【推荐1】Riding on an exercise bike at home may keep you in physical shape, but it can get pretty boring after a while. Aaron Puzey had been on his exercise bike for half an hour a day for years when he decided to look for a way to make it a bit more fun.

With virtual reality technology widely available nowadays, all he needed to do was find a way of applying it to his needs. So he set out to build an app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR headset(头戴式视图器) which would allow him to hook it up to Google Street view and make it seem like he's cycling through different real-life locations.

Building the app to download the 3D data from Street View and make it viewable in the VR headset was the toughest part of his project. Other than that, all he needed to do was tape a Bluetooth monitor to his exercise bike. Although the quality of the images sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, leaving complex scenes like trees looking like a mess, Aaron has been having a lot of fun on his journey.

Aaron's project is obviously no substitute(替代品) for real outdoor cycling as it lacks things like the wind blowing in your face or the pain of battling an uphill climb, but it has given him a goal, as well as the chance to take in the beauty of places he might have otherwise never seen. It definitely beats staring at a wall or at the TV for 30 minutes, anyway.

Obviously, Aaron's set up the officially allows him to ride a bike anywhere around the world. He says he has always wanted to see Japan, so once his ride comes to an end, he plans to start another one across the Land of the Rising Sun.

【推荐3】The name sounds funny but the idea is no joke: it’s a personal toilet called the pee-pool, Anders Wilhelmson, a Swedish architect, is the inventor of the pee-pool.

He became interested in the idea of sanitation(卫生设施) after taking part in a research project on the social and political development of cities. One of the most common problems he found in developing countries was the lack of toilets. He wanted to do something to help. So working with others, he started the project in 2005, and the next year started a company called Peepoolple.

The toilet is a single—use bag made of environmentally friendly plastics. The inside is treated with urea(尿素), a chemical commonly used as fertilizer. The hotter the weather, the more quickly the waste turns into what is needed by plants. The sanitation process can be as soon as a couple of hours or as long as two to four weeks. You can just bury it in a pot and grow whatever you like.

The company expects to start selling the bags in August in Kenya and Bangladesh, but it is just beginning production and sales in Nairobi now. Full production could reach about half a million bags a day and people may be able to buy the pee-pool in countries Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc.

The United Nations says more than two and a half billion people around the world do not have good sanitation. Many have no choice but to use the outdoors, which is not only bad for the environment, but also harmful to people’s health. Each year, poor sanitation leads to three fifths of those people getting an infectious disease which on average causes one out of 1,000 patients to die.

Jack Smith, the founder of the World Toilet Organization, says “This is quite an unacceptable situation given the fact that we are living in the modern world. And strangely, many of them own televisions, phones but have no toilet.”

【推荐1】It’s not common that a grandmother aged 89 is crowned Queen of Icebergs in North America, but when it does happen it’s quite the sight.

On a recent trip to Iceland, Judith Streng became that grandma after her son attempted to take a photograph of her siting on an ice structure that looked like a throne (宝座) at Diamond Beach in Jokulsarloo. Shortly after Streng sat down to pose, the piece of ice broke off and floated into the water.

“I thought it was safe. One girl had been on it and then two girls at the same time, and it was very secure with them. When I got on it, it started to shake and a wave was coming in. A very large wave came in and made the throne kind of shake, and I could tell that I was slipping off,” Streng told ABC News.

Streng’s story went hot after her 24-year-old granddaughter Catherine tweeted a text message exchange she had with her father about the incident. “My grandmother almost got lost at sea in iceland today!”

Catherine, who teaches English in Seoul, Korea, explained via Twitter that her father described the scene vividly. He has a PhD in English, and described the event in the following words, “She climbed to the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and removed the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave left, it lifted the throne and carried her out into the sea with the tide.”

Luckily for the Streng family, Randy, a licensed boat captain from Florida with knowledge of water rescue strategies, witnessed the whole thing, and was able to save the day.

【推荐2】I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were in the fallout of the recession (经济衰退). She said a polite “no”.

That didn’t stop me. I drew the piano keys on a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one. I spent six months playing without touching a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was serious, she borrowed money and bought me 10 lessons.

I still remember the first one. I was moved by how real the sound of the piano was. I sat my grade one after eight lessons. Once I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my piece of paper. One evening, when I was about 13, my mom said she had a surprise for me; it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more borrowed money. It was the first time I’d played for her. She was in shock.

My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. The tryouts (选拔) were difficult. Some of the questions includes an estimation (评价) of the composer (作曲家) or when it was written. However, I was finally offered a place. At Purcell, I spent two years working as hard as I could. I performed to raise money and bought my first piano.

When I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize and senior academic music prize. I am now at the Guildhall School in London. I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools.

【推荐3】Growing up,we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology.We are the”antisocial club”，those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them.And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction,we should at least consider that it’s not only our young people’s problem any more.

There’s the rise of the Instagram mums,who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures,share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles.They are the so-called”Facebook mum generation”，a growing group of parents that like to overshare.

While all of this might be fine,and even a little humorous,new research suggests that parents’ technology addiction is negatively affecting their children’s behavior.According to the study,40%of mothers and 32%of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers’ encouraging their children.

There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words”I’ll be with you soon” from a parent,when all I want to do is ask one question.But,at the same time,every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his”serious business”(Farmville),has now become the norm.Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit,or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter,know that wanting to do all of these is normal.We-your children-know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off.But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse,listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us,maybe lead by example,considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us.Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.