What's Going On

本文:   Many of our medicines originate in plants. But we ’re not the only ones who tap into nature. There’s increasing evidence that some animals seek out specific plants for their medicinal qualities . A new study shows that monarch butterflies may be among them . Monarch butterflies- famous for their U.S.–Mexico migration - feed on dozens of species of milkweed . Some milkweeds have a higher concentration of chemicals called cardenolides, which make the butterflies toxic to predators . Research had focused on whether the monarc’s chose different milkweeds to hurt their enemies. But Emory University’s Jaap de Roode wondered if the choice might be related to a parasite that’s passed from mother to offspring, with fatal results: " What we do find is that the monarchs prefer to lay their eggs on the medicinal species when they are infected. However , when they are not infected with the parasite , they do not prefer this species over...

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department is expected to issue a travel alert to Americans in Europe in light of recent terror threat information, U.S. officials said Saturday. The alert could be issued as early as Sunday morning, according to one senior official. The alert is expected to urge American citizens in Europe to be vigilant , especially when in public places such as public transportation, airports, and tourist sites, officials said. It is not expected to warn Americans against travel to Europe, officials said. One senior U.S. official said that in addition to the travel alert from the State Department, "U.S. military installations are taking prudent precautions. This is a serious situation." A separate U.S. official said the alert is being prompted by the volume of intelligence on possible terror threats, rather than new intelligence. It emerged last week that U.S. intelligence officials were looking at information about a possible ...

A lot of smartphone apps can help you out if you let them access your phone's GPS. But even if you give permission, do you know everything they're doing with that information? Some computer scientists wanted to find out. So they modified the Android mobile phone platform to tag all data apps sent from the phone. Then they randomly selected 30 of the most popular Android apps, choosing only ones that require access to the Internet and access to the phone's GPS, camera or microphone. And they played with them, all while tracking the data each app sent out. Turns out 15—half the apps—sent the phone's location to third-party advertisers. Two apps did present user agreements—but they said nothing about sending that data. And a third of the apps revealed the phone's unique ID, sometimes along with the phone number and SIM card serial number. The findings will be presented at an upcoming USENIX Symposium . [William Enck et al. , TaintDroid: An Information-Fl...

National teams stepped up their criticisms Wednesday of hygiene and security at the Commonwealth Games in India, as organizers were forced to deal with more damage at one of the venues . Parts of a false ceiling at the weightlifting venue in New Delhi came off overnight, said Rajendra Kalla, a superintendent engineer at India's Central Public Works Department. Nine ceiling tiles fell to the floor, and Kalla described the damage as minor. It happened at the same venue -- Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium -- where a bridge collapse Tuesday injured 27 people. Those structural problems came on top of concerns about security and hygiene, mainly at the athletes' village, which has room for some 8,500 athletes. Scottish officials said they are delaying the departure of their first team of 41 athletes and staff for the games because of concerns "that a significant part of the athletes' village residential zone is far from finished and nowhere near an acceptable standard in term...

( FT ) -- Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, has threatened to resign from his job if he is not elevated to the chairman's role, according to two people familiar with the bank's succession planning. At a meeting last week Mr Geoghegan reacted badly to the suggestion that he might be passed over, one of the people said. "He was told the board was not ready to give him the chairmanship and he was not happy." HSBC is set to decide at a board meeting next Tuesday who should replace Stephen Green, who is stepping down as chairman at the end of the year to take up a UK government job as trade minister. Executives at the bank said Mr Geoghegan would be unhappy to see another chairman appointed over the top of him, particularly the favourite for the job, ex-Goldman Sachs banker John Thornton. HSBC has a history of elevating its chief executive to chairman. It remains unclear who the bank will ultimately pick for the role of chairman, with Douglas Flint, fina...

Stockholm, Sweden (CNN) -- The historic success of a far-right party in Swedish elections is a response to the country's "extreme immigration policies," which have " shattered " Swedish society, the party leader said Monday. And it's part of a wave of victories for anti-immigration parties across Europe, Jimmie Akesson of the Sweden Democrats told CNN. "All of Europe is suffering big problems from mass immigration and of course, people are becoming more and more frustrated in several European countries, which we can see from the election results," Akesson said. His Sweden Democrats party won 5.7 percent of the vote on Sunday and a place in the national parliament for the first time. "We now have a platform for our ideology , and that is very important because we know that we have a big opportunity to get even more supporters," he said, insisting that the media had presented a "false image" of the party in the past. A...

Since last weekend, I have set up the goals I want to do and practice every day until now. I feel good about this plan and should courage myself to continue doing it. This afternoon I felt dizzy and my heart beat intensively when my colleague ask if I have broken up with my exo girlfriend. They don't know that we have seemed to break up two months ago and it has confused me for a long time because I can't solve how I love her and why I have to do this. It still be a questions to me now... Whatever I should keep concern on my works and goals until I finish it and maybe everything is all right on that day.