When important events are happening around the world, most people turn to traditional media sources, such as CNN and BBC for the news. However, during the war in Iraq in 2003, many people followed the war from the point of view of an unknown Iraqi citizen who called himself "Salam Pax" (Salam Pax means peace).

    Salam Pax wrote a diary about everyday life in Baghdad during the war, and posted it on his website. Pax's online diary was a kind of website known as a "blog". Blogs are online diaries, usually kept by individuals, but sometimes by companies and other groups of people. They are the fastest growing types of website on the Internet.

    A blog differs from a traditional website in several ways. Most importantly, it is updated much more regularly. Many blogs are updated every day, and some are updated several times a day. Also, most blogs use special software or websites, which can help ordinary people easily set up and start writing their own blogs.

    There are many different kinds of blogs. The most popular type is an online diary of links where the blog writer surfs the Internet and then posts links to sites or news articles that they find interesting, with a few comments about each one. Other types are personal diaries, where the writer talks about their life and feelings. Sometimes these blogs can be very personal.

    There is another kind of blogging, called "moblogging", short for "mobile blogging".

    Mobloggers use mobile phones with cameras to take photos, which are posted instantly to the Internet. The use of mobile phones in this way made the headlines in Singapore when a high school student posted a movie he had taken of a teacher shouting at another student on the Internet. Many people were shocked by what the student did, and wanted phones with cameras to be banned from schools.

    Many people think that as blogs become common, news reporting will rely less on big media companies, and more on ordinary people posting news to the Internet. They think that then the news will be less like a lecture, and more like a conversation, where anyone can join in.

    People who smoke could lose around one third of their everyday memory, researchers say.

    A study by a team at the University of Northumbria has shown that smokers lose more of their memory when compared to non-smokers. And the research also found that those who kicked the habit saw their ability to recollect information restored to almost the same level as non-smokers.

The study involved more than seventy 18-to 25-year-old volunteers and included a tour of the university's campus. Those who took part were asked to recall(回忆；回想)small details, such as music acts listed to play at the students' union and tasks completed at various points—known as a real-world memory test.

    Smokers performed badly, remembering just 59 percent of tasks. But those who had given up smoking remembered 74 percent and those who had never smoked recalled 81 percent of tasks.

    Dr. Tom Heffernan, who leads Northumbria University's Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group, said the findings would be useful in anti-smoking campaigns. He said, “Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in America, it's important to understand the effects that smoking has on everyday cognitive function.”

    This is the first time that a study has set out to examine whether giving up smoking has an effect on memory. We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits to the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can bring a series of benefits to cognitive function. The research will now investigate the effects of second-hand smoking on memory, while Dr. Heffernan will look into third-hand smoking, such as toxins (毒素) left on curtains and furniture.

    Welcome to the pumpkin weigh-off at Half Moon Bay (半月湾), California. The event has always been very popular among most pumpkin growers. Thousands of people line up along the city's High Street and watch the proud pumpkin owners from across the country. Each pumpkin is carefully picked up by forklifts (叉式升降机) and placed on a digital weighing scale.

    Organizers are offering $30,000 in total prize money for a new record pumpkin entering Half Moon Bay. But in order to receive the “New Record Prize”, the grower will have to bring a pumpkin heavier than the 2,624-pound one grown by Mathias Willemijns in 2017. If the heaviest pumpkin in the contest is unable to surpass (超过) the record, its owner will receive $6 for every pound it weighs.

    When: Monday, October 9, 2018. Weighing will begin at 7 am and will end at 11 am. Growers will start lining the street as daylight breaks by 7 am.

    Where: I.D.E.S. Grounds, 735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, California.

    Prize Money:

    New Record Pumpkin: $30,000 (in total)

    1st Place: $6 per pound

    2nd Place: $2,000

    3rd Place: $1,500

    4th Place: $1,000

    5th~10th Place: $500 each

    11th~20th Place: $100 each

    Special Prizes: $500 for the most beautiful pumpkin, judged by the audience (color, shape and size).

    The top five pumpkins will be on display for the thousands of visitors to Half Moon Bay's famous Art and Pumpkin Festival that will take place on October 14-15, 2018.

    Russ Gremel, now 98 years old, decided it was time to donate $2 million to the Illinois Audubon Society, a charity to purchase nearly 400 acres of land for wildlife protection. Gremel was able to make this amazing donation because he purchased $1,000 worth of Walgreens stock seven decades ago whose value has grown recently.

    "A single man with no kids, Gremel has lived in the same Chicago house for 95 years, and has always lived simply", neighbor Patrick Falso told TODAY. Falso said he heard Gremel say many times the "money wasn't mine to begin with" and that he always intended to give it away.

    The Gremel Wildlife shelter was founded on June 4. Illinois Audubon Society president Jim Herkert said Gremel's donation was extremely generous. "It's allowing us to protect a really valuable and important possession and realize one of Gremel's wishes that we could find a place where people could come out and experience nature the way he did as a kid," Herkert told TODAY.

    After doing all this, this past weekend, Gremel adopted an old Chihuahua（吉娃娃犬）. Winnie the dog was picked up as a homeless dog several months ago. She suffered from a kind of cancer, which was treated—and all she needed was a loving home, which Colleen Collins, the founder of Perfect Pooches Adoption Agency, was determined to find.

    Gremel had lost his own beloved Chihuahua earlier this year. When he reached out to Collins about Winnie, she felt this could be a good match. That feeling grew when she brought Winnie to his house for a meet and greet, and Winnie was introduced not only to Gremel but also some of his friends and neighbors. One had brought over a lot of fresh strawberries; all said they'd be there to help out in any way needed.

Fauja Singh, 109, who broke marathon records and was called the "Superman" before hanging up his running shoes six years ago, will be the subject of a Bollywood film, Fauja, tracing his remarkable career.

Mr. Singh, born in India in 1911, was a keen amateur runner in his youth, but gave it up. Getting over a series of personal tragedies including the deaths of his wife and two of his children, he returned to his former passion in his eighties.

He moved to the UK soon after and now lives in Ilford, east London. He arrived for his first training session in Redbridge in a three-piece suit, and his first race was the London marathon in 2000. Three years later in Toronto, he broke the world record for the 90-plus. In the early 2011, when he turned 100, Mr. Singh set eight world records in a day. He ran the 100m in 23.14, then added the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, the mile, the 3000m and 5,000m world records. Three of the events had never been attempted by anyone over the age of 100 before. Days later, he became the first centenarian (百岁老人) to complete a marathon, again in Toronto, with a time of 8:25:27.

Mr. Singh retired from competitive running in 2013 but continued jogging for pleasure. He owed his extraordinary longevity to a vegetarian diet and avoiding smoking, alcohol and fried food.

Of marathon running he has said: "The first 20 miles are not difficult. As for the last six miles, I keep talking to myself, 'Keep it up, old boy!'"