What's your opinion on spicy food? Some people cannot handle even the smallest amount of chili(辣椒) in their dinner while others can't get enough of it.       

Scientists have long been puzzled by why some people love chili and others loathe it. Plenty of research has been done on the subject, dating back to as far as the 1970s. Previous results showed that a love of chili is related to childhood experiences, and cultural influences affect our taste buds, too. But the latest study has found that a person's love of spicy food may be linked to his or her personality more than anything else, CBC News reported.

“We have always assumed that liking drives intake—we eat what we like and we like what we eat. But no one has actually directly bothered to connect these personality traits with intake of chili peppers,” said Professor John Hayes from Pennsylvania State University, who led the study.

But before you look at the study, you should first know that “spicy” is not a taste, unlike sour, sweet, bitter and salty. It is, in fact, a burning sensation that you feel on the surface of your tongue. This got scientists thinking that maybe a love of spicy food is brought about by people's longing for thrill, something they usually get from watching action movies or riding a roller coaster.

In the study, 97 participants, both male and female, were asked to fill out questionnaires about certain traits of their personality, for example. Whether they like new experiences or tend to avoid risks. They were then given cups of water with capsaicin(辣椒素), the plant chemical that makes chili burn, mixed into them.

By comparing the answers to questionnaires and what participants said they felt about the spicy water. Researchers found that those who most tended to enjoy action movies or take risks were about six times more likely to enjoy the spicy water.

    Interestingly, we used to believe that the reason some people can withstand spicy food is that their tongue have become less sensitive to it. However, this latest study has found otherwise. It's not that it doesn't burn as badly, it's that you actually learn to like the burn,” Hayes explained.  

    While money can't technically buy happiness, it can buy you a mood-lifting, outlook-improving vacation. Haven't made plan yet to skip town this winter? These money-saving travel tips can help you book the destination of your choice and enjoy you time there—without breaking the bank.

    1).FLY THE COOP FAST

    If you're planning to set off for an adventure right away, try the GTFO(Get The Flight Out) app. It lists the cheapest round-trip flights departing from your local airport that day or by the next morning. At press time, airfare was down 12 percent from last August and round-trip tickets for domestic flights averaged $218.

    2).SNAG A DISCOUNTED HOTEL ROOM

    If Airbnb, an online service that provide apartment exchange, isn't your style, reserve marked-down accommodations on Tingo, which lists almost all the rooms in more than 155,000 locations worldwide. After you book a price drop room, the site monitors rates until, typically, 24 to 48 hours before check-in. If the price drops, Tingo refunds you the difference.

    3).LIVE IT UP LOCALLY

    If you're planning a staycation(宅度假) this winter, try an affordable escape close to home. The free app HotelTonight offers lodging(租住) deals in more than 100 U.S. and Canadian cities and regions, and has a location-based feature that gives extea saving on already discounted prices on spots closest to you. Same-day prices fall even lower after 6 P.M.

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is mostly a desert. However, this has not stopped the country from creating great building projects. On September 26, UAE officials announced another ambitious project — Mars Science City. Expansive deserts and miles of coastline provide plenty of options for safe rocket launches (发射). And its position on the Earth makes it especially appealing as the spin of the Earth provides an extra push, meaning less fuel is needed to get payloads into orbit. All these seem to make it possible.

    The Mars City Project, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, will provide a realistic model to simulate (模仿) living on the surface of Mars, the red planet. It is part of the UAE's Mars 2117 Project to lead the global race to land humans on Mars and be the first to build a settlement there. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, says, “The UAE seeks international support to develop technologies that benefit humans, and lay the foundation of a better future for more generations to come.”

    Built outside Dubai, the 1.9 million square feet city is expected to cost $135 million. It will consist of several dome-shaped laboratories, similar to the ones imagined for the first Mars settlers. Scientists from around the word will be invited to conduct research to come up with methods to create food, water and energy, using techniques which can be copied onto the red planet. The living spaces, where the researchers can live for up to a year, will simulate the planet's conditions as much as possible.

    The research city will also include a museum featuring famous space achievements to help educate and inspire children to undertake space exploration and discovery. To discover whether the construction method works on Mars, the museum's walls will be 3D printed using the sand from the nearby desert. Now, if they would only add some living quarters for the general public to experience life on Mars without leaving Earth, life would be perfect.

    Diana Ross, American pop singer and actress, achieved international popularity, first as the leader singer of the Supremes and later as a solo(独唱的) artist. Diana Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children of Fred and Ernestine Ross, who lived in one of Detroit's poor districts. Because her family were closely connected with each other, Ross almost didn't notice the difficult life as she grew up.

    Ross professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighborhood friends to form the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract (合同) with Motown late the following year. The group produced many number-one hit singles (热门单曲) on the US Billboard hot 100, including Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love and Someday We Will Be Together. In 1967, the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing（预示） Ross' solo career, which she started in 1970.

    Beginning with Ain't No Mountain High Enough from her first solo album, Ross enjoyed more than ten years of great success with her hit singles. Ross also developed a film-acting career in the 1970s, beginning with a starring role as blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues and continuing with Mahogany, for which she also recorded the theme song Do You Know Where You're Going To.

    However, in the mid-1980s, Ross saw her career begin to wane. Most of her albums were re-recordings of earlier material. In 2006, she produced I Love You, a collection of love songs by many artists, and she started an energetic concert tour the following year to make the album publicly known. Although you can't find her songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 now, Ross remains popular as one of the leading musical performers of all time.

    New York City is a world capital in every sense of the word—it's a cultural and economic powerhouse, and arguably the most influential city on the planet. But it wasn't always this way, as the following cities once dominated the world around them.

    Djenne­Djenno

    In the flood lands of the Niger delta people have been building houses and other structures with clay for centuries. The town of Djenne­Djenno is made entirely out of clay. It was inhabited as far back as 250 BC, and became an important link in the trans­Saharan gold trade(跨撒哈拉黄金交易). Constructed on hills called " toguere", the city managed to escape the marshy(沼泽 ) landscape and annual floods produced by the rainy season. Djenne­Djenno is believed to be one of the earliest settlements in the sub­Saharan region, and is considered by some to be "the typical African City".

    Archeological evidence shows us a continuous human presence in the area up until the 14th century AD, when people moved to the nearby town of Djenne, founded in the 11th century. Further evidence points out that even before the city's construction, the Bozo people were growing wild rice in the region. In the 13th century AD, with King Koumboro's conversion to Islam, its palace transformed into a mosque.

    Carthage

    Legend has it that Carthage was founded by Queen Dido of the Phoenicians. She fled the city of Tyre located in present­day Lebanon in order to escape the hatred of her brother Pygmalion, who was her rival to the throne. Along with a group of settlers, she traveled a great distance by sea and landed in North Africa, where she met King Iarbas. He offered to give them land in order to build a settlement, but no bigger than the surface covered by the hide(牛皮) of an ox. They cleverly cut the hide into thin strips and were able to enclose a fairly large area of land. On this land, the mighty city of Carthage was built.

    These stories are most likely just that, but the fact that the Phoenicians built the city around 760 BC is true. Located in such a good position—in the middle of the Mediterranean, close to Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, and a pretty good distance from Egypt—helped make Carthage a leading trade center and military power. The population soon reached half a million citizens and, in order to house them all, buildings were all built five or six stories tall. Carthage was the first city in ancient times to have a centralized sewage system, linking all buildings within the city walls. The most notable of structures among the ruins was the " Thophet", which is believed to be an altar(圣坛) for child sacrifice.

    Tenochtitlan

    Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec Empire. It was built on an island surrounded by Lake Texcoco deep inside the jungles of Central America. By the time the Spanish conquerors were aware of its existence, the population was around 200，000. This was a city very different from what the Europeans were used to. Founded in 1325 AD, the Aztec capital was joined to the mainland by three causeways(堤道). It was laid out in straight street grids and had enormous pyramids at its center, which were surrounded by the skulls of the dead and ceremonial sculptures.

    When I was about 5 years old, I experienced my very first random act of kindness. I was sitting at the roadside one evening, crying alone for some reason when suddenly, a boy came up to me and gave me a plastic rose, I remember the moment when I took the rose from his hand; I was smiling from ear to ear, whispering "I want to be like him" to myself as I watched him walking away.

    From then on, I made it as my life mission to do random acts of kindness whenever I can. I was very determined to make other people smile. That was the only reason why I joined my school's Red Crescent Society and became a volunteer. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks in the same way as I did. Whenever I do something nice to others, people around me will start to judge my actions. Often I will just keep quiet and ignore what they say, but every once in a while, they do drive me up the wall.

    These people like to complain about how humans nowadays are lacking of humanities and compassion. However, when they actually see somebody doing a good deed in front of them, they start to question and criticize that person's honesty. Perhaps it is the increasing crime rate and the never-ending rat race that caused them to be so suspicious to nice strangers. In other words, people nowadays have lost sight of the real meaning of kindness and just let it go unnoticed. That is why I think random acts of kindness are really important. These selfless acts are not only capable of bringing joy to the receivers but also to the givers. Because of this, I want to help spread the idea of these random acts to the whole world. I want to show the people how the little things they give could make a big difference in someone else's life.