More and more people like bicycling and it is no surprise. It is fun, healthy and good for the environment. Maybe that's why there are 1.4 billion bicycles and only 400 million cars on roads worldwide today. Bikes can take you almost anywhere, and there is no oil cost!

    Get on a bicycle and ride around your neighborhood. You may discover something new all around you. Stopping and getting off a bike is easier than stopping and getting out of your car.

    You can bike to work and benefit from the enjoyable exercise without polluting the environment. You don't even have to ride all the way. Folding (折叠) bikes work well for people who ride the train. Just fold the bike and take it with you. You can do the same on an airplane. A folding bike can be packed in a suitcase. You can also take a common bike with you when you fly. But be sure to look for information by getting on airline websites. Not all airlines are bicycle-friendly to travellers.

Health Benefits of Bicycling:

    It helps to prevent heart diseases.

    Bicycling helps to control your weight.

    A 15-minute bike ride to and from work three times a week burns off five kilos of fat in a year.

    Bicycling can improve your mood (心情).

    Exercise like bicycling has been shown to make people feel better, more relaxed and self-confident.

    Bicycling is healthier than driving.

Day 1

    I first heard of “Show Racism (种族歧视) the Red Card” when my friend Jill asked me to support their work. Basically, it's an organization which uses professional (职业的) footballers to help fight racism in sport and society. A few weeks later, he asked me if I wanted to do a bit more for them. I thought he probably meant for me to give money or do some voluntary work. But then he told me that a group of about 20 people were getting sponsored (赞助) to play the highest ever game of rugby (橄榄球) at 5,140 meters on Mount Everest.

Day 4

    We're making our way up to the base camp — that's where most climbers start their final climb to the top — and then, we'll play our game. Today we started out at 8 am. We had to cross three suspension bridges (悬索桥). One of them was so high that you couldn't see the bottom. Then we walked through some beautiful forest areas before we started a two-hour uphill hike to Namche Bazaar.

Day 10

    Base camp is basically just a lot of stones and tents. The walk up was really exhausting. Maybe if I was fitter, I wouldn't find this so hard, but then it was not just me — all of us got very short of breath.

Day 11

    Today we played our game. It was supposed to be a “friendly” game, and last night, we had agreed we'd just walk and not run. However, it was a really heated game and two players were even sent off. We only played for 14 minutes. I think someone would have got hurt if we'd played any longer! My team won and I scored the last try! Of course, none of this matters. What's really important is that we did it and we've raised a load of money.

The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. Rather, it's their enormous capability for joy. A friend told me a story. One day, when she went to get his 6-year-old son from soccer practice, her kid greeted her with a sad face. The teacher had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But before reaching the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching(蹲伏) down to look at something on the sidewalk. “Mom, come here! This is the strangest bug I've ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. It's amazing!” The little face was overflowing with indescribable excitement.

Nowadays, however, when we walk into a classroom, especially in a high school, we'll be choked by towering books and papers, and hiding behind them are a group of motionless creatures, pens in hand, minds dry, just as the hollow men portrayed by T. S. Eliot. Their pursuit of joy has given way to their hunger for grades. Laughter and happiness are a distant memory for them.

    Although joy is an unaffordable luxury in today's increasingly fierce competition, administrators and teachers need a mindset shift from crushing students with assignments to getting them to take pleasure in productive activities which develop their important qualities, like perseverance and obligation. The assumption that pleasure is the enemy of competence and responsibility makes no sense educationally.

Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine: unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not think of learning as if it were food—something so valuable to humans that they want to experience it as a pleasure?

    Western conservation groups are seeking stricter laws to deal with trade in endangered wildlife, but Dr. Paul Jepson warns that this isn't the best solution. He highlights the case of the Bali starling (八哥). Bringing in tougher laws created unexpected outcomes, which contributed to the bird's extinction in the wild in 2006.

    He said that the traditional law enforcement (执行) approach that outlawed (宣布……非法) ownership of the Bali starling in the 1980s and 1990s increased rather than reduced the demand for wild-caught Bali starlings. The bird has become a popular gift among the rich of Indonesia, who can gain more status by owning one.

    Instead, a case-by-case analysis might be needed. Last year, he said, a bird association set up a network of breeders (饲养者) among the owners of Bali starling on the island of Java. By introducing a "crowd-breeding" model, it transformed the bird into a species whose price and source of supply were publicly known. This lessened the status of keeping such birds and thereby reduced their profitability to black market suppliers.

    Another case was on Nusa Penida, an island southeast of Bali. A Balinese conservation group planned to release starlings on the island. Critics tried to block the plan, saying the island was outside the birds' native zone. Eventually, the Governor of Bali came up with a proposal. The starlings were given to a local temple as a ceremonial offering before they were released. This gave the Bali starling status as a "sacred bird", giving them protection under customary laws. Now the released starlings established a breeding population on Nusa Penida.

    Dr. Jepson commented, "I do not want to criticize the international approach seeking tighter law enforcement, but this case study shows we should not oversimplify how we respond to the problem of the wildlife trade. There is a growing body of evidence that shows more different approaches are sometimes needed to fit with the local social and political realities. We should tailor solutions on more of a case-by-case basis."