If you thought helicopter parents were too much, wait till you learn about “lawnmower (割草机) parents”. These are the next generation of helicopter parents, who take over-parenting to the next level. Rather than staying overhead in the air, these parents actively prepare the way for their children to succeed, cushioning every bump along the way.

    Their goal is to create a soft, even surface onto which their child will proceed, free from harm and worry. They get involved before problems reach their child, sometimes even going to immoral lengths, such as writing college papers for a child who's running out of time.

    One teacher told the Irish Times: “These days you would often hear from a mother or father insisting their child be put in the top math class, for example. Self-esteem (respect) is the buzzword (popular word). They feel it would harm their child's confidence. The irony is their self-esteem would be damaged far more by sending them into a class where they can't catch up with others.

    It's not children who are out of control. It's parents. There will come a point when these children won't have parents on which to depend, and then how are they going to function? It's frightening, too, to imagine these children becoming adults and attempting to raise families of their own. They would hardly be capable of teaching independence, confidence, work ethic, and discipline to their own children if they've never learned it themselves.

    At the end of the TIME article, Gibbs shared a wonderful quote from writer D.H. Lawrence, written in 1918: “How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning.

    Food production does great harm to our environment. There are many procedures involved in the manufacture of food that result in greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Some procedures require the consumption of large amounts of fossil fuels, such as the transportation and storage of food products. Other factors that cause great damage to our environment include the overuse of fresh water.

    The production of beef is more damaging to the environment than that of any other food we consume. Raising large numbers of cattle requires the production of large amounts of food for the animals. It's estimated that producing one pound of beef requires seven pounds of feed.

    Land use is also a problem. If the cattle are free-range cattle, large areas of land are required for them to live on. This has led to disastrous forest cutting and the loss of rare plants and animal species, particularly in tropical rain forests in Central and South America.

    Another problem specific to beef production is methane emissions (甲烷排放). Although many people are aware of the damaging effects of carbon dioxide, they don't realize methane's global warming potential is 25 times worse, making it a more dire problem.

    Unfortunately, beef consumption is growing rapidly. This is the result of simple supply and demand factors. Specifically, there are two main causes of demand that are encouraging the production of more supply. First, the increase in the world population means there are more people to consume meat. The second factor is socioeconomic advancement. As citizens in developing nations become financially stable, they can afford to buy more meat.

    Therefore, one way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions is for people around the world to significantly cut down on the amount of beef they eat.

    You can use your smartphone to get pretty much anything delivered directly to your door almost immediately. The hardest part is the process of trying to work out if you should tip and if so, doing the quick math before you get to the door. And, you know well that you should tip about 15-20% at restaurants, but do the same rules apply to delivery drivers?

    The co-founder of Grubhub, Matt Maloney, pretty much set the standard for tipping delivery people in a Facebook post. He's a strong supporter of tipping, and Grubhub's website suggests a $5 or a 20% tip. Maloney also said this number should go up if you order during, say, a snowstorm.

    However, most other delivery services say on their websites that tipping is not required. Some services, like Door Dash, do suggest no tip on their checkout window. Many, like Amazon Prime Now, allow customers to change their tip amount after their delivery has been received to reflect the quality of service. These companies help customers save money but delivery drivers are upset. They deal with bad weather, heavy traffic, extreme tiredness, and more, all for a $1 tip. Many feel that if you'd tip your pizza boy or girl, you should tip your delivery driver.

    The Emily Post Institute (EPI)'s official suggestion falls in line with Maloney's: “10-15% of the bill, or $2-5 for pizza delivery depending on the size of the order and difficulty of delivery.”

    Just like servers in a restaurant, delivery drivers almost always rely on your tips for their income. Tipping is a long-standing cultural tradition in America. So, until drones (无人机) can deliver hot dogs straight to your door, it's best to tip the people riding through the city at all hours to bring you hot fresh food.

    When international aid is given, steps must be taken to ensure（确保）that the aid reaches the people for whom it is intended. The way to achieve this may not be simple. It is very difficult for a nation to give help directly to people in another nation. The United Nations Organization （UNO） could undertake to direct the distribution of aid. Here however rises the problem of costs. Also tied with this is time. Perhaps the UNO could set up a body of devoted men and women in every country who can speedily distribute aid to victims of floods and earthquakes.

    More than the help that one nation can give to another during a disaster, it would be more effective to give other forms of help during normal times. A common proverb says, "Give me a fish and I eat for a day, teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime." If we follow this wise saying, it would be right to teach people from less developed nations to take care of themselves. For example, a country could share its technology with another. This could be in simple areas like agriculture or in more complex areas like medical and health care or even in building satellites. Even a small country is able to help less developed nations. Sometimes what is taken for granted, like the setting up of a water purification plant or the administration of a school, could be useful for countries which are looking about to solve common problems. It does not cost much to share such simple things. Exchange students could be attached for a number of months or years and learn the required craft while on the site. They can then take their knowledge back to their homelands and if necessary come back from time to time to clear doubts or to update themselves. Such aid will be truly helpful and there is no chance of it being temporary or of it falling into the wrong hands.

    Many countries run extensive courses in all sorts of skills. It will not cost much to include deserving foreigners in these courses. Besides giving effective help to the countries concerned, there is also the build­up of friendships to consider. Giving direct help by giving materials may be effective in the short run and must continue to be given in the event of emergencies. However, in the long run what is really effective would be the sharing of knowledge.

Have you ever heard of invisible ink? You may have seen it in movies. When light is shone on the paper which invisible ink is written on, you can read it!

As magical as this seems, the change in color is due to science. The ink is absorbing higher energy light and giving lower energy light. This reaction is an example of fluorescence (荧光) .

Light is a very broad term that describes a range of electromagnetic rays, including gamma rays, infrared light (红外光) and ultraviolet light. One part of the electromagnetic visible light is the colors that we can see with the human eye. These rays travel in curvy lines and each type of the ray is characterized by a different wave pattern. For example, Gamma rays have a shorter wavelength than infrared light. Shorter wavelength is connected with higher energy, so gamma rays also have more energy than infrared light.

Corals (珊瑚) are animals that live underwater. And the corals in the Red Sea exhibit fluorescence. Why is this happening? Scientists have shown that fluorescent objects absorb higher energy light and release lower energy light. Since the corals of the Red Sea are deep in the water where there is very little visible light, scientists theorize that these corals absorb ultraviolet light and produce visible light. They have special photo proteins, which enable them to change invisible light to visible light.

Fluorescence is not just used to create pretty colors. Corals have developed photo proteins for a biological reason. The visible light is used by algae (海藻) , which are eaten by the coral, to make food through photosynthesis (光合作用). The visual character of these photo proteins could also be used for biomedical research. They can highlight cells and cell structures under a microscope.

Isn't it amazing that a simple organism that we don't think very much of is not only grand but could also have so many potential uses in medical research!

It should be one of the main goals in today's society to reduce plastic consumption.Though many believe recycling will solve the problem,and continue using plastic,it's actually the opposite.In 2013,254 million tonnes of trash was produced in the US alone,and only around 30% was recycled.This means the rest ended up in a landfill and will stay there for up to 1,000 years.

Now Asian countries,including Vietnam and Thailand,are looking for new ideas to avoid plastic.One of those ideas was a new,eco-friendly way to pack their goods by avoiding plastic packaging.One of Perfect Homes Chiangmai's team members noticed a creative way to reduce plastic that a supermarket called Rimping Supermarket was using.Little did he know that people all around the world would absolutely love this idea."I just entered to get a few items while we were waiting to sign some contracts with our lawyer,who was delayed.When I noticed the vegetables wrapped in banana leaves,I simply liked the idea.So I took a few pictures and posted them online," he said.

With more than 3.5 million views and over 17 thousand shares,the idea became something people can encourage more supermarkets to implement(实施).

Some have noticed that not everything on the shelves is completely plastic-free to which the supermarket responded that they are taking one step at a time,but it's not that easy.Many products come to the supermarkets pre-packaged and many companies are interested in wrapping their produce in plastic since it is the cheapest and the easiest option.

It's now up to the shoppers to show the supermarket which they prefer.If everyone opts for the banana leaf packaging,they will probably stop stocking the items in plastic.