1 . Carillon Canal National Historic Site

The Carillon Canal, built on the Ottawa River for military purposes, was opened in 1833. Located 100 kilometres from Montreal and 130 kilometres from Ottawa, it is today a pleasure boating waterway.

Things to do

The Carillon Canal is fed by the water of the Ottawa River. The Canal opens a huge gate to enable boats to sail an impressive 20-metre drop in just 40 minutes!

Have a family picnic in beautiful scenery, then visit the old barracks (营房) which are now a museum. Curious to see a huge power station up close? Visits are free of charge.

Opening hours

The national historic site is open every day of the year from sun rise to 11 p. m.

Fees

Site access is free. Otherwise, there are fees for locking and overnight mooring(停泊).

When is the Canal the busiest?

From mid-June to the end of August, and especially during the following vacation periods and holidays:

·Fete Nationale du Quebec (June 24th).

·Canada Day (July 1st).

·Summer vacations.

·Labour Day(the first Monday of September).

·Thanksgiving.

What are the best times for sailing?

To avoid waiting lines, experience the Carillon Canal during the quieter periods, i. e. before June 24th, and later in early autumn, from Labour Day to mid-October. In this way, you’ll discover these wonderful places at your own pace, without pushing through the crowd that might have had the same idea as you, and you’ll gain the peace of mind to sail in complete relaxation!

2 . It was July 15, 2021, and my friends had helped me celebrate my 31st birthday in the basement apartment of my sister’s home, where I lived.

Earlier in the day I had prepared for the unlikely event of a flood. We are about a third of a mile from the banks of the Ahr River. It had been raining that week, and authorities had issued a flood warning, though not for where I was. Still, I’d placed sandbags on the floor outside my garden door and piled clothing on tables. Before my friends left, they laughed at me for doing that, but I thought, “Why take a chance?”

As I went to sleep, I was awakened by the sound of rushing water. When I swung my legs off the bed, I was shocked by the sensation of cold-water lapping against my knees and rising fast. The Ahr River had violently burst its banks. And I had to get out fast!

The water was now up to my waist. I started to wade to my only escape: the door that leads upstairs to the rest of the house. Finally, I made it to the door. I managed to make a gap of about a foot, just wide enough to squeeze through and make it into the hallway. I leaped onto the stairs and ran to the third floor.

The river had drowned the neighborhood. What was once a lovely, cozy street was now a waterscape. More than 180 people died, and parts of villages were entirely washed away. Many of the houses around us were destroyed. Not everyone got out.

I came close to drowning that day. But rather than dwell on that, I prefer to recall what my mother told me afterward, “Christian, don’t remember the day when you lost everything. Remember the day you survived.”

3 . Just by typing a few keywords and waiting a few seconds, a picture comparable to that painted by a human artist appears on screen.

AI art generators have seemingly swept the Chinese Internet. In some paintings created by AI, an elderly man can be shown as a young animated image, and pets can be turned into adorable cartoon girls or boys.

Huang Ge, an illustrator from Shanghai, said that it usually takes him several hours or days to complete one illustration. But with AI art generators, the efficiency is greatly improved. “Also, the generators have many modification (修改) modes, and the picture can be modified directly in the painting software,” he added. Ding Jiao, a comic artist, considers the popularity of AI art generator s reasonable as many people who are not good at drawing can create great works through them.

So is Al painting gradually replacing human painting? In the hot topic “Using a picture to prove that human artists will never be replaced by Al” online, many netizens uploaded their paintings to prove that humans are better than AI. “Though Al technology has developed rapidly, AI cannot fully replace humans. The warmth and inspiration in human creations are irreplaceable,” said Ding Daoshi, an independent analyst.

Another controversial issue is that there is no consensus (共识) of who owns the copyright of AI art. Some users have openly sold their AI paintings and earned money, but it is still a gray area about whether these artworks belong to users, the digital tool developers or even AI.

Ding Daoshi noted that the various sides should get together to debate the issue and come up with some accepted rules as soon as possible because AI is already penetrating deeply into the lives of human beings.

4 . As kids’ behaviour reaches crisis points after the pandemic, many schools are facing pressure from critics to rethink their approaches to discipline.

Approaches such as “restorative justice” were adopted widely in recent decades as educators updated the policies that cut off students’ access to learning, such as suspensions and expulsions (停学和开除). But more students have been acting out, and some school systems have faced questions from teachers, parents and lawmakers about whether a gentle approach can effectively solve problems that disrupt (扰乱) classrooms.

According to federal data, instances of misbehavior have been increasing since students returned to classrooms from the pandemic. A National Center for Education Statistics survey found 56% of respondents said the pandemic led to increased classroom disruptions from students’ misbehavior and 48%said it led to more acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff.

Rachel Perera studies education at the Brookings Institution. “There’s a lot of pressure on schools right now,” she said. “Schools also say they don’t have the resources to address more behavioral problems, and I worry that that will cause schools to fall back on old practices that are not effective in terms of supporting students in the way they need.”

Using restorative justice does not mean a school cannot remove a disruptive student from the classroom, said Thalia González, a professor at the UC College of the Law. But unlike other forms of discipline, restorative practices aim to deal with the root cause of students’ behavior and reintegrated them into classroom.

“That’s the problem with punitive discipline such as suspensions and expulsions,” González said. “You get removed and then you just come back. There’s nothing done to reintegrate into the community and rebuild the climate, the sense of safety, all the things that we know are so important to young people learning.”

5 . Five times stronger than steel, spider silk’s unique qualities were recognized by the Ancient Greeks—and more recently, scientists have looked at applications from medicine to engineering. Now, a Japanese startup, Spiber, has begun to change the textile industry with this remarkable material.

The company started by making a substitute in the lab that is similar to spider silk in structure. After studying thousands of different spider species and other silk-producing life forms, Spiber successfully produced an alternative to spider silk. This breakthrough was achieved by fermenting (发酵) a mixture of water, sugar, and nutrients with special microbes to produce protein polymers (聚合物). These polymers are then made into fibers, paving the way for a range of innovative fabrics.

However, shifting from lab to practical application presented challenges. In 2015, Spiber partnered with The North Face Japan to produce a limited-edition run of 50 “Moon Parka” jackets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landings. But during the design process, the team discovered that spider silk became smaller when exposed to water, and had to transform the protein to make the fiber suitable for an outdoor jacket, which took them four years to perfect.

Currently, the company uses sugarcane and corn for its fermentation process—crops that use large volumes of land and change food resources. To reduce its environmental impact, Spiber is developing a process called “biosphere circulation” that will transform deserted clothes made from natural materials like cotton into the sugars needed for fermentation.

With approximately 100 billion yen ($783 million) in funding, Spiber plans to significantly speed up its production of protein polymers by the end of 2025. “Mass production will help bring the price of fibers down and allow Spiber to expand beyond the high-end designer market and thus we have the means to create solutions to enable more circular fashion,” says Higashi, head of business development at Spiber. “It’s our mission to bring those solutions to the world.”

6 . In the early 19th century, New England farmers, tired of wrestling with their poor land, journeyed to the Midwest. In states like Illinois and Iowa, they found rich, black soil. Unfortunately, many soon felt like thirsty sailors in the middle of the ocean—water everywhere but not a drop to drink. They were surrounded by fertile soil, but had to stop every few seconds to remove the sticky dirt off their iron plows (犁) with large wooden paddles. This dilemma caught the attention of John Deere, a blacksmith who moved to Illinois in 1836.

Deere decided to look into the problem. From his previous work on plows, he knew that dirt was less likely to stick to highly polished metal. That thought was in the back of his mind when he visited a sawmill (锯木厂) in 1837 and noticed a broken saw made of steel. Deere brought it home and began making a better plow. The plow he wanted would have to cut deep into the soil at a sharp angle so that dirt would fall off, yet it could not put too much burden on the horses pulling it. After several experiments, Deere constructed a new plow that featured wood handles. It proved a success. Unlike the old iron plows, Deere’s not only had a blade from which dirt fell away cleanly, but it also turned the soil more efficiently and quickly.

Demand for Deere’s plows increased sharply, but production was limited by the shortage of polished steel. Initially, Deere could only produce a few plows each year. However, Deere’s persistence paid off as he sourced cheaper steel from Pittsburgh. Amazingly, in 1857, his company manufactured and sold 10, 000 plows!

Deere, a perfectionist, continually improved his plows, introducing multiple new versions in a single year. While this slowed down his production ability, it ensured Deere a solid reputation among his customers. Deere plows became world famous in the 1870s when they outshone the competition in a demonstration in France. That same decade, his company built its first riding plow and designed the leaping deer as its trademark.

7 . When instant cake mixes first appeared in the 1950s, American housewives were doubtful. These mixes, promising easy cake-baking, felt too easy. The manufacturers discovered that requiring the addition of an egg in the baking process was just enough to make the housewives happy with their work. The greater sense of effort gained from a little extra labor is believed to have been essential to the later success of the cake mix.

This reflects the IKEA effect (宜家效应), which is identified by psychologist Michael I. Norton and his colleagues, suggesting we place greater value on things we have worked to create. They conducted four studies in which they asked participants to fold paper cranes and frogs, assemble IKEA boxes, and build sets of Legos. They then asked the builders to bid (出价) for their creations, and compared the prices with bids from people who hadn’t built them. The builders consistently outbid the non-builders.

Interestingly, the IKEA effect works even when people have no opportunity to fully personalize their creations. While most participants’ folding skills left much to be desired, they loved their imperfectly personalized products all the more. Builders valued their wrinkled crane-like creations nearly five times as much as non-builders. Beauty, it seems, is in the eye of the builder.

Today, as cities are suffering from severe housing crises, the IKEA effect can give us insight into the well-being benefits of a self-building approach to housing development. Projects like WikiHouse and the “half-a-house” approach pioneered by Alejandro Aravena’s architecture company Elemental are working to make housing more affordable and sustainable by making it easier for people to build and personalize their own homes.

“The moment people are involved with their built environment, they have a totally different relationship to it,” WikiHouse co-founder Alastair Parvin explained. “When the roof starts leaking or a door starts creaking, they have the power to fix it themselves.”

8 . Students to Compete in 34th National Science Bowl

Thousands of students from middle and high schools across the country have committed themselves to extra study hours as they prepare to compete in the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s)34th National Science Bowl(NSB). These students are hard at work now to win their regional competitions, hoping to advance to the final competition.

The first regional event will take place on January 13th with high schools from the D. C. /Maryland area. Teams will face off in a fast-paced, question-and-answer format, and their knowledge in all areas of science and mathematics will be tested. Regionals will continue weekly until mid-March.

The winning team from each qualifying regional competition will be qualified to compete in the National Finals to be held in Washington, D. C. , from April 25-29, 2024, with all expenses paid by DOE. The national event consists of several days of science activities and sightseeing, along with the competitions.

In the National Finals, the top two teams will earn $5, 000 for their schools’ math and science departments. Schools ranking in the top 16 will receive $1, 000 for their science departments. But to many, the ultimate prize is simply the honor of winning the National Championship.

Today, the NSB annually draws more than 10, 000 middle and high school competitors. Since the first competition in 1991, approximately 344, 000 students have faced off in the NSB Finals. The 2024 competitors will follow in the footsteps of previous NSB contestants and will blaze a trail for students in science, math, and engineering. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website.

10 . Have you ever wondered what happens to your mobile phones and laptops after you throw them out to make way for a newer model? According to its latest Global E-Waste Monitor, India is the third top producer of e-waste in the world. E-waste in Indian landfill goes on to pollute soil and groundwater, affecting food supply systems and water sources.

Thankfully, the country has a new group of artists who are changing these thrown mechanical items-from mobile phones to old televisions- into large murals (壁画) and artworks to creatively show their concern for the waste problem.

Over the past quarter of a century, Mumbai’s Haribaabu Naatesan has transformed hundreds of tonnes of e-waste into art, integrating elements from nature and industry. “I get my waste material from friends, relatives and neighbours who know my interest in e-art and send me bags of thrown electronic appliances,” says Naatesan. Over his career, he has created huge murals for several companies. He has also showed his work at the India Art Fair, as well as several other national displays.

Another artist Vishwanath Davangere has also long worked with e-waste. He likes to take apart old laptops and reassemble (重新组装) them into birds, animals and plants. After retirement, he started pursuing this hobby more seriously and started selling his creations across the world. His most outstanding works include a robotic Egyptian statue with glowing red eyes and a Milky Way made from keyboard keys. He hopes to enable others to reconsider their own consumption habits and make more environmentally conscious choices.

“By giving e-waste a second chance, I aim to raise awareness about the environmental impact of electronic waste.” says Davangare, who today has a collection of more than 600 eco-art objects.