It started as a special day for Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker in New York City. It was about 12:45 P.M., and he was waiting on a subway platform (月台) to take his daughters home before he went to work. He suddenly noticed a man nearby have convulsions (抽搐) and fall down suddenly. Mr. Autrey and two women went to help the stranger. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, managed to get to his feet, but then stumbled (绊倒) at the edge of the platform and fell onto the subway tracks. Mr. Autrey looked up and saw the lights of the subway train coming near through the tunnel.

    Mr. Autrey jumped onto the track immediately. He realized that he didn't have time to get Mr. Hollopeter and himself back up on the platform before the train arrived, so he lay on top of the man and pressed down as hard as he could. Although the driver tried to stop the train before it reached them, he couldn't. Five cars passed over them before the train finally stopped. The cars had passed only inches from his head.

    New York loves a hero. Mr. Autrey became an overnight hero and was named the “Subway Superman”. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave him the Bronze Medallion, the city's highest honor. He was asked to appear on several TV talk shows. He was also rewarded with money and gifts, such as $10,000 from Donald Trump, a $5,000 gift card from the Gap clothing store, a new Jeep, and Beyonce concert tickets.

    How did Autrey react (反应) to all this? He said, “I don't feel like I did anything great; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right”.

    Social media is our new travel agent, and it's changing the places we go. In some cases, the places we go. In some cases, the newfound fame brought about by social media platforms has helped to boost local economies and bring tourists to places they might never have discovered otherwise. In other cases, it's creating problems for countries and cities that are simply not equipped to deal with the influx(涌入) of tourists. Check out two of the incredible locations around the world that have gone viral on social media.

    Iceland

    This northern island nation has seen a dramatic surge(激增) in visitors over the past few years. One reason for that is the so-called "Game of Thrones effect,". This, combined with the availability of cheap flights and some very effective marketing campaigns, has made Iceland a popular travel destination. The number of tourists almost doubled from 566,000 to over 1 million between 2011 and 2015, according to Iceland's tourism board.

    While this influx of visitors has brought a much-needed boost to the economy post-recession(经济衰退), it's also pushed up prices for residents and put pressure on the infrastructure. Locals complain of tourists destroying the fragile ecosystem and leaving a mess behind them as they trample over the formerly untouched natural sites.

    Cuba

    According to Cuba's ministry of tourism, four million visitors went to Cuba in 2016, an increase of 13 percent from the year before. The tourism boom has had some consequences for the country's residents, The New York Times reported in December 2016.

    The surge in visitors has led to a food shortage, and basic food items have become completely unaffordable for locals. Local hotels and restaurants are buying up supplies in bulk for guests, pushing up prices and leaving limited amounts for locals.

    The situation has been acknowledged by the Cuban government, who put caps on prices to make them more affordable for residents. This has only encouraged sellers to put products on the black market, according to The New York Times.

    Many little girls like flowers, watching butterflies and riding small horses. A lot of them also like cars, robots and spaceships. But most girls' clothing only has pictures of flowers, butterflies or horses.

    Two mothers decided to make clothes that include all the things that little girls do and love.

    Six-year-old Bella loves to play with cars. So her dress has pictures of cars on it.

    “We haven't found this type of dress in the store,” Cathy, Bella's mother, says.

    The car dress is from a new girl's clothing line called Princess Awesome. Rebecca Melsky set up the business. She says its products (产品) for girls have some designs normally found on boys' clothes.

    It all started two years ago when Rebecca was hoping to buy clothing for her two-year-old, who liked robots, trucks and spaceships.

    “One day when I walked through a girls' store. I thought to myself I wish they'd make one of those beautiful dresses that also have a robot on it because she will love that. And I thought someone should do that. Maybe I should do that.” Rebecca said.

    Her friend Eva St. Clair believed she should, and their business was born. The women sold the first 70 dresses they made at a market. So they decided to expand(扩展）their business online. Their products sold very well there, too.

    “They sold out so fast that I could not make them fast enough. We decided it was time to think about a factory,” Rebecca said.

    So they started to raise money from people over the Internet. The women raised more than $215,000 within days, far more than the $35,000 they expected.

    “Our biggest challenge (挑战) is going to be how we expand as rapidly as people seem to want us to,” Rebecca said.

    The women hope Princess Awesome will expand into products for girls of all ages and all interests.

    If you use social media to chase away loneliness, a new study suggests you're going against the grain.

    We may have heard a lot about the benefits of interacting with others online, but the findings of a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists show a direct relationship between social media usage and feelings of isolation (隔绝). In short, the more time you spend on social media, the lonelier you may feel.

    With increased interaction on a large number of apps that allow for endless virtual connectivity, loneliness seems like the last problem frequent social media users would face, but according to the leader of the study Brain Primack, it has the exact opposite effect.

    "Mental health problems and social isolation are at widespread levels among young adults nowadays," Primack said, "We are naturally social creature, but modem life tends to separate us instead of bringing us together. While it may seem that social media presents opportunities to fill the social void (空隙), I think this study suggests that it may not be the solution people were hoping for."

    Primack and his team examined the social media habits of 1,787 U.S. adults aged 19 to 32 via a questionnaire that asked about the time and frequency they spent on the most popular social media platforms. Eventually, they determined that young adults who are constantly logging into social media reported more feelings of isolation than those with less social media usage. Frequent exposure to unrealistic descriptions on social media instead of face-to-face social interactions may give people the impression that others are living happier, more connected lives, and this may users feel more socially isolated in comparison.

    About one million adults in the USA need someone to help them eat. Researchers at the University of Washington are working on a robotic system that can help make it easier. After identifying different food on a plate, the robot can decide how to use a fork to pick up and deliver the desired bite to a person s mouth.

    "Being dependent on a caregiver to feed every bite every day takes away a person's sense of independence," said the researcher. "Our goal with this project is to give people a bit more control over their lives the idea was to develop a feeding system that would be attached to wheelchairs and feed people whatever they wanted to eat.

    "When we started the project, we realized there are so many ways that people can eat a piece of food depending on its size, shape or consistency(坚实度)," said the researcher, "So we set up an experiment to see how humans eat common foods. "

    The researchers arranged plates with about a dozen different kinds of food, ranging in consistency from hard carrots to soft bananas. Then the team gave volunteers a fork and asked them to pick up different pieces of food and feed them to a model. The fork contained a sensor to measure how much force people used when they picked up food.

    To design a feeding strategy that changes based on the food item, the researchers combined two different algorithms (算法). First they used an object-detection algorithm called Retina Net, which scans the plate, identifies the types of food on it and places a frame around each item. Then they developed SPNet, an algorithm that examines the type of food in a specific frame and tells the robot the best way to pick up the food.

    The team is currently working with the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology to get advice from caregivers and patients on how to improve the system to meet people's need.

    I was in Walt Disney World with my son, Daniel, who is autistic (患自闭症的), and at that time he was 7 years old. My wife and our three other sons were with us too. He was having one of his melt down screaming tantrums (发怒), only God knows why. So my wife and I decided I would take the bus back to the hotel, and she would stay in the park with the other three children.

After we got on the bus, the screaming continued. My son looks "normal". To the many people on the bus, he appeared to just be a kid screaming — or a spoiled child who did not get his special toy that day. It did not take long — less than a minute — before the screaming brought about stares, then glares from the other passengers.

    To my shame, I found myself losing my temper at my own son. I was embarrassed, angry, and frustrated, and felt cheated by God for not being able to enjoy a normal vacation with my family because of him. I started to wonder what life would be like without having to deal with this cross (痛苦).

    And just as the reactions of the other passengers were becoming most intense, a man seated just in front of me turned around to face me. I cheered myself up for his advice on how to raise a well-behaved child.

    He said calmly, "Is he alright?" I said, "He's autistic." Then the man said, "It's alright." And he smiled. That's all.

    And suddenly, all the anger building up inside me was gone. I almost wept for shame at how I had felt a moment before. It no longer mattered what the other people thought. My son was my gift from God.

    I will never forget that man, nor his small, simple act of kindness and understanding. I truly believe he was my son's guardian angel that day maybe mine too.