One of the most efficient ways to achieve peace and speed up economies (经济) is to provide girls with better education and more rights. Today, girls' lack of access (进入) to basic education is getting more serious when it comes to the use of digital (数码的) technology, leaving them far behind boys. And because the world is even more digital, those who lack basic internet skills will find it increasingly more difficult to take part in the formal economy, to get a quality education, and to have their voices heard.

    Since 2013 the global gender gap (性别差异) in male and female access to the Internet has actually increased from 11 to 12 percent. Worse yet, women and girls living in the poorest countries are 31 percent less likely than men and boys to have access to the Internet. In developing countries, some 200 million fewer women than men own a mobile phone, the most common means of internet access there. This digital divide is increasing, and should it continue at the present pace, it is projected that over 75 percent of women and girls will lack internet access and digital skills.

    There are many causes of the digital gender gap. They include girls' exclusion (排斥) from basic education, from specific technology education and high costs of mobile phones and internet access.

    Indeed, one of the so-called reasons why girls may be discouraged from learning how to access and use digital technology is also a groundless one: that girls are simply not good at using technology.

    Without the help of the government, most of the benefits of technological change will be enjoyed only by men, exacerbating gender inequality.

    Did you know that badminton is also a fast-paced competitive sport? Badminton has been a Summer Olympic sport since 1992. Para-badminton will be included in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Here's what you need to know if your child is interested in badminton.

    Badminton is played on a 44-foot-long rectangular (矩形的) court that is 17 feet wide for singles and 20 feet wide for doubles. It is divided in the middle by a net placed 5 feet off the ground, like volleyball, not at ground level like tennis.

In competition, each match is a set of three games played to 21 points. There is a one-minute break when a player or team reaches 11 points, and a two-minute break in between the first and second games and the second and third games.

Age kids can start: About 6 years old.

    Best for kids who: Have good skills, are patient and hardworking, and can handle the pressure of one-on-one or two-on-two competition.

Team or individual: Matches can be singles (one-on-one) or doubles (two-on-two).

    Fun fact: Badminton is the only sport that has mixed doubles event in the Olympic Games.

    Costs: Beginners are expected to pay $30 to $40 for an entry-level racquet (球拍). Badminton shoes are similar in price to other athletic shoes. Join a club or team for lessons. A one-hour group lesson for beginners should cost $20 to $25, with costs increasing as your child moves up the ranks. You will also pay entry fees for competitions.

    Time commitment required: Beginners will play for just an hour or two per week.

    Potential for injury: Players have a very low risk of injury. Players who wear glasses should use eye protection.

    “We haven't found anything that we can't recycle!”

    Cigarette ends are everywhere—littering our streets and beaches—and for decades they've been thought of as “unrecyclable”. But a New Jersey based company, called TerraCycle, has taken on the challenge, and has come up with a way to recycle millions of cigarette ends and turn them into industrial plastic products. Its aim is to recycle things that people normally consider impossible to reuse.

    Obviously it would be even better for the environment if everyone just stopped smoking, but the statistics show that although there has been an increase in anti-smoking ads and messaging, between 2000 and 2014, global sales of cigarettes increased by 8 percent, and a whole lot of those cigarette ends are ending up as trash. Since most of our litter eventually ends up in waterways, cigarette ends can surely pollute the surrounding environment. “It only takes a single cigarette end to pollute a liter of water,” TerraCycle founder, Tom Szaky, said. “Animals can also mistake littered cigarette ends for food.”

    So how do you go about turning all those poisonous ends into something useful? TerraCycle does this by first breaking them down into separate parts. They mix the remaining materials, such as the tobacco and the paper, with other kinds of rubbish, and use it on non-agricultural land, such as golf courses. The filters (过滤嘴) are a little harder. To recycle these, TerraCycle first makes them clean and cuts them into small pieces, and then combines them with other recycled materials, making them into liquid for industrial plastic products.

    They're now also expanding their recycling offerings to the rest of the 80 percent of household waste that currently can't be recycled, such as chocolate packaging, pens, and mobile phones. The goal is to use the latest research to find a way to stop so much waste ending up in landfill (垃圾填埋), and then get companies to provide money for the process. And so far, it's working.

    “We haven't found anything that we can't recycle,” communications director of TerraCycle, Albe Zakes, said. “But with the amount and variety of packaging and litter in the world, we are always looking for new waste streams to address.”

    Qingming Festival, which falls on April 5 this year, is known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. The festival always appears about the beginning of April when spring has come. Not only is it a period for commemorating the dead, it is also a time for people to go out and enjoy nature.Where is the best place to go during the festival? Here are 3 popular tourist attractions.

    Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area

    In the spring, the sight of the Jiuzhaigou Valley is refreshing and touching. The ice and snow begin to melt, water and streams begin to flow and mountain flowers blossom. The air is filled with the fragrance of spring. The soft and lazy spring sun kisses the surface of the lake and new growth.

    Huanghuacheng Great Wall

    Huanghuacheng is the only lakeside part of the Great Wall in Beijing. It is one of the most popular destinations for a Great Wall hiking tour. It is a hit because of the "train for spring", namely a train that travels through fields full of cherry blossoms.It is extremely romantic to take this train in spring with someone you love.

    Mount Huangshan

    Of all the notable mountains in China, Mount Huangshan is probably the most famous and is found in the southern part of East China's Anhui province. It is known for its breathtaking natural scenery.In the spring, Mount Huangshan is fresh, tender and full of wild flowers, and the sound of birdsong also is pleasant in the quietness

    I always feel sorry for world leaders busy dealing with fights between nations. When my three children were young, most days it was hard to keep my house from becoming a battlefield.

    It got worse as they grew older. Three years ago, Zack, then 16, couldn't make it through a day without making his sisters, Alex 11 and Taryn 9, angry.

    My husband and I tried to be understanding the boy at such an age. We reasoned, punished, and left heartfelt notes on his bed about how he was hurting our family. His answer was" I say it because it's true."

    I even tried telling the girls to fight back. Bad idea. Now I had three children at war. Whatever I said to them, they paid no attention. When there was no way out, I told everything to my sister, Mary, in an e-mail. She replied, "Don't e-mail me. E-mail him."

    Our son was online every day, mailing and talking with his friends. Maybe he would actually hear me this way. I didn't say anything different, but e-mail just took the tension away. There'd be no shouting or door banging. Zack wouldn't feel under attack.

    Zack didn't reply for days. When he finally did, his entire message was four small words. I smiled when I read them: "You're right. I'm sorry."

    The children still fought, of course, but Zack changed. Best of all, I now have a better way to talk with not one but three of them. I like it that they don't tune me out as much as they used to. They like not having to listen to me shouting to them. Or as Alex says, "You're so much nicer online."

    All I know is that the house is quiet. But we're talking.

    Attitudes toward new technologies often fall along generational lines. That is, generally, younger people tend to outnumber older people on the front end of a technological change. It is not always the case, though. When you look at attitudes toward driverless cars, there doesn't seem to be a clear generational divide. The public overall is split on whether they'd like to use a driverless car. In a study last year, of all people surveyed, 48 percent said they wanted to ride in one, while 50 percent did not.

    The fact that attitudes toward self-driving cars appear to be so steady across generations suggests how transformative the change to driverless cars could be. Not everyone wants a driverless car now-and no one can get one yet—but among those who are open to them, every age group is similarly involved.

    Actually, this isn't surprising. Whereas older generations are sometimes reluctant to adopt new technologies, driverless cars promise real value to these age groups in particular. Older adults, especially those with limited mobility or difficulty driving on their own are one of the classic use-cases for driverless cars.

    This is especially interesting when you consider that younger people are generally more interested in travel-related technologies than older ones.

    When it comes to driverless cars, differences in attitude are more pronounced based on factors not related to age. College graduates, for example, are particularly interested in driverless cars compared with those who have less education: 59 percent of college graduates said they would like to use a driverless car compared with 38 percent of those with a high-school diploma or less.

    Where a person lives matters, too. More people who lived in cities and suburbs said they wanted to try driverless cars than those who lived in rural areas.

    While there's reason to believe that interest in self-driving cars is going up across the board, a person's age will have little to do with how self-driving cars can become mainstream. Once driverless cars are actually available for sale, the early adopters will be the people who can afford to buy them.