Yee-Haw From China! How a Student from Yunnan Became a Cowboy in Texas
Cowboy culture might seem uniquely American, but one Chinese immigrant says it feels surprisingly familiar. Bruce Wang is originally from Yunnan, a region of China with a long history of horse breeding among many ethnic groups, but became fascinated with the cowboy lifestyle after moving to Texas as an international student at 20 years old.
At first, he dressed like a cowboy, but looking the part wasn't enough — he wanted the real experience. So he joined the cattle industry, learning to ride horses and work with livestock. Maybe he even learned to appreciate the smell of cow manure — or at least not complain about it.
After more than a decade in the United States, cowboy culture has become an important part of his identity, and he says it will stay with him even if he returns to China one day. By sharing his story, Bruce hopes people in China and the United States will better understand one another despite ongoing political tensions. What a moooooooo-ving story.
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Motocross is a sport where riders race motorcycles around dirt tracks packed with jumps, sharp turns, and bumpy ground. For a long time, most of the racers have been men. Lauren Collingwood wants to change that.
Lauren has been racing motocross for more than 20 years and has won the British women's championship five times. Now she's helping the next generation of girls get into the sport through Girls That Moto, which she describes as the first all-girls motocross training academy in the United Kingdom.
At the academy, girls and women learn the skills Lauren picked up during her career. They practice things like keeping their speed through corners, and they learn to handle the physical demands of racing. They also learn to deal with the extra pressure girls can face in a sport where they're often outnumbered. That's one reason having a female coach matters. As one student put it, Lauren has helped show that motocross isn't "just men."
There's still a big gap at the top of the sport. Only three or four British women race at the professional level, and none of them are paid to ride. Lauren and her students hope to change that, and one of them could become the first.
You may have heard your parents blame their pre-coffee crankiness on a lack of caffeine, but a high school in England says banning caffeinated energy drinks has had positive effects, like calmer classes and better interpersonal relationships.
The changes the school saw in student behavior suggest that energy drinks contributed to hyperactivity, littering, and disruption, but there’s another culprit in the drinks besides caffeine that gives drinkers a boost: sugar. Students often didn’t realize how much sugar was in the drinks until the school taught them more about the ingredients. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
Some energy drinks contain the equivalent of 13 teaspoons (that’s 52 grams) of sugar. That’s about two whole Hershey’s bars! Or a dozen marshmallows! Or 14 graham cracker sheets! We don’t want s'mores, you want s'mores!
After the ban, the school reported that detentions dropped by about one-third, and teachers and students reported better concentration, participation, and relationships in class. Students even say the place feels friendlier since the drinks were banned! But tread lightly: dropping an “Are you sure you really need all that caffeine?” on your groggy parents at 6 a.m. might be a one-way ticket to getting grounded…
These days, youth tech knowledge goes way beyond helping parents get out of their front-facing camera. Around the world, teenagers are being arrested in connection to serious cyberattacks that have disrupted everywhere from supermarkets to transport systems to healthcare companies, and even individuals.
But it’s not like these teens want to rob everyone of their crypto, or change all the supermarket barcodes to get free cookies. A young man named Lucas, for example, was caught twice hacking into his school computers so he could play games and access blocked websites. But he wasn’t expelled or arrested. Instead, he was enrolled in Cyber Choices, a nationwide program designed to steer young people away from illegal hacking.
The program teaches participants what is legal and illegal while encouraging them to use their technical skills for good instead of evil through training, qualifications, and future careers. So far, around 1,000 young people have gone through the program.
Cyber Choices is a voluntary program that’s hopefully appealing enough to tempt participants to join willingly, but that’s not always the case. Owen Flowers, for example, was offered the program as a teenager but refused to participate. He was later sentenced to five and a half years in prison for hacking.
Cyber Choices may be a helpful intervention, but schools are still taking preemptive action by having police do regular visits to teach students about cybercrime.
"Study hard! Get a good job! Stop buying avocado toast!" Young adults hear a lot of advice about money. But BBC reporters looking at life for people in their 20s in the UK found it's not that simple. People in their 20s have been saying that for years. Now there's research to back them up.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a UK group that studies money and the economy, found that earnings for young people have barely grown in the past 15 to 20 years, once you adjust for rising prices. Today's 25 year-olds do earn more than their parents did at the same age. But they earn about the same as people who started working just before the 2008 financial crisis, when banks and economies around the world crashed.
Meanwhile, everyday costs like rent and food are rising faster than paychecks. Young workers also don't have years of savings to fall back on, so they live off what they earn each month. Working harder doesn't always fix it. Many young people face job rejection after job rejection. Those who do find work often deal with long commutes, multiple jobs, and student debt.
That doesn't mean older generations had it easy. But slow pay growth, high costs, a tough job market, and debt add up to a real challenge for today's young adults. So the next time a relative brags about the house they bought at 25, you'll have some facts ready.
Motocross is a sport where riders race motorcycles around dirt tracks packed with jumps, sharp turns, and bumpy ground. For a long time, most of the racers have been men. Lauren Collingwood wants to change that.
Lauren has been racing motocross for more than 20 years and has won the British women's championship five times. Now she's helping the next generation of girls get into the sport through Girls That Moto, which she describes as the first all-girls motocross training academy in the United Kingdom.
At the academy, girls and women learn the skills Lauren picked up during her career. They practice things like keeping their speed through corners, and they learn to handle the physical demands of racing. They also learn to deal with the extra pressure girls can face in a sport where they're often outnumbered. That's one reason having a female coach matters. As one student put it, Lauren has helped show that motocross isn't "just men."
There's still a big gap at the top of the sport. Only three or four British women race at the professional level, and none of them are paid to ride. Lauren and her students hope to change that, and one of them could become the first.
You may have heard your parents blame their pre-coffee crankiness on a lack of caffeine, but a high school in England says banning caffeinated energy drinks has had positive effects, like calmer classes and better interpersonal relationships.
The changes the school saw in student behavior suggest that energy drinks contributed to hyperactivity, littering, and disruption, but there’s another culprit in the drinks besides caffeine that gives drinkers a boost: sugar. Students often didn’t realize how much sugar was in the drinks until the school taught them more about the ingredients. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
Some energy drinks contain the equivalent of 13 teaspoons (that’s 52 grams) of sugar. That’s about two whole Hershey’s bars! Or a dozen marshmallows! Or 14 graham cracker sheets! We don’t want s'mores, you want s'mores!
After the ban, the school reported that detentions dropped by about one-third, and teachers and students reported better concentration, participation, and relationships in class. Students even say the place feels friendlier since the drinks were banned! But tread lightly: dropping an “Are you sure you really need all that caffeine?” on your groggy parents at 6 a.m. might be a one-way ticket to getting grounded…
These days, youth tech knowledge goes way beyond helping parents get out of their front-facing camera. Around the world, teenagers are being arrested in connection to serious cyberattacks that have disrupted everywhere from supermarkets to transport systems to healthcare companies, and even individuals.
But it’s not like these teens want to rob everyone of their crypto, or change all the supermarket barcodes to get free cookies. A young man named Lucas, for example, was caught twice hacking into his school computers so he could play games and access blocked websites. But he wasn’t expelled or arrested. Instead, he was enrolled in Cyber Choices, a nationwide program designed to steer young people away from illegal hacking.
The program teaches participants what is legal and illegal while encouraging them to use their technical skills for good instead of evil through training, qualifications, and future careers. So far, around 1,000 young people have gone through the program.
Cyber Choices is a voluntary program that’s hopefully appealing enough to tempt participants to join willingly, but that’s not always the case. Owen Flowers, for example, was offered the program as a teenager but refused to participate. He was later sentenced to five and a half years in prison for hacking.
Cyber Choices may be a helpful intervention, but schools are still taking preemptive action by having police do regular visits to teach students about cybercrime.
"Study hard! Get a good job! Stop buying avocado toast!" Young adults hear a lot of advice about money. But BBC reporters looking at life for people in their 20s in the UK found it's not that simple. People in their 20s have been saying that for years. Now there's research to back them up.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a UK group that studies money and the economy, found that earnings for young people have barely grown in the past 15 to 20 years, once you adjust for rising prices. Today's 25 year-olds do earn more than their parents did at the same age. But they earn about the same as people who started working just before the 2008 financial crisis, when banks and economies around the world crashed.
Meanwhile, everyday costs like rent and food are rising faster than paychecks. Young workers also don't have years of savings to fall back on, so they live off what they earn each month. Working harder doesn't always fix it. Many young people face job rejection after job rejection. Those who do find work often deal with long commutes, multiple jobs, and student debt.
That doesn't mean older generations had it easy. But slow pay growth, high costs, a tough job market, and debt add up to a real challenge for today's young adults. So the next time a relative brags about the house they bought at 25, you'll have some facts ready.