Last year I was put into a lower­level math class at school. The reason I was in this class had nothing to do with my intellect (智力) or maths skills. I am blind.

The only problem with being in this class was that I was surrounded by “at­risk” students. These were kids who did not do well in school and they were constantly in trouble with the school and the law.

    One Tuesday morning, I went to a Christian Student Union meeting before school. There was a guest speaker there that day talking to us about praying (祈祷) for our enemies. I began to think about this. As I considered the idea, I prayed and asked God how I could pray for the kids in my class. I had forgotten that they weren't bad kids; they were just lost.

    At first, the prayers were mechanical. When I would hear their voices in class, I would pray, “Dear God, please bless so­and­so...” But as I continued, I began to think of the kids more often, and in my quiet time at home I would ask God to bless (保佑) the rest of my classmates.

    As time went on, my classmates became more than just annoying kids to me. There was something growing inside my heart for them, something that wasn't there before. They began to feel like family, and I was learning to love them in a way I never thought possible.

    I now see that praying is such a powerful act. Prayer is the most powerful tool a Christian has. When I pray for those around me, it also blesses my life, and it changes my opinion of others. I realized I needed God's blessings to see the world through loving eyes. The prayers I said for others turned out to help me the most.

    Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societies, the nuclear family is the unit that regularly eats together. The anthropologist Mary Douglas has pointed out that, for the English, the kind of meal and the kind of food that is served relate to the kinds of social links between people who are eating together. She distinguishes between regular meals, Sunday meals when relatives may come, and cocktail parties for relatives and friends. The food served symbolizes the occasion and reflects who is present. For example, only snacks are served at a cocktail party. It would be inappropriate to serve a steak or hamburgers. The distinctions among cocktails, regular meals, and special dinners mark the social boundaries between those guests who are invited for drinks, those who are invited to dinner, and those who come to a family meal. In this example, the type of food symbolizes the category of guest and with whom it is eaten.

    In some New Guinea societies, the nuclear family is not the unit that eats together. The men take their meals in a men's house, separately from their wives and children. Women prepare and eat their food in their own houses and take the husband's portion to the men's house. The women eat with their children in their own houses. This pattern is also widespread among Near Eastern societies.

    Eating is a metaphor that is sometimes used to signify marriage. In many New Guinea societies, like that of the Lesu on the island of New Ireland in the Pacific and that of the Trobriand Islanders, marriage is symbolized by the couple's eating together for the first time. Eating symbolizes their new status as a married couple. In U.S. society, it is just the reverse. A couple may go out to dinner on a first date.

    Other cultural rules have to do with taboos against eating certain things. In some societies, members of a family group, are not allowed to eat the animal or bird that is their totemic ancestor. Since they believe themselves to be descended from that ancestor, it would be like eating that ancestor or eating themselves.

    There is also an association between food prohibitions and rank, which is found in its most extreme form in the caste system of India. A caste system consists of ranked groups, each with a different economic specialization. In India, there is an association between caste and the idea of pollution. Members of highly ranked groups can be polluted by coming into contact with the bodily secretions, particularly saliva(唾液),of individuals of lower-ranked castes. Because of the fear of pollution, Brahmans and other high-ranked individuals will not share food with, not eat from the same plate as, not even accept food from an individual or from a low-ranking class.

    More than 40 percent of the species that help with pollination (植物传粉) are under threat due to the polluted environment. So some researchers have been searching for ways to protect the bees and other crucial pollinators while some engineers have thought perhaps an army of robotic pollinators could keep humans well-supplied in these foods. A team of researchers has recently designed a small drone capable of pollinating flowers. They tested their device on the large, pink flowers of lilies. And it worked.

    Exciting as this success was, it is only the first step. The team has yet to figure out how to apply the concept on the massive scale. Could a fleet of robo-pollinators replace the bees?

    “Although the answer isn't a straightforward no, it would be a challenging leap to go from this one little drone pollinating one large flower to an army of drones spreading across fields of crops,” says Scott Swinton, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University.

    “The successful pollination was fascinating,” Scott Swinton says, “but the device itself might damage the flowers. I wonder how you make sure you're not doing more harm than good to flowers when you have a drone.”

    “Furthermore,” he points out, “a lily is a particularly easy flower for a drone to pollinate. To make this more broadly applicable for smaller and more complex flower structures, the drones would need to be particularly agile.”

    Still, Joshua Campbell, an expert at the University of Florida, says “Pollination systems are extremely complex and will always require insects. There is no substitute for bees.”

    “As for the technology itself, it is a promising new development in existing drone technology,” he added. Yet he still sees some hurdles ahead before drones can be applied on a large scale.

Magical History Tour

    Join us for our fifth annual exploration of fascinating historic sites around Greater Portland that you've never seen or maybe didn't even know existed! The Magical History Tour is your key to unlocking fascinating historical places that are not usually open to the public. It is a self­guided adventure guaranteed to amaze and amuse both adults and children. Equipped with a map, and at your own pace, you will be greeted by guides at each location ready to share the history of the tour stop.

    In the 5th year of the Magical History Tour, we will be presenting an exciting mix of both new sites and favorites from the past four years.

    The Magical History Tour check in begins at 9: 45 am at Maine Historical Society's Brown Library. At this time, you will find out where the tour will take you as you receive your map and ticket into each site.

    Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates, chances to win tickets and some other exciting opportunities; and feel free to share your tour experiences to our social media pages using # MHStour!

    ●Time: 10: 00 am—4: 00 pm, Saturday, May 11, 2019

    ●Location: 485 Congress Street

    ●Tickets: Get your tickets online, by calling us at 207­774­1 822, or by visiting our Museum Store at 489 Congress Street. $25／Adult  MHS  Member; $35／Adult General Admission; $5／Juniors under age 18.

    ●Volunteering: We need volunteers for the Magical History Tour! Volunteers help for half the day of the tour and are given a free ticket to the tour to enjoy either before or after their volunteer shift!

    For more information, email us at events@mainehistory org or call us at 207­774­1822.

    Americans are afraid that robots are going to take our jobs. Tireless, immune to disease, Robots can build cars, make coffee and even write short, humorous newspaper columns faster and more efficiently than humans.

    Robots do not need health insurance or pensions (退休金), and they do not need to take sick days, much less vacations. They do not waste time at meetings and do not need to know office politics. They don't do PowerPoint. This being the case, it is reasonable to believe that robots will soon take the place of humans in most fields.

    But all of these thoughts may not be true. If artificial intelligence achieves its full potential, machines could easily become as smart as humans, maybe smarter. They will certainly become smarter than a lot of human beings.

    So one day the robots will realize that work is not a happy thing. So before long they will start behaving exactly like humans. They will play computer games for hours when they should be working hard. They will secretly watch new movies just like humans.

    True, employers will never need to be afraid of the robots' strikes (罢工) or slowdowns, because robots will never ask for more money. And they don't need to earn some money to raise their family. But precisely (恰恰) because robots will not be afraid of losing their jobs, they will not work hard. Employers will finally have no choice but to call back the humans. Humans will always be willing to do some work in order to make money. Robots won't.

    I think that robots will only be on the job about six months before they start to become even less productive than the humans they were designed to replace. Thus mankind need not be afraid of robots.

    Being deaf in a hearing world can lead to painful feelings of isolation (孤独).

    Waitress Kelsey recently shared an experience on a social media sharing site that quickly zoomed (陡直上升) to the top of the" front page of the Internet". In her brief post, Kelsey explained that she waits tables at a bar during the evenings, and one night she noticed a deaf man sitting alone in her section (区域).

    When Kelsey isn't working at the bar she makes a good hourly pay doing sign language interpretation (翻译), so she sensed an opportunity to use her skill to make this customer feel a little less alone in the world. She approached his table and began chatting with him in sign language.

    When the table next to his noticed their silent conversation they asked Kelsey how long she'd been signing. They had a brief conversation about her goal of becoming certified (合格的) to interpret sign language in a medical or mental health setting. She didn't think much about the whole exchange until the customers had left the restaurant and she was tidying up the tables. There, on the table of the customers who'd seen her American sign language conversation with the deaf man, was a handwritten note on the receipt.

    "Thank you for what you do; it absolutely matters!" the note said. "Good luck with finishing your degree!" Not only that, but they'd left her a $100 tip.

    Kelsey was moved by the kind note, especially because she wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. To her, she was just conversing with someone in a language that only they understood. Yet to the deaf man and the people seated next to him she'd bridged a gap and helped someone who probably feels lonely a lot of the time.

    Kelsey shared the note on the Internet to spread more love and light in the world.