On a Saturday morning earlier this September, the world got its first look at the Strati. This electric vehicle is unlike any other currently on the road. It rolls on four wheels, but its body and chassis(底盘) weren't built in a factory. Instead, Strati's designers used a technology called 3-D printing. It created those parts of the car in one piece, from the ground up.

    “Compared to a typical vehicle on the road, the Strati definitely looks different,” says Greg Schroeder, a senior research engineer at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. He did not work on the new car. His organization studies trends and changes in th e auto industry.

    It took 44 hours to print the new car at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago. Over the next few days, the car's designers installed additional parts. These included the car's engine, brakes and tires. Then, early on September 13, Jay Rogers climbed into the car, started its engine and drove the vehicle onto the street. Rogers helped found Local Motors. It's the Arizona-based company behind the Strati. Two weeks later, his team printed a second Strati, and just as fast, at a fair in New York City.

    Justin Fishkin, a local Motors official, sees the Strati as a window into the future. Today, car buyers are limited in their choice of a vehicle. They can order only what car companies have already designed. But in the future, he says, you may be able to design your own car online and then get it printed to order.

    Manufacturing experts say 3-D printing has begun to revolutionize how they make things. The technology has been around for decades. But these machines used to be so expensive that only large companies could afford them. In the last few years, though, that has changed. Many of the machines are now inexpensive enough for small companies—or even individuals —to own. Some local libraries make them available to the public. High Schools are beginning to use them in classrooms. Wide access to these printers means people can now design and print a wide variety of new things.

    The car's printer is a one-of-a-kind device.

    The technology behind the 3-D printer used in Chicago is an example of additive manufacturing. This proce ss builds solid objects, slice by slice, from the bottom up. (“Strati” means layers, in Italian.) A mechanical arm moves a nozzle from one side to another, back and forth. As it moves, the nozzle deposits a liquid—often melted plastic or metal (but it could be food, concrete or even cells) —that quickly hardens or bonds to become solid or semi-solid. This creates a single, thin layer. Once a layer is complete, the printer starts depositing the next one.

    “There's a lot of interest in 3-D printing in the auto industry,” says Schroeder. Right now, the technology is particularly useful for building models of cars or car parts.

    To compete with current auto manufacturers, the 3-D printer would have to increase in a hurry, Schroeder says. By contrast, he notes, a Ford F-150 pickup truck rolls off an assembly line at a rate of roughly one per minute. To print as many Stratis would require many more printers. Schroeder says he doesn't see 3-D printing soon taking over for such high-volume manufacturing. But, he adds, “Who knows what will h appen in the long term?”

    Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee designed the 3-D printer used in Chicago. Lonnie Love, a research scientist at the lab, led the effort.

    Additive manufacturing often is slow and expensive. It also may produce materials that are unreliable, Love says. So for two years, his team searched for ways to make 3-D printing better. They built new machines and tested them over and over.

    All of that work paid off: their new machine is fast and uses less expensive material than earlier printers. In addition, it prints a plastic embedded with fibers of carbon to produce a stronger material. This helps ensure the material won't crack or break under pressure.

    Whether in the workplace or on the football field, effective teamwork can produce amazing results. However, working successfully as a team is not as easy as it may seem. Effective teamwork certainly does not just happen automatically; it takes a great deal of hard work and compromise. There are a number of factors that must be in place to make a good team.

    Effective leadership is one of the most important factors of good teamwork. The team's leader should possess the skills to create and preserve a positive working environment and motivate and inspire the team members to take a positive approach to work and be highly committed. An effective team leader will promote a high level of spirit and make them feel supported and valued.

    Communication is a vital factor of all interpersonal relationship and especially that of a team. Team members must be able to articulate their feelings, express plans and goals, share ideas and see each other's opinions.

    Conflicts will arise no matter how well a team functions together. The best way to deal with conflicts is to have some organized methods of handling conflicts. Team members should be able to voice their concerns without fear of offending others. Instead of avoiding conflict issues, a hands-on approach that settles them quickly is much better. It is often advised that the team leader sit with the conflicting parties and help work out their differences without taking sides and trying to remain objective if possible.

    The team leader must set a good example to create good teamwork. In order to keep team members positive and committed and motivated, the team leader himself needs to show these qualities. The team turns to the leader for support and guidance. So any negative words or behaviors on the leader's part can be disastrous.

    Regardless of what type of work you are in, knowing how to effectively work on and with a team is going to be extremely important to your success and that of your team.

    On October 31st, 2009, Chinese famous scientist Qian Xuesen, died in Beijing when he was 98 years old. He is famous as “the country's father of space technology and king of rocketry”.

    Qian was born in 1911 in Hangzhou. He left for the United States after winning a scholarship to graduate school in 1936. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at the California Institute of Technology.

    Qian began his career in the US and was regarded as one of the brightest minds in the new field of aeronautics（航空学) before returning to China in 1955.

    After he returned, Qian set up the first missile（导弹）and rocket research institute（学院) of China. The institute later helped start Chinese space program. He led the development of China's first nuclear-armed ballistic missile (弹道导弹) and worked on its first satellite.

    He retired in the year before Chinese manned space program was launched in 1992. But his research formed the basis（形成基础）for the Long March CZ -2F rocket that carried astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003.

    In August, 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Qian and praised him for devoting his life to Chinese defense technologies. Qian told him, “I'm trying to live to be 100 years old”.

    Some people will do just about anything to save money. And I am one of them. Take my family's last vacation. It was my six-year-old son's winter break form school, and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a week-long trip. The flight was overbooked, and Delta, the airline, offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day. I had meetings in New York, so I had to get back. But that didn't mean my husband and my son couldn't stay. I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.

    The next day, my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight. Yes, I encouraged—okay, ordered—them to wait it out at the airport, to "earn" more Delta Dollars. Our total take: $1,600. Not bad, huh?

    Now some people may think I'm a bad mother and not such a great wife either. But as a big-time bargain hunter, I know the value of a dollar. And these days, a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.

    I've made a living looking for the best deals and exposing （揭露） the worst tricks. I have been the consumer reporter of NBC's Today show for over a decade. I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade: A Consumer Survival Guide. And I really do what I believe in.

    I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money's worth. I'm also tightfisted when it comes to shoes, clothes for my children, and expensive restaurants. But I wouldn't hesitate to spend on a good haircut. It keeps its shape longer, and it's the first thing people notice. And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture. Quality lasts.

    Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers , small tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 1,200 languages between them.

    Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialization, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalization and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.

    At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number (中位数) of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.

    Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busum in Cameroon (eight remaining Speaker), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark) none of these seems to have much chance of survival.

    On her first day in New York City, teaching students from low-income families at an after-school program, Alyssa Kapasi noticed so many kids were lining up for free sandwiches and fruit in the cafeteria. Many of these poor students don't get enough food to eat at home, so a free school lunch or a free after-school meal might be the most food they would get all day.

    Kapasi, who graduated from private school, was shocked. Therefore, she was determined to help. “I want other kids to understand that if they meet a problem, they don't have to wait to be an adult to salve it,” says Kapasi. She and a group of friends are now putting their programming skills ta work to create an app called Food for Thought, which will allow parents, students and even kind-hearted strangers to donate to a lunch account for a student in need at a nearby school.

    About 20 million American kids receive free lunches. Two million more quality for reduced-price meals, and those students' families may pay for part of their food. When they don't have the money on any day, the students might have to choose an “alternative meal” such as a free cheese sandwich.

    One clever feature of the app which is being supported by donation from companies and social investors—is that it provides anonymity (匿名) to lunch recipients and donors. To receive financial help, a family will need only a recommendation from a school administrator, and no one else knows.

    “I want to make the application a platform where all users feel no shame in using it,” says Kapasi. She hopes to test the app in a school district next month. And then, she will devote herself to charity.