National Public Radio （NPR） Music's Tiny Desk Contest is back. Artists can begin to submit an entry from this morning on Feb. 2nd. The submission will last 14 days. This isn't just another regular year of the Contest-it's the 10th anniversary.
The panel （小组）of judges has doubled in size compared to previous years. The panel has a group of industry experts who are eager to see what this year's participants can share. And there's a great team of NPR's Music station hosts on the panel: Amelia Mason. Novena Carmel and Stas THEE Boss.
Also new this year: Not only will the 2024 winner play a Tiny Desk concert，be interviewed on All Things Considered and go on tour with NPR Music-they'll also be paired with a tutor in the industry who will help them navigate their music journey. Our judges are determined to give this year's winner the support they'll need to take their music to the next level. The winner will also be featured at two festivals this summer: Celebrate Brooklyn and the Millennium Park Summer Music series in Chicago.
And for the first time this year, the Contest is introducing a fan favorite vote. Later this spring，Contest judges will share their favorite entries as part of the annual Tiny Desk-Contest Top Shelf series on YouTube －and then artists and fans will be able to vote for their favorite among those selections.
Here's how to enter: Record a video of you playing one original song －behind a desk， upload your video to YouTube. and submit the video on our Tiny Desk Contest website.
I used to believe that only words could catch the essence (本质) of the human soul. The literary works contained such distinct stories that they shaped the way we saw the world. Words were what composed the questions we sought to uncover and the answers to those questions themselves. Words were everything.
That belief changed.
In an ordinary math class, my teacher posed a simple question: What's 0. 99 rounded to the nearest whole number? Easy. When rounded to the nearest whole number.
0. 99=1. Somehow, I thought even though 0. 99 is only 0. 01 away from 1, there's still a 0. 01 difference. That means even if two things are only a little different, they are still different, so doesn't that make them completely different?
My teacher answered my question by presenting another equation (等式): 1 = 0. 9 which could also be expressed as 1=0. 999999, repeating itself without ever ending.
There was something mysterious but fascinating about the equation. The left side was unchangeable, objective: it contained a number that ended. On the right was something endless, a number repeating itself limitless times. Yet, somehow, these two opposed things were connected by an equal sign.
Lying in bed, I thought about how much the equation paralleled (使平行) our existence. The left side of the equation represents that sometimes life itself is so unchangeable and so clear. The concrete, whole number of the day when you were born and the day when you would die. But then there is that gap in between life and death. The right side means a time and space full of limitless possibilities. and endless opportunities into the open future.
So that's what life is. Objective but imaginative. Unchangeable but limitless. Life is an equation with two sides that balances itself out. Still. we can't ever truly seem to put the perfect words to it. So possibly numbers can express ideas as equally well as words can. For now let's leave it at that: 1=0. 999999. . . and live a life like it.
For thousands of years, humans have used names to communicate with one another. We also give names to animals, especially ones we love, such as pets. Until now there has been little evidence of animals naming one another, but a new study suggests that elephants use specific noises to identify other elephants.
A few animals, including parrots and dolphins, have been known to use sounds that are similar to names. Each dolphin invents a signature whistle that is unique to it, and other members of its species communicate with it by simulating this special call. The new study, led by Michael Pardo of Colorado State University, shows that wild African elephants use names in a way that is not just copying sounds and is much closer to the way humans use names.
For the study, the researchers recorded 625 sounds made by wild African elephants in Kenya that they called "rumbles (隆隆声)". This is the most common type of call produced by elephants, and it can travel long distances-as far as 3. 7 miles. It takes place at a very low frequency, which means humans can't hear it.
The researchers analyzed the sounds using computers and found that certain rumbles were directed at specific elephants to get their attention They found that all the elephants in the herd used the identical call to get a particular elephant's attention -these calls were not just nicknames used by one of the elephant's friends. Also. unlike the way dolphins communicate. the rumbles were not just imitations of the elephant they were trying to communicate with.
The researchers then played back some of the recorded rumbles to the elephants. They found that elephants responded more to their own name than to other calls. coming toward it more quickly or calling back faster. Cartlin O'Connell-Rodwell, an elephant expert, said, "The study shows that elephants can still keep in touch with one another even across a large area. "She told Live Science, "The rumbles ere magical, which allow them to spread out much further and still have very close tabs（密切关注） on individuals. "
Scientists have designed ways to "read" words directly from brains. Brain implants (植入物) can translate internal speech into external signals, allowing communication from people with paralysis (瘫痪) or diseases that steal their ability to talk or type. New results from two studies, presented on November 14 provide additional evidence of the extraordinary potential that brain implants have for restoring lost communication, says Leigh Hochberg, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"The new studies targeted internal speech, which requires that a person only think. Our device predicts internal speech directly, allowing the patient to just focus on saying a word inside his head and transform it into text," says Sarah Wandelt.
Neural signals associated with words are detected by electrodes (电极) implanted in the brain. The signals can then be translated into text, which can be made an oral speech by computer programs.
Another approach presented at the meeting, led by neuroscientist Sean Metzger of the University of California, San Francisco and his colleagues, relied on spelling. The participant was a man called Pancho who hadn't been able to speak for more than 15 years because of a disease. In this study, Pancho attempted to silently think code (代码) words, such as "alpha" for A and "echo" for E. By stringing these letters into words, he produced sentences such as "I do not want that" and "You have got to be kidding." Each session would end when Pancho attempted to squeeze his hand thereby creating a movement-related brain signal that refused the decoding (解码).
With this system, Pancho produced about seven words per minute. That's faster than the five words per minute his usual communication device makes, but much slower than normal speech, typically about 150 words per minute. The techniques will need to ger faster and more accurate to be useful. It's also unclear whether the technologies will work for people with more serious speech disorders. "These are still early days," Hochberg says.
How to Save Humanity from Extinction
Modern humans have only existed for a relatively brief amount of time, and probably we'd like to stick around a lot longer. For example, if we want to reach our
500.000th birthday as a species, what should we focus on? .
•
The Earth's climate has changed and shifted for millions of years. There have been times in the past when it's been hotter than it is today, and times when it's been cooler. But there is something different about the past century. As far as we can tell from the geologic record, there has been no time in Earth's entire history when the climate has warmed so much in such a short amount of time. . While climate change doesn't necessarily cause an existential threat to human existence, it surely poses a threat to how we like to live our lives in modern society.
• Figure out nuclear weapon
Again, a single nuclear weapon doesn't pose a threat to all of humanity, but the thousands of warheads in the world right now certainly do. But as time goes on, the chances of one nuclear explosion increases. Just consider all the "near misses" in recent history, where all-out nuclear war was avoided thanks only to the quick thinking and calmness of individuals. , there will be no nuclear conflict. So it's possible to reduce the risk of catastrophe.
• Explore asteroids (小行星)
, just ask the dinosaurs how well it worked out for them. Asteroids and comets have the ability to spark off massive extinction events. wiping out vast numbers of entire species. While these kinds of events are thankfully incredibly rare, the risk they present are horrible. For humanity to make it to the long-term, we need to equip ourselves with hard asteroid detection and relief strategies.
A. Tackle climate change
B. Make geologic record
C. If human beings calm down
D. Here are some goals we need to achieve
E. If we want to safeguard ourselves against potential risks
F. And we can see the effects of climate change everywhere
G. If you desire to know the horrible consequences for ignoring space threats
My aunt Mantha loved Christmas. She always went out of her way to make it 1 and cosy for everyone around her. December 2022 was no 2 . Mantha drove three hours to visit everyone two weeks before the 25th and to drop off 3 to her friends. We chatted about our plans, 4 and kissed goodbye when it was time to 5 .
So when on December 18. Mantha's son called us sadly to tell us Mantha had passed away 6 at home, none of us could quite believe it. So close to Christmas, none of us felt like 7 . That was until my sister-in-law, Vera told us about some 8 of hers in the office who were from China had just arrived in the UK.
We knew we couldn't leave them to spend the day by themselves, especially after we heard how 9 they were to experience a proper English Christmas. More importantly, we knew Mantha would have wanted us to throw open our doors and give them a Christmas to 10 .
When the day finally came, we 11 them into the house with open arms and tried to 12 our pain so we could give them the full Christmas 13 .
It didn't 14 the pain of Mantha's absence but connecting with strangers and 15 our culture helped us get through the day and turned out to be the very thing we all needed.
On October 14th, the Times Square in New York (take) over by the full-screen poster of the "2023 Tianfu Book Fair"!
The 2023 Tianfu Book Fair (title) "Mutual Learning Among Cultures Amid Fragrance of Books", showcased a range of outstanding Chinese publications, making their way overseas. The International Pavilion was a highlight, displaying over 1,000 types and (approximate) 6,500 copies of original literature, children's books, and picture books in English, Japanese, and other languages. Plus the Harry Potter Pop-up Store, had been stealing the show, offered readers immersive experience with the complete Harry Potter series and official merchandise.
But wait, there's more! A series of exciting cultural (activity) were also lined up. Guests could attend cultural lectures the three Su scholars' culture, try their hand at panda-themed traditional Chinese painting and witness a face-changing performance of Chinese Sichuan opera. This fair was not just about books: it was an excellent chance that allowed overseas readers to discover the charm of Sichuan culture the richness of traditional Chinese culture. It was a powerful showcase of Chinese culture, making the trustworthy, lovable, and (respect) image of China more real and tangible than ever before. In the future, China will make every effort (spread) excellent traditional Chinese culture.
On Oct. 4. 2021, James and his friend Raphael were squeezing in a lunchtime workout on Pier (码头) 15 overlooking the East River, when James froze. "Somebody's in the water," he shouted. Before Raphael could respond. James climbed over the rail at the edge of the pier and leaped into the cold, polluted water without taking the time to remove his shoes.
What James had heard was an alarmed fisherman shouting from Pier 16. nearly 50 yards away, "Help! He's in the water!" And what he'd seen was a person floating, lifeless.
Raphael didn't need to see the victim. "Maybe the fisherman saw someone in the water who needs our help." he thought. "Or maybe it's the fisherman who needs my help. Either way, I'm going in." He yanked off his shoes and swan-dived.
Approaching the unconscious victim, James saw that it was a middle-aged man. He was big, around 200 pounds, respectably dressed and sinking fast. He was 3 feet below the surface by the time James reached him. James dove, felt around, grasped the man and kicked upward until they both resurfaced. Raphael was there now. Treading(踩，踏) water, the two friends floated the man on his back. As Raphael looped his arms around the man's shoulders and James supported the hips and knees, they made their way back to Pier 15, exhausted.
They might have been hauling a corpse (尸体). The man's skin was blue, and neither Raphael nor James detected any breathing. When at last they reached Pier 15, they faced a new uncertainty.
How to get out? The pier's decking stood an unreachable 10 feet above their heads. A metal beam was covered by sharp barnacles. If Raphael, shoeless, attempted to climb onto it, he'd hurt his bare feet.
Suddenly the man breathed again, stirred and clobbered (狠揍) confusedly Raphael in the face before fading back to near unconsciousness.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150词左右：
2.请按如下格式作答.
"Did we do something wrong?" Raphael asked himself.
At the moment, on the pier, the crowd had gathered from somewhere.
