The world's craziest festivals
Crazy festivals all over the world are out there just waiting to be celebrated. Join Cornelia Kumfert on a trip to the most unusual events taking place around the globe.
Burning Man Festival
Every year in Nevada (US) there is artwork and cunosities galore to marvel at when the Black Rock Desert changes into a mammoth art exhibition.
In August and September, some 70,00 people come here to celetrate the Burning Man Festival.
San Diego Comic Con
Surely superheroes don't queue? Well, at San Diego's Comic Convention they do. Each July hey open their dos to fans of Superman and other comic figures. More than 100,000 annual visitors have paid homage to their mythical heroes.
Crying Baby Festival, Tokyo
At the Crying Baby Festival in Tokyo (Japan), sumo wrestlers do what they can to bring babies to tears.
Sadists run riot? Certainly not! It's a 400-year-old tradition based on a Japanese proverb, which says that crying babies grow fastest and parents believe the event brings good health to their children.
Palio Contest, Siena
Fame and honour await the winner of the Palio contest in Siena (Italy).
In July and August, ten inhabitants of different districts of the city jockey for first place in a spectacular horse race.
The trophy goes to the contestant whose horse crosses the finishing line first—whether he's still in the saddle or not.
When a chunk of ice fell from a collapsing glacier(冰川)on the Swiss Alps' Mount Eiger in 2017, part of the long deep sound it produced was too low for human ears to detect. But these vibrations held a key to calculating the ice avalanche's(崩塌)critical characteristics.
Low-frequency sound waves called infrasound that travel great distances through the atmosphere are already used to monitor active volcanoes from afar. Now some researchers in this field have switched focus from fire to ice: dangerous blocks snapping off glaciers. Previous work has analyzed infrasound from snow avalanches but never ice, says Boise State University geophysicist Jeffrey Johnson. "This was different," Johnson says. "A signature of a new material has been detected with infrasound."
Usually glaciers move far too slowly to generate an infrasound signal, which researchers pick up using detectors that track slight changes in air pressure. But a collapse—a sudden, rapid breaking of ice from the glacier's main body—is a prolific infrasound producer. Glacial collapses drive ice avalanches, which pose an increasing threat to people in mountainous regions as rising temperatures weaken large fields of ice. A glacier "can become detached from the ground due to melting, causing bigger break— offs," says University of Florence geologist Emanuele Marchetti, lead author of the new study. As the threat grows, scientists seek new ways to monitor and detect such collapses.
Researchers often use radar to track ice avalanches, which is precise but expensive and can monitor only one specific location and neighboring avalanche paths. Infrasound, Marchetti says, is cheaper and can detect break—off events around a much broader area as well as multiple avalanches across a mountain. It is challenging, however, to separate a signal into its components (such as traffic noises, individual avalanches and nearby earthquakes) without additional measurements, says ETH Zurich glaciologist Malgorzata Chmiel. "The model used by Marchetti is a first approximation for this," she says. Isolating the relevant signal helps the researchers monitor an ice avalanche's speed, path and volume from afar using infrasound.
Marchetti and his colleagues are now working to improve their detectors to pick up more signals across at-risk regions in Europe, and they have set up collaborations around the continent to better understand signals that collapsing glaciers produce. They are also refining their mathematical analysis to figure out each ice cascade's physical details.
Visa Medical Appointment
For your appointment you must bring:
·Your valid original passport. Driving license is not accepted.
·HAP ID (体检号) and your e-Medical Referral Letter.
·Prescription glasses or contact lenses.
·Any specialist's reports about your medical condition.
At visa medical assessment
·A phone interpreter will be made available upon request.
·You will be required to change into a medical shirt provided for your visa medical assessment. We recommend that female applicants NOT wear a dress or clothing which is difficult to remove to the appointment.
·If you are having an x-ray, you will be asked to remove all necklaces and neck chains and tie long hair back. We request valuables not be brought to the assessment. Change rooms and lockers will be available to store your belongings, including your mobile phone which must be kept in a locker during your assessment.
Important information for your appointment
Blood Test
You are required to have a blood test, please eat and drink as normal before your appointment. There is no need to fast.
Arriving for your appointment
Please arrive on time for your appointment and allow approximately 2 hours for your assessment to be completed.
Pregnancy
If you are pregnant, please call our contact centre on 1300794919 as it may affect you being able to proceed with the assessment.
Menstruation (生理期)
If you have booked your appointment when menstruating, please go online to reschedule your appointment so it falls 4—6 days after you have finished menstruating.
For more information
Please visit our website www.bupamvs.com.au
Bupa Medical Visa Services Customer Service
The key to a happy life has nothing to do with getting ahead at work, making money, or traveling the world. Instead, living your best life and creating meaning is all about one thing: relationships.
A study of adult development has been running at Harvard since 1938, and is now on its second generation of participants—the children of the original study's subjects. Over decades, the research team collected data about their lives, including their physical and mental health, marital (婚姻的) status and quality, career happiness, etc.
They found the most important aspect in how happy and healthy these men were over time was their relationships. In other words: Finding happiness in life is all about the people you love.
The research doesn't only include romantic relationships and marriage. Quality, close relationships are important whether they are in the situation of romantic relationships or closeness between friends or family members. The kind of relationship you have is less important than how close you feel with them.
However, the study only included men, and important gender differences exist in how people experience relationships. Some research suggests that men may benefit more from marriage. But they tend to have a harder time keeping friendships; as men get older, they will more likely say they have nobody to discuss important subjects with. So it's possible that having close relationships throughout their lives might affect men differently than women.
The findings line up with the effects of loneliness. People who are socially isolated have a greater likelihood of strokes (中风), heart attacks, and higher blood pressure, not to mention mental health issues.
Unfortunately for the youngest generations, recent surveys found that young Americans are lonelier than older generations. That will likely have a big impact on how healthy and happy people feel throughout their lives.
Top tips for students doing voluntary holiday work
I have had some of the best and worst experiences of my life doing volunteers projects. Having taken part in a few such programs before, here are some tips I have picked up.
Many of these schemes are advertised on legal websites, but even these can have hosts who take advantage of them. These people will advertise something that simply isn't true and when you arrive the arrangement may be different from what you expected.
Choose somewhere with a lot of positive reviews.
Many sites that advertise work projects have a space for reviews. Reviews tend to mean people have been there. Again, be cautious because reviews can be faked. Besides, what one person loves may not be your cup of tea.
Bring a friend or a few.
And it's good to have a partner if you end up in a difficult situation. Try to find a friend with some good skills to travel with you. Trade skills can be very useful.
In one place where I volunteered, a team member complained about having to work a few hours a day. He didn't seem to realize it was a small(or no)price to pay to live in a hotel with food and a swimming pool for free.
If you find a good place, don't move on too soon.
If you like the work and you're getting free food and accommodation, why leave?
Anyway, volunteering is an amazing experience. Enjoy it.
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A. Only go if you intend to work. B. Learn the language of where you are going. C. It can be nice to have a familiar face around. D. And positive reviews indicate people enjoyed it. E. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. F. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. G. People are likely to ask you to help them with their projects. |
Around twenty years ago I was living in New York.1I had a lot of experience and a Master's degree，I couldn't find2work.
I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and3with a friend, for I had lost my flat. I had4five interviews with a company but they said I did not get the job." Why has my life become so5?" I thought painfully.
As I pulled the bus over to6a little girl，she handed me an earring7I should keep it8somebody claimed (认领) it. The earring was painted black and said "BE HAPPY".
At first I got angry. Then it hit me—I had been giving all of my9to what was going wrong with my10rather than what was right！I decided to make a11of fifty things I was happy with .Later，I decided to12more things to the list. That night there was a phone call for me from a director at a large13.She asked me if I would give a lecture14stress management to 200 medical workers. I said yes.
My15there went very well，and before long I got a well-paid job .To this day I know that it was because I changed my way of thinking that I completely changed my life.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线 (\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Tu Youyou, a famous female chemist and scientist, was been born in Zhejiang Province in 1930.
In 1951, she was admitted by Beijing University, majoring in making medicine and graduating in 1955. Since then, she has been devoted to study traditional Chinese medicine and modern western medicine. In 1972, she succeeded in discovering and developing Qinghaosu out of a Chinese herb cure those patients of malaria, for what she won many big awards. She is awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on October 5th, 2015, becoming the first Chinese women scientist to win the Nobel Prize.
All of us Chinese are proudly of her and her achievements. She has indeed set the excellent example to us students.
Image waking up one morning the option of staying in bed and a button to send a robot to do all the work for you. How cool that would be! It may seem like building in the air, but given the rate at artificial intelligence, or AI, is being developed, in the future such dreams may actually come.
