【推荐2】Twenty-four trains, nine countries, 13,500 miles. They are the numbers behind the heroic round trip one man took from Southampton in the UK to eastern China.

Roger Tyers, 37, used over $2,500, which was almost twice more than the cost of a return flight, to travel to the Chinese port city Ningbo for academic research in May, 2019. The man spent a month on board 15 trains during the first leg of his round trip. It was the climate crisis, not a love of trains, that drove the sociologist to choose this complicated route over a return flight. He stopped flying when UN climate experts warned that the world had less than 11 years to avoid terrible levels of global warming. Tyers calculated that his train journey to China produced almost 90% less emissions than a return flight.

Tyers is not the only person to avoid air travel in response to climate change. Thousands of people worldwide have publicly promised to stop flying. Activist Maja Rosen launched the “Flight Free” campaign in Sweden with the goal of encouraging 100,000 people not to fly for one year. Although only around 14,000 people signed the online “# flightfree2019” pledge (保证), Rosen, who stopped flying 12 years ago, says that the campaign has made more people worry about the climate crisis and aware of harm of travel by air and motivated them to try new ways of travelling.

According to a survey released in May 2019 by Swedish Railways, 37% of respondents chose to travel by train instead of by plane where possible, compared to 20% at the start of 2018. A spokesperson said: “Rail travel has been boosted due to the worries.” Domestic passenger numbers in July fell by 12% compared to the previous year, according to Swedavia, a company which operates Sweden’s 10 busiest airports.

“The collective pledge helps fight the sense of hopelessness many people feel when it comes to tackling climate change,” Rosen said. “One of the problems is that people feel there’s no point in what you do as an individual. The campaign is about making people aware that if we do this together, we can actually bring changes.”

【推荐3】Self-driving car makers have raised tens of billions of dollars based on the promise to develop fully robotic products. However, industry leaders and experts say the technology may need human help.

Supporters of self-driving cars say the number of traffic accidents will decline and driving a car will be much safer if computers and robotic technology are put into practice. But in fact, making self-driving cars safer than human-operated (操作) is not an easy job. Self-driving programming is unable to recognize risk quickly like human.

Kyle Vogt is an engineer with General Motors. When asked if he believed humans could ever be completely free from operating cars, Vogt questioned the worthiness of such a goal. “I can provide my customers with peace of mind knowing there is always a human there to help if needed,” he said.

All the self-driving cars are far behind in development that industry leaders have promised. In 2019, Tesla head Elon Musk promised 1 million robotaxis would be in place by 2020.His company’s “Full Self Driving” feature has been criticized (批评) because its cars use human operators. In June, Musk said that building self-driving cars had been far more difficult than he had expected.

Many car producers today use humans as remote (远程) car operators. They support self-driving cars in dealing with unexpected events on the road. The industry calls these “edge cases”. “When a self-driving car experiences an edge case, it puts its hands up and says, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” said Koosha Kaveh. He is working with Imperium Drive, which is using humans as remote operators for cars in the British city of Milton Keynes. Kaveh said their work was similar to air traffic controllers but for self-driving cars instead of planes.

【推荐2】Have you ever taken photos by using mobile phones with selfie sticks(自拍杆)? This new invention is a small, useful and cleverly－designed tool.

However, a pair of US artists from New Mexico, Arie Snee and Justin Crowe believe they have invented a better one and they call it “selfie arm”. For better or worse, they have taken the world by storm. It makes those people in the pictures seem to be holding hands with a loved one．

The pair say it offers a far better experience than using a straight stick. The selfie arm makes people feel they are not alone when they take photos. It seems that they are together with their friends. They think their invention solves the main problem that the selfie stick has — people look alone while they are taking pictures of themselves with great interests. The product, at present, just an art project and a model, conveniently provides you a welcoming arm. And better yet in the future, it'll talk in a friendly way and never get angry or upset. The pair say they are fascinated by these new ideas.

The “selfie arm” is made of fiberglass(玻璃纤维). It is lightweight and easy­taking.

The project that they work on shows the growing selfie stick phenomenon(现象) directly and the increasing need for narcissism(自恋) and Internet agreement.

【推荐3】A smart thermostat(恒温器)is a Wi-Fi enabled device that automatically adjusts heating and cooling temperature settings in your home for the best performance.

While system designs may vary, common smart thermostat features include:

Convenience

Many smart thermostats learn your temperature preferences and establish a schedule that automatically adjusts to energy-saving temperatures when you are asleep or away.

Geofencing allows your smart thermostat to know when you’re on the way home and automatically adjusts your home’s temperature to your liking.

Control

Wi-Fi enabled thermostats allow you to control your home’s heating and cooling remotely through your smartphone.

Energy star certified(达到标准的)smart thermostats quickly enter a low-power standby mode when inactive.

Insight

Smart thermostats provide equipment use and temperature data you can track and manage.

Periodic software updates ensure your smart thermostat is using the latest algorithms and energy-saving features available.

More Ways to Save

Energy star certified smart thermostats are also designed to be compatible(兼容的)with the programs that some local public services offer, providing home owners in their service areas with encouragement to help them manage reliability.

For the average American household,almost half the annual energy bill goes to heating and cooling-more than $900 a year. Being smart about how you control your temperature settings will help you save money and stay comfortable in your home.

【推荐2】Charles Bridge is a 14th century stone bridge linking the two sides of Prague. This grand bridge is one of the city's finest attractions, and is the main route connecting the Old Town with the Lesser Town and Prague Castle.

From Charles Bridge visitors enjoy fairy­tale views of the Prague skyline. The wide river, with beautiful buildings on both sides, flows below it. Prague Castle towers above not far away.Here you are truly in the centre of the city.

Charles Bridge is full of people during the day.Street artists paint and musicians play here and there.If you are travelling there, look out for the jazz band, which is especially entertaining. But for a truly romantic and less crowded walk, try the early morning or any time in the evening.There are not so many people in the early morning or in the evening.That way you can take a relaxing walk.

King Charles Ⅳ arranged to build the bridge.The foundation stone was laid in 1357. Charles Ⅳ's favourite architect and builder, Peter Parler, watched over most of the work.The first idea was to build a bridge for knight tournaments, and for many years the only decoration on the bridge was a simple cross. Later, the Catholic desire for beautiful designs resulted in 30 statues being erected between 1600 and 1800.

There are now 75 statues on Charles Bridge, but most are copies, as floods and other natural disasters over the centuries damaged the original ones. Perhaps the most interesting, as well as the oldest, is that of John of Nepomuk. It is the 8th from the right as you cross towards Prague Castle.

The entrance to Charles Bridge is marked at both ends by towers: the Old Town Bridge Tower and the Mala Strana Bridge Tower.

【推荐3】For the first few months of 2021, Mars was crowded with new “visitors” from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agency’s Hope, followed by the Chinese Tianwen-1. The name comes from the long poem Tianwen, written by Qu Yuan, a great poet of ancient China. In Tianwen, this name conveys China’s steady effort in pursuing truth and culture of exploring the universe.

The Tianwen-1 rover landing has orbiting, landing and roving (巡视) components—the first mission to include all three on its first attempt. Landing on Mars is extremely dangerous. It requires entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, then slowing down before landing. As to Tianwen-1, a heat shield (防热护罩) protected the spacecraft during the fiery (燃烧的) landing, after which the mission safely parachuted (使空降) down to the Utopia Planitia (乌托邦平原). The landing platform fired small, downward-facing rocket engines to slow down during the last few seconds.

China’s Mars rover, called Zhurong after an ancient Chinese fire god, sent back images of the surface of Mars captured by a camera on its front, which functions as an “eye” to detect barriers and get around them. The Utopia Planitia, where Tianwen-1 landed, has long been believed to contain vast amounts of water ice. Zhurong will first and foremost study Martian soil and atmosphere and search for signs of water ice, which suggests the existence of life.

Tianwen-1 is China’s first interplanetary (行星间的) mission. Meanwhile, China is working with Russia on a sample-return mission scheduled to launch in 2024. China is open and inclusive in the development of its space technology to build a community with a shared future for mankind.