2 . The Enchanting Scenery of Zhangjiajie

Located in China’s Hunan province, Zhangjiajie offers a unique and breathtaking landscape with nature’s unbound creativity. This region, famous for its rock formations and deep gorges (峡谷), is a popular destination for travelers to see the nature’s wonders.

Tianmen Mountain, the tallest peak in Zhangjiajie, stands tall at 1,518 meters. Its most famous Tianmen Cave, a natural arch which spans over 100 meters wide, offers a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains. There is also a challenging glass walkway, offering visitors a thrilling walk above the clouds.

This park is a shelter for nature lovers, with over 2,400 species of plants and animals. Its highlights include the “Avatar” Hallelujah Mountains, which were a filming location for the popular movie “Avatar”. The park’s hiking trails offer visitors the chance to explore its thick forests and breathtaking valleys.

Known for its traditional Tujia architecture, Huangshi Village offers a look into the rich cultural heritage of the local community. Visitors can enjoy the village’s peaceful atmosphere, admire the unique stone houses, and taste the delicious local cuisine.

This beautiful lake, surrounded by lush green hills, offers a peaceful escape. Boating on the lake, one can appreciate the reflections of the surrounding mountains, creating a picture-perfect scene.

3 . Abstract painter Harold Cohen had represented Britain at important festivals with his oil paintings and was seeking a new challenge by the end of 1960s. “Maybe there are more interesting things going on outside my studio than inside it,” he thought. Cohen turned from the canvas to the screen, using computers to find new ways of creating art. In the late 1960s, he created a program that he named Aaron. It was the first artificial intelligence software in the world of fine art, and Cohen first presented Aaron in 1974 at the University of California.

Now, with AI dominating the headlines, a new exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, “Harold Cohen: Aaron,” running through June 2024, draws attention to Cohen’s pioneering work. The Whitney is offering something deeper than most previous Aaron exhibits: a real-time experience, in which visitors can watch the software produce art.

Cohen seeded Aaron with all sorts of knowledge: about basic objects, physics, and fundamental techniques of drawing. Aaron uses this knowledge to follow instructions, complete tasks, and make decisions like human beings — a very different approach from today’s generative AI art programs, which don't draw from scratch (从零开始) but rather rely on databases of images. Versions of Aaron still generate output, but anything done after Cohen’s death in 2016 is not considered genuine.

The Whitney is showcasing two versions of Cohen’s software, along with the art that each produced before Cohen died. The 2001 version, Aaron KCAT, generates images of figures and plants and projects them onto a wall more than ten feet high, while the 2007 version produces jungle-like scenes. The software will also create art physically, on paper, for the first time since the 1990s. “It is absolutely thrilling,” said Christiane Paul, the museum’s director of digital art, “to have one of those remarkable treasures of digital art in the collection.”

4 . Jungle Cruise

Jungle Cruise hits Disney’s streaming service alongside its arrival at cinemas. As such, you’ll have to pay $30 on top of your subscription fee to see it — a high price for a solo viewing, but a great deal for a family session. That’s good news, because this really is a winner of a family movie, thanks to the production values you’d come to expect from a Disney blockbuster (大片) and the chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

Inside Out

Just when we thought Pixar was on the decline, it released Inside Out, one of its most thoughtful and powerful movies. Featuring the voices of Amy Poehler, Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling, Inside Out made over $850 million at the box office upon its 2015 release. It wasn’t just a commercial success, as it scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Free Solo

Free Solo is one of the best documentaries ever made. Telling the story of Alex Honnold, the first man to “free solo” El Capitan, it’s a character study of a man who makes the impossible look almost ordinary; an Oscar-winning story that culminates (到达极点) — quite literally — in a close-up view of one of humanity’s wildest achievements.

Aladdin

You can agree or you can disagree, but I believe that Aladdin has the best song lineup of any animated movie that Disney has ever produced. A Whole New World, Prince Ali, Friend Like Me, Arabian Nights — banger after banger (一部接一部). That’s reflected in the critical response: Aladdin is one of the best-rated Disney movies ever, with a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

5 . Imagine living in a cool, green city alive with parks and threaded with footpaths, bike lanes and buses which transport people to shops, schools and service centers in a matter of minutes.

This fancy dream is behind the idea of the 15-minute city, where all basic needs and services are within a quarter of an hour’s reach, improving public health and lowering vehicle emissions.

Artificial intelligence could help urban planners realize that vision faster, with a new study from researchers at Tsinghua University in China demonstrating how machine learning can generate more efficient spatial layouts (空间布局) than humans can.

Automation scientist Zheng Yu and his colleagues wanted to find new solutions to improve our cities which are fast becoming blocked. They developed an AI system to tackle the tough tasks of urban planning and found it can produce urban plans that outperform human designs by about 50 percent in three aspects: access to services, green spaces and traffic levels.

Starting small, Zheng’s team tasked their model with designing the urban area only a few square kilometers in size (about 3×3 blocks). After two days of training, the AI system searched for the ideal road designs and land use to fit with the concept of the 15-minute city and local planning policies and needs.

While the AI model has some capabilities that could extend its use for planning larger urban areas, designing entire cities will be more complex. Drafting a neighborhood consisting of 4×4 blocks contains twice as many planning decisions as designing 3×3 blocks, the researchers said. But automating even a few steps in the planning process can save huge amounts of time: the AI model can compute in seconds certain tasks that take human planners between 50 to 100 minutes to work through.

Rather than AI replacing people, Zheng and his colleagues think their AI system can work as an “assistant” to urban planners, who could generate concept designs optimized (优化) by the system, and reviewed, adjusted and evaluated by human experts based on community feedback.

9 . There are some unusual wonders of our world places that most people haven’t heard about and probably don’t want to visit. But it’s good to take a step away from everything else we’ve known and see something new!

The Library of Celsus was a public library built by Tiberius Julius Acquila in ancient Ephesus, now in modern-day Türkiye. It was built on the Mount Koressos and its construction began in 114 AD and ended in 117 AD. It is one of the best-preserved ancient buildings due to its Roman-time structures, which were built using marble, a type of hard, decorative stone.

Meteora is a group of monasteries (修道院) in Greece located on top of tall rock pillars (柱子). Meteora contains 24 monasteries built on natural sandstone rock pillars between the 11th and 15th century AD. Meteora is one of Greece's most popular tourist destinations and has been a World Heritage Site since 1988.

The Tower of Hercules is a Roman lighthouse built in 14 BC on the coast of Spain. You may be wondering how a place that was built much earlier than some of the other wonders of the world can still be considered a wonder today. Well, it was, once one of lighthouses in Europe. The tower has been rebuilt several times, but it still stands today.

Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland and is the capital of the province of Kujawsko-Pomorskie. Toruń was founded by Teutonic Order in the mid-13th century as an important city on the trade route between Kraków and Gdańsk. The name “Toruń” comes from two German words — “tor” means gate or tower and “tun” means settlement; therefore, “Tower settlement”.

10 . HARDCORE TANO*C is an independent Japanese music label that is known for releasing music compilations and albums focused on various forms of hardcore techno such as UK hardcore, happy hardcore, and gabber. The label was founded in 2003 by Yoshikazu Nagai (who at the time used the Akai Hito alias), originally under the name of Hardcore Tanoshii, but changed to its current name of HARDCORE TANO*C in 2007 after the release of the album HARDCORE SYNDROME. The label features a store which sells the most notable doujin (同人)music releases, and is well known for their frequent live events that are regularly organized throughout the years, including the annual TANO*C TOUR series of events and the S2TBTANO*C events done in collaboration with kors k’s S2TB Recording label.

From 2011 to 2018, HARDCORE TANO*C were very closely linked with BEMANI, most notably in beat mania IIDX and SOUND VOLTEX. Many of HARDCORE TANO*C’s members were frequent contributors to BEMANI,and KONAMI even collaborated with the label for a few of their own album releases. Their presence also expanded to various other music game titles.

Many guest artists have appeared in HARDCORE TANO*C compilations, including Ryu☆, kors k, DJ Shimamura, m1dy, M-Project, JAKAZiD (as Joshka), Hommarju, Camellia, lapix, C-Show, Maozon, Nhato, Dustvoxx, and Akira Complex.

By the end of 2017, HARDCORE TANO*C has started to produce major artist album releases, containing licensed works done for music games by the circle’s artists. From September 2018, a sub-label directed by DJ Myosuke named HARDCORE TANO*C HARD has been established, which focuses on harsher music. HARDCORE TANO*C is also heavily involved in the 2019 rhythm game WACCA, which is published by MARVELOUS!, with nearly its entire staff contributing to the game.

A song composed by various members of HARDCORE TANO*C, BATTLE NO.1, was planned to be in SOUND VOLTEX IV HEAVENLY HAVEN for the The 8th KONAMI Arcade Championship, under the artist name of TANO*C SOUND TEAM. KONAMI rejected the song (likely due to their poking fun (打趣) of the BEMANI Sound Team moniker, which was at its most extreme in the time of that event), and it later appeared instead in the HARDCORE TANO*C-produced game WACCA on August 1st, 2019. It also appeared in lowiro’s Arcaea as part of the Arcaea× HARDCORE TANO*C Collaboration (联动) and SEGA’s maimai でらっくす Splash. It was added to Muse Dash on February 5, 2021.