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.

    One morning, my husband Jerry went back to the kitchen as he just finished loading his car. “I guess filling my thermos(保温瓶) is all that I have left to do, and then I'm off.” Down the drain went the hot water that had been warming his thermos.

    With a nostalgic(怀旧的) look on his face, he softly said: “Anytime I fill my thermos I think of your mom.” The tone in his voice was so tender as he spoke of my mother, who is sadly no longer with us.

    “Oh honey, I know she's watching and listening right now with a big smile on her face,” I responded, tears in my eyes.

    One morning years ago when we were leaving, mother watched as Jerry was to fill his thermos. Mom then casually said, ‘Jerry, if you filled your thermos with hot water and let it sit a while, your coffee would stay hot for longer then.” With her simple suggestion, his face showed that he was shocked by his own lack of common sense. Well, of course it would!

    He poured out the small amount of coffee already in the thermos and refilled it with boiling hot water. Then he poured the water and refilled it with hot coffee. Mom smiled as Jerry did so.

    Words of wisdom from a loving mother-in-law made an impact that will never be forgotten. She never dreamed her words would be a treasured and everlasting memory in the heart of her son-in-law.

    The lasting memories don't necessarily come from major moments in life. Memories are often made during those small, ordinary times. Life is about small moments we share with friends and loved ones.

    Against the assumption that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror more sunlight into space.

    This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to cause cooling.

    This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists have suggested that fire in northern regions speed up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants are released into the atmosphere and thus trap heat.

    Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone（臭氧）levels increased, and ash from the fire fell on far-off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the land within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.

    “We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Scientists tracked the change in amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a result of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicated, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the earth.

    When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at hospital.

    On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was to reach for his toast, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him spread butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite!

    When I got up from the table that evening, I remember bearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said: “Honey. I love burnt toast.”

    Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his toast burnt. He took me in his arms and said. “Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's really tired. And besides, a little burnt toast never hurt anyone!”

    You know, life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. This good quality is the base of any relationship — husband-wife or parent-child or friendship! As far as I'm concerned, I'm not the best engineer as expected. However, I have made my efforts. That's enough.

    So learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life. Burnt toast isn't a deal-breaker! Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket but into your own. You will appreciate the value of every soul including yourself.

    Robots writing newspapers

    Whether it's robots working as hotel receptionists or artificial intelligence creating poetry, it's becoming more and more common to read about technology doing the jobs of humans.

    And now, it seems that software is even capable of writing news stories –such as the very one you're reading.

    Recently the Press Association (PA), a UK news service, has created a computer program that's capable of creating articles that are almost impossible to tell apart from those written by human journalists.

    Called “robo-journalism”, such software “teaches” itself by analyzing thousands of news stories written by humans. The PA's software is already so advanced that many UK newspapers and websites publish articles created by it.

    According to the Reuters Institute of Journalism, many publishers are using robo-journalism to release interesting information quickly, from election results to official figures on social issues. For example, The Washington Post has its own robo-journalism software, Heliograf. Heliograf “wrote “over 850 articles in 2017, as well as hundreds of social media posts.

    So what does this mean for regular journalists?

    “We're naturally wary about any technology that could replace human beings,” Fredrick Kunkle, a Washington Post reporter, told Wired.

    “But this technology seems to have taken over only some of the work that nobody else wants to do.” “Indeed, it appears that robo-journalism software is designed to help humans, rather than take away their jobs.

    “In the future, Heliograf could do things like search the web to see what people are talking about, check The Washington Post to see if that story is being covered, and, if not, alert(提醒) editors or just write the piece itself.”Wired reporter Joe Keoha wrote.

    However, Joshua Benton at Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab believes that while robo-jounalism is undoubtedly going to become more present in newsrooms, nothing can replace traditional human creativity.

“Good journalism is not just a matter of inputs and outputs, it is a craft(技艺) that has developed over decades, “ he told BBC News. “The really difficult part of what professional journalists do—carefully weighing information and presenting balanced , contextualized(全景式的) stories —will be very hard for machines to master.

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