Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother's voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning(胎教), birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom's call within a few days of entering the world.

    This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kleindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia, and her colleagues. Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs, When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching, Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.

    It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar were the babies' begging calls. In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom's voice were rewarded with the most food.

    This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.“As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need? ”Kleindorfer asks. “Our results suggest that they might be going for quality. ”

    Visitor Oyster cards are electronic smart cards that come fully charged with credit. Whether you're making a one-off trip to London or you're a regular visitor, using an Oyster travel smart card is the easiest way to travel around the city's public transport network. Simply touch the card on the yellow card reader at the doors when you start and end your journey.

Advantages of a Visitor Oyster Card

    A Visitor Oyster card is one of the cheapest ways to pay for single journeys on the bus, Tube, DLR, tram, London Overground and most National Rail services in London:

● Save time—your card is ready to use as soon as you arrive in London.

● It's more than 50% cheaper than buying a paper travel card or single tickets with cash.

● There is a daily price cap—once you have reached this limit, you won't pay any more.

● Enjoy special offers and promotions at leading London restaurants, shops and entertainment venues—plus discounts on the Emirates Air Line cable car and Thames Clippers river buses.

Buy a Visitor Oyster card

    Buy a Visitor Oyster card before you visit London and get it delivered to your home address. A card costs￡3 (non-refundable) plus postage. Order online and arrive with your Oyster in hand! You can also buy a Visitor Oyster card from Gatwick Express ticket offices at Gatwick Airport Station and on board Eurostar trains travelling to London.

Add Credit to Your Visitor Oyster Card

    You can choose how much credit to add to your card. If you are visiting London for two days, you can start with ￡20 credit. If you run out of credit, add credit at the following locations:

● Touch screen ticket machines in Tube, DLR, London Overground and some National Rail stations .

● Around 4,000 Oyster Ticket Stops found in newsagents and small shops across London.

● TFL Visitor and Travel Information Centers .

● Tube and London Overground station ticket offices .

● Emirates Air Line terminals .

    Sometimes when I'm flying from one speaking engagement to another, I find myself sitting next to someone who's quite talkative. This is often a pleasant experience for me because I'm a people-watcher. I learn so much by watching and listening to the people I meet and see every day. I've heard stories of sadness and others of delight, fear and joy, and others that would rival those on “Oprah” and "Geraldo”.

    Sad to say，there are times when I'm sitting next to someone who just wants to vent(发泄） his temper or inflict(强加）his political views on an audience for 600 miles. It was one of those days. I settled in, as my seatmate began his speech on the terrible state of the world with the time worn, “You know, kids today are...” He went on and on, sharing vague notions of the terrible state of teens and young adults, based on watching the six o'clock news rather selectively.

    When I gratefully got off that plane and finally made it to my hotel in Indianapolis, I bought the local paper and went to have dinner in the hotel. There, on an inside page, was an article I believe ought to have been the front-page headline news.

In a little Indiana town, there was a 15-year-old boy with a brain tumor. He was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy(化疗）treatments，As a result of those treatments, he had lost all of his hair. I don't know about you, but I remember how I would have felt about that at his age —I would have felt awkward and ashamed.

    This young man's classmates willingly came to the rescue: all the boys in his grade asked their mothers if they could shave their heads so that Brian wouldn't be the only bald boy in the high school. There, on that page was a photograph of a mother shaving all of her sons' hair with the family looking on approvingly. And in the background, a group of similar bald young men.

    No, I don't despair about kids today.

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    Come and speak a week with us at Green and Gold Camp on the Sacramento Campus! Days are filled with scavenger hunts, river walks, the Challenge Center, water activities, arts and crafts, games and more! Your adventure begins at Sacramento State.

Awesome Activities:

Camps Dates and Details

    How much does this camp cost?

    This camp is only $290 for an entire week of memories and friendships that will last a lifetime.

    A minimum deposit of 50% per child, per camp is required for all registrations (non-refundable). Full payment is due 14 days prior to camp start.

    When does the camp begin/end?

    Drop-off for Green and Gold Camp begins each morning at 8:00 am. Camp activities begin at 8:30 each day and end at 5:00 pm. All children must be picked up no later than 5:00 pm. Late pick-ups will result in a $10 fee.

    What does my child need to bring to the camp

    Peak Adventures will provide a morning and afternoon snack, but your child needs to bring his/her own bag lunch every day. We also do water activities, so be sure to include a swim suit and a towel each day so they can participate. We suggest packing the following items each day:

    Camp must have a minimum of six campers for the program to run. No guarantees. You will receive a full refund for any cancelled camps.

    CALL US AT 916-278-6321 FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO RESERVE YOUR YOUTH CAMP SPOT TODAY.

    Justin Bieber is only fifteen years old and has become very popular already. He was raised (抚养) by his mother in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. When he was twelve he won second place in a local singing contest. He started posting (贴) videos of his contest performances on the Internet for his friends and family. Soon these videos had been seen more than ten million times.

    A music manager saw those videos and asked Justin to fly to Atlanta, Georgia, to meet the singer and songwriter Usher. A year later Justin released (发行) his first albumMy World. It sold over a million copies in the first two months. Four singles were released before the album. All became popular. This made Justin Bieber the only singer in the history of the Billboard magazine to have four singles from his first album among the most popular songs before the album's release.

    Justin Bieber performed for President Obama at the White House last December. He was part of a musical show that raised money for the National Children's Medical Center. He was also among the many singers who recorded the song We Are the World. The song was produced to raise money for Haiti. The video has been seen more than seven million times on the Internet. And it was shown during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

    Justin Bieber's family did not have much money when he was young. He did not have as much so other children did. Justin says he wants to influence young people in a good way. He believes that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

    When he was a kid, Alex Vardakostas began working in the grill (烧烤店)alongside adult employees. He estimates he has cooked 50,000 burgers (汉堡包).

    Now, Vardakostas co-owns a burger joint called Creator, in San Francisco, California. But he doesn't stand over a grill flipping burgers, and neither do his employees. At Creator, burgers are cooked and assembled entirely by machine. And because it costs less to maintain the machine than to pay a kitchen's worth of employees, burgers cost less.

    Creator is just one example of a growing phenomenon: Automation is taking over more and more jobs. That means work is done by machines or computers instead of people.

    According to a report from McKinsey Global Institute, about 800 million people could be forced out of their jobs by 2030. McKinsey predicts that as technology improves, some tasks will be done more quickly or cheaply by machine, so businesses will install robots or computer Programs to perform them.

    Some jobs are more likely to be automated than others. Machines can do jobs that have three characteristics: They are routine, repetitive, and predictable. Some of these jobs pay low wages and require little education. But others pay well and demand an advanced college degree. Taxi drivers, cashiers, lawyers, and doctors all perform some tasks that can be done by machines.

    So what jobs are safe from automation? Answers include coming up with new ideas or work that involves interacting with other people and building relationships. Jobs in engineering, science, the arts, therapy, and nursing are examples.

    At Creator, Vardakostas hired people to do just that kind of work. Instead of repetitive burger prepping, workers interact with customers and advise them on flavor pairings, like mushroom sauce with pickles and onion jam. "In our world at Creator, all the work is creative and social," Vardakostas says. "And I think that is what we're going to see more of the future."