It could happen just about any time you step out in public. You get onto an almost-empty bus, but the next passenger in decides to ignore dozens of empty seats to sit right next to you. While you're waiting in line at a supermarket, the next customer insists on standing only two inches behind you and shouting into his cell-phone. You go into a public restroom, and the next person to enter decides to use the next stall. Transgressions(冒犯) like these don't just make us feel uncomfortable; we often feel anxious, alarmed; and violated(被侵犯的). It is the attack of the personal-space invaders.

    In any society, shared definitions of personal space govern how we interact with other people. People living in densely(密集地) populated cities like Mumbai, Beijing, or Mexico City tend to require less personal space than people living in sparsely(稀少地) populated places within the country. In America, New Yorkers often have smaller requirements than residents of western states, like Montana, Shenandoah and Wyoming. Because everyone has different standards, gestures that are innocent in one place can be interpreted as opposite in another, especially in Britain.

    As the British etiquette(礼仪) website Debrett puts it, as a British person, somebody standing too close may make you "focus less on what somebody is saying than on how close they are to you". Simple acts like putting an arm around someone you don't know may seem friendly in China, but they can make us very uncomfortable. People from many European countries such as France and Spain kiss each other on the cheek when they meet, yet to British person, this seems too friendly and "touch-freely". The website explains! "The British are not backslappers(拍人后背的人) and generally do not show affection in public".

    Are British people unfriendly? Far from it. The website adds that they are not as "stand-offish and aloof' as they may seem, but very friendly and helpful to foreigners. However, remember not to be too close. If you are going to come closer than an arm's length, please let them know.

    Six years ago at the age of 35,I suddenly decided I wanted to learn the cello（大提琴）.Straight away I rented an instrument and appeared before Wendell Margrave,professor of musical instruction.

    "You can be as good as you want to be,"Margrave said rather mysteriously.On a piece of paper he drew the notes E and F.He showed me where to put my fingers on the neck of the cello and how to draw the bow.Then he entered my name in his book: 10 am,Tuesday.Tuesday followed Tuesday,and soon it was spring.

     Thus began my voyage out of ignorance and into the dream.E-F,E-F,we played together—and moved on to G.It was a happy time.I was again becoming something new,and no longer trapped as the same person.Surely the most terrible recognition of middle life is that we are past changing.We do what we can already do.The cello was something I couldn't do.Yet each Tuesday this became less and less true.Riding home on the bus one snowy night and learning the score of Mozart's C-Major Quintet(莫扎特的C大调五重奏),I felt the page burst into music in my hands.I could by then more or less read a score,and was humming（哼唱）the cello line,when suddenly all five parts came together harmonically（和谐地） in my head.The fellow sitting opposite stared.I met his glance with tears,actually hearing the music in my head for the first time.Could he hear it too, perhaps?No,he got off at the next stop.

    As the years slipped by,my daughter grew up,playing the piano well.My goal was that she and I would one day perform together.I also wanted to perform in public with and for my peers,and to be secretly envied.I continued to play,to perform,but it is not the same. Before, when I heard a cello,it was all beauty and light.Now,as the TV camera gets close to Rostropovich's face,I recognize that his smile shows his incredible determination.Even for him,the cello is a difficult instrument that doesn't respect your ambitions.I picked up my cello and practiced.As good as I wanted to be,I am as good as I'm going to get.It is good enough.

    People have used pigeons to carry messages to one another for hundreds of years. In fact, pigeons were a common way to send messages right up through Would War II.

    In 1815, English troops were fighting Napoleon's forces in France, and the English were believed to be losing. A financial panic swept over London. Government bonds（债券）were offered at low prices. Few people noticed that Nathan Rothschild, an English banker, was snapping up these bonds when everyone else was trying to sell them. A few days later, London learned the truth: the Duke of Wellington had defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. The value of the bonds soared（暴涨）, and Rothschild became wealthy…all because his pigeons had brought him news of the victory before anyone else knew of it.

    Carrier pigeons were used by countries in both World War I and World War II. Not only were the birds often the fastest, most reliable way to send messages, they could also be used to reach soldiers far behind enemy lines, where radios and field telephone lines were useless. Since they could easily be released from airplanes or ships, every branch of the armed services used the birds.

    Carrying messages could be a dangerous job. Some pigeons performed with such bravery that they became famous and were even awarded medals. The most famous pigeon of all may have been Cher Ami. Stationed in France during World War I, he carried twelve important messages for American forces. On his last mission, though wounded, he carried a message that saved the lives of 194 American soldiers. For his amazing service, he was awarded the French “Croix de Guerre.”

    Today, modern communication methods can carry information from one place to another hundreds of times faster than a pigeon could do it. However, few people would argue with the fact that carrier pigeons — especially those that served in the military — have earned their place in history.

    An analysis of almost 50 years of competitions—including Eurovision Song Contests and world skating championships—has found that contestants are more likely to win if they are among the last to appear before the judges.

    The study by an American university appears to provide scientific proof that the best man, or woman, does not always win. It found that, on average, the last competitor to appear in the Eurovision Song Contest was more than twice as likely to win as the one who went on first.

    The first rounds of figure—skating championships, for which the running order is selected at random, showed more dramatic results. The final skater had a 14 percent chance of victory, making him or her more than four times as likely to win as the first skater.

    The study showed a gradual worsening of chances for competitors who appeared earlier in the running order. A contestant who appears first in a contest is two percent less likely to win than one who appears second. A contestant who appears second is two percent less likely to win than one who appears third, and so on.

    The findings are published in the March issue of Acta Psychologica, a scientific journal. Robert Hardman, a senior lecturer in psychology at London Metropolitan University who specializes in the science of decision-making, said that the results were interesting. He suggested that the effect was caused by the limitations of the human memory.

    "When people make comparison, they aren't really able to make a lot of fine-grade discrimination. When contestants appear at the beginning of a contest, judges have little to compare them to and are perhaps cautious about the scores they give." he said.

    "Later on, when judges are able to compare the contestants to those that have gone before, they might give more extreme marks because they feel more confident about their judgments."

    Captain America and Blackpanther were about to defend Earth from the criminal Thanos when Kevin Foley first noticed something was wrong. Foley, a 46-year old information-technology worker from Kyle, Texas, was heading into the theater to see Avengers: Infinity War when he realized he was having trouble breathing normally. The same symptom struck again during another movie the following night, but more severe this time. Once the cast on the second film rolled, Foley took action: he looked at his wristwatch. It was a bigger step than you might imagine, because Foley was wearing an Apple Watch equipped with medical sensors and experimental software to track basic functions of his heart. And the watch was worried. It had, according to the display, detected signs of an irregular heartbeat.

    Before long, Foley was in an emergency room, where doctors hooked him up to an ECG(心电图), which showed that he was in atrial fibrillation(心房颤动), an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots(血栓), stroke and other potentially disastrous diseases. Foley spent the next few days in the hospital while doctors worked to return him to a normal heart rhythm eventually turning to a procedure called electrical cardioversion to shock his heart back to normal. Foley is doing fine now. But he believes that, if not for the warning on his watch, he might not have sought help in time. “I would have never known,” he says.

    Foley and his watch were part of an experiment run by Apple and Stanford's medical school. But beginning Dec. 6, anyone can get an on-the-fly heart checkup, assuming they've paid $399 or more for an Apple Watch. That's when Apple will launch a software update that turns its latest model, called the Series 4, into a personal ECG, thanks to an innovative new sensor. Though less complicated than hospital ECG machines, the watch version can still provide basic information and warnings of potential risks worthy of a closer look by a medical professional.

    For Apple, this new ECG-on-your-wrist is its biggest bet yet that personal technology will inevitably include personal health. Along with competitors, Apple has already offered fitness functions, such as apps to track the steps you've walked. But with the new ECG scan, Apple is moving straight into medical aspects of heath, a distinction underlined by the fact it sought and received Food and Drug Administration clearance for the clearance for the heart monitor.

At age 22, Hikari Oberman has already been a lifeguard for four years. Last week, Oberman talked to The Garden Island about how he helped save lives during a recent rescue.

On Dec. 30, Oberman and his coworker Cope were parked in their truck at Anini Beach when two workers ran up to them and said, "I think someone's getting stuck in the channel!"

"I grabbed our equipment. We started rolling out down there," Oberman said. When he got out there, Oberman found a standup paddler, a man in his late 30s, struggling against the current, with an elderly man holding tightly to the back of the paddleboard (冲浪板).

He said, "My coworker grabbed the standup guy. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with the older man. "

Normally, Oberman said he would pull the paddler up, lay him on the surfboard, climb up behind and paddle from there. He tried that technique at first and quickly realized it was not a practicable option. They are not going anywhere.

Waves hit against the extremely sharp reef very hard about 30 yards behind them, and the current was pulling them into it.

"It's right behind us. If I stop paddling, we're definitely going to be in that zone." He said.

They started making progress toward the reef, where they might safely be able to climb out. Oberman just focused on forward movement.

After about five minutes-"even though it felt longer" -Oberman said his partner had gotten the paddleboarder safely to shore and started coming back out to help.

"I look back, and I see our Jet Ski. He's finally coming in the channel. We're not going to have to worry about that now. "

It was a good rescue.

When asked what it feels like to save someone's life, Oberman responded, "I love it! That's why we do it!" But as exciting as it might be to perform a big rescue, he explained that the most important part of his job is to keep people from getting into trouble in the first place.