Discovery's astronauts arrived to an exciting celebration Wednesday as nearly 700 people crowded an airplane storage place, waving flags and holding signs that read: “Welcome Home, Astronauts!”

    The seven-person team returned to Earth on Tuesday after being the first to take a space shuttle into orbit since the Columbia disaster（灾难）of 2003. 

    “In the last two and a half years, we have been through the very worst that manned space flight can bring us, and over the past two weeks we have seen the very best,” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the astronauts and their families and fans Wednesday. 

    The crowd waved American flags for the U.S. astronauts and Japanese flags for crew member Soichi Noguchi, one of the spacewalkers. 

    “As a rookie（新手）astronaut, I could not ask for more,” Noguchi said, “We had three spacewalks, two extra days in space and one great team.” 

    While the homecoming has been filled with excitement for what mission controllers declared a “truly spectacular test flight”, uncertainty remains for the future of the shuttle program. 

    Shortly after Discovery rose up into space July 26, a nearly 1-pound large piece of foam insulation（泡沫绝缘材料）fell from the fuel tank-the very thing that was supposed to have been fixed after Columbia exploded. The foam missed Discovery, but NASA grounded all shuttle flights until engineers fix the problem.

    NASA ground crews examined Discovery after its return from orbit and found it in good condition, an official said Wednesday at NASA‟s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. 

    Technicians counted 101 dings and divots, including 20 that were larger than 1 inch. Schaaf Dean, landing support group chief, said the numbers were similar to the results of other shuttle, post-landing examinations. 

A beginning examination of the shuttle's thermal（热的）blanket showed it remained undamaged during re-en-try into the Earth's air.(Agencies)

    On May 14^th, 2016, three foreigners saved a drowning(溺水的)Chinese girl.

    Roman and Krill are Russian first-year college students. That Saturday, they were standing by the river near Shanghai Jianqiao University with their teacher, Bastien, a teacher from France at Jianqiao University. Then they saw someone “swimming”.

    The three said the “swimmer” seemed to be drowning. They rushed to help, though they didn't hear any cries, and found a girl in the water.

    Roman jumped into the water at once. He swam to the girl and quickly caught her arm. Then Krill came to Roman and held his hand. Bastien held on to the bank with one hand, while holding Krill with the other hand.

    “The girl almost pulled us into the water as she tried so hard to get out of the water,” said Bastien.

    A video showed that the rescue took less than five minutes. But it was really dangerous.

    The girl, 17 ,was a student from a nearby school. The three heroes spent some time with her to make sure she was safe and not hurt. Then the girl was sent to the international students' apartment of Shanghai Jianqiao University. Roman, one of the Russian students, later found he was injured in the back during the rescue. His cellphone also broke after being in the water. Students and teachers at Jianqiao University quickly heard the news. They were all proud of them. The three men also received some money as a reward from the girl's parents on Monday.

    Thanks to the three brave men, the girl didn't lose her life. The three heroes have been called foreign “LeiFeng”.

    Watson entered Mr. Smith's office. The boss was a hard man. He fired people who didn't do well without giving them a second chance.

    “Watson,” said Mr. Smith, “this past year your department hasn't earned money. We're going to drop that department. It's finished. I'm sorry, —but you'll have to go.” “But, sir — if I just had a little more time. For the moment I need the job to keep my son at Riverside School.”

    “What's that!” said the boss. “Riverside! I didn't know you had a boy there. That's an expensive school for a man with your salary.”

    “I know, sir. But he likes it there so much! He's a star athlete and the best boxer in the school. The boys call him Champ there.”

    The boss sat perfectly still for a long time — a faraway (恍惚的) look in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he said, “We've got to close your department, Watson. But you'll take over a new job in another department. It means longer hours—maybe more pay. Now get out. You're here for life.”

    Watson got out, with surprise on his face. Then the boss took a letter from the top drawer of his desk. It was Herbie's last letter from Riverside School —written a few days before he died. He had read it over and over again with sick pain. The letter read:

    I can't say the boys here are any nicer to me than the others were. I guess it's the same everywhere when you're a cripple (跛脚的人). But don't worry about me, Dad, They've got a good chemistry department here. And there's one boy here who is really great. He's a track star and boxing champ (冠军) and just tops in chemistry.

    The boys call him Champ. He made them stop throwing my books around. And he knocked a boy down who hit me. He is the best friend I ever had. Dad, when I grow up, I want to do something for Champ. Something big — that he won't even know about.

Your son,

Herbie

    Emmoni Lopez used to take dance lessons while her older brothers wrestled – but it turned out that she liked wrestling better.

    Her mom wasn't surprised when Lopez told her she liked wrestling more than dance, and three years after Lopez took up the sport, she enjoys watching her daughter wrestle. Still, when a coach first asked Lopez to join his program, her mom hesitated– she never thought her daughter would want to be a wrestler.

    Lopez is among a growing number of girls who are taking up wrestling. Officials with youth organizations in Chicago and the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation (IKWF) said they've seen the number of girls participating in the sport take off in recent years.

In Lopez's program, about half of the students participating in the organization's free youth wrestling camp this summer are girls, coach Frankie Zepeda said.

    Many of the girls Zepeda sees become interested in wrestling through their brothers, he said.

    “They probably just learn to … fight back,” he said.

    One of those was Yamilet Aguirre. She took up wrestling because she was bored just watching her brother wrestle, she said.

    “I can have fun doing it,” she said. “And I can prove girls are just as strong as boys are.”

    Though girls have competed on high school wrestling teams in Illinois for years, coaches and female wrestlers said there weren't many participating a decade ago.

    “It's really picked up over the last few years,” said Jim Considine, president of the IKWF.

    Between the 2015-16 and 2017-18 seasons, the number of girls registered with IKWF grew from 363 to 503, and more of the organization's events are featuring a girls-only division. Girls and boys wrestle together during the season through IKWF, but there's a girls-only championship at the end of the year.

    And by adding female wrestling programs, colleges are giving girls and young women another option.

    “Female wrestling isn't something unacceptable anymore,” Considine said. “Things have happened so quickly. Ten years ago, you'd never have dreamed of doing this.”

What is the best part of a typical relaxing summer day? Nothing is better than sitting in an armchair with a beer and some chips in your hand, enjoying the great comfort.

The much-loved combination of beer and chips is being exploited for the first time to deal with climate change. Chips firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will cut CO₂ emissions (排放) from its production process by 70%.

The technology will use CO₂ captured from beer processing in a brewery (啤酒厂), which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer. It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year's potato crop. Creating fertilizer normally produces high CO₂ emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertilizer without generating CO₂. So, the beer-and-chips combination performs a double function. It stops the emission of brewery CO₂ into the atmosphere — and it saves on the CO₂ normally generated by fertilizer production.

This Creative win-win solution was developed with an approval from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm. The fertilizer was experimented on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.

A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this. The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way. The firm has installed an anaerobic digester (厌氧消化池), which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce a useful gas. The gas is burned to make electricity for the chip-frying process — so this saves on burning gas or coal.

The new system will go a step further by taking away potato "cake" left after digestion — and mixing the brewery CO₂ into it to make an enriched fertilizer which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.

It's an example of scientists finding ways to use CO₂ emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.

Camp Odayin provides fun, safe and supportive camp experiences and community building opportunities for young people and their families this year.

Winter Camp February 15th-February 17th

It is hosted in Amery, a two-hour drive from the Twin Cities and free round trip transportation is provided from Minneapolis and Madison. This camp is for children who have attended Residential Camp or Day Camp before. Campers can experience snowshoeing, skiing and snowboarding. Registration is processed during December & January.

Mums Retreat May 16th-May 17th

Scheduled in downtown Stillwater, Mums Retreat will seek to improve the quality of carers' life. It will include meals, boarding and yoga activities.

Registration will open in April for mums who receive the email invitation from Camp Odayin. If the limit is reached, we will start a wait list.

Residential Camp July 13th-July 18th

Campers will have a chance to communicate with other young people sharing the same grade. Hosted in Lutherdale, it will include swimming, horseback riding and talent shows. The approval by the Camp Odayin director is necessary.

Registration will open in early March and is due on May 1st.

Family Camp October 26th-November 1st

Hosted in Camp Lake, the camp is a two-night commitment for families with children suffering from heart disease, who will benefit from connecting with other families that have similar health, emotional and social concerns. Activities will include drawing, fancy dress balls and movies.

Families that have a child in 12th grade or younger(no minimum age) can attend. Camper registration is available online in late August.