Do you like spicy food?

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

    Scientists have long been puzzled by why some people love chili while others loathe it. Plenty of research has been done on the subject, dating as far back 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 a glass of water with capsaicin, the plant chemical that makes a chili burn, mixed into it.

    By comparing the answers to the questionnaire and what participants said they felt about the spicy water, researchers found that those who 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 tongues 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.

    Today, I had the good fortune to join the students from East Silver Spring Elementary School in Maryland as they walked and biked to school in celebration of International Walk to School Day. I want to thank Principal Morrow and the entire ESS community for welcoming me so enthusiastically.

    Walk to School Day is a great opportunity for me to spend time with parents, kids, and teachers and to present our Safe Routes to School program and the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative（倡议）.

    As a father, grandfather and former schoolteacher, I know how important it is that we provide students with safe choice to get to school while promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles. That's why I've embraced the Safe Routes to School program so wholeheartedly since I became Secretary of Transportation.

    You know, we're looking at an increasingly sedentary（久坐的）generation of children. One out of every three kids in America is now overweight. And I admire the First Lady's effort to end this within a generation. Safe Routes to School is a natural partner for Let's Move. For more than 10 years, Safe Routes to School has been making it easier for students to walk and bike from home to school. And ESS, where I walked today, is one of the earliest schools to participate.

    We know this program has been enormously effective because of the steady increase in the number of kids walking or biking to school. And as we made our way down the street this morning I was reminded yet again of this program's extraordinary work.

    Look, walking and biking to school is good for students' health. It's good for the environment. And it's good for the entire community's quality of life.

Everybody wins when kids take Safe Routes to School.

    Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members don't know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is quite often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for some ideas.

    It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or a group of friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication is very important in children's growing up, because friends can discuss something. These things are difficult to tell their family members.

    However, parents often try to choose their children's friends for them. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. Have you ever thought of the following questions?

    Who chooses your friends?

    Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?

    Have you got a good friend your parents don't like?

    Your answers are welcome.

    As health care costs continue to rise, a growing number of companies are working out programs designed to keep their employees healthy.

    Thomas Chapple is the senior vice president. “It's really important to us because medical costs are going up like crazy, he says. This company spends more than 200 million a year on medical costs for its employees around the country. The best thing we have seen as a way to control the medical cost is individual fitness.”

    We have a fitness center, “Shawn Flaherty, director of public relations for Freddie Mac.,” says, “We have a health benefits plan that encourages people to work out three times a week, get cholesterol (胆固醇) checks, as well as 'not to smoke.' If they do that, it will cost them less for the health benefits.”

    Rachelle Clark works for Freddie Mac. “I feel great. You know the benefit is rewarding. I like to look good and feel healthy. I am just fortunate that I work for the company that provides some type of facility for the employees.”

    While on-site fitness centers are popular, some companies pay membership fees at local gyms for employees. The companies also offer classes such as boxing, yoga and dancing. Employees see those health programs as a valuable benefit.

    Tom Brook exercises five days a week. As a newspaper reporter he has a tight schedule, although Tom says it's not that difficult for him to make time for a workout. “It is great. It is right here where we work,” says Tom, “So everybody gets a chance to use it whenever they want to. I have lost weight and never been in better shape.”

    The programs may not be a magic cure for rising health costs, but they seem to have a positive impact on both employers and employees.

    In 2015, a man named Nigel Richards memorized 386, 000 words in the entire French Scrabble Dictionary in just nine weeks. However, he does not speak French. Richards' impressive feat is a useful example to show how artificial intelligence works—real AI. Both of Richard and AI take in massive amounts of data to achieve goals with unlimited memory and superman accuracy in a certain field.

    The potential applications for AI are extremely exciting. Because AI can outperform humans at routine tasks—provided the task is in one field with a lot of data—it is technically capable of replacing hundreds of millions of white and blue collar jobs in the next 15 years or so.

    But not every job will be replaced by AI. In fact  four types of jobs are not at risk at all. First, there are creative jobs. AI needs to be given a goal to optimize. It cannot invent, like scientists, novelists and artists can. Second, the complex, strategic jobs—executives, diplomats, economists — go well beyond the AI limitation of single-field and Big Data. Then there are the as-yet-unknown jobs that will be created by AI.

    Are you worried that these three types of jobs won't employ as many people as AI will replace? Not to worry, as the fourth type is much larger: jobs where emotions are needed, such as teachers, nannies and doctors. These jobs require compassion, trust and sympathy—which AI does not have. And even if AI tried to fake it, nobody would want a robot telling them they have cancer, or a robot to babysit their children.

    So there will still be jobs in the age of AI. The key then must be retraining the workforce so people can do them. This must be the responsibility not just of the government, which can provide funds, but also of corporations and those who benefit most.

Max Du emerged victorious at the Canada-Wide Science Fair with an innovative project that could revolutionize emergency response: a drone designed to assist individuals experiencing cardiac arrest. His creative spark was ignited during the Christmas break of the previous year when he received a toy drone from his parents. Due to the snowy conditions, Max was unable to fly his new gadget outdoors, prompting him to explore its potential as an indoor robot that could be of service to people in need.

In Canada, approximately 35,000 individuals suffer from cardiac arrests annually, with the majority of these incidents occurring outside of hospital settings. Sadly, less than 10 percent of these individuals survive. Max was convinced that a drone could provide more rapid assistance and deliver life-saving medication, but he knew he had to construct one himself to validate his hypothesis.

The process of testing his drone spanned six months, during which Max's parents had to tolerate their son's persistent drone flights and mishaps within their home. Each innovative feature Max developed, such as a deployable arm, added weight to the drone, causing it to disintegrate. This necessitated the purchase of new components. Through experimentation, Max eventually discovered a more lightweight material, leading to a better-balanced design.

After a series of trials and adjustments, the 14-year-old successfully perfected his drone. It is now capable of opening door handles, navigating through the air, and landing gently on the ground. The drone features a new extendable arm designed to administer injections or deliver crucial medication to a patient. Additionally, an integrated camera allows for direct communication with an emergency response team, enabling remote monitoring of the patient.

Max is looking forward to filing for a patent to establish connections within the healthcare sector and bring his invention to fruition. He spent his summer acquiring knowledge in artificial intelligence at Stanford University in California, where he was one of only 32 students chosen globally. Following this, he will attend the University of Pennsylvania to enroll in a college-level robotics course before resuming his high school studies in September.