Getting paid to stay in bed all day sounds pretty good. But what if someone offered you $23,000 to stay in bed for two months? That's the deal that are search team is offering to 24 volunteers.

    Researchers are looking for volunteers to help them study the influences of weightlessness on the human body by spending 60 days lying down. Lying in bed isn't exactly the same as being weightless, but the influences on the human body are similar.

    When astronauts spend a long time in an environment with no gravity(重力), like the International Space Station (ISS),their bodies are affected in many ways. After a couple of months on the ISS, astronauts' hearts don't beat as hard. Their muscles（肌肉）become weaker because they no longer have to work against gravity. Their bones may break more easily. There may also be changes in the astronauts' sleep habits.

    Dr. Arnaud Beck, the researcher in charge of the study, said his goal is to measure the influences of weightlessness, and also to find ways to prevent problems. The study will take 88 days altogether. During the first two weeks the volunteers will be tested to establish(确定) their levels of fitness. Then they will spend 60 days lying in bed with their heads slightly lower than their bodies. They will have to do everything while lying down, including brushing their teeth and going to the bathroom. Dr. Beck said the rule is that they must have at least one shoulder touching the bed at all times. Half of the volunteers in the study will be taking capsules(胶囊) containing special food supplements（增补物）several times a day to see if they help reduce the health problems caused by weightlessness. The last two weeks of the study will be spent trying to let the volunteers recover. Volunteers must be men between the ages of 20 and 45 who are in perfect health. They must be non-smokers.

    The study will take place from September 1^st to November. The first two days are the time for volunteers to sign in.

    Schools across the world are trying to come up with solutions to keep students active. Some are replacing traditional classroom chairs with exercise balls or standing desks. At Ward Elementary School in Winston, North Carolina students have adopted a new program that requires riding fixed bikes while reading.

    'Read and Ride' is the creation of school counselor Scott Ertl, who came up with the idea while he was exercising and reading at the gym. Believing it would be a fun way to convince students to become more active, he placed one in the corner of his classroom and encouraged them to use it during independent reading classes.

    It was so popular that Ertl decided to add more bikes and offer the Read and Ride program to the entire school. Today Ward Elementary has a dedicated exercise room filled with bikes that can be used by students while completing their daily reading assignments.

    Besides making reading more fun, the program also helps students exercise at a comfortable pace without the pressure that comes with regular sports-related activities. It is also a perfect way to release energy during days when the weather is not helpful to outdoor activities.

    Most importantly, however, are the program's academic benefits. A year after Read and Ride was introduced at Ward Elementary School, students actively involved in the program demonstrated an astonishing 83% reading proficiency. Those that had not taken advantage of the exercise bikes tested at a much lower, 41%.

    Though the substantial improvement in academic achievement cannot all be attributed to programs like Read and Ride, experts believe they are a significant contributor. That's because studies have shown that physical activity stimulates（刺激） brain cells and helps prepare it for learning. As word of the difference made by this easy to execute exercise program spreads, don't be surprised to find schools across the country adopt “Read and Ride” for their students.

    When I was a very little child, I remember watching TV and seeing other children suffer in other parts of the world. I would talk to myself, "when I grow up, when I can become rich, I'll save kids all over the world."

    At the age of 17, I began my career here in America, and by 18, I started my first charity organization. I went on to team up with other organizations in the following years, and met, helped, and even lost some of the most beautiful souls, from six-year-old Jasmina Anema who passed away in 2010 from leukemia (白血病)—her story inspired thousands to volunteer as donors, to 2012 when my grandmother lost her battle with cancer, which is the very reason and the driving force behind the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). We're all human. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education, a chance at a future, really. And at CLF, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one.

    People make it seem too hard to do charity work. The truth is, you don't have to be rich to help others. You don't need to be famous. You don't even have to be college-educated. But it starts with your neighbor, the person right next to you, the person sitting next to you in class, the kid down the block in your neighborhood. You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. And today, I want to challenge each of you to make a commitment to help one person, one organization, one situation that touches your heart. My grandmother always used to say, "If you've got a dollar, there's plenty to share."

    Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.

    Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.

    But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard patterns into which they report each day's events. In other words, there is a traditional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.

    There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard patterns" of the newsroom seem foreign to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.

    Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.

    Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite (精英), so their work tends to reflect the traditional values of this elite. The alarming distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily conflict of world views between reporters and their readers.

    This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums (讨论会) and a credibility project devoted to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class prejudices that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.

    The Notre Dame fire has been put out, but its spire and a large portion of its wooden roof have been damaged. The terrible destruction causes a sudden sharp pain to people around the world. On Chinese social media network Wechat a common comment on the disaster is: "What a pity that we cannot see the damaged parts of the wonder anymore."

    But the good news is that there is at least one way of seeing them, namely via a video game called Assassin's Creed: Unity. In this game, the player can travel to one city after another and enter the buildings exactly like what they are in reality, and see Notre Dame as it was before the fire. Further, with virtual reality technology, which is already quite mature, one can even look around the undamaged Notre Dame as if it is still there. Maybe digital technology could help to better protect architectural cultural heritage.

    The idea of digitizing ancient buildings, making digital models of them so their data can be saved, dates back to the 1990s and the necessary technology has continued to advance since then. By scanning the ancient buildings with lasers, building 3D models with multiple images, as well as measuring everything precisely, engineers can make a copy as accurate as the real one.

    As computers and smartphones are hugely popular, the digital replica（复制品）has great use value  First, it allows tourists to feel the cultural relics without touching them, which helps protect them. The virtual tour of Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province is a good example of this as tourists can view the paintings without standing near them. Furthermore, it can make the digitized cultural relics more famous by spreading awareness about them via the Internet. In 2000, a virtual tour of the Great Wall became very popular at the Hannover World Expo, which increased the number of foreign tourists visiting the site in the following years. Above all, it preserves all the information of the cultural relics. Even if the original ones are damaged one day, people can still know what they were like and can build a replica if desired.

    Of course, however precise a model is, it is not the original. Time is the biggest threat to a country's architectural heritage, which will always become ruins with the passing of time. Maybe we will have better technologies in the future, but the digital technology offers a practical way to preserve architectural cultural heritage at the moment.

Intuition Robotics, an Israeli company, has developed ElliQ, an artificial intelligence robot designed to help older Americans from loneliness. ElliQ offers companionship to seniors, engaging them in conversations, playing music, leading exercises, and providing reminders for health-related activities. The device resembles a small table lamp with a glowing, moveable head, creating an interactive experience that remembers the user's interests and tailors conversations accordingly.

Joyce Loaiza, 81, from Florida, is among the first users of ElliQ, who enjoys the device's company and the personalized nickname "Jellybean" given to her. Furthermore, in New York, ElliQ entertainment 92-year-old Marie Broadbent with games and music, while Washington state's Jan Worrell, 83, uses it to develop new friendships.

The AI assistant works privately, with conversations not heard by company employees and data stored only on the owner's device. According to Intuition Robotics CEO DorSkuler, users interact with ElliQ over 30 times daily, and over 90% report experiencing less loneliness. The project idea arose from personal experience when Skuler's grandfather needed a companion who shared his interests after losing his partner.

While ElliQ is primarily distributed through state agencies in New York, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington, it can also be purchased for an annual fee of $600,plus a setup cost of $250. The goal is to have more than 100,000 units in use within five years.

State officials emphasize that ElliQ is not meant to replace social interaction, but it provides a valuable service for those who may be home-bound or lack social connections. Despite concerns raised by Julianne Holt - Lunstad, a professor at Brigham Young University, regarding the potential of such devices to reduce social connections, agencies see EliiQ as a beneficial tool, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic increased social isolation among the elderly.