I have been unusually silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end,, but I'm afraid I must tell you now that fate（命运）has decided on a different course for me.

    In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen. That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a series of secondary complications – which I have been fighting in hospital ever since. It was along and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.

    However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign or it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final conclusion. My fight is over.

    I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, who efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.

    Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life's work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and thorough argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation's destiny.

    I leave this life with no regret. It was a wonderful life – full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

    Trip 1 Black Bear Count

    There have been fires in this area in the last few years and the Office of the National Park is not sure how many black bears are still living. Some bears have been seen since the fires, and the office has asked for young people to help count them. The entire trip will last three hours. Booking is necessary.

    Cost: Free                   When: May 8

    Trip 2 Garland Valley

    Bring your drink and lunch for this walk in a beautiful area of the Blue Mountains. Garland Valley is close to the town of Garland but is part of the National Park. Many wild animals live in this area, including many rare birds. This is a great walk for bird-lovers. The trip lasts four hours. Booking is necessary.

    Cost: $ 15                  When: May 8, May 15

    Trip 3 Flashlight Adventure

    Put on your warm clothes, bring a flashlight and a pair of glasses, and come for a night walk along the Dungog Valley. A guide will lead the tour. You will see many of the animals on this trip. The guide will tell you about the lives of the animals you see. Numbers are strictly limited on night trips, so be sure to book early. This walk lasts two and a half hours.

    Cost: $ 12                  When: May 8, May 15, May 22

    Equipment to be needed:

    Please bring enough water and food for all walks

Wear good walking shoes—no high heels.

    Wear a hat for day walks.

    Dress warmly for night walks.

    Children must be with an adult.

    Make sure your flashlight works well and bring extra batteries for night walks.

    Follow all instructions from guides during the walks. The mountains are a dangerous place.

    Bookings:

Booking for the above trips can be made by telephone (893—4847) or on the Internet at www.Bluemountaintour.com.

    Life often requires people to join in unpleasant situations. Rather often, these unpleasant situations do not happen on their own, but happen because of other people's actions and words. Fortunately, there are useful ways to deal with conflicts(冲突).

    The best way to solve a conflict is not to let it happen. Nothing useful comes out of a conflict. It is a total waste of time and energy for both sides and thus everyone should try his best to prevent conflict. To do this, you will need to learn the points of view your potential opponents (对手) share and the benefits of understanding people around you.

    If the conflict has already arisen, one of the best methods to settle disagreements is to treat the situation with humor. It does not mean, however, that you must ignore（忽视） your opponent's arguments and make jokes about them; it means that you should be in a friendly atmosphere, saying difficult-to-express things with a bit of humor. Humor will help you reduce anger and re-think problems to make them look easier to settle, and set your opponent's mind to working on a problem with you, not against you. This way, a conflict can become an opportunity for building a greater connection between you and your opponent.

    If the situation turns verbally abusive (恶语中伤), put a stop to it. Firmly but calmly state: "You're very angry right now and you're saying things you don't mean. I'm going to excuse myself. We can talk again after you calm down." Then leave the room or ask them to leave.

    Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of parental involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.

    The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools expect them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.

    Keith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that were consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the tasks. "They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learn it themselves, but they're still offering advice."

    Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.

    Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success. "A big surprise was that Asian American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."

    Sitting has been called the new smoking for its supposed Public health risks, especially for people with sitting down office jobs. Over the past 15 years or so sitting has been connected with heart disease and diabetes (糖尿病). But is sitting really that risky?

    In our latest study we examined if not only the total amount of sitting, but different types of sitting, were connected with developing type 2 diabetes. We wanted to see if there was any difference among sitting watching TV, sitting at work, or sitting at home but not watching TV.

    We studied sitting habits of 4. 811 middle-aged people, who didn't have diabetes or heart problems at the start of the study. Over the next 13 years, 402 people developed diabetes. Once we considered obesity (AE RF), Physical activity, and other things that may develop type 2 diabetes, neither total sitting time, sitting at work nor sitting at home but not watching TV were connected with developing diabetes. We found only a weak connection with the time spent sitting watching TV and an increased risk of developing diabetes.

    This is different from the results of five older TV studies that showed a stronger connection. But hardly any of the included studies mentioned obesity, a major cause of diabetes.

    For people who are physically inactive, though, the story's different. Two recent studies show the total time spent sitting a day is connected with developing diabetes, but only in people who are physically inactive or both physically inactive and obese.

    That's not the whole story. At least two things determine if sitting is a risk factor in its own right: the type and situation of sitting.

    For example, sitting down at work isn't strongly connected with long-term health risks, Perhaps that's because higher position jobs needs more sitting, and higher socioeconomic (社会经济) position is connected with a lower risk of disease. It's a different case for sitting watching TV, the type of sitting most possibly connected with long-term health risks. People who watch a lot of TV tend to (a) be of lower socioeconomic positions, unemployed, have poorer mental (精神上的) health, eat unhealthy foods and face more unhealthy food advertising.

    It's no surprise to hear the honking of horns in New York. Whoever tries every day to get more than a few minutes of sleep in the morning in the city will tell you that he could do nothing about it! No one can deny honking of horns is just one of his most widely enjoyed pastimes.

    But Andy, a Japanese website developer has had enough of it. Once, the 27-year-old man approached the open window to wait for the driver to finish honking, delivered a polite "excuse me" and then yelled "Ho-o-o-o-onk!", which means fierce anger in Japan. Then he threw three eggs from the window of his apartment on to a passing car honking loudly below when his patience was worn out. Instead of apologizing to him, the driver threatened to kill him angrily. So, nobly, Andy turned to non-violence. He started writing anti-honking haiku verses, a form of Japanese poetry, and submitted them to local newspapers:

    Oh. forget Enron;

    The problem around here is; All the damn honking (Enron: a major American company that recently caused a scandal because of corrupt(腐败) mismanagement)

    "Then this kind of chain reaction started happening," Andy says. "All these other haiku started appearing unexpectedly" Andy's community is now covered in anti - honking poetry, written by all walks of life.

    Patience slowly fades;

    Residents store up their eggs; That day is coming soon.

    It's understandable that Andy has set up a website — www.honku.org — and now people from across the country send him news of their own anti - honking activities. It seems that poetry can change the world after all. Then, just recently, anti-anti- honking haiku started to appear, launched by locals who thought Andy should stop worrying about honking and start worrying about starving children, or war in the Middle East instead. Andy has an answer for that. "Stop me if this is too ridiculous," he says, "but they talk about the violence in the Middle East like it's a force of nature, like it's beyond our control. But actually it's kind of like the honking - the violence is man -made. If we can figure out how to stop honking on the streets, I think we could learn some things that we could use on a large scale."