Whizzfizzing Festival

    One of the “Home Counties” to the north and west of London, Buckinghamshire is known for the rolling Chiltern Hills, its pretty villages, and the much-loved children's author Roald Dahl.

    The writer who penned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and The Big Friendly Giant is the i9nspiration for the Whizzfizzing Festival – which will transform the market-town of Aylesbury into all kinds of music, colour and fun on Saturday, 1 July.

    Formerly known as The Roald Dahl Festival, this year's event will celebrate a broad range of children's films and bring to life some of its best-loved characters – from Alice in Wonderland and the Gruffala to The Big Friendly Giant and Harry Potter.

    Things to see and do

    The fun and festivals start at 11 a.m. with a colourful children's parade. More than 650 local school children and teachers, many in fancy dress, will march through the town carrying giant carnival puppets（木偶）, with thousands of audiences lining the streets to watch.

    The parade will be followed with a range of child-friendly activities and workshops held in venues across the town.

    Don't be late for the Mad Hatters Tea Party in the Bucks County Museum, catch a splendid screening of a Roald Dahl movie in the Old        Court House, and watch leading children's authors, including Julian Clary, give readings in the Market Square.

    CBeebies' children's chef Katy Ashworth will once again be cooking up a storm with her inter-active

    Concoction Kitchen, located outside Hale Leys Shopping Centre. Little chefs will have lots of opportunities to get involved with preparing, cooking – and best of all, tasting – Katy's fabulous recipes.

    With hands-on arts and crafts workshops, storytelling sessions, live music, a fancy dress competition, street theatre and more, there is something for everyone.

    For more information, visit: http://www.aylesburyvaledc .gov.uk/cylesbury-whizzfizzing- festival-inspired- roald-dahl

    Next morning, there was no wind and we were half a mile from the eastern coast of the island. Although the sun shone bright and hot, I hated the thought of Treasure Island, afraid of what would happen there.

    Guns were given to all the honest men. Hunter, Joyce, and Redruth were told what was happening, and were less surprised than we expected them to be. Then the captain went on deck to talk to the crew.

    They all became happier at once. I think they thought they would find the treasure lying around on the beach! After some talk, six men stayed on board, and the others, with Silver, got into the small boats.

    I then had the first of the mad ideas that help ed to save our lives. If six men were left, we could not take control of the ship; and because only six were left, the captain's men did not need my help. So I quickly went over the ship's side and into the nearest boat.

    No one took much notice of me, only one man saying, “Is that you, Jim?” But Silver called from the other boat, wanting to know if it was me. Then I began to worry if I had done the right thing.

    The crews rowed to the beach and our boat arrived first. I ran towards the trees. Silver and the rest were a hundred metres behind, and I heard him shouting, “Jim, Jim!” But I took no notice, pushing through trees and bushes, and ran until I could run no longer.

    I was pleased to lose Long John and began to enjoy looking around this strange island. I crossed wet ground and came to a long, open piece of sand, then went on to a place where the trees had branches that were thick and close to the sand.

    Just then I heard distant voices, Silver's among them, and hid behind a tree. Through the leaves, I saw Long John Silver and another of the crew talking together.

    “I'm warning you because I' m your friend, Tom,” Silver was saying.

    “Silver,” said Tom: “You're old and you're honest, or so men say; and you've money, too, which lots of poor seamen haven't. And you're brave. Why let yourself be led away with that kind of scoundrel? I'd rather die than—”

    Suddenly, there was a noise of distant shouting, then a long horrible scream. I had found one honest man here, and that terrible, distant scream told me of another．

    “John!” said Tom: “What was that?”

    “That?” replied Silver. His eyes shone like pieces of broken glass in the sun: “That'll be Alan.”

    “Alan!” cried poor Tom: “An honest and true seaman! John Silver, you've been a friend of mine, but for no longer. You've killed Alan, have you? Then kill me, too, if you can!”

    The brave man turned his back on Silver and began to walk back to the beach. With a shout, Silver threw his crutch through the air. It hit poor Tom between the   shoulders, and he fell to the ground with a cry.

    "Dreams may be more important than sleep. We all need to dream," some scientists say. Dreams take up about one quarter of our sleeping time. People have several dreams each night. Dreams are like short films. They are usually in colour. Some dreams are like old films. They come to us over and over again. That may be because the dreamer is worrying about something. Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer. Some people get new ideas about their work from dreams. They may have been thinking about their work all day. These thoughts can carry over into dreams.
    Sometimes we wake up with a good feeling from a dream. But often we can't remember the dream. Dreams can disappear quickly from memory. Too much dreaming can be harmful. The more we sleep, the longer we dream. The mind is hard at work when we dream. That is why we may have a long sleep and still wake up tired.

    A so-called “smart drug” intended to improve people's cognitive (认知的) function to protect the brain from altitude sickness.

    Visiting high-altitude sites for work, spot, religious pilgrimages and military can result in cognitive effects, including memory loss and attention difficulties. There's little you can do to prevent these symptoms except acclimatize -but this takes time and doesn't always work. A drug called oxiracetam might be the answer.

    ShengLi Hu at the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China and her colleagues studied the performance of male military personnel at altitude. All lived in towns around 1,800 meters above sea level, During the study, they spent eight days at this altitude and then climbed for three days to reach 4,000 meters, where they stayed for up to a month.

    Twenty participants took oxriacetam three times a day for the first 15 days of the study, while another 20 received no intervention. The man did tests of attention and memory at the start and end of the study and 20 days in, by which time they had been at 4,000 meters for nine days.

    While all the participants experienced a drop in cognitive ability at 4,00 meters, those who took oxiracetam showed a much smaller drop than the control group.

    The team found that at high altitude the brain stem, which plays a critical role in supporting basic living functions, received blood at the expense of areas responsible for more advanced cognitive functions. But in people who took oxiracetam, blood flowing throughout the brain rose, thus offering more oxygen to these areas. This may be how the drug seems to lessen cognitive problems like with low oxygen.

    It isn't yet known whether diverting blood in this way could have negative effects in the long run. "The results are striking and imply that oxiracetam may be beneficial for helping to relieve cognitive ability decline caused by altitude." says Timothy Hales at the University of Dundee, UK.

    As a little girl growing up in the early 1960s in a suburb of Pittsburgh, it was not always easy to find role models. But I was lucky. In my childhood, I knew smart, strong women who had accomplished much, one of whom invented the world's first computer compiler (编译器).

    Recently, though, I learned about a role model who was right under my nose—my own mother.

    Growing up, I knew she had worked as a secretary before I was born. I knew that she had joined the WAVES—the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve (海军预备队)—during World War Ⅱ. And I knew she'd worked in an office that was involved with codes (编码). But when she talked about it—rare, because she had been sworn to secrecy—she described her duties as ordinary, routine. I never questioned it. After all, the woman I knew was a reserved suburban mom.

    Not long ago, a chance conversation with a colleague led me to the book, Code Girls. It tells the story of the WAVES, who decrypted (解码) and encrypted secret messages during the war. They worked around the clock, knowing that the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers—their brothers, husbands, fathers—were on the line.

    Inspired, I began a journey to explore the mystery of my mother's service that continues to this day. I got some of her working records about her unit, OP19. In two years, she was promoted three times. She was no secretary, and her duties were hardly ordinary.

    My mother always encouraged my interest in science and insisted to my father that I go to college. “You're going to grow up to be another Madame Curie,” she told me. She was always pointing at other women. She did not see herself as someone to model on. Neither did I. Now I see her differently.

    TESCO has announced it is banning the sale of energy drinks to teenagers, and that the big move will begin in weeks. The supermarket has joined a host of major names banning teenagers from buying high caffeine, high-sugar drinks. The government indicates that the principal question to be determined is whether the purchasing restrictions will apply at the age of 16 or 18.

    Theresa May said the consultation was linked to the government's childhood obesity (肥胖) strategy and said it was necessary to examine the consumption of energy drinks "often because they are sold at cheaper prices than soft drinks".

    The principal reason for the ban is the high level of caffeine in the energy drinks, which has been linked to a string of health problems for children, including head and stomach aches as well as sleep problems.

    Energy drinks often also have higher levels of sugar than soft drinks. According to government figures, sugared energy drinks have 60% more calories and 65% more sugar than normal soft drinks and sugar is one of the largest causes of obesity.

    Jamie Oliver said he welcomed the ban on energy drink sales because "too many children are regularly using them to replace breakfast" and "teachers from across the country have told me how their lessons are disrupted because of these drinks".

    A Downing Street source added that there is no evidence that energy drinks have any nutritional value in children's diet. That accounts for the government's action on measures to tackle childhood obesity and improve children's health.

    The move is the latest step in an approach in relation to childhood obesity and health. According to European Food Safety Authority research, two-thirds of 10 to 16-year-olds regularly consume energy drinks, along with 18% of 3 to 10-year-olds.