Jayson McCarthy, 12, was born without fingers on his left hand. That didn't stop him from being able to do many tasks. But Jayson could not grasp more than one object at a time. So Jayson 's father, Paul, created a Prosthesis(假肢), using a 3D printer. Now Jayson has fingers that open and close. “It was a do－it－yourself, father－and－son adventure，” says Paul.

    When Jayson was a baby, his doctor advised his parents not to give him a prosthetic hand until he was in his early teens. “The doctor said Jayson should first learn to get full use out of the hand he was born with，” says Paul. As Jayson got older, his father looked into purchasing a prosthetic hand, which can cost as much as $30，000. Paul found a more affordable solution.

    One day, Paul discovered a video on the Internet about Robohand, a prosthesis created with a 3D printer. He downloaded the free instructions and called Robohand's creators for advice. They told him all he needed was a 3D printer—which costs around $2，000—and some materials.

    Luckily, Jayson 's school had recently purchased a 3D printer and it offered to help Paul build the hand for Jayson n. “We used a soccer shinguard(护胫), cardboard(硬纸板), and tape. They cost about $10，” says paul.

    With his new hand, Jayson can do things better. “I can help my mom more, because now I can carry two grocery bags，” he says.

    Jayson 's father has already built several hands for Jayson. Jayson helps design each one. He says there's one thing in particular that he wants to do with a future prosthesis. “The goal，” he says, “is to be able to tie my shoelaces(鞋带)．”

    The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.

    Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true.

    Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.

    Air pollution is still the most serious. It's bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.

    Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO2 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.

    The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.

Do's and Don'ts in Whale (鲸) Watching

    The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has developed guidelines for whale watching in Johnstone Strait, where killer whales are found on a daily basis each summer. It is strongly recommended that vessel (船只) operators follow these guidelines for all kinds of whales.

•Approach whales from the side, not from the front or the back.

•Approach no closer than 100 metres, then stop the boat but keep the engine on.

•Keep noise levels down — no horns, whistles or racing of engines.

•Start your boat only after the whales are more than 100 metres from your vessel

•Leave the area slowly, gradually moving faster when you are more than 300 metres from the whales.

•Approach and leave slowly, avoiding sudden changes in speed or direction.

•Avoid disturbing groups of resting whales.

•Keep at low speeds and remain in the same direction if traveling side by side with whales.

•When whales are traveling close to shore, avoid crowding them near the shore or coming between the whales and the shore.

•Limit the time spent with any group of whales to less than 30 minutes at a time when within 100 to 200 metres of whales.

•If there is more than one vessel at the same observation spot, be sure to avoid any boat position that would result in surrounding the whales.

•Work together by communicating with other vessels, and make sure that all operators are aware of the whale watching guidelines.

    "Mom, what is that?" asked my son. "The Bride of Chucky?"

    The old doll I was holding was pretty scary. Her glass eyes were especially horrible, closing when she stood upright and flying open when she lay flat. Once she had been loved, but she had been stored in an attic (阁楼) for decades, where the extremes of heat and cold can be hard on a girl's looks. Throw her in the waste bin? Maybe. But first, let's check eBay.

    I clicked, supplied the required information about condition, including defects (i.e., "Only a miracle could save this doll"), and uploaded its photos. I sold it for $5.

    The buyer was happy: "As described!" he wrote on my feedback page. "Super seller!" The doll found a home and, I hope, a new life. Maybe she was used to repair other dolls. Perhaps those strange eyes got fixed and once again can inspire a child's love. It's a win-win, if you ask me.

    I also sold lots of other stuff. None of them brought in a lot of money, though I have been surprised at the occasional bidding war, like, for example, the one over an old swimsuit that would have made Brigitte Bardot look bad. And some customers, let's face it, are strange. Recently I had a hard time convincing an Australian would-be buyer of an Irish souvenir bell that I don't shop internationally; it's just too much trouble. He could have flown to Ireland and bought his own bell for the price he was willing to pay. Another time, a buyer complained that the electric wire on an old radio was dirty. Really? Dirty? The wire was black. But I aim to please, so I offered a refund.

    So why bother with the dealing and small profits? Because I don't like abandoning the past. All these treasures once had stories. They meant something. But the people who gave them that meaning are gone, and I simply cannot rescue everything. I can't even sew. So I find it satisfying that a new owner, discovered via eBay, will continue the story in his or her own way.

    Public Health England (PHE) is targeting pizzas, ready meals, ready meat and takeaways. The government has also required the food industry to start using healthier food and encourage the public to opt for lower calorie foods.

    It is all part of an effort to cut calorie (卡路里) intake by 20% by 2024. The target will point to 13 different food groups, which are equal to about a fifth of the calorie taken by children. If action is not taken, PHE said, it would be prepared to ask the government to pass laws.

    PHE would be strictly monitoring progress by looking at which products people were buying and would be prepared to punish companies which do not take their duties. The government is also organizing a program encouraging adults to consume (消耗) 400 calories at breakfast and 600 each at lunch and dinner.

    At present, adults consume between 200 and 300 calories more than they should each day. PHE chief nutritionist Dr Alison Redstone said the 400-600-600 tip would make it easier for "people to make healthier choices" by being able to judge what they should be eating in each sitting.

    How many calories should we eat? It is suggested that women eat no more than 2,000 calories a day, while men should limit their intake to 2,500. For children, it depends on age. A four-year-old should consume no more than 1,300, while for teens aged 17 and 18, it is about 3,000, but overweight children are eating up to 500 calories more than that.

    Prof Russell Viner, of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, said it was a necessary move. He said, "Over the past 40 years, there had been a slow growth in food sizes, with pizzas and hamburgers simply much bigger than they were in our parents' time." The convenience of fast food at pocket money prices and the advertisement of unhealthy food and drinks to children add to the problem.

    You're probably used to the regular upgrades in our cell-phone networks. There was 2G, which came along in 199l, replaced with 3G in 2001, followed by 4G in 2009. Now we're hearing about the coming of 5G.

    But 5G is a much bigger leap than before. 5G, of course, is much faster than 4G in the real world and a 5G phone in a 5G city will enjoy Internet speeds between 9 and 20 times as fast. The arrival of 5G also means enormous leaps forward in capacity－so much that every cell-phone plan will offer cheap, truly unlimited Internet access. "The consequences of that are huge," says Sherif Hanna, Qualcomm's director of 5G marketing. For example, apps will no longer degrade (降低) your video quality or postpone downloading when you're out of Wi-Fi range. In fact, you'll probably prefer to do your downloads when you're on cellular (使用流量) because 5G will be much faster than whatever service you've got at home or work.

    "However, not everyone is excited by the 5G development. The new standard gets its speed partly by using existing transmission(传输) frequencies more efficiently and partly by using the millimeter wave range. That's a big, juicy line of radio frequencies that are currently underused because millimeter wave is really hard to use," Hanna says.

    These frequencies are much higher than anything we've used for the cellular, which means they can offer unbelievable speed－but at the cost of range. Millimeter wave cellular towers have to be about 500 feet apart. Cell carriers not only will have to upgrade all their cell transceivers (called small cells) but will install(安装) a lot more of them as well.

    That's why the millimeter wave flavor of 5G, the superfast coverage, will be available only in densely populated cities such as New York and San Francisco. In suburban and rural areas, 5G will bring a speedup of "only" nine times faster.