Time zone:

    Eastern Standard Time (EST): GMT+l0 hours.

    There is no daylight saving time in Queensland.

    Legal drinking age:

    18 years and older. Always keep your ID with you to prove your age.

    Alcohol (酒) shops & hotels are the only places where alcohol can be bought.

    Dangers:

    Dial 000 from a fixed line or 112 from a mobile phone. Police, ambulance, fire.

    Electricity:

    240/250 volts AC 50Hz Universal outlets for 110 volts (shavers only) standard in hotels, apartments, motels.

    Telephones:

    Australian international code is 61.

    Road rules:

    Left hand side driving. There is a 50kmh speed limit in most living areas and on open highways 100-110 kmh, seat belts must be worn all the time. If you want to hire a car, take along your driver's license.

No smoking:

    Indoors: Indoor areas are no smoking.

    Poker Machines: Poker machine areas are no smoking.

    Outdoors: Non-enclosed eating and drinking areas are no smoking.

Swimming safety:

    ALWAYS SWIM BET WEEN THE RED AND YELLOW FLAGS and pay attention to the life guards' advice. Gold coast beaches are guarded by skilled life guards and volunteers at weekends.

    Terrafugia Inc. said Monday that its new flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle — named the Transition — has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car. The Transition, which flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes last month, can reach around 70 miles per hour on the road and 115 in the air. It flies using a 23-gallon tank of gas and burns 5 gallons per hour in the air. On the ground, it gets 35 miles per gallon.

    Around 100 people have already put down a $10,000 deposit（定金） to get a Transition when they go on sale, and those numbers will rise after Terrafugia introduces the Transition to the public later this week at the New York Auto Show. But don't expect it to show up in too many driveways. It's expected to cost as much as $279,000. And it won't help if you're stuck in traffic. The car needs a runway.

    Inventors have been trying to make flying cars since the 1930s, according to Robert Mann, an airline industry expert. But Mann thinks Terrafugia has come closer than anyone to making the flying car a reality. The government has already permitted the company to use special materials to make it easier for the vehicle to fly. The Transition is now going through crash tests to make sure it meets federal safety standards.

    Mann said Terrafugia was helped by the Federal Aviation Administration's (联邦航空管理局) decision five years ago to create a separate set of standards for light sport aircraft, which are lower than those for pilots of larger planes. Terrafugia says an owner would need to pass a test and complete 20 hours of flying time to be able to fly the Transition, a requirement pilots would find relatively easy to meet.

    Believe it or not, the size of the human brain has become smaller over the past 20,000 years. Scientists argue over whether this means we are becoming more or less intelligent as a species.

    “I'd call that a major downsizing in an evolutionary eye blink (眨眼),” John Hawks told Discover magazine.

    Why is the brain becoming smaller?

    There are different theories to explain it. One is that tens of thousands of years ago, before the decline began, to survive in cold and dangerous conditions, humans needed a stronger and larger body and therefore, a larger head. Also they had to chew the tough meat of rabbits, foxes and horses. As conditions improved, the brain stopped growing, according to supporters of this theory.

    Another theory comes from a recent study by David Geary and Drew Bailey. They found that brain size decreased as population density(密度) increased.

    “As complex societies appeared, the brain became smaller because people did not have to be as smart to stay alive.” Geary told AFP.

    But smaller brain size does not necessarily mean that modern humans are less smart than their ancestors. “Modern humans simply developed different, more complex forms of intelligence,” said Brian Hare.

    Hare's studies focus on two types of great apes: chimpanzees and bonobos. Both are much like humans, but are physically quite different from one another. The bonobo has a smaller brain than the chimpanzee, and is also much less aggressive and more tolerant.

    “When it comes to working out a problem,” Hare said, “chimpanzees are much less likely to accomplish it if it involves working together. Not so with bonobos.”

The smaller brain in modern humans may be evidence that we can cooperate,” Hare told the US National Public Radio.

    Who can think of the race between the tortoise and the rabbit when it comes to the greatest races? Sure, that race only took place in ancient Aesop's mind, but while the great modern races can teach us a lot about commitment, perseverance (毅力) and the virtues of having a rather large engine, "The Tortoise and the Rabbit" may tell us everything about animals and even vehicles on this planet.

    In a study published this week, Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering, concludes that no one should be surprised that the tortoise wins over the seemingly speedier rabbit. In fact, after analyzing the reported speeds of land-air-and-water-based animals, Bejan concludes that the world's well-known speedsters are actually among the slowest when their movements are averaged out over the course of a lifetime.

    The study builds on Bejan's previous research showing that an animals speed increases with mass regardless of species. And that principle can also be extended to non-living things, like aircraft.

    After studying data from historical airplane models, Bajan noted the speed of each model increased with its size, too. That doesn't sound right. What about the modern jet fighter? How is that relatively small craft not faster than a clumsy large transport plane?

    Again, Bejan harks back to the tortoise. That transport plane spends lots of time in the air, moving regularly across long distances. The fighter jet, on the other hand, may fly across the sky occasionally, but-like the rabbit-it's often found resting on the ground.

    The slow and steady transport plane wins the marathon of life.

    But like so many good stories, Aesop's tale offers even more than a lesson in perseverance.

    At one point, the rabbit asks the tortoise how he expects to win a race at such a slow pace.

    The tortoise—ever focused—doesn't respond But it's the rabbits own words that provide the moment to reflect on, especially in modem times.

    "There is plenty of time to relax," Until there isn't.

    One spring day, once the flowers have begun to open, a bee will hover (盘旋) and zip through your yard and dive-bomb your picnic table. While you're thinking about avoiding an attack, that bee is focused on something else entirely: me.

    A honeybee has about six weeks to live. Today, like most days, her task is to fly as many as three miles from home, stick her long, straw-like tongue into a hundred or so flowers. When the bee has had her fill, shell fly home. There the bee will deposit what she has got into the mouth of one of her co-workers, who will relay it to another, and so on for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is ready to be placed into the comb. Then she and her 50 000 or so mates will hover in the dark all night every night, flapping their wings to create hot, breezy conditions to remove the water from the mixture. Several sunrises later, they will seal me off in a golden cell of beeswax. In her lifetime, our bee may visit 4, 000 flowers, and yet will produce only one-twelfth of a tea spoon of me.

    The average American consumes nearly a pound and a half of me every year, in tea, on toast, and beyond. If I do say so myself, I am a timeless treasure. Literally—I never go bad.

    Alas, my good health is not guaranteed. The problem lies in the growth of industrial agriculture and the use of pest control chemicals, as well as changes in weather patterns, all of which reduce the number of flowers bees have to visit I'd appreciate your letting your own garden grow just a little wild My future depends on all of us fostering spring and summers wild flowers, thus helping the bees, who give so much—to you, to me—without ever asking for anything in return.

    Throughout history, music spread among people of different cultures. In today's technological advanced society, however, people spread music online, sometimes without an artist's permission. This can lead to many problems, and music companies are now cracking down on this practice. Sharing music online without permission is theft (盗窃).

    Sharing music online prevents recording companies from making money from their efforts. They say that sharing music online has resulted in a huge drop in profits and sales over the past 10 years. People who find music for free online are not paying for CDs or every MP3 downloaded. To truly understand the influence of music piracy (盗版) on creators, one must understand how many people are involved in the recording process. For the sale of each album, profits must be shared between musicians, sound engineers, music producers, managers, advertisers, and the company selling the product. Many people believe sharing music only affects the recording artist, but the reality is that sharing hurts business for all companies involved.

    There are many people who don't see the harm in sharing music online and even think they have the right to do it. One online blogger states that he originally paid for an entire CD and that he should be able to do with the material whatever he wants. While he may have legally paid for the music, he does not have the right to provide permission, which means people like the blogger are thieves.

    Although we don't spread today's music the same way we did before, there's no doubt that people around the world love to share music. However, internet piracy would prevent musicians from continuing producing albums for fear of theft. Therefore, if people want to continue listening to their favorite artists, they need to buy their music so that artists will make enough profit to continue their music careers.