I began cycling in 2004 when I was a poor student. It was dangerous, sure, but cycling is the fastest, cheapest point-to-point form of transport in Melbourne. I own a car now, but that's just for transporting the baby or groceries.

    I hate driving. So it's been quite encouraging watching the growth in cyclist numbers over the past decade. It is estimated that 10,000-plus cyclists enter the CBD (Central Business District) each day, taking pressure off public transport. But as more people take to cycling as a mode of transport, the number of cyclists seriously injured or killed keeps climbing. And that is a sign that our infrastructure (基础设施) is still not good enough.

    Melbourne was once a dream for cyclists-flat, long, wide roads, with plenty of paths along rivers. Now, cycling can be deadly, with roads dominated by cars. I have a friend who broke her back and was lucky to escape paralysis, and others with broken bones. In my time riding, I've been forced off the road by a truck, cut off by four-wheel drives, and told to get off the road.

    These things don't exactly happen to trams and buses, those other slow coaches on Melbourne's roads. No—drivers reserve a particular savagery (残暴行为) for cyclists. And that's a sign of exactly one thing: inadequate infrastructure.

    We shouldn't need to be taught how to coexist in the same narrow space. Drivers and cyclists should be kept apart. The present debate over how to minimize “dooring” is a distraction.

    Dooring is not a legal problem. You cannot legislate (制定法律) it away. Designing bike paths so riders are channelled between moving cars and parked cars is deadly. All it takes is one daydreaming driver to fling open the door and you are gone. That's what happened to the young university student James Cross.

    This year, there are to be new anti-dooring lanes (车道) built on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, where Cross died in 2010. But these lanes are not safe. Cyclists must still pass between two rows of cars.

Evening Workshops

    Optional evening workshops will be held at small restaurants or other meeting places near the conference hotel. Meals and other costs are not included but are also optional. Locations will be announced at the conference site. Workshops are very loosely organized and most represent discussions that have been held at Society for Economic Botany (SEB) meetings over a series of years.

    Workshop 1: Student Network

    Date: Wednesday evening, Feb. 5^th

    Chairs: Hugo de Boer and Arika Virapongse Sponsor: Society for Economic Botany

    Description: Student members of the SEB hold a networking mixer each year in order to meet each other and to become familiar with a variety of educational programs and faculty advisors(大学指导老师). Faculty members who are part of training programs are encouraged to join the mixer to meet and talk with students.
     Workshop 2: Botanical Film Making
    Date : Wednesday evening, Feb. 5^th Chair : David Strauch

    Sponsor : University of Hawaii

    Description : Digit al film making is a particularly useful tool of linking cultural information to recognizable plants. This workshop is aimed towards increasing the quality of material recorded by giving participants greater control over the medium. We will cover technical aspects (e.g. camera settings, audio), technical aspects (framing, lighting, focus), and some ways of presenting the material. Experienced filmmakers are encouraged to attend, and participants are welcome to bring their own camera equipment.

    Workshop 3: Collections for Botany

    — Collections Development and Management Date: Friday evening, Feb. 7^th

    Chair: Jan Salick

    Sponsor: Society for Economic Botany

    Description: SEB is a network of researchers who have been developing standards for the development of collections of artifacts, plant samples and related materials. Participants discuss successes, problems, and funding sources for solving management issues.

    Do you like eating processed meat? If you do, think twice now if you want to eat such meat for the sake of your health. Why? It's because eating processed meat can cause cancer, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said last Monday.

    Processed meat is the meat that has been preserved by salting, smoking, drying or canning. Experts from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France studied 800 patients. The experts connected processed meat, such as hot dogs and bacon, with at least three kinds of cancer. A person who eats 50 grams of processed meat per day—about two pieces of bacon—increases his or her risk of bowel(肠) cancer by 18 percent.

    The IARC has included processed meat in its Group 1 list, for which there is “enough evidence” of connection with cancer. Tobacco is also on the Group 1 list.

WHO experts also say red meat, including beef, lamb and pork, is “probably” carcinogenic (致癌的) to humans. Dr. Kurt Strait is with the IARC. He said in a statement that the risk of cancer increases with the amount of meat a person eats. Health experts in some countries advised against eating large amounts of red and processed meat. But those suggestions had been centered on the increased risk of heart disease and obesity.

    However, meat industry groups protest the result of the WHO study. They say that meat is part of a balanced diet. They also say the causes of cancer are broad, and include environment and lifestyle factors.

    The WHO report cites the Global Burden of Disease project, which shows that diets high in processed meat lead to 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide.

    I'm a real book lover. Every time my friends visit me, my nose is buried in a book. Wherever I go, I always have a book with me. Novels, history books, stories about people, journals and news—I read them all and I've learnt a lot, too. For example, many things in life happen for the best even if we don't like or understand them.

    Why is reading such an enjoyable pastime for me? I probably first learned about it from my parents. My mother read to me at night in my childhood and bought me picture books. The greatest gift she has given me is a love for reading. And it will be a life-long habit.

    No one ever asked me why I liked to read. They just saw me and asked, "Oh? Is that for school work?" And I just shook my head, "No. It's just for fun." While reading a good book, I can totally forget myself and fly to another world. It's like exploring through someone's eyes, which is just as exciting as watching a movie.

    Reading is also necessary in order to learn about writing, to improve my use of words and phrases and broaden my knowledge. What a pity to see our imagination disappear, for we don't exercise it often. Reading can even be good for one's health, I think. Everyone should read sad stories that make us cry and also books with humor that make us laugh out loud!

    Essentially, everyone has two ages: a chronological(按时间计算的)age, how old the calendar says you are, and a biological age, basically the age at which your body functions as it compares to average fitness or health levels.

    "Chronological age isn't how old we really are. It's merely a number," said Professor David Sinclair at Harvard University. "It is biological age that determines our health and ultimately our lifespan. We all age biologically at different rates according to our genes, what we eat, how much we exercise, and what environment we live in. Biological age is the number of candles we really should be blowing out. In the future, with advances in our ability to control biological age, we may have even fewer candles on our birthday cake than the previous one."

    To calculate biological age, Professor Levine at  ale University identified nine biomarker(生物标志)that seemed to be the most influential on lifespan by a simple blood test. The numbers of those markers, such as blood sugar and immune(免疫的)measures, can be put into the computer, and the algorithm(算式;算法)does the rest.

    Perhaps what's most important here is that these measures can be changed. Doctors can take this information and help patients make changes to lifestyle, and hopefully take steps to improve their biological conditions. "I think the most exciting thing about this research is that these things aren't set in stone," Levine said. "People can be given the information earlier and take steps to improve their health before it's too late."

    Levine even entered her own numbers into the algorithm. She was surprised by the results. "I always considered myself a very healthy person. I'm physically active; I eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet. But I did not find my results to be as good as I had hoped they would be. It was a wake-up call," she said.

    Levine is working with a group to provide access to the algorithm online so that anyone can calculate their biological age, identify potential risks and take steps to improve their own health in the long run. "No one wants to live an extremely long life with a lot of chronic(慢性的)diseases," Levine said. "By delaying the development of mental and physical functioning problems, people can still be engaged in society in their senior years. That is the ideal we should be pursuing."

When I was a student, I didn't like to do housework. I thought that I was a little child and what I needed is to study hard to get good grades. So I didn't do any 1 at home.

One day, my mother 2 back home from work. She found that I had made a mess in the house. My books and clothes were everywhere. She was annoyed (恼火) and said to me 3 , "From now on, you must do some housework every day!" Hearing my mother's 4 , I felt unhappy. But I still did as she said.

Doing housework was more difficult than I had expected. I began to understand that life was not 5 for my parents. They had to do a lot of housework when they came back home 6 work. So I tidied my room and 7 my clothes. And I helped my 8 cook meals in the evening. My parents praised 9 for my changes.

Now I realize that doing housework can not only help my parents 10 also help me to learn many basic life skills.