When people today talk about a tiny house, they probably mean the trendy living space that's about the size of a shed (棚). But you would have to be five inches tall to live in the original tiny houses. Dollhouse(小房子)，which have been around for several centuries, don't offer shelter to real people, but they provide a vivid（生动的） experience of life in times and places both real and imaginary.

    The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., lets visitors time travel in this tiny world through ―Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse,” an exhibit that opened Saturday. Visitors can see twelve dollhouses from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, which contain amazing tiny furnishings. But those people who put together the exhibit also wanted visitors to know the characters inside.

    “It's 300 years of British homes told through their inhabitants (居民),” said Alice Sage, who is in charge of the London museum.

    So as visitors look inside the Tate Baby House, a fancy townhouse from 1760, they can push a button to hear a young woman get a lecture from her mother on the proper way to run a home. In the Killer Cabinet house, a servant named Betsy complains about the problems of city life in the 1830s. “We've got the cat to keep the rats away,” she says.

    That dollhouse was John Killer's gift to his wife and five daughters. The girls were allowed to play with the house, but they probably also learned a few lessons, Sage said.

    “The kitchen of the house would have been the perfect way to teach the girls about the management of a home,” she said, noting the tiny dishes and pots.

    Those who prefer a more modern look won't be disappointed. There are two rooms displaying a white dollhouse from 1935, an apartment house from the 1960s and a brightly colored 21st-century design.

    The end of the exhibit shows how imaginative design sometimes works best in small spaces.

    The Building Museum asked twenty-four artists, designers and architects from across the United States to each create a “dream room” from the past, present or future. Some of these unique small rooms were made using traditional furnishings, others from materials such as clay, insects, 3D-printing, and even peeps marshmallow candies!

    We brush our teeth daily, but do you know everything you need to know about dental care and hygiene? Believe it or not, there is a lot more than most people realize. Luckily, here are several apps that can help you.

●Brush DJ

    You should brush your teeth for full two minutes as recommended by dentists, but that time can be difficult to judge. Many recommend you listen to music, because many songs are just around two minutes in length. Brush DJ has loads of great tunes that will get you into the two­minute habit. There are both songs to listen to, and videos to watch, and you'll find a variety of awesome tunes.

●Orasphere

    It's recommended that Orasphere videos be used by dentists for their patients, so they can learn about procedures. Those who do use these videos say that the software can greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to explain procedures to patients.

●American Dental Association(ADA)

    Everything you ever wanted to know about your teeth, and then some, can be found on the American Dental Association(ADA) website. You'll find loads of great articles that have the latest news about dentistry（牙科）. Those interested in dental careers will find plenty of information to head them in the right direction, and there's even a section devoted to public dental programs, including Give Kids a Smile and Fluoride in Water.

●DDS GP

    Here is more presentation software that explains all types of dental procedures. This is helpful for dentists to have, because they can better explain procedures to their patients.

●Dentistry IQ

    You can find information for dentists, hygienists, assistants, office managers, and more at Dentistry IQ. You can also get information about new products, clinical practices, and much more. In addition, you can learn about career opportunities, the most recent practices, and a whole lot more.

    A company in San Francisco, California, has found a way to turn used plastic bottles into women's shoes.

    Every day, millions of Americans drink water and other liquids from plastic bottles. More than 60 million of them are thrown away each day. Many of the plastic bottles end up in landfills or are burned with other waste products.

    A San Francisco start-up company called Rothy's, however, turns this plastic waste into environmentally friendly shoes. Roth Martin is the company's co-founder. He explains how they turn plastic into soft material for women's feet. They take the plastic, clean it, and break it down into small pieces. Then they press them through a device that makes soft fibers. Those fibers arc then combined together. This is done by a 3D machine. It is designed to reduce waste while making the shoes. The knitted stuff and the inner part of the shoe arc then attached to the shoe's outer part, called the sole (鞋底).This outer sole is also made from environmentally friendly material: responsibly responsibly sourced no-carbon rubber.

    Rolhy's shoes are sold online. They are flat shoes, with either a rounded or pointed toe. They come in different colors and designs. They cost either $ 125 or $ 145 per pair, depending on the design. After American actress Gwyneth Paltrow discovered them last year, the demand for the shoes grew. Martin says there is no shortage of material to fill that demand. "We're not going to run out of water bottles any time soon. So we have a limitless supply of material, and I think that is a good sign for our future." When the environmentally friendly shoes wear out, customers can return them at no cost to a company that uses the recycled material to make other products.

    For now, the shoes are only available to be shipped in the United States. However, the company says it will add international shipping in the near future.

    As early as 2005, there were a number of new stories about dog cloning(克隆) and cat cloning. Animal cloning had been old news for nearly a decade by then, with the revolutionary (革命的) cloning of Dolly the sheep in Scotland.

    However, Snuppy was the first pet, a dog, to be cloned. Since the cloning of Snuppy, there has been some very successful cloning of pets and other animals. Lou Hawthorne started BioArts while cloning his beloved mixed-breed dog Missy. Hawthorne was very pleased with the results of the cloning, producing three successful clones that were very alike to the original in character and behavior. In January, 2009, a Florida couple, Ed and Nina Otto, announced that they had paid to have their dog cloned by BioArts.

    All new technology is overpriced. For example, personal computers were not very affordable at first. Only after the producing process was improved was it possible for every family to have a computer. How much room there will be for organizations to reduce the price point on pet cloning without broad demand is of course questionable.

    There are many great dogs and cats that can be found at the local dog pound (野狗收容所) or are given away for "free to good homes" in classified ads (分类广告). However, there is no limit to the value people place on a beloved pet. The Ottos are a good example of that. If people can buy a dog or cat with predictable behavior and characteristics, there is value in that. There is a predictable market here, though it may always be limited in size.

    While pet cloning has not taken off as some hoped, it's clear that it will become a bigger market in the future and it will be increasingly possible for people to try this out. With the inevitable (不可避免的) success that cloned pet owners will have, the practice will become more widely accepted and it seems inevitable that there is a future for cloned dogs and cats.

    Free Online Drawing Classes

    Drawing is a skill you can learn at any age. When you are ready, you can learn the basics of drawing by taking one or more of the free online drawing classes offered here. The websites all offer helpful instruction for beginning artists, and many of them offer classes at intermediate (中级的) or high levels. When you use the websites as your art instructors, you can log on to learn whenever you please.

    Artyfactory

    The Artyfactory Art Lessons Gallery offers free online art lessons that include basic drawing classes for pencil, ink and colored pencil. For visitors who want to expand their knowledge of art, the site also offers an Art Appreciation Gallery and a Design Lessons Gallery.

    Academy of Art University

    This free video class from the Academy of Art University called "How to Draw a Head" teaches you how to draw a head from a photo or from memory. The instruction is mainly on facial proportion (比例), expression and drawing basics.

    How to Draw It

    The How to Draw It website offers a simple approach to drawing animals and people. The animal tutorials (教程) are super easy to do, while the people lessons are a bit more difficult. All are free to visitors and making fast progress in your drawing skills is possible.

    Free Online Art Classes

    This site covers a range of art classes, but there are several free drawing tutorials for online learners, including: Learn Basic Drawing, Draw with Pen and Ink, and Learn Colored Pencils. Some of the classes are downloadable and some are in video form.

    In the shadow of Kenya's Mount Kilimanjaro, nine Rothschild giraffes, the rarest giraffes on the planet, are free to wander at the English-style manor (庄园). Every day shortly before 9am, they come up to the house and stick their heads through the windows and doors in search of morning treats. The manor's owners, Tanya and Mikey Carr-Hartley, share their dining table with them. And now the couple are sharing the fantastic experience with the public by opening the manor gates to guests at the giraffe hotel, the only hotel of its kind in the world. Now, guests can feed the giraffes at breakfast but can also get up close to them from their second-floor bedrooms.

    Mr and Mrs Carr-Hartley, both 38, spent their childhood living close to the house in Nairobi and have always been enthusiastic about the animals. Tanya said, "Mikey and I grew up near this manor house when we were children. We are both third generation Kenyans and have always wanted to work in conservation. Mikey's family have been related to the protection of animals for many generations. His granddad helped the removal of giraffes as far back as the 1930s because the Rothschild giraffes lost much of their natural living space. When the house came up for sale, we jumped at the chance to buy it as we had always dreamed of owning it. Now, we were absolutely overjoyed to do something for the giraffe protection. Having the giraffes so close is very special and something which people can now experience by staying in one of the ten rooms at the hotel."

    A conservation project to save them was started at the manor in 1974 by the previous owners. "The previous owners ran a very successful breeding (繁殖) programme, where many giraffes were set free into the wild and we hope to continue," said Tanya.