3 . San Francisco’s public garbage cans have long outlived their lifespan (寿命) and need to be replaced. However, the current design is not enough for the city’s large population and the increasing number of tourists. The garbage cans also get messed up by the homeless. To address the issues, in 2018, San Francisco Public Works officials set out in search of a perfect garbage can. This proved harder than they had thought.

The officials had a few criteria in mind. The ideal garbage can had to be durable (耐用的) and easy to empty. It would also have a built-in sensor (传感器) to send warnings when full, cost between $2,000 to $3,000 a piece, and, most importantly, look good! After an extensive search failed to find a suitable off-the-shelf replacement, the committee asked local firms to design customized garbage cans.

The four-year exploration ended on July 18, 2022, with three selections. They include the “Slim Silhouette” “Salt & Pepper” and “Soft Square”. Since none of them meet all the required criteria, the officials have turned to the city’s residents for help.

The customized cans and three new off-the-shelf options have been placed across San Francisco for a 60-day trial. Residents can scan the QR codes on the cans and provide opinions on their use experience. A location map of each option is included at the end of the survey. The most popular garbage can will be publicized after the trial ends in mid-September.

The time spent on the project and the cost of the three customized garbage cans — which ranged between $11,000 to $20,900 a piece — have drawn criticism from the city’s retired official Matt Haney.

“The idea that San Francisco is so unique that we need a separate garbage can from any one used in any city around the world is laughable,” Haney said. “It’s something that reflects a broader and deeper brokenness of city government and the services it provides.”

However, Beth Rubenstein, director of policy and communications at San Francisco Public Works, believes their research will benefit cities across the US.

4 . A couple, Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk, like travelling and sharing their travel experiences online has become part of their routine.

Libby is skilled at using a camera. But they struggled to find a focus. Then, in Cambodia, Libby filmed some birds taking flight that she wanted to use in a film. But she couldn’t capture (捕获) the sound of their wing beats.

They looked on the Internet, searching sound libraries, but couldn’t find anything appropriate. So, Marcel took a $100 audio recorder, and went searching for the missing sound to record. He didn’t find any birds, but he did manage to change their future with it.

Marcel turned the recorder on in a small construction zone, listening through a cheap set of headphones. He was awed not just by the sounds of construction, but a man’s singing, and motorcycles passing by.

“It was just like the sound was falling into my head from all sides,” says Marcel. “Everything became alive, and from that day until now I have never stopped recording.”

In the six years since that first recording, the couple have captured sounds in more than 25 countries.

Libby shoots and edits their YouTube videos, and manages their website. Marcel does most of the sound recording and editing, as well as the social media postings. Through their website, they offer 500 free sound libraries. Of these, 145 are free to download.

Libby had added a donation button to their website, and a Hollywood post-production creative had donated a few dollars. It was then that Marcel realized others shared a passion for sound, and were willing to pay for it.

“We wanted to be a source that’s affordable for all types of people to download the sounds and we’re still excited to travel to new places and record new sounds,” says Libby.

5 . Blue Grotto, Italy

Despite its name, it is actually not a grotto(洞穴)but a sea cave, about 60m long. What makes it one of the most beautiful caves in the world is the blue color, as its name suggests. When you enter inside, you can see it is filled with weird blue light. This color is formed by the unique combination of the rocks, the entrance, the clear water and the whole shape. In fact, you can’t identify where the source of the blue light is.

Son Doong Cave, Vietnam

This is known as the largest cave in the world, not because of its length—in fact, it is just about 5km long. But its size comes from its enormous passages and caves, reaching 200m in height. In addition, there is an underground river, making the cave even more impressive.

Marble Caves, Chile

Located far from any road, the caves are accessible only by boat. This is the most beautiful cave structure in the world, in which crystal clear water is literally lightened by dazzling(使目眩)blue ice walls. A magical, fabulous, unreal and almost unearthly sight! The caves are best seen from September to February and earlier in the morning when the sunlight streams inside.

Reed Flute Cave, China

Its name comes from the reeds beside its entrance that have been used for making flutes(长笛). It is not too long and not too deep-only about 500m in length. What makes this cave more special is the history. It has been known since ancient times. And when you enter inside, you can see a lot of inscriptions(碑文)dating back to medieval times, starting from the times of the Tang Dynasty (around 792 AD).

6 . How to Help Your Child Overcome Their Fear of Water

Your kids love bath time and seem excited about your family’s upcoming trip to the beach. But when you get to the beach, they scream, and won’t even dip their toes into the water.     1    , you are not alone. It is very common for young children to develop a fear of water and for parents to feel at a loss when their children have an unreasonable fear of water. Here are some suggestions you can try.

It can be helpful to understand the reason behind your child’s fear. Some kids may be affected by a scary movie where they saw a monster living in the bottom of a lake or a pool.     2    , it may be easier to help them overcome their fear and feel more at ease in the water.

Some kids will feel more comfortable when going in with some equipment. For example, colorful goggles (护目镜), water wings with their favorite cartoon images on them, a life-jacket.     3    .

However, parents should never allow floating aids devices to give your children a false sense of security or use them as substitutes for hands-on supervision (监督).

    4    . A kind, patient swimming instructor may just do the trick. They have tons of experience with this issue and their own tricks-of-the-trade (诀窍) when it comes to getting young children more comfortable in the water.

Some kids are only comfortable if you get in the water with them. You can either carry them or hold their hands, and then gently ease yourself away. But even when you back away, never go too far.     5    .

8 . Have you ever seen an “ugly” oyster(牡蛎)? That is the term oyster farmers use for the sea animals whose shells get too large to sell to seafood restaurants. Each year, farmers grow oysters to just the right size so people at restaurants will enjoy eating them. If they get too big, restaurants no longer want to buy them.

So last year, when many seafood restaurants in the U.S. closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic(流行病), oyster farmers lost the chance to sell their products. Eventually, they had a lot of “uglies” and didn’t know what to do with them.

That was a big problem until a conservation program came to the rescue. The program is called Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration, or SOAR. It is buying more than 5 million oysters at the cost of about $2 million from farmers on the east coast of the U.S. and in Washington State.

Farmers take living oysters that are too big to sell and send them to places like the Great Bay in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. Oysters are placed in special locations called reefs(暗礁). Once they attach to the structures in the water, they can live for a number of years. They help create a good environment for other sea life. The hope is that the oysters will help clean the water and also have babies.

Lisa Calvo runs Sweet Amalia Oyster Farm in southern New Jersey. She said the program helped her business get through the pandemic and “stay afloat”.

Calvo started her farm about 20 years ago. She sells her oysters to restaurants close to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and those in the towns along the ocean in New Jersey. Oysters are ready to sell when they are about two years old. When all the restaurants started closing, she said she was “in a panic”.

She was able to earn about half the usual amount of money by selling her oysters to the program. That was better than nothing.

9 . Robots can deliver food on a college campus and hit the ball on the golf course, but even the most advanced robot can’t perform basic social interactions (交流) that are vital to everyday human life.

MIT researchers have now incorporated (使加入) certain social interactions into robotic framework, enabling machines to understand how to help or stop one another, and to learn to perform the social behavior on their own. In a simulated (模拟的) environment, a robot watches its companion, guesses what task it wants to accomplish, and then helps or stops it based on its own task. When the researchers show the interaction videos of the robots to the human viewers, they think their model creates realistic and predictable social interactions.

Enabling robots to exhibit social skills could lead to smoother and more positive human-robot interactions. For instance, a robot in an assisted living facility could use these capabilities to help create a more caring environment for elderly individuals. The new model may also enable scientists to measure social interactions quantitatively, and can help psychologists study autism (自闭症) or analyze the effects of antidepressants(抗抑郁药).

“Robots will live in our world soon and they really need to learn the way we communicate. They need to understand when it is time for them to help and when it is time for them to take action to prevent something from happening. This is very early work and we are barely scratching the surface, but I think this is the first very serious attempt to understand the meaning of human and machine interactions,” says Boris Katz, head of the InfoLab Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).