Hikes in grocery prices often arise from factors outside of governments' control, whether it's bird flu driving up egg costs or heavy rain in California drowning crops. But farmers can gain more control over the availability of certain foods by using satellite data, finds a new study led by researchers from University of Maryland. 

Remote sensing has long been used to track and make predictions about crop harvests. But governments have been hesitant to heavily invest in the technology for crop monitoring and planting because they lacked evidence of the ability to produce quantifiable economic benefits-until now. 

"The models we created show that remote sensing forecasting can reduce food prices in import-dependent countries by 1.1%~12.5%," said Laixiang Sun, a professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences. "By using remote sensing to predict a poor harvest in the Northern Hemisphere(半球), the Southern Hemisphere can plant more to avoid a shortage. If the Northern Hemisphere has a good harvest, the Southern Hemisphere can plant less to avoid an oversupply. This will keep prices stable."

The researchers first created models to predict how much warning farmers in the opposite hemisphere could have of potential shortages or surpluses. To do so, the researchers used remote-sensing data before a 2008 poor wheat harvest in, Russia, a 2012 good wheat harvest in Ukraine, and 2012's poor soybean harvest in Brazil. The wheat-forecasting models accurately predicted production in 2008 and 2012 two months before the harvests.

The researchers also developed economic models to show how predictions of upcoming shortages and surpluses could prevent food price changes. With data from 2007 and 2011, the years immediately before the wheat and soybean harvests, the models showed that consumers in import-dependent countries could save some money if farmers could see and respond to the predicted harvests in the opposite hemisphere. 

Sun said the findings justify continued monitoring of crop growth from space—and not a moment too soon, either. "This is important, as global food security is increasingly threatened by regional human conflicts and extreme weather events from climate change," he said.

"Moja, mbili, tatu…"One, two, three. Juliana Rubashai is counting aloud to show what she has learned in school. Delighted and proud, she counts to 20, but her mother, Zefrina Nandia, adds that Juliana can keep counting, and that she also can do some reading. 

Nine-year-old Juliana is one of the children who have received aid through a project run by International Aid Services(IAS)in southwestern Tanzania, where many children stay at home all day, cut off from social contact and schooling. The project improves school facilities and raises local community's awareness about education. They train teachers and lobby(游说)the local authorities. In these ways, IAS is struggling to ensure basic education for everyone. 

Zefrina was contacted last year by project coordinator Fortunatus Rafael, who gets in touch with families to get an overview of children's needs and school options. Zefrina had previously asked the local school to enroll Juliana, but was turned down due to lack of resources. Thanks to the project, the school can offer chances to more children. 

Part of the project is training teachers in special needs education. Many teachers have received additional training in estimating the degree of a child's disability. During the first year of the project, 270 children with special needs have been evaluated, and of these, 200 got the chance to go to school. The teachers Scolastica Nyoni and Bwigane Mwasipu both appreciate how it has strengthened their skills. "When teaching children with special needs, we know whom to pay extra attention to. This means a closer relation between teachers and students," says Scolastica. 

It's a year since Juliana got into the classroom, and her mother notices definite improvement. "She used to be lonely and unhappy. Now, she's much happier and always wants to go to school," says Zefrina. The teachers also notice big changes have taken place in the local community. "Parents are now coming to us to find teachers to teach their children with special needs. Previously, they didn't think that schooling would be possible for these children," says Bwigane.

If you're looking for some festive atmosphere, here's part of the Florida festival calendar.

Kumquat Festival, Dade City, Jan. 27

The downtown in Dade City fills with as many as 35, 000 people for this free event celebrating the tangy little fruit grown locally. Along with dozens of booths and live entertainment, a highlight is enjoying kumquat treats, from kumquat pie, kumquat cookies to kumquat salad. 

Sunnyland Boat Festival, Tavares, Mar. 22-24

This antique and classic boat festival is one of the largest classic wood boat shows in the country with as many as 250 to 300 restored ancient boats on display in the water and along one third of a mile of Lake Dora shoreline at Wooton Park in Tavares, which is really a feast to the eye for free. 

Siesta Key Sunsculpting Festival, Sarasota, Nov. 10-13

Two dozen professional artists compete in creating sculptures on the gorgeous Siesta Key beach. Those who buy tickets can watch the sculptures take shape, view them under colored lights at night, see demonstrations and take lessons. The party atmosphere includes a tent with ful bar (no ticket required) and a vendor(小贩) village. 

Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach, Dec. 8-10

Art Basel, an international art fair, draws top galleries from around the world plus the rich and celebrities to South Florida. A far cry from the street art festivals all over Florida, this is an event that is not cheap-Tickets start at $65. Over the years, however, a variety of satellite events have developed, creating art-related events for regular folks, including Miami Art Week.

A few years ago, I asked a neighborhood handyman to build a tree-house in my backyard. In part, this was to solve a problem: my children were good friends with the children who lived beside us and they liked to climb over the fence that separated the two yards. We could have just put a gate into the fence, but I decided that building some kind of climbable structure around the large fir tree in the yard, which also included a staircase into the neighbor's yard, was a more creative solution to the problem, and I liked the idea that the tree-house would also serve to join the two play spaces together.

The handyman took the task much more seriously than I had expected. He made drawings, built small wooden models, and even held a kind of "visioning" exercise with the children and their parents to make sure that he hadn't missed any important details. At the end of our lengthy discussions, he asked, "Where would you like me to put the beer rail?"

The question took me aback as I hadn't really considered the possibility that a nice play structure in my yard might also facilitate beer consumption among the neighborhood children, but I quickly tuned in to the fact that our designer had intuited what should have been obvious to me- the children wouldn't be the only ones to take advantage of this platform up among the branches of the beautiful old tree. And, indeed, over the years that I lived in that house I discovered that the platform made a pretty good perch (栖息处), not only for the occasional cold beer, but also for sitting and dreaming, reading a book, enjoying a picnic or even getting some writing done. My children enjoyed climbing around in the tree-house, playing tag, setting up imaginary pirate ships and fortresses (城堡), and they also used it for some quiet thinking and even the occasional math homework. The tree seemed to be a particularly good algebra tutor.

Why do children learn so quickly? Is it simply a necessity, or is a child's brain more capable of taking in new information than an adult's brain?

"It is a common way of thinking that ‘children are like sponges' and have the magical ability to learn new skills faster than an adult, but there are some misconceptions here, " said Debbie Raven, a researcher at the University of Chester. "A child's cognitive (认知的) development is age-related and, naturally, children perform worse than their older peers in most areas. However, there are times when being young brings an advantage, and this is especially true around their earliest years.

This advantage is largely due to neuroplasticity, meaning the brain's ability to form and change its connections, pathways and wiring based on experiences. Neuroplasticity is what gives children the capacity to learn-and, if necessary, unlearn-habits, routines, approaches and actions very quickly. This ability is most constant and rapid before a child's fifth birthday, when much of what they encounter or experience is novel. "This ability to learn quickly is connected to several areas, including plasticity, their experiences with adults, their environment, and their biological drive to explore, " Raven said. "Childhood is a place where children spend their time catching up with adults' more sophisticated abilities. "

Language learning, in particular, is an area where children often have a huge advantage over adults. This is largely because "babies are able to tune in to the rhythm and sounds used in their native language, and can therefore become fluent speakers by the age of four. "This ability can help young children learn a second or third language with apparent ease, Raven said.

In a research paper, the authors suggest that "human babies are born seeing and hearing linguistic information that older children and adults miss, although they lose this ability with more experience in their environments. Moreover, babies can "discriminate speech sounds and tones used in al of the world's languages, making them open to al input, regardless of the linguistic environment they are born into.

"Individuals of all ages who have empathy (共情) understand that sometimes telling little white lies can protect other people from getting hurt," says Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist in Connecticut. "Most people that I have come across tell these little white lies because they understand that 100 percent honesty all the time is not beneficial." A white lie, she explains, spares people from unnecessary hurt.

At the same time Dr. Julia Breur, a marriage and family therapist in Florida, emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the way we respond to someone. The fact is that not telling the truth can result in something unpleasant on you; it's not just about the person the white lie is being told to. For example, she says someone who always tells others that "all is good" when it comes to a sick parent in an effort to avoid discussions about how serious their health issue really is, can eventually face stressful experiences. When that parent eventually passes away, the person who always gave an "all is good" response ends up emotionally broken.

Sometimes, telling white lies often depends on the situation, Dr. Breur says. For example, consider a woman who has not seen her mother for several months. The daughter has gained noticeable weight, yet the mother responds by excitedly declaring that she looks great. "I emphasize during psychotherapy sessions with my patients that context helps define meaning," Dr. Breur says. "So when we look at the context of a mother saying you look great when she clearly sees that her daughter has gained weight, it can be acceptable. It reflects the intention of the white lie which is kindness, protection and unconditional love. Otherwise, white lies — especially when told to avoid personal accountability — can start a cycle of mistrust between people, ultimately compromising integrity," she adds.

Therefore, it's important to ask ourselves when it is and isn't appropriate to deliver the honest truth, and when it's best to step back and offer a more delicate response. More often than not, it's about finding a balance between the two.

Norman Rockwell didn't create his celebrated images using only brush and paint. They often took shape first as scenes that Rockwell literally acted out, not only for his editors at the Saturday Evening Post, but for his real-life models, too. "It was difficult," he once explained, "but I felt it was the best way to get across my meaning." And so he would enthusiastically play out his visions and ideas, a one-man show packed with just the right expressions, giving enough details of each character in the scene to inspire his models and more importantly, get his editors to buy his ideas.

Now, more than 30 years after his death, Rockwell is still acknowledged for skillfully documenting the best of 20th century American life with drawings of simple emotions inspired by everyday people. To create his detailed recollections of everyday American life, Rockwell worked much like a film director, not just acting out the scenes in his imagination, but looking for locations, casting everyday people from his town for particular parts.

The recognition he received strongly proves Rockwell's superior skills as a storyteller and is the subject of another kind of one-man show: the upcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., titled Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The exhibit, gathered together from the private collections of these two popular film directors, will feature rarely viewed pieces of Rockwell's artworks.

That concentration of information as well as emotion is something essential in Rockwell's art. Emotion certainly spoke to Steven Spielberg when he first saw one of his favorite Rockwell paintings, High Dive, the August 16, 1947 Post cover that describes a boy at the top of what must be a towering diving board. He crouches (蹲伏) high above a swimming pool, too afraid to either jump or climb back down. The painting hangs in Spielberg's office at Amblin Entertainment because it holds a great deal of meaning for the filmmaker.

How much of your monthly grocery list ends up in the garbage? A new study reveals the average American spends nearly $1,500 per year on food they'll never eat.

A recent survey of 2,000 Americans reveals the average shopper wastes $1,493.93 on food per year. That's almost a fifth of their grocery bill after every shopping trip. One tenth of respondents claim they "never" purchase food they don't end up eating, while three in 10 say this is something they "always" do.

Half of respondents prefer to head to the grocery store alone, and when they do, half are more likely to stick to their list and 36% are less likely to buy food they don't want or need.

Keeping the list in mind is important, as 38 percent are more likely to let food be wasted if it wasn't originally on their shopping list. Seven in 10 add that when they go to the store on an empty stomach, they're more likely to buy foods they won't eat. So they don't do that that way. Some respondents appear to be in a wasteful cycle when it comes to food waste. Nearly half usually buy and end up wasting the same food every month because they think they'll get around to eating it.

"We can all do better to limit food waste by sticking to grocery lists and, when we get home, prioritizing eating our foods that are perishable, like fruits, vegetables, and dairy products" says Avocado Co-Founder and CMO Mark Abrials in a statement.

Three-quarters feel guilty about throwing away uneaten food because it's a waste of money—and 48 percent feel the same, due to the harm food waste causes to the environment. "When it comes to food waste, nobody is perfect," Abrials adds. "But in order to consider our environmental impact, not to mention wasted money, we think it's essential to be thoughtful about everything we purchase—whether that's food, mattresses or other goods."

 School is important for children and parents everywhere, and there are a lot who take the education of youth very seriously. Parents want their children to succeed, and a lot of children want to do well in school. A new study, which was done by Brigham Young University, has found that students perform better in school if they go on more cultural field trips.

  Field trips have always been seen as fun for students, and they look forward to their chances to get out of the classroom and go somewhere fun. But field trips can be difficult for teachers to plan, because they need to make sure that there is learning and value included. Some have argued about the worth of field trips, and whether they are worth a student missing a whole day out of school.

  However, Heidi Erickson, one of the researchers in the study, stated that there is no harm in taking students out of the classroom, even for multiple days throughout the year, as long as they are learning and in an appropriate space. The study had 4th- and 5th-gradestudents from 15 schools take part in this study. They went on three cultural field trips during the school year, to an art museum, a live theater performance, and a classical concert. Then the researchers looked at their school year compared to students who did not take part and this is where they saw the difference.

  The study found that students who went on multiple field trips a year had higher test scores, performed better in class and had a greater cultural responsibility over time when com-pared to students who did not go on as many field trips.

  Although there has been a remarkable decrease in the number of field trips due to various reasons, this new study is showing the true value of field trips, especially when they are considered "cultural"

There have been a few times in my life when I felt very lonely. I particularly remember my loneliness when I moved to New York City. I had a couple of friends in the city, still, it was a tune in my life when I needed to put forth some effort to form more meaningful relation-ships. But the more I went out to parties, the more disconnected and lonely I felt. Feeling lonely in a room full of people, or in my case, a whole city packed with people everywhere, was the loneliest I have ever felt.

  So, rather than trying a new way to make friends, I was more likely to ignore phone calls from friends, and I looked at social invitations and opportunities to meet new people as drudgery(苦差事). Looking back on this period of loneliness,/I wonder at the way I isolated(孤立) myself instead of reaching out to those who were willing to keep me company and offer friendship.

  What I have learned from my own experience and the experience of many of my friends is that more often than not, those who feel lonely choose isolation. Indeed, many of my own friends describe avoiding social life as a way of dealing with feelings of loneliness.

  This behavior is somewhat common, and new research takes a big step towards explaining this behavior. According to leading experts on the loneliness, Stephanie and John Cacioppo, there is an evolutionary explanation for this tendency to isolate when we are feeling lonely. By monitoring lonely people's brainwaves, they found that lonely people tend to respond negatively to social life. "Loneliness causes some brain-related changes that put us into a socially nervous mode," Dr. Christian Jarrett explains.

  Making ourselves aware of this evolutionary natural tendency could actually be the first step in fighting loneliness. Once we know that we are more sensitive to negativity during lonely spells, we can focus our energy on resisting the desire to put up walls.