With fuel costs rising and airlines finding more fees to impose （强加，征税）on travelers every day, airfare isn't getting any cheaper. Since you can't drive to all your dream destinations, flying is the only way to go sometimes and, undeniably, the fastest. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find the most affordable fares and also avoid paying as many extra charges as possible when you plan ahead.

    Get the best fare. Airlines put out their fare sales on Tuesday morning, making this day the best day to book a flight for less.

Fly during the least popular times. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are the slowest days to fly, which means cheaper deals than the rest of the week. You can also find reduced rates on early morning flights, since many people don't like to get up before the sun to get to the airport. Earlier boarding times can also considerably cut down your chances of getting bumped on an overbooked flight or delayed because of other delayed flights or mechanical issues.

    Choose your seat later. Some airlines charge you to pick your seat when you book online, adding even more to the bottom line of your ticket cost. If you show up early on your travel day, you can still get suitable seats. Some of the best seats get held back until flight day, unless others are willing to pay extra for them ahead of time, so you still have the chance at one of those.

Fly on holidays. You already know that summer is the most expensive time to fly, and even though most other times are more affordable, the days surrounding holidays can be crazy. Save big if you're willing to travel on major holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Don't wait until the last-minute to book. Many travelers don't know that there's a sweet spot for booking and getting the best price on your tickets. Book too early or too late and you could end up paying more than you need to. The best time to book is between three months and six weeks from when you want to travel.

    The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the St. Louis Outlet Mall is expanding its restrictions on unaccompanied teenagers. In 2006, a parental-escort (陪同)policy was established: on Fridays and Saturdays starting at 6 p.m., anyone under 17 that isn't accompanied by a guardian who is at least 21 years old will be kicked out of the mall. It was around this time that other malls around the U.S. likewise banned unaccompanied teens during certain evening hours.

Starting from this Friday, the St. Louis Outlet Mall is pushing its parental-escort rule back to 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Similarly, the Mall of America expanded its parental-escort policy during the recent holiday shopping season. Normally, the policy bans kids under 16 without guardians(监护人) from 4 p.m. until closing time just on Fridays and Saturdays. But because of a fight in the mall involving dozens of young people that took place on Dec. 18, 2012—- a weekday, the policy was broadened to include peak 2013 holiday shopping hours, including Thanksgiving Day and all of the Christmas week.

    Teen disturbances in other malls may cause more shopping centers to introduce or expand parental-escort policies. The Indianapolis Star noted that two incidents in 2013 in area shopping centers raised the possibility that Indianapolis malls might need to consider banning unaccompanied teenagers.

   Obviously, such bans are aimed at stopping violence and other outbursts involving teenagers. More importantly, from a purely business perspective, these bans aim to attract shoppers who might otherwise be hesitant to go to the mall because of concerns about violence and outbursts involving teenagers. The restrictions allow mall security officers to systematically kick out a group of people that are considered to be loud, thuggish and bad for business overall. But they attract much criticism from online communities. Some argue that teens have the right to shop without a guardian. “Not all teens are disrespectful and troublemakers,” Pamela Chapman wrote. “In fact, it's been my experience that most are good kids.”

Again, the biggest influence on stricter mall policies for teens seems to be that they're just plain good for business. Malls reported strong sales growth after they first carried out the policies six years ago. “We've had some success with the parental-escort policy, and families like shopping out here together,” the manager of the St. Louis Outlet Mall told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . If there's one rule in retail, it's this—- if a small initiative proves successful in boosting sales, then it's all but guaranteed that a larger initiative will follow.

    You may be surprised to learn that English gets 30 to 45 percent of its words from French. The reason goes back to the year 1066, when Norman forces invaded（入侵）what is now Britain. The Normans were from northern France and spoke French. During the Norman occupation, French became the language of England's rulers and wealthy class. This lasted for more than 300 years. Other people in England continued to speak English during this period.

    Over time, the two languages combined and shared words. Some researchers believe that about 10,000 French words eventually entered the English language. However, although English took many French words, their meanings have not always stayed the same. Sometimes the differences in meanings can be very important, and lead to funny or strange situations if the words are used in the wrong way.

    Take, for example, the French word college. In English, college can often be used in place of the word university, or sometimes as a school within a university. However, in French, college actually means “middle school”, or the level of schooling for students in grades five or six through eight.

    There are many other similar words in the two languages with completely different meanings. In English, the word chat is a verb which means “to talk casually”; but in French, the word chat is the word for an animal: a cat.

    If an English speaker says someone is jolly, that means they are cheerful or friendly. But in French, jolie means someone is good-looking or pleasant to look at. In any case, both are nice things to say to someone.

    Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neurone disease to communicate with others from a phone.

    The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone's camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and convert them into letters, words and sentences. For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neurone disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.

    "Current eye-tracking input systems for people with ALS or other motor impairments are expensive, not robust under sunlight, and require frequent re-calibration and substantial, relatively immobile setups," said Xiaoyi Zhang, a researcher at Microsoft who developed the technology.

    "To mitigate the drawbacks…we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone, and is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable and easy to learn."

    The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate.

    The sticker shows four grids of letters, which each correspond to a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.

    Zhang's research, Smartphone-Based Gaze Gesture Communication for People with Motor Disabilities, is set to be presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in May.

    The human-caused rise in CO₂ hasn't yet reached its full warming effect, owing to the considerable delay in its impact on ocean temperature. There is still another 0.5^oC of so of warming to occur over the coming decades based on the current concentrations（浓度）of CO₂ in the atmosphere, and far more warming beyond that if CO₂ concentrations continue to rise greatly with the business-as-usual burning of fossil oil. To improve the situation, the world needs to shift firmly from coal, oil and gas to renewable energy by around 2050 and from cutting down trees to planting trees and restoring degraded lands.

    So why do human begins keep dashing in a stupid way ahead, toward certain tragedy?

    The main reason is that our political institutions and giant corporations intentionally ignore the rising dangers and damage.   ①    Managing a major company is about maximizing shareholder value, not about telling the truth or avoiding great harm to the planet. Profit -seeking investors own the major media, or at least influence them through their advertising purchases. Thus, a small yet very powerful group keeps the fossil-fuel-based energy system at growing dangers to the rest of humanity today and in the future.

    We need a new kind of politics that starts with a clear goal: environmental safety for the planet's people, by fulfilling the Paris agreement, protecting biodiversity, and cutting pollution, which kills millions each years.   ②    The new politics will listen to scientific and technological experts, not self-interested business leaders and politicians.

       ③    Such a politics is possible. In fact, the public longs for it. A large majority of the American people,for example, want to fight global warming, stay in the Paris climate agreement, and support renewable（可更新的）energy. Yet, as long as a narrow and ignorant elite（精英）judges Americans and the rest of human beings to wander aimlessly in the political desert, the more likely it is that we will end up in a wasteland from which there will be no escape.  ④   

    Many of us love July because it's the month when nature's berries and stone fruits are in abundance. These colourful and sweet jewels form British Columbia's fields are little powerhouses of nutritional protection.

    Of the common berries, strawberries are highest in vitamin C, although, because of their seeds, raspberries contain a little more protein (蛋白质), iron and zinc (not that fruits have much protein). Blueberries are particularly high in antioxidants (抗氧化物质). The yellow and orange stone fruits such as peaches are high in the carotenoids we turn into vitamin A and which are antioxidants. As for cherries (樱桃), they are so delicious who cares? However, they are rich in vitamin C.

    When combined with berries of slices of other fruits, frozen bananas make an excellent base for thick, cooling fruit shakes and low fat "ice cream". For this purpose, select ripe bananas for freezing as they are much sweeter. Remove the skin and place them in plastic bags or containers and freeze. If you like, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the bananas will prevent them turning brown. Frozen bananas will last several weeks, depending on their ripeness and the temperature of the freezer.

    If you have a juicer, you can simply feed in frozen bananas and some berries or sliced fruit. Out comes a "soft-serve" creamy dessert, to be eaten right away. This makes a fun activity for a children's party; they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below.