You can't always predict a heavy rain or remember your umbrella. But designer Mikhail Belyaev 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 and 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.

    The lampbrella is a standard-looking street lamp fitted with an umbrella canopy. It has a built-in electric motor which can open or close the umbrella on demand. Sensors (传感器) then ensure that the umbrella offers pedestrians shelter whenever it starts raining.

In addition to the rain sensor, there's also a 360° motion sensor on the fiberglass street lamp which detects whether anyone is 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 (安装) 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, Belyaev says he recently introduced his creation to one Moscow Department, and insists his creation could be installed on any street where a lot of people walk but there are no canopies to provide shelter.

    On a college camping trip, curiosity about waves and sand caused Rob Thieler to study shorelines around the world. Thirty years later and now a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist, Thieler, is combining science and smartphone technology to help study an endangered bird, the Atlantic Coast piping plover.

    The piping plover is a shorebird that breeds（繁殖）along the Atlantic Coast, the Great Lakesand the Great Plains. Rising sea levels associated with climate change, as well as increased development in their beach habitats（栖息地）, threaten the species（物种）. To help track changes in piping plover habitats, Thieler developed a free app called iPlover in 2012. This is a marked change from the typical way scientists collect data, which involves gathering information using specialized equipment or writing in notebooks and then putting into spreadsheets.

    Since releasing iPlover, scientists have gathered data across 1500 km of breeding range. Thatequals about a third of the distance across the U.S., which is a large area to cover for only two thousand breeding pairs of piping plovers on the east coast. Instead of having to travel and spend days at each site, a number of cooperators in the field use the app to collect and send data, allowing scientists to gather data more efficiently. It also allows them to collect data at the same time during each breeding season, providing a better picture of changes that happen over longer periods of time. And fast, centralized access means scientists can look at data quickly to get a real-time idea of where and how piping plovers are using their habitats.

    While iPlover is used by trained field staff, other apps like the U. S. Geological Survey'sweb-based “iCoast—Did the Coast Change?” invite citizen scientists to identify coastal changes by comparing bird's-eye-view photographs taken before and after storms. All the information scientists and citizen scientists alike collect helps federal and state agencies create policyplans for addressing climate change impacts (影响) worldwide.

    The noise of chattering mouths subsided（平息）as the teacher entered classroom. “Good morning class. I am Riffat Monaf, and I will be your geography teacher.” Riffat Monaf, an interesting name and an even more interesting person. Her introduction took place about six years ago, and since then I have never met a more influential person in my life.

    Mrs Monaf not only conquered me with her vast knowledge of geography, but also won me over with her smile and warm eyes. It was in her class that I traveled to the highest mountains and to the deepest seas from the comfort of the classroom. I learned about the vast oceans, the erupting volcanoes, the snow-capped mountains and the green valleys. She would often relate her adventures about traveling to different parts of the world.

    Never can I forget the glory of her face when she talks about how truly beautiful this world is. If I search back my love for the environment and geography, I find her to be the source of my love for preserving nature. If one day I became an environmentalist, I know that I'll thank her for it. Apart from this, she has always greeted me with open arms and she calls her students “my children”. Mrs Monaf's morals and values rubbed off me deeply and I have always taken her advice into consideration. She has been one of the most consistently good things in my life.

    Currently, she is fighting a battle against breast cancer, and it pains me to know that after all she has done for me; I can do nothing for her except pray. Whenever I see her in school, she still keeps that kind smile and an expression so soft that it trembles my heart. Mrs Monaf still talks enthusiastically about geography, and I know that I can never see what a truly great person she has been in my life. .

    We know cats like to hide in boxes and knock things over. But if you make a square on your floor, what will your cat do? Turns out a lot of cats will get inside it. Amazed cat owners repeated the experiment, often with tape(带子), but others with squares made out of ribbon, sheets of paper and even shoes.

    Cat experts weigh in

    So what makes cats so interested in a square on the floor?

    “We know that cats like safe spaces. It's possible that the mark on the floor creates some illusion(幻觉) on the floor that doesn't actually exist,” says cat behavior expert Mikel Delgado. “It might have enough similarity to a low-sided box that a lot of cats are attracted to it for safety.”

    Another cat behavior expert Ingrid Johnson agrees. “I would imagine they probably feel as if they are 'in' something. Though shallow, still comforting, offers the idea of sides,” she says. Johnson points out that cats have poor close-up sight, so they may have the idea that the tape is actually the sides of a square area. “Their sight is built for distance and speed, watching a mouse run across the field,” she says. “Close up, they're blind 8 to 12 inches off their noses.”

    Kitty curiosity(好奇心)

    Another reason cats are attracted by the square? Pure curiosity.

    Because cats are very sensitive to their environment, the tape square might be attracting them just because it's new and different, she says. The same thing would likely happen if you put a piece of cardboard or a paper bag on the floor. A lot of cats would check it out.

    Americans gave nearly $300 billion away last year. Do you know the reason? Beyond the noble goals of helping others, it is that giving will make them happier.

    It is a fact that givers are happier people than non-givers. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, a survey of 30,000 American households, people who give money to charity are 43% more likely than non-givers to say they are "very happy" about their lives. Similarly, volunteers are 42% more likely to be very happy then non-volunteers.

    The happiness difference between givers and non-givers is not due to differences in their personal characteristics, such as income or religion. Imagine two people who are identical in terms of income and faith, as well as age, education, politics, sex, and family circumstances, but one donates money and volunteers, while the other does not. The giver will be, on average, over 40 percentage points more likely to be very happy than the non-givers.

    A number of studies have researched exactly why charity leads to happiness. The surprising conclusion is that giving affects our brain chemistry. For example, people who give often report feelings of euphoria, which psychologists have referred to as the "Helper's High". They believe that charitable activity produces a very mild version of the sensations people get from drugs like morphine and heroin.

    Of course, not only does giving increase our happiness, but also our happiness increases the possibility that we will give. Everyone prefers to give more when they are happy. Researchers have investigated this by conducting experiments in which people are asked about their happiness before and after they participate in a charitable activity, such as volunteering to help children or serving meals to the poor. The result is clear that giving has a strong, positive causal impact on our happiness, so does happiness on giving