Apple Promotes Watch as a Luxury Item

Apple has scrapped its usual routine for releasing products with its new device, the Apple Watch. The company is instead taking a page from the playbook of another industry: luxury goods makers.
Gone are the long lines in front of Apple stores that would accompany a typical iPhone release. Gone is the flooding of a vast worldwide distribution network where Apple would make a new iPhone available. The company is selling the Apple Watch, which goes on sale on Friday, in just nine countries and exclusively through its own channels, not through third-party retailers like Best Buy. In contrast, Apple unveiled new iPhones in September in more than 30 countries and in numerous retail outlets.
 For the first time, Apple is also bringing personal attention and tailoring into the mix through a process for trying on the watch. While consumers typically couldn’t touch a new Apple device until it was publicly available, the company this month began inviting customers into its stores to see, wear and feel the watch

Evan Weissbrot, a 33-year-old watch collector, experienced the sneak preview firsthand. After he arrived at the Apple Store in SoHo on April 11, an Apple employee took Mr. Weissbrot to a station and unlocked a drawer containing a variety of the watches. In between small talk, the employee showed Mr. Weissbrot different straps and cases — and even let him check out the gold watch, which costs more than $10,000 and typically requires a separate appointment to try on.

The amount of personal attention and the allure of the process “was a rip directly from a high-end watch store,” Mr. Weissbrot said.

All of this echoes the tactics of luxury goods makers like Burberry and Hermès. Giving consumers an early peek before they buy things is a familiar strategy in the fashion industry — as, increasingly, is tempting early adopters with the bonus of circumventing the shop. When Burberry shows new lines of clothing and handbags on the runway, the company lets customers order select items immediately after the show for delivery even before the products arrive in stores.

Apple also appears to be mimicking the scarcity-creates-desire approach, one that has served Hermès well with items like the Birkin and Kelly bags. They are rarely in stock, and customers sometimes wait months to receive one. That strategy has also worked for companies like Ferrari, which has loyal customers who pay thousands of dollars just to get on a list to wait as long as a year to own the next hot Italian sports car.

“They’re definitely treading on new territory,” Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the research firm the Luxury Institute, said of Apple. While high-end fashion brands, jewelers and luxury car brands often use selectivity and personal attention to generate interest when a product makes its debut, it is new for Apple, a company whose products typically speak to an enormous consumer audience as opposed to a privileged few, he said.

The strategy is a deliberate move by Timothy D. Cook, chief executive of Apple, and Angela Ahrendts, the company’s retail chief and a former chief executive of Burberry, to lay the groundwork for a successful introduction of the watch. The watch is the first entirely new device Apple has introduced under the leadership of Mr. Cook, who took the helm in 2011, and brings the company into the fashion market, as well as the luxury market, with the 18-karat gold version of the watch.

In a recent letter to Apple’s retail employees, Ms. Ahrendts said the company needed to come up with the preview approach for selling the watch because “there’s never been anything quite like it.” In the memo, which was cited by the blog 9to5Mac, she said it was unlikely that people could buy the watch at Apple stores before June because of supply constraints.

An Apple spokeswoman, Amy Bessette, said Ms. Ahrendts was not available to comment on the retail strategy for the watch.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/technology/personaltech/changing-tactics-apple-promotes-watch-as-a-luxury-item.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0 

Write 200 words why you would or wouldn´t like to buy this gadget.

Ten of the best time-saving lifehacks

You’re late for your meeting… and your phone is at home, your wallet’s missing and only your small children/dog/grandma have a clue where your work badge might be at the moment.
If you’re time-poor, you should really make time to read this article. To find out how to stay focused and get organised, we went to question and answer site Quora for some tips on the best day-to-day time-saving lifehacks.
Fives and notebooks
Designer and entrepreneur Marius Ursache wears headphones to stay on task and believes sleep, food and exercise can triple output. “The biggest cure for procrastination is to set your goal not to finish a scary, big, hairy task, but to just work 5 minutes on it. You'll find out that most (of the) time it continues well beyond the 5 minutes,” he said.
Oh, and write everything down.  “Your memory sucks. Get everything out of your head even if you're a genius. Write it down in a notebook, put it in your to do-list app on your phone, talk to Siri.”
Contrary to many Quora users’ advice Ursache ditched the online tools. “Routine beats tools. You need discipline, and this means for me two things: I plan my day first thing in the morning, and I write a short daily log every day. This helps me stay sane, prioritise well, scrap useless tasks, and do what matters. This saves me hours.”
Use your tools wisely
While computer science PhD student, Jun He, disagreed. Online tools define his approach. Rather than a timer He uses Chinese software, ‘Eyefoo’ which locks his PC screen after a given time interval plus Evernote for note taking. He added ‘StayFocused’, an add-on tool for web browser, Google Chrome because it blocks user-defined websites over a certain time period. “I used to randomly click bookmarks and get lost. With it, now I don't. I also use it to block Gmail in the morning.”
Jan Lustro advised clearing your inbox by focusing on the most important material. “Set up rules to automatically send less important content such as newsletters, blog updates etcetera to read later folders, so you aren't tempted to read them when you are busy,” she wrote.  “You can also use rules to automatically delete, forward or send an automated response. Use the 'Mark as Spam' option for any junk that gets through your automatic spam filter. And unsubscribe from mail outs you find yourself regularly deleting without reading, she said.
Process, process, progress
While Bernhard Grabowski a self-employed German, applies his working process for everything from chores to admin. He suggested structuring tasks that can “complete themselves after you've started them.”
He gives household chores as an example. “Load up laundry before you go shower. Move laundry to the dryer after shower, wash next batch. Remove laundry after breakfast from the dryer and load the next batch,” Grabowski wrote. “You'll already have a nice head start for this task on this day. You can basically save most time by doing things in the right order.”
Another of his tricks: “Never walk empty (handed). There's always something that needs to be somewhere (like in the car or taken out of the car, trash), therefore always ‘enrich’ your tiny commuting tasks at home by moving (one) thing to its destination on the way.”
What do you do to do all the things you have to do? (200 words)

Why we're obsessed with happiness

As humans, we're consumed by questions of happiness. We have been at least since we started writing literature, about 5,000 years ago.

As individuals, we typically start to think about happiness as adolescents, when we come to self-consciousness.

Happiness enters our consciousness anxiously. It involves nagging questions like "Am I happy?" or "Why am I unhappy?" We ask, "How can I be happy?" 

These questions are related to still more fundamental questions: "Why am I alive? Why do loved ones die? Why am I born to die? What is the purpose of life? Is there a purpose in life?"

Questions of happiness are never simply questions about subjective well-being -- they're that, but they're also questions about the big questions in life, the ultimate questions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/16/opinions/potkay-search-for-happiness/index.html

In the film "The sound of music", there is a song which is related to the topic, listen and read:

 

 Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with strings,
these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels,
door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings.
these are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,
snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
silver white winters that melt into springs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with strings,
these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels,
door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings.
these are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,
snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
silver white winters that melt into springs,
these are a few of my favorite things.

When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IagRZBvLtw

These things made her happy, what are the things that make you happy? (Don´t mention unmentionable things...)

The Pope's old iPad sells for $30,500

It seems iPads hold their value pretty well, especially if they have papal connections

One that Pope Francis once owned just sold for $30,500, according to Castells, an auction house in Uruguay.

The Apple tablet had all the personal touches.

"His Holiness Francisco" and "Vatican Internet Service, March 2013" were engraved on the back in Spanish and Italian. It also came with a keyboard and a certificate signed by the Pope's personal secretary.

It's not the first time a papal hand-me-down has gone for big bucks.

Last year, the Pope donated a Harley-Davidson that he was given to charity.

The motorcycle sold for $284,000 at auction, more than 10 times its normal sales price. A Harley motorcycle jacket signed by Francis sold for nearly $68,000.

Whose iPad would you like to have and why? (200 words)

India students caught 'cheating' in exams in Bihar

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31960557
This is the link for this post, too shocking for me to write about it, but you must write 200 words about the disadvantages of cheating in an exam.

Indian bridegroom dumped over failed maths test

An Indian bride has walked out of her wedding after her bridegroom-to-be failed to solve a simple maths problem, according to police in Uttar Pradesh.

The bride asked the groom to add 15 and six. When he replied 17, she called off the marriage.
Reports say the groom's family tried to convince the bride to return, but she refused saying the man was illiterate.
Local police said they mediated between the families, and both sides returned all the gifts given before the wedding.
Most marriages in India are arranged by the families, and it is common for a bride and groom to get married without spending time in each other's company.
A police official of Rasoolabad village where the incident happened told BBC Hindi that local resident Mohar Singh had fixed his daughter Lovely's wedding to a man called Ram Baran.
"But just before the marriage ceremony Lovely came to know that Ram Baran is illiterate and she refused to marry," he said.
 Mohar Singh told the Associated Press news agency that the "groom's family had kept us in the dark about his poor education".
"Even a first grader can answer this [the maths test]," he said.
Last month, another bride in Uttar Pradesh married a guest at her wedding after her groom-to-be had a seizure and collapsed.
Reports said the groom was epileptic and he had kept the information from the bride and her family.

What are the main features a person must have to be your partner forever? 200 words

1795 time capsule opened

More than 200 years after Samuel Adams and Paul Revere first buried it in Boston, it took an hour to remove all the objects crammed inside a tiny time capsule.

Onlookers anxiously watched the unveiling Tuesday, worrying the items might not have weathered the years very well.

"Could we actually go through the whole box, or would things prove too fragile to take out?" said Malcolm Rogers, director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. "It was like brain surgery, with history looking down on us."

Piece by piece, Pam Hatchfield, head of objects conservation for the museum, removed each item, whispering "wow" as she first caught a glimpse of some of them.

Among the stash Hatchfield removed from the 1795 time capsule: Five folded newspapers, a Massachusetts commonwealth seal, a title page from Massachusetts colony records and at least 24 coins.

 http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/11/us/boston-time-capsule-paul-revere-sam-adams/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

What would you put inside a time capsule and why? Write 200 words

CNNGo in Seville: Tapas, DJs and the best sunset view

Seville (CNN)"Go to the street" is a common saying in Seville, because that's where the real action lies in the capital of southern Spain's Andalusia region.

This month, CNNGo heads to the vibrant city to sample its street life -- and the meals from breakfast to late night tapas that feed its daily eating out rituals.

From its Roman origins more than 2,000 years ago to a tangle of Moorish and Christian influences, Seville has a rich history, which explains the city's layers of enchanting architecture.

Sevillianos work hard to stay true to the city's flamboyant reputation as the center of the flamenco scene.

They also take pride in enjoying slow living.

Here are five of the locations in the show:

Plaza de Espana and Maria Luisa Park

 Built as the centerpiece of the Ibero-American Expo of 1929, the plaza and its impressive building stretches around a 500-meter canal crossed by four bridges.

Small boats can be rented to row around the Plaza, or visitors can hop on a horse carriage and ride through the adjoining Maria Luisa Park, the greenest area of Seville.

Plaza de Espana is also known from several Hollywood movies.

It's been used over the decades as a location for films such as "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Star Wars."

Plaza de Espana and Maria Luisa Park, Seville, Spain

Metropol Parasol

The Metropol Parasol started as a controversial project to revitalize a parking lot at Seville's Plaza del Encarnacion and to provide a gateway into the city's northern half.

The 30-meter-high structure sits in stark contrast to the surrounding traditional buildings, towering over them like giant fungi, earning it the nickname "Las Setas" -- the mushrooms.

The Parasol acts as a welcome relief from the sun in the summer months and protects the Roman ruins underneath the building that were only discovered during excavations.

From the rooftop, there's an unrivaled 360-degree view of the city.

Metropol Parasol, Plaza de la Encarnacion and Avenida de María Luisa, Seville, Spain; +34 606 63 5214

EME Catedral Hotel Rooftop Terrace

 This five-star modern boutique hotel in the heart of the city has a rooftop bar that looks directly onto Seville's most iconic landmark -- the Cathedral, or Catedral de Sevilla.

The EME terrace is the perfect spot to watch the sun go down and enjoy a cocktail to the beats of resident DJs.

EME Catedral Hotel Rooftop Terrace, Calle Alemanes 27, Seville, Spain; +34 954 56 0000

Red House Art & Food

 Known as a creative art space, this cafe and performance venue is unique in Seville.

Almost everything is for sale -- from the prints on the walls to the comfy sofas where customers spread out to enjoy afternoon coffee and cake.

Products in the cafe are almost all locally produced.

It has a trendy alternative feel when the DJ arrives and a new crowd settles in for the evening.

Red House Art & Food, Calle Amor de Dios 7, Seville, Spain; +34 692 23 9404

Mamarracha Tapas Bar

 One of the hottest tapas bars in town is abuzz with Sevillianos and tourists who keep coming back for the fashionable cuisine.

It has a modern yet rustic interior style with a featured garden wall.

The owners -- Argentinian Juan Manuel Garcia and his partner Andaluza Genoveva Torres Ruiz -- have worked for many international names including Gordon Ramsay in Los Angeles.

Mamarracha Tapas Bar, Calle Hernando Colon, 1, Seville, Spain; 
 http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/11/travel/cnngo-in-seville/index.html?hpt=travel_hp_row1right

Where do you usually go to have tapas in Seville? Which Spànish restaurants do you go to?

How extreme fear shapes what we remember

Many of us will experience a significant trauma in our lives, says Lesley Evans Ogden. Yet could there be ways to avoid reliving the memories?
t was no ordinary honeymoon. After boarding their flight in Canada on the evening of 23 August 2001, newlyweds Margaret McKinnon and her husband were heading for Lisbon, Portugal. As Air Transat flight 236 soared over the mid-Atlantic, McKinnon went to the lavatory. Nothing inside it was working. “It seemed odd,” she says, but she didn't think a lot of it.
Returning to her seat, the crew served breakfast, but then announced that they would be making an emergency landing. She remembers thinking it seemed early to be arriving in Lisbon. “I didn't really understand at the time what that meant,” she says. She soon found out. Crew instructed passengers to put on their life jackets. The lights flickered, then extinguished. The cabin depressurised. Oxygen masks deployed.
The plane’s systems had shut down after a catastrophic leakage of fuel. “They were shouting that we would be ditching into the ocean,” McKinnon recalls.
After a half hour of preparing for the worst, McKinnon recalls somebody yelling that they’d made it to land. It was the Azores, an isolated archipelago some 850 miles (1,360km) off the Portuguese coast. The pilots had established contact with Lajes, a joint military-civilian air base. Following a harrowing 360 degree spin and several sharp turns to reduce altitude, the crew shouted “brace, brace, brace” as the officers brought the plane to a bumpy landing. Fires licked across the plane’s wheels.The stunned passengers and crew descended escape slides and ran across a field to a safe distance, towards American soldiers with guns. Two serious and 16 minor injuries were sustained during evacuation down the chutes, but all 293 passengers and 13 crew survived.
But for many the flight didn’t end there. For some – including McKinnon – the terrifying experience replayed vividly as intrusive memories and nightmares in the months that followed.
The experience inspired McKinnon, now a clinical psychologist, to study what trauma does to the brain – how it changes what we remember and why some people experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In recent years, she and a number of other researchers have been trying to understand what makes fearful experiences seem to become imprinted so deeply in our brains. And if they can understand why trauma has such a profound and lasting effect on us, perhaps they can find ways to help people cope better with the aftermath.
Fearful imprint
The link between fear and memory has intrigued researchers and clinicians for decades. Yet the data is conflicting. “Some studies have found that during the recollection of traumatic events, recollection is enhanced. It's very vivid, people recall many details, and people don't seem to have difficulty remembering,” says McKinnon. Other studies have found that recollection of traumatic events can be very impoverished and fragmented, with “a detail here, a detail there, that don't really fit together”, she explains.
More:  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150205-how-extreme-fear-shapes-the-mind

Tell me the worst experience in your life. 200 words

Bleep blorp: New Japanese hotel to be staffed by robots

We're not sure if the robotic staff at a planned hotel in Japan will be tucking guests into their beds at night, but they'll be performing plenty of other traditional hospitality tasks.

Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park modeled after the Netherlands in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture, has announced plans to open a hotel with robot staff and other advanced technologies.

The hotel will be called Henn-na Hotel, which translates as Strange Hotel.

According to the park, the first phrase of the two-story hotel will open on July 17 with 72 rooms.

The second phrase will be completed in 2016 with an additional 72 rooms.

Operating under the motto "A commitment for evolution," the hotel will feature three "actroids" (robots with strong human likeness) that will act as receptionists. 

 hey'll be able to engage in intelligent conversations with human guests.

The hotel will also employ four service and porter robots, and others engaged in menial tasks such as cleaning.

High-tech features keep prices low

"We'll make the most efficient hotel in the world," boasts huis Ten Bosch Hideo Sawada

Sawada says he hopes robots will eventually run 90% of the property.

"In the future, we're hoping to build 1,000 similar hotels around the world," says Sawada, according to Japan Nikkei´s News

Other features will help make Henn-na the most futuristic low-cost hotel in the industry, according to the company.

Guestroom doors will be accessed by facial-recognition technology.

Amenities provided in rooms will be kept minimal. Guests can request items through a tablet when needed.

Instead of air-conditioning, a radiation panel will detect body heat in rooms and adjust the temperature.

Solar power and other energy-saving features will be used to reduce operating costs.

Bid for your room

Room rates will vary depending on demand.

Instead of being presented with a fixed price, guests will bid for rooms during peak season. The highest bidders will secure rooms, though there will be a price cap on bidding.

The hotel says room fees at opening will be from JPY7,000 ($60) for a single room to JPY18,000 ($153), the highest possible price after bidding, for a triple room.

Superior and deluxe rooms will cost more.

Guests can already reserve rooms online through the hotel's website.

How would a school staffed by robots be?  200 words

Be my valentine!!!!

A current of excited energy collects in the air as hands clutching bouquets of red roses and pink greeting cards rush by. It’s February 14th, Valentine’s Day in the United States, a day devoted to love.
Americans celebrate the holiday in a variety of ways, though offering small tokens of affection like flowers and sugary confections is most common.
In many U.S. elementary schools, for example, students use craft items like colored markers, construction paper and glue to fashion handmade cards for their parents. The children also distribute candy and small Valentine’s Day cards to other students in class. The small cards often display a contemporary theme valued by the child, such as a beloved pop singer or favorite cartoon character.
Sending “candygrams” is another popular Valentine’s Day activity. Prevalent among secondary school and college students, candygrams are sweets like heart-shaped lollipops or boxes of chocolate. Students purchase the candy beforehand, then the goods are delivered to their friends on Valentine’s Day. Candygrams may include a heartfelt note or remain anonymous. The sale’s proceeds normally go toward funding student activities like a class gift or spring dance.
Older adults commemorate the holiday in more traditional ways. Sending Valentine’s Day cards to friends and loved ones remains the most widespread custom. Americans send more greeting cards on Valentine’s Day than any other holiday except Christmas.
Americans also give their loved ones flowers. While red roses have been the traditional front-runner, more Americans are choosing alternatives like red tulips or lilies.
And what would a holiday be without food? While some couples enjoy a special meal at their favorite restaurant, most American couples give their significant others boxes of chocolates.
But the feelings of love and appreciation extend beyond couples. Some Americans treat their relatives, friends and even pets to little tokens of affection on Valentine’s Day.
Like many American customs, the traditions of Valentine’s Day trace back to earlier times and other cultures. Named after St. Valentine, this romantic holiday has roots in Christianity. The Catholic Church recognizes three different St. Valentines, all martyred in ancient times. Consequently, there are several theories about St. Valentine’s life and how he became associated with love and the month of February.
According to one legend, a Roman emperor declared young men could not marry — he thought single men made better soldiers. Despite the decree, St. Valentine continued to marry young couples. After learning of this defiance, the emperor sentenced St. Valentine to death.
Another tale paints a different picture. This story claims St. Valentine was sentenced to death for helping Christians escape from harsh Roman prisons. While awaiting execution, Valentine fell in love with the jailor’s daughter. Before his death, he supposedly sent her a love note signed “from your Valentine.”
The authenticity of these legends is questionable. We do know that one of the Valentines, Valentine of Rome, was buried on February 14, which is how the date came to be associated with his name.
February was also significant to the ancient Romans. They held a fertility festival during the middle of the month. This is the earliest merging between February and romantic sentiment, although the holiday’s evolution from a religious observation to a romantic celebration occurred mainly during the Middle Ages. At that time, there was a common belief that February 14 marked the beginning of bird mating season. This association between the birds’ mating habits and St. Valentine’s Day resulted in the romantic undertones we know today.


Write a love letter to a member of your family or to your beloved. 200 words.

Watch This Guy Speak 9 Languages Like A Native

Matthew Youlden speaks nine languages fluently and understands more than a dozen more. He’s what is known as a polyglot, a member of the multilingual elite who speaks six or more languages fluently. He’s also a sociolinguist who studies the revitalization of minority languages. But to see him in action on a daily basis – deftly and comfortably talking to native-speakers in their own languages – suggests that he’s more than a polyglot. Matthew, who is originally from Manchester, England, is a language chameleon: Germans think he’s German, Spaniards think he’s Spanish, Brazilians think he’s Portuguese (he proudly speaks the good-old European variety).
By his own account, Matthew has mastered a staggering number of languages by utilizing abilities that we all possess: persistence, enthusiasm and open-mindedness. If your classic polyglot is an über-nerd who studies languages full-time, then Matthew is something different. His version of multilingualism doesn’t isolate him in an ivory tower; it connects him to people all over the world. According to Matthew, the more languages you speak, the more points of view you have:
“I think each language has a certain way of seeing the world. If you speak one language then you have a different way of analyzing and interpreting the world than the speaker of another language does. Even if they’re really closely-related languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, which are to a certain extent mutually intelligible, they are at the same time two different worlds – two different mindsets.
“Therefore, having learned other languages and been surrounded by other languages, I couldn’t possibly choose only one language because it would mean really renouncing the possibility to be able to see the world in a different way. Not in one way, but in many different ways. So the monolingual lifestyle, for me, is the saddest, the loneliest, the most boring way of seeing the world. There are so many advantages of learning a language; I really can’t think of any reason not to.”
Watch the video above to see him flex his skills in Irish, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Hebrew and German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z-tTFKra3Ik
Write your opinión. 200words

Why This Alligator Lived in a Los Angeles Family's Backyard for 37 Years

A Los Angeles family says they are heartbroken that a “beloved” 8-foot-long alligator they have raised for 37 years since it was a baby was taken away by L.A. City Animal Services.

The investigation into the illegal pet started late last year when Animal Services received a complaint, the agency said. They weren’t able to find the alligator at the time and believed it was relocated, so they decided to do a surprise visit at a later time, Commander Mark Salazar told ABC News today.

The surprise happened Monday after the agency received a new tip from a neighbor reporting an alligator in the backyard of a house in Van Nuys. 

 he homeowners told ABC News that they refused to let the officers come in because they said they wanted to protect their pet. However, after obtaining a search warrant, officers discovered Jaxson, an 8-foot-long alligator in a box under leaves.

She was bought from a pet store in 1977 and considered a pet and family member, owner Laura Mattson told ABC News.

But there was another surprise.

"What was disturbing was that there were two small animal carcasses that appeared to be cats in the box,” Salazar said. 

Mattson said she has cats of her own and even takes care of feral cats, but she has never fed Jaxson cats.

“I don’t like the fact people are insinuating Jaxson ate cats in the neighborhood,” Mattson told us. “She was perfectly docile.”

Her brother, Ron Gorecki, who also lived in the house with Jaxson, said they only fed Jaxson meat from the groceries.

“We fed her chicken legs, hot dogs, turkey,” he told ABC News. “No live food. No kittens. No cats.”

The siblings said that they believe that feral cats are being poisoned and that two must have wandered into Jaxson’s box and died in there sick from poison.

Salazar said he remains skeptical. He is asking anyone who has lost small pets over the past few decades in the area to come to them with information for the ongoing investigation.

Jaxson has since been captured with the help of reptile experts from the Los Angeles Zoo. The 37-year-old alligator is currently in the quarantine area of the zoo, a spokeswoman said.

The owners are facing citations for maintaining a wild animal without proper care and maintenance, and without proper permits. They could face further criminal charges as well, Salazar said.

It is illegal to keep wildlife without permits in Los Angeles.

Gorecki said that he and his sister want to work with the zoo to make sure Jaxson gets the perfect home.

“We’re going to keep calling and visiting the L.A. Zoo to make sure we still see her and stay in contact with her because we love her. We’ll always love her.”

Have you got a pet? Would you like to have one? Write 200 words about it

Should tourists be banned from Antarctica?

This season around 37,000 tourists are expected to visit Antarctica - home to about 20 million pairs of breeding penguins. But is it ethically acceptable to go on holiday to such a pristine environment?

Enfolded in two glacial arms the bay before us sparkles ultramarine, the water flecked with ice-lilies and dotted with bits of floating icebergs.
A sheer cliff towers dark above us, flanked by snow slopes as pure white as the glistening fronts of the little Adelie penguins whose spectacled eyes peer curiously around as they waddle and toboggan about their business just a few feet away.
This is Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula and togged up in layer upon layer of fleece, topped with vivid red wetskins I am all too aware that this is not my habitat.
Which begs the question: Should I be here? Am I, just by setting foot on this extraordinary continent, disturbing a pristine environment and polluting the last great wilderness on earth?
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30709924
What is your opinion?

In search of a personalised diet

Forget the latest weight-loss fad - science may already have worked out what diet is best for you. Experts say a personalised approach could transform the way people lose weight.

January is a month when many go on a post-Christmas purge and start dieting. It's also the month when many fail and go back to their bad eating habits.
Scientists say this isn't just down to a lack of willpower. It is due to a person's individual make-up - their genes, hormones and psychology.
The latest weight-loss theory is that instead of reaching for a one-size-fits-all diet, people should follow one that is tailored to their individual needs.
For the first time leading obesity experts and BBC Science have put this theory to the test nationally. Over three months, 75 dieters were put through a series of tests and monitored at home. The study was overseen by scientists from Oxford and Cambridge and their research teams.
 The study looked at three types of overeaters. Feasters who find it hard to stop eating once they start, constant cravers who feel hungry all of the time and emotional eaters who turn to food when they get stressed or anxious.
The study looked at three types of overeaters. Feasters who find it hard to stop eating once they start, constant cravers who feel hungry all of the time and emotional eaters who turn to food when they get stressed or anxious.
If you want to read the whole article:  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30709297
What do you think of diets? Write more than 200 words on it.

Desk hacks: Must-have gadgets

If a grey office cubicle leaves you feeling unmotivated, you're not alone.
Simply by customising your workspace to your own tastes, you can improve your job satisfaction and morale, studies show. In fact, allowing employees to personalise their work environment can positively impact a company's bottom line by increasing productivity and reducing staff turnover, noted a 2007 study Workplace Personalization and Organizational Culture.
A 2010 study from two occupational psychologists at the University of Exeter found that employees who were permitted to decorate their small office as they wished were more productive than those who had no control of their area's appearance.
Whether you have a corner office or an open desk in a cubicle farm, there are plenty of ways to incorporate your own personal style that go beyond adding a bobble head figurine or a few picture frames. If creativity, fitness or ergonomics is your thing, you can transform your work area from a basic space into a mini art, entertainment or fitness center — no standing desk treadmills required.
How would you decorate your class or your desk? 200 words

Gap year for grown-ups?

Soon after he turned 50, Mark Perriton realised he needed a change.
“I was pretty miserable,” said the former managing director of an office refurbisher. “I was turning up for work ... not feeling fully engaged ... going through the process of working and living. Eventually I looked in the mirror and said I want to change something.”
That change came in the form of several months off and a nearly round-the-world cycling trip taking in parts of North and South America and South East Asia.
“I have come back and now I am much more enthusiastic and focused than I was before,” Perriton said.
He now works as a consultant in the same industry, making as much money as he did before but working just eight months each year. He uses his free months to pursue his passions, skiing and cycling.
Perriton is just one of many senior executives who take time off work, often to rethink their careers or sometimes simply to recharge their batteries, eschewing the idea that if you’re gone from the game, you’ll quickly be forgotten.
Indeed, career break numbers are rising according to Susan Griffith, author of Gap Years for Grown Ups, partly because “50- and 60-somethings are feeling far more fit and adventurous than in previous generations”, she said.
She predicts that reports of recovering job markets “will inspire more to step off the treadmill” because people will have less fear of joblessness upon their return. Dan Clements, author of Escape 101: The Four Secrets to Taking a Sabbatical or Career Break Without Losing Your Money or Your Mind, agrees.
He said, anecdotally, economic growth is leading to a rise in so-called 'elective sabbaticals' where executives choose to take a step back from their careers – just like Perriton. What’s more, people who are more established in their careers and have risen the ranks in their industry are more likely to have the financial means to take a break, often funding them with savings and investments built up over the course of a successful career.

 What would you do in a gap year? Write about it in 200 words

Good Omens: How Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett wrote a book

Cult novel Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, has been adapted for radio. Here Neil Gaiman tells the story of how it came to be written.
Terry took the first 5,000 words and typed them into his word processor, and by the time he had finished they were the first 10,000 words. Terry had borrowed all the things about me that he thought were amusing, like my tendency back then to wear sunglasses even when it wasn't sunny, and given them, along with a vintage Bentley, to Crawleigh, who had now become Crowley. The Satanic Nurses were Satanic Nuns.
The book was under way.
We wrote the first draft in about nine weeks. Nine weeks of gloriously long phone calls, in which we would read each other what we'd written, and try to make the other one laugh. We'd plot, delightedly, and then hurry off the phone, determined to get to the next good bit before the other one could. We'd rewrite each other, footnote each other's pages, sometimes even footnote each other's footnotes.
We would throw characters in, hand them off when we got stuck. We finished the book and decided we would only tell people a little about the writing process - we would tell them that Agnes Nutter was Terry's, and the Four Horsemen (and the Other Four Motorcyclists) were mine.

The second draft took about four months, as we took what we'd done and did our very best to make it look like we knew what had been doing all along. Pepper became a girl, and so did War. I went to stay with Terry at the end of the book, to patch it all together and make sure it worked, and slept in his spare room. The window was open, and there was a dovecote nearby. When he woke me that morning, the air of the bedroom was filled with fluttering white doves. I assumed this always happened in the Pratchett household, but he said it was only me.
All that remained was to find a title for the book we'd written. I suggested Good Omens, Terry liked The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. We compromised, or rather, we collaborated, and we had a title and a subtitle.

If you had to write a book, what would it be about? Write 200 words.

The world´s most famous christmas tree

Is there any special tradition in your family for Christmas? Write 200words about it.

The hidden motives behind workplace perks

Ryan Schaffer watched the sun rise over the mountains of northern Portugal from the terrace of a refurbished medieval monastery. He sipped his espresso, took his time getting ready, then headed down to join his workmates for their regular morning meeting.
Yes, his workmates.

They chatted for a while before heading to various corners of the 15th century building with their laptops. It’s all in a day’s work for employees of San Francisco-based Expensify, a start-up specialising in the less-than-glamorous world of expense report management.

Every year the six-year-old company offers its approximately 50 employees the opportunity to be flown to a different country to travel and work for a month. Destinations have included Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia, India and, this year, Portugal.

“We spent a week in Lisbon, Porto, [in a] monastery called Pousada de Amares, an hour from Braga and Lagos,” explained Schaffer, the 27-year-old director of marketing and strategy at Expensify. The trip took people around much of Portugal.
There was, he said, generally no fixed place to work, with 35 employees scattered across various Airbnb lodgings, some with their partners and families. The trip also included nightly informal meals with colleagues and a weekly company dinner.
“People are sceptical when we say we work hard during our offshore month, but truly we work more that month than we do when we're back in the States,” Schaffer said.

Where would you like to be taken to travel and work for a month by la Preu?Why? Answer with 200 words.