Dear Alfred,

        I want to tell you how important your help is to my life.

        Growing up, I had people telling me I was too slow, though, with an IQ of 150 at 17, I'm anything but stupid. The fact was that I was found to have ADIID(注意力缺陷多动障碍). Anxious all the time, I was unable to keep focused for more than an hour at a time.

        However, when something did interest me, I could become absorbed. In highs chool, I became curious about the computer, and built my first website.Moreover, I completed the senior course of Computer Basics, plus five relevantpre-college courses.

        While I was exploring my curiosity, my disease got worse.I wanted to go to college after high school, but couldn't. So, I waskilling my time at home until June 2012 when I discovered the online computercourses of your training center.

Since then, I have takencourses like Data Science and Advanced Mathematics. Currently, I'm learning yourProbability course. I have hundreds of printer paper, covered in self-writtennotes from your video. This has given me a purpose.

        Last year, I spent all my timelooking for a job where, without dealing with the public, I could work alone,but still have a team to talk to. Luckily, I discovered the job—DataAnalyst—this month and have been going full steam ahead. I want to prove that Ican teach myself a respectful profession, without going to college, and be justas good as, if not better than, my competitors.

Thank you. You've given me hopethat I can follow my heart. For the first time, I feel good about myself because I'm doing something, notbecause someone told me I was doing well. I feel whole.

This is why you're saving my life.

Yours,

Tanis

    In a research carried out in the UK, it was found that only four out of every five employees were happy at work. Surprisingly, it wasn't the pay or the love for the work that made people happy. Instead, friendly, supportive colleagues and a good manager have been found to be the primary causes of happiness at work. So how do you develop a sense of joy on the job? Here are some suggestions.

    Happiness is a state of mind, so staying happy at work is completely based on a positive attitude towards your job. Focus on the bright side of the work rather than keep talking about what makes you unhappy.

    Challenge yourself and take charge of your own growth in your career. Boredom is one of the primary factors that cause people to change jobs. Find new challenges and it's a great feeling to take control over what you do and see a task through.

    Having co­workers you like and enjoy working with is a feature of happiness in the workplace. Talk to people, get to know them and try to get along well with them in the workplace. Meeting new people and getting fresh views can help you to keep yourself interested in your work.

    Complete your tasks, no matter how disagreeable or tough they might be. This gives you a sense of achievement and encourages you to work towards your goals in future.

    Sitting and staring at your screen all day long isn't going to help you. Instead, take breaks and go outside for some time. For example, go out for a few minutes to feel the breeze (微风). Eat your lunch outside or work for a few minutes during that hour, which helps you stay happy at work.

    The weather is very important to farmers. The calendar might say “August”， but the weather's more like October. For some farmers the cool weather is a good thing. For others, it's a cause for concern.

    At Apple Hill, the cooler weather was giving the Boeger Winery a chance to concentrate on bottling instead of picking. “Things were really maturing, it has just been a welcome relief to have more time to prepare.” said Greg Boeger of Boeger Winery.

    But down in the Delta, the earlier hot weather has them two weeks ahead of schedule. Their harvest actually started on Tuesday, and this cooling trend is a worry. There have been no problems yet, but for each of the last two years heavy rain right after Labor Day was a problem, one that Don Pylman would not like to see repeated.

    “If it doesn't start raining, we're in good shape，” said Pylman. “If the sun comes out and clears up we can get right back to work, but if we do get rain, the rots will start.”

    The kind of grape makes a difference as well. Thin­skinned grapes like the chardonnay variety are much more sensitive to rain than some of the others. They're also more difficult to dry off.

    Ten minutes of gentle exercise can immediately change how certain parts of the brain communicate and coordinate (协调) with one another and improve memory function, according to an encouraging new study.

    The scientists invited 36 people of different ages to the lab and had them sit quietly on a fixed bicycle for 10 minutes or, on a separate visit, pedal the bicycle at a pace so gentle that it barely raised their heart rates. It also was short, lasting for only 10 minutes. Immediately after each session of the sitting or slow pedaling, the people completed a computerized memory test during which they would see a brief picture of, for instance, a tree, followed by a variety of other images and then a new image of either the same tree or a similar one. The people would press buttons to show whether they thought each image was new or the same as an earlier shot. The test is difficult, since many of the images closely resemble one another. It requires rapid, skillful scanning recent memories to decide whether a picture is new or known. Next, the scientists had each people repeat this process--riding or sitting on the bike for 10 minutes and then completing memory testing--but the testing now took place inside an M. R. I. machine(磁共振成像仪)that scanned the people's brains while they responded to the images.

    Then the researchers compared results. The effects of the exercise were clear. The people were better at remembering images after they had ridden the bike, especially when the images most closely resembled one another. In other words, the harder their memories had to do their best, the better they performed after the exercise. The M. R. I. scans showed that memory parts of each people's brain lit up at the same time with parts of the brain associated with learning, indicating that these physically separate parts of the brain were better connected now than when the people had not first exercised.

    As the weekend approaches, perhaps you're looking forward to a meal out or sitting in front of the TV with a takeaway. But as you settle down to enjoy that comforting plate of beef or start spooning that fragrant lamb curry over the rice, will you be worrying about whether you are really eating what was written on the menu?

    Yesterday it was revealed by the Food Standards Agency that more than a fifth of the 665 meat samples tested last year contained DNA from animals not listed on the label. Of the 145 problem samples, 73 came from supermarkets, while 22 came from processing plants. The remaining 50 all came from restaurants.

    I have no doubt that over the next few years, the percentage of meal coming from dubious origins will continue to rise unless something drastic is done. Why? There are two main reasons. First, too many businesses are willing to boost their profits by adulterating their products in the meat industry. I believe there is a systemic problem within the meat industry that makes it particularly attractive to unscrupulous characters who are really nothing more than criminals，the second is the complexity and length of the meat supply chain. If you buy a chicken-based ready meal from a supermarket, as you might imagine, that chicken will pass through many hands before it ends up on your plate here. Worse still, the meat will often he partially processed somewhere along that chain—usually with salt and water added to boost flavour and volume—which is quite legal.

    Obviously, it is impossible for consumers to be detectives about every piece of meal they eat.

    However, what you can do is to avoid processed foods and never buy ready meals. Stay away from burgers made in factories. Don't go to chain restaurants. Instead, go to local, independent restaurants where it is more likely the chef and owner—often the same person—cares about where the meat comes from, and will be happy to tell you. So, try to buy your meat from a good local butcher.

    And no, what I am suggesting is not going to hurt your purse or wallet. The essence, then, is to buy meat that has had as small a journey from field to fork as possible, because that is the only way you can he sure of what you eat. It's that simple.

    Dr Dian Fossey, one of the world's leading women scientists, had a remarkable career. The work she devoted her life to protecting and studying the mountain gorillas (大猩猩) of Africa—has proved highly effective and has resulted in the steady (平稳的) increase of this most endangered great apes.

    Fossey made her first trip to Africa in 1963. Three years later, she returned to Africa to begin a long term study of the mountain gorillas. She set up camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo but moved to Rwanda because of political reasons in 1967. She established her "Karisoke" Research Centre camp on September 24, 1967.

    Fossey's aims were to study gorilla ecology (生态学) and social organization. She found that in order to achieve this, she needed to recognize individual gorillas, which required that the gorillas get used to her presence (出现). By copying gorillas' behaviour and sounds, Fossey began to gain their trust, and in 1970 an adult male gorilla she had named "Peanuts" reached out to touch her hand.

    Close observations over thousands of hours enabled Fossey to gain the gorillas' trust and bring forth new knowledge about their behaviour. Stories and photographs of her work were published in National Geographic Magazine and elsewhere.

    In 1977, one of Fossey's favorite gorillas, Digit, was killed by poachers and she established the Digit Fund to help raise money for gorilla protection efforts in the same year.

    On December 26, 1985, Fossey was murdered while going back to her house in Karisoke. Her body was discovered near the research centre. Most probably? Dian Fossey had been killed by the poachers she'd fought against. On her tombstone (墓碑): "No one loved gorillas more..."

    In 1988, the life and the work of Fossey were made into a movie based on her book.