NASA's (美国宇航局的) newly announced space tourism program is possibly the biggest mistake in the agency's history.
Beginning as early as 2020, NASA will offer visits to the International Space Station for $35,000 per night, not including transportation, to pretty much anyone who can pass a physical.
The reason this is a mistake, and a big one, is that NASA has worked for generations to create an image of astronauts as extraordinarily skilled, highly trained, courageous heroes. For example, NASA invites grade schools to participate in creating experiments that are carried on the space station. The astronauts talk to kids from space, sending a message that if you study, work hard and learn math and science, you may reach these heights, too.
According to one report, Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace is making plans to haul four tourists at a time to the space station on SpaceX rockets. U.S. taxpayers forked over a hundred billion dollars to build the International Space Station. It would be nice to try to preserve the image of it as an inspirational achievement, instead of turning it into a flying Howard Johnson's.
NASA's press release about the space tourism program tries to cast it as a partnership with the private sector to "provide expanded opportunities" at the space station to "manufacture, market and promote commercial products and services." But it also states that one goal is "quantifying NASA's long-term demand for activities in low-Earth orbit."
The space station has been costing U.S. taxpayers between $1.5 billion and $3 billion each year. If it's perceived as a private Disneyland for the top tax bracket, public support for the entire space program could be at risk.
But worse, we will have degraded what once inspired us. Sometimes a nation needs stars in its eyes.
Most dog owners have probably been puzzled waiting for their dog to do its business. Instead of just finding a soft area of grass to go number two, they make a whole ritual(仪式) out of it, spinning in a circle before finally squatting(蹲下). Luckily, the ultimate pet owners' question may finally have been answered.
A few theories have circulated
about why dogs might circle before pooping 
and most are similar to the reasons they spin before lying down. Trampling around in a circle would flatten the grass around, which would keep tall blades(叶片) from trapping their waste. Another explanation could be that they're scanning for snakes and predators before they become completely occupied.
But Czech researcher Hynek Burda didn't quite buy into those theories. Dogs evolved from wolves, which didn't need to worry much about tall grass. And if they were scanning their environment, keeping still to listen and sniff would be more effective than giving the area a quick once-over. Instead, Burda suggested that dogs spin to get a feel for the Earth's magnetic pull.
The Earth has a magnetic field around it protecting it from radiation from space, and some animals seem to use it to get a sense of where its North and South poles are. For instance, it's how birds know which way to migrate. In 2013, Burda published a study in the journal Frontiers in Zoology suggesting dogs have a strong internal compass, too. He and his team spent two years watching 70 dogs poop and pee and recording which way they faced and how strong the magnetic(磁的) field was.
As it turns out, when the magnetic field was calm, dogs preferred to poop facing either north or south.
The pattern couldn't explain why dogs like facing the Earth's poles, but the researchers think it might help them remember where they marked their territory.
If they can remember which way they were facing, they might find it easier to find that spot again. So before you roll your eyes when your dog takes ages to do his business, remember that Fido might just be getting scientific about his potty spot.
You may have heard that humans only use ten percent of their brain, and that if you could unlock the rest of your brainpower, you could do so much more. You could become a super genius, or acquire psychic powers like mind reading.
This "ten-percent myth" has inspired many references in the cultural imagination. In the 2014 movie Lucy, for example, a woman develops godlike powers thanks to drugs that release the previously inaccessible 90 percent of her brain.
Contrary to the ten-percent myth, however, scientists have shown that humans use their entire brain throughout each day.
Over the years, brain scientists have shown that different parts of the brain are responsible for specific functions, whether it's recognizing colors or problem solving. Contrary to the ten-percent myth, scientists have proven that every part of the brain is integral for our daily functioning.
Research has yet to find a brain area that is completely inactive. Even studies that measure activity at the level of single neurons(神经元) have not revealed any inactive areas of the brain.
Many brain imaging studies that measure brain activity when a person is doing a specific task show how different parts of the brain work together. For example, while you are reading this text on your smartphone, some parts of your brain, including those responsible for vision and reading comprehension, will be more active.
A more direct counter to the ten-percent myth lies in individuals who have suffered brain damage – like through a stroke(中风)– and what they can no longer do, or do as well, as a result of that damage. If the ten percent myth is true, then damage too many parts of our brain shouldn't affect your daily functioning. Studies have shown that damaging a very small part of the brain may have devastating consequences.
If someone experiences damage to Broca's area(布罗卡氏区), for example, they can understand language but can't speak fluently.
In one highly publicized case, a woman in Florida permanently lost her" capacity for thoughts, perceptions, memories, and emotions that are the very essence of being human" when a lack of oxygen destroyed half of her brain.
While these compulsive(无法控制的) actions may appear to be irrational or pointless, and may even result in negative consequences, the individual experiencing the compulsion feels unable to stop him or herself.
The compulsive behavior can be a physical act, like hand washing, or a mental activity, like counting objects. When an otherwise harmless behavior becomes so consuming that it negatively impacts oneself or others, it may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)(强迫症).
The former is an overwhelming desire to do something, while an addiction is a physical or chemical dependence on a substance or behavior. People with addictions will continue their addictive behavior, even when they understand that doing so is harmful to themselves and others.
Unlike compulsions and addictions, which are acted out uncontrollably, habits are actions that are repeated regularly and automatically.
Habits typically develop over time through a natural process called "habituation," during which repetitive actions that must be consciously initiated eventually become subconscious and are carried out habitually.
While there are good habits and bad, unhealthy habits, any habit can become a compulsion or even an addiction. For example, the good habit of exercising regularly can become an unhealthy compulsion or addiction when done to excess.
Common habits often develop into addictions when they result in a chemical dependency, as in the cases of smoking. The habit of having a glass of beer with dinner, for example, becomes an addiction when the desire to drink turns into a physical or emotional need to drink.
While we can choose to add good, healthy habits to our routines, we can also choose to break old harmful habits.
A. A compulsion is different from an addiction.
B. It currently affects about 1 in 40 adults and 1 in 100 children in the U.S.
C. Some of these behaviors are visible actions while others are mental behaviors.
D. In other words, you really can have "too much of a good thing."
E. Compulsive behaviors are actions that a person feels "compelled" or driven to do over and over again.
F. Alcoholism, smoking, and gambling are perhaps the most common examples of addictions.
G. Of course, the key difference between a compulsive behavior and a habit is the ability to choose to do them or not.
Peggy Lewis lost her house in a brutal tornado, but the tornado couldn't take the one thing that meant the most.
One 1, Peggy Lewis and her husband, Harris Lee, were 2 the trees blow in the wind outside their home in Eureka, Kansas. The next, they were surrounded by glass from the house's 3 windows. The roof tore off. The walls caved in. After the tornado had 4, it took a team of neighbors to take them to the hospital. "I thought we were going to 5," says Lewis.
When the pair 6 to their property three days after that awful night last June, it was 7 that what remained of the house would need to be torn down. But 8 Lewis would let that happen, she wanted one thingher family Bible.
Lewis had bought the Bible 35 years earlier, at the start of her 9. Like many folks, she'd used it to hold and preserve her 10 history: decades-old photos, a lock of her daughter's hair, 11 a piece of a scarf her uncle had brought back from the Korean War.
The Bible was the first thing Lewis 12 when she returned to the house. It wasn't 13 she'd last seen it, 14 top of a dresser in her bedroom. In fact, the dresser wasn't there at all.
When two volunteers 15 to help the couple dig out, Lewis had one mission for them: "If you can find anything," she said, "please find my Bible."
After an hour of 16, one of the volunteers ran up to her. Lewis had tears streaming down her cheeks and a book in her hands. Stunningly, while many books inside the home had been destroyed beyond 17, the Bible was still intact(完好无损), even though it had sat in the rain for days. "I 18 broke down," says Lewis.
"I thought it was gone forever. It was a(an)19."
She knows that while every good book tells stories of catastrophic(灾难性的) weather and unlikely survival, this one actually 20 it.
Cards and digital(数字的) technologies (kill) off cash slowly, but is it a cause for concern? Not (necessary). Here are some ways of making the most of digital finance.
Cash is no longer king. Over recent years fewer and fewer transactions have been made with cash. The most recent figures show coins and notes are used just 34% of time, down from 63% a decade ago. And usage (predict) to fall to just 10% in 15 years.
Instead we're paying with cards and digital technologies. Some of this is down to user choice, with contactless cards and smartphones making spending (fast) and more convenient.
But it's also being forced upon us. Some retailers are refusing physical money as they can avoid the high bank charges levied(征收) at them for (handle) cash. Meanwhile it's harder to get your hands on notes as cash machines and (bank) disappear from the high street. And these are trends which are likely (increase) in the coming years.
This could be bad news if you still primarily use cash, that's how you pay your bills or how you budget. For some, cash is just what you know. For , cash is a necessityespecially when going digital is the alternative.
As a result this move towards cashless society makes many us easy.
Whether you're looking for a quick hotel in the city or a isolated resort in the tropics, where you choose to stay can make or break your vacation experience. But even the most seasoned travelers may not know the difference between the two main types of homes-away-from-home. Besides their first letter, is there any real difference between hotels and motels?
These two types of lodging(宾馆) have the same basic purposea place for travelers to sleepbut there are plenty of features that set them apart. For instance, they came to be for different reasons, and at very different times. The word "hotel" dates back to the 1600s and comes from a French word, hotel. That word, just like the English one, referred to a place that provides lodging, meals, entertainment, and other services to travelers.
Motels, on the other hand, are a much more recentand pretty much exclusively Americanlodging option. This word dates back to the 1920s and combines the words "hotel" and "motor." As America's major highway system developed, so did motels, filling the need for roadside stops for motorists traveling cross-country.
There are also some smaller differences that can help you figure out which type of place you're in. Hotels tend to be built for longer stays, while motels are geared more for one- or two-night stops along a journey. Because of this, hotels are much more likely to have offerings like lounges, gyms, and entertainment.
So, in the end, it comes down to what you want from your trip and from your lodging. Want the place you stay to be just as much a part of your travel experience as anything else? Opt for a hotel. Just need a place to pop in and out of to shower and sleep? A motel might be the better choice.
