The Code of Visiting Yellowstone National Park

The following regulations have been sorted for your convenience.

Yellowstone is a wilderness filled with natural wonders that also have potential dangers. There is no guarantee of your safety. Regulations are strictly enforced to protect you and the park's resources.

Do not approach wildlife, no matter how calm they appear. Always obey instructions from park staff on the scene.You must stay at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards away from all other large animals-bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes. Do not feed any animal. It harms them and it is illegal.

Boardwalks and trails protect you. You must stay on boardwalks and designated (指定的) trails. Pools may be near or above the boiling temperatures and can cause-severe r possibly even deadly burns.

● Keep your children close to you at all times; make sure they understand the danger.

● Pets are prohibited in thermal areas.

● Swimming or bathing in thermal pools or streams is prohibited. Where swimming is allowed, swim at your own risk.

● Poisonous gases may exist at dangerous levels. If you feel sick, leave immediately. Weather Yellowstone's weather can change quickly and bring cold temperatures, high winds, rain and falling snow.

● Be prepared for changing temperatures, storms, and emergencies.

● Carry adequate clothing.

● Unless otherwise posted, the top speed throughout the park is 45 mph.

● If you see wildlife while driving, do not stop or pause in the roadway.

Forget smartphones and smart glasses. One day, we might have smart tattoos (纹身). The company NewDealDesign came up with an idea for a product called UnderSkin. The device would look like a pair of tattoos on your palm and the side of your thumb, but it would actually be a very thin computer implanted just below your skin. It would draw power from your body’s energy, and you could use it to unlock doors, monitor your health, exchange and store information, or even express your personality. UnderSkin is just an idea—you can’t go out and get one—but the technology exists to make it work.

Writer and technology entrepreneur Amal Graffstra already has a chip called a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag implanted in his hand. “I use it to log into my computer. I also use it to share contact details with people,” he says. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and responds to radio signals with a unique identification number.

If a computerized tattoo or embedded (植入的) tag isn’t crazy enough for you, what about a brain chip? The company Intel is working on technology that would let you control your devices with your mind. The researchers explain, “We’re trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves… Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts.”

Do you think embedded chips sound frightening or cool? Some doctors are concerned about people hurting themselves while getting devices implanted. They argue that medical procedures are meant to treat sick people, and not to give healthy people special powers. Others worry about hacking and privacy. Could someone hack in and steal your identity, or even control your mind? On a more philosophical level, if you have a computer inside your body, are you still human? Or are you a cyborg?

Six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom brick by brick, imagining fairy-tale castles and fire-breathing dragons. This fantasy is helping her take first steps towards creativity. Minutes later, when she is playing board games with her brother, she’s learning to follow rules and take turns with a partner. Although she isn’t aware of it, this will play an important role in her adult life.

“Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,” says Dr. David Whitebread from the University of Cambridge. He’s also mindful of the worldwide decline of play. “The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce now.” He says. Outdoor play is restricted by parents’ perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as their increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by their emphasis on “earlier is better” which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

Many researchers highlight play’s role in children’s development. Dr. Gibson said, “Playful behavior is an important indicator of healthy social development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can give us important clues about their well-being.” In Baker’s study, she found that preschoolers with greater self-control solved problems more quickly. Giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.

Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s writing. “Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we have shown that a playful stimulus (激励因素)was far more effective than an instructional one. Children can write longer and better-structured stories when they first play with dolls representing characters in the story.”

Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as something insignificant, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.