【推荐1】The HISTORY Channel series Alone drops contestants into some of the planet’s most punishing environments, with a bare minimum of clothing, safety and survival gear. In their battle against the elements, contestants are forced to use their fitness, their courage and their creativity to become true survivalists.

Few people choose to be thrown into such extreme situations, but those who do have usually stumbled into some immense bad luck. Just check out one of the famous real-life survival stories:

Mauro Prosperi is an Italian police officer who gained worldwide fame after getting lost in the Sahara Desert in 1994. A keen athlete and long-distance runner, Mauro took part in the 1994 Marathon of the Sands in Morocco, a six-day-long endurance race in one of the driest and barren environments on the planet.

During the race, a sandstorm caused Prosperi, then 39 years old, married and father to three children, to become disoriented. One day after going off track, he found himself in an abandoned Muslim temple in Algeria. In order to survive, he killed and ate bats. For liquid, he was forced to drink his own waste, lick dew off of rocks and suck moisture out of his wet wipes.

Assuming he would never be found, he cut his wrists with a pen knife from his supplies. However, it was such a dry heat that the wounds thickened and concreted, and he was forced to go back into the desert and attempt to find help.

For nine days he walked through the desert and ate insects and cold-blooded animals. Finally, he found a small village. From there he was flown to a hospital, where doctors said his liver had almost completely failed.

Having traveled 180 miles in all, Prosperi lost 35 pounds in body weight during his severe suffering in the desert; it took several months before he could eat solid food again. But he has remained an enthusiastic runner and even returned and completed the race in 2012.

【推荐1】My friend Gwen posted a photo yesterday on her social page. The photo was of a Christmas tree made from carefully-placed books. It was very clever. After doing a little research, I found that making Christmas trees from a pile of books is popular right now, especially at libraries.

The Inglewood Library in Los Angeles created a tree from little used books using red books on the bottom to copy a tree skirt and green books for the tree itself. Other examples are from the Gleeson Library in San Francisco and a small bookstore window in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. One of the great things about using books to create a decorative Christmas tree is that there is no waste. After Dec 25, the books just go back on the shelf.

I couldn’t find any specific instructions online with tips for building a tree out of books, but it seemed pretty simple. So last night, my 9-year-old son and I emptied several shelves in his room and built our own tree out of copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, Stink, Harry Potter and dozens of other books. The top book on the tree is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

We took an old string of lights and wrapped them around the tree and a spare star tree topper that we had and lit the tree of books up. He was thrilled to have his own Christmas tree in his bedroom.

We didn’t worry about making the tree perfectly symmetrical (对称的), but with a little more time and patience we could have made a tree that was taller and a little neater. That wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun for us, though. I could see the tree through the crack in his door last night as he was sleeping, and it made me smile every time I walked past his bedroom.

【推荐2】Farmers have to work really hard in the fields. But what will happen if they are sick and not able to work before they can get a harvest (收成) in? Greg Bishop is a farmer who is fighting a serious disease and needs all the help he can get to harvest his crops (庄稼).

But thankfully, other local farmers who live in the loving west Texas community have been lending him a helping hand with his cotton crops while he is in trouble. His crops cover 1,200 acres in Floyd County, but because of his poor health, Bishop can't do hard work in the fields.

Aaron Hendricks, general manager of Floydada Co-Op Gins, has known Bishop for the last 25 years. He has seen 35 to 40 people come in to his office to help Bishop during this difficult time. Hendricks said that the farmers willingly came to help him by preparing machines and watching Bishop's farm to keep track of when the cotton would be ready to be harvested. When harvest time came, his farmer neighbors brought machines worth $ 12 million to Bishop's farm, and they started harvesting his cotton fields by 3 p.m. on the very same day.

People even came from long distances to help Bishop out, who was moved by these acts of kindness from the community. He thanked everyone who helped him out, but nobody felt the need for any thanks as they were already thankful for all Bishop had done for the community and just wanted to help him out.

They haven't stopped there either and have even started a fundraiser (募捐活动) to help Bishop stay in Dallas for the medical treatment he needs. He also needs to travel to Baylor for 100 days for a bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) and many people in the community say they are ready to see if their bone marrow is a good match.