NASA might be famous for sending rockets up to space quickly. But it will be more famous for making your next holiday come more quickly.

    The space agency is working on a new plane, which could solve the problems of supersonic(超音速的) flight and vastly increase the speed of journeys abroad. If successful, the plane would be able to fly between New York and London in just three hours. And it would reduce the time spent flying other journeys by a half, since it could be used more broadly. Until now, the problem with such planes has been the sonic boom(声爆), made famous by the original Concorde. That happens when a plane reaches supersonic speeds.

    It is a thunderous noise that upsets people on the ground— disturbing animals and even causing physical problems to materials and houses underneath. It was that effect that led Congress to ban such planes from being used over the US land, a decision that in turn was responsible for Concorde's failing to be commercially used.

    In view of the problem, the space agency has developed a new technology and tried it out in wind tunnels, and now believes that it could be put to commercial use. That plane will fly as high as 55,000 feet—far higher than normal planes—and make a sound of only 60 decibels. That's far less than 90 decibels thrown out by normal planes, and is roughly in line with a car on the motorway or a busy restaurant.

    “As long as we can get endorsement from the general public, the plane will probably be something that's acceptable,” said Peter Coen, project manager for NASA's commercial supersonic research team, in a new Bloomberg report. “If we get approved, we will have the full-sized version of the plane tried out and the plane will be put into use.”

    Pink has never been one of the favorite colors of the fashion industry,as it's often seen as silly and not cool enough.But this spring,it's having its moment in the spotlight,all thanks to the fact that the color is no longer all about being girly and sweet.Instead,pink is taking on a new meaning of independence and power.

    This shift happened last month during the Women's March.Tens of thousands of women filled the streets of major cities in the US and in countries all around the world to protest（抗议）against the disrespect to women.What was unusual about the protests is that a lot of people taking part were wearing pink hats,making the streets appear like a "sea of pink".Even though the hats were without any slogan（标语）,their pink color is thought to have sent out a message that is louder than any words."We women have power and we're not going to sit down and shut up," Aileen Gildea,one of the protesters in the US,told The Boston Globe.

    Now young people are changing their attitudes to pink.They are no longer trying to escape pink,but give new meanings to it instead.

    "Women who came before us ...to be taken seriously they had to get away from the symbols used to make women seem less capable.Younger women don't have that reaction.They're more interested in breaking and rebuild those symbols,"Audrey Gelman,a businesswoman in the US,told The Wall Street Journal.

    So sometimes it's not the thing itself that needs to be changed,but the way we look at it.And in the case of pink, what used to be seen as silly may be turned into something really serious.

    As the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, mooncakes are turning up all over China, from traditional teashops to Starbucks counters. The holiday is one of China's four most important festivals, and in the weeks before the date arrives, top hotels get into the spirit with lavish(奢华) treats in lovely packaging. Traditionally, the cookie-sized round pastry(馅饼) has a rich thick filling usually made from red-bean or lotus-seed paste and covered by a thin crust. It may also contain yolks from salted duck eggs, integrating a beautiful savory tinge into the sugary taste. Fillings and crusts have become more diverse over time, especially in the hands of skilled pastry chefs. The mooncakes in Chinese culture represent homesickness, and the top crust of each moon-shaped pastry is generally imprinted with the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony.

    This year, the fancy gift boxes that have long driven the mooncake trade are particularly striking and rich with tradition.

    For example, the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, built in 1929 and a magnet for Hollywood celebrities in the 1930s, has prepared a selection of mooncake gift boxes with designs inspired by the beauty and elegance of the hotel's famous art deco style. The simplest box of four pieces (red-bean paste, creamy custard, plain cheese, green-bean paste) is 198 yuan($29.64), while more lavish selections of five or six pieces, including mooncakes with egg yolk, run up to 338 yuan for a box.

    Beijing's Nuo Hotel, meanwhile, has created Ming Dynasty (1368－1644) inspired mooncake gift packs based on the design of porcelain vases in the hotel lobby, with the essence of landscape painting using Zhang Dai's poetic passages to show the peaceful harmony of man and nature. The box of six is 158 yuan, and includes mooncakes ranging from cheese mango to charcoal burning fragrant Pu'er tea and white lotus with egg yolk. A box of eight cakes of different flavors is 228 yuan.

    Have you ever lost your car on a parking lot? You don't have a clue where your car is after shopping. Then you start walking around clicking on your car keys so the alarm goes off. It can be annoying, especially on a hot sunny day.

    No, you needn't install (安装) an expensive GPS system to keep track of your car. That's too expensive. You would need to pay a monthly fee to use it.

    But is there a way to track your vehicle without spending a fortune? Yes, now there is! A California-based company has created a tiny device that works with your smartphone, which could be exactly what you're looking for!

    What is it?

    It's called TrackR. It is a state-of-the-art tracking device the size of a coin. It's changing the way we keep track of the important things in our lives.

    How does it work?

    It's easy! Install the free TrackR app on your smartphone, connect the app to your device and you're ready to go! Simply attach TrackR to whatever you want to keep an eye on. The entire process of setting it up only takes 5 minutes or less.

    You can attach it to your keys, briefcase, wallet, your latest tech gadgets and anything else you don't want to lose. Then use the TrackR app to locate your missing item in seconds.

    If you forget where you have parked your car, pull out your smartphone and open the TrackR app. Tap on the “find device” button on the screen and the app will tell you the exact spot of the last known location of the TrackR.

    What else can I do with TrackR?

    The device is small and unnoticeable enough that you can attach it to your pet. Put it on their collar, and the issue of searching for them when they run away to nearby places will be over! You'll never waste a minute searching the whole house for it.

    TrackR even comes with a double-sided glue (胶水) so you can stick it to your laptop or under your bike seat. Track down and punish the thieves who steal your expensive things!

    How much does it cost?

    You're probably thinking that this device is very expensive. False! TrackR only costs $29! That's a small price to pay for peace of mind, isn't it?

    Where can I buy one?

    You can buy it directly from the company's website by clicking here https: //buy. thetrackr. co/gu/special- offers/15/.

    After finishing a meal at an American Chinese restaurant you probably expect to receive a handful of fortune cookies after you pay the bill. Fortune cookies are in Chinese restaurants throughout the United States. It's rather satisfying to crack open a cookie at the end of your meal and read your “lucky fortune” on the slip of paper inside.

    The exact origin of the fortune cookie is unknown. It is thought that the tasty snack was the first introduced into San Francisco in 1914, after an immigrant began distributing the cookie with “thank you” notes in them. These “thank you” notes were intended as symbols of appreciation for friends who stood with him through the economic hardship and discrimination of his early life in America.

    There is an alternate origin story. Los Angeles is regarded as the site of the fortune cookie's invention. In this version of the story, David Jung, a Chinese immigrant residing in L. A., is thought to have created the cookie in order to uplift the spirits of the poor and homeless. In 1918, Jung handed out the cookies for free to the poor outside his shop and each cookie contained a strip of paper with an inspirational sentence printed on it.

    Fortune cookies first began to gain popularity in mainstream American culture during WWII. Chinese restaurants would serve them in place of desserts, as desserts were not popular in traditional Chinese cuisine. Today fortune cookies are not tied to Chinese-American culture. In fact, the largest fortune cookie manufacturer is located in the United States and it produces 4.5 million fortune cookies a day —— an evidence to the modern-day popularity of the snack. However, an attempt to introduce the fortune cookie to China in 1992 was a failure, and the cookie was cited for being “too American.”

    So the next time you break open a fortune cookie and read a fortune about the many successes you should expect in your future, remember that the conclusion to your Chinese restaurant meal may not be as Chinese as you think.

    A woman in Pulaski, Virginia, says she was stopped by a squirrel, who pulled on her leg repeatedly and led her to help its injured baby.

    Tia Powell was walking in Kiwanis Park when she was "approached by a squirrel", the Pulaski Police Department wrote on Facebook. The squirrel stood in her way on the path. After realizing that the squirrel did not mean any harm and wasn't going to leave her side, Powell turned around and the squirrel led her down the path to a baby squirrel with an injured leg.

    At one point, Powell wasn't sure she could help and she began walking and the squirrel followed her again and actually pulled her trouser leg! So, she fed the squirrels a sandwich she had with her and watched them try to Jump up into a tree. When she realized the baby squirrel was still struggling to get up the tree, she decided to call in backup. Powell called the Pulaski Police Department.

    Powell didn't know how the baby squirrel got injured, but she thought a nearby street cat was the culprit (肇事者). So, the group of rescuers decided to move the squirrels to safer area. "We were able to get the baby and mother to a different area with more trees and it was able to climb all the way up and they looked very happy," Powell said.

    She went back a few days later to show her kids where it all went down. In the trees, Powell spotted two squirrels staring at her, and couldn't help but wonder if they were the same squirrels she rescued.