Why do you go to the library? For books, yes--but you like books because they tell stories. You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else's life. At one type of library, you can do just that--even though there's not a single book.

    At a Human Library, instead of books, you can “borrow” people. Individuals volunteer as human “books” and participants in the event can “read” the book--meaning they would have a one-on-one conversation with the volunteer and share in a dialogue about that individual's experience. “Books” are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination (歧视) based on race, religion, class, gender identity, age, lifestyle choices, disability and other aspects of their life

    For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating and as attractive as any you can find in a book. Many of the stories have to do with some kind of stereotype. You can speak with a refugee (难民), a soldier suffering from PTSD, a homeless person or a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people to challenge their own long-held beliefs-to truly get to know, and learn from someone they might otherwise make a quick judgment about.

    According to its website, the Human Library is “a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.” It provides the opportunity for the community to share and understand the experiences of others in their community.

    The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. Ronni Abergel, his brother Dany, and some colleagues hosted a four-day event during a major Northern European festival, hoping to raise awareness about violence among youth. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, which has been growing ever since.

    Though there are a few permanent human libraries, most aren't places at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don't need a library card—anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio.

The stories these "books" tell range from fascinating to heartbreaking and everything in between. And that's the very point of the organization--to prove that no person can be summed up in just one word. It seeks to show people that you truly can't judge a book by its cover—or by its title or label.

    When the natural climate changes due to global warming, it can surely affect seals. The majority of them live in the Antarctic region so as the ice is melting, their natural habitat（栖息地）can be seriously affected. These changes don't take place overnight. They can be the result of many years of additional temperatures in the area. The seals then have to find ways to adapt.

    Seals depend on the cool air currents to bring plenty of food for them. When the temperatures get higher, there is less and less food and the seal population starts to get depleted. Mothers aren't healthy enough to feed their babies. Many of them end up abandoned as the mothers have to leave to find their own source of food.

    The fact that their desire to produce young can be changed by the warmer temperatures is frightening too. It is also believed that the warmer temperatures can allow different diseases and viruses to attack the seals. This is a huge concern as they can rapidly wipe out huge numbers of seals out there.

    However, these changes in climate and temperature aren't all bad for other species of seals. Scientists have found that those living in warmer climates are producing more young due to the changes. Research also shows that the females are moving further to find food and water. When they are out of the reach of the governing males, they are more willing to accept the moves of other males in the group.

    This is good news too because it means that there will be more selection in the gene pool（基因库）for future generations. It can help the seals as a species adapt to changes in their natural environment more easily.

    The climate change problem for seals is directly linked to humans. When we take action to change what we let out into the environment, we will make positive changes for the seals. However, it is going to take a very long time to reverse（彻底改变）the effects of what has already been done.

    Cigarette ends are everywhere — littering our streets and beaches — and for decades they've been thought of as "unrecyclable". But a New Jersey based company, called Terra Cycle, has taken on the challenge, and has come up with a way to recycle millions of cigarette ends and turn them into industrial plastic products. Its aim is to recycle things that people normally consider impossible to reuse.

    Obviously it would be even better for the environment if everyone just stopped smoking, but the statistics show that although there has been an increase in anti-smoking ads and messaging, between 2000 and 2014, global sales of cigarettes increased by 8 percent, and a whole lot of those cigarette ends are ending up as trash. Since most of our litter eventually ends up in waterways, cigarette ends can surely pollute the surrounding environment. "It only takes a single cigarette end to pollute a liter of water," Terra Cycle founder, Tom Szaky, said. "Animals can also mistake littered cigarette ends for food."

    So how do you go about turning all those poisonous ends into something useful? Terra Cycle does this by first breaking them down into separate parts. They mix the remaining materials, such as the tobacco and the paper, with other kinds of rubbish, and use it on non-agricultural land, such as golf courses. The filters(过滤嘴) are a little harder. To recycle these, Terra Cycle first makes them clean and cuts them into small pieces, and then combines them with other recycled materials,  making them into liquid for industrial plastic products.

    They're now also expanding their recycling offerings to the rest of the 80 percent of household waste that currently can't be recycled, such as chocolate packaging, pens, and mobile phones. The goal is to use the latest research to find a way to stop so much waste ending up in landfill(垃圾填埋), and then get companies to provide money for the process. And so far, it's working.

    "We haven't found anything that we can't recycle, "communications director of Terra Cycle, Albe Zakes, said. "But with the amount and variety of packaging and litter in the world, we are always looking for new waste streams to address."

    One of the biggest social issues in Japan is the increasingly low marriage rate among young people and the small birth rate, which led to an aging and eventually shrinking（萎缩） population. Most young Japanese women simply don't seem interested in having many children.

    Now what began in Japan is happening globally. As David Brooks wrote, birth rate is becoming smaller in much of the world, from Iran — 1.7 births rate per woman — to Russian, where low birth rates connected with high death rates mean the population is already shrinking. And this includes US, which has long had higher birth rates than most developed nations. Aging countries will face the burden of caring for large elderly populations without a larger resource of young workers.

    It's true that global aging is going to present some major challenges. Who will take care of the elderly? Will an older world be less active and slower to change and adapt? It's all true. Sometimes I worry about a coming generational war over resources, just as I worry about how I will take care of my own parents in their old age, just as I worry about who might take care of me.

    But here's the thing: an older world may have less pressure on the environment. As we all know, the environment is the real victim of overpopulation.

    So maybe a world that grows slower and grows older will put less pressure on the environment, and buy us a few more years to ensure our energy use, along with our birthrates, reaches a sustainable（可持续的）level. After all, we're supposed to get smarter as we got older. Hopefully that holds true for the planet as well.

    The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar. This day is always the first full moon in the new year. Ancient people also called it Shangyuan Festival. Celebrations and traditions on this day began from the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Tang Dynasty.

    Watching the red lanterns is one of the main traditions. Lanterns of different shapes and sizes are usually put on trees, or along river banks on show. It is said that sky lanterns were first used by Zhuge Kongming to ask for help when he was in trouble. Today, when the lanterns slowly rise into the air, people make wishes. Another tradition is guessing lantern riddles. The riddles are usually short, wise, and sometimes humorous. The answer to a riddle can be a Chinese character, a famous person's name, or a place name.

    The most important thing is to eat sweet dumplings with different tastes. In northern China, they are called yuanxiao while in southern part they're named tangyuan. Because making sweet dumplings is like a game or an activity, they are usually done happily by a group of friends or family members.

    In old times, the Lantern Festival was also a good time for young people to find love. Watching lanterns gave young people a chance to meet each other. And there were many romantic stories about this festival. A line from Xin Qiji, a poet during the Song Dynasty, shows this, "Hundreds and thousands of times I searched for her in the crowd. Suddenly I turned, and there she stood in the dim light. "

    In a word, the Lantern Festival has brought us Chinese so much fun and joy over the years. We hope the young people can carry on these traditions and take pride in Chinese culture.

Students from Oceanside High School in Rockland will be able to sleep in a little longer from this autumn.

Regional School Unit 13 Superintendent (负责人) Lew Collins said during the school's Thursday night meeting that the schedule (时间表) for the schools will be changed. Oceanside East and West will start a half hour later, at 8 a.m. for their new school year.

Research has shown that teenagers' brains are often not fully awake at 6:30 a.m. Collins said the schedule, which is used to get students to school for classes that begin at 7:30 a.m., calls for some to get on buses before 6 a.m. to get to school on time. Teachers are having meetings at 6:40 a.m., which is too early, he thinks.

Collins visited the high schools in Rockland and asked students when they would like classes to begin. Most of them said 8:00 a.m. "I was surprised. I thought they would have said 9:00 or 10:00," he said.

The National Sleep Foundation says on its website that teenagers' biological clocks (生物钟) are designed to stay up later and get up later. The Foundation called for schools to change their schedules, which means a later start as well for elementary students (小学生).

We do not have enough buses to run, since all the high school and elementary school buses run almost at the same time, Collins said. He suggested, "We should buy six more buses and get six more drivers to keep the new schedule working."

Elementary school classes in Rockland now start at 8:30 a.m., but will be moved to 8:45 a.m., starting in the autumn. "I know this is a problem for working parents, but we will see what we can come up with," said Jane Brown, a teacher at Bardonia Elementary School. "Anyway, I believe if students get more sleep they'll be more ready to learn when classes start," she added.