The first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The people who planned the fair were looking for an attraction that would bring people to Chicago. The Eiffel Tower had been a great success for the fair in Pairs in 1889, and they wanted something like that.

    George Ferris handed in drawings of a giant wheel that people could ride on. At first everyone laughed at his strange idea. But Mr. Ferris didn't give up, and finally the idea was accepted. The ride opened in June of 1893.

    That first wheel had thirty six enclosed cars, each holding sixty passengers. When filled it carried 2,160 people. During that summer in Chicago one and a half million people rode the Ferris wheel, which was named after Ferris. Six platforms were used to pick up and drop off passengers. Each ride was two full turns of the wheel. On the first turn, it made six stops for loading. Then the second turn was a nonstop nine-minute ride. Each car had five large glass windows in front and in back, giving everyone a great view of Chicago and Lake Michigan.

    After the fair the ride was moved to a nearby amusement park built especially to show off the wheel. In 1904 it was moved again—this time to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. After the fair in St. Louis closed, the wheel stood unused. In 1906 it was finally sold to a company for scrap(废弃材料）metal. It took 200 pounds of dynamite to bring it down.

    Fortunately a Chicago bridge builder, W. E. Sullivan, figured out how to make a smaller Ferris wheel that could easily be taken apart and put together. In 1906 he started the company that still makes many of the Ferris wheels used today.

    But whenever you ride one remember that it all began with George Ferris' very strange idea.

    Antiquities are ancient objects and artworks. Museums acquire works to display from many different sources. Sometimes they purchase them. Other times they receive donations. Today there are strict rules forbidding art that has been stolen from other countries. However, antiquities that have been at museums for decades or even centuries may have arrived there by questionable means. Now, some countries claim that museums have a responsibility to return these antiquities to their original locations.

    There are many examples of this debate. Perhaps the most famous is the argument between Greece and the UK over the Elgin marbles. In the early 19th century, the Earl (伯爵) of Elgin had numerous sculptures taken from Greece to the UK. When Elgin did this, Greece was still a part of the Ottoman Empire. He claimed that he had received a permit to export the sculptures. Today the marbles are on display in the British Museum^ However, Greece wants them to be returned to their original location.

    Should museums return these antiquities? Experts disagree. Malcolm Bell III says yes. Bell is a retired professor of art at the University of Virginia. He says, “Many antiquities and artworks have special cultural value for a particular community or nation. When these works are removed from their original cultural setting they lose their context and the culture loses a part of its history.”

    According to Bell, a country's request for the return of an antiquity “usually has a strong legal basis.” It “was exported illegally, and is now stolen property.” He called the return of antiquities “an expression of justice.”

    James Cuno says not always. Cuno is president of an art museum in Los Angeles. He is also the author of the book Who Owns Antiquity?. Cuno agrees that museums have “a social and legal responsibility” to return illegally exported antiquities. However, he doesn't support the return of legally acquired works.

    “An area of land held today by a given nation-state in the past likely belonged to a different political entity (实体). Even if one wanted to reunite scattered works of art, where would one do so? Which among the many countries, cities, and museums in possession of parts of a work of art should be the chosen 'home' of the reunited work?” Cuno believes that museums should collect art from the world's diverse cultures. This should be done “through purchase or long-term loan and working in cooperation with museums and nations around the world.”

    This debate is far from over. As a complex question with no easy answer, the issue requires more study.

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is mostly a desert. However, this has not stopped the country from creating great building projects. On September 26, UAE officials announced another ambitious project — Mars Science City. Expansive deserts and miles of coastline provide plenty of options for safe rocket launches (发射). And its position on the Earth makes it especially appealing as the spin of the Earth provides an extra push, meaning less fuel is needed to get payloads into orbit. All these seem to make it possible.

    The Mars City Project, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, will provide a realistic model to simulate (模仿) living on the surface of Mars, the red planet. It is part of the UAE's Mars 2117 Project to lead the global race to land humans on Mars and be the first to build a settlement there. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, says, “The UAE seeks international support to develop technologies that benefit humans, and lay the foundation of a better future for more generations to come.”

    Built outside Dubai, the 1.9 million square feet city is expected to cost $135 million. It will consist of several dome-shaped laboratories, similar to the ones imagined for the first Mars settlers. Scientists from around the word will be invited to conduct research to come up with methods to create food, water and energy, using techniques which can be copied onto the red planet. The living spaces, where the researchers can live for up to a year, will simulate the planet's conditions as much as possible.

    The research city will also include a museum featuring famous space achievements to help educate and inspire children to undertake space exploration and discovery. To discover whether the construction method works on Mars, the museum's walls will be 3D printed using the sand from the nearby desert. Now, if they would only add some living quarters for the general public to experience life on Mars without leaving Earth, life would be perfect.

    A dog found swimming more than 220 kilometers off the coast of Thailand has been returned safely to land.

    Late last week, workers on an oil rig (钻井平台) noticed the animal, all alone, in the water. It began swimming toward the side of the rig. The dog was able to get itself onto a solid area.

    He appeared cold, tired and fearful. The workers lowered a rope and secured it around the dog. Then, they worked together to pull the animal up to safety.

    The crew that found the dog quickly gave their new friend a name: Boonrod. The name means something similar to one who survives in a disaster in the Thai language.

    One of those workers was Vitisak Payalaw. He has been providing updates on Boonrod on his Facebook page. He said it was lucky that the crew noticed the dog in the water. If there had been waves, he said, the animal would not have been seen.

    No one knows how Boonrod ended up all alone at sea, or how long he had been out there. But Vitisak and others have guessed the animal might have fallen off a fishing boat.

    On Monday, Boonrod arrived on dry land. A team of animal doctors was waiting for him in the southern Thai province of Songkhla. Workers at the Songkhla port also welcomed the dog with neck rubs and a special welcome necklace made of yellow flowers. Many people took pictures with Boonrod.

    Vitisak wrote on Facebook, Today (April 15), a ship transporting the dog arrived onshore at around 10.am. His overall condition has improved. He is getting stronger and can smile.

    The dog is now in the care of an animal doctor in Songkhla. The animal protection group Watchdog Thailand said he is in good condition and getting stronger. On Tuesday, the group published pictures of Boonrod getting washed—and getting plenty of love and attention.

    Vitisak says that if no one claims Boonrod as their pet, he will take him with him to his home in northeast Thailand.

Sonya took Rupert, a rescue dog, back home three years ago, and soon found it liked attacking strangers and other animals, which she believed was caused by pain.

It took Sonya a year to develop a normal relationship with Rupert, during which she learned it was afraid of being left alone and also couldn't walk properly. Finally, she decided to take it to see a vet (兽医). After examining Rupert, the vet said its leg was broken, and it needed an immediate operation.

But when it had to go in for an operation on its leg, there was a problem—the vet Mike couldn't get near the dog. Mike and Sonya were left scratching their heads until one of them came up with an idea. Sonya said Rupert slept on a mouse suit so she suggested that Mike put it on.

At first, the dog barked wildly when Mike tried to operate on it in usual clothes. To make his patient feel at ease, Mike decided to dress up in the mouse clothes to see if it would be less worried. Amazingly, it worked. It stopped barking and immediately became good friends with Mike when he put on the suit. As a result, he was able to perform an operation on the leg safely and the result was quite satisfying.

After the successful operation, Mike hugged the dog around the neck, which isn't usually well-received by pets. Mike tried to be as respectful of its needs as possible and made time to give some attention. What Mike had done created a special experience or event in the dog's life.

Father's Day is celebrated today in 75 countries around the world. In my personal world, it's a day I like to think of my father's father.

I learned a lot in my later life from my dad. But I learned something else, as a kid not even yet in school, from my grandfather. I learned to be curious. Little things fathers and grandfathers do can change the life of a child forever. In my case, this change came from necessity：My mom needed someone to look after little Allen, barely 4 years old, during the school day. My grandmother volunteered, and my grandfather came up with a way I could be watched while he worked in his clockmaker's shop.

He seated me on a chair every day while I was there, right in front of his big workbench.  He told me stories. He had a great sense of humor and a funny way of making a "buh﹣buh﹣buh" sound when he sensed my attention was weakening, and he encouraged me to ask questions about anything he was doing.

Naturally, I was usually asking questions about clocks﹣what made the hands move, what the pendulum (钟摆) did, why you had to stop winding just before the weight hit the stop.  Sometimes I just asked about which shiny parts went where.

Most of all, he showed me how clocks worked. He treated me as if I were a sort of small grown﹣up. He never talked down to me, never told me I was "too young to understand".

And so my grandfather granted me two things: A love of clocks, and an everlasting curiosity.

As a journalist, I turned that fascination into explanations of why computers and software do what they do﹣﹣and, perhaps even more importantly, why they fail at that task. I haven't been afraid of opening up the innards and looking for what is wrong with the computer.