In France, a man walks on what can only be described as a human-sized hamster wheel. The wheel moves around and around, as the man keeps walking. What is he doing? He is lifting a heavy object to the top of a tower the same way workers moved such objects 800 years ago.
In the 13th century, workers did not have the 100-meter tall cranes they now use to build tall buildings. So they had to be creative and come up with simple machines to get their work done.
The man on the large wheel is walking at a reasonable speed. The wheel turns and pulls a rope connected to a pulley(滑轮)at the top of the tower. Another rope tied to the pulley lifts supplies from the ground.
This is just one way skilled craftsmen arc building a 13th-century castle without using modern tools. Crew have been working on the castle since 1997. It is being built in the Burgundy area of central France. Organizers expect the work to last another 10 to 15 years. That means it will take close to 30 years to finish the project.
The crew are making progress at about half the speed of the workers from 800 years ago. That is because many of them are accustomed to using modern tools. When the crew use heavy chisels(凿子）and hammers to break rock, as they did hundreds of years ago, they are learning as they go. The goal of the project is to learn more about old building techniques in case they might be of use today.
Clement Guerard, 44,is a stonemason; he cuts and builds with stone. He has been working on the tower for 17 years. He said one way he is able to work on something like this for so long is by forgetting “some of the pace of modern life", he is able to adapt to working by hand.
An organization, Eye Care 4 Kids, is bringing much-needed eye care to poor kids. It provides free eye examinations for kids from poor families. Founded by Joseph Carbone in 2001, the organization has helped around 100,000 children in Utah and Nevada.
Now, Cecil Swyers, a biomedical(生物医学的) engineer who was once a poor child himself, is bringing the charity's(慈善) services to poor students in Arizona, so that vision impairment(视力受损) doesn't stand in the way of their education.
“Eye Care 4 Kids is bringing eye care and glasses to families that wouldn't have the means to pay for them,” said Mario Ventura from Isaac Elementary School District, the first school district in Arizona to receive its services.
Good vision is important to a child's learning experience. According to a study, up to 80 percent of learning happens through sight for children between 6 and 18 years old. Without proper eye care, it's difficult for students to learn better and succeed.
Swyers is hoping that by bringing the organization to Arizona he'll help a lot more students. He teamed up with two other organizations to get doctors to volunteer their time with the group. Using an Eye Care 4 Kids mobile clinic, Swyers visited Alta E. Butler Elementary School and has already helped 40 students.
The school was grateful to receive the eye care, especially since the services came to them. “It's great for us,” said Assistant Principal Cindy Alonso.
Swyers is hoping to bring Eye Care 4 Kids' services to other schools in the state. He said that hopefully his work will have a positive effect on students' futures. “If we can help students while they're young, we can make a difference in their futures,” he said.
China Merchants Bank Co Ltd has teamed up with ride-hailing major Didi Kuaidi to provide automobile financing and expand its reach in China's booming mobile payment industry.
The two have inked a comprehensive partnership, which includes a strategic investment by the former in the latter. Under the partnership, CMB will become the first bricks-and-mortar bank that can offer in-app credit card payments to Didi users. At present, users of Didi can only choose third-party payment solutions like WeChat Payment and Alipay to pay cab fares.
Zhao Ju, vice-president of CMB, said the cooperation with Didi was an important step in its mobile Internet finance strategy. “CMB's mobile payment is going to enter a new chapter by leveraging Didi Kuaidi's vast user base," he said.
According to a report by China Internet Network Information Center earlier this month, Didi holds 87.2 percent of China's private car hailing market. The company said it has received 1.43 billion car-hailing requests on its platforms in 2015, which means 1.43 billion payments were made via smartphones.
CMB is expected to use Didi to reach the core users of China's mobile payment market. Jean Liu, president of Didi, said many of the expats prefer payment by credit card rather than Alipay or WeChat. "The new partnership will help improve service quality and customer loyalty," she said. The investment makes CMB part of Didi's existing investors, including Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and China Investment Corporation. Both of the companies declined to reveal the actual amount of the investment.
Liu, who showed up on Tuesday for the first time in public after her treatment for breast cancer, said the cooperation with CMB is for the long run and "the capital investment is only part of it".
Under the partnership, CMB and Didi will cooperate on a wide range of initiatives on financial services and online-to-offline cooperation. Apart from the in-app credit card payments, the two companies are going to launch joint credit cards in late February and automobile financing services for Didi's car owners. CMB's branches across China are expected to help Didi recruit more drivers.
"There is a lot of room for imagination in our partnership," Li said, adding in future people may use their CMB credit card reward points to pay for the ride on Didi.
Li Chao, an analyst with iResearch Consulting Group, said the partnership may not significantly boost CMB's mobile payment business. "Didi has educated the market for three years and its customers have formed the habit of paying by WeChat or Alipay. So I think CMB can only turn a very smart proportion of Didi users into its payment customer," he said. "But the move shows that China's traditional banking industry is finally thinking out of the box and looking for outside partners in Internet finance competition," he said.
Statistics from Big-Data Research showed that more than 90 percent of China's 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.41 trillion) worth of third party mobile payment market is donated by Alibaba and Tencent.
Harvard researchers have created a tough, low-cost, biodegradable (可生物降解的) material inspired by insects' hard outer shells. The material's inventors say it has a number of possible uses and someday could provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic. The material, made from shrimp ('虾) shells and proteins produced from silk, is called "shrilk." It is thin, clear, flexible and strong.
A major benefit of the material is its biodegradability. Plastic's toughness and flexibility represented a revolution in materials science during the 1950s and '60s. Decades later, however, plastic's very durability (耐用性) is raising questions about how appropriate it is for one-time products such as plastic bags, or short-lived consumer goods, used in the home for a few years and then cast into a landfill where they will degrade for centuries. What is the point of making something that lasts 1,000 years?
Shrilk not only will degrade in a landfill, but its basic components are used as fertilizer(肥料), and so will enrich the soil.
Shrilk has great potential, the inventors said. Materials from which it is made are plentiful in nature, found in everything ranging from shrimp shells, insect bodies to living plants. That makes shrilk low cost, and its mass production possible should it be used for products demanding a lot of material.
Work on shrilk is continuing in the lab. The inventors said the material becomes flexible when wet, so they're exploring ways to use it in wet environments. They're also developing simpler production processes, which could be used for non-medical products, like for computer cases and other products inside the home. They're even exploring combining it with other materials, like carbon fibers, to give it new properties.
Some parents can't resist the strong desire to help their children play hooky (逃学) for a trip. Five-year-old Erica and her siblings Alex, 9, and Kate, 12, missed school in Denver on Aug. 21, 2017. Their father Mr. Reed took them on a camping trip to Halsey to see the solar eclipse (日食). Kate had told her teachers she'd be absent and Mr. Reed let Erica's and Alex's teachers know, too. But he didn't ask for permission.
Mr. Reed has loved astronomy since seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on his sixth birthday. He says, “I want my own kids to have a similar kind of wonderment and hope about future discoveries.”
Parents often dream of traveling with their children to teach them about science, geography and culture. Many teachers support them, as the Reed children's teachers did. Other teachers were angry about the extra work.
Teacher Amanda says she feels frustrated when parents take students out of school for family trips. If she sends homework, she finds it's often returned incomplete or incorrect, because the absent student didn't hear her explanation in class. Some students suffer anxiety as they struggle to catch up. Research shows that students who are absent often, for any reason—excused or unexcused—performed more poorly in school.
Garrick agreed to miss five days of school for the Antarctic trip last year as a senior high school student, however. Managing the homework was a challenge, but it helped him gain time management skills. “And the trip is worth the effort,” he says, “sparking his interest in international relations. You can't really put a price on changing your world view,” Garrick says. “That's what travel has done for me. It has changed how I think about things.”
Dutch beachcomber (海滩拾荒者) Wim Kruiswijk has accumulated a collection of 1,200 messages-in-bottles over the course of nearly 4 decades and has responded to almost all of them,
68-year-old Kruiswijk says that his unusual hobby began in 1983 when he found three drift bottles (漂流瓶) on his local beach, each containing letters and return addresses. He wrote to all three addresses and was surprised to receive responses from each one. It was this experience that aroused his interest in hunting and collecting messages in bottles, and he hasn't stopped looking for them since.
“I find my messages in bottles on the beach of Zandvoort, where I live, and on the Dutch Islands,” Kruiswijk recently told Great Big Story. “Messages in bottles is slow mail. It takes you days, or weeks, or months to find a bottle. ”
In the early years, Kruiswijk would find as many as 50 bottles a year, but since 2000 that has slowed to around 20-30 finds, mainly due to beach cleaning efforts. He believes that the rise of the Internet has also played a role in the diminishing number of messages in bottles, telling Dutch newssite PZC, “I used to get a response at half the bottle messages that I answered. Now that's less; many people want 'instant satisfaction'.”
Throwing a message in a bottle out into the sea is a longstanding human tradition dating back to the time of the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, about 310 BC，who used the bottles to study water currents. Scientists still apply the method to this day, as a means to help researchers develop ocean circulation maps, and to crowdsource scientific studies of ocean currents.
In the past bottles have also been used to send distress messages from sailors in trouble. They also have been used for memorial tributes, or to send loved ones' ashes on a final journey. One of the more common uses though is just to send invitations out to prospective pen pals, a quaint notion in these modern times, but, as Kruiswijk so clearly shows, an effective one.
Born and raised in a digital age, today's young people are generally tech savvy (技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they're less capable than the older generation.
According to a recent study, 69 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator(暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don't know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don't understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.
It appears young people are losing the skills older generations took for granted. In fact, the problem is shared by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don't know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been dropped, as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.
Technology may be to blame for this generational gap. Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the practical skills are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包). Indeed, improvements in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read physical maps.
However, this change has raised concerns among many people. “If you have your master's degree and you can't live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious (有营养的) meal, you're not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told Huff Post.
That's why there's an increasing call for the return of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very popular in the early 20th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget(预算) cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.
“The educational system would work better if every academic class had a practical course that applied the theory to do something regular people do in real life,” Robert Frost, instructor and flight controller at NASA, wrote on Quora, according to Huff post.
Google, hoping to put down a protest by employees upset that the technology they were working on could be used for deadly purposes, will not renew a contract with the Pentagon(五角大楼) for artificial intelligence work when a current deal expires next year.
Diane Greene, who is the head of the Google Cloud business that won a contract with the Pentagon's Project Maven, said during a weekly meeting with employees Friday that the company was backing away from its AI work with the military, according to a person familiar with the discussion but not permitted to speak publicly about it.
Google's work with the Defense Department on the Maven program, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, riled the internet giant's workforce.
About 4,000 Google employees signed a petition(请愿书) demanding "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology," and a handful of employees resigned in protest.
The money for Google in the Project Maven contract was never large by the standards of a company with profit of $110 billion last year — $9 million, one official told employees, or a possible $15 million over 18 months, according to an internal email.
But some company officials saw it as an opening to much greater revenue down the road. In an email last September, a Google official in Washington told colleagues she expected Maven to grow into a $250 million-a-year project, and eventually it could have helped open the door to contracts worth far more.
Chinese media and Internet users on Monday decried（谴责）a lack of morals in society after a child was struck twice by two different trucks and left bleeding on the road as more than a dozen bystanders did nothing to help the seriously injured girl.
The incident, captured by a surveillance camera and aired by Southern Television Guangdong (TVS), showed the two-year-old girl was knocked down and run over by a white truck on a narrow market street on the afternoon of Oct. 13, in Foshan City of Guangdong Province.
The driver fled the scene of the accident, leaving the girl to bleed on the sidewalk. Over the next six minutes, more than a dozen people walked by the girl, yet not one individual did anything to help her. The girl was then hit a second time by another van before an elderly trash collector came to her aid and brought the attention of the girl's mother, according to the video and eyewitnesses.
Doctors said that the girl, who was put on life support after being hospitalized, remains in a deep coma. The girl's parents, who are migrants living in the city, are now with her.
Police said the drivers of both vehicles have been arrested. However, the apathy(冷漠) of the bystanders shown in the video has shocked the public, and people are questioning the morality of society.
High moral standards were once considered as national pride in China where individuals known for selflessly helping others were adored（崇拜） by the public.
But in recent years, the perception（观念）of a decline of morals has become a hot topic as profit and materialism are perceived to be affecting society's values.
On Sept. 2. an 88-year-old man in central China collapsed, his face striking the pavement. Yet, no one came to his aid, and he ended up choking to death on the blood from his nose.
Some have linked the absence of good Samaritans (模范人物)to a previous case in which a man trying to help an elderly woman who fell was accused of harming her.
A strong chorus of opinion on the Internet says laws should exempt（免除）Samaritans from liability（责任）, yet laws themselves cannot solve society's morality dilemma.
Cao Lin, a China Youth Daily commentator, said in a signed article published on Monday that the worry of liability should not be an excuse for not helping, and this case exposes the decline of humanity in Chinese society.
A woman grasped her phone to her heart the way a minister might hold a Bible. She was anxious to take a picture of a bunch of flowers that sat not 10 feet away, but first she had to get through a crowd of others pushing to do the same. The cause of this was Bouquets to Art, one of the most popular annual events at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. For the 34th year, artists were asked to create flower bunches that respond to pieces of art on display, from ancient carvings to contemporary sculptures. It's time to take a photo to post on Instagram, but to the point that it has become a problem.
In recent years» the de Young received more than a thousand complaints from people who felt that cell phones had ruined their experience. In fact, institutions of fine art around the world face similar problems as the desire to take photographs becomes a huge draw for museums as well as something that upsets some of their visitors. So the de Young responded with a kind of compromise: carving out "photo free" hours during the exhibition's six-day run.
One common complaint in the ongoing debates over the effect of social media on museum culture is that people seem to be missing out on experiences because they are so busy collecting evidence of them. A recent study in the journal Psychological Science suggests there is some truth to this; it found that people who took photos of an exhibit rather than simply observing it had a harder time remembering what they saw. But the issue is complicated for the professionals running museums. Linda Butler, the de Young's head of marketing, communications and visitor experience, acknowledges that not everyone wants a museum to be "a photo-taking playland." Yet a lot of other people do, and she thinks that the de Young is in no position to judge that one motivation for buying a $ 28 ticket is more valid than another. "If we removed social media and photography," she says, "we would risk becoming less popular." If this is a battle, signs indicate that the pro-phone crowd (亲手机人群) has already won.
MONTREAL (Reuters) – Crossing the US-Canada border (边界) to go to church on a Sunday cost a US citizen ＄10,000 for breaking Washington's strict new security (安全) rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Like the other half-dozen people of Township 15, crossing the border is a daily occurrence for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church.
There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US-which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.
As a result, Albert says he did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual. The US customs (海关)station in this are is closed on Sundays, so be just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later. Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him be had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally (非法).
Ottawa has given out special passes to some 300 US citizens in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-miledetour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint.
Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. "I feel like I'm living in a prison," he said.
Each year on Halloween, children look forward to trickortreating (不请客就捣乱) for candies. But for some kids, eating Halloween candies can be dangerous.
That's because one out of every 13 kids in the US has a food allergy (过敏症). They are allergic to ingredients (成分) in many Halloween candies, such as peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, and beans. If they eat these foods, they will get sick or even die.
"I had to throw away all my candies with tears," eightyearold Conlen said. Conlen is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and dairy. Twelveyearold Kylie is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. She has been trickortreating only twice. "I brought my candies home and gave them to the neighbours，" Kylie said. "It felt terrible."
But this year, Conlen, Kylie and other kids with food allergies will have a chance for a happy Halloween. That's because nearly 100,000 households across the US have promised to take part in the Teal Pumpkin Project (TPP), which was started last year by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE). FARE is an organisation that works to improve the lives of people with food allergies. Through the project, the households agree to have nonfood items for trickortreaters, including trinkets (小饰品) and toys.
To take part in the project, people buy a teal (蓝绿色) pumpkin or paint a pumpkin teal and place it in front of their house. The painted pumpkins let trickortreaters know that nonfood items are available there. The households also add their home addresses to an online map, making it easier for trickortreaters to find them.
Kylie loves the idea. "The TPP makes Halloween fun and safe," she said. "It makes me feel like a normal kid, and it makes everyone feel included."
A 2,300-year-old shield (盾) made of tree bark has been discovered in Leicestershire, Europe. Such type of shield has never been dug out in Europe although shields like gold ones have been found before. No wonder that scientists regard the 2,300-year-old shield to be valuable. "This is a great object used as a weapon(武器) in the Iron Age," said Julia Farley, expert in British and European Iron Age collections.
The shield was discovered in 2015 by scientists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Service in an "animal watering hole" close to the River Soar. Organic (有机物) objects from the period rarely survive, but the shield was deposited in waterlogged (水涝的) soil that the "animal watering hole" contains. The waterlogged soil tends to cause low temperature underground and poorly-circulated air, which makes it hard for organic things to break up.
Bark shields of the period were entirely unknown in Europe and researchers had assumed that the material might have been too weak and fragile for use in war. However, experiments to remake the weapon in the same material showed the 3mm-thick shield, though very light, would have been tough enough for battle. It was likely that similar weapons were widespread.
The shield is made from green bark that has been constructed with many types of wood. One of them is the green wood, which would tighten as it has dried giving the shield its strength and a shape of a figure of eight. The outside of the shield has been painted and given a special decoration. Farley said, "This is a lost technology. Maybe it s a technique that was used for making bark products in many ways."
"Because so little organic material survives from the period," Farley said, "We are left with the earthworks(土木工程) and some of the ironwork. But we don't really see the everyday world of these people: the wooden houses they lived in and their clothing. So the visual world of the Iron Age is lost to us. But something like the bark shield is just a tiny window into that."
The shield has been donated to the British Museum. Farley said she hoped it would be seen by the public next year.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed regret over his handling of the bushfire crisis damaging the country. The PM has faced mounting criticism over his government's response to the bushfires and its climate policy.
Since September, bushfires have killed at least 28 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Mr Morrison's government has been accused of not doing enough to deal with climate change, which experts say could increase the strength, frequency and size of bushfires. But in the interview, the PM defended the approach of the government, which he said took into account the effect of climate change on the bushfires.
Each year there is a fire season during the Australian summer, with hot, dry weather making it easier for flames to start and spread. Natural causes are to blame most of the time, like lightning strikes in drought-affected forests. Humans can also be to blame. NSW police have charged at least 24 people with deliberately starting bushfires, and have taken legal action against 183 people for fire-related offenses since November, according to a police statement.
Bushfire conditions eased on Saturday, giving firefighters a temporary short break in areas where flames are still spreading. But authorities have warned that the huge fires, caused by high temperatures, wind and a three-year drought, will persist until there is adequate rainfall.
About half a billion animals have been affected by the fires across NSW, with millions likely dead. The figures for NSW include birds, reptiles, and mammals, except bats. It doesn't include insects and frogs, so the real number is almost certain to be higher, the ecologists said. Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of their habitat has been destroyed, said Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
Many adults rely on caffeine to get them through the day. But that's the last thing kids need, according to the governments of England and South Korea.
England woke up to the news that the government is preparing to ban the sale of energy drinks like Red Bull to children.
The ban only applies to England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can all follow suit if their administrations wish. In March, several major supermarket chains announced they would ban the sale of energy drinks to children under 16. Meanwhile, South Korea announced plans to ban the sale of coffee in schools by September 14.
The first reason for the ban is the high level of caffeine in the energy drinks, which has been linked to health problems for children, including head and stomach aches, as well as sleep problems.
A can of Red Bull contains about of caffeine, roughly the same as a similarly sized cup of coffee, but three times the level of Coca-Cola. Monster Energy, which is often sold in larger cans of , contains of caffeine.
Energy drinks often also have higher levels of sugar than soft drinks. Sugared energy drinks have more calories and more sugar than normal soft drinks and sugar is one of the largest causes of obesity （肥胖症）.
British national official for education, Darren Northcott, described the drinks as "legal highs" that helped to fuel bad behavior in schools.
In addition to limiting kids' access to caffeine and energy drinks, the South Korean government has also banned TV commercials for fast food, sugary snacks and high-caffeine beverages during times when most children's programs air.
South Koreans drink an average of 181 cups of coffee a year, by far the most in Asia. That is more than the 151 consumed per person in the UK but less than the average of 266 cups in the US.
The second half of 2020 began on Wednesday, as tourism returned with further opening of economies. International travel has resumed as airports reopened months after strict aviation restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. About 300 tourists on two flights from Ukraine on Wednesday landed in Egypt's Red Sea resort cities. Upon arrival at the local airport, the passengers were greeted with flowers, souvenirs, and folk music and dancing.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's Beirut airport also resumed operation after four months of being closed, with measures taken to detect suspected infections.
The Turkish government has been gradually relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, with cafes and gaming halls across the country reopening alongside precautionary measures, such as wearing of masks, and social distancing measures.
In Europe, the first tourist train from the Czech Republic in months arrived in Croatia's coastal city of Rijeka on Wednesday morning. The 550 passengers were greeted by Croatian Tourism Minister Gari Capelli.
In Italy, a government policy intended to promote tourism took effect on Wednesday. According to a promotional program, low-and medium-income households, couples, and individuals who spend holidays at Italian tourist facilities can benefit from a financial bonus of up to $560.
In Finland, a large-scale open-air market and dining area opened to the public on Wednesday, in a move to encourage the catering and tourism industries. With 480 seats in total, a diverse selection of food and drinks, including breakfast, lunch, fine dining and cocktails, are to be served daily on a "Super Terrace" through the end of August.
Harvard researchers have created a tough, low-cost, biodegradable (可生物降解的) material inspired by insects' hard outer shells. The material's inventors say it has a number of possible uses and someday could provide a more environmentally friendly alternative(可能的选择) to plastic. The material, made from shrimp (虾) shells and proteins produced from silk, is called "shrilk." It is thin, clear, flexible and strong.
A major benefit of the material is its biodegradability. Plastic's toughness and flexibility represented a revolution in materials science during the 1950s and 1960s. Decades later however, plastic's very durability (耐用性) is raising questions about how proper it is for one-time products such as plastic bags, or short-lived consumer goods, used in the home for a few years and then cast into a landfill where they will degrade for centuries. What is the point of making something that lasts 1,000 years?
Shrilk not only will degrade in a landfill, but its basic components are used as fertilizer, and so will enrich the soil.
Shrilk has great potential, the inventors said. Materials from which is made are plentiful in nature, found in everything ranging from shrimp shells, insect bodies to living plants. That makes shrilk low cost, and its mass production possible should it be used for products demanding a lot of material.
Work on shrilk is continuing in the lab. The inventors said the material becomes flexible when wet, so they're exploring ways to use it in wet environments. They're also developing simpler production processes, which could be used for non-medical products, like for computer cases and other products inside the home. They're even exploring combining it with other materials, like carbon fibers, to give it new properties.
GUANGZHOU—China's largest maritime(海事的)patrol vessel(舰),which was launched in a shipyard in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Tuesday, is ready to help improve maritime traffic governance(管理),officials said.
Haixun 09, built at China State Shipbuilding Corp's Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, will be managed by the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration. It is expected to go into service next year.
The 165—meter maritime safety patrol vessel has a displacement(排水量)of 10,700 metric tons and speed of more than 25 knots ( 46 kilometers per hour),said Yan Peibo, the ship's chief construction engineer. It can sail more than 10,000 nautical miles (18,520 kilometers) at an economical speed of 16 knots and make voyages of more than 90 days. The ship has a helicopter landing pad and a data center with multiple sets of satellite communication systems, including China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System. The ship's construction started in May 2019.
Haixun 09 is expected to serve as an important platform for law enforcement, emergency coordination and command and pollution prevention, the administration said in a statement. It will help strengthen maritime traffic control and emergency support, ensure safe and smooth maritime transport and safeguard the country's maritime interests, said Cao Desheng, director of the Maritime Safety Administration of China. It will also be an important tool for emergency management and cooperation in the global maritime safety sector, he said. Plans also call for expansion of the maritime patrol fleet capable of long—range, deep—sea operations by depending on technological innovation.
Haixun 09 has a smart engine room system capable of real—time monitoring of the main propulsion(推进)system and power generators. The ship also uses low—sulfur(低硫) fuel and has a system to remove nitrogen oxides, often found in engine exhaust(尾气).
China currently has in service three maritime safety patrol vessels with a displacement of over 3,000 metric tons.
This year, several young athletes have shone brightly at the Beijing Winter Olympics, giving us a glimpse of their generation's nature.
Obviously, the young generation is filled with "brave warriors" who want to challenge impossibilities and push boundaries. Freestyle skier Gu Ailing is a good example. After she finished strong in the first two jumps in the women's free-ski Big Air event, it was certain that she could get a medal. But instead of taking heed of it , the 18-year-old skier pushed herself to the limit. On the last jump, Gu decided to attempt a difficult trick: a left double cork 1620 — four and a half rotations in the air — before landing". I have never done the 'left 16' before. I hadn't prepared much for it apart from two days on the air bag,"Gu told China Daily," but I felt it was a chance."
But for these young athletes, the sport is never just about scores, but also about having as much fun as possible.
Born in the US, Gu faced criticism and doubts for representing China in the Beijing Winter Olympics. When questioned by The Guardian, the girl said bluntly (直截了当地) she wasn't trying to make everyone happy. "I'm an 18-year-old girl out here living my best life. I'm having a great time."Gu said." It doesn't really matter if other people are happy or not, because I feel I' m doing my best and I'm enjoying the entire process."
Gu's good friend, Chinese snowboarder Su Yiming also shares a similar attitude. He takes sports as a way to have fun. After he was judged to have lost the gold to Canadian athlete Max Parrot in the men's slopestyle final, the 17-year-old didn't feel upset. Instead, he was happy to have the chance to compete with his idol.
"When I was on the podium (领奖台) hugging Max Parrot, it felt unreal," Su told China Daily." All I did today was enjoy the runs and concentrate on my tricks. As long as I am on my snowboard I am happy."
Most of the 500 whales stranded (搁浅)off Tasmania have now died. Dozens more stricken whales have been found in Australia's largest ever mass stranding. The estimated total now stands at around 500, with the majority of that number dead and a tenth rescued by authorities on the Island state of Tasmania. Experts believe all of the animals would have been part of one large group. Officials began working to rescue survivors among an estimated 270 whales found on Monday on a beach and two sandbars near the remote coastal town of Strahan. Then another 200 whales were spotted from a helicopter on Wednesday less than 10 kilometres (six miles) to the south. All 200 had been confirmed dead by late afternoon. They were among the 380 whales that have died overall, with estimates from earlier today suggesting that 30 that were alive but stranded and 50 had been rescued since Tuesday, Mr Deka, Wildlife Service manager explained. He added," We'll continue to work to free as many of the animals as we can. We'll continue working as long as there are live animals. "
It is not known what caused the animals to run aground. While stranding events are not unheard of, they are very rare in such large numbers. About 30 whales in the original stranding were moved from the sandbars to open ocean on Tuesday, but several got stranded again. About a third of the first group had died by Monday evening.
Australia's largest mass stranding had previously been 320 pilot whales near the Western Australian town of Dunsborough in 1996. This week's incident is the first involving more than 500 whales in Tasmania since 2009. Marine Conservation Programme wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said the latest mass stranding was the biggest in Australia in terms of numbers stranded and died.
Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta said there were a number of potential reasons why whales might become beached, including navigational errors. She explained, "They do have a very strong social system; these animals are closely bonded and that's why we have seen so many in this case unfortunately in this situation. Rescuing them does not always work, because they are wanting to return back to the group, they might hear the sounds that the others are making, or they're just disoriented and, in this case, extremely stressed, and just probably so exhausted that they in some cases don't know where they are." she added.
