People tend to become more personal and hide less of themselves when using email. Researchers from Open University in Britain have found in a recent study that there are good reasons for this.

    The team of researchers asked 83 pairs of students, all strangers to each other, to solve a problem. They had to discuss this question: If only five people in the world could be saved from a world disaster, who should they be? The pairs of students had to talk over the problem either face to face or by computers. Dr. Johnson said, “They told their partners four times as much about themselves when they talked over the Internet as when they talked face to face. When the computers were fitted with cameras so that students could see each other, this limited the personal side of the conversation.”

    Generally the information was not extremely personal. It was mainly about things such as where they went to school, or where they used to live. But some students discussed their love stories, and personal childhood experiences.

    Dr Johnson believes that emailing encourages people to focus on themselves. And when they do this, they become more open, especially if there are no cameras. “If you cannot see the other person, it becomes easier to talk about yourself. This is because you are not thinking what the other person is thinking of you. So emailing has become the modern way of talking,” said Dr. Johnson. However, this style of talking is not entirely new. “In the 19th century people started to use the ‘telegraph' to communicate. Now the same kind of thing has happened and people ended up speaking more freely.”

    Dr. Johnson thinks that emailers need to know about these effects of emailing, especially when they start work in a company. “ If you don't know about them, you could find yourself saying more about yourself than you wanted to.”

                                                                                           Taktak tabulaba?

    You probably don't know how to answer that question ─ unless you happen to be one of the about 430 people in the world who speak a language called Matukar Panau. Then you would know it means “ What are we doing?” Matukar Panau is one of the world's rarest languages. It is spoken in just two small coastal villages in Papua New Guinea.

    Several years ago, David Harrison, a language expert, didn't know much about Matukar Panau either. No one had ever recorded or even studied its words and rules. With so few speakers, the language risked disappearing soon. It was endangered.

    Harrison didn't want that to happen to Matukar Panau. So in 2009, he set out for Papua New Guinea. His goal: use modern technology to help the remaining speakers preserve their native tongue.

    But Matukar Panau is not the only language facing loss. Studies suggest that by the end of this century，nearly half of the 7,000 languages now spoken worldwide could disappear. They're in danger partly because the only people left speaking them are elderly adults. When those old men die, their language will die with them. In addition, children may discard a native language and instead use more common global languages, such as Chinese, English or Spanish.

    In the United States alone, 134 native American languages are endangered. “Language hotspots” exist all over the world. These are places with endangered languages that haven't been recorded. They include the state of Oklahoma, pockets of central and eastern Siberia, parts of northern Australia and communities in South America.

    It was dinner time for the Rangers, a group of mostly Indigenous (本地的) Australians who had spent a long day cleaning up the polluted beaches of the continent's northern coast. Soon they would be eating freshly caught fish and seafood cooked under the stars on an open fire, as their ancestors did.

    The Rangers are of more than 100 Indigenous groups spread across Australia who have taken on the job of protecting the land of their forefathers. In Arnhem Land, they are the protectors of 3,300 square miles of land and sea. They comb the beaches by hand, picking up as much rubbish as possible. The task is very difficult as each day it delivers waves of new rubbish.

    For the Rangers, cleaning the beaches is more than a vacation. For a people whose culture is strongly tied to the land, protecting the environment is equal to preserving their history.

    However, colonization forcefully broke their connection to the land generations ago. Indigenous people were displaced and their cultural practices outlawed. Tens of thousands of years of traditional land management ended, and as a result many parts of the country now face serious disasters from invasive plant and animal species, bush fires and land mismanagement.

    In recent years, the government has restored more than 20 percent of Australia's land to Indigenous owners. Since 2007, the Indigenous Rangers Organizations have been at work protecting this land.

    Luck, one of the few non-Indigenous employees working with the Rangers, said the combination of old and new techniques and an appreciation for the culture of Indigenous workers has been critical to the program's success.

    "You are working with staff who see the world different to you, so there is a much higher focus on the cultural aspects of work and life," he said.

    "Being a ranger is a source of confidence. You feel strong," said Terence, a senior ranger. "Here we still live on the land. The culture is still alive."

    When Kim Chil-doo was young, he says, he wanted to be a model. But he gave up that idea to make money. Now, at age 65, he appears in television advertisements and fashion magazines. With his gray beard and long hair, he is South Korea's first senior model.

    Kim is one of many older people in South Korea the country has the world's fastest growing ageing population. Almost half of the country's older people live in poverty. Some take low-paying jobs to support themselves after retiring. But Kim and some other seniors have shown how older South Koreans can find unusual job opportunities later in life.

    You Sung-lae is 59. When she was a child, she wanted to be an actress. But instead, she says, she got married and had children. Now she is training to appear on a catwalk to show clothes. She was wearing a bright blue jacket, orange high heeled shoes and designer sunglasses.

    You is also helping the fashion business by attracting older buyers. Older buyers have become big players. While many older people do not have much money, others have bought their homes and built savings. Now, those seniors are ready to spend some of their money on themselves.

    Some businesses are also trying to use older people's skills and experiences. For example, Cho Young-min started a company using Skype to connect older instructors in Korea with students around the world. The students are interested in learning Korean, and the instructors are interested in sharing their knowledge.

    Another man, Ji Byung-soo found success by performing a dance song on a televised singing contest. He is 77. Now he earns enough money to donate to a local support center. Last month, he danced nonstop at a youth festival in Seoul while young people called his name. "Life begins in your 70s," Ji said. "Let's be happy and have fun."

    When HarmonyOs, the Chinese self-developed operating system for Huawei mobile devices, was released on Aug 9, it quickly became a hot topic on social media. Many believe it not only represents the rise of the country as a tech power, but also shows respect to classical Chinese culture by naming the system "Hongmcng" in Chinese.

    "Hongmeng" is a classical word from Zhuangzi. In the ancient times of Chinese legend and myths (神话),"Hongmeng" was used to describe the original state of the universe before matter existed. For HarmonyOS, "Hongmeng" indicates the developers' aim to make an innovative operating system, unlike any other.

    Besides "Hongmeng'", Hunwei has also registered many of its products under the names of legendary creatures from Chinese myths. For example, the company's Kirin mobile chip got its name after a lucky monster called "Qilin". And its server chip is calked "Kunpeng", a creature that changed from a fish into a giant bird.

    Many Chinese Internet users and media have praised Huawei's use of these names," as they stand for Chinese wisdom and ancient people's imagination and spirit of exploration", Global Times noted.

    In fact, Huawei is not alone in using traditional culture for modern ventures. Ne Zha, the new film, also portrays traditional culture in a modern context. The movie is loosely based on the well-known work of classical Chinese myth The Investiture of the Gods. Earlier this month it became the biggest animated movie in China and was called "the glory of domestic anime (国产动漫)".

    Indeed, the long history and splendid classic works have given China a profound culture. Myths and legends are the creative works of tremendous imagination. As Global Times put it, today by revisiting a modern context, "ancient myths has the power to inspire imagination in young people". After all, imagination is the beginning of creation.

    When she was ten years old, Isadora Duncan dropped out of school to teach people dance. If that job was left to any other ten-year-old, it would have turned out frustrating, difficult, and a little discouraging.

    But Duncan was different. Not only was she already talented enough to earn money even at that age, but she also had a rare kind of confidence that helped her treat troubles as fuel —something to elevate the fire that is already burning inside of her.

    It's no surprise, then, that when she moved to New York to join a theatre company, she found herself restricted. The existing dancing style, their way of operating—all of this seemed to her the work of a misguided past. Duncan was very direct about what she wanted, confidently telling people she had a different vision of dance that she was going to spread in the world. This, naturally, led to ridicule and laughs early on, but as she built up her work, these instances became less frequent. Today, she is remembered as "The Mother of Dance," with much of the modern art owing its expressive style to her influence. Inspired by the ancient Greeks, she brought the style to life.

    In her autobiography (自传), one of the things Duncan frequently refers to as the basis of her expressive spirit is the fact that she had a childhood where she wasn't constantly watched. The expectations of her mother (who raised her) were open-ended. It was the freedom of this lifestyle that drove her to see what she could do.

    Growing up, before she left school, she was told one of two things: that she was either completely useless or that she was a genius. There was nothing in between. Even when she started working, people either bowed to her or they basically ignored her. But there wasn't one moment Duncan doubted her own genius.

    There is an old quotation "if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." And it captures an important truth. At school, Isadora Duncan was a failure. In the dance hall, she gave form to brilliance.