Your smartphone(智能手机) can do a lot of things. It can call people. It connects to the Internet. It enables you to play fun games. But there is a dark side to this smart little device（设备）of yours – it might also spread disease.

    “People are just as likely to get sick from their phones as from handles of the bathroom,” Jeffrey Cain, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told The Wall Street Journal.

    This may be hard to believe, but scientists reached this conclusion after they tested eight random cell phones from an office in Chicago. All the tested phones showed high numbers of coliforms(大肠菌), a kind of bacteria found in excrement(粪便)，with about 2,700 to 4,200 units of the bacteria on each phone. In drinking water, the healthy limit is less than 1 unit per 100 ml of water. This bacteria can cause flu, pinkeye（红眼病）and diarrhea(腹泻).

    Although computers, keys and pens all carry germs(细菌), our smartphones get far dirtier. They touch a lot of stuff, including our hands and the inside of our pocket or purse. We take them almost everywhere: the bus, the subway and who hasn't played Angry Birds of Fruit Ninja while sitting on the toilet?

    “Some things that we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine,” Cain said.

    What's even worse is that after the phone returns from its dirty trip, it then spends most of its time cozying up to our faces. You don't think about how often you touch your phone to your face, do you? Our noses, mouths and ears are all warm and rich in grease（油脂）, an environment that germs really like.

    Compared to traditional keypads（键盘）, touch screens transmit（传播）germs more easily to hands. According to Time magazine's website, an expert in Australia warned that playing with iPads and iPhones at Apple stores is a health risk.

    So how do you keep your smartphone clean? Alcohol is effective when used to kill germs from the back and side of your phone. But it might harm the screen. There is one simple and reliable way you can reduce the germs on your phone's surface: wash your hands regularly.

    Exercise may help to safeguard the mind against depression through previously unknown effects on working muscles, according to a new study involving mice.

    Mental health experts have long been aware that even mild, repeated stress can contribute to the development of depression and other mood disorders in animals and people. Scientists have also known that exercise seems to cushion against depression. But precisely how exercise, a physical activity can lessen someone's risk for depression, a mood state, has been mysterious. So for the new study, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied the brains and behavior of mice in a complicated and novel fashion.

    We can't ask mice if they are feeling cheerful or in low spirits. Instead, researchers have pictured certain behaviors that indicate depression in mice. If animals lose weight, stop seeking out a sugar solution when it's available — because, probably, they no longer experience normal pleasures — or give up trying to escape from the cold-water zone just freeze in place, they are categorized as depressed. And in the new experiment, after five weeks of frequent but low-level stress, such as being lightly shocked, mice displayed exactly those behaviors. They became depressed.

    The scientists could then have tested whether exercise blunts (延缓) the risk of developing depression after stress by having mice run first. But, frankly, from earlier research, they wanted to know how, so they bred pre-exercised mice. A wealth of earlier research by these scientists and others had shown that aerobic exercise, in both mice and people, increases the production within muscles of an enzyme (酶) called PGC-1alpha. The Karolinska scientists suspected that this enzyme somehow creates conditions within the body that protect the brain against depression. Then, the scientists exposed the animals, which without exercising, were in high levels of PGC-1alpha to five weeks of mild stress. The mice responded with slight symptoms of worry. But they did not develop depression. They continued to seek out sugar and fought to get out of the cold-water zone. Their high levels of PGC-1alpha appeared to make them depression-resistant. Finally, to ensure that these findings are relevant to people, the researchers had a group of adult volunteers complete three weeks of frequent endurance training, consisting of 40 to 50 minutes of moderate cycling or jogging. The scientists conducted muscle biopsies (活体检查) before and after the program and found that by the end of the three weeks, the volunteers' muscle cells contained substantially more PGC-1alpha than at the study's start. The finding of these results, in the simplest terms, is that “you reduce the risk of getting depression when you exercise,” said Maria Lindskog, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute.

Grandparents Answer a Call

    As a third generation native of Brownsville, Texas, Mildred Garza never planned to move away. Even when her daughter and son asked her to move to San Antonio to help their children, she politely refused. Only after a year of friendly discussion did Ms Garza finally say yes. That was four years ago. Today all three generations regard the move as a success, giving them a closer relationship than they would have had in separate cities.

    No statistics show the number of grandparents like Garza who are moving closer to the children and grandchildren. Yet there is evidence suggesting that the trend（趋势）is growing. Even President Obama's mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, has agreed to leave Chicago and into the White House to help care for her granddaughters. According to a study grandparents com., 83 percent of the people said Mrs. Robinson's decision will influence the grandparents in the American family. Two-thirds believe more families will follow the example of Obama's family.

    “In the 1960s, we were all a little wild and couldn't get away from home far enough or fast enough to prove we could do it on our own,” says Christine Crosby, publisher of Grand a magazine for grandparents. “We now realize how important family is and how important it is to be near them, especially when you're raising children.”

    Moving is not for everyone. Almost every grandparent wants to be with his or her grandchildren and is willing to make sacrifices, but sometimes it is wiser to say no and visit frequently instead. Having your grandchildren far away is hard, especially knowing your adult child is struggling, but giving up the life you know may be harder.

    While there are many fascinating countries in the world to visit, I think there is something more adventurous, exotic (异国风情的) and romantic about visiting an island country. Take a look at some breathtakingly beautiful island countries in the world, which everyone should certainly visit at least once in his lifetime.

    Malta

    Malta is a beautiful southern European country in the Mediterranean Sea, which has a rich history and culture. There are amazing sky-high cliffs to climb, splendid temples to explore and lots of wonderful places to go scuba-diving. In fact, there are plenty of interesting things to see and to do in Malta and this island country has something for everyone. The historic part of Malta is shown in its incredible architecture, great walled cities, and many underground tunnels.

    Fiji

    Fiji is a fabulous island that has plenty of surprises for any adventurous travelers. It is famous for the world's best surf scenes, and many surfing enthusiasts travel to Fiji yearly to ride the great wives. Well, if surfing is not for you and you love sitting on the beach and relaxing, hiking or seeing breathtaking waterfalls, Fiji is certainly the best island country to visit.

    Maldives

    Not only is Maldives one of the most beautiful island countries, but it is one of the most popular honeymoon destinations. Situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Maldives is made up of a series of ancient coral reefs that grow up along the sides of ancient volcanoes, with fascinating beaches and luxurious resorts.

"Who does the cooking in your home?" I'm often asked by my colleagues. "My wife and I share it 50/50," I usually say without hesitation.

    It's a lie, of course. We're pretty much even（相等的）when it comes to the children and the elderly. But the paying of bills isn't 50/50-my wife pays all sorts of household expenses, so I never even have to set eyes on them. And the cooking isn't 50/50, either.

    The truth is that I am the cook. On my recent 40th birthday, I received the following gifts from my children: a new pot, two mini bottles of truffle oil, a decorative salad-dressing pourer, and a juice-making machine. For a moment I longed for something more manly, a cricket bat, perhaps, and then had to admit that all these things would be useful for me.

    It's not that my wife can't or doesn't like to cook (she makes delicious Welsh cakes). Nor has it always been this way. In the early years of our marriage I'd be relaxing with a glass of wine while my wife prepared for dinner after work.

But at some point that changed and I became the cook. Ten years with my wife gave me the rewards-I can throw together a roast, and I can make much foreign food. But I have truly become a monster(怪物) in the kitchen, unable to keep myself away from cooking. "You have to add Dijon to the sauce; it brings out the taste of the cheese," I volunteer, as my wife is cooking. "Quick, stir in the butter so the dish becomes delicious."

    Is it any wonder that my wife has given up coming into the kitchen while I find the whole process of chopping, mixing, and adding things deeply satisfying?

    Rosa Parks became famous in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. She was important in the movement for civil rights（民权） in the American South during the 1950s and 60s. At the time, blacks in the South were forced to sit in the back of public buses and to give up their seats to white people.

    Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1957 to escape death threats. She continued living in Detroit until her death in 2005, at age 92. But the house in Detroit where Parks lived for many years was abandoned and scheduled to be torn down. Her niece, Rhea McCauley, bought it for $500 to stop it from being destroyed. She then gave it to American artist, Ryan Mendoza.

    Mendoza and others took it apart and then sent it across the Atlantic Ocean to the German capital of Berlin. There, he led efforts to rebuild the house. It now is behind his own house in Berlin. It gets daily visitors, although it is difficult to find, Mendoza said.

    But less than a year after the house was rebuilt in Berlin, Mendoza decided it should be returned to the United States. He made the decision after deadly violence took place at a recent white nationalist event in Charlottesville, Virginia. That incident increased calls for removing statues of Confederate（美国南部联邦的） leaders from the Civil War in the U.S.

    Mendoza said there are not enough civil rights monuments "to balance things out" with the Confederate statues. He said the Rosa Parks house belongs back in America "Imagine if the house were on a public setting in a prominent city in the U.S.," Mendoza said. "That's an education tool that shouldn't be denied by the American people. They have to know their past."

    The house would be welcomed back in Detroit. Detroit has failed to protect historical homes in the past. Such houses include the former home of Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Detroit's failure to protect history also is shown by the loss of the Rosa Parks house, Hammer said.