1 . Plastic tubes hook up to the taps and connect them to one another. The sap flows into a collection tank in the woods. From the collection tank, the Gagnes pump the sap into a ma-chine to remove a lot of the sap’s water. Then it’s moved into an evaporator in a building called “sugar house”. The Gagnes make a fire out of maple wood chips. The fire heats the sap and boils it. When it reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is ready to be made.

Syrup is poured into glass or plastic bottles. But 150 years ago, sugar makers used tin cans. These containers could prevent syrup from seeping out and allowed them to ship it far from home and helped maple become a big business.

2 . One explanation for this strong statistical pattern is that traveling requires time and energy, and people have limited resources for it. At the core is the effort that people are willing to invest collectively to travel to certain locations, trying to optimize their days.

3 . Besides, 10% of rich countries greenhouse gas emissions come from food that was grown and never eaten. Food waste not only contributes to climate change, but also food insecurity and extreme poverty. As stated above, in the greatest food wasting countries, there are laws that confine produce from being donated to people in need.

4 . 30 years later, Bob and his wife, Jill Welch, decided to turn their wedding into a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Their wedding guests financed two wishes for local children, more being planned. Many donated generously to the cause, spending more, perhaps, than they might have if it was just to buy the couple a wedding gift like fine china or a kitchen appliance. Bob said their wedding donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation isn’t going to be “one and done”. The two plan on continuing to contribute going forward.

5 . The world is getting greener, according to a new study published in Nature this week.

Chi Chen, lead author of the study, and his colleagues have been mining data collected by an orbiting NASA camera that monitors green vegetation on Earth’s surface, day by day. Even more interesting: They are able to show the exact causes of increasing or decreasing leaf cover in particular areas.

In some cold places, increase in leaf cover apparently resulted from global warming. Since the climate is becoming more and more temperate and the growing season is getting longer and longer, the plants are growing bigger and leafier there.

6 . Merebeth’s pet delivery service satisfies her wanderlust. It has taken her to every state in the US except Montana, Washington and Oregon, she says proudly. If she wants to visit a new place, she will simply find a pet with transport needs there. She travels in all weathers. She has driven through 55 mph winds in Wyoming, heavy flooding and storms in Alabama and total whiteout conditions in Kansas.

7 . As Ginni Bazlinton reached Antarctica, she found herself greeted by a group of little Gentoo penguins (企鹅) longing to say hello. These gentle, lovely gatekeepers welcomed her and kick-started what was to be a trip Ginni would never forget.

Ever since her childhood, Ginni, now 71, has had a deep love for travel. Throughout her career (职业) as a professional dancer, she toured in the UK, but always longed to explore further. When she retired from dancing and her sons eventually flew the nest, she decided it was time to take the plunge.

8 . A hungry badger (獾) searching for food seems to have uncovered what turned out to be hundreds of Roman coins in a Spanish cave, according to a new study.

Archaeologists (考古学家) first discovered several coins laying on the ground at the entrance to a small cave in the woodlands outside Grado in northern Spain in April 2021. The researchers suspect that the coins were unearthed by a badger from a nearby den (兽窝) after a heavy snow which made it harder for animals to find food. The hungry badger probably got into the cave looking for food but came across the coins instead.

After fully exploring the cave, researchers collected 209 coins dating to between the third and fifth centuries A. D. “To date, this is the largest amount of Roman coins found in the cave in northern Spain,” the researchers wrote in their paper. They described the discovery as an “exceptional find”.

9 . Engineers took those situations into account when building out their concept drone. They recorded themselves screaming, tapping and creating other noises that might be a sign of people in trouble. Then, they analyzed each sound frequency to find common signatures and used those to train artificial intelligence software. They also worked to remove the noise created by the drone and other environmental sounds.

Once the software part was complete, the team placed tiny digital microphones under the drone and used signal processing techniques that enabled them to track where human noises are coming from. The microphones also enhanced the volume and clarity of the speech. So far, they have conducted successful open field experiments, finding that the drone can estimate a victim’s location within a few seconds of picking up sound.

10 . “Your password has expired,” a message said on my screen, with instructions for changing it. Coming up with a new code doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character, one symbol, and one number. Oh, the whole password can’t be fewer than eight characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the past three months.