2 . Bike Rental & Guided Tours

Welcome to Amsterdam, welcome to MacBike. You see much more from the seat of a bike! Cycling is the most economical, sustainable and fun way to explore the city, with its beautiful canals, parks, squares and countless lights. You can also bike along lovely landscapes outside of Amsterdam.

Why MacBike

MacBike has been around for almost 30 years and is the biggest bicycle rental company in Amsterdam. With over 2,500 bikes stored in our five rental shops at strategic locations, we make sure there is always a bike available for you. We offer the newest bicycles in a wide variety, including basic bikes with foot brake (刹车), bikes with hand brake and gears (排挡), bikes with child seats, and children’s bikes.

Prices

Guided City Tours

The 2.5-hour tour covers the Gooyer Windmill, the Skinny Bridge, the Rijksmuseum, Heineken Brewery and much more. The tour departs from Dam Square every hour on the hour, starting at 1:00 pm every day. You can buy your ticket in a MacBike shop or book online.

5 . Sharing China 2023 is calling for photos and videos from all over the world until Feb.12, 2023. Welcome to send us your memorable moments from Chinese New Year celebrations.

What We are Looking for

Suggested themes include: traditional customs, modern customs and new trends, folk activities, foreigners experiencing the Spring Festival and celebrations around the world.

Awards and Prizes

We will select 50 photos (single or group) and 10 short films. Each winner will be awarded 1,000RMB.

Timeline

Starting time and deadline: from Dec.20, 2022 to Feb.12, 2023.

Selection and ranking: from Feb.13 to May 15, 2023.

Result announcement: June, 2023.

The Rules

Photos:

1. All works must be real and not doctored or edited.

2. Works can be single photos or a series of photos.

3. Works should have titles and a short photo description.

Short films:

1. Size: 1GB maximum, less than 4 minutes.

2. Dubbing and subtitles (配音和字幕): If the video is dubbed, the language could be either Chinese or English, but subtitles should be bilingual (双语的).

3. Caption: English or Chinese words to give a brief introduction.

How to submit (提交)

You can submit your works to China Culture’s Facebook. For further information, click here.

6 . Does your dog always want to go wherever you’re going and most of the time, this behavior is welcomed?    1    However, if you find your dog doing this too often or if it’s accompanied by other troubling behavior like eating less, going outside less often or interacting less with other family members, there could be potential issues.

    2    Usually, it’s simply out of loyalty and the close relationship that’s been created with its owner, because he or she is the one that provides care and comfort and keeps it safe. However, sometimes, your dog wants to follow you possibly due to something negative.    3    

Dogs are emotional animals and may feel anxious for some reason sometimes. It may take much time and training to help your dog work through what’s causing the problem    4    You’ll have to work with your dog consistently or hire a professional trainer.

One way to stop your dog from following you might be putting it in a secure and reliable area.    5    If your dog spends all of its time with you and you alone, it may express a dislike for being away from you or interacting with other humans or dogs.

7 . People do physical exercise as part of their healthy lifestyle to get stronger and healthier.

There are three basic modes of physical exercise: flexibility exercise helps the human body in general or its part in particular to be able to reach farther and bend better; aerobic exercise helps the body work hard for a long time; anaerobic exercise makes the arms and legs stronger.

It has long been known that exercise is not only good for your body, but also for your mind. According to researchers, gymnasts are more likely to be emotionally stable, football players the most outgoing and swimmers the happiest.

The psychological study, which was carried out by experts, also revealed that sports can also offer clues to a person’s attitude to charity, reading habits and even their voting intentions. Boxers, for example, are most likely to focus on material possessions in life. Meanwhile, runners tend to be outgoing people who love being the centre of attention. Walkers, a group that includes those who enjoy wandering and cross-country races, are least concerned about other people and like doing things by themselves without interruption from others. Those who play chess are confident when they face challenges and trouble. Those who swim tend to be tidy and charitable. However, according to Mind Lab, 61 percent of adults are fond of helping others regardless of their choice of sports.

The results from this study also show that no matter what kind of person you are, there is the right kind of exercise for you.

9 . Nuclear bombs. That’s the go-to answer for incoming space objects like asteroids(小行星) and comets, as far as Hollywood is concerned. Movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon rely on nuclear weapons, delivered by stars like Bruce Willis, to save the world and deliver the drama.

But planetary defense experts say in reality, if astronomers spotted a dangerous incoming space rock, the safest and best answer might be something more subtle, like simply pushing it off course by crashing it with a small spacecraft.

That’s just what NASA did on Monday evening, when a spacecraft headed straight into an asteroid called Dimorphous, which is around 7 million miles away and poses no threat to Earth. It’s about 525 feet across and orbits another larger asteroid.

In images streamed as the impact neared, the egg-shaped asteroid grew in size from a little spot on screen to have its full rocky surface come quickly into focus before the signal went dead as the craft hit right on target.

Events happened exactly as engineers had planned, they said, with nothing going wrong. “As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success,” said Elena Adams, the mission systems engineer, who added that scientists looked on with “both terror and joy” as the spacecraft neared its final destination.

The impact was the peak of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) ,a 7-year and more than $300 million effort which launched a space vehicle in November of 2021 to perform humanity’s first ever test of planetary defense technology. It will be about two months, scientists said, before they will be able to determine if the impact was enough to drive the asteroid slightly off course, probably shortening its original orbit.

NASA plans to launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope named NEO Surveyor in 2026. “We’ve tacked lots of space rocks, especially the larger ones that could cause extinction-level events. Thankfully, none currently threaten Earth. But many asteroids the size of Dimorphous haven’t yet been discovered, and those could potentially take out a city if they came crashing down. ” explains Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer.

10 . In movies and books, people often describe a decisive moment when they figure out who they are. However, I never thought it actually happened in real life. I never expected to have a “moment” of my own. When it arrived, mine was much more powerful than I could have ever imagined.

During the spring of my junior year, my class watched a documentary called “The Invisible Children.” It was about three college students who take a trip to Africa and document their experience. At first the film was slightly humorous. However, once the group arrived in northern Uganda, the mood changed. They learned what the consequences of a 23-year war had been for thousands of children. Some had lost family and friends, while others were caught by the opposing force and became child soldiers.

Before long, I was sobbing. I couldn’t believe these things were happening, yet at the same time I knew they were. I just hadn’t been paying attention, for in the past 17 years, I was blessedly protected. When the movie ended, I couldn’t get it out of my head. For the next week, I was not myself. Every bite of food I took I thought of Grace, the 15-year-old who had little to eat. When I went to bed, I pictured Sunday, the 14-year-old boy sleeping on a straw mat on the ground in a camp. My whole world shifted.

Since that day, I haven’t been able to picture my future in a way that doesn’t involve going to Africa and doing what I can to help. Ultimately, this is why I decided to major in engineering. With an engineering degree, my potential for change will be limitless. I will build wells and schools, and design irrigation systems. Engineering is tough, but I know—in what Yeats called “my deep heart’s call”—that this is what I’m supposed to do with my life.