For a year and half, kids sent hurtful messages like “You are ugly.” or “Why are you still alive?” to Rebecca Sedwick. In 2013, Rebecca, then 12, couldn't stand it anymore. She took her own life near her home in Florida. Soon afterward, Trisha Prabhu read about the story. “I was surprised and heart-broken,” said Trisha, now 15, who is from Naperville, Illinois, “I know that I had to do something to stop this from ever happening again.”

    Trisha did some research. Studies show that one fourth to half of all teens in the US have been cyberbullied (网络欺凌). Experts say that if you are ever bullied online, you should tell a trusted adult. Tell the cyberbully to stop, and prevent him or her from contacting you again. Print and save messages to share with the police. This is good advice, agrees Trisha. But these methods all take place after the bullying has already happened. Trisha had a different idea. Why not teach cyberbullies to stop before they post these messages?

    Trisha's research won awards, including a prize in the Google Science Fair. Then, Tresah built the ReThink app (应用软件). It is programmed to recognize words or phrases that could be hurtful. When that happens, different warning messages come out. “Don't say things that you may regret later!” says one message. Others ask, “Are you sure you want to say this?” and “Are these words really yours?”

    Now Trisha is working on a version(版本) of ReThink for computers. “I am a big dreamer,” she says. “I want to stop cyberbullying before the hurt is done.”

    In 1971, UN scholar Paolo Lugari started an eco-social experiment in Gaviotas, Colombia. Located in one of the most extreme climates, Gaviotas was described as a sustainable, self-sufficient village in an area that Lugari called 'just a big, wet desert'.

    'They always put social experiments in the easiest places,' Lugari said.'We wanted the hardest place. We figured if we could do it here, we could do it anywhere.'

    'Lugari just thought that someday the world would become so crowded that humans would have to learn to live in the planet's least desirable areas,' wrote Alan Weisman, author of Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World.

    Today, Gaviotas is an eco-village with about 200 people. They farm organically. They use wind and solar power. Since 2004, Gaviotas has been 100% fossil fuel independent. The residents also enjoy free housing, schooling, and community meals. Shockingly, there are no weapons, no police, no jail and no mayor. But though these elements would make any social experiment a success, perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment is the planting of 1.5 million pine trees and palm trees. The various results of this new tree growth have been incredible. The shade of the trees has inspired the return of many rainforest species that were once native to the region. Additionally, the residents of Gaviotas enjoy a sustainable source of income from the resin(松香) harvested from the trees.

    The United Nations named Gaviotas a model of sustainable development. The Colombia novelist and Noble Prize winner Grabriel Marquez called Lugari the 'inventor of the world'.

    A new study by a team of researchers has found that 'nature's capacity to store carbon is steadily falling as the world's farmers expand croplands at the cost of the native ecosystem such as forests'.

    Considering this disturbing fact—and as the world population increases towards an estimated 9 billion by the year 2050 and global warming continues to increase the planet's surface temperature—Gaviotas stands as one shining example of how things could be different.

    Two things changed my life: my mother and a white, plastic, daisy bike basket. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory(配件) into a life lesson I carry with me today.

    It was summer and, one day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed — and there it was in the window. White, shiny, plastic and decorated with daisies, the basket seemed so appealing and I knew I had to have it.

    "Mom, please can I get it? I'll do extra chores for as long as you say. I'll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?"

    "You know," she said, gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believed was the coolest thing ever, "If you save up, you could buy this yourself."

    "By the time I make enough it'll be gone!"

    "Maybe Roger here could hold it for you," she smiled at Roger, the bike guy.

    "For that long? He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?"

    "There might be another choice," she said. My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely out of reach in some hiding place I couldn't find. Each week I eagerly counted my growing nest egg earned by extra work here and there (washing the car, helping my mother make dinner, delivering milk around the neighborhood). And then, weeks later maybe, I counted, re-counted and jumped for joy. Oh, I made it! I finally had the exact amount we'd agreed upon.

    Days later, the unthinkable happened. A neighborhood girl I'd played with appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike. I rode my bike fast home to tell my mother about this disaster, this horrible turn of events.

    And then came the lesson I've taken with me through my life: "Honey, your basket is extra-special," Mom said, gently wiping away my hot tears. "Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself."

    (CNN)—This photograph of two men sharing a drink 30 meters below the water is part of an art project exploring the mysterious world of freediving—a form of underwater diving that relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing rather than on the use of oxygen tanks (氧气瓶).

    Each man, dressed in shirt, jeans and sunglasses, sits in a chair at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea with local sharks—harmless to humans—swimming just meters away. Of course, these aren't ordinary men, but freedivers: extreme athletes who dive on a single breath of air.

    American photographer Lia Barrett had been taking pictures of brave divers competing at the Caribbean Cup off the coast of Honduras, when she decided to create a fantastic underwater world in which humans go about everyday tasks—such as drinking coffee or riding bikes.

    "After the competitors had a great time in the new national and world records set at the competition, I took advantage of their breath-holding skills to do photo shoots I had only dreamed of before," said the 29-year-old.

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barrett is often asked whether the amazing pictures are Photoshopped. She laughs quietly as she insists they're 100% real.

    The picture of two men having coffee took 50 minutes to create, with the men receiving oxygen from standby assistants around every three minutes.

    "On the way back up, we were holding onto the table during our decompression (减压) stop in the strong current (水流)—it was quite a scene."

    The underwater models made an 11-minute stop on the way back to the surface, making sure they didn't rise too quickly and suffer decompression sickness—which can cause deadly blackouts (眩晕).

    Born in the 1950s, shopping malls were once the symbol of the U.S. consumer culture, but many are now dying out.

    Dying shopping malls can be found across the United States, often in middle-class suburbs. Economic decline in certain areas together with an upward trend towards online shopping and new forms of urban shopping centers have pushed the once seemingly unbeatable shopping malls into decline. It is estimated that 15 to 50 percent of shopping malls may close in the coming decades.

    American shopping culture follows its housing culture. Numerous shopping malls were therefore born after the Second World War, as Americans with cars and fat wallets moved to the suburbs. U.S. shopping malls were built at a rapid pace as shoppers fled cities, peaking in the mid-1990s when they were being built at a rate of 140 a year. Thus, too many shopping malls are left though construction has gradually decreased since then.

    Currently, there are around 1,500 shopping malls across the U.S. Most share a handful of similar feature. They usually contain two or three stories of stores separated by walkways. Food courts serve pizza and other fast food. Parking lots are big enough to easily misplace a car.

    Shopping malls in Europe might contain grocery stores or childcare centers, while those in Japan are often built around mass transit (交通枢纽). But the suburban American shopping malls are hard to get to and mainly sell clothes and gifts.

    As many shopping malls became redundant (过剩的), leaders in many U.S. towns who once fought for malls now struggle with how to transform them to new uses. Highland Mall in Texas is being transformed into a community college campus, and Lakeland Mall in Florida now houses a megachurch (大型教会). Others have been redeveloped to include housing, offices and even green space. However, it is hard to imagine every shopping mall meeting the demands for such transformations.

Through My Modern Met Academy, our online learning platform, you'll be inspired in classes taught by industry experts. Learn mixed media skills to take your work to a new level! 

Intermediate Embroidery (刺绣)

With the help of artist Floor Giebels, you'll get gradual instructions on how to craft embroidery on printed cloth. Giebels will show you how to combine embroidery with cloth decorated with a photograph. Using that as the base, she'll go into techniques for stitching (缝) over the image and finishing your frame for display. 

Cost/Time: $34.95/1.3h 

Architectural Illustration for Everyone

Artist Demi Lang will take you through the process of drawing structures step-by-step. You'll learn how to choose your tools and paper, and analyze the project's photo. The final assignment is a row of three buildings, which Lang will go through first in line drawing lessons, then inking over the sketch (素描), and adding color to bring it to life. 

Cost/Time: $45.95/ 3.3h 

Beyond Botanicals

In Anna Zakirova's class, she shares the secrets to creating flawless pressed flowers and leaves and using them as the basis for original artwork. Intended for beginners, her class starts with a detailed introduction to the proper tools and continues with an example of how to turn several types of flowers into an artwork. 

Cost/Time: $34.95/ 56min 

Introduction to Pet Photography

Taught by pet photographer Belinda Richards, this class offers in-depth guidance of shooting a gorgeous picture of your dog in a studio setting. Richards will break down how to work with your dog, photograph it, and edit your image. This class is meant for someone who already owns a DSLR camera and has a basic understanding of Photography.