Researchers around the world have been trying their hand at making better use of the huge amount of wind energy available in nature to produce clean energy. Apart from this, studies are being carried out to harness(利用) usable windenergy produced by man-made technologies.

    One useful source identified by Indian inventor Santosh Pradhan about two years ago is a speeding train, which produces fierce wind that can betrans formed into electricity.

    According to Pradhan's proposal, with a few small improvements in existing trains running in Mumbai, the largest city in India, at least 10,000 megawatts(兆瓦) of electricity could be harvested each day.

    Building on this principle, designers Ale Leonetti Luparinia and Qian Jiang from Yanko Design have created a device(装置) called T-Box that harnesses wind energy from speeding trains.

    T-Box can be placed within the railway tracks. It is half-buried underground between the concrete sleepers(水泥枕木), which does not disturb the normal train operating at all. According to Yanko, around 150T-Boxes can be fitted along a 1,000-meter railway track.

    A train running at a speed of 200 kph can produce winds blowing at 15 miles a second. Based on this calculation, 150 T-Boxes can produce 2.6 KWH of electricity per day. The T-Box's design won a silver medal in last year's Lite-On Awards and was exhibited last summer at the Xue Xue Institute inTaipei, Taiwan Province.

    Though the figures look impressive, it is important to remember that the design is still at a conceptual stage and hasn't taken into account issues such as pieces of waste material produced by the device and the efforts and costs involved in the maintenance(维护) of the device.

    We can expect the technology to see the light of the day only after it clears these issues. If so, rail travel, one of the greenest forms of travel, will become greener and more energy-efficient.

The Brown Bear

    My wife Laura and I were on the beach, with three of our children, taking pictures of shore birds near our home in Alaska when we spotted a bear. The bear was thin and small, moving aimlessly.

Just a few minutes later, I heard my daughter shouting, “Dad! The bear is right behind us!” An aggressive bear will usually rush forward to frighten away its enemy but would suddenly stop at the last minute. This one was silent and its ears pinned back— the sign (迹象) of an animal that is going in for the kill. And it was a cold April day. The bear behaved abnormally, probably because of hunger.

    I held my camera tripod (三脚架) in both hands to form a barrier as the bear rushed into me. Its huge head was level with my chest and shoulders, and the tripod stuck across its mouth. It bit down and I found myself supporting its weight. I knew I would not be able to hold it for long.

    Even so, this was a fight I had to win: I was all that stood between the bear and my family, who would stand little chance of running faster than a brown bear.

    The bear hit at the camera, cutting it off the tripod. I raised my left arm to protect my face; the beast held tightly on the tripod and pressed it into my side. My arm could not move, and I sensed that my bones were going to break.

Drawing back my free hand, I struck the bear as hard as I could for five to six times. The bear opened its mouth and I grasped its fur, trying to push it away. I was actually wrestling (扭打) with the bear at this point. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the fight ended. The bear moved back toward the forest, before returning for another attack—- The first time I felf panic.

    Apparently satisfied that we caused no further threat, the bear moved off, destroying a fence as it went. My arm was injured, but the outcome for us could hardly have been better. I'm proud that my family reminded clear-headed when panic could have led to a very different outcome.

    Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn't in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren: correcting our grammar; starting us on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks; or inspiring a discussion on her most recent “Book of the Month Club” topic. Mom made learning fun.

    It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her illness in her later years. At eighty-five, she suffered a stroke(中风) and she went steadily(不断地) downhill after that.

    Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her limp body back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly. Several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.

    “Whirr,” she said weakly.

    “Where?” I asked. “Mom, is there something you want?” “Whirr,” she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.

    Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could gather said, “Not was, say were!”

    It suddenly occurred to us that Mom was correcting brother Jim's last sentence. “If it was up to me…”

    Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads…this time in awe (敬畏) of a remarkable teacher.

    Sweet or salty? What kind of tastes do you like? If like me, you have a sweet tooth and you probably can't resist eating cakes, biscuits or chocolate and will sweeten your tea or coffee with spoonfuls of sugar-delicious! But the taste makes it very easy to ignore the warnings that too much of the white stuff（东西）is bad for our health.

    Consuming sugar is an addiction-the more we eat, the more we want. Today's processed food, like ready meals, is related to the stuff and many fizzy（起泡的）drinks contain seven teaspoons of sugar in just one can. In the UK, statistics show that sugar consumption is at its highest level in history and the government is trying to get the food industry to cut the amount of sugar in popular products like chocolate bars by 20% by 2020.

    Of course, sugary food tastes nice, it can help lift our mood, and a part in it can refresh us. But there are dangers too :a high-sugar diet is linked to putting on weight, and being overweight can increase the risk of getting type 2 diabetes（糖尿病）. With these warning signs, I have considered changing my diet by replacing sugary snacks with fruit and salty biscuits-but that's boring!

I'm not alone. BBC journalist Radhika Shanghani, has gone one step further. Encouraged by some well-knowns and nutritionists promoting a 'zero tolerance' approach to sugar, she gave it up altogether, thinking it would make her healthier. Initially she says, “My first fortnight involves mood swings. I have disturbing headaches and feel permanently hung-over.” These symptoms disappeared but she still found food shopping hard as she was stressing about buying the right things.

    Her experiment wasn't a success. She eventually sought advice from Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at Oxford University who said: “Lots of people enjoy sugar and gain pleasure from it, so one has to find a balance between enjoyment and eating the right amount.”

    When life takes you away from home, take technology to help guide and entertain you. APPs can help make your trip easier and more fun.

    Trip It

    Trip It is a helpful APP to organize travel plans. Sign up for a free account at the Trip It website and download the APP to have all of your travel plans handy in one place.

    Google Translate

    When traveling outside your home country, you may need some language assistance. Google Translate is an APP that can help you understand a language other than your native tongue. The Google Translate APP translates between 103 different languages. Copy and paste text into the APP to see a translation. You can also handwrite text onto the screen.

    Fotor

    The Fotor APP lets you edit your photos and add filers for special effects. The APP has been updated recently with new editing features so users can edit their photos more easily. Fotor has added a slider to give users greater control of the edits. Editing effets can be saved as favorites to use them easily later.

   Offline APPs

    Traveling often means you are offline and away from the Internet. When camping in the wild, flying on a plane, sailing on a boat or riding in the car, you may not have an Internet connection. If you are traveling outside your home country and away from Wi-Fi, you should use Offline APPs to avoid large bills for using international data.

    Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family. Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, "Mum, I can't peel (去皮)potatoes. I have only one hand. "

    Mum never looked up from sewing. "You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes," she told me. "And don't ever use that as an excuse for anything again!"

    In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel rod to the next. When it was my turn, I shook my head. Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying.

    That night I told Mum about it. She hugged me, and I saw her determined look. The next afternoon, she took me back to school. At the deserted playground, Mum looked carefully at the bars.

    "Now, pull up with your right arm," she advised. She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could get the bar with my other elbow (月寸）.Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung (梯级）I reached.

    I'll never forget the next time, crossing the rungs； I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open.

    One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed crying. I could hear Mum came into my room. "Mum," I said, weeping, "None of the boys would dance with me."

    For a long time, I didn't hear anything. Then she said, "Oh, honey, someday you'll be beating those boys off with a bat." Her voice was slight and cracking. I looked out from my covers to see tears running down her cheeks.

    Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf. She had never let me see her tears.