The four theme parks below offer the most thrilling(刺激的)rides and attractions in the world.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg

    Located(坐落)in Virginia, USA, this theme paprk has some of the highest-rated thrill rides in the world. The park's famous roller coasters include Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist, Griffon, the Loch Ness Monster and Verbolten. The park also has thrilling water rides, rides for kids, other rides, shows, tours, animal exhibits and more. Divided into nine areas representing European countries, the park has won an award for the quality of its food.

Everland

    One of the world's most popular theme parks, Everland is located in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do province, South Korea. The park has 40 thrill rides, including a world-famous wooden roller coaster, and many other attractions such as an hunting ride, a zoo, indoor and outdoor water parks, shows and more.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach

    This Lancashire amusement park is one of the most visited theme parks in the United Kingdom. Among the park's 125 rides and attractions are the tallest and faster roller coaster in the U. K., a classic wooden roller coaster, a steel tower ride, the biggest indoor dark ride in the world, a host of rides for kids and more.

PortAventura World

    Located on Spain's Costa Daurada, this park is divided into six themed areas. Five areas represent different locations including Polynesia, Mexico, the American West, China and the Mediterrancan. The sixth and newest area has a Sesame Street theme. The park has many rides and attractions suitable for visitors of all ages.

Ig Nobel Prize

    Having a meal is an easy and delightful process for most people. However, for a woodpecker (啄木鸟), it's not that simple. To get dinner, a woodpecker has to hit its head against a tree numerous times per day. Yet, amazingly, it never suffers any ill effects like brain damage. According to research, it is the woodpecker's thick head bones that protect it from the impact of the blows. For explaining that, Ivan Schwab won an Ig Nobel Prize.

    Ig Nobel Prizes are organized by The Annals of Improbable Research, an American magazine that celebrates the funny side of science. Each year, ten winners are awarded prizes in honor of their “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. Most of the award-winning research, like Schwab's, may seem unusual, but it usually grabs people's attention indeed. And no matter how ridiculous the research sounds, people can find it inspiring and amusing.

    Brian Wansink's research might interest you. He took home an Ig Nobel Prize for looking into the influence of visual factors on people's appetites. He used specially designed bowls that refilled themselves with soup while people were eating. Since these people had no idea this was happening, they just kept eating from these “bottomless bowls”. They said they didn't feel full because their bowls were not empty yet. People in this experiment ate 73 percent more soup than normal. Owing to these results, Wansink concluded that it's not people's stomachs that decide when they have eaten enough, but their eyes.

    Ig Nobel Prizes also give attention to science and technology that is a part of our daily lives. Take the karaoke machine for example. Its inventor Daisuke Inoue was employed at a nightclub, playing the piano for the customers who wanted to sing. He wasn't skillful enough to play all the songs properly. To clear up the problem, he created the karaoke machine. To Inoue's surprise, the machine caused considerable changes in entertainment worldwide. The Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to Inoue not only because his invention was entertaining, but also because it brought about “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other”.

    These research results of Ig Nobel Prizes may not be as great as Edison's light bulb or Newton's laws of motion. However, they do show people's willingness to take action and to try new ways to solve problems. According to Marc Abrahams, a founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes. “If you win one, it means that you have done something.”

    Time flies, or so they say. No matter where you are, humans are constantly measuring and checking time. Some of us are good at it—planning and doing things ahead of time—while others are always trying to beat the clock and do things at last. What about if you are behind time?

    Delay can be serious. If you were one minute late for work, would you resign? It may sound extreme to many of us, but that is exactly what occurred in the UK upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, in January 2018. International development minister Lord Bates arrived one minute late, and, as a result, was unable to answer a scheduled question. Instead of trying to make up for lost time, he resigned on the spot. He apologised for his discourtesy and stated that he was ashamed. His resignation, though, was not accepted by the UK prime minister.

    So, how late is too late? Many cultures take punctuality very seriously, whereas others seem to accept lagging behind as just the normal way of things. BBC employees from Latin America, Rwanda and Sri Lanka said that there are more flexible attitudes to timekeeping in their cultures. In Latin America, things may happen five minutes, 20 minutes, an hour or even two after they were planned. Whereas, in Sri Lanka, lateness is a part of the daily routine. This is because of poor infrastructure and heavy traffic conditions. In Rwanda, those who attend to deadlines with strick timekeeping are said to be “like a typical European”.

    On the other hand, German and Japanese employees mentioned a stricter adherence to time. In Japan, it is common to make an effort to arrive with time to spare for an appointment. Those who arrived at the stroke of nine to a meeting starting at 9 am would be considered late. In Germany, however, if a dinner party were to begin at eight, a person who had arrived five minutes prior, may walk around the block to make sure that they arrive at eight on the dot.

    The Opening of a new bookstore, the Book Green Hook Sunday, September 5, 9a.m. to 9 p.m

    You will not want to miss the opening of your new neighbourhood bookstore! Located at 289 Main Street, the Book Green Hook is within walking distance of schools, homes and businesses. Come and check out the Book Green Hook on Sunday!

    There are various activities, including:

    Live music by local musicians

    One Book-of-Reading Club membership giveaway

    Wide Selection

    The Book Green Hook has five floors with books of all kinds—whatever you want. If we do not have the book you are looking for, we can specially order it for you. You will have it in your hands within two days!

    Reading Corners

    We are proud of our children's reading area on the first floor, as well as our teenagers' Corner on the second floor. Come for the activities and stay a while! Settle in one of these inviting reading areas; take a seat with a good book and a free cup of hot chocolate. You will discover the perfect way to spend a few hours.

    Book Events

    The Book Green Hook will be featuring monthly book signings by different authors, giving you a chance to meet and speak with well-known writers. Don't miss the experience of hearing these authors read aloud their own books!

    The Book-of-Reading Club

    Our Book-of -Reading Club will feature 12 books each year. As a member, you will be able to select one new book each month. The membership fee is only $10.00 per month. That is a great price for 12 books each year!

    So please join us on Sunday and learn about all that the Book Green Hook has to offer. You can come anytime between 9 a.m and 9 p.m—our activities last all day long!

    For years, there has been a prejudice against science among clinical psychologists (临床心理学家). In a two-year analysis to be published in November in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologists charge that many clinical psychologists fail to “provide the treatments which are given the strongest evidence of effectiveness” and “give more weight to their personal experiences than to science.” As a result, patients have no guarantee that their “treatment will be informed by science.” Walter Mischel of Columbia University is even crueler in his judgment. “The disconnect between what clinical psychologists do and what science has discovered is an extreme embarrassment,” he told me, and “there is a widening gap between clinical practice and science.”

    The “widening” reflects the great progress that psychological research has made in identifying the most effective treatments. Thanks to strict clinical trials, we now know that teaching patients to think about their thoughts in new, healthier ways and to act on those new ways of thinking are effective against depression, panic disorder and other problems, with multiple trials showing that these treatments the tools of psychology bring more lasting benefits than drugs.

    You wouldn't know this if you sought help from a typical clinical psychologist. Although many treatments are effective, relatively few psychologists learn or practice them.

    Why in the world not? For one thing, says Baker from the University of Wisconsin, clinical psychologists are “very doubtful about the role of science” and “lack solid science training”. Also, one third of patients get better no matter what treatment (if any) they have, “and psychologists remember these successes, believing, wrongly, that they are the result of the treatment.”

    When faced with evidence that treatments they offer are not supported by science, clinical psychologists argue that they know better than some study that works. A 2008 study of 591 psychologists in private practice(诊所) found that they rely more on their own and colleagues' experience than on science when deciding how to treat a patient. If they keep on this path despite the fact that insurance companies demand evidence-based medicine, warns Mischel, psychology will “discredit itself.”

If a president, a philosopher, and one of the best-selling writers credited the same secret for their success, would you try to follow it too? What if the secret was something you already knew how to do? In fact, you probably do it every day. Here's what Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth. " Thomas Jefferson: "Walking is the best possible exercise. " Charles Dickens: "If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and die. "

Researchers have found quite a lot of connections between walking and producing ideas. A Stanford University study found that participants were 81 percent more creative when walking as opposed to sitting. According to the study, walking outside-compared with on a treadmill (跑步机)-produces the most novel and highest-quality ideas.

The movement aspect of walking is obviously key. Our creative thinking is triggered (触发)by physical movement, which is exactly why walking-with your dog, a friend, or alone-feeds creative thinking.

The scenery is almost as important as the sweat. Breaking your routine with a walk can be a catalyst for fresh understanding of problems or projects. Just by going outside, you are stepping out of your familiar surroundings and your comfort zone, which is necessary if you want to open your mind to new possibilities. You can walk through a tree-filled neighborhood. You can walk through a park and observe people joking or birds singing. Being inside, you're more likely to be lifeless, which means you don't have enough energy to wonder or create.

So instead of setting a fitness goal, why not set a creativity goal that starts with walking? Involve yourself more closely in your surroundings. Tum off your phone and give yourself the chance to be present in the world, to hear conversations and natural sounds, and to notice the way people move and the way the sun reflects in puddle (小水坑).