Are you content with the shape of your nose? If not, the climate may be to blame, not your parents.

    This is according to a recent study carried out by scientists from Pennsylvania State University, US. They found that climate played a key role in shaping our noses. The findings were based on an examination of the size and shape of noses of 476 people from four regions — West Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Northern Europe, using 3D facial imaging technology.

     “People have thought for a long time the difference in nose shape among humans across the world may have arisen as a result of natural selection because of climate,” Arslan Zaidi, one of the lead authors of the study, told the Guardian. But while previous studies were based on measurements from human skulls(头骨), Zaidi and his team looked at nose shape itself.

    The result showed that wider noses are more common in warm and humid climates, while narrower noses are more common in cold and dry climates. That, Zaidi said, could be because narrower nasal passages (鼻道) help to increase the wet content of air and warm it, which is easier on our lungs. This, in turn, led to a gradual decrease in nose width in populations living far away from the equator (赤道).

    More study is still needed to test the link between climate and nose shape, but Zaidi believes the current findings are valuable in understanding potential health issue. “As we become more of a global community, we are going to come across climates that we are not adapted to,” he told the Guardian. This means moving to a very different climate might increase the risk of breathing problems.

    However, he added, “This may not be necessarily true for various reasons such as of modem medicine and the fact that our current climate is very different from what it used to be.”

    Christopher Thomas, 27, was a writer by night and a teacher by day when he noticed he was always tired and was losing weight fast. Diagnosed with diabetes (糖尿病), Thomas would need to inject himself with insulin (胰岛素) three times a day for the rest of his life or risk nerve damage, blindness, and even death. And if that weren't bad enough, he had no health insurance.

    After a month of feeling upset, Thomas decided he'd better find a way to fight back. He left Canton, Michigan for New York, got a job waiting tables, nicknamed himself the Diabetic Rockstar, and created diabeticrockstar.com, a free online community for diabetics and their loved ones—a place where over 1,100 people share personal stories, information, and resources.

    Jason Swencki's son, Kody, was diagnosed with type diabetes at six. Father and son visit the online children's forums (论坛) together most evenings. “Kody gets so excited, writing to kids from all over,” says Swencki, one of the site's volunteers. “They know what he's going through, so he doesn't feel alone.”

    Kody is anything but alone: Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, with 24 million diagnosed cases. And more people are being diagnosed at younger ages.

    These days, Thomas's main focus is his charity (慈善机构), Fight It, which provides medicines and supplies to people—225 to date—who can't afford a diabetic's huge expen­ses. Fight－it.org has raised about $23,000—in products and in cash. In May, Thomas will hold the first annual Diabetic Rockstar Festival in the Caribbean.

    Even with a staff of 22 volunteers, Thomas often devotes up to 50 hours a week to his cause, while still doing his full­time job waiting tables. “Of the diabetes charities out there, most are putting money into finding a cure，” says Bentley Gubar, one of Rockstar's original members. “But Christopher is the only person I know saying people need help now.”

    Do you know the difference between a food chain anda food web? Food chains show how a living thing such as a plant or an animal gets its energy. A food web consists of multiple food chains and includes many more plants and animals than a food chain includes. This diagram shows a food chain within a food web of the African savanna.

    How would you like an easy way to earn $2,500? All you have to do is to sit around and wait for your meals. There's a catch, however. You have to stay in a chicken cage with a stranger for a whole week. There are no books or television or radio for a whole week. There are no books or television or radio for amusement. You can't leave until the week is up. And a camera will be recording your every move.

    Two people actually took the job. The idea came from Rob Thompson, a video artist. He wanted to make a film about the way animals are treated. His goal was to raise people's awareness of the living conditions of animals that are raised for food. He decided to pay $5,000 out of his own savings to two people who were willing to live like chickens for a week.

    To Rob's surprise, quite a few people answered his advertisement. He had interviews and selected Eric, a 24-year-old restaurant worker, and Pam, a 27-year-old chemist. The plan was for them to spend seven days together in a chicken cage that was six feet long and three feet wide. A camera would record their experience, which would take place in an art museum.

    The week was long and difficult. They slept on a hard wooden floor. They couldn't stand up without banging their heads. They ate mash(a kind of food for animals) and drink water from a garden hose-pipe(软管). Their only privacy was a toilet surrounded by a curtain. There were no sinks, mirrors, or toothbrushes in the cage. Their only inspiration was the two framed checks that hung on the wall outside the cage. Visitors who came here were warned, “Do not feed the humans.”

    Finally it was over, and Pam and Eric came out of the cage. They had survived the week, and they each had a $2,500 check in their hands. When Rob Thompson opened the cage, Eric came out, changed into clean clothes, and ate a chocolate bar right away. “It's great for me to be able to stand up.” he said. Pam just changed her clothes and left. After a week of visitors and reporters watching her, she didn't want to talk to anyone.

    Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines' Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones, But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just about one thing-shopping. And that can be a big problem.

    "In a way, over -consumption(过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems" Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It's hel on the day, which is known as Black Fridny -a famous shopping day in the US and Canada. You can see the irony(讽刺)here.

    Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever, It's just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean-seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.

     The latest example is the Singles' Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record, But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters. "Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste." And it was reported that last year the Singles' Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins dictionary has also just named "single-use" its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there're too many things we tow out after only using them once.

    So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it's not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun "with people we care about" rather than wasting money on useless things.

    I was driving my newly acquired motorcycle across the vastness of North Dakota when all of the sudden it froze up on the road. I would later be told the belt had slipped and this caused one of the pistons(活塞)to break a cylinder(气缸)head, or something like that.

    Anyway, I sat on the side of the road for what seemed like hours. I even pretended to have been in an accident, which didn't help. Finally, a young man pulled over and offered me a ride, but given that he already had two motorcycles in the back of his truck, he could only take me.

    He drove me to the next town, where I asked to be dropped off Rather than drop me off, he waited while I asked around if anyone could help me to pick up my motorcycle. One elderly gentleman was working and said that I could use his pickup! Can you imagine that a stranger gave me the keys to his pick up. It was quite an experience, I must say. So, as I drove back 20 miles to get my motorcycle, the gentleman who first stopped to help me followed me. We both put the motorcycle in the back of the truck and then I followed him another 50 miles or so and we both unloaded the motorcycle at his place. Then, he followed me back to the small town so I could return the man's truck. I didn't have much cash on me, maybe $40, but I gave it to the man for the use of his truck.

    Two strangers helped rescue me from spending the night on the side of the road in ND. I don't recall their names, but when I close my eyes I can see their faces as if it were yesterday. Thank you, strangers. You may be reading this right now.