UNIQUE AND WEIRD NEW YEAR EVE TRADITIONS

In some parts of Germany, they do bleigiessen, or lead （铅）pouring. Pour a dollop（团）of molten lead in cold water and whatever shape forms may be telling about the year to come. A heart shape, naturally, means love will come your way. A crown predicts wealth and fortune. A star indicates happiness. But if you see a cross in the lead? You're as good as dead!

If you're in Latin America, make sure you have some colorful underpants to ring in the new year. End — of — the — year partiers put on colorful underwear to ensure certain types of outcomes for the following year. Red for love and yellow for success.

Neapolitans like throwing things out of windows, at least on New Year's Eve. Furniture, kitchen machines, grandma. Well, maybe not the last one. Let's hope not, anyway. This tradition is meant to symbolize an out — with — the — old gesture and getting a brand new beginning for the new year. These days people are a bit more mindful about what they toss down to the street below.

In 1909, winegrowers in the Alicante region of Spain had a brilliant idea: start and promote an annual tradition that would involve people having to buy and eat more grapes. One must cat 12 grapes on New Year's Eve to encourage prosperity for the coining year. Now, it's u popular custom in Iberia. But the problem is that one has to cat a grape for each bell strike at midnight.

Russ Fee was asleep inside his tent last summer in Canada's Banff National Park when a series of screams shocked him awake. Throwing on his shoes and grabbing a lantern his wife had handed him, he ran out to investigate. Despite the darkness, he could make out a neighboring tent. Backing out was a wolf, dragging something in his teeth—a man.

Moments earlier, Elisa and Matt, were asleep with their two young children when the wolf tore into their tent. "It was like something out of a horror movie," Elisa recalled. For three minutes, Matt threw his body in front of Elisa and the boys and fought against the wolf. At one point, Matt got the upper hand, but the wolf turned the tables and dragged Matt outside while Elisa was pulling on his legs trying to get him back.

It was then that Russ Fee entered the picture. He ran at the beast, kicking it in the hip. The wolf dropped Matt and emerged from the tent. Fee felt like he had hit someone that was way out of his weight class.

Before the wolf could turn its anger on Fee, Matt, his arms bloodied, restarted the battle. The men threw at the wolf with rocks, forcing it back. Then the families fled to the shelter of the Fees, minivan and called an ambulance.

"Attacks are so rare that a person here has a greater chance of being killed by a dog, lightning, a bee sting, or a car collision with a deer than being injured by a wolf" said Matt.

Fee did think about drawing back, if   less heroic, during the heat of battle. The moment the wolf locked eyes with him, Fee said, "I immediately regretted kicking it."

If you're one of the millions of those who use escalators each year, you are probably deeply familiar with the vertical grooves（竖凹槽）that cover each stair. Few of us have stopped to consider why they exist, though. In fact, it's one of the everyday things we take for granted.

But it is a little complicating when you think about it. Sure, the deep, grey lines make an escalator's metal stairs more appealing to the eye. But regular stairs don't have grooves like these; why do escalators need them? Is it because of the movement?

It turns out those grooves serve a more functional purpose. And, yes, it does have to do with the movement, as well as with general cleanliness! Anyone who has ridden an escalator knows that the steps everlastingly circulate from the top to the bottom. You've surely noticed the ridged yellow lip at the top of the escalator. But here's what you may not have noticed: As an escalator's steps flatten, this ridge—also called the comb plate—sweeps away any trash or litter that might have fallen on the stairs. Those grooves lock the step and comb plate together, which makes it harder for any dangerous materials to slide underneath the lip. This prevents foreign objects from getting stuck in that gap, potentially causing the escalator to stop, or worse, break down completely.

That's not the only reason why the grooves were created, though. They are also a good place for water to pool together, protecting you from a bad fall on the slick surface.

So the next time you step on an escalator, take a moment to appreciate those metal grooves. They exist to make sure you get to your office meeting on time.

Over a million children have developed some form of intellectual （智力） disability over the past two decades after being exposed to chemicals including flame retardants, pesticides, lead, and mercury, a study has revealed.

The study focused on the four chemicals, which can be crossed from a mother to her unborn baby through the placenta（胎盘）and cause neurodevelopmental damage. The researchers looked at data from past studies, including blood samples taken from women of childbearing age and 5-year-olds.

Over the period, flame retardants, resulted in 738,860 cases of intellectual disability and an estimated 162 million lost IQ （智商）points, followed by lead at 330,684 cases, pesticides at 111,830, and mercury at 8,860. In recent years, pesticides and flame retardants have overtaken lead and mercury as the chemicals responsible for the biggest loss of IQ among children.

The researchers believe this is due to regulations cutting down the use of these chemicals. For instance, lead has been banned from gasoline, paint and drinking water systems in the U.S. and plants are not allowed to pump out mercury.

The researchers acknowledged limitations to their study, including that the exposure-response relationships might not relate to all populations. Positively, they found a huge drop in the estimated loss of IQ points among children.

Lead researcher Abigail Gaylord, commented: "Our findings suggest that our efforts to reduce exposure to heavy metals are paying off, but that harmful exposures in general continue to represent a terrible risk to people's physical, mental, and economic health. "Unfortunately, the minimal policies in place to remove pesticides and flame retardants are clearly not enough," she said.

She also added. Frequently opening windows to let persistent chemicals found in furniture   electronics, and carpeting escape, and eating certified organic produce can educe exposure to these harmful things"