Some years ago, writing in my diary used to be a usual activity. I would return from school and spend the expected half hour recording the day's events, feelings, and impressions in my little blue diary. I did not really need to express my emotions by way of words, but I gained a certain satisfaction from seeing my experiences forever recorded on paper. After all, isn't accumulating memories a way of preserving the past?

    When I was thirteen years old, I went on a long journey on foot in a great valley, well-equipped with pens, a diary, and a camera. During the trip, I was busy recording every incident, name and place I came across. I felt proud to be spending my time productively, dutifully preserving for future generations a detailed description of my travels. On my last night there, I wandered out of my tent, diary in hand. The sky was clear and lit by the glare of the moon, and the walls of the valley looked threatening behind their screen of shadows. I automatically took out my pen…

    At that point, I understood that nothing I wrote could ever match or replace the few seconds I allowed myself to experience the dramatic beauty of the valley. All I remembered of the previous few days were the dull characterizations I had set down in my diary.

    Now, I only write in my diary when I need to write down a special thought or feeling. I still love to record ideas and quotations that strike me in books, or observations that are particularly meaningful. I take pictures, but not very often—only of objects I find really beautiful. I'm no longer blindly satisfied with having something to remember when I grow old. I realize that life will simply pass me by if I stay behind the camera, busy preserving the present so as to live it in the future.

    I don't want to wake up one day and have nothing but a pile of pictures and notes. Maybe I won't have as many exact representations of people and places； maybe I'll forget certain facts, but at least the experiences will always remain inside me. I don't live to make memories—I just live, and the memories form themselves.

    Dogs can tell how other dogs are feeling from the way their tails are wagging(摇摆)，according to researchers who monitored the animals' heart rate as they watched dogs' movies. The Italian team found that dogs had higher heart rates and became more anxious when they saw others wag their tails more to the left，but not when they wagged more to the right, or failed to wag at all.

    The curious form of communication is probably not intentional, or consciously understood, but is instead an automatic behavior that arises from the structure of the brain, said Giorgio. “It's not something they clearly and exactly understand,” Giorgio told The Guardian. “It's just something that happens to them.”

    Giorgio traces the effect back to the way the two halves of the brain process different experiences. In a previous study, his team showed that when a dog had a positive experience, activity rose in the left side of the brain, bringing about more tail wagging to the right. Or else more tail wagging to the left. The effect is barely visible to the human eye because dogs tend to wag their tails too fast, but it can be seen with slow motion video, or in some larger types.

    In the latest study, the researchers wanted to find out whether the direction of tail wagging had any effect on other dogs. To get an answer, they fitted dogs with vests that recorded their heart rates, and played them movies of other dogs wagging their tails one way and then the other. To ensure the dogs reacted only to tail wagging, and not appearance? They repeated the experiment with dogs that appeared only as shadows.

    “When dogs saw other dogs wagging their tails to the right, there was quite a relaxed reaction and no evidence of an increased heart rate. But when the wagging was to the left we saw an increase in heart rate and a series of behaviors typically associated with stress, anxiety and being more watchful, “Giorgio said. The anxious animals held their ears up, breathed, and kept their eyes wide open. The study appears in the latest issue of Current Biology.

    A group of people asked this question to a group of 4-to-8-year-old children. “What does love mean?” The answers were surprising. The children would answer like they did below.

    “When my grandmother hurt her knees, she couldn't bent (弯腰) over and paint her toenails (脚指甲) any more. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands hurt too. That's love.” Rebecca–age 8

    “Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so mad but you don't shout at them because you know it would hurt her feelings.” Samantha–age 6

    “Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.” Terri–age 4

    “I let my big sister pick on (捉弄) me because my mum says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her.” Bethany–age 4

    “I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new clothes.” Lauren–age 4

    “Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.” Elaine–age 5

    “My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” Clear–age 5

    “You really shouldn't say ‘I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” Jessica–age 8

    In the online world, it's very difficult to talk to Chinese people without using emojis. However, did you know that people in different age groups have totally different preferences for choosing their emojis? The result is based on a report released by Tencent's WeChat, China's most popular messaging app, on its official weibo account on Wednesday.

    Specifically, for users who were born in the 2000s, their favorite WeChat emoji would probably be the widely used "facepalm", rumored to be based on the famous Hong Kong movie star Stephen Chow. They also may be a night owl without much sleep, while iced beverages and desserts are their cup of tea.

    For China's post-90s WeChat users, they are likely to get out of bed later in the morning compared with other groups, and the emoji "face with tears of joy" may rule their online social life. Also, their reading materials have shifted from entertainment and gossip three years ago to the current relationship and lifestyle pieces.

    For those born in the 1980s, their tastes have remained the same, as they are still fond of reading news on national affairs. And "smiling widely" is their emoji of the year.

    WeChat users born in the 1970s are called the optimistic group, who like to use the emoji "laughing quietly" and go through their moments frequently every day. Their bed time usually takes place around 11:30 pm.

    Users over 55 are the early-bird group with rich entertainment activities in WeChat platforms, such as looking through moments, reading and shopping. They like to cheer up other age groups, so their favorite emoji is "giving a thumbs-up".

    The report also indicates that WeChat boasts more than 1.08 billion active users with 45 billion messages being sent and 410 million calls getting through the app each day in 2018. In addition to covering users' socializing, WeChat has gradually come into our daily lives. Compared to the year before, people used WeChat 4.7 times more to purchase public transport tickets, and 2.9 times more to pay for medical expenses. Also, the app was used 1.5 times more over the previous year to pay for meals, with Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked as the top three cities in dining purchases through WeChat.

    Recently, a 1935 letter in which Ernest Hemingway detailed his catch of a 500lb blue marlin(青枪鱼), an adventure that is believed to have partly inspired his novel The Old Man and the Sea, has been sold for$28, 000 (£22，000).

    The handwritten letter was sent by Hemingway on 8 May to the fishing editor of the Miami Herald，telling in great detail how the author and his friend Henry Strater battled to keep sharks away from the marlin after catching it off the Bahamian island of Bimini.

    Nate D Sanders, the auction(拍卖)company which sold the letter, said it documented for the first time in Hemingway's own words not only the size of the marlin, but also the attack by sharks，reflecting the plot of the novel.

    The company added that Hemingway's account of the marlin catch differed from other anecdotes(轶事)of it, one of which described Hemingway using a machine gun on the sharks, which is said to have attracted more sharks rather than frightened them away.

    The Old Man and the Sea was also inspired by an anecdote told by Hemingway's Cuban friend Carlos Gutierrez. In 1936, Hemingway wrote in a magazine that Carlos had told him about an old fisherman who caught a great marlin alone.

    Three years later, Hemingway told his editor Max Perkins that he was planning a short story about the old commercial fisherman who fought the swordfish all alone in his sailing boat. Instead, he ended up writing For Whom the Bell Tolls, not returning to the story about the old fisherman until January 1951. It won him the Pulitzer in 1953, and was specifically mentioned when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954.

    I prefer Lynne Truss's phraseology: I am a grammar "sticker". And, like Truss—author of Eats, shoots & Leaves – I have a "zero tolerance" approach to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.

    Now, Truss and I disagree on what it means to have "zero tolerance". She thinks that people who mix up basic grammar "deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked (砍) up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave", while I just think they deserve to be passed over for a job—even if they are otherwise qualified for the position.

    Everyone who applies for a position at either of my companies, iFixit or Dozuki, takes a compulsory grammar test. If job hopefuls can't distinguish between "to" and "too", their applications go into the bin.

    Of course, we write for a living. iFixit.com is the world's largest online repair manual (指南), and Dozuki helps companies write their own technical documentation, like paperless work instructions and step-by-step user manuals. So, it makes sense that we've made a strong strike against grammar errors.

    But grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn't make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the Internet. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can't tell the difference between "their" "there" and "they're".

    Good grammar makes good business sense—and not just when it comes to hiring writers. Writing isn't in the official job description of most people in our office. Still, we give our grammar test to everybody, including our salespeople, our operations staff, and our programmers.

    Grammar signifies more than just a person's ability to remember high school English. I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing—like stocking shelves or labeling parts. It is the same with programmers. Applicants who don't think writing is important are likely to think lots of other things also aren't important.