Forests are always losers at the Olympics, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.

    For the winter games in PyeongChang, South Korea, virgin forest was destroyed on Mount Gariwang to accommodate ski runs. For the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a ski run is set to wipe out part of the Songshan National Nature Reserve. And let's not forget the 240 acres of Atlantic Forest that were leveled for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro to make way for a golf course.

    For the upcoming Tokyo games, environmental and human rights advocates have been raising alarms about the use of tropical (热带的) wood to build the New National stadium. Activists have fought against such environmental destruction. The damage is often permanent, threatens endangered plants and animals and in some cases, causes conflicts with native people. But frequently the country's organizing committee, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have found ways to make it reasonable — despite a paragraph in the Olympic Charter (宪章) that states that the IOC's role is to "encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues".

    "As it stands now, the IOC has little authority over a city's local organizing committee, which finally plans the event, " Chappelet, professor of public management at the University of Lausanne, told Earther. "Even if the IOC is dissatisfied with the way host cities have prepared for the games, they have no built-in systems to watch them so that they strictly follow the Olympic Charter." The only thing they can do if they're not happy is to withdraw (= take back) the right to organize the game. "But the IOC could include more enforcement (执行) systems into the contract they make with the host city," he added. That contract must be signed and obeyed by everyone and those who break it must be fined.

    Boykoff, the author of several books on the Olympics, suggested a similar solution. "The IOC could insist that host cities take their ecological (生态的) promises into account first, but instead they look the other way, time and time again," he said.

    Welcome to one of the largest collections of footwear(鞋类)in the world that will make you green with envy. Here at the Footwear Museum you can see exhibits from all over the world. You can find out about shoes worn by everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to pop stars.

    Room 1

    The celebrity(名人)footwear section is probably the most popular in the entire museum. Started in the 1950s there is a wide variety of shoes and boots belonging to everyone from queens and presidents to pop stars and actors! Most visitors find the celebrities" choice of footwear extremely interesting.

    Room 2

    Most of our visitors are amazed-and shocked-by the collection of “special purpose” shoes on exhibition here at the Museum of Footwear. For example, there are Chinese shoes made of silk that were worn by women to tie their feet firmly to prevent them from growing too much！

    Room 3

    As well as shoes and boots, the museum also exhibits shoe­shaped objects. The variety is unbelievable. For example, there is a metal lamp that resembles(类似于) a pair of shoes, and Greek wine bottles that look like legs！

    The Footwear Library

    People come from all over the world to study in our excellent footwear library. Designers and researchers come here to look up information on anything and everything related to the subject of footwear.

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

    211-535-7710 www.metmuseum.org

    Entrances

    Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street

    Hours

    Open 7 days a week.

    Sunday-Thursday 10:00-17:30

    Friday and Saturday 10:00-21:00

    Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1，and the first Monday in May. Admission

    $ 25. 00 recommended for adults, $ 12. 00 recommended for students, includes the Main Building and the Cloisters（回廊）on the same day; free for children under 12 with an adult.

    Free with Admission

    All special exhibitions, as well as films, lectures, guided tours, concerts, gallery talks, and family/children's programs are free with admission.

    Ask about today's activities at the Great Hall Information Desk.

    The Cloisters Museum and Gardens

    The Cloisters Museum and Gardens is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of Europe in the Middle Ages. The extensive collection consists of masterworks in sculpture, colored glass, and precious objects from Europe dating from about the 9th to the 15th century.

    Hours

    Open 7 days a week.

    March-October 10:00-17:15

    November-February 10:00-16:45

    Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1.

    My name is Kobus Vermeulen. On February 16, 2015, I was one of five South Africans among the 100 people selected by Mars One to begin training to live on the Red Planet. The Dutch not-for-profit's aim is simple: build a human colony (殖民地) on Mars. Since I have begun this journey, the one question that people ask me most is why I want to leave a good planet for wasteland. Here is why.

    I have been interested in Mars since I was a child, and I always thought that if I had the opportunity to leave the planet, I would take it. So the why begins with a child's dream.

    However, as I grew, so did the why. In my eyes, since the 1970s the public has stopped trying to learn more about space. We've put our dream aside. We're satisfied with getting our dose (一份) of the future from sci-fi movies and comic books. And so the first part of my motivation (动机) is to get people thinking about space travel and the colonization (殖民化) of other planets in real terms again instead of just as sci-fi visions of the future.

    If we want that future, the truth is that we have to build it, and anything worth doing comes with risks. Somebody has to take the risks, and I, along with thousands of other people, am willing to take them.

    But it goes deeper than that. If the task of Mars One is even partially (部分地) successful, it will encourage a new generation of scientists and engineers that will build us an even better future.

    Without a dream, there is no reason to build those things. The public that does not try to understand science and technology does not choose good leaders. Leaders who don't care for science and technology do not make budgets (预算) for it. Besides, without the money, the dream dies. Projects like Mars One are like a focusing lens (聚焦透镜) for dreams. It is an opportunity to change hearts and minds at the grassroots level.

    Being attractive isn't usually considered much of a disadvantage in today's world. Actually, there is the endless potential benefit about it, but researchers have found one area that being pretty makes life a challenge securing yourself a boring, low­paying job.

    This stands in contrast to a large body of research that attractiveness, in general, helps candidates in the selection process. For the most part good looks is a blessing. We treat pretty people more favorably in general, often vote for them more in elections, and pay them more in their professions. The research suggests that attractive people may be discriminated against in selection for relatively less desirable jobs.

    Researchers carried out four experiments involving more than 750 participants, including university students and managers who make hiring decisions in the real world. Participants were shown photos of two potential job candidates, one attractive and the other unattractive. Participants were then asked a series of questions designed to measure their opinions of the job candidates and whether they would hire these candidates for a less­than­desirable job.

    The less desirable jobs included a warehouse worker, housekeeper, customer service representative and the more desirable jobs included things like a manager, project director, IT elite(精英). In all experiments where they were asked, participants were significantly less likely to hire the attractive candidate for the less desirable job and more likely to hire the attractive candidate for the more desirable job.

    Ms Lee said, "In the selection decision for an undesirable job, decision makers were more likely to choose the unattractive individual over the attractive individual. Co­author Dr Madan Pillutla said, "It is interesting that decision makers consider others' opinions in their decisions. They thought that attractive individuals would want better outcomes, and therefore would be less satisfied, so they favored unattractive candidates when selecting for a less desirable job."

    The research also suggests the established view that attractive candidates are favored when applying for jobs might be limited to high­level jobs.

For many students who desire to move around but not far freely, one of the most common vehicles is the bicycle. For such a seemingly simple invention, its story is not that simple.

Most historians trace its origin back to 1817, when a German nobleman named Karl von Drais invented a wooden, two-wheeled machine that riders moved forward with their feet. His invention became popular in both England and France, where it eventually became known as the velocipede. Unfortunately, it was eventually banned as a danger to pedestrians and was rarely seen after the early 1820s.

Things were quiet for several decades until the bicycle development took off in the 1860s. An important milestone happened in Paris in 1863 when pedals (踏板) were added to the front axle (轴) . This occurred in Pierre Michaux's workshop but it's unclear whether he or his employee, Pierre Lallement, should be given credit for the innovation. Lallement moved to the United States, where he obtained a patent for "improvements in velocipedes" in 1866. These new machines proved to be popular, and the name "bicycle" had come into use by 1869. However, many people referred to them as "bone shakers", which described their clunky ride due to a heavy wooden frame and steel wheels.

In the 1870s, "high wheelers" or "penny-farthings" became popular. However, with a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel, they could be dangerous, if riders had to stop suddenly, as they would "take a header" when their momentum (动量) carried them over the front wheel onto their heads. Eventually, English inventor John Kemp Starley designed a "safety bicycle" with two same small wheels, a chain drive, and a set of gears. With tires added in and brake (刹车) systems bettered in the following decades, bicycle production had skyrocketed to over one million bicycles by 1899.

Mass production of bicycles increased their popularity greatly, since they became affordable for the average person. Over the course of the 20th century, manufacturers continued to improve the features and design of bicycles as new technologies appeared.