【推荐1】Niu Yu, 24, became a shining star at Shanghai Fashion Week for her confident attitude while walking down the catwalk with a prosthetic (假肢的) leg. “She is so cool and so pretty.” Many audience made such comments on her first performance on the stage. But actually, she was so nervous on the night before the event that she wasn’t able to fall asleep. The next morning, her friend reminded her of a message from another disabled girl, reading “Although we are not perfect, we are still pretty”. It gave her much courage to put a punch (痛击) in the nose for prejudice against disabled people. When the other models appeared, the audience cheered and applauded, but when it was Niu’s turn, the venue suddenly fell silent Niu recalled that after some seconds, she clearly heard a female audience sigh in admiration, “so cool!” Through the activity, Niu wants to convey a message to the world, “People should respect people with difference and allow them to shine.”

Niu lost her right leg after she was buried for three days during the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. She was 11 years old then and a member of the school track and field team.

This is not the first time that Niu has been in the public spotlight. She first drew people’s attention when she finished a marathon in 2018, which was held in Wenchuan on May 12, in memory of the 10th anniversary of the earthquake. The day was also Niu’s 21th birthday. She suddenly realized that she could have a beneficial impact on the lives of others.

Niu now works as a photographer and often uploads video clips from her life on short video platforms such as Douyin, where she has more than 850,000 followers. She explained that she shares her experiences to help society at large better understand disabled groups. “I feel I have a social responsibility to connect the disabled with the public. Showing my life to the public can allow them to become familiar with our group and also can tell other disabled people that society is more tolerate than they imagined.”

【推荐2】Joe Seaman-Graves is the city planner for the small town of Cohoes, New York. He was in search of a less costly way of providing electricity to the town. There was no extra land to build on. But Cohoes does have a nearly 6-hectare reservoir (水库).

Seaman-Graves learned that the town’s reservoir could hold enough solar panels (面板) to power all city buildings. And that would save the city more than $500,000 each year.

Floating solar panel projects have seen quick growth as a new form of clean energy in the United States and Asia. Floating solar panels are sought after not just for their clean power, but also because they save water by preventing evaporation (蒸发).

A recent study found that more than 6,000 cities in 124 countries could potentially produce all of their electricity demand using floating solar panels. It also found that the panels could spare the cities enough water each year to fill 40 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The idea of floating solar panels is simple: attach panels on structures that float on water. The panels serve as a cover that reduces evaporation to nearly zero. The water keeps the panels cool. This permits them to produce power more effectively than land-based panels, which lose efficiency when they get too hot.

One of the floating solar farms in the U.S. is the 4.8-megawatt project in Healdsburg, California. It was built by the company Ciel & Terre, which has built 270 projects in 30 countries. Floating solar panels cost 10 to 15 percent more than land solar ones at first. But the technology saves money in the long term. Deeper water can increase setup costs, and the technology cannot operate on fast-moving water, on the open ocean or on coastlines with very large waves.

Problems can come up if the solar panels cover too much of a water body’s surface. That could change the water temperature and harm underwater life. But Seaman-Graves said he believes his town’s floating solar panel project can serve as an example for other American cities.

【推荐3】Growing up, playing hockey with her brothers and the boys in the area, Rhéaume learned pretty quickly that, despite her abilities, she was often cut from teams simply because she was a girl. Although it was frustrating for the youngster, she was not deterred. She continued to work hard and develop her skills to prove she could compete with the boys.

It didn’t take long for her to make a name for herself. In 1984, she became the first girl to play in the famed Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament.

When the Tampa Bay Lightning, a National Hockey League (NHL) team came calling the following year, it was an opportunity Rhéaume could not pass up. When Rhéaume arrived in Tampa Bay, she remembers there was a big bouquet of flowers waiting for her in her dressing room, along with a card. “It was from a radio station in Montreal and the card said go further, good luck to you, we’re all behind you and you’re not alone,” she said. “When I got that, I realized a lot of people were pulling for me to be successful.” It was at that point that the significance of the game began to dawn on her.

When Rhéaume joined the Lightning for a game, on September 23,1992, she became the first woman to play in the NHL. While it might have felt like just another game for Rhéaume in the moment, in the years that have followed, she has realized it was so much more. “I didn’t know that it would inspire so many people,” she said. “It was more later in my life that I realized it was a big deal and I did impact people with my story.”

Although her experience with the NHL was brief, Rhéaume inspired countless girls to pursue their hockey dreams. Almost twenty-eight years later, and she’s still doing exactly that. Today, Rhéaume is the head coach of the12U Little Caesars Girls in Detroit. “I always tell my players to follow their dreams no matter what the dream is and to believe in themselves,” Rhéaume said. “Hard work and never giving up is what can make you succeed.”

【推荐3】An 84-year-old Kansas woman, Genie, last month auctioned (拍卖) off her Ford truck for $16,000 — that’s not unusual. What is unusual is that her Ford has been in her family since before she was born in 1937.

The truck was originally bought by Genie’s father back when horses and carriages were still the main form of transportation. Genie said her father got it before he got her and he was pretty proud of this truck because he had farmed with horses. But sometimes horses were not quite up to farm work. For a farmer, going from horses to a new truck was a big deal in those days.

What’s so amazing about the old truck, though, is how well it’s preserved. And it amazingly still ran although the motor, the only part that isn’t original, was remade and replaced. It still has its original paint job, with just a little rust (锈迹). The same sideboards which once increased its room to load more grain are still in place. And the truck still has its documentation from July 1937. It is interesting to see that, at that time, it was titled using the engine number worthy to be seen in a museum.

After twenty years of working the fields, the truck was parked in a barn in 1957 after Genie’s mother replaced the tires during the hard time of World War Ⅱ. Her mother even had a hard time getting a tire for it. She hadn’t got angry very much, but she sure did that time. And it’s hardly seen the light of day since then, some 64 years ago.

Old vehicle owners will agree that this Ford truck is not only unique but also exceptional. This truck is not perfect. However, it’s original, and you can’t find original very often.