Your glasses may someday replace your smartphone, and some New Yorkers are ready for the switch. Some in the city can't wait to try them on and use the maps and GPS that the futuristic eyewear is likely to include.

     “ I'd use it if I were hanging out with friends at 3 a. m. and going to the [bar and wanted to see what was open,” said Walter Choo, 40, of Fort Greene.

      The smartphone-like glasses will likely come out this year and cost between $250 and $600, the Times said, possibly including a variation of augmented(增强的) reality, a technology already available on smartphones and tablets (平板电脑) that overlays information onto the screen about one's surroundings. So, for example, if you were walking down a street, indicators would pop up showing you the nearest coffee shop or directions could be plotted out and come into view right on the sidewalk in front of you.

     “ As far as a mainstream consumer product, this just isn't something anybody needs,” said Sam Biddle, who writes for Gizmodo.com.  “ We're accustomed to having one thing in our pocket to do all these things,” he added, “and the average consumer isn't gonna be able to afford another device (装置) that's hundreds and hundreds of dollars.”

    9to5Google publisher Seth Weintraub, who has been reporting on the smartphone-like glasses since late last year, said he is confident that this type of wearable device will eventually be as common as smartphones.

     “It's just like smartphones 10 years ago,” Weintraub said. “A few people started getting emails on their phones, and people thought that was crazy. Same kind of thing. We see people bending their heads to look at their smartphones, and it's unnatural,” he said. “ There's gonna be improvements to that, and this a step there.”

    Twelve years ago, I was a 19 -year-old guy living in the French A1ps. In February 2004, while skiing the back - country in Val d'Isere, I fell off the mountain, resulting in a right leg broken in several pieces. I was helicoptered to hospital, operated on immediately—and there started my adult life.

    Before the accident, I was on a path to what I hoped would be a career in rugby. After-wards, and participation in collision sport was gone. I found a replacement in cycling. Unfortunately, by late 2012, I tried to cycle up Mount Ventoux, but it was halfway up when the pain hit me and I gave up.

    A decision needed to be made on a next step. I had to have my lower right leg cut off. Several months later, I had my first proper weight - bearing prosthetic (假肢). I jumped on a train with my bike to Mount Ventoux. Though it certainly wasn't my quickest, I did it.

    Two weeks later, I was lucky enough to be given a running blade; I bounced on it that day and then raced my triathlon (三项全能) on the Monday. So, that was me, up and running - almost 12 years since I had last run.

    Along with my running coach, I complete a “make every kilometre count” programme of four runs per week alongside a busy cycle, swim and gym schedule. So far this year, I have raced a 10k with an unexpected personal best in January of 38:04. I have my first speed triathlon in late March before heading to North Korea to compete in the Pyongyang Marathon on 10 April.

    If my lifetime allows, I will attempt to race in every country in the world. In the meantime, I'll keep on running — and, when it hurts and I'm low on motivation, I'll remember how far I've come and how much further I've got to go.

    A unique experience awaits you at the Centre for Alternative Technology on the edge of the beautiful Snowdonia National Park.

    Over thirty years ago a group of people decided to try out alternative technologies. They chose a remote empty place, where rock used to be dug from the ground, as their base. Here experiments offering solutions to the world's energy problems were carried out, and nowadays many of these ideas have become common practice. You can experience all these for yourself in just one day with us, and then take away what you have learned and put it into practice at home. Be assured it will help you save on your household energy costs!

    Your visit to us begins with a ride up a steep 60-metre hillside on a railway which is worked by using the weight of water. At the top of the mountain you will enjoy beautiful views to the distant coastline. Then interactive displays show the power of wind, water and sun, while showing you what can be done in an ordinary household to reduce your influence on the planet.

    There was no soil when the project was started, so we created our organic gardens using our own home-made soil. You can enjoy woodland walks or even notice spring flowers growing on the roofs of environmentally-friendly buildings.

    In 2006 we opened our new eco-adventure playground for children, and we also run workshops where they can make models and become inventors of the future by putting wind, water or solar power into their own designs.

    The Centre for Alternative Technology is open all year round and has good rail, road and cycle links. In fact we offer a 50% reduction on the admission price if you arrive by bicycle. There is wheelchair access for disabled visitors—telephone us in advance if you would like assistance.

    Christa Marie Eastburn has added a new name to the list of people she sends Father's Day cards to—a father she grew up never knowing. In North Kansas City, the 57-year-old woman thought her father died 54 years ago, but this summer she learned he is alive. "I have a real father to send a card to this time, "she told the newspaper last week. “But I still don't have everything that goes with it—like the memories.” Her parents, Karl Beinfohr and Ingeborg Mueller, got married in Germany in the 1940s when World War II was on and a year later Marie was born—a daughter who grew up thinking her father, a German soldier, died in the war.

    This year, Eastburn found and got in touch with relatives in Germany, hoping they could tell her about her father. One day, a letter arrived in her mailbox.

    "All these years of quietness, "Beinfohr wrote, "I don't know what you have lived through. The news that she had a father who lived an ocean away brought tears to Eastburn's eyes.

    Eastburn and her father began writing to each other. In his letters, Beinfohr tried to explain the years lost. Finally, last month, Eastburn went to Germany to meet her father. They looked through old photos. Beinfohr showed his daughter one of her old toys he had kept.

    Clothes can make phone calls, play music, dial your pal's number, keep you warm during cold weather and operate your computer?

    This is not a fantasy. A British company, called Electrotextiles, has created a wide range of clothes—clothes that have minds of their own! Scientists, working for the company, have invented a kind of cloth that can be mixed with flexible (有弹性的) electronic materials to create intelligent clothing. The results are electronic garments (衣服).

    If you think the wearer has to be wired to different devices, think again. These designer clothes are wire-free, soft to touch and washable! Like any electronic device, these high-tech clothes have to be powered. Currently, a tiny nine-volt battery serves the purpose. But the researchers hope that in the near future the clothes will produce electricity by using body heat. These clothes are 100 percent shock proof, they say.

    The Electrotextiles team has also created the world's first cloth keyboard. This keyboard can be sewn into your trousers or skirt. To use this device, you will have to sit down and tap on your lap! These 'lap-tap' gadgets (器具), are all set to take over laptop computers!

    Another useful garment is the shirt-cum-mobile phone. This handy invention enables drivers to chat comfortably with others at the wheel! Other popular electronic wear include the denim (牛仔布) jacket with flexible earphones sewn into the hood and the electronic ski jacket with a built-in heater. The ski jacket is also programmed to send signals to a satellite. This technology is known as global positioning system and can be used to track lost skiers and wandering kids.

    Having completed the cloth keyboard, scientists have already started to work on a new project—a necktie that can be used as a computer mouse. What is the next? Do you have any idea?

    "I really wrote it for me. It was what I found funny and what I liked". Those are the words of J K Rowling, author of the enormously popular "Harry Potter" books. The quote refers to the first in a series of novels featuring a young character who has carved out a permanent place for his creator in the world of children's literature.

    Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in England in 1965, and wrote her first story at the age of six. She was in her mid-20s when the idea for the Harry Potter novels came to her, during a long train ride. By the end of that journey, she says, the character of Harry and the school for wizards which he attends were more or less fully formed in her mind.

    It would be several years, however, before the novel was completed. By that time, Rowling had been through a failed marriage. Living on welfare as a single parent, she wrote about Harry Potter while sitting in an Edinburgh café with her daughter asleep beside her. She could not have dreamed of the fame and success which Harry would bring her in the years to come.

    Harry Potter is not your average superhero. He is 12 years old, skinny, wears glasses, and tends to worry a lot. Yet, he has captured the imagination of children and adults the world over, and has introduced millions to the joys of reading.

    Harry's appeal stems from his role as a very ordinary boy who finds himself in extraordinary situations. Orphaned as a baby, Harry spends the next 10 years being mistreated by the awful relatives with whom he lives. On his 11th birthday, he learns that he possesses magical powers and is admitted for training at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    The adventures of Harry and his friends at the school are superbly narrated by J. K. Rowling. She manages to lead her millions of readers deep into the world of the supernatural, while at the same time dealing with the fears and emotions of the ordinary human world. Many feel that this is the real magic of Harry Potter.