Dear Parents, My name is Danielle Hamilton, and I am the principal of Techville High School. As you may know, there is major road construction scheduled to take place in front of our school next month. This raises safety concerns. Therefore, we are asking for parent volunteers to help with directing traffic. The volunteer hours are from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. and from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. on school days. If you are willing to take part in the traffic safety volunteer group, please email us with your preferred schedule at info@techville.edu. Your participation will be helpful in building a safer school environment for our students. Thank you in advance for your contributions. Sincerely, Danielle Hamilton

The day trip to Midtown scheduled for today was canceled because the road leading there was blocked by heavy snow. Luck just didn't run my way. Sightseeing in Midtown was why I signed up for this trip ... Nancy said to herself, with a long sigh. She was thinking of all the interesting sights she wouldn't be able to enjoy. All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. News! We are going to the Pland Zoo near the hotel. We will meet in the lobby soon. It was the voice of her tour guide. She sprung off the couch and started putting on her coat in a hurry. The Pland Zoo! That's on my bucket list! What a turn of fortune! shouted Nancy.

Confident is not the same as comfortable. One of the biggest misconceptions about becoming self-confident is that it means living fearlessly. The key to building confidence is quite the opposite. It means we are willing to let fear be present as we do the things that matter to us. When we establish some self-confidence in something, it feels good. We want to stay there and hold on to it. But if we only go where we feel confident, then confidence never expands beyond that. If we only do the things we know we can do well, fear of the new and unknown tends to grow. Building confidence inevitably demands that we make friends with vulnerability because it is the only way to be without confidence for a while. But the only way confidence can grow is when we are willing to be without it. When we can step into fear and sit with the unknown, it is the courage of doing so that builds confidence from the ground up.

Gold plating in the project means needlessly enhancing the expected results, namely, adding characteristics that are costly, not required, and that have low added value with respect to the targets ― in other words, giving more with no real justification other than to demonstrate one's own talent. Gold plating is especially interesting for project team members, as it is typical of projects with a marked professional component ― in other words, projects that involve specialists with proven experience and extensive professional autonomy. In these environments specialists often see the project as an opportunity to test and enrich their skill sets. There is therefore a strong temptation, in all good faith, to engage in gold plating, namely, to achieve more or higher-quality work that gratifies the professional but does not add value to the client's requests, and at the same time removes valuable resources from the project. As the saying goes, The best is the enemy of the good.

The need to assimilate values and lifestyle of the host culture has become a growing conflict. Multiculturalists suggest that there should be a model of partial assimilation in which immigrants retain some of their customs, beliefs, and language. There is pressure to conform rather than to maintain their cultural identities, however, and these conflicts are greatly determined by the community to which one migrates. These experiences are not new; many Europeans experienced exclusion and poverty during the first two waves of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. Eventually, these immigrants transformed this country with significant changes that included enlightenment and acceptance of diversity. People of color, however, continue to struggle for acceptance. Once again, the challenge is to recognize that other cultures think and act differently and that they have the right to do so. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, immigrants will no longer be strangers among us.

The primary purpose of commercial music radio broadcasting is to deliver an audience to a group of advertisers and sponsors. To achieve commercial success, that audience must be as large as possible. More than any other characteristics (such as demographic or psychographic profile, purchasing power, level of interest, degree of satisfaction, quality of attention or emotional state), the quantity of an audience aggregated as a mass is the most significant metric for broadcasters seeking to make music radio for profitable ends. As a result, broadcasters attempt to maximise their audience size by playing music that is popular, or ― at the very least ― music that can be relied upon not to cause audiences to switch off their radio or change the station. Audience retention is a key value (if not the key value) for many music programmers and for radio station management. In consequence, a high degree of risk aversion frequently marks out the 'successful' radio music programmer. Playlists are restricted, and often very small.

Before the web, newspaper archives were largely the musty domain of professional researchers and journalism students. Journalism was, by definition, current. The general accessibility of archives has greatly extended the shelf life of journalism, with older stories now regularly cited to provide context for more current ones. With regard to how meaning is made of complex issues encountered in the news, this departure can be understood as a readiness by online news consumers to engage with the underlying issues and contexts of the news that was not apparent in, or even possible for, print consumers. One of the emergent qualities of online news, determined in part by the depth of readily accessible online archives, seems to be the possibility of understanding news stories as the manifest outcomes of larger economic, social and cultural issues rather than short-lived and unconnected media spectacles.

The table above shows the college enrollment rates of 18- to 24-year-olds from five racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. in 2011, 2016, and 2021. Among the five groups, Asians exhibited the highest college enrollment rate with more than 50% in each year listed in the table. Whites were the second highest in terms of the college enrollment rate among all the groups in all three years, while the rate dropped below 40% in 2021. The college enrollment rates of both Blacks and Hispanics were higher than 35% but lower than 40% in 2011 and in 2021. Among the years displayed in the table, 2016 was the only year when the college enrollment rate of Hispanics was higher than that of Blacks. In each year, American Indians/Alaska Natives showed the lowest college enrollment rate.

Charles Rosen, a virtuoso pianist and distinguished writer, was born in New York in 1927. Rosen displayed a remarkable talent for the piano from his early childhood. In 1951, the year he earned his doctoral degree in French literature at Princeton University, Rosen made both his New York piano debut and his first recordings. To glowing praise, he appeared in numerous recitals and orchestral concerts around the world. Rosen's performances impressed some of the 20th century's most well-known composers, who invited him to play their music. Rosen was also the author of many widely admired books about music. His most famous book, The Classical Style, was first published in 1971 and won the U.S. National Book Award the next year. This work, which was reprinted in an expanded edition in 1997, remains a landmark in the field. While writing extensively, Rosen continued to perform as a pianist for the rest of his life until he died in 2012.

《Brushwood National Park Tour Program》 Walking in nature is a great way to stay fit and healthy. Enjoy free park walks with our volunteer guides, while appreciating the beautiful sights and sounds of the forest. Details ㆍOpen on weekdays from March to November ㆍEasy walk along the path for one hour (3km) ㆍGroups of 15 to 20 per guide Registration ㆍScan the QR code to sign up for the tour. Note ㆍA bottle of water will be provided to each participant. ㆍChildren under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. ㆍTours may be canceled due to weather conditions. ※ If you have any questions, please email us at brushwoodtour@parks.org.

《WGHS Geography Photo Contest》 The event you've been waiting for all this year is finally here! Please join Wood Gate High School's 10th annual Geography Photo Contest. Guidelines - Participants should use the theme of the Beauty of Rivers Crossing Our City. - Submissions are limited to one photo per person. - Files should not be larger than 50 MB. Schedule Submission October 2－October 8 / Email: geography@woodgate.edu Voting October 11－October 13 / School Website: https://www.woodgate.edu Exhibition October 16－October 20 / Main Lobby Note - The top 10 photos selected by students will be exhibited. ※ For more information, visit the geography teacher's room.

Viewing the stress response as a resource can transform the physiology of fear into the biology of courage. It can turn a threat into a challenge and can help you do your best under pressure. Even when the stress doesn't feel helpful ― as in the case of anxiety ― welcoming it can transform it into something that is helpful: more energy, more confidence, and a greater willingness to take action. You can apply this strategy in your own life anytime you notice signs of stress. When you feel your heart beating or your breath quickening, realize that it is your body's way of trying to give you more energy. If you notice tension in your body, remind yourself that the stress response gives you access to your strength. Sweaty palms? Remember what it felt like to go on your first date ― palms sweat when you're close to something you want.

Why is the value of place so important? From a historical perspective, until the 1700s textile production was a hand process using the fibers available within a particular geographic region, for example, cotton, wool, silk, and flax. Trade among regions increased the availability of these fibers and associated textiles made from the fibers. The First Industrial Revolution and subsequent technological advancements in manufactured fibers added to the fact that fibers and textiles were no longer place-bound. Fashion companies created and consumers could acquire textiles and products made from textiles with little or no connection to where, how, or by whom the products were made. This resulted in a disconnect between consumers and the products they use on a daily basis, a loss of understanding and appreciation in the skills and resources necessary to create these products, and an associated disregard for the human and natural resources necessary for the products' creation. Therefore, renewing a value on place reconnects the company and the consumer with the people, geography, and culture of a particular location.

In the post-World War II years after 1945, unparalleled economic growth fueled a building boom and a massive migration from the central cities to the new suburban areas. The suburbs were far more dependent on the automobile, signaling the shift from primary dependence on public transportation to private cars. Soon this led to the construction of better highways and freeways and the decline and even loss of public transportation. With all of these changes came a privatization of leisure. As more people owned their own homes, with more space inside and lovely yards outside, their recreation and leisure time was increasingly centered around the home or, at most, the neighborhood. One major activity of this home-based leisure was watching television. No longer did one have to ride the trolly to the theater to watch a movie; similar entertainment was available for free and more conveniently from television.

Many people create and share pictures and videos on the Internet. The difficulty is finding what you want. Typically, people want to search using words (rather than, say, example sketches). Because most pictures don't come with words attached, it is natural to try and build tagging systems that tag images with relevant words. The underlying machinery is straightforward ― we apply image classification and object detection methods and tag the image with the output words. But tags aren't a comprehensive description of what is happening in an image. It matters who is doing what, and tags don't capture this. For example, tagging a picture of a cat in the street with the object categories cat, street, trash can and fish bones leaves out the information that the cat is pulling the fish bones out of an open trash can on the street.

An invention or discovery that is too far ahead of its time is worthless; no one can follow. Ideally, an innovation opens up only the next step from what is known and invites the culture to move forward one hop. An overly futuristic, unconventional, or visionary invention can fail initially (it may lack essential not-yet-invented materials or a critical market or proper understanding) yet succeed later, when the ecology of supporting ideas catches up. Gregor Mendel's 1865 theories of genetic heredity were correct but ignored for 35 years. His sharp insights were not accepted because they did not explain the problems biologists had at the time, nor did his explanation operate by known mechanisms, so his discoveries were out of reach even for the early adopters. Decades later science faced the urgent questions that Mendel's discoveries could answer. Now his insights were only one step away. Within a few years of one another, three different scientists each independently rediscovered Mendel's forgotten work, which of course had been there all along.

Prior to photography, places did not travel well. While painters have always lifted particular places out of their 'dwelling' and transported them elsewhere, paintings were time-consuming to produce, relatively difficult to transport and one-of-a-kind. The multiplication of photographs especially took place with the introduction of the half-tone plate in the 1880s that made possible the mechanical reproduction of photographs in newspapers, periodicals, books and advertisements. Photography became coupled to consumer capitalism and the globe was now offered 'in limitless quantities, figures, landscapes, events which had not previously been utilised either at all, or only as pictures for one customer'. With capitalism's arrangement of the world as a 'department store', 'the proliferation and circulation of representations ... achieved a spectacular and virtually inescapable global magnitude'. Gradually photographs became cheap massproduced objects that made the world visible, aesthetic and desirable. Experiences were 'democratised' by translating them into cheap images. Light, small and mass-produced photographs became dynamic vehicles for the spatiotemporal circulation of places.

Although organizations are offering telecommuting programs in greater numbers than ever before, acceptance and use of these programs are still limited by a number of factors. These factors include manager reliance on face-to-face management practices, lack of telecommuting training within an organization, misperceptions of and discomfort with flexible workplace programs, and a lack of information about the effects of telecommuting on an organization's bottom line. Despite these limitations, at the beginning of the 21st century, a new anytime, anywhere work culture is emerging. Continuing advances in information technology, the expansion of a global workforce, and increased desire to balance work and family are only three of the many factors that will gradually reduce the current barriers to telecommuting as a dominant workforce development. With implications for organizational cost savings, especially with regard to lower facility costs, increased employee flexibility, and productivity, telecommuting is increasingly of interest to many organizations.

The intuitive ability to classify and generalize is undoubtedly a useful feature of life and research, but it carries a high cost, such as in our tendency to stereotype generalizations about people and situations. For most people, the word stereotype arouses negative connotations: it implies a negative bias. But, in fact, stereotypes do not differ in principle from all other generalizations; generalizations about groups of people are not necessarily always negative. Intuitively and quickly, we mentally sort things into groups based on what we perceive the differences between them to be, and that is the basis for stereotyping. Only afterwards do we examine (or not examine) more evidence of how things are differentiated, and the degree and significance of the variations. Our brain performs these tasks efficiently and automatically, usually without our awareness. The real danger of stereotypes is not their inaccuracy, but their lack of flexibility and their tendency to be preserved, even when we have enough time to stop and consider.

Plants show finely tuned adaptive responses when nutrients are limiting. Gardeners may recognize yellow leaves as a sign of poor nutrition and the need for fertilizer. But if a plant does not have a caretaker to provide supplemental minerals, it can proliferate or lengthen its roots and develop root hairs to allow foraging in more distant soil patches. Plants can also use their memory to respond to histories of temporal or spatial variation in nutrient or resource availability. Research in this area has shown that plants are constantly aware of their position in the environment, in terms of both space and time. Plants that have experienced variable nutrient availability in the past tend to exhibit risk-taking behaviors, such as spending energy on root lengthening instead of leaf production. In contrast, plants with a history of nutrient abundance are risk averse and save energy. At all developmental stages, plants respond to environmental changes or unevenness so as to be able to use their energy for growth, survival, and reproduction, while limiting damage and nonproductive uses of their valuable energy.

The shift from analog to digital technology significantly influenced how music was produced. First and foremost, the digitization of sounds ― that is, their conversion into numbers ― enabled music makers to undo what was done. One could, in other words, twist and bend sounds toward something new without sacrificing the original version. This undo ability made mistakes considerably less momentous, sparking the creative process and encouraging a generally more experimental mindset. In addition, digitally converted sounds could be manipulated simply by programming digital messages rather than using physical tools, simplifying the editing process significantly. For example, while editing once involved razor blades to physically cut and splice audiotapes, it now involved the cursor and mouse-click of the computer-based sequencer program, which was obviously less time consuming. Because the manipulation of digitally converted sounds meant the reprogramming of binary information, editing operations could be performed with millisecond precision. This microlevel access at once made it easier to conceal any traces of manipulations (such as joining tracks in silent spots) and introduced new possibilities for manipulating sounds in audible and experimental ways.

Acknowledging the making of artworks does not require a detailed, technical knowledge of, say, how painters mix different kinds of paint, or how an image editing tool works. All that is required is a general sense of a significant difference between working with paints and working with an imaging application. This sense might involve a basic familiarity with paints and paintbrushes as well as a basic familiarity with how we use computers, perhaps including how we use consumer imaging apps. In the case of specialists such as art critics, a deeper familiarity with materials and techniques is often useful in reaching an informed judgement about a work. This is because every kind of artistic material or tool comes with its own challenges and affordances for artistic creation. Critics are often interested in the ways artists exploit different kinds of materials and tools for particular artistic effect. They are also interested in the success of an artist's attempt ― embodied in the artwork itself ― to push the limits of what can be achieved with certain materials and tools.

Research for historical fiction may focus on under-documented ordinary people, events, or sites. Fiction helps portray everyday situations, feelings, and atmosphere that recreate the historical context. Historical fiction adds flesh to the bare bones that historians are able to uncover and by doing so provides an account that while not necessarily true provides a clearer indication of past events, circumstances and cultures. Fiction adds color, sound, drama to the past, as much as it invents parts of the past. And Robert Rosenstone argues that invention is not the weakness of films, it is their strength. Fiction can allow users to see parts of the past that have never ― for lack of archives ― been represented. In fact, Gilden Seavey explains that if producers of historical fiction had strongly held the strict academic standards, many historical subjects would remain unexplored for lack of appropriate evidence. Historical fiction should, therefore, not be seen as the opposite of professional history, but rather as a challenging representation of the past from which both public historians and popular audiences may learn.

One reason we think we forget most of what we learned in school is that we underestimate what we actually remember. Other times, we know we remember something, but we don't recognize that we learned it in school. Knowing where and when you learned something is usually called context information, and context is handled by different memory processes than memory for the content. Thus, it's quite possible to retain content without remembering the context. For example, if someone mentions a movie and you think to yourself that you heard it was terrible but can't remember where you heard that, you're recalling the content, but you've lost the context. Context information is frequently easier to forget than content, and it's the source of a variety of memory illusions. For instance, people are unconvinced by a persuasive argument if it's written by someone who is not very credible (e.g., someone with a clear financial interest in the topic). But in time, readers' attitudes, on average, change in the direction of the persuasive argument. Why? Because readers are likely to remember the content of the argument but forget the source ― someone who is not credible. If remembering the source of knowledge is difficult, you can see how it would be easy to conclude you don't remember much from school.

In July, people in the city often escaped to relax in the mountains. Sean didn't yet know it, but he was about to have the experience of a lifetime. When I look around, all I see is the work I haven't finished and the bills I haven't paid, he complained over the phone to his friend and doctor, Alex. Concerned about Sean, he said, You've been stressed for weeks. Come see me for medical treatment if things don't improve. Upon hearing this offer, Sean replied, Thanks, but I know just the treatment I need. He told his friend about the Vincent Mountain hike he had read about. Alex anxiously warned, Even in the summer, hiking can be dangerous. Don't forget your safety checklist. Following his friend's words, he added protective gear to his camping equipment. Sean put on his hiking clothes and tied up his boots. He almost forgot his new hiking sticks as he walked out the door with his dog, Toby. Having hiked for several hours, Sean was thrilled to reach the top of Vincent Mountain. As Toby started to bark, Sean turned around and found him running toward a large pond. What a nice, quiet place, Sean whispered to himself. Among the trees, he could ease the stress of recent weeks. As night approached, however, the wind blew fiercely. Sean became nervous. Unable to sleep, he called to his companion, Come here, Boy! He held the dog close in an effort to ignore the fear rushing in. After what felt like the longest night of Sean's life, the sky finally turned a beautiful shade of pink, and the warm sun shone around him. He packed up his equipment, enjoying his last moments in the mountain air. Finding Toby energetically running next to the campsite, Sean said, You must be as excited as I am after surviving a night like that! Sean went down the mountain with a renewed sense of joy, and he exclaimed, My treatment worked like a charm!