Not so long ago, a sailor sailing across the cold waters of the northern Pacific Ocean might have had every chance of being confronted by a sea cow. This cow would have measured 10 meters long, and weighed between five and ten tones. And it would spend most of its day cruising the seas, eating grass growing underwater. The cow in question was known as Steller's sea cow, which is now extinct.

    Today, many people are unaware that such an extraordinary creature once existed, or don't know its incredible story. But scientists have discovered many fundamental facts about this mystical animal.

    Surprisingly, the first recorded sighting of a Steller's sea cow didn't happen until 1741, when a sailing expedition was stuck on an uninhabited island, later named Bering Island. The sailor survived by hunting and eating the huge sea cow. Like its modern relatives, the sea cow lived in herds. That and its slow-moving behaviour made it easy to be caught.

    Those sailors that escaped Bering Island spread word of the bounty(大量) of meat to be found off its shores. As a result, more and more expeditions came to hunt the animals. One report stated that one sea cow could feed 33 men for a month.

    Incredibly, just 27 years after the island and species had been discovered by modern man, the last sea cow was reported killed. That makes the Steller's sea cow one of the few truly large mammals known to have been driven extinct in the modern age.

    An old lady in a plane had a blanket（毯子）over her head and she did not want to take it off. The air hostess spoke to her, but the old lady said, “I have never been in a plane before, and I am frightened. I am going to keep this blanket over my head until we are back on the ground again!”

    Then the captain came. He said, “Madam, I am the captain of this plane. The weather is fine, there are no clouds in the sky, and everything is going very well. ”But she continued to hide.

    So the captain turned and started to go back. Then the old lady looked out from under the blanket with one eye and said, “I am sorry, young man, but I don't like planes and I am never going to fly again. But I'll say one thing, ”She continued kindly, “You and your wife keep your plane very clean!”

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    A sense of humor is something highly valued. A person who has a great sense of humor is often considered to be happy and socially confident. However, humor is a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can damage self-respect and annoy others.

    People who use bonding humor tell jokes and generally lighten the mood. They're thought to be good at reducing the tension in uncomfortable situations. They often make fun of their common experiences, and sometimes they may even laugh off their own misfortunes. The basic message they deliver is: We're all alike, we find the same things funny, and we're all in this together.

    Put-down humor, on the other hand, is an aggressive type of humor used to criticize others through teasing. When it's aimed against politicians, as it often is, it's extremely funny and mostly harmless. But in the real world, it may have a harmful effect. An example of such humor is telling friends an embarrassing story about another friend. When challenged about their teasing, the put-down jokers might claim that they are "just kidding," thus allowing themselves to avoid responsibility. This type of humor, though considered by some people to be socially acceptable, may hurt the feelings of the one being teased and thus have a bad effect on personal relationships.

    Finally, in hate-me humor, the joker is the target of the joke for the amusement of others. This type of humor was used by comedians John Belushi and Chris Farley—both of whom suffered for their success in show business. A small amount of such humor is charming, but routinely offering oneself up to be embarrassed destroys one's self-esteem, and fosters depression and anxiety.

    So it seems that being funny isn't necessarily an indicator of good social skills and well-being. In certain cases, it may actually have a negative effect on interpersonal relationships.

    The idea that computers have some amount of "intelligence" is not new, says Ralph Haupter, the president of Microsoft Asia, pointing as far back as 1950 when computer pioneer Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. "So it has taken nearly 70 years for the right combination of factors to come together to move AI from concept to reality," says Haupter.

    It is predicted that the development of artificial intelligence will be the story of the coming generations, not just the coming year, but as 2019 gets underway, you'll find AI will begin to touch your life in many ways according to some researchers.

"Personal assistant AIs will keep getting smarter. As our personal assistants learn more about our daily routines, I can imagine the day I need not to worry about preparing dinner. My AI knows what I like to eat, which days of the week I like to cook at home, and makes sure that when I get back from work all my groceries are waiting at my doorstep, ready for me to prepare that delicious meal I had been longing for." —Alecjandro Troccoli, senior research scientist, NVIDIA.

"Thanks to AI, the face will be the new credit card, the new driver's license and the new barcode (条形码). Facial recognition is already completely transforming security with biometric capabilities being adopted, and seeing how technology and business are connected, like Amazon is with Whole Foods, I can see a near future where people will no longer need to stand in line at the store." —Georges Nahon, president, Orange Institute, a global research laboratory.

"2019 will be the year AI becomes real for medicine. By the end of the year we're seeing solutions for population health, hospital operations and a broad set of clinical specialties quickly follow behind." —Mark Michalski, executive director, Massachusetts General Hospital.

Cala didn't like us. Any of us. We didn't do anything to offend her and she didn't know us but that didn't matter; she still didn't like us.

As new teachers in the Emirati school, we Westerners greeted her every day. She ignored us. She came into our rooms and bypassed us as she shook hands with all the non-Westerners. Whenever we saw her, she avoided eye contact with us. Eventually, we stopped trying to befriend her.

I wouldn't say her nationality but her friends had been fired from the school. We had been employed in their places and that was enough for her to have nothing to do with us.

Well after 16 months in the school we had a secret friend gifting. To my surprise, I drew her name from the glass jar and that meant she was my secret friend. My role was to buy her a gift and say something about her when we publicly acknowledged who our secret friend was.

I decided to gift her a coloured bangle (手镯). I added a postcard and wrote "Love and Blessings, Rose Marie.

Then came the day. We all gathered in the meeting room. When you gave your gift, you said a few kind words about your secret friend and passed the gift to her. What could I say? Everyone knew she didn't like the Westerners. She taught music in the school so I said "My secret friend is someone who brings music to our ears every day." She came forward with a huge warm smile. She hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks and accepted my gift.

Since then, she smiles often. We hug and shake hands when we meet. I have seen her wear my gift several times and I am so pleased.