Differences are important and they should be respected. For example, many important people throughout history were considered different, such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln. They did great things, but some people thought they were strange because they had strong feelings about something. I can understand these people because I've been in that situation before many times.

    It all started in elementary school when I realized that I wasn't like everyone else. My mom says that I have a tendency to be obsessed(着迷)with certain subjects. Unfortunately, these subjects don't interest other kids of my age and they really don't interest my teachers. In fact, my kindergarten teacher said she would scream if I mentioned snakes or lizards one more time while she was teaching the days of the week. I would get into trouble for not paying attention and the teasing began.

    In the third grade, my teacher informed me that I have Asperger's Syndrome（症状）. I said, “So what? Do you know that Godzilla's suit weighs 188 pounds?”

    Later, I asked my mom, “What's Asperger's Syndrome? Am I gonna die?” She said that it's like having blinders on, and that I can only see one thing at a time, and that it's hard to focus on other things.

    People also make fun of me for knowing facts about volcanoes, whales, tornadoes and many other scientific things. My mom says that she has been able to answer many questions on Jeopardy! just by listening to what I have to say, but I've even been laughed at for being smart.

    Maybe someday I'll become a gene engineer and create the real Godzilla. I can dream, Can't I?

    Today, I had the good fortune to join the students from East Silver Spring Elementary School in Maryland as they walked and biked to school in celebration of International Walk to School Day. I want to thank Principal Morrow and the entire ESS community for welcoming me so enthusiastically.

    Walk to School Day is a great opportunity for me to spend time with parents, kids, and teachers and to present our Safe Routes to School program and the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative（倡议）.

    As a father, grandfather and former schoolteacher, I know how important it is that we provide students with safe choice to get to school while promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles. That's why I've embraced the Safe Routes to School program so wholeheartedly since I became Secretary of Transportation.

    You know, we're looking at an increasingly sedentary（久坐的）generation of children. One out of every three kids in America is now overweight. And I admire the First Lady's effort to end this within a generation. Safe Routes to School is a natural partner for Let's Move. For more than 10 years, Safe Routes to School has been making it easier for students to walk and bike from home to school. And ESS, where I walked today, is one of the earliest schools to participate.

    We know this program has been enormously effective because of the steady increase in the number of kids walking or biking to school. And as we made our way down the street this morning I was reminded yet again of this program's extraordinary work.

    Look, walking and biking to school is good for students' health. It's good for the environment. And it's good for the entire community's quality of life.

Everybody wins when kids take Safe Routes to School.

    Angad Rekhi, a graduate student and an assistant professor of electrical engineering, has developed a wake-up receiver. This wake-up receiver has many potential applications, particularly in designing the next generation of net worked devices, including so called "smart" devices that can communicate directly with one another without human intervention (介入).

    Once attached to a device, a wake-up receiver listens for a unique ultrasonic（超声波）pattern that tells it when to turn the device on. It needs only a very small amount of power to maintain this constant listening, so it still saves energy overall while extending the battery life of the larger device. A well-designed wake-up receiver also allows the device to be turned on from a significant distance.

    Given the increased interest in networked devices, researchers and industry organizations are starting to define what features and techniques will become standard. Regardless of whether this ultrasound wake-up receiver is among these standard designs, it is likely wake-up receivers of some kind will be combined into commercial applications soon.

    By comparison, the ultrasound wake-up receiver requires a battery but has much greater range than the wirelessly powered devices, while still maintaining a long lifetime due to extremely low power draw. These two technologies-wireless power and wake-up receivers-would likely serve different purposes but both indicate at a turning point in devices that make up the Internet of Things.

    "In light of a long-promised future where interconnected, autonomous, widespread and unremarkable technologies make life easier, the networked devices available now, like video doorbells and app-enabled lights, seem like rather slight advances." the researchers said. They believe technologies like theirs could help cross the gap between the Internet of Things as we know it and the Internet of Things at its best-whatever that may be.

    I recently had dinner with someone who told me that one of his best friends had been killed in a private plane crash, and something happened at the memorial service that he'll never forget. He shared the story with me.

    At the memorial service, his friend's wife walked to the platform to speak to the gathering. She said a friend had asked her the best memory she had of their life together. At the moment, she had been too sad to answer, but she had thought about it since and wanted to answer the question.

    They were in their late forties when he died, and she began talking about a time in their life almost twenty years earlier. She had quit her job to obtain her master's degree, and her husband never hesitated in his support.

    He held down his own job and also did the cooking, cleaning, and other housework while she studied for her degree.

    One time they both stayed up all night. She was finishing her paper, and he was preparing for an important business meeting. That morning, she walked out of her study, leaned against the door by the stairs, looked at her husband downstairs and just thought about how much she loved him. She knew how important this meeting was to his future, and she was feeling guilty that she didn't even have time to make his breakfast. He took his briefcase and hurried out. She heard the garage door open and close, but much to her surprise, she heard it open again about thirty seconds later. From above, she watched her husband dash into the house and walk over to the forgotten coffee table. Marking the surface of it with his finger through the dust with the words "I love you", then he raced back to his car.

    The new widow then looked out at her audience and said, "John and I had a wonderful life together. We have been around the world several times. We've had everything money can buy but nothing comes close to that moment."

    Hearing this, I was deeply moved. "Love makes life worthwhile."

    As anyone who freelances (做自由职业) knows, there are lots of advantages of working at home alone. But there are drawbacks too, like the potential loneliness. No wonder co-working spaces are becoming so popular, they permit self-employed individuals to feel like they are part of all office environment, while making them get some work done too. But renting a co-working space does cost money.

    Now a Swedish project is aiming to change that by turning people's under-used homes into temporary co-working spaces, available to freelancers for free. Hoffice was started by freelancers Christofer Gradin Franzen and Johline Zandra about a year ago in Stockholm when they invited a few people into their home office to work together. It was a great success, and the project has since spread to a number of cities in Europe, North and South America, Australia, India and Japan. Anyone can sign up and offer their home space as a free co-working space, or go find a Hoffice near them.

    On a Hoffice day, everyone arrives and starts work at a certain hour. After 45 minutes，everyone gets up to take a break, stretch, do qigong or yoga for 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards， people can gather around again, and re-state their intentions and goals for the rest of the work day, as a way to motivate each other. Meals can be eaten together at a certain hour, potluck-style (家常饭) or by bringing their own lunch.

    This process creates an encouraging and supportive work environment. As some freelancers describe, "By working at Hoffice, we give ourselves and each other the gift to spend our days in a social working environment, where we are extremely productive without ignoring our other human needs. We also make sure to give ourselves and each other what we need to feel calm, happy, inspired and creative during the working day."

    So Hoffice is not just about sharing space; it's also about a free exchange of ideas. And perhaps the best thing is that Hoffices are free to use.

    The well-known adventurer (冒险家)and explorer Steve Fossett, born in 1944 in America, was famous for extraordinary efforts setting world records in flying, ballooning and sailing. He set or broke over 100 records in five different sports, many of which are still held. Many of his most extraordinary adventures were as a pilot. He once said that he did not like risks. This might sound strange considering his activities. But he said what he tried to do was to reduce risk with careful planning, technological development and the help of the best scientists and other experts. In 2007, during a short-distance flight, his plane disappeared and he died at the age of 63.

    In 1903 Benjamin Spock was born in America. After he attended Yale University he joined a sports team that competed in rolling boats, which in 1924 won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. He used to work at a camp for disabled children for three summers during his years at Yale. And the experience probably led to his decision to enter Yale Medical School, and finally completed his medical degree at Columbia in New York. From 1933 he worked as a baby doctor, trying to fit the theories (理论)about how children develop with what mothers told him about their children. During the 1950s, Dr Spock became famous. He wrote articles for magazines, appeared on TV programs, taught at universities and gave speeches to talk to parents about their concerns (担心).Benjamin died in 1998 at 94. Yet his advice continues to affect the lives of millions of children and their parents.

    An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had four heart surgeries (手术) reached the top of Mount on Thursday, becoming the oldest to climb up the world's highest mountain on May 23, 2013. It was Yuichiro Miura. As a famous adventurer, he skied down Everest from the South Col in 1970, a deed that became the subject of a documentary. He has since skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, following the tradition of his late father, who skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at 99. "If you wish strongly, have courage and endurance, then you can get to the summit (顶峰)of your dream, Miura said.