The Future of Technology

    William, a businessman, arrives in a foreign airport. He doesn't show his passport. Instead, a machine in the wall reads the computer chip（芯片）in his arm. This contains information about him: his name, age, and I.D number. He exits the airport, and a car door opens when it “sees” him. The car takes him to his hotel. His room “knows” he has entered the building and it “reads” his body. He is cold, so the room becomes warmer. William then watches a business presentation on a video wall. When he takes a bath, the presentation “follows him and continues ”on the bathroom wall. Finally, the room plays music to help him sleep. It turns off the music when it “sees” him sleeping.

    William doesn't exist, and none of this is real. But it might be soon. “In five to ten years, computing and communications are going to be free and everywhere, in your walls, in your car, on your body,” says Victor Zue, leader of Project Oxygen.

    Project Oxygen has one big idea: to create better relationships between machines and people. The dream is that computer will learn to understand what people want.

    So, what changes will there be at work? Firstly, the building will know where everyone is, all the time. You want to talk to someone? Type the person's name on the nearest computer. It will show you a map of the building and exactly where this person is. You then call this person, who picks up the nearest telephone, also shown on the computer. If he or she is busy with a client（客户）or in a meeting, the computer will tell you.

    Is all this really possible? Visit the Siebel Center, Illinois and see for yourself: computers in the doors and walls, cameras everywhere, the technology of the future, but here today.

    The number of accidents involving pedestrians (行人) wearing headphones is on the rise, a report suggests, causing fresh warning from road safety groups in Britain.

    A US-based study found a total of 116 reports of death or injury to pedestrians wearing headphones between 2004 and 2011, jumping from 16 in 2005 to 47 in 2011.

    Most victims were men (68%) and under the age of 30 (67%), with around one in ten of all cases (9%) under the age of 18.Some 89% of the cases occurred in urban areas and more than half (55%) of the victims were struck by trains .

Eighty-one of the 116 accidents (70%) resulted in the person's death—even though a warning was sounded in around a third of the cases.

    The study concluded, “The use of headphone may be a safety risk to pedestrians , especially in environments with moving vehicles（cars）. Further research is needed to determine if and how headphone use threatens pedestrian safety.” British road safety groups warned pedestrians to be careful.

    Floor Lieshout, director of Youth For Road Safety, said,“ This study shows once more the importance of using all of our senses while we are near traffic. It is important that we find an attractive way to make youth learn about the risks of wearing headphones in traffic.”

    Andrew Howard, who is the head of road safety at the Automobile Association, added that some pedestrians can be “so focused in their own little world they forget the world going on around them”. That can include headphone wearers, Howard said, but also people talking on phones.

    However, Howard said that more researches needed to be done.

    Earlier studies have shown that people wearing headphones or talking on phones can suffer “inattentional blindness” which makes them isolated (孤立) from the world around them .

    Ian Harvey, at the charity Civic Voice, said that “ to defeat isolation and to help build a civic(文明的) society, people need to interact(交往) with each other .

    He said,“ A basis for any civilized society is communication—Surfing the web, listening to MP3s, reading blogs or sending e-mail is not interacting with a person; it's interacting with a machine.

    “If people feel socially isolated, they need to have more face-to-face interactions with other human beings and in time, will begin to feel happier and more connected to the world and place they live in.”

    Naturally, parents praise their kids. They want to encourage their children every day. But when it comes to building self-esteem (自尊) in children, praise doesn't always have a positive effect, according to a special edition of the journal Child Development. The issue, edited by Eddie and Thomas, is focused on research into how children develop a sense of self and building your child's confidence takes different skills than you might think.

    Eddie points out that children are born without a sense of self, but it doesn't take long before some kids have a lot of confidence and may feel superior to peers, while others may carry more self-doubt and see themselves as inferior. Yet no one really understands what causes children to view themselves the way they do. Surprisingly little is known about the origins of children's self-concept,” Eddie said.

    Research has found that when kids have a warm, loving relationship with their parents, they develop higher self-esteem. However, when they are given endless praise that is inequal to their achievements, their self-esteem may drop.

    Instead of lavish praise, parents should focus on warmth to build self-esteem, researchers have found—specifically, parents should show interest in their kids' activities and share joy with them. This makes children feel noticed and valued. According to Eddie's own research, children may develop lower self-esteem when their parents give them lots of positive and overstated praises. Too much praise can make children worry about disappointing their parents, and may lead to an unhealthy attitude toward failure. Other studies suggest that parents can teach children that failure is beneficial by encouraging kids to ask themselves: “Why didn't I achieve the result I wanted, and what can I do to change the outcome in the future?”

    Additionally, it's important for parents to encourage the belief that kids can develop basic abilities through devotion and hard work. Kids who are praised for their effort instead of their ability are more likely to develop a growth mindset, which have a positive impact on their confidence.

    The American newspaper has been around for about three hundred years. In 1721, the printer James Franklin, Benjamin's older brother, started the New England Courant, and that was what we might recognize today as a real newspaper. He filled his paper with stories of adventure, articles on art, on famous people, and on all sorts of political subjects.

    Three centuries after the appearance of Franklin's Courant, few believe that newspapers in their present printed form will remain alive for long. Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and, in some cases, their sense of purpose at a speed that would not have been imaginable just several years ago. The chief editor of the Times said recently, "At places where they gather, editors ask one another, 'How are you?', as if they have just come out of the hospital or a lost law case.” An article about the newspaper appeared on the website of the Guardian, under the headline “NOT DEAD YET.”

    Perhaps not, but the rise of the Internet , which has made the daily newspaper look slow and out of step with the world, has brought about a real sense of death. Some American newspapers have lost 42% of their market value in the past three years. The New York Times Company has seen its stock drop by 54% since the end of 2004, with much of the loss coming in the past year. A manager at Deutsche Bank suggested that stock-holders sell off their Times stock. The Washington Post Company has prevented the trouble only by changing part of its business to education; its testing and test-preparation service now brings in at least half the company's income.

The light from the campfire brightened the darkness, but it could not prevent the damp cold of Dennis's Swamp (沼泽地) creeping into their bones. It was a strange place. Martin and Tom wished that they had not accepted Jack'sdare. They liked camping, but not near this swamp.

"So," Martin asked as they sat watching the hot coals. "How did this place get its name?"

"Are you sure you want to hear it? It's a scary story," warned Jack.

"Of course!" cried out Tom. "If there were anything to be scared of, you wouldn't have chosen this place!"

"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you," said Jack, and he began this tale.

"Way back in time, a man called Dennis tried to start a farm here. He built that cottage over there to live in. In those days, the area looked quite different — it was covered with tall trees and the swamp was a crystal-clear river. After three hard years, Dennis had cleared several fields and planted crops. He was so proud of his success that he refused to listen to advice.

"‘You are clearing too much land,' warned one old man. ‘The land is a living thing. It will hit back at you if you abuse it. '"

"‘Silly fool,' said Dennis to himself. ‘If I clear more land, I can grow more crops. I'll become wealthier. He's just jealous!'"

"Dennis continued to chop down trees. Small animals that relied on them for food and shelter were destroyed. He was so eager to expand his farm that he did not notice the river flowing slowly towards his door. He did not notice salt seeping to the surface of the land. He did not notice swamp plants choking all the native plants."

"What happened?" Martin asked. It was growing colder. He trembled, twisting his body closer to the fire.

"The land hit back — just as the old man warned," Jack shrugged. "Dennis disappeared. Old folks around here believe that swamp plants moved up from the river and dragged him underwater. His body was never found."

"What a stupid story," laughed Tom. "Plants can't …" Before he had finished speaking, he screamed and fainted (晕倒). The other two boys jumped up with fright, staring at Tom. Suddenly, they burst out laughing. Some green swamp ivy (常春藤) had covered Tom's face. It was a while before Tom could appreciate the joke.

Damian Stefaniuk and his colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology （MIT） have developed a novel energy storage device—a supercapacitor— using three basic, inexpensive materials： water, cement, and a soot （煤灰）, which can carry electricity. 

Supercapacitors are highly efficient at storing energy but differ from batteries in some important ways. They can charge much more quickly than a lithium （锂） battery and don't experience the same level of performance decline over time. But supercapacitors also release the power they store rapidly, making them less useful in devices such as mobile phones, laptops or electric cars where a steady supply of energy is needed over an extended period of time. 

Yet according to Stefaniuk, these supercapacitors could make an important contribution to efforts to reduce carbon emissions and make the global economy more environmentally friendly. "If it can be scaled up, the technology can help solve an important issue— the storing of renewable energy," he says. 

He and his fellow researchers at MIT envision several applications for their supercapacitors. One might be to create roads that store solar energy and then release it to recharge electric cars wirelessly as they drive along a road. The rapid release of energy from the supercapacitors would allow vehicles to get a rapid boost to their batteries. Another application would be using supercapacitors in the foundations or walls of houses, so that these parts of the house not only support the structure but also store energy. 

"But it's still early stages. Right now, the supercapacitor made from building materials can only store just under 300 watt-hours per cubic meter, enough to power a 10-watt LED light for 30 hours. The power might seem low compared to regular batteries, but a foundation made from 30-40 cubic meters of this material could meet the daily energy needs of a house," says Stefaniuk. "Since this material is used so widely around the world, it has the potential to be very competitive and useful for energy storage."