Apple announced its new iPhones last week, but competitors' mobile phones can do many of the same things for less money.

    The new iPhone 8 and X have wireless charging, edge-to-edge glass screen and double cameras. But all of these features are already available in smart phones from China's Huawei and Oppo, and Korea's Samsung. While Apple asks buyers to pay $1,000 for its high-end model, some Asian phone makers can offer similar features for less.

    At one time, Chinese manufacturers copied features and designs from others to produce low-cost phones. But they have now added high-end features to their phones and they control nearly half the global mobile phone market.

    Media MarktSaturn is Europe's biggest electronics seller. A spokesperson for the store told Reuters that,“Huawei is seen as a relevant competitor to Apple and Samsung by covering all major price points and placing big investments in marketing and sales. '' She also said that the Chinese companies Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and TCL were among the top-10 best-selling smart phones in its stores.

    Chinese manufacturers' fast growth has been fueled by strong sales in China. But they now export 40 percent of their smart phones. That is almost double the number from just three years ago, according to the Hong Kong investment company CLSA.

    Huawei is currently the world's third largest phone maker behind Samsung and Apple. According to research company Canalys, the Chinese company is getting closer to second-place Apple and might overtake it later this year.The Chinese company even made fun of Apple's new facial recognition feature with a Facebook video called "Real AI phone." Huawei plans to show its top-of-the-line Mate 10 phone on Oct. 16. The phone will have artificial intelligence features such as instant translation and image recognition and will cost less than $1,000.    Other Chinese companies are looking to enter the high-end smart phone market.

    Every month we look at a different artist. We think Haroshi is super cool—he makes sculptures(雕塑) from skateboards.

    Haroshi is in his late 30s. He's a skateboarder but he also makes things from wood. He began skateboarding when he was 15 years old and he loved it. He used to skate every day. Now, if you know anything about skateboarding, you'll know that skateboards don't last forever because they break. But Haroshi didn't throw his out because he was fond of them. Over time he built up a big collection and at the same time he learnt about all the different types of skateboard. Surprisingly, not all skateboards are of the same shape and actually they are often built in different ways. By the time he was 25, he had an enormous collection of old skateboards.

    He decided he had to do something with them so he started to cut them up. As he was doing that, he noticed some interesting patterns in the wood. He then cut more and stuck them on top of each other. The first thing he created from the wood was a piece of jewelry. He created something new from something old.

    Nowadays, however, he is known for his extremely large 3D wooden sculptures. His ideas generally come from skateboarding culture, ranging from skateboarding cats to cool trainers, but also everyday topics such as hurting yourself, getting better, being crazy about something and of course, growing up. All skateboarders will understand these. Haroshi has made over 40 pieces and each piece takes a very long time. There is no doubt that he is very talented but he's had no formal art training. He taught himself.

    Haroshi held an exhibition in London last month and three of us from @teenattack went along. As we entered the first room, we saw a huge bird that covered one wall. It was absolutely enormous! There was also a sculpture called Ordinary life. It looked like a broken leg—a very common problem, of course. It's incredible to think that these sculptures are all made from broken skateboards. But there's something else that is really interesting about Haroshi's work.

    In the twelfth century a sculptor called Unkei placed a glass ball in each of his works to show the heart of the piece. Haroshi also places something inside his sculptures—a piece of broken skateboard. In this way, he gives his sculptures life. We think that is just awesome!

    Outside, it's a cold winter's day. Inside a large shopping center, people are hanging around. But then, without warning, a pop song starts to play loudly. A teenager boy walks lazily to the center of the open space, and dances crazily to the music. He's joined by two of his friends, then some of the old people. Within the space of a few seconds, more than sixty people are dancing to the music - all in time and all in step. At first, onlookers are baffled, then they start smiling and clapping. They now know what they're seeing: a flash mob （快闪）.

    According to Wikipedia, the term "flash mob" was created by Bill Wasik, an editor at Harper's Magazine, in 2003. Within a year, the phrase had entered the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Since then, hundreds - possibly thousands - of flash mobs have been carried out around the world, in almost every kind of public space imaginable!

    Each flash mob has its own style, but most flash mobs follow a similar formula （方案）. Often, the organizers search for willing participants using social media. Instructions and dance moves are given through email or video download. There are usually several rehearsals （排练） before the big day.

    While it's happening, a few lucky passers-by watch it live. Most people who watch it, however, will see it later online. Some of the most popular flash mobs on YouTube have been watched more than 10million times. A famous example is MP3Experiment Eight, a flash mob that took place in New York City in July 2011 with over 3,500 participants. This event differed from normal flash mobs in that much of it was completely silent - and there were no rehearsals.

    Flash mobs provide the participants, onlookers and online viewers with a lot of enjoyment and pleasure. For this reason alone, they're a modern, popular art form that should be celebrated.

    Plastic sludge(污泥)and garbage is a disaster for the world's oceans. A film crew traveled the globe to document the rubbish. And Julie Andersen of the Plastic Oceans Foundation says what we see is just the tip of the problem. “Half of the waste actually sinks to the bottom, and that remains on the surface actually breaks down. ”

    The filmmakers found rubbish in ocean gyres, the circulating currents that trap large concentrations of pollution in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacifc Oceans, home of what some have plastic. What we found was a plastic smog that spread throughout all the water. And in some parts of the oceans, scientists have found more plastic than plant. ”

    The pieces of the plastic garbage infect the food chain, sometimes visibly, and more so at the microscopic level, where the plastic particles interact with other pollutants. “There are heavy metals, medicines, industrial waste in the sea, while it acts like magnets(磁铁). These poisonous substances absorb on the plastic, and then when seafood absorbs the plastics, those poisonous substances enter the fatty tissues. ”To be consumed by other sea life and by people at last.

    China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are the worst plastic polluters. The United States, although a leader in recycling, is one of the world's 20 since it produces and consumes so much plastic. There are efforts around the world to address the problem, including at this newly opened recycling center in Lebanon(黎巴嫩). But Andersen says there is more that people can do. “Cut back on single-use plastics, straws, plastic cups, plastic water bottles, plastic bags and find alternatives like reusable materials.” She says healthy oceans are essential to our survival.

    However exciting space exploration sounds, there's a necessary and important point about it that needs to be considered: food supplies. Right now, astronauts typically rely on dry food in airtight bags and cans, since there are strict weight limits on items taken into space. Foods that we take for granted, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, are out of the question for space explorers.

    For those who've made an effort to try to grow food during space flights, they've faced many difficulties, including the absence of gravity, and a lack of soil, air and humidity (湿度). However, growing food to add and minimize (最小化) the food that must be carried to space will be increasingly important on long-duration flights into space. Great efforts have been made to explore the concept (idea) of space farming. Recently, a team led by Federico Maggi at the University of Sydney in Australia have worked out how plants can absorb nutrients from human urine (尿), as was reported by New Scientist on March 27.

    After over 20 years of experiments, the results suggested that human urine could supply three to four out of the six nutrients that plants need. The researchers also found out that urine-fertilized plants produce no harmful by-products, such as carbon dioxide or ammonia.

    According to New Scientist, human urine is 95 percent water, with the other 5 percent made from nutrients which are harmful to the human body but not to plants. The advantage of this urine-fueled life support system is obvious: By recycling liquid waste and producing food, an efficient cycle will be created.

    And most importantly, said New Scientist，the duration of space flights will be greatly extended to “20 years of flight”, meaning we may be soon sending astronauts on flights to Mars, or even beyond.

    Here are some of the strangest aviation(航空)ideas in recent history.

    Double-Decker Seating

    In 2015, Airbus filed a patent for a design for a double-decker cabin seating arrangement. Passengers would sit on top of the other, with upper-tier passengers climbing steps or a small ladder to reach their seats. While the design does have some advantages, the idea of climbing a ladder during flight seems unreliable.

    Separated Cabins

    This patent was awarded to Airbus. Rather than waiting for a flight to arrive and be cleaned,passengers could simply board a ready cabin, which would be moved into the plane's body as soon as it was ready. When the plane reached its destination, the cabin would be separated again. Different cabins with different kinds of seating or levels of comfort could be used for flights of different lengths or destinations.

    Windowless Cockpits(驾驶舱)

    For ideal design, airplane noses should be long and pointy. But there's the whole "pilots have to fit in the cockpit" problem. Well, what if the cockpit didn't have to go in the nose of the plane? That's part of the thinking behind this Airbus patent application* which suggests replacing the plane's window with a digital viewing surface. Without a window, there's no reason the cockpit needs to go in the front of the plane —it could go in the middle of the plane, or even in the tail.

    Nap Straps (睡眠吊带)

    Airbus is not the only company in the strange patent contest. Boeing's got its own patent, Nap Straps. With this invention, passengers looking for a nap can find an "upright sleep system^" beneath their seat. In action, the whole thing is somewhat like a traction device for someone who's been in a terrible accident.