【推荐1】The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport announced that the capital will build 20 cycle tracks connecting popular tourist sites and another 20 linking the countryside. Also, all roads that are wider than 12 meters must have cycle lanes (车道).

It is good of the city’s transport department to care for cyclists. Cycling is, without doubt, one of the greenest ways of traveling. It uses no gas, so there are no carbon emissions (碳排放), and it also helps the cyclists become strong and reduce fat.

That’s why, in this age of automobiles, bicycles have suddenly become a popular means of transport. Today people ride cycles not for shortage of other means of transport, but for their own health. Data show that over 100 million people ride bicycles as a kind of sport.

However, to encourage more people to choose this green means of transport, good bicycle lanes are a necessity. Anybody with any cycling experience must have come across the following problems at some point of time; that there might be no cycle lanes beyond a certain point, or that the signs for cyclists might become unclear; worst of all, there might be whole rows of cars parked on the bicycle lanes or cyclists might have to compete with cars on the same lane.

The law prevents parking on bicycle lanes, but some car owners couldn’t care less. The law gives cyclists right of passage over automobile drivers, but that is often forgotten. With automobiles pushing cyclists to one side of the road, cycling often loses its attraction. Sometimes people prefer cycling on exercise bikes indoors than on the roads.

To make cycling a pleasurable experience, the governments need to do their jobs better. Apart from designing new bicycle lanes, they should also take effective actions to protect the rights of cyclists and make the sport more enjoyable.

【推荐3】Out on the graceful avenues and main roads of Paris, a battle has been approaching.

A century and a half after Baron Haussmann plowed (犁地) through the city to straighten out and broaden the narrow twisted streets, the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, a kind of anti-Haussmann has slowly been reducing the size of main roads for years.

Part of her environmental plan is to clean up air pollution and make the city friendly for bicycles and other two wheeled vehicles like electric scooters (踏板车). “I think it could be a good idea - not to have cars in the town centers and the motorists who love four wheels. It’s a bit of a war of the bikes and scooters against cars,” the Mayor said. High speed lanes along the Seine, which people in the suburbs relied on to and from Paris each day, have been shut down to make room for joggers and cycles. This is part of a Paris Administration’s dream of getting rid of cars in Paris as much as possible.

The Mayor wants to transform the big space and today the big space is occupied by cars, and car drivers. “We have half of the public space in Paris, which is dedicated to cars,” she said. But for motorists, it is as bad as the reduction of the speed limit on most streets in town to 30 kilometers. The constant flashes of speed radar cameras bare witness to how many motorists just can’t bring themselves to go that slow. They say the reduced speed limits are just another way to get the cars out of the city.

The head of a motorist association claims commuters (通勤者) have no alternative but to use their cars because public transportation is overcrowded and often unreliable. And for those who live around Paris, it’s really unfair. They need their car, or they can’t go to work. It’s something incredible. And so while Paris has taken major action to rid the streets of automobiles and make the city more bicycle friendly, going green is not proving to be politically very simple.

【推荐2】Four Historic American Theatres

Today, theatres remain a key part of a city’s lifeblood. The following are four historic theatres in America.

Pantages Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

The Pantages Theatre, which now seats 1,014, opened in 1916 as part of Alexander Pantages’s well-known group of theatres. It was designed by the local firm Kees and Colburn. In 1922, the theatres was rebuilt by Scottish theatres architect Benjamin Marcus Priteca. After going through several owners, in 1984, it was closed and remained unopened until 1996. Some theatre supporters had it repaired and improved, resulting in its reopening in 2002.

Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, LA

New Orleans’s Saenger Theatre was built two years before the Great Depression, in 1927, and cost a then unheard-of $ 2.5 million. It was designed by Emile Weil, featuring a 15th-century Florentine courtyard and gardens, and Greek and Roman statues. Although the theatre was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, after a $ 53 million renovation (修葺), it reopened in 2013.

Thalian Hall, Wilmington, NC

Thalian Hall has been in almost continuous use since its opening in 1858. It is the only surviving theatre designed by John Montague Trimble, one of America’s foremost 19th-century theatre architects, and originally housed the town government, a library, as well as an “Opera House”, seating 1, 000 people. Some repairs in 1909 led to the removal of the side balconies and the installation of electric stage lights.

Providence Performing Arts Center, Providence, RI

It was originally opened as a movie palace in 1928, and the silent movies it showed were accompanied by a $ 90, 000 Robert Morton organ. After several decades, the theatre suffered from the increased popularity of television, as well as damage by two hurricanes. Over the past decade and a half, it has undergone extensive renovations and modernization.

【推荐3】Debate about artificial intelligence (AI) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic (算法) discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity. As some observers worry, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards. AI could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and toughest problems. And, they say, AI will do this in a very specific way: by speeding the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.

Such claims are worth examining, and may provide a useful counterbalance (抵消) to fears about large-scale unemployment and killer robots. Many previous technologies have, of course, been falsely praised as panaceas (灵丹妙药). The electric telegraph was praised in the 1850s as a sign of world peace. Experts in the 1990s said the internet would reduce inequality.

But the mechanism by which AI will supposedly solve the world’s problems has a stronger historical basis, because there have been several periods in history when new approaches and new tools did indeed help bring about bursts of world-changing scientific discovery and innovation.

In the 17th century microscopes and telescopes opened up new vistas (视野) of discoveries, while the introduction of scientific journals gave them new ways to share their findings. From the mid-20th century, computers in turn enabled new forms of science based on simulation and modelling, from the design of weapons and aircraft to more accurate weather forecasting.

And the computer revolution may not be finished yet. As we report, AI tools and techniques are now being applied in almost every field of science, though the degree of adoption varies widely: 7.2% of physics and astronomy papers published in 2022 involved AI. AI is being employed in many ways. It can identify promising candidates for analysis, such as molecules with particular properties in drug discovery, or materials with the characteristics needed in batteries or solar cells.

All this is to be welcomed. But the journal and the laboratory went further still: they altered scientific practice itself and unlocked more powerful means of making discoveries. AI has the potential to set off such a transformation.