【推荐1】Happiness, that short and delightful feeling, seems all too rare in 2020. But there's one place where happiness is the name of the game. And, no, we're not talking about Disney World.

Denmark, currently the second happiest country on earth, is now home to The Happiness Museum, which is created by The Happiness Research Institute, a think tank focusing on well-being, happiness and quality of life. The eight-room museum is devoted to literally bringing happiness to life, reminding visitors what it is that gives value to them and makes them feel good. Led by Meik Wiking, author of three international bestsellers, the museum opened on July 14 in a small 240-square-meter space in Copenhagen.

Visitors to the museum will find many interactive exhibits. Each room is devoted to a specific approach to studying happiness. The politics of happiness exhibit asks questions about the role of elections and GDP in determining national happiness. There's also a geography of happiness section that explores the role of built environments on happiness levels, as well as showing a world map with the World Happiness Report 2020's happiness ranking of 153 countries. There are other sections like the science of happiness, the history of happiness and what lies in store for the future.

Certain museum exhibits include visitors' personal perception of happiness. Can you determine which half of the Mona Lisa's mouth smiles? How do you explain the meaning of happiness? The museum houses a vast collection of donated artworks donated by people from around the globe, which remind them of happy moments in their lives.

While the museum is a very optimistic place to be, it's also aware of the difficulties of being a public place in the middle of a global pandemic (流行病). The museum has strict policies in place to ensure social distancing and safety, including only allowing 50 visitors at a time and a one-way path through the museum.

【推荐2】In many ways Sweden has become a traveler’s paradise. There’s so much to see and do, so make sure you allow plenty of time to enjoy all the outdoor adventures and historic treasures.

1. Drottningholm

Fairy tale Drottningholm Palace on the island of Lovö is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and lies about 11 kilometers west of Stockholm city center (45 minutes by boat). Dating from the 17th century, the palace is now the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family.

2. Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum is Sweden’s most popular museum and now attracts around a million visitors annually. More than 20 million people have visited since the museum opened in 1990. Now visitors from across the world come to see this fascinating Swedish Imperial fleet capsule.

3. Gamla Stan (Old Town)

Dating from the 1200s and crammed with must-see sights, attractions, cafés, authentic restaurants and boutique shops, the area of Gamla Stan (Old Town) is a living-breathing museum in its own right. For many this is the first stop on their journey. Plenty of souvenirs and gifts are available in the Old Town, and visitors will find themselves transported back to medieval times as they wander through a bewildering labyrinth (迷宫) of tiny winding streets.

4. The Royal Palace (Sverige’s Kungahus)

Located by the water on the edge of Gamla Stan, this is the official residence of the King of Sweden. A rich taste of the once mighty Swedish. Empire, the palace is one of the largest in Europe boasting an excess of 600 rooms and no less than five museums. As mentioned previously, visitors can witness the daily changing of the guard.

【推荐2】Every time we get on a plane, we’re asked to either turn off our phones or change them to flight mode—it’s for “security reasons”.But according to The Conversation website, having to turn our phones off on a plane is “a service issue, not a safety one”.When we speak on our phones in the air, they can cause interference to the aircraft’s radios and pilots can hear this interference in their headphones.“It’s the same noise you’ll be familiar with, if you put your mobile too close to a speaker,” the Mirror noted.“It is not safety-critical, but is annoying for sure.” Though speaking on a phone during a flight isn’t dangerous, from the viewpoint of service, it isn’t still a good idea.

When we make or receive a call on the ground, we connect to a cell tower that deals with all calls within an 80-kilometer radius (半径).As we move from place to place we are “handed on” to different cell towers.As US scientist Sven Bilen explains, for this system to work, there are “built-in” expectations:There shouldn’t be too many “handoffs” and people shouldn’t be traveling faster than car speeds.“Of course, phone users should be close to the ground.” he added.If we were to make phone calls while we flew, however, none of these expectations would be met.And even worse, our cellphones would stop working.

But now things are beginning to change.If we still can’t speak during a flight, we can use other phone functions.For example, Airbus A330 of Emirates Airlines has inflight WiFi to make passengers send and receive short messages in the air.In the future, as Bilen points out, it may be possible for air travelers to make and receive calls freely.The breakthrough could be “pico cells”, which are small cell towers on the plane itself.There would no longer be connections made between phones and the ground and therefore there would be no danger of disruption to phone service.

One day, perhaps, we will be chatting in the air as much as we chat on the ground.

【推荐3】We are all aware of the damaging pollution that’s created by driving petrol and diesel (柴油) vehicles. Many of the world’s cities are blocked with traffic, creating fumes containing gases such as nitrogen oxides. The solution for a cleaner, greener future could be electric vehicles. But how optimistic should we be? There was much excitement last year when the UK government announced it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. But is that easier said than done?

The road to global traffic being totally electric is still a long way off. Currently, battery life is an issue — a fully charged battery won’t take you as far as a full tank of petrol. There are also limited numbers of charging points to plug an electric vehicle (EV) into. Of course, technology is always improving. Some of the biggest tech companies, like Google and Tesla, are spending huge amounts of money developing electric cars. And most of the big car producers are now making them too. Colin Herron, a consultant on low-carbon vehicle technology, told the BBC: “The big leap forward will come with solid state batteries, which will appear first in mobile phones and laptops before they progress to cars.” These will charge more quickly and give cars a bigger range. Cost is another issue that may discourage people switching to electric power. But some countries offer incentive, such as cutting prices by reducing import taxes, and not charging for road tax and parking. Some also provide special lanes for electric cars to be driven on, overtaking traditional cars which might be stuck in jams.

These kinds of measures have made Norway the country with the most electric cars per capita (人均) at more than thirty electric cars per 1000 inhabitants. But Colin Herron warns that “electric motoring” doesn’t mean a zero-carbon future. “It’s emission-free motoring, but the car has to be built, the battery has to be built, and the electricity does come from somewhere.” Maybe it’s time to think about making fewer journeys or using public transport.

【推荐3】Despite the negative international headlines that have hit Huawei over the past few months, its consumer business continues to thrive. The Chinese technology giant replaced Apple as the second­largest smartphone player by global market share last year. It's firmly the biggest vendor(销售商) in China.

Chinese consumers say they've been attracted to Huawei's newest features, the price points and the fact that it's a domestic brand.“Using Huawei's mobile phones is supporting domestic brands. We hope our brands can go international，” Vikey, a Guangzhou­based Huawei user, told CNBC. She added that Huawei phones are “cost­effective” and have good features while iPhones are “more of a trend”. One of the key features that Huawei introduced was a triple­lens camera on its P20 Pro, which was launched last year.

For the next 12 months, the iPhone lacks one of the most appealing features of current winners in the Chinese smartphone market, the triple­lens camera. The Huawei P20 Pro led the march.

Retailers (零销售) are slashing (大幅消减) iPhone prices across China as consumers say the phones aren't worth the cost. Apple's latest iPhone models are facing huge discounts in China as retailers try to sell the struggling devices. That comes as the top­of­the­line Apple smartphones have posted poor China sales on what experts say are too­high prices for the world's largest smartphone market and a lack of innovative features compared to local competitors like Huawei. The technology giant itself acknowledged earlier this month that unexpectedly low sales in the Chinese market would likely lead to worse­ than ­anticipated first quarter profits.

One of the most recent iPhone cost cuts in the country came from Suning, a large Chinese retailer, which changed the price of the 128GB version of the iPhone XR from 6,999 yuan to 5,799 yuan — a 1,200 yuan discount.

Other retailers in China are also putting their iPhones on sale. Sunion, an Apple reseller, was advertising 700 yuan off for both the 128GB and 256GB versions of the iPhone XR. E­commerce site Pinduoduo, which allows third­parties to sell products, also had hefty(很大的) discounts across all of the latest iPhone models.