【推荐1】There is a mobility system or wheelchair which can be seen at Tokyo Airport moving on its own.

The mobility system seats one person and is able to find its way on its own without hitting anything. It has a pre-programmed path of about 600 meters at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. The ride lasts several minutes. It travels from the security area to the boarding gate at a speed of 3.5 kilometers per hour. But many people hope this type of technology can help in other places, such as hospitals or parks. The technology uses sensors and cameras to see a clear path and avoid hitting those walking toward it. The person on the machine can start or stop it through a simple controller. It runs on batteries and is programmed to return to where it starts from when its passenger gets off. It was demonstrated on Monday by WHILL, the company behind the technology.

WHILL Chief Executive Satoshi Sugie said robotics and self-driving technology reduce the need for a human at the wheel. They are especially useful in these difficult times when we are living with the corona-virus.” We are developing our business in order to help restore a world where people can enjoy moving around with peace of mind,” Sugie said.

The system is helping with social distance while fighting the spread of the corona-virus. It also helps older passengers and those who need help walking the last few steps to the boarding gate. What’ s more, it could help Japan free up labor. Japan, like many other nations, suffers from a labor shortage. The technology could free a worker to do another job.

Tests have been carried out at several airports since last year, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The company hopes to put it in airports around the world.

【推荐2】Earthquakes cannot be forecast, but engineers can prepare for them. Seismic-isolation systems use concrete (水泥), rubber and metal to reduce quake damage. But such adaptations are expensive. Engineer Jian Zhang of the University of California, Los Angeles, says the system can increase building costs by 20 percent. Although these systems might save more than they cost over time, builders in some areas may not have the money for them.

A new seismic-isolation method uses the physics of rolling to create a simpler, lower-cost choice with easily found things: used tennis balls. The team of Michalis Vassiliou, an engineer, based its method on an early form of seismic isolation that rolls a shaking building to a stop the way a skater comes to rest. By separating a building from the ground with a layer of balls, rolling isolation changes horizontal shaking into a soft rocking movement and uses friction to reduce the shaking.

The researchers built a cheap model consisting of four filled tennis balls between two concrete boards, and they found that it withstood simulated (仿造的) earthquake shaking while supporting eight kilonewtons (千牛顿) of force per ball — about twice what isolation systems might experience under one-story houses. The balls had to contain exactly the right amount of the concrete mixture to reduce the shaking without cracking during tests.

Zhang, who didn’t take part in the study, says that the work is valuable. But she notes that the results are basic. Vassiliou agrees that next steps will mean creating and testing a larger model with hundreds of tennis balls. Vassiliou says that he has received money to test the system on the ground to improve the invention. “For this to actually be applied,” he adds, “you need to develop it with engineers from developing countries so that it actually deals with their needs.”

【推荐3】Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur, who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids' teeth, instead of destroying them.

It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to overcome the warning, “Why can't I make a healthy candy that's good for my teeth so that my parents can't say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.

With her dad's permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also consulted dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.

Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father got their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore's product—CanCandy.

As CanCandy's success grows, so does Moore’s reliability as an entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.

Meanwhile, with her parents' help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early in life, she wasn't driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy's profits to Big Smiles.

【推荐3】Nowadays, it sounds difficult to stick to a vegan diet, especially with many popular dishes containing meat or other animal products.     1     According to Huffpost, more than 1 million people in the United States are vegans. In the UK, about 542,000 people have chosen veganism over the past decade.

    2     One reason may be that people want to protect the environment. Producing meat and dairy products is known to be stressful for the environment. According to BBC News, another reason is that many of today's young people believe it wrong to kill animals for food.

What is veganism on earth? For many people, veganism simply means eating no meat cheese or eggs.     3     For example, leather is used to make shoes and clothing. Every year more than a billion animals, from cows to horses to snakes, are killed to make leather products from their skins.     4     The sports brand Puma, for example, has made shoes out of pineapple leaves. Tesla, the US car maker, is said to be removing animal-based leather from its seats.

Are you interested in protecting animals and saving the environment?     5    

【推荐1】I went to a small and poor elementary school. I remember the first time a computer showed up in class. It was 5th grade and the computer was an Apple. It was the only computer in my school. This was the 80s and it was a $2, 600 machine.

Before I discovered computers, I took typing class on old typewriters and I was the kid in class that repaired the typewriters. I remember spending hours trying to figure out what each typewriter needed to fix a stuck key. I was also the Audio/Visual geek (狂热的人). This meant I was the only one in the class who can thread film onto the projector.

Anyway, when this Apple showed up, I immediately opened it. I had to see what was inside. This totally freaked out the teacher but it seemed clear I wasn't going to break it. I quickly learned how to get out of educational games and write things in BASIC. This was all in 5th grade.

My 5th grade teacher and I stayed in touch until her passing. I honestly don't know what I'd be doing if she hadn't done something extraordinary. She let my father and me take the Apple home. I'd spend the weekend programming, reading the massive notebooks. This was a $2, 000+ computer in the middle of the 80s—the pride of the school—and they let me take it home. A year later, I came home from school one day and the family car was gone and there was a Commodore 64 left in its place. My parents had sold the car and bought a Commodore.

Now, I think about this crazy journey. I am standing on the shoulders not only of computer science giants, but also heroes like my parents and my 5th grade teacher. Thanks Mrs. Hill, for introducing me to computers even though you were breaking rules. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for bringing a computer home even when there wasn't money for one.

【推荐2】Days in October almost seems like a whistle-stop between eternities.

I was aimlessly wandering down the street, heading into a most gloriously beautiful sunset which captured my heart utterly. Homing birds were twittering and everything at dust still looked idyllic. Sun’s blazing orange kept fueling the clouds on the horizon, rendering a scene of magnificence. Consequently, I had an urge to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but it seemed everyone was in a hurry and adapted to their fast-pacing lifestyle.

For instance, I came across an adolescent with fashionable clothes in the streets. The moment I extended my unusual proposal, he just widened his shimmering eyes with pure astonishment. Later, it broke into a bitter smile. Shaking his head reluctantly, as if trapped in dilemma, he yawned a long-lasting yawn seemingly to ease the awkwardness. Apparently, he declined my request in a polite way. I did not hate him at all.

In my solitude of heart, I felt the sigh of this widowed evening, veiled with mist and rain.

I took the next-best action. Quickly I ducked into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as though I were from some other planet. My stomach tightened with anxiety. Fortunately, after a brief hesitation, seemingly against her better judgment, she moved toward the door.

When she stepped outside, I exclaimed spontaneously, “Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone. ”My words seemed to strike a chord with her, she wept buckets.

For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.” I thanked her for coming out to see it; she went back inside and I left.   It felt good to share the beauty with someone kind and patient.

Any field of life is a cloth woven with countless loops(回路）. Four years later my situation changed greatly. I came to the end of a twenty-year marriage. Marry in haste, and repent at leisure. Only now did I know the meaning of this sentence. I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life. I lived in a trailer park which, at the time, I considered a real come-down, and I had to do my wash in the community laundry room.

One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up a magazine out of hunch and read an article about a woman who had been in similar circumstances. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: clothing sales in a department store.

Then something that happened to her changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world,” and she had realized the truth in that statement, overwhelmingly moved. From that moment on, she turned her life around.

Tears of inspiration blurred my vision. Gazing at the newspaper, lost in deep thoughts, I was making a vital resolution.