Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites (垃圾填埋场).

Electronic waste (e-waste) currently takes up 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase rapidly as more of us own more than one smartphone, laptop and power bank. They end up in places like Agbogbloshie on the outskirts (郊区) of Ghana’s capital, Accra. It is the biggest e-waste dump in the world, where 10,000 informal workers walk through tons of abandoned goods as part of an informal recycling process. They risk their health searching for the precious metals that are found in abandoned smartphones.

But Agbogbloshie legally should not exist. The Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty, aims to prevent developed nations from unauthorized dumping of e-waste in less developed countries. The e-waste industry, however, circumvents regulation by exporting e-waste labelled as “secondhand goods” to poor countries like Ghana, knowing full well that it is heading for a landfill site.

A recent report found Agbogbloshie contained some of the most dangerous chemicals. This is not surprising: smart phones contain chemicals like mercury, lead and even arsenic. Reportedly, one egg from a free-range chicken in Agbogbloshie contained a certain chemical which can cause cancer and damage the immune system at a level that’s about 220 times greater than a limit set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Most worryingly, these poisonous chemicals are free to pollute the broader soil and water system. This should concern us all, since some of Ghana’s top exports are cocoa and nuts.

Some governments have started to take responsibility for their consumers’ waste. For example Germany has started a project that includes a sustainable recycling system at Agbogbloshie, along with a health clinic for workers. However, governments cannot solve the problem alone, as there is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, especially when governments’ green policies are focused on issues like climate change.

Only the manufacturers can fix this. A more economically sustainable and politically possible solution is through encouraging hardware manufacturers to make the repair, reuse and recycling of hardware profitable, or at least cost-neutral.

Peking Opera is being introduced to primary and middle school students in an effort to promote the traditional art to the younger generation.

The country's first set of textbooks about Peking Opera was compiled and published by the Beijing Association of Promoting Quintessence of Chinese Culture and People's Education Press in 2015.

The textbooks for optional courses have been put on trial use in middle schools in Fengtai district and will be used in middle schools across the city. The textbooks for primary schools will also be rolled_out.

Since 2008, Beijing has promoted a program to provide opera training at dozens of primary schools. Schools apply for funds from the city's education department to hire professional actors and actresses to work with students as young as 6 or 7.

Peking Opera arose during the rule of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1644 － 1911). It   flourished for decades in China and as its fame spread, it   drew audiences in other countries, including the United States and Japan.

Yet over the years, its popularity diminished. While a significant number of people listened to radio productions of Peking Opera before the 1980s, generations born after that pursued pop culture over the traditional arts.

At Girls Build summer camp in Oregon, girls are learning how to use power tools like saws and drills. The camp is filled with construction excitement. Wearing hard hats and tool belts (腰带) wrapped twice around their tiny waists, girls are working on everything from pouring concrete planters to covering the roof of a sandbox. With every project they turn a pile of raw material into an actual structure.

Hughes, the camp’s director, says the girls can produce professional-quality products. She is a carpenter (木匠) with a degree in social work. While she’d like to see more women in the trade and the gender (性别) imbalance even out, she says more than any future career, it’s a sense of mastery and fearlessness the instructors are trying to pass along to the kids. “If something breaks, I want them to have the confidence to open that up,” Hughes says. “It’s our mission and objective to inspire curiosity and confidence in girls through the world of building.”

Alifanz, who sent her 8-year-old twins to Girls Build, says, “There’s not nothing they can’t do, but there’s nothing they can’t try. And that’s a lot for them to take away in a week.” Knowledge like that changes how they see the world built around them and they show appreciation of the actual effort that goes into making the world work.

But other parents ask the obvious question—is pairing pre-teens and power tools a good idea? Hughes stresses Girls Build is very concerned with safety, and instructors consider girls’ ages when pairing them with tools.

9-year-old Aleeyah takes pride in mastering these practical skills many adults are lacking. “I like it when you can be your own self, and it brings out who you really are,” says Aleeyah.

These girls are learning many things can be built, taken apart, and put back together. They don’t have to fit themselves into the designed world—they can build a world that fits them. And that knowledge is a pretty powerful tool to have in their belts.