On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley saved me.

    The previous afternoon, I played with my six-year-old peers in Heather Peters^' backyard. I was enjoying my cake, when Heather asked me where my sleeping bag was. Only then did I know this party was a sleepover. The word “sleep-over” to a six-year-old bed-wetter is like what “cancer” means to an adult. But what if I told them I was a bed-wetter? At least with cancer, people gather at your bedside instead of running from it.

    I thought of a way to escape. I would explain that I needed my mother's permission to spend the nights. But as I called my Mom, Heather stood beside me to listen. She granted permission! Then I would be sleeping in the same living room as the other girls. I didn't bring my own pajamas (睡衣)，so Mrs. Peters offered me Heather's pajamas.

    As the other girls drifted into their sweet dreams, I tried to stay awake. “Do I need to go again? I'll stay up to go one more time.. .”.Of course , I finally fell asleep.

    The next morning , I was the first to wake up. I was warm! I lay in panic for what seemed like hours before the other girls started to wake up. I did the only thing I could do — I pretended that the bed-wetting didn't happen. I got up, took off Heather's pajamas and changed into my clothes like the other girls.

    Mrs. Peters walked into the room, and before she could say anything, she stepped right onto the pile of my wet pajamas. My heart stopped as I watched her face burn red. “WHO DID THIS?” She screamed, with a look so frightening. Should I answer? And that was when it happened — Mr. Peters came in and grabbed his wife , "Elvis Presley died!”

    The news of the King's death overtook Mrs. Peters, and I ,was spared. I got home without the other girls knowing what had happened.

    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 believe driverless cars can save tens of thousands of lives annually.

    It 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 traffic jam. 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 2018. Pretty sure the robot would win in a landslide.

    Imagine the tallest building in the United States. Fill that giant building 44 times with rotten fruits and vegetables. Now you know how much food Americans waste every year.

    It is hard to believe, right? About 133 billion pounds of food get thrown away. That's one-third of all the food we produce. And a lot of it is thrown away for one simple reason: It's ugly.

    The problem is that nature isn't perfect. Apples can get scarred (留下疤痕) by storms. Cucumbers grow in C shapes. Carrots change into unusual fork-like forms. Watermelons get too big to fit on a refrigerator shelf. These crazy-looking fruits and vegetables may taste great. But most grocery stores refuse to sell them. Store owners say people judge food by how it looks. No one wants a tomato that looks like a two-headed monster. But what if you could buy that tomato for half-price?

    A new movement is trying to make people see the “beauty” in ugly food. Some stores are selling ugly produce. It tastes the same. And you pay less for it because the food doesn't look perfect.

    Usually, the stores find a nicer word than “ugly”. A Canadian chain uses “naturally imperfect”. In some US stores, it's “misfit produce”. Whatever you call it, ugly food helps many people. Fanners get paid for food they were going to have to throw away. Shoppers get cheaper fruits and vegetables. The ugly-food movement will also help some of the 44 million Americans who don't have enough to eat. Many groups give the ugly produce to hungry people.

    So really, who cares if that carrot looks a little… ugly?

    There's a new achievement in 3D printing that's beginning to come into focus: food. Recent development has made possible machines that print, cook, and serve foods on a mass scale(大规模地). And the industry isn't stopping there.

    Food production

    With a 3D printer, a cook can print complicated chocolate sculptures and beautiful pieces for decoration on a wedding cake. Not everybody can do that—it takes years of experience, but a printer makes it easy. A restaurant in Spain uses a Foodini to "re-create forms and pieces" of food that are "exactly the same", freeing cooks to complete other tasks. In another restaurant, all of the dishes and desserts it serves are 3D-printed, rather than farm to table.

    Nutrition

    Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier. Hod Lipson, a professor at Columbia University, said, "Food printing could allow consumers(消费者) to print food with customized(定制的) nutritional content, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday's bread from the supermarket, you'd eat something baked just for you on demand."

    Challenges

    Despite recent advancements in 3D food printing, the industry has many challenges to overcome. Currently, most ingredients (烹饪原料) must be changed to a paste（糊状物）before a printer can use them, and the printing process is quite time-consuming, because ingredients interact with each other in very complex ways. On top of that, most of the 3D food printers now are limited to dry ingredients, because meat and milk products may easily go bad. Some experts are doubtful about 3D food printers, believing they are better suited for fast food restaurants than homes and high-end restaurants.

    China's popular "Singles' Day", better known as "Double Eleven", started out as a day to celebrate singles symbolized by the four number ones on the date of November 11.

    With time that meaning has changed. In 2009, China's e-commerce leader Alibaba set the day as a lucky shopping day for online sales as the date was both easy to remember and perfectly timed as it hit between the consumer spending lull (间歇) between National Day and Chinese New Year. It soon became a hit, and Double Eleven became a buying frenzy (疯狂) spread across the world's second largest economy.

    In 2019, the Double Eleven Shopping Festival entered its eleventh year. During this decade, Alibaba, Chinese e-commerce giant, and other e-commerce platforms, together with consumers, have co-created a very big shopping event whose heat has swept the world. Foreign readers share their ideas on Singles' Day in China:

    GhostBuster (UK) I think Double Eleven is unbelievable. It is not a religious festival that people of the same religion but living in different countries share. As an e-commerce faithful fan, I really love the shopping festival.

    Emanreus (Australia) I work in Shanghai. Many of my young female colleagues are still single. They simply haven't time to date, as they tend to work long hours then travel two hours by subway to get to and from work. Single's Day is a day when they give themselves a treat with online shopping.

    BlondeAmber (Ireland) There is not hing to be proud of to be in a country that spends so much online on a particular day. It does nothing more than show the superficiality (肤浅) of the temporary pleasure of shopping, and produces nothing more than a mountain of environmental waste. I bet there is plenty of buyers' deep regret after this day.

    Ionstar (US) Singles Day became a big deal for Valentine's Day not for the singles! Well, Alibaba's 11. 11 has become more famous and important than that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

Tutors（家教） Wanted

Teach a kindergartener how to read online

Become a volunteer tutor with Learn To Be! LTB tutors are dedicated volunteers who believe deeply in educational equity. Our tutors volunteer their time to make the lives of under-served K-12 kids and their families easier, their opportunities greater, and their dreams bigger. Teach at least 2 times per week for 3 months or longer. Support your students with homework help or use the resources provided by LTB to create your own lesson plans for your students.

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Tutor adults in English

The South Bay Literacy Council is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to teaching adults to read, write and speak English in the South Bay, Los Angeles area. You'd teach your students weekly online or in-person. The tutoring will last 9 months due to the time it takes to train and match tutors with students.

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Tutor for Remove the Borders

Being a tutor for Remove the Borders is a great opportunity to gain volunteer hours while learning about how socioeconomic status and learning disabilities can hold students back. Dates on when you tutor will be worked out between you and the person you are tutoring. The minimum amount of time you have to tutor is three hours for a month.

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Teach online STEM classes

Across the country, millions of students lack the resources to learn about STEM and computer science. Our non-profit organization tries to provide this vital area of education to underprivileged students through engaging in online classes. As a volunteer teacher, you will earn service hours while developing critical communication, teaching, and leadership skills. These classes will run for eight weeks, and three hours per week.

Visit our website to apply: https://www.roboticsforall.net/overview-of-positions.html