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The World Pipe Band Championships will take place in Glasgow on Saturday. Over 120 of the world’s best pipe bands will compete at the championships. Over 4,000 pipers and drummers are expected to descend on the city for the annual event. It will take place at the Saint James Playing Fields in Glasgow on Saturday, 18 May from 10:00 am until 7:00 pm. The event is free. Also, a free shuttle bus will run between the event car parks and the competition site.Shuttle buses will run every 15 minutes from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm.[2]Glasgow City Council says it is estimated to bring 300,000 pounds to the local economy. The first World Pipe Band Championships were held in Edinburgh in 1947.The event first took place in Glasgow in 1948. It has been held regularly in Glasgow since 1986.
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Summer doesn’t begin for two more days, but scientists are already sounding the alarm about dangerous ice melts going on right now in Greenland. The vast island usually locks away enough fresh water in its ice sheet, which if melted, can raise global sea levels by 6 metres. And research shows that in recent years, its ice has melted faster than ever before. This month, as temperatures in northwestern Greenland approached all-time highs, researchers are encountering unusual, surprising levels of melting ice in the region. The most significant concern here is how early this is all happening. [4] Greenland experiences annual ice melt and growth cycles. But this year, the melt ing season began in early May. That’s a month earlier than normal and something that’s happened only once before in the historical record in 2016. That means that not only is the ice melting very fast, it has more time to melt this summer than it would in a normal climate system. Longer melt seasons like this one seem to lead to much greater contributions to sea level rise than in previous decades.
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Bundles containing thousands of pounds in cash keep turning up on the streets of Blackhall Colliery in northern England, according to police. Residents of the village have been coming across bundles of £20 notes, usually worth £2,000, in the former mining village in County Durham. The latest discovery was on Monday, meaning four of these cash bundles have been handed in this year and t hirteen since 2014. The bundles are usually left in plain sight and had been scattered across the small coastal village. [6]The owner has two weeks to collect the cash, which is then returned to the finder if not claimed, according to Peterlee Police. A Durham police spokesperson said the money has been returned to the lucky finders, in all cases, except yesterday. Policeman John Foster said in a statement:“The circumstances remain a mystery so we would welcome any information that will help us get to the bottom of these random incidents.”[7] He told The Northern Echo,“it isn’t an affluent part of the world, so for them to find cash of that amount and instantly think about taking it to the police stations shows the community spirit there is.”
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W: It’s your birthday next week. What have you got planned?
M: I’m not sure. [8]I often feel strange on my birthday. It’s like my brain decides to have a crisis.
W: It’s not entirely unusual to feel anxious or sad around your birthday. Birthdays can tap into a lot of things people worry about, including their achievements in life, in the past decade or their accomplishments of the past year.[9]Many begin to search for the meaning of their existence, leading to behaviors such as ending or starting a relationship or plans like starting a vigorous diet or fitness program.
M: I have wonderful friends.[10] And I love celebrating their birthdays, but I don’t like being the center of attention,receiving gifts and having a fuss made. It seems to trigger a type of social anxiety. I think social media, too, can intensify things as birthdays now play out more publicly. Birthday reminders can be helpful, but I kind of worry Iwon’t be able to drum up my own day and show it to look as exciting as it is supposed to be.
W: Well, to deal with the birthday blues, you should not isolate yourself. It’s best to gradually face your birthday with people you trust. That would help you learn self-acceptance or that it’s okay to be the focus.
M: Perhaps. Or I could perceive my birthday as an opportunity to do something for others like asking people to make a donation instead of buying a gift.
W: Exactly.[11]Or even simply see your birthday as an opportunity to bring people together for them to have fun.
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M: [15] Not if you use a ride sharing app.
W: [15] Good idea. I’ll download one immediately. Thank you.
W: The metro was absolutely terrible this morning.
M: Oh, was there a delay?
W: No, but the train was so packed that I could barely move. And it was difficult to breathe, too. At every station, more people squeezed in, and I got pushed further and further inside. When I got to my station, I could hardly get out.Once I did get out, [12]I was totally exhausted.
M: That sounds like a nightmare. Why didn’t you take the bus?
W: The bus takes twice as long and it’s just as crowded.
M: Well, what’s the alternative? Haven’t you got a car?
W: I’ve got a driver’s license, but that’s all. [13]I’m saving up to buy something reasonably small and cute, but it’s still a bit expensive for me. And it’ll take a while before I have enough money.
M: Have you thought about getting an electric motorbike?
W: I considered that for maybe a minute, but honestly, [14]I’ve just seen too many horrible accidents involving those dangerous monsters.
M: What about those popular ShareBikes? You could register to use one.
W: Yeah, that’s a possibility. There are always several of those bikes out in front of our apartment complex.
M: Or you could just walk to work.
W: Well, it’s 5 kilometers from home to the office, but you’ve given me a thought. I could take a change of clothes and jo g to work. But at this time of year, the air pollution is a real problem.
M: Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that. You’d taxi if you really have to.
W: Well, that’s an expensive way to get to work.
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Colour is now spreading through our homes, up staircases, across wood frames and ceilings, filling in neutral spaces. According to one interior designer,[19]when people return home, they want to see colours that cheer them up and give them a hug. Pure white walls simply don’t do that. They don’t look after you. Another interior designer commented that certain combinations can key into something on a deeper level, transporting you to a different moment in time. That’s the power of colour.
[20] If you are thinking to try colour on some of your neutral walls, the advice is refreshingly simple: choose a colour you actually like. Don’t go for a colour because it’s in fashion, or you’ve seen it in a magazine. If you’re wary of full colour, test your tolerance with smaller spaces, such as the inside of a cupboard, or a bright window frame. If it gives you joy every time you open the cupboard, you can start to take it further.
[21] One can also paint the wooden frameworks the same colour as the walls, helping the rooms look bigger. In the kitchen, painting the overhead cupboards and the walls in the same colour can make it feel more spacious. While painting the kitchen counters a bold colour can make everything feel more open and lighter. Additionally, a painted ceiling is a magic al thing without being too obvious and can affect how the space feels as well.
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Parents often hear that reading to their children is critical for supporting development, and the message is getting through to them. In fact, in the United States, a little over half of children between ages of three and five were read to every day in 2007, and 83 percent of children in that age group in the same country were read two, three or more times per week in2012. This is good news, because reading to young children helps their language and brain development.
[23] In fact, recent research has found that both the quality and quantity of shared book reading in infancy predicted later childhood vocabulary and reading skills. In other words, the more time parents spend reading, the greater the developmental benefits in their 4-year-old children. This is an important finding. But does it matter what books parents read?A new study has investigated this question.[24] It followed infants across the second six months of life and found that when parents showed babies books that had faces or objects with specific labels, they learned more.This is in contrast to books that did not name images or books that had the same label under each image.[25] Books that named different characters also promoted greater learning. So what does this mean for parents? Not all books are created equal, so parents need to choose the books they share with their children with great care.