【推荐1】Have you ever said to a friend “That rose’s smell is really sweet!”, only to find that your friend can’t smell anything at all?

According to a study published in the journal PNAS in May, people have different abilities to recognize certain odors (气味) — and it’s linked to different genes.

For the study, 300 people were placed among 150 jars with different odors. At a given time, they had to smell an odor and then rate the intensity (强度) and pleasantness of the odor on a scale from 1 (extremely weak/unpleasant) to 7 (extremely strong/pleasant). Before they left, the participants needed to leave a blood sample.

After comparing genes of the participants, researchers found all had different smelling abilities and that the differences between these abilities could be traced to certain genes.

According to The New York Times, human beings have nearly 400 genes that directly control receptors (器官) and influence the way these receptors become active.

“Odors ... turn on specific receptors, which then tells us if we’re smelling a flower, how strong we find it, and whether we like it,” said Casey Trimmer, a geneticist and the lead author of the study. “One small change in the gene for the receptor can change its shape and how well the odor fits, thereby changing the awareness of the odor.”

Though genes play a decisive role in our ability to smell, other factors, including attention, past associations and expectations, are important as well. For example, if we love the smell of roses, we are drawn to their smell and pay special attention to it.

But what does our different abilities to sense odors mean?

“Smelling is the most important sense for the rest of the animal kingdom,” said Trimmer. Although, unlike other animals, humans aren’t any longer dependent on their sense of smell to find food or detect danger, smell is still a significant sense. There is also evidence that a reduced sense of smell is an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.

【推荐2】Let us suppose it is now about A.D. 2060. Let’s make believe it is about 45 years from now. Of course, things have changed and life is very different.

Voyages to the moon are being made every day. It is as easy to take a holiday on the moon today as it was for the people in 1960 to take a holiday in Europe. At a number of scenic spots on the moon, many hotels have been built. The hotels are air­conditioned, naturally. In order that everyone can enjoy the beautiful scenery on the moon, every room has at least one picture window. Everything imaginable is provided for entertainment of young and old.

What are people eating now？People are still eating food. They haven’t yet started to take on heir (继承) supply of energy directly as electrical current or as nuclear power. They may some day. But many foods now come in pill form, and the food that goes into the pill continues to come mainly from green plants.

Since there are several times as many people in the world today as there were a hundred years ago, most of our planet’s surface has to be filled. The deserts are irrigated with water and crops are no longer destroyed by pests. The harvest is always good.

Farming, of course, is very highly developed. Very few people have to work on the farm. It is possible to run the farm by just pushing a few buttons now and then.

People are now largely vegetarians (素食者). You see, as the number of people increases, the number of animal decreases. Therefore, people have to be vegetarians and we are healthier both in our bodies and in our minds, and we know the causes and cure of disease and pain, and it is possible to get rid of diseases. No one has to be ill any more.

Such would be our life in 2060.

【推荐3】Shellharbour City Library provides a range of Library Special Needs Services for people who are unable to access our library service in the usual way. As long as you live in Shellharbour City, we’ll provide a full range of library services and resources including:

● Large printed and ordinary printed books

● Talking books on tape and CD

● DVDs and music CDs

● Magazines

● Reference and information requests

You will be asked to complete a “Statement of Need” application form which must be signed by a medical professional.

Home delivery service

Let us know what you like to read and we will choose the resources for you. Our staff will deliver the resources to your home for free. We also provide a service where we can choose the resources for you or someone instead of you choose the things from the library. You can also choose the resources you need personally.

Talking books and captioned(标字幕的)videos

The library can provide talking books for people who are unable to use printed books because of eye diseases. You don’t have to miss out on reading any more when you can borrow talking books from the library. If you have limited hearing which prevents you from enjoying movies, we can provide captioned videos for you at no charge.

Languages besides English

We can provide books in a range of languages besides English. If possible, we will request these items from the State Library of NSW, Australia.

How to join?

Contact the Library Special Needs Coordinator to register（登记）or discuss if you are eligible (合适的) for any of the services we provide — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9 am — 5 pm. Call 4297 2522 for more information.

【推荐1】One Chicago kindergartner wanted to feed the homeless instead of holding a birthday party.

Armani Crews, who turned 6 earlier this month, had been begging her parents for “a few months ”to feed homeless people in her community, but her parents thought “she was joking”. Her mother, Artesha Crews, told ABC News.

“I said, ‘OK, we’ll make some sandwiches,’ to which Armani said, ‘No. I want the same thing we’d have at my birthday party,’ ” her mother recalled.

Even when her father, Antoine, informed her that if she wanted to go through with this, she wouldn’t get a birthday gift, the girl, whose birthday was on March 5, persisted.

So the Chicago family spent about $300 buying food to deliver to homeless people in the city’s East Garfield Park neighborhood. They purchased chicken, fish, spaghetti, corn, green Deans, mashed potatoes, rolls, cake, cookies, fruit and water.

After Armani mentioned her plan at the family’s local church, congregation members donated other items to create care packages for the homeless. Each care package included a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a snack, such as a granola bar and so on.

Armani’s birthday party was a success, with the family feeding more than 125 people who gathered.

In a statement, the kindergarten student told ABC News, “It was nice to be nice.” Her mother added, “She was excited. She was happy. Everybody was being fed.....One of the gentlemen said he hadn’t had a hot meal in a long time.”

Now the 6-year-old wants to host another community meal for the homeless. Her mother said the family plans to return to the park “within the next couple of weeks”. They hope more and more people will give a hand to the massive homeless people in Chicago.

【推荐2】While some customs like setting off fireworks and counting down the last few seconds seem universal, many countries have their own unique New Year’s Eve traditions.

Denmark: Break plates

A Danish tradition is to throw plates and dishes against friend’s and neighbor’s front doors. It’s a bit of a popularity contest as the bigger the pile of broken china is the next morning, the more friends and good luck you’ll have in the coming year.

Germany: Pouring lead

In Germany, people melt small pieces of lead in a spoon over a candle, then pour the liquid into cold water. The shapes from the lead pouring are supposed to reveal what the year ahead will bring. If the lead forms a ball, luck will roll one’s way, while the shape of a crown means wealth; a cross means death and a star will bring happiness.

Spain: Twelve grapes of luck

In Spain, one New Year’s tradition is to eat 12 grapes, one for each month of the coming year, to secure prosperity (繁荣). You need to eat one grape with each bell strike at midnight. The tradition dates from 1909 when farmers in Alicante came up with this idea to sell more grapes after an exceptional harvest.

Philippines: Round food, round clothes, round everything

In the Philippines, the start of the new year is all about the money. The locals believe that surrounding themselves with round things (to represent coins) will bring money or fortune. As a result, clothes with dots are worn and round food is eaten.

【推荐3】For much of the 20^th century, milk was a simple part of daily life in the U.S, as farmers raised cows, milkmen delivered bottles and children drank it at school. But those days are fading.

America has fallen out of love with drinking milk, as lower-calorie options have increased and people are replacing water bottles with milk cartons. Americans each drink an estimated 146 lb. of fluid milk in 2018, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. That may sound like a lot, but it’s down by 26% just since 2000.

The downturn has been tough on dairy processors like Borden and Dean, which buy fresh milk from farms and use techniques like pasteurization (巴氏杀菌) to create a consumer-safe drink with a longer shelf life. For the past five years, thanks to technology that increased milk production, fresh-milk prices were relatively low, which meant processors could still earn some money even despite the decreasing demand. But prices began going up again last year, squeezing the processors’ already tight profits. “Declining sales in a thin-profit business is not a good recipe for success,” says Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin.

Milk processors are also facing competition from big retailers, which have set up their own processing plants. In 2018, Walmart opened a milk-processing plant in Indiana to serve hundreds of stores in the Midwest, taking away approximately 95 million gal of milk-processing business from Dean Foods.

On the other end of the supply chain, dairy farms are facing trouble of their own. The low prices left small farmers struggling across the industry. The number of farm bankruptcies (破产) in 2019 was up by 4% from the previous year. “We’re trying our best to hang on,” says Mary Rieckmann, a dairy farmer in Wisconsin whose family has turned to GoFundMe to keep their century-old farm running.