In 1971, UN scholar Paolo Lugari started an eco-social experiment in Gaviotas, Colombia. Located in one of the most extreme climates, Gaviotas was described as a sustainable, self-sufficient village in an area that Lugari called 'just a big, wet desert'.

    'They always put social experiments in the easiest places,' Lugari said.'We wanted the hardest place. We figured if we could do it here, we could do it anywhere.'

    'Lugari just thought that someday the world would become so crowded that humans would have to learn to live in the planet's least desirable areas,' wrote Alan Weisman, author of Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World.

    Today, Gaviotas is an eco-village with about 200 people. They farm organically. They use wind and solar power. Since 2004, Gaviotas has been 100% fossil fuel independent. The residents also enjoy free housing, schooling, and community meals. Shockingly, there are no weapons, no police, no jail and no mayor. But though these elements would make any social experiment a success, perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment is the planting of 1.5 million pine trees and palm trees. The various results of this new tree growth have been incredible. The shade of the trees has inspired the return of many rainforest species that were once native to the region. Additionally, the residents of Gaviotas enjoy a sustainable source of income from the resin(松香) harvested from the trees.

    The United Nations named Gaviotas a model of sustainable development. The Colombia novelist and Noble Prize winner Grabriel Marquez called Lugari the 'inventor of the world'.

    A new study by a team of researchers has found that 'nature's capacity to store carbon is steadily falling as the world's farmers expand croplands at the cost of the native ecosystem such as forests'.

    Considering this disturbing fact—and as the world population increases towards an estimated 9 billion by the year 2050 and global warming continues to increase the planet's surface temperature—Gaviotas stands as one shining example of how things could be different.

    Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes? Let's have a look.

    People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are nervous have ants in their pants. Sometimes, people may get caught with their pants down. They are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say she wears the pants in the family.

    Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can burn a hole in your pocket. Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to tighten your belt.

    I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really take my hat off to them. Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it at the drop of a hat, which means I instantly spend it.

    Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are too big for their boots think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people.

    My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie, and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too serious and never shows his feelings openly. But I know that my father wears his heart on his sleeve.

    Do you know that women's brains are smaller than men's? Normally the women's brain weighs 10% less than men's. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it's what's inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain is made up of "grey matter" and "white matter". While men have more of the white matter, the amount of "thinking" brain is almost the same in both men and women.

    It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls may learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of different information at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it's women who come out on top every time.

    There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. "A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go," says one researcher. That may explain one of life's great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!

    The differences begin when fetuses（胎儿）are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children when they are very young. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would ask for help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.

    In recent decades there has been a strong push in American education to prepare all high school students for college. As a result, fewer and fewer young people are pursuing careers as skilled tradesmen. But teens should be encouraged to consider learning a trade.
    The average cost of a bachelor's degree is $127,000 and 70 percent of students apply for some form of student loans to help cover this cost. On average, loan borrowers graduate with $37,172 in debt. The average trade school degree, on the other hand, costs only $33,000 – less than what many four-year degree holders will still owe after graduation.
    I have a friend who is a highly educated college professor. He makes a comfortable living, and of course he loves his work, but recently as we discussed his own children's future career plans, it was my friend who raised the idea of pursuing a trade school degree. He told me that every time he calls his plumber (水暖工), the plumber answers his phone from his yacht(游艇).
    Of course not every tradesman can earn a yacht-buying salary, but there are a number of skilled professionals that can earn six figures.
    It's widely believed that academics are more valuable than physical or skilled work. Fortunately, there has been an effort to change that message in recent years and to restore dignity to trade education and tradesmen. Still, that message is going to be reinforced in classrooms and at home so that all students will recognize the beauty and value of possessing a skill, of being able to make something with one's own hands, and of offering a service that makes other people's lives not only better, but in many cases, possible.

    Birdbrain has long been a term when laughing at somebody. The common opinion is that birds' brains are simple. But that opinion has increasingly been called into question because crows and parrots, among other birds, have shown behaviors as smart as that of chimpanzees.

    The conflict of simple brain and complex behavior has led some neuroscientists (神经学家) to create a new map of the birdbrain.

    Today, in the journal Nature Neuroscience Reviews, an international group of bird experts is showing their opinion. Nearly everything written in anatomy (解剖学) textbooks about the brains of birds is wrong, they say. The bird brain is as complex, and creative as any mammal brain, they argue, and it's time to use a more exact term that shows a new understanding of the anatomies of bird and mammal brains.

    "Names have a powerful influence on the experiments we do and the way we think," said Dr. Erich, a neuroscientist at Duke University and a leader of the Bird Brain Terms Association. "Old term has prevented scientific progress."

    The association of 29 scientists from six countries met for seven years to develop new, more exact names for structures in both bird and mammal brains. For example, the bird's seat of intelligence or its higher brain is now named the pallium (大脑皮层).

    "The change of terms is a great advance," said Dr. Jon Kaas, a leading expert in neuroanatomy at Vanderbih University. "It's hard to get scientists to agree about anything."

    Scientists have come to agree that birds are indeed smart, but those who study bird intelligence differ on how birds got that way. Experts are split into two warring camps. One holds that birds' brains make the same kinds of internal (内在的) connections as do mammal brains and that intelligence in both groups arises from these connections. The other holds that bird intelligence developed through increasing an old part of the mammal brain and using it in new ways and it questions how developed that intelligence is.

    Reducing plastic waste isn't easy because the cheap material is found in almost every household item. Now, a delicious and nutritious solution has come up to help reduce our dependence on this environmental hazard.

    David Christian, the co-founder of Evoware, says the idea of creating the biodegradable (生物降解的) products came from concern at the country's high pollution rate. Indonesia is home to four of the world's worst polluted rivers. Since single-use packaging is a large contributor to the problem, Evoware decided to deal with that first.

    After investigating various materials, the company settled on seaweed. Unlike corn, commonly used for biodegradable containers, seaweed does not require resources like water or large amounts of space. Since Indonesian farmers already harvest more seaweed than they can sell, it's easy for the company to find the material.

    Though they will not reveal their production process, Evoware says the seaweed packaging contains no chemicals and is safe to consume. The company has also invented single-use cups, which can break down 30 days after they're thrown away.

    While replacing plastic with the seaweed products may seem appealing to most of us, it is a hard-sell in Indonesia. According to Christian, "The awareness to reduce single-use plastic is still very low. This makes our bioplastic unnecessary." Also a factor is the cost, which is higher than using plastic. Hopefully, Evoware will succeed in convincing Indonesians and people worldwide that switching to their products will be helpful to protecting our beautiful planet.