Max Vernon Mathews has been called the father of computer music. He created electronic tools so that people could use computers as musical instruments. He had a huge influence on the development of electronic music and how it is written, recorded and played.

    In 1957, Max Mathews wrote the first computer program that enabled a computer to create sound and play it back. At the time, he was working as an engineer at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. His computer program was called Music. It enabled a large IBM computer to play a seventeen-second piece of music that he had written.

    The computer was so slow that it would have taken an hour to play the piece of music in seventeen seconds. For that reason, Mathews moved the work to a tape player, which could be sped up to play the music at a normal speed. He later said that the sound quality of the music notes was not great, but the technical importance of the music was huge.

    The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke visited Bell Laboratories in the 1960s. He heard a computer “sing” the song "Daisy Bell" on devices and programs developed by Max Mathews andother engineers. Clarke noted this technology in his book “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which was later made into a movie.

    Mathews continued creating other versions of the Music program. He became interested in how computers could help musicians outside recording studios.

    Max Mathews had a long and productive career. He worked with composers like John Cage and Edgard Varese. He helped create a center for research in computer music in Paris. And he taught at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics in Stanford University in California.

    Mathews believed modern musicians were not making full use of the power of computer music. He said a violin always sounds like a violin, but with a computer, the way a violin sounds is unlimited. He said he did not want computer sounds to replace live music. But he said he hoped laptop computers would one day be considered serious instruments

    Some of the best things in life don't happen until you grow old enough to recognize them. I can say that about tea.

    I didn't start to drink tea until I was 35. What happened before that? The first time I felt a genuine urge to drink tea was in 2003, when I stayed briefly in the United Kingdom. After a time of consuming local food, I started to really like strong black tea. Although it was too strong to my tongue, I felt it was a necessity because it was comforting to my body.

    I took packs of green teas with me as gifts but was disappointed to find my British friends preferred much stronger black teas from Sri Lanka. Later I learned that although people know China for its teas, it ranks only third among the world's black tea exporters, after Sri Lanka and Kenya.

    After I came back to China and started to cover food stories, I met friends in the tea-drinking circle and learned more. Although the majority of the rest of the world drinks black tea, which the Chinese call“red tea”, China produces and drinks mostly green teas.

    I feel lucky to be Chinese because of the great variety of teas available in the country. It is estimated that there are more than 2,000 teas in China if you divide them geographically, including more than 600 locally famous brews. A more simple way to categorize (分类) is by color and extent of fermentation (发酵). That comes down to six main categories—green, white, yellow, dark-greenish (oolong), red and black teas.

    Tasting teas can be compared to our lives. They can be plain and predictable but sometimes they are full of pleasant surprises. Occasionally they can even seem too good to be true. The best thing is, you know there's always more to explore.

    Riverside presents

    Sharp Short Theatre

    This competition offers students a rare experience of working in a professional theatre.

    Now in its fourth year of providing an opportunity for new writers, directors and performers to exercise their creative ability, Sharp Short Theatre has fast become one of the most exciting parts of the Riverside year. All entries（参赛作品）perform in a heat and then the best pieces are invited to perform in the final, where students can be awarded prizes in four types including writing, performing, directing and overall.

    Entries must be written and directed by students (18 years old and under) and can be up to at most 10 minutes in time length. Entries must be handed in by a producer, for example a parent, teacher or responsible adult 18 years old or over.

    Sharp Short Theatre is a youth arts pioneer focusing on encouraging the works of students in theatre. Its aim is to unearth and develop the young to be Australian theatre professionals.

    So what are you waiting for? Get into the spirit and register（注册）now.

    Advisory Service:

    Students may hand in their plays for review by a professional playwright（剧作家）in the lead-up to this event.

    Price: ＄30 per play.

    Deadline（截止日期）: 21 March, at 5 pm, 2018.

    Registration:

    To register, click here to complete our online form （one form per entry）.

    Entries Close: 11 April, at 5 pm.

    Price:＄15 per entry.

    Dates & Times:

    Heats: 21-24 May, at 7:30 pm.

    Final: 8 June, at 7:30 pm.

    Price:

    Heats: Adult ＄18, kids under 18 ＄12.

    Final: All tickets ＄20.

    As smog forced students to stay home, the online learning industry saw a sharp increase in consumers.

    During the air pollution red alert from Dec. 8 to 10 last winter, the Beijing Commission of Education ordered all kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools to suspend classes (停课). But the commission urged that, "Teachers should guide students to make full use of digital materials and conduct online learning at home".

    According to the China Education and Research Network, the number of new users of 17zuoye. com, an online homework platform, tripled (增至三倍) on Dec. 8 compared to the previous day.

    Online courses companies also adopted special measures to meet students' demand for Internet learning during the red alert period. For example, New Oriental offered free online English classes for three days for school students as well as online question answering services.

    Recent years have seen the popularity of online courses increase sharply in China. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC), for example, originated in the United States but have become widespread in China since 2013. Some Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University, have started their own MOOC platforms. "MOOCs have enlarged the time and space of teaching, fired up learners' interest, helped more people benefit from high quality educational resources and accelerated reform in many aspects of teaching," an official at the Ministry of Education told China Daily.

    Buster used to be a lovely dog playing and running on a farm all day. His life had a big change after his handler Will's presence because Will found he did extremely well in sniffing tests. Will thought Buster had a special talent and decided to let him become a member of RAF police working dogs. Buster began working with Will in 2007, and the pair was sent to Afghanistan's deadly Helmand province. There, Buster saved countless lives by sniffing out explosive devices (IEDs), as well as weapons. He joined his comrades repeatedly on foot patrols hunting Taliban terrorists and tracking down bombs. He also acted as a useful diplomatic tool, due to his friendly approach to local children. The RAF soon had a long train of children in tow, as Buster drew in his crowd and entertained them.

    After his glittering service with the RAF, Buster retired in 2011,and died in 2015 at the age of 13 at the home of his handler, Will, in Lincolnshire where he had been enjoying retirement with his handler Will, his wife Tracy and their two dogs who will inherit (继承) their father's career.

    Over the course of his career, Buster is thought to have saved more than 1,000 lives. He also helped patrol British bases and searched vehicles at check points, and upon retirement was made the official RAF Police mascot (吉祥物). Buster's brave exploits were even documented in Will's book, which was published in January and soon became a best-selling one.

    Buster completed five tours of duty in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq and earned a row of campaign medals, and it was because of his great efforts in these austere environments full of wars and confrontations that he would be remembered. It was the saving of countless lives by searching out IEDs that saw the honor of official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police bestowed (授予) upon Buster. The RAF police are now planning to commemorate Buster as part of a special event to celebrate RAF Police Working Dogs.

    On Sunday, November 3, 2019, most North Americans will mark the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) by moving their clocks back an hour. This simple action will not only add an extra 60 minutes to their weekend, but also shift (变换，变动) daylight back into the morning hours, making it a little less painful to wake up for school and work during the shorter winter days.

    Operating the clocks was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He mentioned the idea in a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris and advised it should be a way to save candles, but it was not taken seriously. George Hudson from New Zealand also recommended moving the clocks back two hours in 1895 to get extra daylight time to study insects. Unfortunately, neither he nor British people William Willett, who suggested it in 1907 as a way to save electricity costs, got their wish.

    It was the German Empire that began the clock shifting tradition on April 30, 1916, to save fuel needed to produce weapons and bombs for World War I. Though a few others, including the US and Britain, adopted the tradition shortly after, all the countries returned to Standard Time once the war ended, only to start DST again during World War II. Once the battle ended in 1945, the US government ended DST nationally but allowed states and districts to continue the tradition and even allowed them to establish their own start and stop dates.

    However, though there have been many attempts to persuade lawmakers to end DST, both in the US and Europe, they have not been successful. Therefore, unless you live in places like Hawaii and Arizona, you have little choice but to "Fall Back" and enjoy the extra hour this weekend! Health experts suggest the best way to adjust is going to bed at your regular time, even if the day is an hour longer.