Are you always disturbed by the noise made by your coworkers while you're working hard at your task? What kind of feelings will you have on hearing such kind noise? Have you ever got an idea that a certain helmet will help you out of the trouble no you can focus on your work at the office? Now, you needn't worry for the “Helmfon” will help you ignore noisy co-workers and other distractions.

    Created by Ukrainian design company Hochu Rayu, the Helmfon is a big helmet that uses special equipment to absorb the sound so as to completely block out any outside noise, giving the wearer their own quiet personal space so they can better focus their attention on their work. Made of a glass fiber shell, cloth and polyethylene（聚乙烯）, the helmet not only blocks outside sound, but it also keeps the noise you make in, allowing you to answer calls, hold Skype conferences, watch or edit videos, privately.

    The company came up with the idea for the Helmfon after being asked to design a new phone booth for an IT company. The project made the team think about the way we communicate and finally begin work on a device that would allow you to be in two worlds just sitting on your chair in the office, in a meeting, or everywhere you feel like just wearing your helmet.

    The Helmfon comes complete with a system board, microphone, speakers, and a special holder for your phone. The only trouble is that it makes you look like a character from Mel Brooks famous movie Spaceballs, but the company also made public a variety of great choices, including Bat man-inspired design, and even a Native American headgear.

    The Helmfon is still in prototype（维形）stage, but the Ukrainian company is already working on a commercially available design and plans to offer the design for sale. A release date has not yet been made public.

    When I was 19 years old, I was at a dance club. As we were walking to my car one cold night, a man walked up to us. Behind him was a woman carrying a small child. The child had a jacket on but it wasn't buttoned up（扣上）. The man began to tell us he wanted to borrow some money for the night to get his wife and kid into a hotel. He had a job but no place to live in and was waiting for the first paycheck. He said he could get our mailing address and mail the money back.

    The guy I was with reached into his pocket to give this man a $20 bill. As the other man was extending his hand out to take the money, I put my hand on my new friends' hand and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute？"

    I told him that every day people asked my mother for money on her way to work. She said they made more money than she did, simply begging for money. These people were scamming those with soft hearts. And if they were truly worried about their child suffering from the cold, they would have at least buttoned his jacket or covered him with his blanket.

    My new friend looked at me with disappointment and said, “Michelle, I know there are people out there that take advantage of others. I also know there are people out there that are one paycheck away from being homeless. If I give $ 20 to 10 people and only one of them really needs it and uses it for the right thing, it is worth it.”

    I am now 37 years old and have never forgotten what he said to me. I don't even remember his name. But I do remember that that experience changed the way I look at different situations.

    There exist cruel wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, so it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us go through difficult times in our lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling depressed, as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.

    How would you feel if you could not joke around with wife, husband, child, co-worker, neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is a common manner to speak to others that are around you.

    I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their faces. They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am, laughing hard while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?

    Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor, we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness and bring a little light into our lives. Therefore, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.

    As a little girl growing up in the early 1960s in a suburb of Pittsburgh, it was not always easy to find role models. But I was lucky. In my childhood, I knew smart, strong women who had accomplished much, one of whom invented the world's first computer compiler (编译器).

    Recently, though, I learned about a role model who was right under my nose—my own mother.

    Growing up, I knew she had worked as a secretary before I was born. I knew that she had joined the WAVES—the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve (海军预备队)—during World War Ⅱ. And I knew she'd worked in an office that was involved with codes (编码). But when she talked about it—rare, because she had been sworn to secrecy—she described her duties as ordinary, routine. I never questioned it. After all, the woman I knew was a reserved suburban mom.

    Not long ago, a chance conversation with a colleague led me to the book, Code Girls. It tells the story of the WAVES, who decrypted (解码) and encrypted secret messages during the war. They worked around the clock, knowing that the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers—their brothers, husbands, fathers—were on the line.

    Inspired, I began a journey to explore the mystery of my mother's service that continues to this day. I got some of her working records about her unit, OP19. In two years, she was promoted three times. She was no secretary, and her duties were hardly ordinary.

    My mother always encouraged my interest in science and insisted to my father that I go to college. “You're going to grow up to be another Madame Curie,” she told me. She was always pointing at other women. She did not see herself as someone to model on. Neither did I. Now I see her differently.

    One day, a man saw an old lady sitting inside her car at the side of the road. Though it was dark, he could see she needed help. So he stopped his car and walked towards her. The old lady was worried, even though she noticed the smile on his face. Was he going to hurt her? "I'll help you start your car, madam. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson," he said.

    While Anderson was fitting a spare tire(备胎)to her car, the lady began to talk to him. She thanked him much for coming to help.

    Anderson just smiled as he put his tools away. The lady asked how much she should pay him. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give them the help they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off.

    A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in and a waitress came over with a sweet smile. The old lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant(怀孕的), but she never let the pains and aches change her smile when she served her

    The lady finished her meal and paid with a hundred-dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change, but the old lady was gone when the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she found there was a note on the napkin(餐巾), "You don't need to give me anything back. Somebody once helped me out the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do—do not let this chain(链子)of love end with you."

    Under the napkin were four more$ 100 bills.

Life in the future will be very different from that today. Between then and now many changes will take place (发生), but what will the changes be?

The population is growing fast. There will be many people in the world and most of them will live longer than people now. Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home. And computer studies will be one of the most important subjects at school then. 

People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travelling. Travelling will be much easier and cheaper. And more people will go to other countries for holidays. 

Work in the future will be different too. Robots(机器人) can do dangerous and hard work. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.