The main cause of death and disability in the US

    Stroke (中风) is the main cause of death and disability in the United States. Every 45 seconds, someone in America has a stroke. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It is the nation's third leading cause of death, ranking behind diseases of the heart and all forms of cancer. The following is something more about stroke.

Definition and description of a stroke

    Stroke is a type of cardiovascular disease. It affects the arteries(动脉) leading to and within the brain. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel（血管） that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} So stroke forms.

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    The American Stroke Association has identified several factors (因素) that increase the risk of stroke. The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that he or she will have a stroke. Some of these you can't control, such as increasing age, family health history, race, and previous stroke. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Factors resulting from lifestyle or environment can be improved with a healthcare provider's help.

Breakthroughs in treatment

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In fact, about 600,000 people have strokes every year. For many years, there was no hope for those suffering a stroke. However, recent breakthroughs have led to new treatments. For the treatments to work, the person must get to a hospital immediately.

    Antiquities are ancient objects and artworks. Museums acquire works to display from many different sources. Sometimes they purchase them. Other times they receive donations. Today there are strict rules forbidding art that has been stolen from other countries. However, antiquities that have been at museums for decades or even centuries may have arrived there by questionable means. Now, some countries claim that museums have a responsibility to return these antiquities to their original locations.

    There are many examples of this debate. Perhaps the most famous is the argument between Greece and the UK over the Elgin marbles. In the early 19th century, the Earl (伯爵) of Elgin had numerous sculptures taken from Greece to the UK. When Elgin did this, Greece was still a part of the Ottoman Empire. He claimed that he had received a permit to export the sculptures. Today the marbles are on display in the British Museum^ However, Greece wants them to be returned to their original location.

    Should museums return these antiquities? Experts disagree. Malcolm Bell III says yes. Bell is a retired professor of art at the University of Virginia. He says, “Many antiquities and artworks have special cultural value for a particular community or nation. When these works are removed from their original cultural setting they lose their context and the culture loses a part of its history.”

    According to Bell, a country's request for the return of an antiquity “usually has a strong legal basis.” It “was exported illegally, and is now stolen property.” He called the return of antiquities “an expression of justice.”

    James Cuno says not always. Cuno is president of an art museum in Los Angeles. He is also the author of the book Who Owns Antiquity?. Cuno agrees that museums have “a social and legal responsibility” to return illegally exported antiquities. However, he doesn't support the return of legally acquired works.

    “An area of land held today by a given nation-state in the past likely belonged to a different political entity (实体). Even if one wanted to reunite scattered works of art, where would one do so? Which among the many countries, cities, and museums in possession of parts of a work of art should be the chosen 'home' of the reunited work?” Cuno believes that museums should collect art from the world's diverse cultures. This should be done “through purchase or long-term loan and working in cooperation with museums and nations around the world.”

    This debate is far from over. As a complex question with no easy answer, the issue requires more study.

    Most foodies (吃货) agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be tough. Now, there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their diets and their dining out experiences.

Cheese & Wine Pairing app

    Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and advises wines to pair with each. Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing app is free for iPhones and iPads.

Calorific app

    What does 200 calories look like? It can be hard to picture. Calorific provides images of 200 calories worth of food. The pictures can help people on a diet and those who just want to eat healthier food. The app is free for iPads and iPhones. There is also a version that provides more information for a price.

    HappyCow app

    Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The HappyCow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world. A free version of HappyCow is available for Android that has ads and requires an Internet connection.

    LocalEats app

    Restaurant chains, like McDonald's, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. LocalEats is designed for that. It lists locally owned restaurants so users can try foods from that area. The app costs about a dollar.

    As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remembering less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

    In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

    In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder(文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location(位置)better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory”.

    According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize large amounts of information so that they are able to find it at a later date. This doesn't mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

    The opening times of Vienna's museums, shops, Tourist Info Vienna, etc

    Tourist Info

    1st district, city centre

    Albertinaplatz, corner of Maysedergasse

    Daily from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm

    Vienna International Airport Arrival Hall

    Daily from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm

    Museums

    Most of Vienna's museums are open daily. Some are closed once a week, often either on Monday or Tuesday. The daily opening times vary from museum to museum, but you can generally assume that a museum will be open between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm. Some of the large museums offer art lovers one late evening per week and stay open until 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm.

    Shops

    In Vienna, shops are usually open from Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm and on Saturday until 5:00 pm or 6:00 pm. Some shopping centers are open until 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

    Banks

    Most banks in Vienna are open from Monday to Friday from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm and from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm, and until 5:30 pm on Thursdays. In the city center almost all banks are open over lunchtime.

    Restaurants and hot food

    Most restaurants in the city center are open daily. Hot food is generally offered from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm and from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Some restaurants, often outside the city center, are closed on one day each week, sometimes on Sundays as well.

    I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals for two elderly women in my community. Both had died "full of years", as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.

    At the first home, the son of the deceased(过世的)woman said to me, "If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died." At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, "If only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead."

    You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course—keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation—would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?

    There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.

    The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.

    A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to his tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.