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    As is thought by many people, air pollution affected only the area around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a "greenhouse effect"—conserving heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be in water.

    Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular (颗粒) matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature—a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report drafted by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very possible) Perhaps, if we are lucky enough, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits, people neglect the damage on our environment caused by the "advanced civilization". Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?

    One year, a newspaper of the United States published an announcement—the Horticultural Institute offered a reward at a high price for the pure white marigold (金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in nature besides golden, the marigold is brown; it is not easy to create the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people forgot that announcement.

    One normal day after 20 years, the Horticultural Institute accidentally received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. On that day, the news spread like wildfire. It proved to be an old woman of over 70 years old. The institute had always been hesitating over the fact that the seeds could bloom pure white marigold.

    Those seeds finally took root in the earth. The wonder appeared after one year: large fields of pure white marigold swung in the light wind. As a result, the old woman became a new focus.

    Originally, the old woman was just a flower-lover. When she happened to read the announcement 20 years ago, her heart kept beating wildly. But her eight children all opposed her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics (遗传学) couldn't complete what the experts could never accomplish! Still, the old woman didn't change her mind and went on working. Year after year, through many cycles of spring sowing and autumn harvest, the old woman's husband died; her children flew far and high; a lot of things happened in her life but only the desire to grow the pure white marigold took root in her heart. Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden, she saw a marigold, which was not nearly white but as white as silver or snow.

    Such a difficult problem as even experts couldn't deal with was solved by an old woman who didn't understand genetics. Was it a wonder? Take root in the heart and even the most common seed can grow into a wonder!

    Claire Lomas, who broke her back in horse-riding accident, has raised over ￡575,000 for charity through a number of events, and became the first person to complete a marathon in her ReWalk Suit—a robotic exoskeleton that enables her to walk.

    In her latest challenge, Lomas continued throughout the day and night without sleep to walk the race in Portsmouth with the aid of the suit and pair of crutches.

    She was met with cheers and applause as she crossed the line, having posted regular updates on Twitter as she battled wind and rain.

    Lomas said the fact that this was her first long-distance race without stopping meant "it was a little bit unknown" whether she could finish, and added that she was "really grateful to everyone that supported me... I had a few tears."

    At the halfway stage, Lomas remained in high spirits and posted video of herself singing Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. And she showed the exhausting effects of the race with a mile to go when she tweeted: "Help me get to the last mile as I'm so tired."

    Her effort has so far raised more than ￡4,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation. After collecting her award, she said, "My accident was 10 years ago in May. When I think back to that first year or two I would have loved for someone to tell me what the future had in store—back then, everything felt so bleak with so many dark days. I forced myself to take small opportunities and they have led on to bigger things. It has taken a lot of small little steps to get here."

    You can choose a private setting when you browse (浏览) the Internet. But be forewarned: It may not afford nearly as much privacy as you expect. That's the finding of a new study.

    Major web browsers, such as Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, are often a private-browsing option. It's sometimes referred to as "being incognito". This option lets you surf the Internet browser and saves a record into its history of each page that you visited. And what sites you visit won't affect the suggestions your browser makes the next time you're filling out an online form.

    Many people believe incorrectly that the incognito setting broadly protects them. Most believe it even after reading a web browser's explanation of the incognito mode.

    For instance, a new study had 460 people read web browsers' descriptions of private browsing. Each person read one of 13 descriptions. Then the participants answered questions about how private they thought their browsing would be while using this tool. The volunteers didn't understand the incognito mode. This was true no matter which browser's explanation they had read. The researchers reported their findings on April 26 at the 2018 World Wide Web Conference in Lyon, France.

    More than half of the volunteers thought that if they logged in a Google account through a private window, Google wouldn't keep a record of their search history. Not true. And about one in every four participants thought private browsing hid their device's IP address. That's wrong, too.

    Blase Ur was one of the study's authors. He's an expert in computer security and privacy at the University of Chicago in Illinois. "Companies could clear up this confusion by giving better explanations of the incognito mode," his team said. For example, the browsers should avoid vagueness (模糊).The web browser Opera, for instance, promised users that "your secrets are safe". Firefox encourages users to "browse like no one's watching". In fact, someone might be. (If you'd like to know more about the research information, please click here.)

At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the BingoBox store — shelves stacked with snacks line the walls, tempting passers-by through the glass windows. But on closer inspection, BingoBox is no ordinary store. The door opens only after customers scan a QR code to enter, and there is no cashier to tally up purchases —just a lone checkout counter in a corner. The Shanghai-based company is one of many unmanned store operators opening outlets all over China, hoping to improve slim profit margins in the retail business by reducing staff costs.

“If capital costs rise quickly, that puts greater pressure on low-margin businesses like convenience stores and supermarkets,” said Andrew Song, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities. "In China, manpower costs have been rising relatively quickly."

However, the futuristic vision of shopping without a checkout person is still in progress. A reporter who visited a BingoBox store in Shanghai was briefly locked in when he was trying to exit without making a purchase. Although a sign near the exit stated that empty-handed customers can leave by scanning a QR code, no QR code was to be found. Repeated calls to the customer service hotline went unanswered.

Another unmanned operation in China, Take Go, only allows one customer in the shop at a time because of technology limitations in using multiple cameras for scanning customers' faces.

The idea of unmanned stores first caught the world's attention when the largest US online retailer announced its cashier-less store, which is only available to employees for now. Since then, some technology companies in China, including the e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, have launched their own versions of unmanned stores.

Embedded with technology such as RFID tags, mobile payment systems and facial recognition systems, such stores collect valuable data that give operators a better idea of consumers' preference and buying habits, which can then be used to optimize the operation and make more efficient inventory decisions. For BingoBox, lower operating costs also mean it can afford to expand its reach to areas with less foot traffic, according to Chen Zilin, the founder and CEO of BingoBox.

The other day a friend, a sociable man, told me he had found himself alone in New York for an hour or two between appointments. He went to the Whitney and spent the" empty" time looking at things. He then felt unexpectedly happy. Suddenly alone, he discovered there was a new self to meet.

"One alone is never lonely. "There is great difference between being alone and lonely. Loneliness is most strongly felt with other people, for with others, even with a lover sometimes, we suffer from our differences of tastes, personalities and moods. The fear of hurting or being hurt in a social situation brings us loneliness. Alone, we can afford to be wholly whatever we are, and to feel whatever we feel absolutely. That is a great luxury (奢侈)！

I have been alone for the last twenty years and it becomes increasingly rewarding. When I can wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean, as I do most days, and I know that I have an entire day ahead, uninterrupted, in which to write a few pages, take a walk with my dog, lie down in the afternoon for a long think, read and listen to music, I am flooded with happiness.

I'm lonely only when I am overtired, when I have worked too long without a break, when from the time being I feel empty and need filling up. And I am lonely sometimes when I come back home after a lecture trip, when I have seen a lot of people and talked a lot, and am full to brimful (满满的) experience that needs to be sorted out. Then I need to be alone to find where my self is hiding.

It takes a while, but the moment comes when the world falls away, and the self comes out again from the unconscious, bringing back all I have recently experienced to be explored and slowly understood.

Sri Lanka is a beautiful island nation best seen slowly, even if you have only four days there like I did.

The train in the country was my preferred means of transport (交通方式). My ticket, from Colombo to Kandy, with comfortable seats and a big picture window, cost $19 for the 2.5 hours ride. I got a second-class seat on the Kandy-to-Ella route (路线) and paid about $ 22 for the nearly seven-hour trip through the green hills and tea gardens of central Sri Lanka.

Gentle rain said hello to us as we entered Kandy. The Gamage family in William Gopallawa Mawatha Street hosted (招待) me. The lovely family, including parents, children and other family members, put me up for two nights in their home for $13 every night. My room was basic but comfortable, and came with a delicious breakfast spread every morning. Mrs. Gamage told me I could easily find someone in a tuk-tuk(三轮摩的) to show me around town.

When I found Santha, a small, middle-aged man with a big smile, the next day, we quickly agreed on a price for a tour of the city: just $15. His tuk-tuk moved uphill slowly toward Sri Maha Bodhi Viharaya Buddhist Temple. The warm driver also took me to the Royal Botanic Gardens, a peaceful place away from the traffic and noise of the town.

The next morning, I got on a bright blue train to Ella. Ella Station isn't far from the Sunnyside Holiday Bungalow, where I had booked a room for about $40 every night. The owners are nice and the hotel with gardens is beautiful.

My first morning in Ella, I visited the Nine Arch Bridge, a beautiful old railway bridge. In the afternoon, it started to rain heavily. I walked into a restaurant which sits atop a hill and provides a breathtaking view (风景) of the countryside. An hour later, the rain let up. And I set out to go for a long walk in Little Adam's Peak. I loved the view of low-lying clouds resting gently on what seemed like an endless series of green hills.

A woman standing over six feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds is bound to make an impression. But in Mary Fields' case, these features were outmatched by a heart of gold that made her legendary.

Born into slavery in Tennessee in 1832 or 1833, Mary had nothing, not even a date of birth. However, in her early years, she found something of truly lasting value—a friend named Dolly. In addition to friendship, Dolly also may have taught Mary to read and write, an invaluable advantage for slaves. At the end of America's Civil War, Mary finally received her freedom and made her own way out into the world.

Mary was employed on a steamboat as a maid when she received word from Dolly, now a nun (修女) in Ohio called Mother Amadeus. Mary arrived in Ohio in 1878 and worked at Amadeus' girls' school, managing the kitchen and garden. She became known as a gun-carrying, cigar-smoking woman, but also as an example of kindness and reliability. After a few years, though, Amadeus was sent to another school out West in Montana, becoming the first black woman to settle in central Montana.

When Mary was in her 50s, a sick Mother Amadeus called her West. So Mary made her way to the small town of Cascade, Montana, to nurse Amadeus to health. She did this and more, running supplies and visitors to St. Peter's Mission where Amadeus lived. Once when her wagon (四轮马车) overturned, she guarded the delivery from wolves through the night.

But Mary's rough edges caused the local bishop (主教) to prohibit her from working at the mission. Mother Amadeus then set her up as the first African-American female employee of the U.S. Postal Service. Though in her 60s, Mary was such a dependable mail carrier that she earned the name "Stagecoach" Mary. She became a beloved figure in Cascade. She was the only woman allowed in the saloon (酒馆), was the baseball team's biggest fan and was given free meals in the town hotel.

Nearly 70, Mary quit delivering the mail but remained in Cascade. The town's school closed to celebrate her unknown birthday twice a year. When she passed away in 1914, a simple cross was placed to mark her grave and her legend in the Wild West.

Four Great classical pieces inspired by animals

Catalogue of the Birds by Oliver Messiaen

Messiaen transcribed 13 birdsongs to piano pieces. Each piece is written for a French province with a title of bird chosen for each region. Messiaen uses the "colour of tones" at its most powerful, where different sounds interconnect and lay the birdsong among the nature most beautifully.

The Cat and the Mouse by Aaron Copland

We can hear so vividly different plots and the tune is easily accessible to all listeners. Copland uses the pace and rhythm successfully, which creates the animation in the music. Lots of loud and dissonant (刺耳的) chord is fully applied in the entire piece, giving the" storytelling" nature to the music.

The Maid and the Nightingale by Enrique Granados

In the music, the maid sings a mournful song to the nightingale as her lover has gone to fight another guy out of jealousy, and eventually dies. After her mournful "song" ends, the last part of the piece is pure bird sound. Granados mainly uses quick and light single notes to paint the melodies of birdsongs.

Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Sans

The Carnival of the Animals is the most famous work from Saint-Sans. Interestingly, he forbade the work to be published during his lifetime as he felt it did not represent him properly. The different musical techniques and the fast and light rhythm of the full suite truly make this set of works the most typical music for animals.

Everyone likes a quick medical diagnosis (诊断). And no one gives one faster than Google. Just enter your symptoms (症状) in a search window — the uncomfortable neck, headache, high body temperature, and it'll immediately tell what's wrong with you. You can almost enter your symptoms anytime and anywhere.

A study from Australia's Edith Cowan University-(ECU) looked into 36 international website-based symptom checkers. Researchers found they produced the correct diagnosis as the first result just 36% of the time. Online symptom checkers were also sometimes good and sometimes bad when it came to finding the right diagnosis within the top three results, with a rate of 52%. And the same websites managed to get the right diagnosis in their top 10 results 58% of the time.

"That could be a problem for a society, that more and more depends on websites for health advice. For example, according to the search records, about 7% of the questions Google receives are health-related, which works out to about 70,000 asks per minute. As for the answers, most of the time they are unreliable at best and can be dangerous at worst," says scientist Michela Hill.

The most popular health websites, like Google search simply don't know enough facts about the patient in question to make a correct diagnosis, especially his or her medical history and other symptoms. They usually can't look at the whole picture. Besides, websites' ways of producing a diagnosis are often not fully regulated or even monitored by government bodies.

That's not to say online symptom checkers don't play a role in the health of a society. As a means of monitoring outbreaks of certain diseases in public, they're already proving helpful. For example, the UK's National Health Service is using these tools to monitor symptoms and possible "hot spot" locations for certain diseases on a national basis. But if you're experiencing real pain or discomfort, the best advice Doc Google could offer would be to go and see a real doctor.

The kids get Christmas decorations out of a well-loved cardboard box with great care. Jenny stands beside them, softly explaining each treasure. She and Bob built their collection piece by piece during each year's after — Christmas sale.

We first met Bob and Jenny in the early days of our marriage. Someone had been returning our garbage cans to the garage each garbage day. Then one day we spotted him: an elderly man who lived across the street. I left cookies outside the garage with a thank-you note. Later that day, a typed letter had replaced the gift. It was from Bob and explained how he would come to walk the neighborhood on garbage day, returning cans for people he barely knew. Back when he had been fighting a war, his young wife, Jenny, had found herself living alone. Neighbors had taken the time to handle her garbage cans so she didn't have to...

A few years after we had moved in, Bob died. We told Jenny how special Bob had been to us. When Jenny invited us over to look through Christmas ornaments, I realized how hard it was to part with that box, a piece of Bob.

These days, we're piling up boxes of our own. We're planning a move. The house that seemed so huge six years ago is fully filled with furniture and books and, of course, people. We know it's time to go, and yet we can't seem to stick the For Sale sign up.

It's not just Jenny. It's the man who lets our kids pick peaches in his front yard. It's the ladies who leave overflowing baskets for our kids on Easter. It's the officer who smiles and makes me feel a little safer when Jim's away. Thank you, I'll say. For teaching us what it means to be a neighbor.

Our solar system might be crazier than we once thought. Scientists say that deep within Uranus (天王星) and Neptune (海王星) it rains diamonds.

On Earth. diamonds form under extreme heat and pressure. The inside of Uranus and Neptune also has high temperatures and pressures. What's more, the blue planets are largely made up of icy water and gases such as methane(甲烷).

So scientists have long believed that deep inside the two planets, the heat and pressure the methane into hydrogen (氢)and carbon (碳) Then diamond rain would form, falling toward the center of the planets.

But no one could prove that this would really work-until now. In a study published recently in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists say they were able to create this kind of "diamond rain" in a lab, reported The Guardian.

Scientists used high-powered lasers to create pairs of shockwaves through a kind of plastic. The plastic is made from hydrogen and carbon, much like methane. The shock waves created high pressure and heat, like that inside Uranus and Neptune.

"The experimental time is very short, Dominik Kraus, lead author of the study, told The Guardian. "That we saw this very clear signature of diamonds was actually very, very surprising”.

The diamonds created in the lab were tiny, only a few nanometers (纳米)wide. Scientists believe that diamonds would be much larger within Neptune and Uranus. Then they might slowly sink toward the planets center because of gravity.

If you ever get the impression that your dog can "tell" whether you look content or annoyed, you may be onto something. Dogs may indeed be able to distinguish between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study.

Researchers trained a group of 11 dogs to distinguish between images（图像）of the same person making either a happy or an angry face. During the training stage, each dog was shown only the upper half or the lower half of the person's face. The researchers then tested the dogs' ability to distinguish between human facial expressions by showing them the other half of the person's face or images totally different from the ones used in training. The researchers found that the dogs were able to pick the angry or happy face by touching a picture of it with their noses more often than one would expect by random chance.

The study showed the animals had figured out how to apply what they learned about human faces during training to new faces in the testing stage. "We can rule out that the dogs simply distinguish between the pictures based on a simple cue, such as the sight of teeth," said study author Corsin Muller. "Instead, our results suggest that the successful dogs realized that a smiling mouth means the same thing as smiling eyes, and the same rule applies to an angry mouth having the same meaning as angry eyes.”

"With our study, we think we can now confidently conclude that at least some dogs can distinguish human facial expressions," Muller told Live Science.

At this point, it is not clear why dogs seem to be equipped with the ability to recognize different facial expressions in humans. "To us, the most likely explanation appears to be that the basis lies in their living with humans, which gives them a lot of exposure to human facial expressions," and this exposure has provided them with many chances to learn to distinguish between them, Muller said.

Each nation has many good people who help to take care of others. For example, some high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages or homes for the aged. They read books to the people in these places, or they just visit them or listen to their problems. Other young volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick or disabled. They paint, clean up, or repair houses, do their shopping and mow their lawns(修整草坪).

For boys who no longer have fathers, there is an organization called Big Brothers. College students and other men take these boys to basketball games or on fishing trips and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers.

Such city has a number of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games or learn. Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains the beaches, museums or other places. Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students as volunteers. They are young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls.

Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others.

Video conferencing has been around for more than 20 years. Until the Covid-19 pandemic, though, you would find that many people needing to attend a meeting remotely would be calling from a real conference room full of their teammates. Today, we're routinely holding video conferences that are 100% virtual (虚拟).And this is creating a problem that technology can't fix.

The problem is us, specifically the fact that we haven't evolved socially to the point where we can bear much separation. So much of our well-being and work productivity is decided on how close we are physically. The removal of that for any period of time can be severely damaging. One surprising victim of social distancing is laughter

Normally people laugh about 18 times per day. And 97% of that time we're laughing with others - we are 30 times more likely to laugh with others than to laugh alone. Think about it: how often when you and your friends laugh at something, is that something actually funny? Research shows that 80% of what people laugh at is really not that funny.

So why do people laugh? They laugh in order to laugh with others. Just as everyone starts yawning (打哈欠) when just one person yawns, most people can't help but laugh when those around them do. This is why TV comedy shows often use prerecorded laugh tracks.

Laughing in response to other people's laughing is not just a behavioral phenomenon. When we laugh, our body produces two key chemicals: endorphin which helps relieve pain and sets off feelings of pleasure, and dopamine which can improve learning, motivation and attention. In fact, studies show that people can stand 15% more pain simply by laughing for a few minutes beforehand. Laughter is also associated with higher motivation and productivity at work.

In today's home-alone, virtual-team world, this is exactly what you as a team leader should be doing: for your team members to stay healthy and productive, you need to get them to laugh more and stress less.

Have you ever felt the desire to move and experience another beautiful part of the country? This could be the perfect career change for you.

The National Trust in England is looking for someone to work as a ranger(护林员) on the Fame Islands, one of Britain's oldest nature reserves located just off the North umber land coast.

For $22,668 a year, the successful applicant will be required to look after the local wildlife, including the 200 seal pups which are born on the islands each year and 37,000 pairs of puffins.

The ranger will get the chance to work in some of the nation's most attractive places and spaces—impressive sunrises a one-minute ride and one of England's largest seal colonies on his doorstep. But like every job, it doesn't come without a downside. Apart from avoiding the dive-bombing Arctic terns (燕鸥), there is no running water on the island and there will be severe storms to fight with during the spring.

Along with a love of nature and the outdoors, the National Trust is looking for "an excellent team player" who has experience in conservation work. This job isn't the normal 9 to 5, so being good at PowerPoint isn't a must. With 50,000 annual visitors every year, you really need to be able to get on with people and show them how they can participate to help nature.

Could you see yourself in this role? Applications for the job close on June 7. Want to apply? Click here.

I must have always known reading was very important because the first memories I have as a child deal with books. There was not one night that I don't remember mom reading me a storybook by my bedside. I was extremely inspired by the elegant way the words sounded.

I always wanted to know what my mom was reading. Hearing mom say, "I can't believe what's printed in the newspaper this morning," made me want to grab it out of her hands and read it myself. I wanted to be like my mom and know all of the things she knew. So I carried around a book, and each night, just to be like her, I would pretend to be reading.

This is how everyone learned to read. We would start off with sentences, then paragraphs, and then stories. It seemed an unending journey, but even as a six-year-old girl I realized that knowing how to read could open many doors. When mom said, "The C-A-N-D-Y is hidden on the top shelf," I knew where the candy was. My progress in reading raised my curiosity, and I wanted to know everything. I often found myself telling my mom to drive more slowly, so that I could read all of the road signs we passed.

Most of my reading through primary, middle and high school was factual reading. I read for knowledge, and to make A's on my tests. Occasionally, I would read a novel that was assigned, but I didn't enjoy this type of reading. I liked facts, things that are concrete. I thought anything abstract left too much room for argument.

Yet, now that I'm growing and the world I once knew as being so simple is becoming more complex, I find myself needing a way to escape. By opening a novel, I can leave behind my burdens and enter into a wonderful and mysterious world where I am now a new character. In these worlds I can become anyone. I don't have to write down what happened or what technique the author was using when he or she wrote this. I just read to relax.

We're taught to read because it's necessary for much of human understanding. Reading is a vital part of my life. Reading satisfies my desire to keep learning. And I've found that the possibilities that lie within books are limitless.

Have you ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you've completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we've accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we've got it all wrong.

According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.

Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it's been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive（认知的）tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.

Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we're younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we've learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.

These devices, along with many others, made the list of tech-related items available this holiday season.

Theragun Mini

The Theragun Mini is essentially a massage (按摩) gun that provides up to 2,400 beats per minute to relax muscles after a workout to prevent soreness. The device is designed for quietness and can last around two hours on a full charge; $199.99 at theragun.com.

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential

The Lenovo Smart Clock basically is a digital alarm clock attached to a Google smart speaker, which allows you to adjust settings with only your voice or play music. The simple LED display shows the time, weather and day of the week, and it has a built-in nightlight. Its battery has a charge life of about half a month with continuous use. Starts at $29.99 at lenovo.com.，

Fitbit Versa 3

Fitbit's newest smartwatch offers built-in GPS tracking for those who prefer to log their exercise outings without the need: to carry a phone. If your focus is fitness, the Versa, which has a large, color touchscreen display, could be considered a less expensive option to Apple's smartwatch. The Versa's battery can last up to six days; $229. 95 at fitbit. com.

Amazon Echo Dot and Echo Dot Kids

The fourth generation of Amazon's smart speaker now has a round shape and comes in two editions: regular and one for kids. It operates the same way as other smart speakers in the Echo line, allowing users to ask the device to play music or give the latest news headlines. The kids version comes with a free subscription to Amazon Kids, which has access to child-friendly digital books and games. Its battery can last around seven hours on a full charge, starting at $49.99 at amazon. com.

There are many famous museums throughout the world where people can enjoy art. Washington D. C. has the National Gallery of Art (美术馆); Paris has the Louvre; London, the British Museum. Florida International University (FIU) in Miami also shows art for people to see. And it does so without a building, or even a wall for its drawings and paintings.

FIU has opened what it says is the first computer art museum in the United States. You don't have to visit the University to see the art. You just need a computer linked to a telephone.

You can call the telephone number of a University computer and connect your own computer to it. All of the art is stored in the school computer. It is computer art, produced electronically (采用电子手段) by artists in their own computers. In only a few minutes, your computer can receive and copy all the pictures and drawings.

Robert Shostak is director of the new computer museum. He says he started the museum because computer artists had no place to show their work.

A computer artist could only record his pictures electronically and send the records, or floppy discs (软盘), to others to see on their computers. He could also put his pictures on paper. But to print good pictures in paper, the computer artist needed an expensive laser (激光) printer.

Robert Shostak says the electronic museum is mostly for art or computer students at schools and universities. Many of the pictures in the museum are made by students. Mr. Shostak says the FIU museum will make computer art more fun for computer artists because more people can see it. He says artists will enjoy their work much more if they have an audience. And the great number of home computers in America could mean a huge audience for the electronic museum.