In France, a man walks on what can only be described as a human-sized hamster wheel. The wheel moves around and around, as the man keeps walking. What is he doing? He is lifting a heavy object to the top of a tower the same way workers moved such objects 800 years ago.

    In the 13th century, workers did not have the 100-meter tall cranes they now use to build tall buildings. So they had to be creative and come up with simple machines to get their work done.

    The man on the large wheel is walking at a reasonable speed. The wheel turns and pulls a rope connected to a pulley(滑轮)at the top of the tower. Another rope tied to the pulley lifts supplies from the ground.

    This is just one way skilled craftsmen arc building a 13th-century castle without using modern tools. Crew have been working on the castle since 1997. It is being built in the Burgundy area of central France. Organizers expect the work to last another 10 to 15 years. That means it will take close to 30 years to finish the project.

    The crew are making progress at about half the speed of the workers from 800 years ago. That is because many of them are accustomed to using modern tools. When the crew use heavy chisels(凿子）and hammers to break rock, as they did hundreds of years ago, they are learning as they go. The goal of the project is to learn more about old building techniques in case they might be of use today.

    Clement Guerard, 44,is a stonemason; he cuts and builds with stone. He has been working on the tower for 17 years. He said one way he is able to work on something like this for so long is by forgetting “some of the pace of modern life", he is able to adapt to working by hand.

    Don't you just hate it when you have to take an important phone call and you're surrounded by potential eavesdroppers(潜在偷听者)? You either have to whisper or go outside to keep the conversation private, which is not good. Now Hushme aims to fix this problem by muffling your voice and making you look like Bane in the film Batman.

    Hushme is a strange high-tech mask(口罩)that blocks the sound of the wearer's voice so that people nearby can't hear what is being said. It connects to your phone via Blucetooth and comes with a pair of earphones. When you get a private call, all you have to do is put the mask on and it will do the rest. The pair of thick pads over your mouth does a good job of muffling your voice, but to ensure nothing gets through. Hushme also has speakers that play a variety of sounds when you speak.

    The Hushme mask, which comes in a variety of colors, can be worn around the neck, like a regular pair of earphones, and attaches in front of your mouth thanks to a couple of very powerful magnets(磁铁). It's not yet clear how comfortable speaking with this Bane-like mask over your mouth really is, or how effective its speech muffling ability is, so we know so far is that it makes you look strange. The sound choices for covering your voice currently include wind, ocean, rain, birds, monkey, but new ones could be added in the future.

    Advertised as the “world's first voice mask for mobile phones'. Hushme was showed at CES. At the becoming of this year. Its makers plan to sell it by the end of this year. It will cost about $200.

    The UK government has announced plans to tackle sources of air pollution, including popular wood-burning stoves, but its Clean Air Strategy, which was unveiled last week, fails to address the real problem.

    Although pollution from woodburning stoves is a relatively new problem for the UK, it has long been a major one in countries such as Canada and New Zealand. And the take-home message from them as to controlling the release of harmful particulates in the air is simple: ban wood burning.

    "There does not seem to be a limit below which there is no impact on health," says Gary Fuller at King's College London, whose team has shown that wood burning is now the source of a third of particulate pollution in UK cities.

    As New Scientist reported last year, families with wood burners are likely to be exposed to the highest levels of pollution and their neighbours are next in the firing line, given that the particulates produced can easily escape from homes. Despite this, the UK government isn't planning a ban. Instead, it wants "to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels", such as wet wood. What's more, lots of people with wood burners don't buy wood from shops. Instead, they scrounge it from wherever they can, with building waste one popular source. This is a disaster in pollution terms as treated or painted wood can release highly toxic chemicals when burned. The plan is also to "ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022". But even the cleanest stove produces eight times as much pollution as a diesel truck, says Fuller.

    Some cities actually required old wood stoves to be replaced with cleaner new ones. That has helped, but wood burning remains a major source of pollution, says Fuller. In most cases, conventional gas central heating plus properly insulating (使隔热) your home is less harmful in global-warming terms than switching to a wood burner.

    Finally, there are separate but related EU laws that set limits on the maximum allowable concentrations of specific pollutants in the air at individual locations. The UK frequently breaches these: London's Oxford Street often hits its annual limit within the first weeks of each year. As a result, the UK government has lost a series of court cases brought by the environmental organization ClientEarth. Separately, on 17 May, the UK and five other countries were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for their repeated failures to keep to these limits. If the government really wants to clean up the UK's air, it has a lot more work to do.

    The biggest challenge faced by travelers, especially those who like to have a backpacking trip is how to ensure a steady supply of clean clothes. Now, thanks to a great invention called Scrubba Wash Pack, that worry may be a thing of the past.

    The portable washing machine was invented by Ash Newland in 2010, while he was planning to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Struck by the limited packing space, he got inspiration from traditional washboards to create a bag that could be used to clean clothes. Then he quitted his career as a lawyer and focused on perfecting the bag's design. By 2012, the bag was ready for the public. It weighed only 180 grams and required very little storage space, making it perfect for anymore wishing to travel light.

    Not surprisingly, the bag which was worth 55 dollars was an instant hit with travelers, university students and even passengers. However, Newland was not satisfied. He still saw a disadvantage with his invention—dirty clothes had to be carried around in a separate bag! The recently introduced Scrubba Wash Pack solves that problem.

    In order to make the pack active, dirty clothes are placed inside the bag along with two or three liters of water. The bag is then shut tightly to ensure all air is squeezed out and the colors are massaged for a few minutes. After a quick wash, they are clean and ready to be dried. According to Newland, the pack can clean anything from jeans to smelly socks! What's even more amazing is that with a capacity to hold 13 liters of water, it can be used to wash more clothes at a time.

    The best part is that the 99-dollar pack that will be available for sale later this year, only weighs 300 grams and is completely foldable, making it easy to store when it's not in use. With the Scrubba Wash Pack, wandering through foreign cities searching for a washing shop, or paying for washing machines may soon be a thing of the past!

    Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world, in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertisers, hoping to sell their products.

    'The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people's lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.

    It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.