A new American weather satellite could save more lives by better predicting extreme weather conditions. It will be in orbit(轨道）some 36,000 kilometers above Earth's surface. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also known as NOAA, has been working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on the project.

    NOAA officials are calling the new satellite GOES-R. That is short for a much longer name—the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series. NOAA said GOES-R could improve the nation's ability to observe weather conditions and make weather predictions. It said the satellite's operation would lead to more exact and timely weather forecasts watches and warnings.

    The government agency said the satellite will require testing of its six instruments and will be ready to work “within a year."

    "The next generation of weather satellites is finally here." said NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan. She described GOES-R as one of the most complicated Earth-observing machines ever created. Sullivan said its instruments will be able to study Earth five times faster and with four times more detail than any other NOAA satellite currently in operation. She believes this will make the United States an even stronger, more “Weather-Ready" nation.

    A NOAA statement said the greater detail will help improve the agency's study of ocean storms, as well as “the prediction and warnings of severe weather. "In addition, GOES-R will be able to provide improved rainfall estimates (预计), which will lead to more timely and detailed flood warning. The statement also said that GOES-R will give better estimates of wind strength, as well as better measurement of fog, ice or lightning strikes.

    Craig Fugate serves as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He says that the GOES-R satellite will improve the ability of people and organizations across America to prepare for, and react to, weather-related disasters.

    Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer who helped shape the course of American literature. His life was full of tragedy and despair, but he managed some of the most influential American literature of the 19th century and continues to influence writers to this day.

    The early life of Edgar Allan Poe was quite miserable.Born in 1809, Poe was not yet three years old when his parents died.Adopted by a wealthy family,he got into trouble at school.He  entered the United States Military Academy at West Point,but he dropped out without graduating. His misery continued to his adult life.Later,because of a failed marriage, he suffered from mental illness. He was so upset about real life that he turned to writing.Expressing himself in an unreal and imaginary world was his only comfort.

    The tragedies in Poe's life influenced the tone,style and contents of his writing.His stories usually include death,which help build his reputation as a master of"dark"literature.In his The

    Tell-Tale Heart, the main character goes crazy and kills his roommate while in The Black Cat, the narrator kills his cat in a fit of madness.

    Poe died at the age of 40 in 1849.His life was tragic and short,but his legacy(遗产) is enormous.Poe is credited with creating crime fiction,and many say he contributed greatly to the appearance of science fiction.Fascinated by the scientific theories and new inventions of his time, he wrote about imaginary societies in the future.Writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle,the author of Sherlock Holmes,regarded Poe as the father of detective fiction. Jules Verne, a French writer who helped popularize science fiction,said Poe's work had a direct influence on the stories he wrote.

    Most foodies (吃货) agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be tough. Now, there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their diets and their dining out experiences.

Cheese & Wine Pairing app

    Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and advises wines to pair with each. Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing app is free for iPhones and iPads.

Calorific app

    What does 200 calories look like? It can be hard to picture. Calorific provides images of 200 calories worth of food. The pictures can help people on a diet and those who just want to eat healthier food. The app is free for iPads and iPhones. There is also a version that provides more information for a price.

    HappyCow app

    Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The HappyCow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world. A free version of HappyCow is available for Android that has ads and requires an Internet connection.

    LocalEats app

    Restaurant chains, like McDonald's, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. LocalEats is designed for that. It lists locally owned restaurants so users can try foods from that area. The app costs about a dollar.

    Despite what so many people would love to believe，NASA hasn't discovered any evidence of past or present intelligent life on Mars. Therefore, when the Curiosity rover  (好奇号探测器)found something suspicious on the Red Planet's surface, they were not only surprised but also a little bit worried.

    The thin fragment (碎片)was suspicious enough to guarantee its own name, with NASA's Curiosity rover team calling it the “Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris，” named for where it was discovered. With no idea what it was or where it came from, the rover's handlers began to worry that it might actually be a piece of the rover itself，suggesting some unseen damage or other issue with the robot. Thankfully，those concerns seem to have been unfound.

    In a new update from NASA the object has now been identified as a natural piece of rock rather than a piece of any man-made craft or vehicle. The team analyzed the unusual object with a tool called the Chem Cam RMI. The instrument uses a laser (激光器)to sniff out the makeup of anything that is pointed at, and the results for this particular piece of debris revealed that it's actually just a very thin piece of rock.

    NASA describes the inspection: The planning day began with an interesting result from the previous plan's Chem Cam RMI analysis of a target that was referred to as “Pettegrove Point Foreign Object Debris”(PPFOD)，and supposed to be a piece of spacecraft debris fact. In fact it was found to be a very thin slice of rock, so we can all rest easy tonight. Curiosity has not begun to shed its skin!

    How this particularly thin sliver of rock got to where it is—and why it seems to be a different colour than the surrounding sand and debris—remains unexplained, but at least the rover isn't falling apart.

    Whenever we're introduced to strangers, we make snap decisions about them according to our first impressions. Are they attractive or how much do they earn?

    For most Brits, simply asking someone how much they're worth' financially is considered very impolite. Thankfully, most people are kind enough to drop several hints (暗示)about their relative wealth or successful careers They always post on social media about flying to a meeting for work. They're always wearing clothes with labels big enough to silently scream about how rich they are and how well they're doing.

    It's a worrying trend, and I'm not immune to it. I've felt the warm happiness of knowing I earned more than somebody, and the baseless grey irritation of knowing that I earn less than another. I've checked into places while I know full well that anybody reading it will get jealous.

    It seems as though self-worth is increasingly being tied to the careers we choose and the money we earn. A study in 2013, for example found that nearly 17% of unemployed Americans were depressed compared to almost 6% of those who had a permanent job.

    We need to stop placing so much value on what a person earns. Don't get me wrong-being ambitious is not a fault, and achievements should always be celebrated. But when a person uses their success to judge you negatively it becomes a problem.

    If you want to know what you're really worth, here's a tip: It doesn't have anything to do with your bank account. It's about how many times you've been there for your friends. It's how many times you've been kind to a stranger It's every time you did something unselfish, or told your partner you loved him/her, or treated someone with respect no matter where they were in their own life.

    Throughout much of human history, man has been the measure of many, if not all, things. Lengths were divided up into feet and smaller units from the human hand. Other measures were equally characteristic. Mediterranean traders for centuries used the weight of grains of wheat to define (定义) their units of mass. The Romans used libra, forerunner of the pound, by referring to the weight of a carob (角豆树) seed.

    The sizes of similarly named units could also differ. The king's foot, used in France for nearly

    1,000 years after its introduction by Charlemagne in around 790 AD, was, at 32.5cm,around a centimeter shorter than the Belgic foot, used in England until 1300.Greek,Egyptian and Babylonian versions of water in a fixed container varied from one another by a few kilos, Nor was there agreement on such things within countries. In France, where there was no unified (统一的) measurement system at the national level, the situation was particularly terrible. The lieue (former measure of distance), for example, varied from just over 3 km in the north to nearly 6 km in the south.

    Although John Wilkins, an Englishman, first put forward a decimal system (十进制) of measurement in 1668,it was the French who in 1799 made it law. The Système International d'Unités (SI, or the metric system, as it is better known) developed from it and became the official measurement in all countries except Myanmar, Liberia and the United States. Now the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris is set to give the metric system its biggest shake-up yet.

    At a meeting in Versailles, France, on November 16th,2018,the world's measurement bodies are almost certain to approve a decision that will mean four out of the seven base SI units, including the kilogram, will follow the other three, including the metre, in being redefined in terms of the values of physical constants (物理常数).Each of the chosen constants has been measured incredibly precisely, which would mean that from May 20^th 2019 the constants will themselves be fixed at their current values for ever. Any laboratory in the world will then be able to measure, for example, the mass of an object as precisely as the accuracy of their equipment will allow.