The Owl Count

    Annie slept in the front of the seat with her father drovethrough the darkness. “We're almost there!” Dad announced cheerfully. “Soon we'll be observing and counting owls at the state park.” Yawning, Annie noddedand smiled. The time was 4:30 a.m. Looking out into the darkness, Annie remembered learning in school that most owls are active at night, when they hunt for food. During the day they sleep in hard-to-find spots.

    “Dad, why do you need to count owls?” she asked. “It's importantfor the scientists to have current information about bird populations,” he explained. “We want to know which birds have decreased in number and whether any new kinds of birds are coming into a certain area. You and I will write down the kinds of birds that we see today and keep a record of how many times we see each kind. Then we'll send out a report to a scientific organization that is collecting about birds from people all over the country.”

    Dad pulled into the parking lot of the state park. Then, with flashing in hand, they began their hike into the woods. Annie zipped up hercoat and tried to keep from trembling. She had not expected the morning to beso cold. Luckily her gloves were in her pocket.

    Suddenly Annie's father stopped and gestured for her to bestill. Obeying, Annie did not take another step. She thought she heard a low crying up head. “That's certainly a screech owl,” her father whispered. “Let's get a look at it.” After looking more closely, Annie could see that it was asmall owl. Sensing danger, the owl narrowed its eyes and pulled its feathers tightly against its body. Annie carefully wrote down in her notebook that theyhad seen a screech owl.

    Walking a little farther, they came to a tall oak tree. “Thislooks like a perfect spot to attract owls,” Dad said, “I'm going to play a recording of common call of the barred owl. Maybe we can get one to answer." Annie could hardly believe her ear. The recorded call sounded as if the birdwere asking, “Who cooks for you?” Moments later Annie thought she heard areturn call in the distance. She held her breath and waited. Suddenly a huge bird landed very quietly on a branch above them.

    Annie had long forgotten how cold it was. She stood in wonder, shining her flashlight on the bird and studying it carefully. The barred owl was nearly two feet tall. Grey feathers surrounded its dark eyes. The bird did not stay long, but it did not matter. Annie would never forget the image of the powerful barred owl.

    Bike Share Toronto is the city's official bike share program, designed to give locals and visitors a fun, affordable and convenient alternative to walking, taxis, buses and the subway. There are 200 Bike Share Toronto stations and 2,000 bikes across the city, making Bike Share the most accessible way to get around and explore.

How it works

    Become an Annual Member or buy a day Pass to access the system.

    Find an available bike nearby, and get a ride code or use your member key to unlock it.

    Take as many short rides as you want while your pass or membership is active.

    Return your bike lo any station, and wait for the green light on the dock（停靠点）to make sure it's locked.

    Choose a plan

    For visitors

    Day Pass: $7.Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 24-hour period.

    3-Day Pass: $15.Unlimited 30-minute rides in a 72-hour period.

    For locals

    Monthly Pass: $25.Unlimited 30-minute rides for a month.

    Annual Membership: $90.Unlimited 30-minute rides for a whole year. The Annual Membership is the best deal for locals of Toronto and other frequent riders.

    The first 30 minutes of each ride is included with the membership or pass price. Avoid extra fees by dropping off your bike every 30 minutes at any other station. If you keep a bike out for longer than 30 minutes at a time, you will be charged an extra $1.50 for the first 30 minutes over, $4 for the next 30 minutes, and $7 for each additional 30 minutes after that.

    Contact us

    Customer Service: (855)898-2388

    Repair Service: (855)-2378

    Corporation Partners: (855)898-2398

    Employment Opportunities: (855)898-2498

    The decisions that we make shape us throughout our lives. No matter what decisions we make, good or bad, each one puts us on a new road in the future. Make a bad decision? No problem. Learn from the decision and make another decision to get on a different path. This is advice that I got from Tony Robbins in his book Awaken the Giant Within. This is a book that I recommend(推荐) to anyone wanting to develop a fire to make changes in their life. It helped me to understand how fear of making poor choices was hindering me from becoming the great man who I am today. Now I am not saying I am a well-known person in any particular circle. But I am the king of my castle working hard and trying to make good decisions in regard to the paths that I have chosen. I am a great man in the eyes of my wife and my children. And that is all the recognition that I need in my lifetime. And I know that my past failures have been the building block that I continue to use to build my career and self-image in my community that I live in.

    Ben Lerer, cofounder of the CEO of Thrillist Media Group, is a good example of this. In an article on the Fast Company website, Lerer talks about this very subject. He says, “I've had to make some really tough decisions but finally, I think the best companies are those that can recognize when something isn't going right, and fix it, instead of just turning a blind eye because it's easier.” Great people make decisions. When a decision does not have the desired result, make a different decision. It does not get any simpler than that.

    According to a recent survey on money and relationships, 36% of people are keeping a bank account from their partner. While this financial unfaithfulness may appear as distrust in a relationship, in truth it may just be a form of financial protection.

    With almost half of all marriages ending in divorce, men and women are realizing they need to be financially savvy, regardless of whether they are in a relationship.

    The financial hardship on individuals after a divorce can be extremely difficult, even more so when children are involved. The lack of permanency in relationships, jobs and family life may be the cause of a growing trend to keep a secret bank account hidden from a partner, in other words, an "escape fund".

    Margaret's story is far from unique. She is a representative of a growing number of women in long-term relationships who are becoming protective of their own earnings. Every month on pay day, she banks hundreds of dollars into a savings account she keeps from her husband. She has been doing this throughout their six-year marriage and has built a nest egg worth an incredible $100,000. Margaret says if her husband found about her secret savings he'd be hurt and would take this as a sign that she wasn't sure of the marriage. "He'd think it was my escape fund so that financially I could afford to get out of the relationship if it went wrong. I know you should approach marriage as being forever and I hope ours is, but you can never be sure."

    Like many of her fellow secret savers, Margaret was hurt in a former relationship and has since been very guarded about her own money.

    Coming clean to your partner about being a secret saver may not be all that bad. Take Colleen for example, who had been saving secretly for a few years before she confessed (坦白) to her partner. "I decided to open a savings account and start building a nest egg of my own. I wanted to prove to myself that I could put money in the bank and leave it there for a rainy day."

    You'll need to take a deep breath before hearing this news. An astonishing 93% of kids around the world live in environments with air pollution levels that are damaging their health, according to a new report by WHO.

    Air pollution is to blame for the deaths of 543, 000 kids under 5 in 2016, with more than one in four deaths of children under five years old being related to environmental issues. Exposure (暴露) to air pollution can damage the health of kids in a variety of ways, either causing or being associated with everything from low birth weight to childhood obesity and so on.

    "The large toll of disease and death revealed (揭示) by these new data should result in an urgent call to action for the global community especially for those in the health department WHO stated. "Strong action to reduce exposure to air pollution offers an opportunity to protect the health of children." The report stressed that health experts should communicate with families, communities and policy-makers about the serious risks of air pollution exposure. "Although more researches into how air pollution affects children's health will continue to be valuable, there is already evidence to justify strong, swift action to prevent the damage it clearly produces," WHO added.

    Disease caused by dirty air is more common in low-and-middle in some countries, especially those in Africa, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific regions. Poor countries in these areas have the highest levels of exposure to household air pollution due to the use of polluting fuels and technologies for basic needs like cooking, heating and lighting.

    Advised solutions include cleaner transport, cleaner cooking and heating fuels and technologies energy-efficient housing and urban planning, safer industrial technologies and better waste management.

A new study says that more than half the world's ocean area is "becoming greener," and the trend is connected to human-caused global warming.

It's not clear what is driving the greening. In some places, it could indicate changes in the amount of plankton or other organic material floating in the water. Plankton are a cornerstone of the ocean food chain, and these kinds of shifts could have ripple effects throughout the entire marine ecosystem.

The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, examines 20 years of satellite data measuring light reflected at the surface of the water all across the globe, subtle changes that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye. The research finds that 56 percent of the world's oceans are shifting in color — and on the whole, they're growing greener. The trend is especially strong in the lower latitudes, including the subtropics and tropics.

The researchers then used a computer model to find out whether climate change was playing a part. They conducted one set of simulations representing the oceans under a strong climate change scenario, and then compared them with a second set of simulations imagining a world in which climate change didn't exist. The model suggests that rising global temperatures are to blame.

The exact reasons still require some scientific digging. While climate change seems to be the culprit, the study also indicates that rising ocean temperatures in and of themselves aren't driving the greening.

There are plenty of other ways global warming is affecting the world's oceans, by changing the structure and flow of certain currents, for instance. These kinds of changes can affect the growth of phytoplankton and other factors that might be contributing to the greening.

The findings weren't a surprise to the researchers. They're consistent with the way researchers expect the global oceans to change as the world keeps on warming.

"I've been running simulations that have been telling me for years that these changes in ocean color are going to happen," study co-author Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "To actually see it happening for real is no unexpected, but frightening."