Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably accomplish what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

I've been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a “vo-tech” student(技校学生). They're called “motorheads” by the rest of the student body.

When a secretary in my office first called him “motorhead”, I was shocked. “Hey, he's a good kid,” I wanted to say. “And smart, really.”

I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls(光荣榜).

But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. “Hey, I can fix it,” said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.

      My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts(零件）from a junkyard, non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbours and co-workers trust their car repair to him.a

        Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

        These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

        My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.

Tips for a Happier Workplace

    You don't have to be friends with your co-workers, but you do need to be friendly. Read on for fresh ways to make your office a kinder, gentler place.

◆Give a happy “Hello! ”in the morning

    Do you walk into the office, eyes down, and immediately start work? If so, you are likely to find that co-workers ignore(忽视)you or avoid you.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}It's really amazing how fast this small gesture can change unfriendly workplace relations.

◆Learn the art of small talk

    Ask your co-workers about their interests—their favorite music, movies, and books, as well as their hobbies {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Once you know what catches their imagination, pick up stories from newspapers or magazines to help start conversations.

◆Ask what they think

    People love to be asked for their opinion, so go out of your way to ask, “What do you think of this report? ” or “How do you think I should deal with this situation? ”{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

◆Avoid gossip(流言飞语)

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}So return the favor. When a co-worker walks towards you bearing a piece of gossip, respond(回应)with, “Really? ”and then change the subject or get back to work. If you don't respond, the gossiper will move on.

◆{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    To win friends at work, start with good office etiquette(礼节). There's nothing more frustrating(令人沮丧的)to busy co-workers than to have their emails and phone messages ignored. Your silence doesn't just make their jobs harder; it also conveys(传达)an unpleasant message: You are unimportant to me.

A. Stop complaining.

B. Return calls and emails immediately.

C. Then give the advice giver a silent thank-you.

D. Always work as hard as anyone working for you.

E. You don't want anyone talking about you behind your back, right?

F. Showing an interest in them will make them feel comfortable around you.

G. Get into the habit of greeting your co-workers with a smile as you arrive in the morning.

    Most academics would view a post at an elite university like Oxford or Harvard as the crowning achievement of a career—bringing both honour and access to better wine cellars. But scholars desire such places for reasons beyond glory. They believe perching on one of the topmost branches of the academic tree will also improve the quality of their work, by bringing them together with other geniuses with whom they can collaborate and who may help spark new ideas. This sounds reasonable. Unfortunately，as Albert Laszlo Barabasi of Northeastern University，in Boston (and also, it must be said, of Harvard), shows in a study published in Scientific Reports, it is not true.

    Dr Barabasi and his team examined the careers of physicists who began publishing between 1950 and 1980 and continued to do so for at least 20 years. They ranked the impact of the institutions these people attended by counting the number of citations each institution's papers received within five years of publication. By tracking the association of individual physicists and counting their citations in a similar way, Dr Barabasi was able to work out whether moving from a low to a high-ranking university improved a physicist's impact. In total, he and his team analysed 2,725 careers.

    They found that, though an average physicist moved once or twice during his career, moving from a low-rank university to an elite one did not increase his scientific impact. Going in the opposite direction, however, did have a small negative influence. The consequence is that elite university do not，at least as far as physicists are concerned，add value to output. That surprising conclusion is one which the authorities in countries such as Britain, who are seeking to concentrate expensive subjects such as physics in fewer, more elite institutions—partly to save money, but also to create what are seen as centers of excellence—might wish to consider.

    Food production does great harm to our environment. There are many procedures involved in the manufacture of food that result in greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Some procedures require the consumption of large amounts of fossil fuels, such as the transportation and storage of food products. Other factors that cause great damage to our environment include the overuse of fresh water.

    The production of beef is more damaging to the environment than that of any other food we consume. Raising large numbers of cattle requires the production of large amounts of food for the animals. It's estimated that producing one pound of beef requires seven pounds of feed.

    Land use is also a problem. If the cattle are free-range cattle, large areas of land are required for them to live on. This has led to disastrous forest cutting and the loss of rare plants and animal species, particularly in tropical rain forests in Central and South America.

    Another problem specific to beef production is methane emissions (甲烷排放). Although many people are aware of the damaging effects of carbon dioxide, they don't realize methane's global warming potential is 25 times worse, making it a more dire problem.

    Unfortunately, beef consumption is growing rapidly. This is the result of simple supply and demand factors. Specifically, there are two main causes of demand that are encouraging the production of more supply. First, the increase in the world population means there are more people to consume meat. The second factor is socioeconomic advancement. As citizens in developing nations become financially stable, they can afford to buy more meat.

    Therefore, one way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions is for people around the world to significantly cut down on the amount of beef they eat.

    The future of Australia's solar industry is looking bright after a record 3.5m panels(嵌板)were installed on rooftops last year, giving the equal output of a medium-sized coal-fired power station. The record 1,057 MW of capacity (产能) in small scale systems installed across the country broke the previous record set in 2012, figures from the Clean Energy Regulator showed on Tuesday.

    Australia's solar power prosperity could almost double capacity in a year, The data also revealed that the average system size has also doubled since then from three to six kilowatts as average prices continued to fall. A fully installed 5KW system costs an average of $5,930 in Australia, according to the energy broker Solar choice.net.au. Its records show that the price has roughly halved in many capital cities since 2012.

    The regulator's executive general manager, Mark Williamson, said there was increasing interest in renewals as a way to take control of electricity bills. But more importantly, he said it was also good news for reducing carbon emissions.

    “We are seeing a wide cross section of Australians—households, community centers, schools, and small businesses—receiving rewards under the small scale renewable energy scheme,” Williamson said, “Our data shows consumers are embracing renewable energy to take control of their electricity bills. ”

    In 2017, there was a 41% increase in installing renewable energy capacity across all states and territories compared to 2016. Queensland led the way with installed capacity at 295MW, with the Australian Capital Territory taking top place for the biggest annual increase by 57 %. “I he data collected by the Clean Energy Regulator in 2017 reflects the industry is going from strength to strength, It looks like 2018 will be another big year for the solar industry.”

    The total of installed capacity for last year is expected to rise to 1,070MW when all the data is collected. A large coal-fired power station such as Loyd Yang A in Victoria's Latrobe Valley has a capacity of 2, 200MW.

    A typical child plays many roles, such as friend, neighbor, son or daughter. Simply reminding children of that fact can lead to better problem-solving and more flexible thinking, according to new research from Duke University.

    Better problem-solving was just one positive finding of the study, said lead author Sarah Gaither, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. After thinking about their own various identities, children also showed more flexible thinking about race and other social groupings—a behavior that could be valuable in an increasingly diverse society.

    In a series of experiments, Gaither and her colleagues looked at 196 children, ages 6 and 7. In an experiment, one group of children was reminded that they had various identities, such as son, daughter, reader or helper. A second group of children was reminded of their multiple physical attributes, such as a mouth, arms and legs. All the children then needed to handle a few tasks

    Children who were reminded of their various identities showed stronger problem-solving and creative thinking skills. When shown pictures of a bear staring at honey-filled beehive(蜂窝)high up in a tree, these children had more creative ideas for how the bear might get the honey, such as turning over a bowl so that it became a stool(凳子). In other words, they saw a new use for the bowl. Children who were reminded of their multiple roles also showed more flexible thinking about social groupings. When asked to categorize different photos of faces, they suggested many ways to Spso. They identified smiling faces such as unsmiling ones, and old and young faces. The other children, meanwhile, primarily grouped people's faces by race and gender(性别).

    The-study suggests ways to promote flexible thinking for the young, which could be especially valuable for teachers." Gaither said.

    "We have this tendency in our society to only think about ourselves in connection with one important group at a time," Gaither said. "When kids think that they have various identities, they show greater abilities."