More than 10 years ago, it was difficult to buy a tasty pineapple.The fruits that made it to the UK were green on the outside and, more often than not,hard with an unpleasant taste within.Then in 1966,the Del Monte Gold pineapple produced in Hawaii first hit our shelves.

    The new type of pineapple looked more yellowy-gold than green.It was slightly softer on the outside and had a lot of juice inside.But the most important thing about this new type of pineapple was that it was twice as sweet as the hit-and-miss pineapples we had known. In no time, the Del Monte Gold took the market by storm, rapidly becoming the world's best-selling pineapple variety, and delivering natural levels of sweetness in the mouth,up until then only found in tinned pineapple.

    In nutrition it was all good news too.This nice tasting pineapple contained four times more vitamin C than the old green variety.Nutritionists said that it was not only full of vitamins, but also good against some diseases.People were understandably eager to be able to buy this wonderful fruit.The new type of pineapple was selling fast9 and the Del Monte Gold pineapple rapidly became a fixture in the shopping basket of the healthy eater.

    Seeing the growing market for its winning pineapple, Del Monte tried to keep market to itself.But other fruit companies developed similar pineapples.Del Monte turned to law for help, but failed. Those companies argued successfully that Del Monte's attempts to keep the golden pineapple for itself were just a way to knock them out the market.

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    Oh my God, the robots are taking over! We're doomed! Doomed! Now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's become clear that while we may or may not be doomed, the robots are taking over. The latest example is the government's new guidelines for self-driving cars.

    Tesla, Google and Uber are already testing driverless cars in cities across America. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick is among those predicting that by 2021, self-driving cars will play a big part in urban settings.

    Nearly 40,000 people died last year in this nation in automobile-related accidents, and we believes driverless cars can save tens of thousands of lives annually.

    Makes sense. Robot drivers are less likely to get drunk, drive without a license, text while driving or feel agitated at the scene of a pileup. On the other hand, I wonder how these highly sensitive cars will react, with walkers constantly dashing into the street. Will they jam on the brakes every 10 seconds?

    But there's a bigger picture. Not only are robots replacing humans behind the wheel, but behind the work desk, in warehouses, senior homes, you name it. Robots aren't just taking over in the workplace.

    The question is, where can't a robot function better than a human? How about writing songs? A robot can go through every combination of notes in record time and come up with a pleasing melody. The lyrics might be a different story. Is a Grammy-winning song co-written by Hank Human and R-3071 in our future?

    Finally, it's only a matter of time until we have robot politicians and presidential candidates. Why not? They can be programmed to be experts in world and domestic affairs and come up with the best solutions without corruption and bad humors.

    Actually, it's too bad such technology isn't available in 2016. Pretty sure the robot would win in a landslide.

    As technology develops, school students who are off class may have no fear of too much absence from class. A small robot may help those children recovering from a long-term illnesses in the hospital or at home. These children may feel isolated from their friends and classmates. The robot takes their place at school. Through the robot, the children can hear their teachers and friends. They also can take part in class from wherever they are recovering.

    Anyone who has had a long term illness knows that recovering at home can be lonely. This can be especially true of children. They may feel left out. Now these children may have a high-tech friend to feel less alone. And that friend is a robot. The robot is called AV1. AV1 goes to school for a child who is at home while recovering from a long-term illness. And the child's school friends must help. They carry the robot between classes and place the robot on the child's desk.

    A Norwegian company called No isolation created the robot. The co-founders of No Isolation are Karen Dolva and Marius Aabel. Dolva explains how the robot AV1 works. She says, from home, the child uses a tablet or phone to start the robot. Then they use the same device（设备）to control the robot's movements. At school, the robot becomes the eyes, ears and voice of the child. The child can take part in classroom activities from wherever she/he is recovering-whether at home or from a hospital bed. The robot is equipped with speakers, microphones and cameras make communicating easy.

    Half a year ago I came across a book called "Salt, Sugar and Fat. How the Food Giants Hooked US", but finished it only recently. I am far from being a fan of junk food, over-salty, or over-sweet stuff, and honestly this food doesn't appeal to me at all. Maybe it is related to the fact that I grew up in Russia and at that time we were not so exposed to the foreign, especially made in America foods. We knew Coca Cola, Pepsi, juice powder and Cheetos, but this stuff was not so cheap or available to buy it every day and we couldn't buy them in large quantities. We didn't know the word "fat" was not a bad thing but a normal of life for some people. We always had sweets and especially on holidays they were served as a dessert along with a cake. Russians like eating sweets when they drink tea. Even with my passion to desserts I still can't relate myself to the people Michale Moss was writing about, those consumers who could not say “no” when it came to junk food.

    What I found interesting in the book was that the author didn't focus on diets, necessity to exercise, sleep well at night and all other things we all are pretty aware of. The aim was not to teach people how to live but instead, after having made a huge research, interviewed more than 100 people in the food industry, Moss reveals the ugly of the food business. It puts all the facts in front of us and offers a choice: to buy or not to buy. However, the answer was known at the very beginning. Moss mentions the well-known food like Coca, Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and some others and tells how skillfully the consumers can be cheated when it comes to choosing what to put in the food basket in the supermarket. We like this taste of a chocolate, the crispy chips, and sweet porridges because it was all put on test by groups of scientists who made experiments to reveal what kind of taste will be most appealing to us. It involves brain, of course. Apart from scientific researches, it was also due to successful marketing strategies and plans that people prefer to buy food.

    In this companies' money race, the most vulnerable(易受伤害的)victims are kids. They can't tell good from bad and love everything that makes them feel good. Commercial ads of fast food particularly targeted kids and played on the fact that mothers can't fully control what their children eat because they spent all day at work. Mothers themselves buy chocolates bars and com flakes for their kids, guided by a powerful brainwashing that actually, these products were not unhealthy, on the contrary, it was encouraged to give them to kids, because fat and sugar provide energy, so they are good, right?

    Giving a credit to some food companies, they made attempts to fight the trend, but consumers, who already worked a habit of eating too salty, too fatting and too sweet products, didn't react to the changes. So the companies returned to the old policy. Surprisingly, such behavior was strongly backed up by the government.

    I would definitely recommend reading this book not only to those who struggle in the battle with his addiction to fast food but also people living healthily. It casts light on many things, including how vulnerable we can be in front of corporations and their powerful and accurate marketing strategies.

    In 2011, the old style Malta buses were taken off the road and replaced by modern vehicles. Most of the old buses were deserted, a few were sold, and about 100 of them were put into storage in the hope of showing them in a museum at some stage.

    A pre-2011 visit to Malta wouldn't have been complete without a ride on one of the colorful buses. Until 1973 you could tell the destination of the bus just by looking at its color — Sliema was green and white, Zabbar was red and white with a blue stripe(条纹)etc. . Later, the buses all had numbers. For a while, they were all painted green and white before the ‘final' orange, yellow and white.

    In their prime, walking around the Triton fountain at the Valletta bus station, you would have found it very difficult to see two buses of exactly the same design. Most of them had locally built bodies. On the front of the buses carried names like Dodge, Leyland, Bedford etc. You were equally likely to find football pennants(锦旗)and the like decorating the cabs. Real bus experts would have recognized that these were there mainly for decorative reasons, and were seldom an accurate reflection of the vehicle's origins.

    Nowadays much more modern buses are to be found at the Floriana bus station. They are more environmentally friendly and possibly even more comfortable than the older types. However, I miss the old buses. I remember, when you boarded your bus, you had to prepare the correct change to pay the usually bad-tempered driver as you got on. If you were seated anywhere near the front, you would have noticed that most drivers sat well to the right of their steering wheel. The reason for this, as any Maltese would tell you, was to leave space for their pet to sit alongside them. I wonder where the pet sits these days.

Sharks have been swimming in the ocean for millions of years. They were on Earth even before dinosaurs! At the top of the world's ocean's food chain, sharks help keep the population of other ocean animals in balance. A large drop in the number of sharks can cause serious problems for all ocean animals. Saving sharks makes sense!

Many people are afraid of sharks. But most sharks are harmless. Only a small percentage of sharks are known to attack humans. It adapt (适应) well to new habitats and eat whatever is available. However, today, sharks are in trouble. Nearly one－third of the 400 shark species are in danger of extinction, largely due to over－fishing. Each year, tens of millions of sharks are caught and killed just for their fins. The fins are used to make shark fin soup.

Humane Society International (HSI) joined with the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots and Shoots program and Beijing Zoo to protect sharks. An exhibit at the zoo, "the Price Behind the Taste—Protect Sharks. Don't Eat Shark Fins", was designed to tell people that shark finning is cruel and unnecessary. It's hoped that the activity will help put an end to the practice.

Shark fin soup is also eaten in the United States. In fact, the numbers of some shark species in US waters have dropped 90 percent in the last 30 years. To slow the fall, laws against the sale of shark fins have been passed in several states, including Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and California.