Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.

    “Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”

    This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don't have to feed it, you don't have to walk it, it won't make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.

    It's not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It's the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.

    As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn't need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.

    So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn't have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.

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    Spring is a wonderful season to celebrate rebirth and new life. The long, cold winter is over. The weather is warmer and sunnier. The trees again have leaves and the flowers are blooming. The season represents hope, joy and beauty. At this time, many people think of this classical music piece—Spring, which shows happiness. Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote it in the seventeen hundreds.

    However, not all songs about spring are happy. This song written and sung by K.D. Lang is about dreaming of spring in cold dark places. She recorded I Dream of Spring in 2008.

    Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote It Might as Well Be Spring for the movie State Fair in 1945.Frank Sinatra sings it. It is a feeling of restlessness or excitement brought on by the coming of spring. Richard Rodgers also wrote Spring Is Here, this time with Lorenz Hart. Ella Fitzgerald sings this song about feeling lonely during this season.

    Frank Loesser wrote the sad song, Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year. Why has the season been delayed? Because the singer's lover has left her. Sarah Vaughn released(发行) her version of the song in 1953.

    By now you may be thinking, "Enough with the sad songs, already！"OK ,then how about a cowboy song? Gene Autry was one of the America's most famous singing cowboys. He recorded When It's Spring time in the Rockies in 1937.

    And finally, we'll leave you with a sunny song called Up Jumped Spring. Freddie Hubbard wrote this jazz song in 1977 and Billy Taylor Trio performs it.

Why Mars (火星) is New Settlement

    Is it possible to live on other planets? The United States government is taking a serious look at the moon and Mars as potential places for future human settlement. The moon could serve as a training ground for later journeys to Mars. Currently, with Mars becoming the eventual long-term goal, serious questions exist as to whether the dangers of the settlement on the moon are too extreme and unnecessary.

    One major reason the settlement on the moon is too dangerous is the difference between the atmosphere environment of the moon and Mars. Atmosphere is important because it protects humans and all other life from a continuous attack of radiation (辐射) caused by sources such as the sun. This radiation is especially dangerous to humans because it increases the risk of cancer and can negatively change DNA. The fact that the moon has no atmosphere can cause great harm to human beings. Although Mars' atmosphere is significantly thinner than Earth's, at least it has one and would create some sort of protective barrier for humans.

    Another important characteristic necessary for human settlement is natural resources like water, of which the moon is believed to have none. Mars, however, contains vast quantities of water ice, dry ice, and also snow. There is also sufficient evidence that water once existed at the surface of Mars and might return in the future if the planet warms. With increased technologies, the potential for settlers to remain on Mars by being increasingly self-sufficient makes Mars a much more attractive goal as the space settlement than the moon.

    Future settlers will not only benefit from potential water on Mars; the planet is also rich in other natural resources such as oxygen, hydrogen, and minerals, which can be well used in productive ways.  For example, hydrogen can be used as fuel, and it can be combined with nitrogen (氮气) to form new materials necessary for human settlement. Due to these advantages,

    Mars would be a more successful planet for exploration and settlement because it contains the basic resources necessary for humans to survive.

    Since the environment of Mars is more similar to that of Earth and it contains resources necessary to  help  life  exist,  it should  be  the  only option for any kind of long-term human settlement. The settlement on Mars would not only be a milestone in space but also an excellent chance for mankind to improve itself from past adventures on Earth and preserve and make the best use of the natural resources Mars has to offer.

    Of all the things that will make life entirely happy, the greatest is the possession of friendship. One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.

    On the first Sunday in August, it's time to recognize your friends and their contribution to your life. The first Sunday in August was fixed as National Friendship Day by the U.S. Congress in 1935, and remains a tradition observed in many countries and cultures. In 1997, the United Nations named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship.

    Apparently, there are several friendship holidays, all of which fall on fixed dates.

    National Friendship Day is on the first Sunday in August

    Women's Friendship Day is on the third Sunday in September

    International Friendship Month is February

    Old Friends, New Friends Week is the third week of May

    People show their appreciation for friendship in various ways. Some expressions may be practical ones, such as flowers, particularly the pink friendship roses, cookies, chocolates, souvenirs from their vacations, a tape of favorite songs, farewell dinners, and welcome balloons.

    Recipe for Friendship  2 cups of patience, 1 heart full of love, 2 handfuls of generosity, 2 cups of loyalty, 1 cup of understanding, A dash of laughter. Mix them all well. Spray generously over a lifetime and serve everyone you meet.

    Friendship helps to bring peace and positivity to the globe, another great reason to celebrate! Although our friends certainly deserve thanks on more than just one day of the year, what better day to honor them than Friendship Day!

    Most people can't live to 100. Those who do live so long can hardly walk, let alone take part in any activities. A few people, however, take part in dangerous activities even though they are more than 100 years old. They keep going and going! There is a great grandmother who likes challenging herself although she is 101 years old this year.

    Mary Hardison believes that people should always be cheerful and more importantly, take on all kinds of adventures while they physically still can. So, instead of celebrating her 101st birthday with a boring party, she decided to go paragliding（滑翔跳伞）﹣an idea she got from her 75﹣year﹣old son who recently took it up as a hobby.

    So on her birthday, cheered on by her big family, she tied herself up together with expert instructor Kevin Hintze, and jumped down fearlessly from the sky near her home in Ogden, Utah. And, it was not just a simple jump either. According to Kevin Hintze, the grandmother encouraged him to turn around, as they made their way down.

    This is not the first time that Mary has done something "wild" and "crazy". For her 90th birthday she rode all the adult rides at Disneyland. And, she is not done yet﹣ For her 102nd birthday she hopes to go down the 3,000 feet Alpine Slide at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort!

    Not surprisingly, this great action has made Mary Hardison very famous and also earned her a place in the Guinness World Records where she broke a 2007 record set by a 100﹣year﹣old British woman. What an amazing lady!

    Nobel prize-winners, legendary (传奇的) authors, and famous scientists — you might think all these people were born to be creative. However, that's not always the case.

    While well-known figures like Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein did their most significant (重要的) work in their youth, famous American poet Robert Frost and English-born natural scientist Charles Darwin were known as "late bloomers" – people whose talents were not noticeable until later in life.

    This idea of "peaking" at different times inspired new research from the United States. "Many people believe that creativity is exclusively (独有地) associated (有联系的) with youth, but it really depends on what kind of creativity you're talking about," said Bruce Weinburg, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the study.

    According to the study, published earlier this month in the journal De Economist, there are two types of people: conceptual (概念的) and experimental thinkers.

    To reach this conclusion, researchers took the 31 previous winners of the Nobel Prize in economics and arranged them according to when they did their most significant work, to identify (识别) their creative peaks.

    Some peaked from ages 25-29. Classified as conceptual thinkers, these people think outside of the box, coming up with new ideas before they become used to the conventional way of doing things.

    The second creative peak came with economists in their 50s. These are experimental thinkers who have been in their field for a long time. This allows them to learn from errors and experiment with different processes, before eventually finding new solutions.

    "Whether you hit your creative peak early or late in your career depends on whether you have a conceptual or experimental approach," said Weinburg. He added that their study isn't limited to economics, saying it can apply to other creative disciplines (知识领域). So if you're struggling to come up with new ideas, don't panic. Your creative peak may be yet to arrive.