For some people, music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call "amusic". People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes (音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two-songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are far apart on the musical scale.

As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their ability to enjoy music sets them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally（故意地）stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. "I used to hate parties," says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists arc finally learning bow to identify this unusual condition.

    Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn't involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can't sec certain colors.

Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed. For years. Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. "When people invite me to a concert, I just say, 'No thanks. I'm amusic,'" says Margaret. "I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy."

    Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neurone disease to communicate with others from a phone.

    The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone's camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and convert them into letters, words and sentences. For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neurone disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.

    "Current eye-tracking input systems for people with ALS or other motor impairments are expensive, not robust under sunlight, and require frequent re-calibration and substantial, relatively immobile setups," said Xiaoyi Zhang, a researcher at Microsoft who developed the technology.

    "To mitigate the drawbacks…we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone, and is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable and easy to learn."

    The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate.

    The sticker shows four grids of letters, which each correspond to a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.

    Zhang's research, Smartphone-Based Gaze Gesture Communication for People with Motor Disabilities, is set to be presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in May.

    As health care costs continue to rise, a growing number of companies are working out programs designed to keep their employees healthy.

    Thomas Chapple is the senior vice president. “It's really important to us because medical costs are going up like crazy, he says. This company spends more than 200 million a year on medical costs for its employees around the country. The best thing we have seen as a way to control the medical cost is individual fitness.”

    We have a fitness center, “Shawn Flaherty, director of public relations for Freddie Mac.,” says, “We have a health benefits plan that encourages people to work out three times a week, get cholesterol (胆固醇) checks, as well as 'not to smoke.' If they do that, it will cost them less for the health benefits.”

    Rachelle Clark works for Freddie Mac. “I feel great. You know the benefit is rewarding. I like to look good and feel healthy. I am just fortunate that I work for the company that provides some type of facility for the employees.”

    While on-site fitness centers are popular, some companies pay membership fees at local gyms for employees. The companies also offer classes such as boxing, yoga and dancing. Employees see those health programs as a valuable benefit.

    Tom Brook exercises five days a week. As a newspaper reporter he has a tight schedule, although Tom says it's not that difficult for him to make time for a workout. “It is great. It is right here where we work,” says Tom, “So everybody gets a chance to use it whenever they want to. I have lost weight and never been in better shape.”

    The programs may not be a magic cure for rising health costs, but they seem to have a positive impact on both employers and employees.

    Finding your feet in a new town can be hard, especially if you're covered in fur and don't speak the language. But for pets new to Marlborough, help is at hand.

    Marlborough SPCA and the Railway Café, in Blenheim, have joined forces to help welcome pets and their people to the area with morning teas. They hope the morning teas will get tails and tongues wagging(狗摇摆尾巴）as well as giving advice on how to make the move easier.

    Railway Café owner Leanne Harris came up with the creative plan as a way to help welcome people to the area. Leanne moved to Marlborough from Auckland two years ago and said she first struggled to find friends and feel part of the community. "Coming from Auckland I thought people would open their doors and that there would be neighbors calling round with cake. I expected people to come to me and, of course, it wasn't like that. I did get lonely." "I hope to save newcomers having to wait as long as I did to feel part of it all. I would like to welcome them to the town."

    Free plates of sandwiches, cakes will be offered, for the people, while there will be special yoghurt and banana treats for the dogs. The morning teas will take place in the covered area at the back of the popular café beside the railway station off Grove Rd.

    Leanne said she was happy to devote both her time and effort to giving back to the community and felt the project was a great fit with the SPCA.

    "Volunteering is such an amazing thing to do and it changed things for me completely, and I met some amazing people with similar interests."

    SPCA Op Shop manager Karina Greenall, originally from the United Kingdom, said she also wanted to help. "I can give advice on how to resettle pets, the best parks to go to, where the best walks are and where the Civil Service are in town." There will be volunteering chances too for people where they can help out and hopefully make friends too.

    When you watch a movie these days, it's difficult to tell what's real and what's created by using computers. Visual effects can even change how movies are made.

    Almost anything that can be imagined by a director can now become reality in the world of movies. "We're really not limited by the technology, '' said David Smith, the CEO of Sony Pictures Imageworks. Mr Smith said that with today's technology, the digital world was more realistic than ever before. For The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Mr Smith's team created a Times Square that was exactly like the real one in New York. "If there are lights inside the stores that are lighting areas inside the store we put those lights there," said Mr Smith.

    But there was still one challenge for visual effects artists, said Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. "We're still trying to figure out how to perfect the human face in movies, " said Debevec. He said the movie — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was still one of the best examples of computer generated movies, as actor Brad Pitt could be from an aged man to a baby in the movie.

    Mr Debevec added that besides changing the look of an actor's face, there could be another use for digital faces in the entertainment. Last year, effects artists created a digital face of the Asian pop singer Teresa Teng who was dead. Fans could still see and hear the concert on YouTube.

    Mr Debevec expects directors will start to use more virtual production techniques, like those seen in the movie Avatar. Mr Debevec says that with virtual production, there won't be a need for so many people behind the scenes. But visual effects artists agree, even with advanced technology, there is no replacement for a real actor showing a character in a movie.

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