二维码，新旅游“神器”？

Bar Codes on Sidewalks Give Tourist Info

The first two-dimensional bar codes were installed at Arpoador, a massive boulder that rises at the end of Ipanema beach. The image was built into the sidewalk with the same black and white stones.

They attracted audiences, who downloaded an application to their smartphones or tablets and photographed the icon. The app read the code and they were then taken to a web site that gave them information in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and a map of the area. They learned, for example, that Arpoador gets big waves, making it a hot spot for surfing and giving the 500-meter beach nearby the name of “Praia do Diabo,” or Devil’s Beach.

The city plans to install 30 of these codes at beaches and historic sites, so Rio’s two million foreign visitors can learn about the city as they walk around.

Scrap Car Plant Tree

Green schemes have been regular news for many years, but it’s rare that we come across an initiative that uses a traditional polluter as a force for environmental good. This is exactly what Scrap Car Plant Tree hopes to do by encouraging owners of old cars to donate the vehicle in order to raise money for the creation of new green spaces in UK cities.

Automobiles contribute a large portion of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year. With this in mind, the scheme enables car owners whose vehicles have come to the end of their life to donate them to the Trees for Cities charity. When cars are donated, the scheme aims to tow them within one to three days, after which they will be taken to a scrap yard or put up for auction if still roadworthy. The funds will go to helping plant new trees in the donor’s city.

It costs £7.50 to plant and care for a tree through its maturity. One car donation that is used for scrap can raise about £100, funding about 13 trees. If you donate a vehicle that brings in a good amount of money in auction, you could potentially subsidize a whole grove of trees!

Disabled Piglet Rolling in Love

Video about Chris P. Bacon has Internet animal fans going wild. He is a month-old piglet from Clermont, Florida, born without use of his hind legs, has become an Internet sensation since his owner posted a video showing him learning to use a wheelchair made from a toy building set. The video has been viewed almost 450,000 times by people from as far away as Brazil, England and Australia.

The disabled piglet came to Dr. Len Lucero of Eastside Veterinary Hospital in mid-January when a client dropped him off because she couldn’t take care of him. Lucero was familiar with the mobility devices used by disabled animals. One night, he fashioned a wheelchair for Bacon out of K’nex toys, attaching the contraption to the then-1-pound piglet.

“He screamed, yelled,” Lucero said. “He didn’t like it at first, but he got used to it.” The wheelchair worked, so Lucero shot a video of the pig testing it on the family’s living-room floor. Lucero posted a six-minute video on YouTube so that his out-of-state friends and family could see Bacon in action. But within a few days, the video spread like wildfire.