位於德國西南部的富足的文藝城市斯圖加特,以Mercedes-Benz汽車博物館聞名,現在又多了個漂亮景點讓人駐足了,耗費多年完成的新媒體藝術中心暨「斯圖加特市立圖書館 Stuttgart City Library」於10月開放使用,這座圖書館顯然已躋身世界最美的圖書館之列。
這獲得許多國際媒體讚譽的斯圖加特市立圖書館是由韓國設計師 Eun Young Yi所設計,在1999年全球235件建築競圖中脫穎而出的優秀設計;Eun Young Yi 設計一個地下二樓,地上九層樓的純白巨大立方體,而圖書館全館皆無直接照明,並同樣使用白色為主調,環型中空的通透設計更凸顯開放空間感的溫暖感受,完全沉浸在閱讀的喜樂之中。
Watch as global population explodes from 300 million to 7 billion.
As NPR's Adam Cole reports, it was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804.But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population.
NPR 的 Adam Cole 報導,就在兩個世紀前,全球人口是1 億—1804 年。更好的藥物和農業技術的提升讓兒童有較高的預期壽命,也極大地提高世界人口的總量。
NPR explains how we reached a population of 7 billion.
Simply put, the world is making babies faster than people are dying, and with improved medicine and agriculture, people are living longer than before. The video above demonstrates the different birth and mortality rates, where each container represents a continent.
There has been a shift in recent years:
Much of that growth has happened in Asia — in India and China. Those two countries have been among the world's most populous for centuries. But a demographic shift is taking place as the countries have modernized and lowered their fertility rates. Now, the biggest growth is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa.
Due in part to that region's extreme poverty, infant mortality rates are high and access to family planning is low. The result is high birth rates and a booming population of 900 million —
a number that could triple by the end of the century.