Today is National Bike-to-Work Day. And on New York City's jammed streets, people are cycling on hundreds of miles of new bike lanes. But New York's widespread efforts to make streets safer for bikes have also left some locals complaining about the loss of parking spots and lanes for cars.

    When the weather is good, Aaron Naparstek likes to pedal（用踏板踩） his two young kids to school on a special Dutch-made bicycle. Naparstek supports the new lane.

    Aaron: The bike lane on Prospect Park West is really introducing a lot of new people to the idea that it's possible to use a bike in New York City for transportation or to travel around. This is what 21^st century New York City looks like.

    Prospect Park West is still a one-way road, but where it used to have three lanes of car traffic, now it has two, plus a protected bike lane. Supporters say that makes the road safer for everyone, including pedestrians, by slowing down cars and taking bikes off the sidewalk. But some longtime residents disagree. Lois Carswell is president of a group called Seniors for Safety. She says the two-way bike lane is dangerous to older residents who are used to one-way traffic.

    Lois: We wanted a lane — the right kind of lane that would keep everybody safe, that would keep the bikers safe. But we want it to be done the right way. And it has not been done the right way.

    Craig Palmer builds bars and restaurants in Manhattan. I was interviewing him for a different story when he brought up the bike lanes all on his own.

    Craig: I think the biggest problem is that Bloomberg put all these bike lanes in. You took what used to be a full street and you're shrinking it.

    Then there are the Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who forced the city to remove a bike lane through their neighborhood. But polls show that the majority of New Yorkers support bike lanes by a margin of 56% to 39%. Bicycle advocate Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives calls that a mandate.

    Caroline: If this was an election, we would have already had our victory. The public has spoken and they keep speaking. And I think, more importantly, the public is starting to vote with their pedals.

    Garbage or trash is a major kind of environmental pollution.Each person produces about 2kg of trash a day.We are making waste products faster than nature can break them down.And we are using up resources（资源）faster than they can be replaced（取代）.

    This adds up to trouble for the environment.Where does all that garbage go?What can be done to help dispose of（处理）garbage?How call we make less garbage?

    Garbage isn't just the smelly rotting fruits,vegetables or meat that we throw away in our homes.Those are only a small pan of all the stuff we throw away.We create other kinds of waste,in construction,mining and in our factories.

    Did you ever wonder what happens to your garbage?Most is burned or buried in landfills（垃圾填埋场）Less than a quarter of our waste is recycled.

    With a population of 1.3 billion（十亿）,garbage is a big problem for China.Chinese cities create around 148 million tons of garbage every year.The amount is growing at around 10 percent each year.

    Once we used about 3 billion plastic shopping bags every day in China.The result was a great waste of resources and serious pollution.So we did something about that.Now we use more cloth bags and shopping baskets when we shop.

    In the coming years China will build waste-to-energy plants in cities to clean up the garbage.But there's a lot more that needs to be done.And you can play a part.

    You can't always predict a heavy rain or remember your umbrella. But designer Mikhail Belvacv doesn't think that forgetting to check the weather forecast before heading out should result in you getting wet. That's why he created lampbrella, a lamp post with its own rain sensing umbrella.

    The designer says he come up with the idea after watching people get wet on streets in Russia. “Once, I was driving on a central Saint Petersburg street ad saw the street lamps lighting up people trying to hide from the rain. I thought it would be appropriate to have a canopy(伞蓬)built into a street lamp.” he said.

    In addition to the rain sensor, there's also a 360°motion sensor on the biberglass street lamp which detects whether anyone's using the lampbrella. After three minutes of not being used the canopy is closed.

    According to the designer, the lampbrella would move at a relatively low speed, so as not to cause harm to the pedestrians. Besides, it would be grounded to protect from possible lighting strike. Each lampbrella would offer enough shelter for several people. Being installed at 2 meters off the ground, it would only be a danger for the tallest of pedestrians.

    While there are no plans to take lampbrella into production, Belyacv says he recently introduced his creation one Moscow Department, and insists this creation could be installed on my street where a lot of people walk but there are no canopies to provide shelter.

    The UK has a whole host of things to do for free or at a low price and there are a number of websites devoted to bringing you the best. Take a look at our guide to some of our favorite UK cities.

    London

    If you live in or near London and have access to the Internet, you'll discover many choices of free entertainment. The Londonist is an amusing website that offers daily and weekly breakdowns of the free and cheap events in the city. Categories include art, comedy, music, food and drink, theatre, festivals and talks. Head over to Londonist.com for the latest schedule of affordable entertainment. Time Out's website (Timeout, com/London) also has lots of information about free fun in the lively capital.

    Find out why the 60s really cemented(巩固) London as counterculture capital of the UK in our shop.

    Manchester

    Manchester is probably one of the top creative centers of England (if not the UK). If you need any further convincing evidence, then head over to Creative Tourist, where you can find bags of daytime and nighttime entertainment that's easy on the pocket. While you're there you can also check out Liverpool and Sheffield.

    Manchester is a historical city, which has shaped life in Britain. Take a look in our shop.

    Glasgow

    If Manchester is the creative center of England then Glasgow has to be the creative center of Scotland. You can visit Scotland's Center for Design and Architecture at The Lighthouse, or go over to the Gallery of Modem Art, and then there's the wonderful and strange Hunterian Museum. For a lowdown on the best free of Glasgow, take a look at VisitScotland.

    For a look at Glasgow's picturesque qualities click here.

    Many children are interested in dinosaurs (恐龙). If you have a child who loves dinosaurs, then here is some good news for you. There is an exhibition of dinosaurs at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Albert A. You can plan a family road trip there. Give your child a surprise and you'll enjoy your time there as a family.

    Sitting just 19 kilometers west of Grande Prairie, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum was opened in 2015 and has collections that include fossils（化石）of sea animals, art works from different dinosaurs, a large family theater, as well as an outdoor discovery fossil walk, a large outdoor playground and the onsite Dine-O-Saur restaurant. Experience the dinosaurs' world like never before as you watch dinosaurs coming alive in movies. Learn about how these animals lived and breathed.

    You can check out Dinosaurs Unearthed and all of the other exciting exhibitions at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum on the following days/ time periods:

    September 1st—May 31st:

    Tuesday—Sunday 10: 00 a. m. — 6: 00 p. m.

    Closed on Mondays

    June 1st—August 31st:

    Saturday—Monday 10: 00 a. m. — 6: 00 p. m.

    Tuesday—Friday 10: 00 a. m. — 8: 00 p. m.

    Admission (门票):

    Adults: $ 14 each

    Seniors (65+): $ 11 each

    Students (with ID) and children (5—17): $7 each

    Children under 5: free

    Family (2 adults and up to 4 children): $40

    If you want to see a National Geographic film or a full-length film during your visit, it is an extra $2— $4.

    For more information, please visit the museum's website at www.dinomuseum.ca.

    It is a live celebration of the lasting power of letter writing!

    Letters Live, which started in December 2013, was held at the Freemasons' Hall in London from March 10 to 15. The show invited various great performers who read remarkable letters that had been written around the world over the centuries.

    "Bringing letters alive through outstanding performances is one of the most powerful ways in which the joy and pain and humor and tragedy of being human can be shared," Jamie Byng, managing director of Canongate Books publishing firm, told the Nowness video channel.

    British actor Benedict Cumberbatch agreed. "Letters are windows into the love, beauty, pain and humor of their creators and receivers," he told The Guardian. "Letters Live makes us stop and imagine the lives behind the letters read and where they came from. It's a great honor to read this most ancient of communications live to an audience."

    This year, the movie Sherlock star treated the audience by playing the part of a 17-year Tom Hanks. He put on the young actor's voice when he read his letter to the Hollywood director George Roy Hill, a letter that urged Hill to "discover" him. The letter showed that two-time Oscar winner Hanks' teenage dream was not to "be a big-time Hollywood superstar" but to one day own a Porsche car and call his favorite US actor Robert Redford his nickname "Bob".

    Other famous faces at the event included Carey Mulligan, who played a fictional laundry worker, a female activist fighting for women's rights in the 2015 movie Suffragette. The British actress once again played the role of a suffragette (女权主义者), when she read a very enthusiastic letter demanding the vote for women. The suffragette sent a precious 1913 note to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

    “Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist anger, but no one seems certain how to do so, " Mulligan read out. "There are two, and only two, ways in which this can be done. Both will be effectual. One, kill every woman in the UK. Two, give women the vote."