【推荐2】In UK, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are everywhere. They help the police solve crimes (犯罪) and keep the streets safe. But that’s not all they do. They also catch people doing very stupid or smart things.

One of the videos is of a British woman Mary Bale. She clearly doesn’t like cats. In 2020 she was caught on CCTV throwing one into a dustbin. The video shows Mary walking down a quiet street. All of a sudden, she notices Lola the cat jump onto a fence (篱笆). Mary stops to pick up Lola and drops her into a large dustbin. Lola was saved fifteen hours later.   And Mary was caught by police for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. She was fined ￡250 and was not allowed to own pets for five years.

Another video shows “Britain’s drunkest man”. And he’d obviously had a few too many glasses of beer. At about 2 a.m., he was kicked out for being too drunk. So, he decided to walk home. On the way, CCTV cameras filmed him falling down stairs and crossing the roads madly… A hotel waiter said, “It’s amazing he didn’t hurt himself badly.”

Sometimes they also record smart events. Once a British band The Get Out Clause didn’t have any money to make a music video. So, they came up with an unbelievable idea. They set up their instruments and played a song in front of eight CCTV cameras. And then, according to the English Freedom of Information Act, they asked for a copy of all the footages (镜头) , which they edited. The result is that a totally new music video was made, and it didn’t cost them a penny.

【推荐1】Underwater travel is difficult and dangerous, but many people have to stay deep under the ocean. Thus, humans have come up with a few designs of vehicles to move around under the ocean. But what if there was a better way to travel?

Hilary Bart-Smith, an engineer at the University of Virginia, thinks a vehicle that travels like a manta ray (魔鬼鱼) would be able to operate for long periods at sea. Manta rays which can grow up to 29 feet long are among the most efficient swimmers in the ocean. Different from animals and people pushing against water, manta rays swim by moving through the water with wing-like movements of their fins (鳍). Efficiency means using less energy to move farther.

Bart-Smith and other engineers at the University of Virginia had to find out what manta rays looked like on the inside to better understand how they move. They took X-rays to find out how a manta ray’s fins are built. They found that a web of cartilage (软骨) stretches across each fin.

Once the engineers knew how a manta ray’s fin was constructed, they could build one of their own. They made a long row of metal struts with many hinges to imitate the manta ray’s web of cartilage. The engineers put their design inside a flexible cover, shaped like a manta ray’s fin. Then they tested it in the university swimming pool. They were happy to see that it swam just like a manta ray in the ocean.

Engineers and scientists are still learning and experimenting with how to imitate these amazing animals. For now, engineers study their movements and learn from the most efficient swimmers in the ocean. Perhaps someday engineers will be able to build manta ray robots that are big enough to transport people.

【推荐2】When you imagine a robot, you might picture R2-D2 in Star Wars, but there’s a new robotic system called particle robotics that is changing what it means to be a robot.

Looking like some kids forgot to pick up their toys, the robot is a collection of plastic disks (圆盘). The designers refer to each disk as a “particle”. Alone, a single disk can’t do much of anything. But when working as a system, they become what the designers call a “particle robot” and can do simple tasks.

Scientists behind the project were inspired by nature. In the human body, for example, individual cells (细胞) work together as muscle tissue. Many other types of cells also move together as a group. The robot moves in the same way.

Tiny magnets (磁铁) on the disks’ outer rims (边缘) make them stick together. When one disk expands or shrinks (放大或缩小), it pushes or pulls on its neighbors. When all of those small pushes and pulls add up, suddenly the robot starts to move — very slowly.

Even though the disks don’t communicate directly with each other, they can act as a group. The scientists showed this by fitting sensors on each disk that could recognize light. Then they programmed the disks to expand and shrink faster or slower, depending on how strong the light was. When the researchers shone a bright light, the robot slowly moved toward it — the result of all those individual expansions and shrinks.

Right now, the robot only moves across a smooth surface. It is believed that future robots, such as this one, will continue to copy nature, influencing how they might look and move. There will be more and more biologically based designs.

【推荐3】Earlier today, Spotify announced it would be sharing news at an April 24th event. It’s unclear whether the company is planning to show hardware later this month in New York City, but evidence suggests that Spotify has been working on an in-car controller — or even a standalone player — for the streaming service that would allow drivers to control music playback with their voice.

Back in February, several Spotify customers reported that they received an offer inside the app for a new device that would come included as part of a $12.99-per-month subscription(订阅费). That price would cover both Spotify’s music service and the device itself if users agreed to a 12-month commitment totaling $155.

Another user claimed that Spotify showed them a different $14.99 price point and advertised support for Amazon’s Alexa assistant. For some, Spotify detailed built-in 4G mobile data so that the device could function independently of a smartphone. In every case where it appeared, the prompt(提示) only came up once and never returned. Sightings of it basically disappeared after February. Still, the number of people who received this message tells me that the image was acceptable and was accidentally sent out far ahead of schedule by Spotify. There’s nothing to suggest it will launch at this month’s event, however.

Outside of Reddit, the device has been mentioned on Spotify’s support forums(论坛) but drew little attention, with forum administrators dismissing it as a test. “We’re always testing things to improve Spotify,” is the usual response line. “Right now we don’t have any news on this, but we’ve let the right team know it’s something you’d like to see,” a moderator wrote in response to another thread on the subject.

【推荐1】U. S. film director Spike lee had been awarded the 20th annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for his brilliance and unwavering   courage in using film to challenge traditional thinking.

The film-maker behind hits such as Malcolm X and Inside Man would receive approximately $ 300,000. “I hadn't even heard of it,” Lee said, of the prize. “It was a phone call that came completely out of the blue. It was one of the best phone calls I've ever had,” the 56-year-old man added.

The late actress Lillian Gish, who died in 1993, required that the prize be given every year to a manor a woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life.

Previous recipients include some famous people from different fields—Frank Gehry, Bob Dylan, Arthur Miller and Robert Redford. Chosen from a shortlist of 30 people in the arts, Lee would be presented with the honour on 30 October, 2013 at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

“Would you believe that two of the most important films that impacted me while I was studying at NYU starred Miss Lillian Gish?” Lee said in a statement, citing The Birth of a Nation and 'The Night of the Hunter. “Isn't it funny sometimes how life works?”

Lee made his debut with She's Gotta Have It in 1986 , closely followed by the groundbreaking Do the Right 'Thing in 1989, which landed Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film and Best Director. In 2013, he raised $ 1.25 million on the fan funding website Kickstarter towards his next movie project. Lee's latest film, BlacKkKlansman, starring John David and Adam Driver, was released in the U. S. Washington on August 10, 2018.