【推荐1】Every year, billions of kilograms of fresh food are wasted in the United States. The food ends up in landfills, producing harmful greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, millions of poor Americans go hungry, without access to healthy, affordable meals.

Evan Lutz is passionate about correcting that social injustice. And he combines that goal with a passion for business. Lutz is CEO and founder of Hungry Harvest. Hungry Harvest is a business which collects and sells “ugly” produce. These are fruits and vegetables that most food companies would throw away. Lutz says more than 2.7 million tons are wasted each year due to surface imperfections and processing inefficiencies.

Lutz established Hungry Harvest in 2014.For every purchase and delivery, Hungry Harvest donates healthy food to needy people. Hungry Harvest has recovered 136 tons of produce to date and provided 45 tons to those in need.

Lutz was inspired to act after seeing extreme poverty in areas of Baltimore, Maryland. He says he wants to eliminate the so­called food desert in that area. Right now, consumers can receive produce from Hungry Harvest in Maryland, Virginia, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia.

“We wanted to do that with a purpose of reducing food from going to waste and feeding hungry families. Like I said, there’s six billion pounds of produce that go to waste every single year. How amazing would it be if we can save one billion pounds of that from going to waste and give that to our customers and donate that to hungry families! I think with this model that food can have a real impact. And that’s exactly what we plan to do over the next ten years.”

【推荐2】Everyone can recognize the Coca-Cola logo, but it hasn’t always looked the same as it does now. Coca-Cola and the color red go together like “peanut butter and jelly”. After all, we would recognize that iconic red label anywhere. But why did the company choose this shade for its logo in the first place?

Some claimed that the red color came from one of the company’s first advertisements, which featured Santa Claus wearing his famous red-and-white suit and holding a Coca-Cola bottle. But according to the Coca-Cola Company, its famous logo dates back to the very beginning of the brand itself. Over 130 years ago, Coca-Cola was sold in barrels at American drug stores and pharmacies. Alcohol was distributed in the same way. But while alcohol was taxed at the time, soft drinks were not. So, the Coca-Cola Company began painting its barrels red in order to help customers and tax officials differentiate them from barrels of wine.

And the design was made for easy decoration and advertisements in restaurants and stores. “You see a red disc icon on a storefront, and you know you’ll be able to get delicious, ice-cold Coca-Cola there.” said Ted Ryan, a Coca-Cola archivist. The Coca-Cola logo’s typography, the other hand, is an official font, called “Spencerian” It has been associated with the brand since the late he late 1,800s. But who is the person behind the iconic script? It was not the creator, but his book keeper Frank M Robinson, after he suggested that the two C’s would look attractive in advertising. This is just one of those random, interesting facts that may have just blown your mind. A few years after its original, the logo swapped the swirly font for a more Gothic style, which only lasted a year. Will it stay unchanged? Who knows?

【推荐3】The world is full of tea drinkers. For many, they simply enjoy the taste. But new research suggests tea might help those who drink it live longer than those who do not. Tea is known to contain helpful substances known to reduce inflammation, a condition in which a part of the body becomes red, sore and swollen because of infection or injury. Past studies have suggested several health benefits. Now, scientists say black tea may show similar benefits.

Scientists from the United States National Cancer Institute carried out the study. They examined data gathered about the tea drinking behavior of almost 500,000 adults in Britain for as many as 14 years. The researchers adjusted for risks that individual may have related to health, living conditions, diet and lifestyle choices, as well as age, race and gender. The study found that high tea intake was linked to a moderate benefit: a 9 to 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause than non-tea drinkers.

The scientists say the lowered risk of death held true for study subjects with heart disease. However, researchers said there was noclear finding in connection with deaths from cancer. Researchers were not sure why. But it is possible there were too few confirmed cancer deaths to measure, said Maki, who led the study.

All kinds of tea-green, black, oolong, and white-are produced from the Camellia sinensis plant using different methods. Tea contains various elements, including polyphenols(多酚). Experts say polyphenols are thought to be responsible for the health benefits that have traditionally been linked to tea, especially green tea. Green tea is reported to improve mental ability, ease digestive problems and head pain, and help people with weight loss. Green tea has also been studied for possible protective effects against heart disease and cancer.

The study of British tea drinkers was based on observing people’s behaviors and health. This kind of methodology cannot prove cause and effect.

【推荐1】How did life come about on Earth? Did it appear in a flash of light? Well, not exactly. A study published in the journal Nature Communications in March shows that lightning may have played a significant role in the creation of life on Earth.

When lightning hits sand, soil or stone, it melts the materials into a glassy material called fulgurite (闪电熔岩). When a group of researchers examined a particular fulgurite, they found a thick, tree-root-like structure extending down about a foot and a half (about 0.46 meters). “(It was) just entirely made of glass and (had), like, burned soil on the outside of it,” said Benjamin Hess, study author and graduate student at Yale University, US.

But what Hess and his colleagues at the University of Leeds, UK, found inside the fulgurite was even more impressive. According to Science News, “By firing X-rays and electrons (电子) at the fulgurite, and observing how those beams (光线) interacted with the material, the researchers were able to detect its composition.”

They discovered that the fulgurite contained schreibersite (磷铁石), a phosphorus (磷) mineral that can be dissolved in water. Phosphorus is essential for the formation of DNA and cell membranes (薄膜), as well as the formation of teeth and bones in humans, according to the website Phys.org.

It has long been thought that meteorites (陨石) were responsible for delivering this element to Earth. However, life began between 3.5 to 4.5 billion years ago when fewer meteorites were impacting Earth, reported CNN.

According to MSN, Hess and his colleagues estimated that early Earth saw one to five billion lightning flashes every year. Of those, anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion would have struck the ground annually, accounting for between 110 to 11,000 kg of phosphorus per year. While this is a large range, “even the low end is enough to potentially fuel the first life forms, and a quantity that may have eventually exceeded meteor strikes”, MSN reported.

【推荐2】Ancient builders across the world created structures that are still standing today, thousands of years later. Roman builders built thick concrete sea barriers against waves. Mayan builders created great sculptures, and Chinese builders constructed walls against foreign enemies.

A growing number of scientists have been studying materials since a long time ago. They are breaking apart pieces of buildings and reading historical texts hoping to learn how they have stood for thousands of years. The research has turned up a surprising list of materials that were mixed into old buildings. They include tree bark, volcanic ash, rice and beer. These unexpected materials can have the ability to get stronger over time. Figuring out how to copy these features can have real impacts today. While some of our modern concrete has the strength to hold up very tall buildings and heavy structures, it cannot compete with the durability of these ancient materials.

Many scientists have turned to the Romans. Starting around 200 BC, the Roman Empire was building concrete structures that have stood the test of time. Even in places where seawater has been hitting structures for ages, you will find concrete basically the way it was when it was poured 2,000 years ago. They think they have found an important reason why some Roman concrete has held up structures for thousands of years. That the ancient materials have an unusual power to restore themselves and “cure” cracks (裂缝) when they form is the most shocking for them. Exactly how is not yet clear, but scientists are starting to find the reasons.

Today’s builders cannot just copy the ancient processes. Even though Roman concrete lasted a long time, it couldn’t hold up heavy buildings. Instead, researchers are trying to take some of the ancient materials and add them into modern mixes. People don’t need to make things last quite as long as the Romans did. If we add 50 or 100 years to concrete’s lifespan, we’ll surely require less pulling down, less maintenance and less material in the long run.

【推荐3】The Benefits of After-school Activities

Your kid is asking for piano lessons, joining a soccer team or taking ballet classes, but you’re not so sure that your money will be well spent.     1     , read these next benefits of participating in hobbies outside the home. It might just convince you to book the first class.

From arts and poem writing to music and crafts, there are lots of creative after-school activities available out there for kids of all ages. Not only do these classes stimulate your little one’s imagination, but they also encourage curiosity.     2     . Interacting with others, sharing, cooperating and solving conflicts are all added bonuses and they are all extremely helpful tools in building self-confidence.

These days, the fast-paced world we live in causes stress to us all, including children — and providing fun environments and spaces where they can feel safe and creative is an excellent idea to help your child reduce the stress.    4     . You have to aim to eliminate the stressors in your child’s life, regardless of the type of stress your child is dealing with, be it the case of shyness, social anxiety or pressure from school or home life.

Avoiding childhood obesity has become a real issue in a world where kids spend more and more time indoors, glued to screens. But if your child shows any interest in a sport (even if just by watching it on their iPad), grab the opportunity and introduce after-school activities that focus on said physical activity. In these activities, your kids can also learn important lessons like respecting others and teamwork.     5     .

【推荐1】The Giza Pyramids are relics of Egypt’s Old Kingdom era and were constructed 4,500 years ago. Pharaoh (法老) Khufu was the first Egyptian king to build a pyramid in Giza, a project he began around 2550 BC. His Great Pyramid is the largest in Giza and originally towered 481 feet above the plateau. Its estimated 2.3 million stone blocks each weigh an average of 2.5 — 15 tons.

Khufu’s son, Khafre, built the second pyramid at Giza around 2520 BC. His burial ground stands out because it also includes the Sphinx, a limestone monument with the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh. The third pyramid at Giza is considerably smaller than the first two—less than half their height at about 218 feet. Built by Khafre’s son Menkaure around 2490 BC, the pyramid’s complex includes two separate temples and three individual queens’ pyramids.

According to scientists, the builders were skilled Egyptian workers who lived in a nearby temporary city. Boatmen used the Nile and a network of artificial waterways to bring materials to the Giza Plateau, including copper cutting tools from the Sinai Peninsula and timber (木材) from Lebanon. To sustain the workers, they also delivered cattle from farms near the Nile Delta. Communities across Egypt probably contributed workers, as well as food and other essentials.

It’s generally believed that the Egyptians moved massive stone blocks to the heights along large ramps (坡道), using a system of ropes, rollers, and levers. Some suggest exterior ramps around each pyramid were applied, while a more controversial theory suggests internal ramps were used. Perhaps future imaging technology will reveal how Egyptian builders created these timeless monuments.

As the pyramids helped to build ancient Egypt, they also preserved it. “Many people think of the site as just a tomb in the modern sense, but it’s a lot more than that,” says Harvard University Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian. “Almost any subject you want to study about the Pharaonic civilization is available on the tomb walls at Giza—so it’s not just about how the ancient Egyptians died but how they lived.”