Does the future of filmmaking lie in virtual reality (VR) films?

    An ambitious team led by Yale senior Celine Tien might hold the answer to that question.

    Tien produced,directed and acted in Pippa's Pan,which she says is “one of the world's first live-action VR films.”The film,which was completed in April,mixes live action with VR sections.Some of the characters were created via animation（动画）and other techniques that distinguish the film from 360° VR videos like the ones frequently seen on YouTube.

    “360° VR videos are stagnant,which means you don't move with them and see a 360° view of whatever they're filming.”Tien explained.“What we're doing is immersive（沉浸式的）VR.When you put on the goggles (a kind of special glasses) you can physic.ally walk around in the space,pick up objects and engage with the environment.It's a huge difference.”

    The immersive VR film experience is different for everyone who interacts with the medium,but that doesn't mean the film's ending will change for each viewer.

    The film stars two Chinese-speaking actors."It's a love story about a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease who is trying to bring back memories of her husband,"Tien said.

    The film has already been recognized by the VR industry.After handing in a short demo to the AT&T Developer Summit Conference,Tien and her team were invited to Las Vegas in January,where they came in third place.

    If you're dying to see the film already,your choices area bit limited: Pippa's Pan can't be seen in movie theaters unless they happen to have VR goggles available.According to Tien,many theaters in China will soon have the ability,which makes sense considering China is the film's target market.

    Pippa's Pan will be released in three languages: Chinese,English and Korean.“It can get spread in different ways: at film festivals with VR set ups and through HTC or Oculus headset stores,”Tien says.“If you have VR goggles you can download it and experience it yourself.We will also cooperate with movie theaters that have VR set ups.”

    In America, each of the states likes to promote itself with a slogan (口号). I currently live in Utah, where the slogan is '“Life Elevated”. It's a nod to outdoor entertainment in the hill country, including the ski industry. I previously lived in Colorado, a land with red dm. great mountains and golden plains. The slogan there is ''Colorful Colorado”. Years ago I lived in the “Peach State” of Georgia, and I grew up in New Mexico as a little boy, whose slogan is “Land of Enchantment (魔力)”.

    We never seemed to get away from dust in New Mexico, so I appreciate the story of a newcomer to the Land of Enchantment who learned about dusty wind. She was visiting an antique shop and the owner wiped down every item before showing it. The newcomer said, “Everything gets dusty here pretty quickly, doesn't it?” “That's not dust, honey,” the shop owner replied, “That's ENCIIANTMENT”. That made the problem more acceptable or at least can be live with. An escalator (自动扶梯) broke, so he posted a sign to warn customers. He chose not to use the traditional “Out of Order” or “Do Not Use” warnings. Instead, his sign read, “This Escalator Is Temporarily a Stairway”. He turned a minus into humor and made it a plus.

    And in fact there arc sonic things, like the weather, we can't change. All we can change is our ways that we think and feel about them. I believe one of the best techniques to do this is to find some humor in the situation. Finding something amusing or enjoyable of difficulty, a troublesome problem can be one of the most creative and effective things we can do. Sometimes the only sense you can make of a situation is a sense of humor.

    We often just use our sense of sight, touch, smell, and taste to eat food. But what about our sense of hearing? Does sound also affect our dining experience?

    A new report answers, “yes, it does.”

    That answer comes from researchers at Brigham Young University and Colorado State University in the United States. They found that hearing is important in the eating experience.

    Hearing is often called “the forgotten food sense”, says Ryan Elder. Elder is an assistant professor of marketing at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management. He says that if people notice the sound the food makes as they eat it, they might eat less. On the other hand, watching loud television or listening to loud music while eating can hide such noises. And this could lead to overeating.

    For the study, the researchers wanted to test whether the sounds of eating—chewing, chomping and crunching—had any effect on how much a person ate. During the experiments, the test subjects wore headphones and listened to noise at either a high or low audio level. Then researchers gave them a crunchy snack: pretzels. The study found that subjects who listened to the higher volume noise ate more pretzels than those with the low audio levels.

    Elder says that when hiding I heard sounds of eating, like when you watch television or listen to loud music while eating, we take away the sense of hearing. And this may cause you to eat more than you would normally. The researchers are calling this, the “crunch effect”.

    The researchers admit that the effects may not seem like much at one meal. But over a week, a month or a year, all that food can really add up.

    Winter holiday is coming, time to read something just for fun. You might soon find yourself holding your breath as you turn the pages of a frightening story, or browsing (浏览) the latest novel on your new e-reader. For those of you who want to try some reading in English, but have no idea of what to choose from thousands of choices, we'd like to offer the following books to help you out.

    The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet By Reif Larsen

    T.S. Spivet is a smart 12-year-old boy who maps everything, including faces, the dinner table and the geography of his home state of Montana (US). After seeing his work, a famous scientific organization invites Spivet to be a speaker at an important event, without knowing the boy's age.

    The Housekeeper and the Professor By Yoko Ogawa

    Because of an accident, the math professor's short-term memory lasts only 80 minutes, so his house keeper must reintroduce herself each morning when she arrives. With the help of numbers, finally the two are able to develop a relationship across the 80-minute time.

    Escape to America By Tetsuo Fukuyama

    Fukuyama decided to leave his homeland and experiment with a completely different lifestyle: living in New York City. This story of how the writer's courage and determination helped him survive in difficult conditions will encourage readers to find their own happiness.

    Talk to the Hand By Lynne Tru

    When did the world get to be so rude? When did society become so inconsiderate (不为他人着想的)? Being rude has become a point of pride for some. Talk to the Hand is a call for politeness.

    If you frequently travel for business, Staybridge Suites offer you a range of home comforts. Four recent visitors to Staybridge Suites explain why they booked, what they enjoyed and what made them want to return.

Claire Metcalf

    "The concept is great, but the staff are the ones who really make it." she says. "It takes a lot of discipline to always be friendly, but the staff at Staybridge Suites do that. They genuinely care about you. "

Andrew Roberts

    "One of the best things is having my own kitchen. I often end up working late and I don't fancy eating in a restaurant on my own, so cooking for myself is a big drawcard. "

    "The main thing for me is being able to cook and have my own little flat. The staff are amazing. It is great to be recognized by them, "he says.

Pauline Robinson

    "What I love about it is the way that you are treated by the staff," she says. "Some of the staff have been there all that time and they do look after you well. As a woman staying on my own, it is reassuring that they look out for you, and recently when I was poorly depressed they even brought things I needed to my room. "

Ryan Ruckledge

    "The fully-equipped kitchen is great. I always have a one-bed apartment so I have a separate kitchen and dining room and I'm able to relax and cook some meals. Eating out can feel a bit much when you do it day in and day out—it makes you hate what you do—and I don't want that. "

A grocery store in Ann Arbor, Michigan opened on Tuesday to the public. This is an artist's uneatable creation. The Plastic Bag Store presents shelves filled with items such as meat, eggs, cakes and so on, all of which are made from single-use plastics taken from streets and garbage.

The store at times during the day will be transformed into a stage for a series of short films in which puppetry(木偶戏表演), shadow play, and handmade sets are used to tell a story of how the overabundance of plastic waste we leave behind might be misinterpreted by future generations—and how what we value least may become our most lasting "cultural legacy (遗产)".

Theater and film director Robin Frohardt is the creative driving force behind the Plastic Bag Store. "I got the idea many years ago after watching someone bag and double-bag and triple-bag my groceries," Frohardt said on Tuesday. "I just was sort of struck by how much packaging was involved in our everyday lives. And it just seemed so unreasonable. I just thought, maybe I could set up a project to change it." Combining a real-life supermarket with film experience, Frohardt planned to use art and humor to question our culture of consumption and convenience and to show one of the greatest problems of our planet.

Plastic bags are created by fossil (化石) fuels and often end up as waste in landfills and the ocean. Americans throw away 100 billion plastic grocery bags per year. She hopes that she can continue to tour with the project and bring it to different communities. "My dream would be that this project will become unnecessary one day," said Frohardt.

 "Frohardt's work reminds us, with humor, to think not just about the next two weeks, but also about the next two decades and the next two centuries. What will remain hundreds of years later? We hope that our legacy will be plays rather than piles of plastics," said Tim Tompkins, President of Times Square Alliance.