If you're secretly worried about your smart phone addiction, then the new NoPhone might be just the thing you need. It looks and feels exactly like a smart phone, but it does nothing. It's just a piece of plastic that you can carry around in your hand to fool yourself.

Dutch designer Ingmar Larsen came up with the idea as a joke along with his two friends. To their great surprise, the idea received a lot of attention online and people from all over the world started placing requests for NoPhones of their own. So that's when the three friends decided to turn to collecting enough fund for mass production.

    NoPhone is currently a prototype (模型) that will cost only $12 once it hits the market It is 5.5 inches high, 2.6 inches wide and 0.29 inches thick, bringing it quite close to the latest smart phones on the market. It is described as “battery free”, “no upgrades necessary,” “shatter-proof (抗震)”, “waterproof” and “an alternative to constant hand-to-phone contact that allows you to stay connected with the real world.”

“Phone addiction is everywhere,” the designers insist. “It's ruining your dates. It's distracting you at concerts. It's blocking sidewalks. Now, there is a real solution. With a thin, light and completely wireless design, the NoPhone acts as a substitute to any smart mobile device, enabling you to always have a phone to hold without giving up potential engagement with your direct environment.”

If you're interested in NoPhone, but concerned about not being able to take selfies (自拍) anymore. Don't feel upset. The makers do have an upgrade at no extra charge—the mirror sticker. That way, they say, you can enjoy “real-time” selfies with your friends when they're standing right behind you.

    Kenyon Scudder once told me a story about his friend, Michael. Michael happened to be on a train sitting next to a young man who seemed worried. Finally the young man told the friend that he was a convict (罪犯) returning home from a prison for away. What he did had brought shame on his family, and they had neither visited him nor written to him. He hoped, however, that this was only because they were too poor to travel and too busy to write.

    When he was set free he had written to tell them he wanted to go home. To make matters easy for them, however, he had asked them to put up a signal (信号) for him when the train passed their little form. If the family had forgiven (原谅) him, they were to put up a white ribbon (丝带) in the big apple tree near the railway. If they didn't want him back, they were to do nothing, and he would stay on the train, and go far away.

    As the train neared his hometown, his suspense became so great that he was afraid to look out of the window. He asked Michael to watch for the big apple tree. They changed seats. In a minute, Michael put his hand on the young convict's shoulder. “There it is,” he said, his eyes filled with sudden tears. “It's all right. The whole tree is white with ribbons.”

    Gadgets that make study fun

    Now in a world piled high with smart phones, tablets and e-readers, technology has entered the classroom in ways unimaginable. Taking classes can be fun too. All you have to do is swipe your fingers on your phone screen and download some apps, which can make your study more fun and efficient. Balancing study and play in a college setting has never been easy-and with the following few apps, it'll be tough to tell the two apart.

    Evernote

    Use: note-taking

    Can be used on: Phone/iPad/iPod touch, Android, BlackBerry, Palm OS and     Windows, Phone 7

    Price: free

It's hard to imagine that with all the magical gadgets, the eager, studious types would still take out a notepad, a pencil, and a highlighter—and take notes in class. While it's not an actual planner or a calendar App, if you take notes to stay organized, then Evernote is for you．The main thing about Evernote is that all of your notes are automatically sent into the cloud—and then you can access them from any web-connected computer via the Evernote app or a web browser. Evernote also supports audio and photo notes-rather handy if you want to record your lecture or take photos of any projected notes. But, of course, ask for permission first.

    Wikipanion

    Use: research database

    Can be used on: iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

Price :free ( Wikipanion Plus for $4.99,or 31.87 yuan )

    Now, you don't necessarily have to go to a library or anywhere with computer services to do research work for your paper anymore. You can get access to the research databases just on your smart phone or tablet. Wikipanion gives you a simplified version of Wikipedia without leaving out any of the site's extra features. The normal links that you'd see to each section of an article are no longer on the main screen. Instead, there's small icon located at the bottom of the App, which can be used to access all the sections of an article. You can also open the links in Safari(苹果浏览器). According to the developers' site, loading Wikipedia pages with Wikipanion is a lot faster than accessing the Wikipedia site from the iPhone's browsers. To be honest, we agree.

    Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days

    Use: English learning application

    Can be used on: iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

    Price: For a limited time you can get the App for only $0.99—half price.

    Still learning English with a workbook? If so, you are behind the times. Get 21st Century Newspaper's new iPhone App, “Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days”. When you download the App on your iPhone, you can listen to the hottest bilingual news selected from the newspaper's official website (w. w. w. i2lst. cn) and read by native speakers. User can enjoy the audio bilingual news with synchronized subtitles and fantastic pictures while immersed in an authentic language environment. With a simple tap, the sentence you choose will be repeated. “Conquering Bilingual News Listening in 7 Days” has ranked No 1 on the Chinese education App list.

    Downloading music over the Internet is pretty common among high school and college students. However, when students download and share copyrighted music without permission, they are against the law.

    A survey of young people's music ownership has found that teenagers and college students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players. Half of those surveyed share all the music on their hard drive (硬盘), enabling others to copy hundreds of songs at any one time. Some students were found to have randomly linked their personal blogs to music sites, so as to allow free trial listening of copyrighted songs for blog visitors, or adopted some of the songs as the background music for their blogs. Such practices may be easy and free, but there are consequences.

    Sandra Dowd, a student of Central Michigan University, was fined US $7,500 for downloading 501 files from Lime Wire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Sandra claimed that she was unaware that her downloads were illegal until she was contacted by authorities. Similarly, Mike Lewinski paid US $4,000 to settle a lawsuit（起诉）against him for copyright violation (违反). Mike expressed shock and couldn't believe that this was happening to him. “I just wanted to save some money and I always thought the threat was just a scare tactic(战术).” “You know, everyone does it,” added Mike.

    The RIAA （Recording Industry Association of America）, the organization that files lawsuits against illegal downloaders, states that suing (控告) students was by no means their first choice. Unfortunately, without the threat of consequences, students are just not changing their behavior. Education alone is not enough to stop the extraordinary growth of the illegal downloading practice.

Both humans and animals have enemies. It is easy for us to know the difference between our friends and our enemies. But can other animals do the same? Elephants can! They can use their sense of vision and smell to tell the difference between people who mean a threat and those who do not. In Kenya, researchers find that elephants react differently to clothing worn by men of the Maasai and Kamba ethnic groups. Young Maasai men hunt animals and thus mean a threat to elephants; Kamba men are mainly farmers and are not a danger to elephants.

In an experiment conducted by animal scientists, elephants were first presented with clean clothing or clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man. When the elephants noticed the smell of clothing worn by a Maasai man, they moved away from the smell faster and took longer to relax than when they noticed the smells of either clean clothing or clothing worn by a Kamba man.

Clothing color also plays a role. In the same study, when the elephants saw red clothing not worn before, they reacted angrily, as red is typically worn by Maasai men. Rather than running away as they did with the smell, the elephants acted angrily toward the red clothing.

The researchers believe that the elephants' emotional reactions are due to their different senses of smell and sight. Smelling a possible danger means that a threat is nearby and the best thing to do is run away and hide. Seeing a potential threat without its smell means that risk is low. Therefore, instead of showing fear and running away, the elephants express their anger and become aggressive.

    The Franklin Institute is one of the oldest and most beloved science museums in the United States.

    Why visit

    In 1824, the Franklin Institute opened in Independence Hall in memory of Benjamin Franklin and his scientific achievements. In 1934, with the construction of the current building and the nearby Eels Planetarium, it became a hands-on science museum.

    Today, it holds the distinction (荣誉) of being Pennsylvania's most visited museum. In the museum's rotunda (圆形厅), a 20 foot-tall marhle statue pays respect to the Founding Father and famous scientist.

    Must-See

    While the entire museum offers interactive (交互式的) fun, highlights include the high-tech Your Brain exhibits (展品), which offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the human brain; Sports Zone, which focuses on the scientific aspects of sports; Two Escape Rooms, where participants solve puzzles and riddles before lime runs out; and the on site Virtual Reality Demonstration Space.

    Pricing

    General Admission to the Franklin Institute includes access to three floors of hands-on science exhibits including permanent (永久的) interactive exhibits, Live Science programs, the Joel N. Bloom Observatory, and one show in the Fels Planetarium. Discounts are given for groups of 15 or more.

    To buy tickets, please click the ticket price to be directed to our online ticketing page where all the ticket prices are available. If you prefer to order tickets over the phone, please call 215-448 1200 (9: 00 a. m.—5: 00 p. m.)

    Member Tickets

    Members of the Franklin Institute receive exclusive (独有的) ticketing benefits, including discounted prices and no service fees. Please select your Membership level before buying member tickets.