【推荐3】Traveling by train can be a romantic way to see the world. Here are some fantastic train trips to add to your travel bucket list.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Where it goes: Xining to Lhasa

How long it takes: 20 hours and 55 minutes

Why not start with the world’s highest train ride? The gorgeous 1,215-mile journey only makes seven stops as it passes through four different biological community. Booking between April and November bodes for better weather, though the stunning views of grasslands, wetlands, mountains and deserts are always breathtaking.

Eurostar

Where it goes: London to/ from Paris

How long it takes: Two hours and 15 minutes

Eurostar is a popular way for folks to get from London to Paris, but it has another draw that makes it a great bucket-list train trip. For 20 minutes, you’ll actually be riding 150 feet underwater through the famed English Channel. Trains leave from St. Pancras/King’s Cross in London and arrive in Gare du Nord [ in Paris].

Orient Express

Where it goes: Paris to Istanbul ( original route)

The Orient Express is one of the most famous train journeys in history, with movies and murder- mystery novels undoubtedly adding to its mystery and fascination. You can still ride its original route — all of which is included in a Eurail Global Pass.

Trans-Siberian Railway

Where it goes: Moscow to Vladivostok

How long it takes: Seven days

The Trans-Siberian Railway is another historically famous railroad that should be on your bucket list. It’s also the world’s longest continuous railway, clocking in at 5,772 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia. Along the way, you’ll pass through eight times zones and have plenty of time to see the beautiful Russian countryside.

【推荐1】Hands-on basketball

The boy was only nine years old when he designed a “hands-on basketball”. Chris Haas had the idea when he saw his friends miss lots of baskets. His basketball has painted hands on it. The hands show you where to put your hands when you throw the ball. Today people use his invention around the world.

Wristies

At age 10, Kathryn Gregory was playing outside one day in the cold. Her wrists (手腕) began to hurt from the cold so she decided to find a way to keep both her hands and wrists warm during the winter. In 1994, she invented Wristies: fuzzy sleeves (毛绒袖子) that can be worn underneath gloves to protect your wrists from the cold. She worked with her mom to get the idea off the ground and now the product is sold worldwide.

Makin’ Bacon

Abbey Fleck was 8 years old when she noticed how much time her parents spent soaking up bacon fat (吸干培根油脂) after cooking. She realized that it might be easier to hang bacon while it cooks. That way you wouldn’t need paper towels and it would even make the bacon healthier. She then worked with her father to design a dish that hangs bacon while it cooks. Now people can see her invention in many supermarkets.

Braille

Louis Braille had an accident when he was three. The accident left him blind. At that time, it was hard for blind children to read. They had to touch raised letters. But it was difficult to tell a Q from an O, an R from a B, and so on. When he was fifteen, Louis invented an alphabet (字母表) that used raised dots. The Braille alphabet was a big success!

【推荐2】Fastbrick Robotics is responding to the increased demand for housing and a shortage in skilled construction labor with a bricklaying robot. The gigantic robot Hadrian X, equipped with specialized technology, can lay a residential house from the ground up, on site, in 2 days.

Hadrian is not the first outdoor construction robot. Trouble is, nothing’s happening outdoors. That’s because most robots can’t adjust to small, quick changes in wind or temperature fast enough to keep up. Especially when you’re working on something as large-scale as building a house and a light breeze could lead to bricks being laid way out of position. So up till now, any robot building on such large scales had to be indoors in minutely controlled environments.

Hadrian has overcome this problem using the precision technology Dynamic Stabilisation Technology (DST). The computer program measures environmental factors an astounding 2000 times per second, then accounts for them in real time. Combine that with a 3D printer style build process based on CAD modelling, and you get a robot that can lay bricks with an error margin of just 1 millimetre.

Hadrian’s got other things going for it than just accuracy though. It’s also 15 to 20 times faster than human builders, and the use of CAD modelling reduces waste because every brick is planned and calculated. Plus, it’s safer. It eliminates the need for humans to work at height and in intensive labor exposed to the elements. Together, these aspects should lead to vastly reduced housing costs. Not only is this great for first-home buyers, it’s also a potential solution to housing demand worldwide.

Fastbrick’s technological innovations may be groundbreaking, but that doesn’t mean it’ll all be smooth sailing. But any resistance and challenges faced by Fastbrick Robotics are more than offset by the potential rewards. One of the best things about being the CEO of Fastbrick, according to Mike, is that “everybody wants this to work … it’s an amazing thing to work in an organization where you have global support to be successful”.