    Sometimes, you have the word on the tip of your tongue...and it sticks there! But you do know this phenomenon(现象) and don't think that it is because of a bad memory. You should not give this phenomenon more importance in the language you are learning than in your mother tongue.

    You need to learn only 2000 or so basic words to be able to create any phrase you need. You can't avoid some work in order to learn these necessary words and all the more if you want to learn quickly. And before you consider buying into any method, be sure it is right for you. It is not wise to depend on any method based upon mnemonics(记忆群). The first few words seem very easy to learn, so you buy the course, but then you discover quickly, though too late, that a dozen words later, it is all the more difficult to learn a new word when you have also to learn the trick to memorize it.