A mechanical bicycle lock, like a U-lock, should be attached to a solid and immobile object like a rack (架子) to ensure safety. However, these racks are quite rare and popular, thus often occupied and although a bicycle lock prevents the bike from being carried away, as it fixes single parts like the frame or the wheels, other parts can be dismounted. Therefore an electronic system, consisting of several sensors, can extend the range of protection with only few components and less effort.

The ‘RFID Bikealarm’ is a motion sensitive electronic alarm system that is attached to the rails of a bike saddle (座椅). Featuring omnidirectional (全方位) movement sensing to detect tiny movements or speeding-up and a small whistle emitting >120dB alarm sound to scare off potential thieves by arousing attention.

The internal microcontroller uses a complex computer program to distinguish between a serious theft and harmless shaking movement as it senses and adapts to the environment. The usage is quite simple: identify yourself by holding the RFID tag close to the case to lock or unlock the alarm system signaled by feedback sounds. The RFID-technology is predestined for achieving this simple and secure interaction because it doesn’t require any complex system, interaction or other devices—just a small tag.

The ‘RFID Bikcalarm’ is meant to be a useful add-on to mechanical bicycle locks as it massively extends the range of protection with few components. It is low-cost, durable and easy to use. The internal battery can be charged by USB.

A．	B．
C．	D．

You can’t walk into the office without Rihanna’s voice singing “work work work work work work” in your head. And that one line from Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” still makes you want to scream. These are commonly known as earworm songs—those sticky tunes that continue to play in your head. A recent study finds that more than 90% of adults report hearing earworm songs on a weekly basis.

Fortunately, most people report earworm songs as pleasant. But others find them annoying or even maddening. “Some people are troubled by them to the point that it disturbs life,” says Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, a professor at the University of Arkansas who has studied earworm songs.

Margulis says earworm songs tend to have some predictable characteristics. For one thing, they tend to small parts of a song—not the whole track. And “the songs you’ve heard recently also have the most possibility to get stuck in your memory,” she says.

But sometimes something strange and unpredictable can also start a track paying in your head. “Once I was at the doctor’s office and saw a poster of a man who I thought looked like Gaston—a character from Beauty and the Beast,” Margulis recalls. A couple minutes passed, and she realized she couldn’t get “Be Our Guest”, the song in the movie, out of her head, even though she hadn’t thought of the tune in years. In that instance, she was able to identify her earworm’s trigger: the Gaston-looking man in the poster. “But the connections can be really unclear,” she says.

Margulis points out that, in all of human history, recorded music is a very new phenomenon. She says some have inferred that earworm songs are also new—the unintended consequence of being able to hear the same song played everywhere in the same way over and over again. So far, the convincing explanation for why human beings experience earworm songs remains a mystery. But there are some well-established ways to cast off the earworm songs.

“Finding a mentally demanding task and putting your mind on it usually shifts attention away from internal music. People tend to get earworms when performing tasks that don’t require their full attention—stuff like doing the dishes,” Margulis says.

Chewing gum can also help. When a song is stuck in our heads, it’s almost like we’re singing along with it. If you make your mouth do something else—chewing gum, eating a meal or talking with a friend—that can kick out the earworm.

You could also face your enemy. By listening to the full track that includes the passage stuck in your head, you may find “closure” and relief.

The philosopher Robert Nozick used the idea of an “experience machine” to refute the view that good experiences are all we want from life. He thought that most of us would not choose the machine and prefer reality. “But why?” he encouraged us to ask.

There was no such thing as virtual (虚拟的) reality (VR) when he was writing. But now we can give ourselves computer generated experiences that are like the real thing. The question raised by Nozick has become a real issue. Why should you prefer the trouble and expense of actually visiting Angkor Wat or Niagara Falls when you can get all the experiences of being there by putting on goggles and a body suit?

One answer is that the emotions you feel when you have a virtual experience are not as valuable. When you actually see Niagara Falls, you feel awe and even fear in the face of an overpowering force of nature. Being in the presence of something that causes you these feelings is part of the pleasure.

Visiting a virtual Niagara Falls may also cause you feelings of awe and fear but they are cheapened by your knowledge that the danger is not real and that your mind is being tricked into thinking that it is.

Reality also holds a potential for making discoveries that virtual reality lacks. Those who visit Angkor Wat hope to see more than they expected from tourist information, perhaps even discover what have been missed. Computer simulations (模拟), however good, contain only what have been put into them.

There is a further reason for preferring a real experience. Real experiences connect us to the deeds of past people and place us in contexts where history was made. Viewing an actual paining by Rembrandt is a more valuable experience than viewing a copy, however good. The genuine painting was the work of the man himself. We see his brush strokes on the canvas. We are in the presence of genius.

Virtual reality can take us to places we can never go. It can be exciting, amusing and a good way of spending leisure time. But it will never be a substitute for connections with the real thing.

A novel is a story transmitted from the novelist to the reader. It offers distraction and entertainment. But it can also be something more powerful — a way to learn about how to live. Just read at the right moment in your life, and a novel can change it.

The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. It is regarded as a grand display of literary fiction and a celebration of the possibilities of the novel. To create this apothecary, the authors have searched through two thousand years of literature for novels that effectively promote happiness, health, and sanity, written by brilliant minds who knew what it meant to be human and wrote their life lessons into their fiction.

The authors, Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin began giving novels to each other whenever one of them seemed in need of a push. In 2008 they set up a bibliotherapy service through a cultural enterprise, and since then have been prescribing books to customers all over the world.

Bibliotherapy does not discriminate between pains of the body and pains of the head (or heart). Aware that you are not brave enough? Pick up To Kill a Mockingbird for an injection of courage. Experiencing a sudden fear of death? Read One Thousand Years of Solitude for some understanding on the larger cycle of life. Whatever your condition is, the treatment is simple: a novel (or two), to be read regularly. Some treatments will lead to a complete cure. Others will offer comfort, showing that you are not the first to experience these emotions. The Novel Cure is also filled with useful lists recommending the best novels to read when you are stuck in traffic or can’t fall asleep, the most important novels to read throughout your life.

Brilliant in concepts, The Novel Cure belongs on everyone’s bookshelf and in every medicine cabinet. It will make even the most well-read fiction lover pick up a novel he’s never heard of, and see familiar ones with new eyes. Mostly.it will reaffirm literature’s ability to distract and transport, to resonate and reassure, to change the way we see the world and our place in it.