Samanta Schweblin, one of the best young Spanish language novelists nominated (提名) by British literary magazine Granta, has visited Beijing to promote the first Chinese edition of a collection of her short stories. The collection, Birds in the Mouth, has been translated and published by Shanghai-based publisher Reader.

    “Sometimes I hold the Chinese edition and choose a story at random and try to guess which one it is. But it is almost impossible for me; even the length is different.” says Schweblin. “When a book is translated into a Western language, I can at least understand some parts of my stories, and therefore suffer some doubt about the quality of the translation. But my Chinese edition is more like an act of faith.”

    Born in Argentina in 1978, Schweblin says she is influenced by the literary traditions of the La Plata area, home to many famous Latin-American novelists.

    Interested in writing stories of ordinary lives where suddenly something extraordinary happens, something new, strange or unknown, she thinks, “The stranger and the unknown are not always related to ghosts or aliens, but can be something related to the known world, something that actually could happen.”

    Birds in the Mouth tells of a divorced father who worries about his 13-year-old daughter and her mysterious appetites. It turns out that his daughter eats live birds.

    The idea for this story came to Schweblin when she was browsing the Internet, “Click, click, click, a picture of a little girl who looks frightened with her hands covering her mouth came to my eyes. Little by little, I developed the story in my mind, and then wrote it down” recalls Schweblin.

    Although there are elements of violence and bloodiness in Schweblin's stories, she skillfully hides them, thinking the trick to writing a thrilling story is to stop the monster from appearing, while maintaining a frightening and mysterious atmosphere.

    Larry Bird was born in 1965 in a small town in the Middle Western State of Indiana. He was tall, and good at playing basketball. He attended Indiana State University. Bird led the team into the College Basketball Championship Game.

    After completing his college studies, Larry Bird began playing professional basketball for the Boston Celtics. He remained with the Celtics for all his professional career. During those 13 years, Larry Bird was named the Most Valuable Player of the Year three times. He scored more than 21, 000 points, and he played in 13 of the highest scoring games in his team's history. Once he scored 60 points in just one game.

    During his very successful basketball career, Larry Bird suffered a number of injuries. In 1989, he stopped playing because of pain in his feet. He returned in 1990, but the pain in his feet returned too. In the next two years he experienced more medical problems, and he missed many games.

    Larry Bird did play on the Dream Team－the first Olympic Team with professional players. However, after winning the gold medal in Barcelona, he announced that he would retire from professional basketball. Larry Bird said he would have liked to play a little longer, but he could not because of his health problems. He also said it was a good time to leave the game. He wanted to be remembered as a winner.

    A few days ago I was sitting in a Thai restaurant enjoying a meal when I got a phone call from a friend I hadn't spoken to for a long time. Full of enthusiasm and excitement I talked slightly louder than usual and in Spanish, my mother tongue.

    A few minutes into the call the lady sitting beside me got up, seemingly upset, and asked the restaurant staff to relocate her to a table as far away as possible from "this man who won't get off his phone"

    I sank in my seat out of embarrassment. I ended the call soon afterwards and felt the urge to go over and apologize. Before getting up I looked around to see where she was and I found she was, indeed, at the table furthest away from me. I noticed that the lady was alone and staring out of the window, looking a bit sad.

    Right then I quit my plan for a conventional apologetic gesture and decided to conduct an experiment. Seeing those funny smile cards in my wallet, I took one out. When signing my check I asked the waiter to secretly charge the lady's meal to my credit card instead of her bill.

    I left the restaurant, letting the waiter know I would be back in a few hours to pick up my credit card. I returned later as promised, excited to learn the result.

    To my pleasant surprise, things turned out the best possible way. A group of restaurant staff approached me with joy, telling me that the lady had dined there many times, but they had never seen her smile and laugh like she did upon receiving the smile card and the $0 check.

    Are you afraid of sharks? What about snakes or spiders? Put those fears aside: because in the U.S. you're far more likely to be killed or injured by a deer skipping across the road.

    Deer cause more than 200 humans deaths each year, plus some 29, 000 injuries, all because of 1.2 million collisions between vehicles and deer. Most incidents occur in the eastern U.S., where deer prosper without natural predators like wolves and mountain lions.

    "That's the region in the U.S. where deer-vehicle collisions are such a problem, and where it seems like an effective large carnivore reintroduction could make a really big difference." says wildlife biologist Laura Prugh from University of Washington. She thinks it would help to reintroduce predators like mountain lions, also known as cougars, pumas or panthers, to parts of their historic range from which they've been driven out.

    The researchers say that bringing the predators back to the eastern U.S. would mean 22 percent fewer collisions between cars and deer over three decades. Each year would see five fewer human deaths, 680 fewer injuries and a savings of some 550 million. Sophie L. Gilbert thinks there are great socioeconomic benefits of large predator restoration through reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions and she says, says, "Cougars have shown that they can coexist in short distance with people, with very few conflicts, in a lot of areas out west."

    Still, some folks might be understandably nervous about this kind of plan. After all, reintroducing predators doesn't come without risks to pets and to livestock, and very occasionally to people.

    "Our fear of large predators is so natural and intense that I don't think it's possible to just completely clear it with statistics… What I hope is that knowing that there actually can be some measurable benefits might make people a little more supportive and maybe balance that fear a little bit." says Laura.

    Indeed, the statistics show that cougars would prevent five times as many human deaths from deer-related accidents as they would cause by attacks. But it'll be a tough sell: the press will cover cougar attacks, but a statistically prevented death does not make the news. Nevertheless, "If people in the west can put up with having mountain lions around, I would hope that New Yorkers would be up for the challenge as well."

Instagram(图片分享社交应用程序)is about to take its biggest step toward removing likes from its platform. After months of testing an option to hide likes in select international markets, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook(FB), has already been testing hiding likes in seven other countries, including Canada, Ireland and Australia. For years, likes have been central to how celebrities, brands, politicians and everyday users experience Instagram and Facebook. It's a way of measuring popularity(名气) and success. But in recent months, Instagram has been rethinking how likes contribute to making its platform more toxic. Now it's considering a change.

The total number of likes on posts — which appear as hearts on the app—will disappear from Instagram's main feed, profile pages and permalink(永久链接)pages. The owner of the account can still see their own likes, but their followers won't know the count.

CNN Business previously spoke with users in countries with the test. The majority felt this move would improve well-being on the app. Instagram is the most harmful social networking app for young people's mental health, such as negatively influencing body image, according to one study.

But other users and psychologists said hiding likes won't fix everything. The test doesn't address some of the key ways that activity on Instagram can influence the well-being of users, including bullying(欺凌), feeling left out and thinking other people's lives are better than their own.

Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, voiced his opinion that the biggest impact of Instagram is the content and the exposure to this constant stream of perfected images is what seems to hurt psychologically. Plus, users can still see their own likes—and feel badly if their posts don't perform well.

Target Car Seat Trade-in Event

Frequently Asked Questions:

·What is the car seat trade-in program?

Guests who trade in their old car seats will receive a 20 percent off coupon toward a new car seat.

·What type of car seat qualifies for a trade-in?

Target will accept and recycle all types of car seats, including: baby car seats, car seat bases, as well as car seats that are damaged. Guests will receive a 20 percent off coupon for trading in any one of these items.

·Where do I bring my old car seat to trade in?

Car seats can be traded in at any of the Target stores. Target will have drop-off boxes for guests' unwanted car seats located near Guest Services.

·How do I redeem(兑现) the coupon offer?

Coupons can be applied to both in-store and online purchases and are valid(有效的) until May 31.

·What does Target do with the car seats that are traded in?

Materials from the old car seats will be recycled by Target's partner, Waste Management, to create new products such as plastic plates, plastic buckets and construction materials such as steel beams and carpet padding.

·Is this the first time Target has had car seat trade-in program?

Target introduced its first car seat trade-in program in April 2016. Since the program launched, more than 789, 000 car seats, or 11. 98 million pounds of car seats, have been recycled.