Well-known for historic architecture and chocolates, Lviv, Ukraine's official capital of culture, looks, smells, and tastes like the best of Europe. Indeed, its western flavor has earned it the title "Little Paris of Ukraine".

    For centuries Lviv, located 50 kilometers from the Poland-Ukraine border, was an important stopping point on the main trade routes between the east and west. During the Renaissance, the city could afford Italy's finest architects because every merchant passing through was forced to stay and sell their goods for at least two weeks. "It was a very smart move to collect money from them," said Yaroslav Hrytsak, a local historian, adding, "It kept the wealth in the city, and that wealth has been transformed into architectural richness."

    Many historic buildings remain but Lviv's prosperity didn't survive its bloody history. Over the centuries, the city fell under the rule of Poland, Austria, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Nazi Germany. In addition, both Sweden and Turkey tried unsuccessfully to conquer the city. Then for almost half a century Lviv was ruled by the Soviet Union (苏联). With that, the city was condemned to relative obscurity(无闻). But recently things have started to change. Lviv experienced a sudden 40% increase in tourism in early2010, which was the highest rate in Europe. Just last month, its gates opened even wider, when Lviv became a host city for the Euro 2012 football championships.

    So how has this happened? With the Soviet collapse, some saw new opportunities for reviving Lviv's former wealth and fame.

    Limelight networks is a US-founded company. It's one of many digital tech firms to have opened offices in Lviv over the past few years. "It had good growth and experience in the US, however, the company needs more talent to do the new cool projects and products for our customers. This is why we're here in Ukraine." said CEO of Limelight networks.

    Lviv's unexpected abundance of I.T. talent is in fact a legacy(遗产) of the former Soviet Union. To help the military, many Soviet universities focused on turning out world-class engineers and Lviv's university is still producing them. Now, the city is home to 23 higher education institutions. It's clear that the city of Lviv does not intend to remain a hidden jewel for much longer.

    Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.

    Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting(收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.

    Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our Study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”

The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see一and guide whether we see fear.”

To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner(扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.

“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak' to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.

    “We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”

    The year 3700, Earth is far too hot for any human to call it home. On this planet at least, man is nothing more than a memory--if there is anything left to remember the "wise man". But what about our wisdom--will any of it survive us?

    The conventional answer is no. Knowledge requires a knower, and there will be no knowing minds around then. But if information survives, perhaps in books or hard drives, maybe the knowledge isn't quite dead but dormant(休眠), ready to become alive with the help of other minds that develop over time or come to visit Earth in the distant future.

    At first sight, that seems to be reasonable: after all, we have done similar things with past knowledge. For example, we saved an ancient computer from a ship destroyed at sea off the southern coast of Greece, and succeeded in finding the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics(象形文字). Careful work can bring previously lost wisdom back to life.

    However, the key point is that there is a certain cultural continuity with those ancient times that allows us to reason and make progress in the dark: we know we are dealing with the legacy(遗产)of other humans. Without that link, the survival of objects and raw data doesn't guarantee the survival of knowledge. And a lack of continuity in language with any future intelligence would be a barrier. Knowledge is closely connected with language. When a language dies out, we can lose systems of reasoning that they contain. If that's lost, then it can't be recovered.

    All this means that other minds might not be able to fully make human knowledge alive when we are gone. It is better to concentrate on not dying out in the first place.

    Author Norman Mailer published an essay in which he declared the graffiti(涂鸦) of the New York subway to be "The Great Art of the 70s". But what happened to the artists and why is there no subway graffiti any more?

    "It started with someone just writing their name — someone saw that, and added on to it," recalls New York graffiti artist Nicer, born Hector Nazario. "Letters going in front of letters, coming back through a letter, behind a letter, going across a letter... the subways became our playground," adds Riff170.

    New York in 1974 was a city in crisis. The Mayor, Abe Beame, slashed the city's budget in a bid to stave off bankruptcy(破产), which meant laying off school teachers, police officers and subway staff.

    "They were taking the money from the schools, there was a lot of corruption here, in this community, and so they took the after-school programmes away, and there was no outlets for this. So the outlet became our city," says Bronx-born designer Eric Orr.

    "It was like an explosion. The graffiti explosion. All of a sudden it took over the whole city. I don't know what happened, but overnight in the early 70s it was from no graffiti to all graffiti," says another former artist, Flint Gennari.

    Eric Felisbret, author and former graffiti artist, says graffiti culture was in a way a product of the civil rights movement. "It was never political," he says, "but many people were brought up with that, and to express yourself by breaking the law became a natural process for them."

    The graffiti pioneers came from all races, however. "There were writers that were African American, Latino - Puerto Rico, Dominican, Cuban - Jewish, Asian, and it became one unit — one family," says another graffiti pioneer, Roberto Gualtieri.

    Prof Gregory Snyder, sociologist and author of Graffiti Lives, says: "For lots of people, graffiti is ugly, vandalistic, and I'm not denying that. It's vandalism... now, oftentimes it's very clever vandalism. It can be written on a dumpster, like a garbage bin, and if someone's attempting to make a garbage bin look a little prettier maybe that's not the worst thing in the world." Although Mailer was not alone in welcoming the flowering of creativity, the authorities hated it, as did many passengers.

    So when Mayor Ed Koch took office, he was determined to clean up the city and set about targeting graffiti.

    "I remember in 1982 he brought everyone out to a train yard and there was a single train painted white," says former New York Daily News reporter Salvatore Arena. Trains were taken out of service and cleaned as soon as graffiti was spotted. Carriages were protected at night and the city agreed to ban the sale of spray cans.

    If in 1984 80% of subway carriages contained graffiti by May 1989 the network was graffiti-free. “Graffiti has gone through an evolution, and it will continue to evolve. It's now socially accepted in places where 20-30 years ago that would have been impossible. It's now showcased(展示) in certain museums —and let's say in another 30 years from now it may be hanging in the White House,” says Nicer.

    Nowadays painted graffiti is largely gone from the New York subway trains themselves and is seen instead on the walls and tunnels of the city. It has been replaced by scratchiti(刮擦艺术) created onto carriage windows using keys, knives. Unlike the vivid images of 40 years ago, these ghostly patterns are somehow easy to ignore. After all, graffiti has faded quietly into the background.

    Being the head of a high school for many years, I grew tired of budget meetings, funding cuts, and many other administrative chores. I started to dream of retirement. Sitting in traffic on a weekday morning, I would find my mind wandering. I would imagine spending time with my grandchildren, quiet evenings with my wife, traveling, or rediscovering some great books. I told myself that I wouldn't sign myself up for any committees, any classes, or anything requiring a schedule.

    My first day of retirement came at last! I cooked a great breakfast for my wife and me, leisurely read the paper, cleaned a bit of the house, and wrote a few letters to friends. On the second day, I cooked breakfast, read the paper … On the third day. This is retirement? I tried to tell myself that it was just the transition, that those golden moments were right round the corner, and that I would enjoy them soon enough. But something was missing.

    A former colleague asked a favor. A group of students was going to Jamaica to work with children in the poorest neighborhoods. Would I interrupt my newly found “happiness” and return to the students, just this once? One trip. That's all. My bags were packed and by the door.

    The trip was very inspiring. I was moved not only by the poverty I saw but also by the sense of responsibility of the young people on the trip. When I returned home, I offered to work one day a week with a local youth organization. The experience was so positive that I was soon volunteering nearly full-time, working with students across North America to assist them in their voluntary work.

    Now, it seems, the tables have turned. Some days I am the teacher, other days I am the student. These young people have reawakened my commitment to social justice issues by challenging me to learn more about the situation in the world today, where people are still poor and suffer because of greed, corruption and war. Most importantly, they have given me the opportunity to continue to participate in helping to find solutions. In return, I help them do their charitable projects overseas. I've gone from running one school to helping oversee the construction of schools in twenty-one countries!

Music

    Opera at Music Hall: 1243 Elm Street The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 241 ­2742.

    http://www.cityopera.com

    Chamber Orchestra: The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 106 Elm Street, which offers several conceits from March through June. Gall 723­1182 for more information.

    http://www.chamberorch.com.

    Symphony Orchestra: At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381­3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall in summer al Riverbend.

    http://www.symphony.org/honie.asp.

    College Conservatory Of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well­known LaSalle Quarter, CMM's Philharmonic Orchesira, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modem misic. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by coiling the box office at 556­4183.

    http://www.ccm. uc.edu/events/calendar.

    Rivebent Music Theater.6295 Kellogg Ave« Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference). Big name shows all summer long! Phone:232­6220.

    http://www.riverbendmusic.com