The popular smartphone application Instagram (照片分享) has changed the way we look at photography, even our world. The photo-worthy moments we share serve as an important function in cultivating the photographic artistic eye.

    Instagram has got people to start noticing the art in their everyday life. It has also allowed us to share the artful moments in our lives with others. Clearly, making people focus on beautiful moments in their lives and how to share them is a positive takeaway from Instagram.

    Not only has Instagram changed the way we look at things around us, but it has also changed the way people view professional photography. Instagram has turned everyone with a smartphone into an artist. Opening up art to the general community is a groundbreaking (创新的) aspect of this application. Making artistic attempts accessible for everyone to discover their artistic talents and explore creatively is something that has made people find the beauty in the everyday. However, this accessibility has also created questioning around art and respect deserved by professional photography.

    The art in a professional photograph versus an Instagram can sometimes be hard to notice at a quick glance. But photographs taken by true professional photographers hold something that Instagram's can't match in terms of photographic quality, or advanced compositional knowledge.

    This is not to say Instagram is a lesser art. Aesthetic qualities of art are a personal matter and how good an artwork is depends on personal preferences. Good is a very arbitrary term in the art world. For example, I may find one photo more pleasing than another, but not everyone has to agree with me.

    The point I am trying to make is that professional photography should not be lost, but instead approached with a new, enhanced level of respect and admiration—despite how accessible, common and fun Instagram now makes the taking and sharing of photos.

    Every mobile phone user worries about the battery life… Finally it's here! The amazing mobile phone solar charger will make sure your phone never runs out of battery again.

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    David Lindenmayer of the Australian National University College of Science in Canberra says that older trees play important roles in maintaining landscapes and ecosystems.

    David studies conservation, landscape, ecology and biodiversity at the Australian National University College of Science in Canberra. “Lots of people recognize that as humans get older they tend to have less and less children while trees do it the other way around. What really happens is that the older some of these really big old trees get, the more seeds they produce and the more germinant（萌芽的）they're likely to be. So it's actually the polar opposite of what we see with humans and most other animals, so really quite extraordinary. “On January 26th he spoke to Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina when they were both at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    In actually it's quite a worrying situation, because in plenty of forests and woodland and other ecosystems around the world, populations of large old trees are declining very quickly. And this matters because a lot of biodiversity, a lot of carbon, a lot of key ecosystem processes are associated with those really big, old trees.

    We can make sure we grow more forests, that we protect the big trees we have now, and that we don't do things that really put a lot of pressure on those trees. We should not be cutting down really big old trees anymore.

    For twenty years, I saved all my college course notes and textbooks: that's a lot of paper.  Worse, it wasn't easy to carry them around—and trust me, they weren't light — on at least seven moves. Yet I never once looked at them. They sat in our basement, covered in a thick layer of dust. If books and papers could wonder, they'd wonder why they were still under our stairs after all those years. What were my plans for them? When would the Big Day come?

    Well, the Big Day eventually did arrive; only it was different than expected. My wife, always more accepting changes than I am, finally convinced me to clear out the entire mess.

    The pain I experienced was also unexpected. I didn't feel nostalgia(怀旧的), or suffer pains for long-lost magical moments of my education. No, what hurt me was to come across those terrible papers I'd written, reminders of poor study habits, immaturity(不成熟), and an embarrassing lack of comprehension. It was great to get rid of them. I won't have to carry those dusty, filthy(脏兮兮的) things on our next move. But it was also a clearing of personal history. Initially, I struggled with this. My books, my notes, and my papers were primary source materials, documenting an important time in my life. To clear them out was to clear out the truth. What I've learned since taking this leap is that the lesson is more important than the truth. I feel as if much of my real education during my college years isn't in the documents but now in me. So I am glad to free myself of this physical burden of carrying them around. And what's better is that I don't need to look back on those painful moments. They belong to the past.

    You might want to consider doing something similar, either under the stairs of your basement or in your mind. Not so long ago, a very smart person created a new holiday—Discardia!—to be celebrated four times a year. It's a great idea, and every time I clear things out, I feel better physically and psychologically. Discardia's slogan is “Let go of everything that doesn't make your life awesome!” What is the personal rubbish piling in your life? Clear it out and make your life awesome.

    Spotify can tell if you're sad. Here's why that should scare you. Want to figure out if someone is a patient with a mental disability: Ask them what their favorite song is. A New York University study last year found that people who loved Eminem's Lose Yourself and Justin Bieber's What Do You Mean? were more likely to have trouble with mental disabilities than people who were into Dire Straits.

    Over the past few years, Spotify has been improving the ability to analyze information to help businessmen target consumers with advertisements made specially for their needs. They conclude this from the sort of music you're listening to, combined with where and when you're listening to it, along with third-party data that might be available.

    Now, to be clear, there's nothing significantly illegal about what Spotify is doing with your information. I certainly don't think that they are working with shadowy consulting firms to serve you ads selling a culture struggle while you're listening to music that suggests you might be in a terrible situation. However, I find it disappointing that our personal, private moments with music are increasingly being turned into information points and offered to advertisers.

    You can see where this could go, can't you? As ad targeting gets ever more accurate, businessmen will have the ability to target our feelings in potentially improper ways. According to one study, you are more likely to spend more on a product if you're feeling sad. You can imagine some companies might take advantage of that. And on that note, I'm feeling a little down about all this. Head off to treat myself to something expensive.

    The pupils of Grangetown High have been busy getting to know their newest and tallest classmate — a 7-meter-tall giraffe outside their school.

    The giraffe is a huge sculpture (雕像). The school's headmaster noticed it in an artist's garden as he drove past one day, and thought it would be perfect for his school. “I knew everyone would love it," he said, "because our basketball team is known as the Grangetown Giraffes, and they wear giraffes on their shirts. So I asked them to write to the artist, asking how much it would cost to buy the giraffe. He was very kind and got it ready to deliver (递送) in six weeks — all for nothing! It was expected to arrive one Sunday morning, so that the pupils would see it when they got to school on Monday — at that time they had no idea that we were getting it."

    The artist, Tom Bennett was a university professor of chemistry before he retired in 2012 and only took up metalwork a couple of years ago. "I've always drawn pictures," he said. I can even remember doing it on my first day at school — I drew a horse. I wanted it to be the best horse picture ever, but I don't think I succeeded."Tom's first metalwork was a bicycle on which he and his wife could go cycling together, “It was the most uncomfortable bike ever created," he said, "so I gave up making bicycles and went into sculpture instead."

    Meanwhile the pupils at Grangetown High are very happy with their new classmate. "We're going to hold a competition to give it a proper name," said one girl. "Everyone likes the expression on its face, so perhaps that will give us some ideas."