Peter Huszcz once taught in an agricultural (农业的)college. In the 1990s, he moved to Canada. Peter started out washing dishes in a restaurant in downtown Ottawa. When the manager asked him to help out rolling meatballs in the kitchen, he soon 1earned how to do the job very well. But it was boring and Peter suggested that the manager should buy a meatball-making machine. When the manager told him there was no such thing as a meatball maker, Peter was quick to notice that something was missing in the market. Putting his engineering knowledge to good use, he quickly came up with a simple method—the Magic Meatball Maker.

    He was sure there was a market for his machine. but it took him ten years of hard work to find it. He had to take risks, but he believed in his idea, and he managed to persuade other people to believe in him too. A local manufacturer (制造商) offered to produce the first 1,000 units in return for a share in the profits (收益), local shops offered to keep his meatball makers and a friend's daughter helped him out with his first sales.

    But his lucky break came when he managed to persuade a TV shopping channel to help sell the Magic Meatball Maker. The channel broadcast a program about how the invention worked in the studio kitchen. Within minutes, they had sold more than 4,000 units.

    This was just the start. Peter had been right. He had said his meatball maker would bring him great wealth, and it has: more than two million dollars so far and it's till selling to thousands of American housewives all across the USA.

    China's boss of table tennis Liu Guoliang was shocked at his first sight of Japanese teenager Miu Hirano who beat three top-ranked Chinese to claim a sensational victory of the women's singles at the Asian Table Tennis Championships.

    "She's much better than I had imagined," said Liu, on the conclusion of the continental tournament（锦标赛）. "When she came out the winner of last year's World Cup, I thought maybe she took advantage of the absence of the Chinese women paddlers. However, I changed my mind when I saw her play here. She's strong enough technically and mentally, and capable of beating any one in the world," added Liu.

    Hirano, who just turned 17 years old on Friday, stunned China's world No. 1 Ding Ning 3-2 in the quarterfinals before second-ranked Zhu Yuling 3-0 and finally seeing off world No. 5 Chen Meng, also 3-0, to smash the Chinese dominance（统治）of the tournament.

    "She's so young and has so many possibilities in the future," said Liu. "That makes her success more intimidating to our women's team."

    In Liu's opinion, the difficulties that China faced in these Asian championships reflected the changes of table tennis world map in recent years.

    "It's not just recently that Japan wants to beat China," he said. "By the end of the day, their efforts finally worked out."

    The head coach, however, refused to stand all by the Japan's side. "We do need to learn from the other associations, including the Japanese, who do an excellent job on youth training," Liu said. "But one failure should not lead to the whole denial to our own team. I think it's a good thing to have competitors who can pose real challenges, which makes our sport more competitive and more healthy," he added.

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    Part of the fun of watching sports events is following an exciting rivalry (竞争关系).

    But where do all these rivalries come from?

    Some rivalries start because athletes spend a lot of time close to opponents (对手).

    Other rivalries get personal. Things that one rival says that are thought to be not respectful to the other can cause a rivalry, even if the words are misunderstood. And sometimes, rivalries grow just because the athletes don't like each other's personalities.

    Some sports may also be more likely than others to cause rivalries. “Some sports only meet a few times, so there is less chance for rivalries to build,” For example, in sports where athletes perform on their own, such as diving, rivalries might also take longer to appear than in sports in which athletes compete at the same time. But in tennis, players often face each other, and rivalries are more likely to happen.

    So do the rivalries do good or harm to the athletes?

    Some believe that rivalries can be a good thing because they encourage athletes to try harder to win. But rivalries can also become too personal, taking athletes' attention away from their sports.

    Keegan agreed that rivalries often do athletes more harm than good. “They can be a huge distraction (分散注意力的事) and lead to focusing on the opponent more than the game,” he said.

    “Top athletes often have physical and mental training that they follow in order to worry less and prepare to compete”, Gould further explained. An important part of that preparation is preventing from distractions, including rivalries.

    “The better athletes don't care too much about a rivalry – they try to treat every competition the same,” Gould told LiveScience.

    What are the biggest problems that society will have to deal with in the new age? There re diseases like AIDS and cancer. There's climate change, of course. And what about producing enough cheap food and energy for the world's growing population? Who's going to solve all these terrible problems? Yes, politicians and world leaders will have a big part to play. Yes businesses will need to create the economic wealth to pay for some of these things. But who's going to make a much greater difference to something like AIDS or climate change. It's going to be a scientist. It is the scientist who can turn some new bit of science into a new technology to solve these problems. If you like thinking about the world around you, why not become a scientist? It doesn't mean you have to wear a white coat and plastic glasses and spend all your time in a lab as most people often imagine! Scientists do all kinds of amazing things that are actually interesting!

    Military scientists develop not only new weapons but new military technologies that could help make wars out of date. Forensic(法医的) scientists work with the police to find quite small clues to catch criminals. Scientists work in schools and colleges as the teachers and professors who will train tomorrow's scientists. Don't think a scientist is far away! Maybe you like cooking? You could be a food technologist helping to keep fruit and vegetables fresher for longer. Perhaps sport is your thing? Do you know that most top athletes work with sports scientists in order or improve their performance? You could even be the science writer who gets to spend the life studying the latest advances and sharing them with the world.

    Looking for something to do for the rest of your life? My advice? Take a long and hard look at science. It is interesting and ever.

    Some best music and opera holidays for 2019.

    Tangle wood Festival

    The villages of Lenox and Stockbridge in western Massachusetts have been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for more than 80 years, and its annual Tanglewood festival is East Coast America's most distinguished music event. Andris Nelsons, BSO music director, conducts 14 of the concerts and star performers include Emanuel Ax, Paul Lewis and Anne-Sophie Mutter. Tickets on sale Feb 10.

    June 15—Aug 25 (tanglewood.org)

    Aspen Festival

    This year is the 70th anniversary of the Aspen Music Festival, one of the longest-running and most prestigious festivals in the United States. The 2019 program has yet to be announced, but a typical eight- week summer season includes more than 400 classical music events—including concerts by five orchestras, solo (独奏) and classical music performances, fully staged opera productions, music lessons, lectures, and children's programming. Tickets and details available in February.

    June 27—Aug 18 (aspenmusicfestival.com)

    Grand Teton Music Festival

    Aspen's great classical music competitor in the Rocky Mountains is the Grand Teton, which has been held in Jackson Hole since 1962 and at its heart is a timber concert hall, the Walk Festival Hall, famous for its friendly atmosphere and excellent natural sound. Despite its relatively modest size, the hall attracts the greats—current music director is the Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles. The program for 2019 is yet to be announced but subscriptions are on sale from Feb 1, single tickets from March 1.

    July 2—Aug 17 (gtmf. org)

    Salzburg Festival

    The excitement is building in Salzburg both for this summer and for its 100th anniversary year in 2020. Bar the Proms, it is the world's oldest music festival and this year it will pack in an unbelievable 199 performances in 43 days at 16 venues. This year's theme is ‘Myths' and includes first public performances of Mozart's Idomeneo and George Enescu's opera dipe.

    July 20—Aug 31 (salzburgfestival. at)

    Surgery that can improve the way a person looks is being more and more popular in the United Stated. This kind of surgery is called cosmetic surgery, and both men and women are turning to this treatment as a way of keeping their appearance young as well as keeping competitive in their jobs. Men especially are beginning to turn to face-lifts, liposuction, and implants to help them look younger. As companies downsize and move younger employees into higher positions, older employees in their late forties and early fifties feel the need to look and act younger in order to stay competitive. A younger look through cosmetic surgery may give an older employee a few more years on the job.

    These operations are not without dangers, however. One young woman had an eye operation to get rid of the bags under her eyes. She described her experience as terrible. She said, "When he started cutting, I was fully awake. Even though he'd given me an injection(注射) near my eyes, I saw everything. "She went on to explain, "I knew I had to keep still because of what he was doing. He was removing fat under my eyes. It took about ten minutes. After he finished I felt I couldn't walk. I was so weak." Her troubles did not end after the operation. For two weeks, her eyes were swollen and almost completely closed, and even dark glasses could not hide the side effects of the operation.

    Liposuction is probably the most popular cosmetic operation in the United States. It seems simple enough. First, a small cut is made over the places where the patient wants the fat removed. Next, a small pipe is put into the cut. A machine is then turned on, and the fat is taken right out of the body. However, as one doctor explained, some problems can happen after the operation. He warned, "Irregular lumps(块) and loose skin can result from this operation. If it is not completely done, liposuction can produce a very lumpy result." Patients often must have more liposuctions to correct the problem.