【推荐1】There are around 100 tribes that live in global isolation, mostly in South America and India.

The Sentinelese(250 people)have lived on one of the Andaman Islands in Eastern India for 60, 000 years. They protect their island by fighting against people from outside. Their language is different from any other known language.

Another Andaman tribe is the Jarawa(300 people). In the past, they were independent and fought against anybody trying to make contact with them. But in 1998, the Indian govemment built a road across their land, and since then, they’ve had more contact with the outside world.

Some Amazon tribes avoid contact because of unhappy memories. The Mashco—Piro left their vegetable gardens after rubber companies killed most of their tribe at the beginning of the 20th century. Those who survived became nomadic(游牧的)and started hunting animals in the forest.

The Awa live in the Amazon forests of Brazil. Out of 350 members, 100 have no contact with the outside world. They left their villages and adopted a nomadic lifestyle around 1850 to escape attacks by Europeans. In the following years, farmers in nearby communities started cutting the trees to expand their farmland. The Awa lost most of their hunting land.

The few Amazon tribes that still exist are fighting to keep their traditional way of life.

Survival, an organization that fights for the rights of tribal people, says that uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable(弱势的)humans on the planet and that’s why their environment should be unavailable to the rest of us.

After years of pressure, the organization got Brazil’s government to clear invaders from the Awa land. All non-Awa people are leaving so the tribe can get their forest back. But some think it’s impossible for tribes to stay isolated forever in a connected world. Contact will be made one day. So the question is：Whose choice should it be, ours or theirs?

【推荐3】If you think of a game of fetch, you might picture a dog running back and forth, eagerly recovering a ball. But a new study shows that they’re not the only pets that like the game: Cats play fetch, too, just on their own unique terms.

The researchers discovered almost 1,000 owners of 1,154 cats to find out if and why. According to their findings, nearly 95% of the cat owners reported that their cats fetched items naturally. One respondent said his cat returned the toy completely for no reason.

Fetching was mainly first noticed when cats were under I year old. What’s more, “cats who fetch largely determine when they engage in fetching activities and actively influence the play behavior of their owners,” according to the study. “So, it can say a bit about cats being in control of their interactions and being in control of their environments, even being in control of us. You might even go so far to say,” says Jemma Forman, the co-author of the study.

But the motivation for cats to fetch objects seems to be different from that for dogs. Cats are more likely to play on their own with objects similar to prey (猎物). For dogs, play is more social, involving either another dog or human.

In general, play has major advantages for both the pet and the owner, as it not only helps to prevent attack towards, the owner, but also models the act of preying on real animals, an important kind of play behavior. “So even if your cat doesn’t play fetch, obviously it’s a really good idea to try and engage them in any sort of play. Play does have a lot of benefits,” says Forman. “It’s about owner acceptance to your fur baby,” she says.

【推荐1】On average, 41% of global energy consumption (消耗) can be due to buildings and structures, notes the Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA). With EEBA also highlighting the fact that buildings produce dangerous emissions that pollute the air and that the construction industry produces more than 170 tons of debris (残骸) annually, there’s no question that the way that buildings are created needs to change.

By putting the environment first in architectural design, there are a variety of ways that the carbon footprint associated with buildings can be reduced, from the value in popular design trends like biophilia to how architects can work various eco-friendly materials into the job. The implementation (安装) of solar power is just one common design trend in eco-first buildings.

When looking for ways to meet eco-friendly design, biophilia—defined as “a love of life or living things,” has been used in architectural design to combine nature with the environment. In regard to the subject, ArchDaily notes “The guiding principle is quite simple: connect people with nature to improve their well-being and quality of life.” With common elements of biophilic design in buildings including indoor trees and plants, skylights, and living walls occupants can enjoy the various benefits associated with the presence of nature indoors. For example, indoor plants may work to lower stress and reduce anxiety, and may even provide motivational boost. The plants can also help absorb sound, provide privacy, and can even serve as a source of food (depending on the plants used, of course).

One green building design can be found in Milan, Italy, in which a residential development that consists of two towers can be found. Known as the ‘Bosco Verticale’, the towers stand 80 and 112 meters high, and their outer parts are covered in plants and trees. In addition to attracting wildlife, Boeri’s practice, Stefano Boeri Architetti, notes that the “green curtain” works to generate oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide.

【推荐2】The most beautiful buildings in Melbourne

State Library of Victoria

Melbourne’s central library was set up in 1854, making it one of the first free public libraries in the world. Architect Joseph Reed was behind the design. The first stage of the library opened in 1856, with a collection of 3,800 books, and included most of the front wing and the Queen’s Hall reading room.

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) International

This grand modernist building on St Kilda Road is Australia’s oldest and most popular art museum. The NGV International building by architect Roy Grounds opened in 1968. The gallery is known for its top-ranking exhibition (which includes a Rembrandt, a Bonnard and Tiepolo), and fantastic painting collections (before we’ve seen exhibitions devoted to Van Gogh, and Monet).

Melbourne’s GPO

The building began construction in 1859 and took the next five decades to construct. American architect Walter Burley Griffin redesigned the sorting hall into a public hall around 1919. The space functioned as a post office for most of the 20th century until 1993 when Australia Post decided it wanted to move its post office functions into smaller shopfronts. Many commercial ideas were put forward, though none came to fruition until 2001, when it was hired by developers with the goal of turning it into a shopping center.

Manchester Unity Building

Marcus Barlow designed the twelve-storey concrete-covered steel structure which reached the building height limit of 132 feet. Construction was put off because of the Great Depression but began early in 1932 and builders worked around the clock in eight-hour shifts to make sure that the ground and first floors were open for trade by September that same year. The ground floor was home to 23 shops. On the 12th floor there was a rooftop garden cafe fitted with a fountain, pond and Japanese palms, and the basement served as a tea room and cafe.

【推荐3】With office developers competing for space and height—just to make a statement, the age of the iconic office building is upon us. Let’s start by exploring what “iconic” actually means.

Google the word “iconic” and the definitions include something that is “famous”, “popular” or representative of “particular opinions or a particular time”. The term can also be applied to something that is representative of something else—for instance, the Eiffel Tower is a symbol of Paris.

In architecture, an iconic design is usually a design that is “ground breaking” and one that sets new standards in its field. It is a design that other designers and manufacturers follow, as it becomes a bench mark for other similar products. Furthermore, an iconic design is one that stands up to the test of time, remaining a good design, despite the passing of years, decades and even centuries.

Lord Norman Foster has certainly had a say in the rise of these distinctive structures over the past 15 years. His architectural firm Foster & Partners designed the Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe), whose completion in 2001 sparked the birth of London’s new skyline, taking over the previous one—Britannic Tower. Lord Foster also led the redesign of Wembley Stadium and the Millennium Bridge—globally recognized structures in their own right.

Unusually shaped structures have been around since the Pyramids, but before computers, architectural designs were hand drawn and, consequently, landmark buildings were much more conventional in their nature. Since then, digital technology has moved forward at such a rate that it has pushed us into a new era of architectural innovation.

Whatever your views on these high-rise developments, they have turned the London skyline into an exciting, ever-changing landscape and, in the process, redefined the concept of an iconic building. But we will still be talking about them a century from now—as we do the Empire State Building — or will another new wave of office blocks simply take their place?