Plan on traveling around the USA? There are a number of outstanding websites that can make your American dream come true.

www.101usaholidays.co.uk

    This is the latest offering that features 101 holiday ideas to the USA. It's a diverse selection, ranging from touring in the footsteps of Martin Luther King to a golfing break in Arizona and a cycling and wine-tasting trip in California's Napa Valley. Narrow down what you're looking for—whether by price, region, theme and who will be traveling—and then just the photos of the relevant holidays remain on view. It's a really clever design.

http://byways.org

    The National Scenic Byways Program covers 150 memorable roads. Some are natural scenic routes, such as Route 1 along the California coast. Others focus on history (such as Route 66) or man-made attractions (the Las Vegas Strip). For each, you're provided with a map telling the route's length and how long is allowed.

www.oyster.com

    This is the best website for reviews of hotels in US cities and tourist sites. There are photos of each hotel. Importantly, these are not promotional photos provided by the hotels, but more honest and revealing ones taken by inspectors. From the 243 hotels reviewed in New York, you can narrow down what you are looking for by locations, facilities and styles, or just pick out a selection of the best.

http://seaworldparks.com

    SeaWorld in San Diego can make dreams come true, but the price is not affordable for the majority of people. So turn to long-established http://seaworldparks.com, giving big discounts on tickets, hotel and dining at SeaWorld.

    Darek Fidyka, a 38-year-old Bulgarian, had been paralyzed (瘫痪的) from the chest down for four years after a knife attack. Scientists from Britain and Poland took cells from his nose, transplanted (移植) them into his back and re-grew his spinal cord (脊髓). Now he can walk and even drive a car. The doctors were delighted but said it was the first step in a long journey.

    The breakthrough came after 40 years of research by Professor Geoff Raisman, who found that cells had the possibility to repair damage to nasal (鼻腔的) nerves, the only part of the nervous system that constantly re-grows. “The idea was to take something from an area where the nervous system can repair itself and put it into an area that doesn't repair itself,” Professor Raisman said.

    Polish doctors injected (注射) the nasal cells into Mr Fidyka's spinal cord above the injury and used some nerves from his ankle to form a bridge across the damaged tissue. The nasal cells appear to have caused the spinal nerves to repair themselves.

    Professor Raisman achieved this with rats in the late 1990's, but this is his greatest success. “I think the moment of discovery for me was Christmas in 1997 when I first saw a rat, which couldn't control its hand, put its hand out to me. That was an exciting moment, because I realized then that my belief that the nervous system could be repaired was true.”

    Doctors chose the easiest case for their first attempt—it might not work for others. But there is a real sense of hope that an idea once thought impossible has been realized.

    David Nicholls, who helped provide money for the breakthrough, said information about the breakthrough would be made available to researchers across the globe.

    “What you've got to understand is that for three million paralyzed people in the world today, the world looks a totally brighter place than it did yesterday,” he said.

    Chinese students aren't the only ones who have a sleep loss problem. In Australia, teenagers are also missing, on average, one hour's sleep every night during the school week.

    Organized activities and homework push bedtimes later, the first large-scale Australian study of children's sleeping habits has shown. Their sleep deprivation (剥夺) is enough to cause “serious drop-offs in school performance, attention and memory”, and governments should consider later or flexible school start times, said the study's leader, Tim Olds.

    His survey, of more than 4,000 children aged 9 to 18, found those who slept least did not watch more television but spent their time socializing (相处) with family or friends or listening to music.

    “Almost all children get up at 7 or 7:15 — they have to get to school on time,” said Olds. He favors a later start over an earlier finish because he believes organized sports and activities would still consume the latter end of the day.

    Olds' research also establishes lack of sleep as a cause of weight gain in children, and a possible source of future problems with depression, anxiety and increased susceptibility (易感性) to illness.

    It was already known that overweight children sleep less, but Professor Olds found sleep duration(时长) was strongly linked to weight across the full range of body sizes. The thinnest children sleep 20 minutes more than the obese. This showed being overweight had no specific effect on sleep patterns, and it was more likely that shorter sleep times stimulate (刺激) appetite and make kids hungry.

    The US National Sleep Foundation says teenagers aged 13 to 18 need eight to nine hours' sleep a night. Younger school-aged kids need 9 to 11 hours.

    On that basis, Professor Olds said, half of Australian children are under-sleeping on weekdays and a quarter on weekends.

    It warmed my heart today to walk into the Thirsty Camel downtown in the Thanksgiving Day, for a quick lunch before a haircut and library trip. Ilan, a food shop owner, said that he was refusing to take money today because it was Buy Nothing Day. To increase awareness(意识) of the stranger's over-spending nature of our society, Ilan suggested a trade for food today. He simply asked that you offer something of equal personal value for the meal you received.

    At first I was really uncomfortable, wondering if it would be fair to exchange a yet to be determined “I Owe You” (IOU) for food? What could I give him of equal value? After all, his food is the best in the town!

    We ended up writing our IOU's with promises of a book, some paintings and the offer of work in a variety of ways if he needs it.

    I think the idea isn't that the trade is “equal” so much as the importance of the kind of transaction. We put thought into our offer and we had an even greater understanding for the meals we ate.

    We don't buy a lot, especially at this upcoming time of year. We don't give gifts at all in fact. The holiday time is spent enjoying each other's company and doing things together with family and friends. This is what seems most sensible.

    Ilan is a good person. We are all lucky to have someone like this in our community.

    While it's books that make a library, being in lovely surroundings may provide inspiration and help you work a little bit harder. Here are some of the coolest libraries of the world.

    Library of Birmingham – Birmingham, U.K.

    The new Library of Birmingham is said to be not only Britain's biggest public library, but also the largest in Europe. Designed by Dutch architects, this replacement for the Birmingham Central Library was opened in 2013 and has a wealth of resources within its walls, including adults and kids' libraries, music collections, a Shakespeare Memorial Room, and even a gym room. Gardens crown the roof, while the changing seasons bring variations in the shadows and reflections inside.

    National Library of France – Paris, France

    The National Library of France, which now contains an astonishing collection of 30 million, dates back to the 14th century and this royal library was set up at the Louvre by King Charles V. The Library was moved to Rue de Richelieu site in 1868, with major design work carried out by French architects Henri Labrouste and, following his death, Jean-Louis Pascal. Here, the reading rooms are elegance itself. There are more than just books to be found.

    State Library of New South Wales – Sydney, Australia

    The public State Library of New South Wales holds the honor of being the oldest institution of its kind in Australia. It was originally set up as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826, but it wasn't until 1942 that its permanent home was ready. Designed by Sydney architect Walter Liberty Vernon and completed in 1910, the magnificent sandstone Mitchell Wing is one of the architectural highlights.

Seattle Central Library – Seattle, Washington, USA

    Seattle Central Library's distinctive design ensures it stands out. Architect Rem Koolhaas is one of the names attached to its design. Architects sought to envelop the 11-story building with “a layer of transparency”, using a skin of glass and metal. The finished article houses about 1.45 million books and other things, as well as more than 400 computers available for public use. The building, which opened in 2004, was included on the American Institute of Architects' list of America's 150 favorite buildings in 2007.

    Dujiangyan is the oldest man­made water system in the world, and a wonder in the development of Chinese science. Built over 2, 200 years ago in what is now Sichuan Province in Southwest China, this amazing engineering achievement is still used today to irrigate over 6, 000 square kilometers of farmland, take away floodwater and provide water for 50 cities in the province.

    In ancient times, the region in which Dujiangyan now stands suffered from regular floods caused by overflow from the Minjiang River. To help the victims of the flooding, Li Bing, the region's governor, together with his son, decided to find a solution. They studied the problem and discovered that the river most often overflowed when winter snow at the top of the nearby Mount Yulei began to melt as the weather warmed.

    The simplest fix was to build a dam, but this would have ruined the Minjiang River. So instead Li designed a series of channels built at different levels along Mount Yulei that would take away the floodwater while leaving the river flowing naturally. Better still, the extra water could be directed to the dry Chengdu Plain, making it suitable for farming.

    Cutting the channels through the hard rock of Mount Yulei was a remarkable accomplishment as it was done long before the invention of gunpowder and explosives. Li Bing found another solution. He used a combination of fire and water to heat and cool the rocks until they cracked and could be removed. After eight years of work, the 20­metre­wide canals had been carved through the mountain.

    Once the system was finished, no more floods occurred and the people were able to live peacefully and affluently. Today, Dujiangyan is admired by scientists from around the world because of one feature. Unlike modern dams where the water is blocked with a huge wall, Dujiangyan still lets water flow through the Minjiang River naturally, enabling ecosystems and fish populations to exist in harmony.