Four Wild Animal Species Were Endangered

Maybe you can still see them at the zoo. But that doesn’t mean they’re doing alright in the wild.

Tigers

All six tiger species are endangered, with Sumatran tigers and South Chin tigers at a seriously endangered status. The main reasons for their population decline are illegal hunting and destroyed habitats(栖息地), as humans clear forests to gather timber（木材）and build roadways. Only about 3890 tigers presently live in the wild.

Ground squirrels

That’s right, even squirrels are endangered, specifically the San Joaquin ground squirrel. Native to California, USA, these guys have been disappearing since 1979 on account of the construction and human development going through their habitat. Their total population is unknown, but it could be anywhere between 124000 and 413000.

Giraffes

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature recently put giraffes at a vulnerable(脆弱的) status, the level just before endangered. The giraffe population has declined 40 percent in the last 30 years, primarily due to loss of habitat and illegal hunting. Some giraffes are killed just for their tails, which are considered status symbols in Africa.

Asian elephants

The main threat to Asian elephants, one of the most intelligent animals, is their shrinking habitat. As the human population grows, people invade their land to build roads and railway tracks. Elephants in Myanmar are at an especially high risk for being captured and traded or used illegally in the tourist industry. Fewer than 50000 are left on the entire continent.

I've loved my mother's desk since I was just tall enough to sit above the top of it. Mother sat writing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the action of writing must be a most wonderful thing in the world.

Years later, during her final illness, Mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk，” she said again, “is for Elizabeth.”

I never saw her angry, and never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she just did it. But as a young girl, I wanted to have heart­to­heart talks between mother and daughter. They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional (易感动的)”．But she lived “on the surface (表面)”．

As years passed, I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive(原谅) me.

My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally, peace—it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn't be sure that the letter had even got to Mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.

But the present of her desk told me, as she'd never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside—a photo of my father and a one­page letter, folded and refolded many times. It was my letter.

“In any way you chose, Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.”

The world’s first “Sky Pool” has been uncoated, and it’ll give anyone a touch of dizziness, unless he or she is not bothered by heights.

Situated in the capital’s new riverside district beside Battersea Power Station, the glass pool, hanging 10 storeys, or 110 feet up as a bridge between two apartment buildings, is 25m long, 5m wide and 3m deep with a water depth of 1. 2m. Swimmers will be able to look down 35 metres to the street below as they take a dip, with only 20cm of glass between them and the outside world. It’s even got a bar, folding chairs and an orange garden.

The pool will be part of Embassy Gardens at Nine Elms, a huge billion building project beside the new American Embassy in south-west London. The project is creating thousands of apartments, the smallest of which are expected to cost nearly $ 1 million, and the pool will only be open to the apartments’ owners.

Embassy Gardens takes design inspiration from the Meatpacking District of New York with floor to ceiling windows and brick frontages. The designer, Sean Mulryan, desired to push the boundaries in the capability of construction and engineering and do something that had never been done before. The Sky Pool’s transparent structure is the result of significant advancements in technologies over the last decade.

The experience of the pool will be truly unique and it will feel like floating through the air in Central London.

Those people lucky enough to swim there will have a faultless view of the Palace of Westminster and the London Eye. It will be a selling point for developers when the second stage of the development is released to market.

As free as they make us, mobile phones still need to stay close to a power source. Soon that may change with "green" power.

Three Chilean students got the idea for a plant-powered device(装置) to charge their cellphones, while sitting in their school's outdoor courtyard during a break from exams, with dead mobile phones. Then, one of them had an "aha" moment.

“It occurred to Camila to say about plants, "said inventor Evelyn Aravena. “‘Why don't you have a socket, if there are so many plants? ’After that, we thought, ‘why don't they have a charging outlet? Because there are so many plants and living things that have the potential to produce energy, why not?’”

Their invention—a small biological circuit called E-Kaia—uses the energy plants to produce during photosynthesis(光合作用). A plant uses only a small part of that energy and the rest goes into the soil, and that's where the E-Kaia collects it. The device plugs into the ground and then into your phone.

"It's the most amazing project I've ever seen in my life, plain and simple. They brought this original model, and it worked — and that's when it all changed, at least from my personal point of view and I began to support them." said Mauricio Cifuentes.

The device solved two problems for the engineering students — they needed an idea for a class project, and an outlet to plug in their phones.

"Looking for a place to charge the notebook, which had no power, and the mobile phones, we weren't able to find anything because all the other students were in the same state of madness trying to find a place to charge their devices," said Aravena.

But plants are everywhere, and the bio－circuit makes the best of their excess(过多的) power.

The E-Kaia doesn't carry much charge but it's powerful enough to completely recharge a mobile phone in less than two hours.

The student inventors have applied for patents on their technology, and expect the E-Kaia to go on sale in December 2016.