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AVOID PUBLIC WI-FI

    Free Wi-fi offered in public places is often poorly secured. Hackers need only ordinary tools to access mobile phones linked to the network and the information the devices store.

DON'T OVERSHARE ONLINE

    Internet users can let their guard down when chatting with strangers on social media, letting slip their names, family details, workplace addresses and job titles to their new “friends”. Some parents even share photos of their children online, forgetting to hide details that can disclose their names, schools or where they live.

AVOID ONLINE SURVEYS

    Some questionnaires try to attract people with small rewards or a chance to take part in a “lucky draw”. But to qualify, people must fill in their names, phone numbers and home addresses. Check the website where the survey is being hosted and consider whether it's reliable.

KEEP ONLINE RESUMES BRIEF

    Internet users often do not hesitate to provide detailed personal information in their online resumes, thinking it can only help probable employers to contact them. Some job site operators even require applicants to list their family members' information. China's Ministry of Public Security says people should give only the information necessary.

TRACK COPIES OF YOUR ID CARD

    Banks, telecommunications operators and other service providers often require photocopies of your identity cards to open accounts or perform other business. Dishonest employees might then try to sell them to scammers (骗子).

    More people are dying from hepatitis(肝炎) than AIDS and tuberculosis, warns World Health Organization. The World Health Organization(WHO) has urged for action to wipe out hepatitis as ongoing illness worsens.

    In its first global report on the infection, it said the number of people dying from treatable forms of the disease, often caused by alcohol and drug abuse, is rising. Viral hepatitis is believed to have killed 1.34 million people in 2015, and amount similar to that of tuberculosis.

    But while those are both falling, hepatitis deaths are on the rise—increasing by 22 per cent since the turn of the century.

    However, most of the 325 million people infected are completely unaware they have the virus and some lack life-saving medicines. As a result, millions of people are at risk of a slow progression to chronic liver disease, cancer and even death, the WHO warned, Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said: “Viral hepatitis is now a major public health challenge that requires an urgent response.”

    The two most common forms, which are responsible for 96 per cent of deaths from the disease, are hepatitis B(HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV)

    HBV can be passed on through unprotected sex and bodily fluids(液体). It requires life-long treatment with a drug commonly used to battle HIV. New infections of this type of the disease are falling, thanks to a vaccine given to 84 per cent of newborns across the world. However, just nine per cent of sufferers know they are infected, meaning many go under the radar and miss out on treatment.

    HCV, usually spread through blood-to-blood contact with an infected person, can be cured relatively swiftly, but many patients across the world are unable to afford the medication. Around 1.75 million people were newly infected with HCV in 2015, bringing the global total to 71 million, figures suggests. But four fifths of those infected with this type of the disease are unaware they are suffering, the WHO warned.

    Experts looking at the cases have identified unsafe healthcare procedure and injection drug use as the top causes. Gottfried Hirnschall, director of WHO's Department of HIV and the Global Hepatitis Programme, said the WHO was working with governments, drugmakers and diagnostics companies to improve access.

    He added: More countries are making hepatitis services available for people in need—a diagnostic test cost less than $1 (78p) and the cure for hepatitis C can be below $ 200 (￡156). But the data clearly highlight the urgency with which we must address the remaining gaps in testing and treatment.

    Charles Gore, president of the World Hepatitis Alliance, said: “For the first time in the history of viral hepatitis, we have an understanding of the true impact of the disease.”

    Anyone watching the autumn sky knows that migrating birds fly in a V formation, but scientists have long debated why. A new study finds that these big－winged birds carefully position their wingtips and flap(拍动) at the same rate, probably to catch the upward movement of air and save energy during flight.

    There are two reasons birds might fly in a V formation: It may make flight easier, or they're simply following the leader. Squadrons(中 队) of planes can save fuel by flying in a V formation, and many scientists suspect that migrating birds do the same. Models that treated flapping birds like fixed－wing airplanes show that they probably save energy by drafting off each other, but currents created by airplanes are far more stable than those coming off of birds.

    Just as aerodynamic(气动力) calculations would predict, the birds positioned themselves to fly just behind and to the side of the bird in front, timing their wing flaps to catch the uplifting eddies(涡流). When a bird flew directly behind another, the timing of the flapping reversed(相反) so that it could minimize the effects of the downdraft coming off the back of the bird's body. “We didn't think this was possible,” Usherwood says, considering that the difficult achievement requires careful flight and incredible awareness of one's neighbors. “Perhaps these big V formation birds can be thought of quite like an airplane with wings that go up and down.”

    The findings likely apply to other long－winged birds, such as pelicans and geese, Usherwood says. Smaller birds create more complex wakes(尾波) that would make drafting too difficult. The researchers did not attempt to calculate the birds' energy savings because the necessary physiological measurements would be too invasive for an endangered species. Previous studies show that birds can use 20% to 30% less energy while flying in a V.

    Scientists do not know how the birds find that aerodynamic sweet spot, but they suspect that the animals line themselves up either by sight or by sensing air currents through their feathers. In future studies, the researchers will switch to more common birds, such as pigeons or geese. They plan to investigate how the animals decide who sets the course and the pace, and whether a mistake made by the leader can ripple through the rest of the flock to cause traffic jams.

    Here's a list of books I'm looking forward to this fall season. Not all of them will rise to the level of the advertisement, but it's an abundant crop.

    "Home After Dark" by David Small (Liveright, Sept.11)

    In 2009, Small published a celebrated graphic memoir (回忆录) called "Stitches". Now the Caldecott Medal winner is back with a graphic novel about a motherless 13-year-old boy brought up in an unhappy home in California. This is a tale told in few words and many striking images. On Sept. 11 at 3p.m. . Small will be at Amazonbooks at Union Market. More information at www.amazon.com/graph-tale.

    "Waiting for Eden" by Elliot Ackerman (Knopf, Sept. 25)

    This brief novel is related by a dead soldier who is watching over a horribly burned partner in a Texas hospital. That sounds embarrassingly emotional, but Ackerman, who served in a Navy in Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of the best soldier-writers of his generation. More information at www.amazon.com/military-essay.

    "All You Can Ever Know" by Nicole Chung (Catapult, Oct. 2)

    Chung, the editor of the literary magazine Catapult, was adopted as a baby by a white family in Oregon. In this memoir, she writes about her childhood, her Asian American identity and her search for the Korean parents who gave her up. More information at www.amazon.com/politics-prose.

    "Unsheltered" by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, Oct. 16)

    Alternating between past and present, this novel tells the story of a woman investigating a late-19th-century science teacher who was caught up in the controversy over Darwinism. Like her other novels, this one promises to explore social and scientific problems. Visit www. amazon.com/tech-science for more information.

    who doesn't love sitting beside a cosy（舒适的）fire on a cold winter's night ? Who doesn't love to watch flames (火苗) curling up a chimney ? Fire is one of man's greatest friends, but also one of his greatest enemies. Many big fires are caused by carelessness. A lighted cigarette thrown out of a car or train window or a broken bottle lying on dry grass can start a fire. Sometimes, though, a fire can start on its own. Wet hay (草) can begin burning by itself. This is how it happens: the hay starts to rot (腐烂) and begins to give off heat which is trapped inside it. Finally, it bursts into flames. That's why farmers cut and store (贮存) their hay when it's dry .

    Fires have destroyed whole cities. In the 17th century, a small fire which began in a baker's shop burnt down nearly every building in London. Moscow was set on fire during the war against Napoleon. This fire continued burning for seven days . And, of course, in 64 A. D. a fire burnt Rome. Even today, in spite of modern fire - fighting methods, fire causes millions of pounds' worthy of damage each year both in our cities and in the countryside. It has been wisely said that fire is a good servant but a bad master.

Socially, few things are more annoying than someone repeatedly checking their phone in the middle of your conversation with them. Soon enough, you're having unhappy thoughts, thinking of their way like, I'm boring you; you're more concerned with whoever's on that phone than me; you don't care about me. None of that is necessarily true, but this is: "If someone is engaged in a great conversation, they wouldn't care about their phones," says Leslie, a psychologist and researcher at NYU.

Do you sometimes wonder: What should I have said to a rude person like this? What if we have to talk to such maddening persons? Experts have advice about how to deal with this.

Whether you say something or not, remember that the cell-addict's annoying habits aren't about you. "It's rude, for sure, but sometimes we mistake the behavior for more than what it is," says Leslie. "It's possible that they are facing something tough and merely experiencing nervousness or anxiety," he adds. It's also possible that their partner is stuck with a flat tyre (轮胎) or their kid is sick in hospital. The point is that you don't know.

So before you become angry at the cell-addict's open rudeness, focus instead on building a better conversation than whatever's going down on Instagram. You might never be able to achieve this, given the power of today's social media, so if you're close enough to a person, Leslie advises you to directly ask them: "What's on that thing that's so interesting?" Chances are that they will apologise at once and quickly put the phone away. But if the answer is something real, talk about it. Better yet, you can avoid the situation in advance by saying something like, "I'm really interested in catching up properly, so how about we leave our phones in the car?" If they indeed have that flat tyre or sick kid, at least you won't have to assume that it's because your stories are boring.