Welcome to the pumpkin weigh-off at Half Moon Bay (半月湾), California. The event has always been very popular among most pumpkin growers. Thousands of people line up along the city's High Street and watch the proud pumpkin owners from across the country. Each pumpkin is carefully picked up by forklifts (叉式升降机) and placed on a digital weighing scale.

    Organizers are offering $30,000 in total prize money for a new record pumpkin entering Half Moon Bay. But in order to receive the “New Record Prize”, the grower will have to bring a pumpkin heavier than the 2,624-pound one grown by Mathias Willemijns in 2017. If the heaviest pumpkin in the contest is unable to surpass (超过) the record, its owner will receive $6 for every pound it weighs.

    When: Monday, October 9, 2018. Weighing will begin at 7 am and will end at 11 am. Growers will start lining the street as daylight breaks by 7 am.

    Where: I.D.E.S. Grounds, 735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, California.

    Prize Money:

    New Record Pumpkin: $30,000 (in total)

    1st Place: $6 per pound

    2nd Place: $2,000

    3rd Place: $1,500

    4th Place: $1,000

    5th~10th Place: $500 each

    11th~20th Place: $100 each

    Special Prizes: $500 for the most beautiful pumpkin, judged by the audience (color, shape and size).

    The top five pumpkins will be on display for the thousands of visitors to Half Moon Bay's famous Art and Pumpkin Festival that will take place on October 14-15, 2018.

    It was dawn of March 21, 2018. Gary Messina was on his morning run along New York City's East River. Suddenly something caught his eye – a large 60-year-old man balancing on the four-foot-high fence that guarded the path from the water. As Messina got closer to the scene, the man took a step forward and slipped into the dark river below.

    When Messina reached nearer, the man was struggling in the water, clearly unable to swim. Other joggers also heard the man's cry. David Blauzvern and John Green dropped their phones and keys on land and jumped in. “People had called the police, but it was unclear when they'd get there.” says Green. “We just reacted.” Messina joined them in the river. Just as the jumper was losing strength, Blauzvern take hold of him. The pair were about 30 yards from the seawall when Messina and Green caught up to them. They seized the man, with Blauzvern supporting his back and Messina and Green holding him up from either side. As the men made their toward the concrete seawall that stretched (延伸) for blocks in each direction, Blauzvern had an awful realization: there was no way out of the river.

    By now, a crowd had gathered on land. “A rescue boat is on its way,” someone yelled to them. Swimming forward was getting tougher by the minute. The jumper, who was six foot two and weighed around 260 pounds, was heavy in his rescuers' arms. After ten minutes, they managed to get to the river's edge. “I've never been so out of breath,” says Blauzvern.

    Fifteen minutes after the men had jumped into the river, the two-man rescue boat appeared. But because it couldn't risk getting too close to the seawall, the men had to swim out to it. “I was completely out of energy at this point,” says Blauzvern. The men in the water pushed the jumper while the men in the boat pulled him up and, finally, to safety. The man they had saved was taken to the hospital for evaluation(评估). Details on his condition have not been known. As for the rescuers, each of them was at work by 10:30 a.m. “I was a bit late,” admits Blauzvern, smiling. “But I had a good excuse.”

    Here is a record of the discussion about AI (artificial intelligence) conducted by several scientists.

    Scientist A: I would say that we are quite a long way off developing the AI, though I do think it will happen within the next thirty or forty years. We will probably remain in control of technology and it will help us solve many of the world's problems. However, no one really knows what will happen if machines become more intelligent than humans. They may help us, ignore us or destroy us. I tend to believe AI will have a positive influence on our future lives, but whether that is true will be partly up to us.

    Scientists B: I have to admit that the potential consequences of creating something that can match or go beyond human intelligence frighten me. Even now, scientists are teaching computers how to learn on their own. At some point in the near future, their intelligence may well take off and develop at an ever-increasing speed. Human beings evolve biologically very slowly and we could be quickly substituted. In the short term, there is the danger that robots will take over millions of human jobs, creating a large underclass of unemployed people. This could mean large-scale poverty and social unrest. In the long term machines might decide the world would be better without humans.

    Scientists C: I'm a member of the campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Forget the movie image of a terrifying Terminator stamping on human skulls and think of what's happening right now: military machines like drones, gun turrets and sentry robots are already being used to kill with very little human input. The next step will be autonomous “murderbots” following orders but finally deciding who to kill on their own. It seems clear to me that this would be extremely dangerous for humans. We need to be very cautious indeed about what we ask machines to do.

Are you a moviegoer? If, like me, you're a fan of film, then there's no better place to watch something than on the big screen at the cinema. You enter the dark theatre and take your seat, ready to be entertained. But while you are absorbed in some movie magic, many others are now getting their film fixed at home.

Over the last few years, cinemas have seen a comeback. Customers have been attracted by comfortable seats, and lots of choice of things to watch. Multiplexes in particular can screen up to twenty films at the same time, suiting all different tastes. In addition, 3D and even 4D movies can give the audience an extra immersive experience. So what's not to like about a trip to the cinema?

The coronavirus pandemic has put the future of cinema under the spotlight. Some have had to close because of reduced ticket sales. In the UK, it's brought about a surge in TV watching and online streaming. It's reported that half of UK adults will keep and continue using their new streaming subscriptions.

This isn't great news for cinemas. They rely on the release of a big blockbuster to bring the crowds back, but the launch of new films, such as James Bond: No Time To Die, are being delayed. Disney has released its $200m blockbuster, Mulan, online instead of in movie theatres. John Fithian, from the National Association of Theatre Owners, told Variety magazine: This idea of waiting out the pandemic to make your movies more profitable doesn't make sense to me. There won't be as much of an industry left to play your movies in if you do that. "

A video of Wang Deshun, an 88-year-old model and actor, strutting the catwalk at Shanghai Fashion Week {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(sweep) the internet recently. His distinctive white beard and robust physique, complemented by a vibrant red suit, captivated the audience with a {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(strike)contrast.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} in 1936, this 88-year-old grandpa's spirit is as strong as ever. "I still have dreams and pursuits. I can do now what I could not do in the past, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} that is what rebirth should be about."

Due to the physical {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(require) of pantomime, Wang, at 50 years old, decided to hit the gym. Training for two hours was followed by two hours of swimming every single day for 30 years, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} helped him shape a healthy and strongly-built body.

"Thirty years ago, I used {#blank#}7{#/blank#} models how to walk with the help of my wife. One day (in 2015), one of our students asked about my body's condition, and I said it's fine. So I was invited to make {#blank#}8{#/blank#} appearance in the show," Wang said, recalling the events that led to overnight fame.

After making waves in the fashion industry{#blank#}9{#/blank#}a male model in his late 70s, the then 85-year-old Wang was once again defying stereotypes concerning the elderly by taking {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a new challenge: getting a pilot's license.

A pair of researchers with Leibniz University of Hannover has demonstrated the means by which robots might be programmed to experience something similar to pain in animals. As part of their demonstration at last week's IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation held in Stockholm, Johannes Kuehn and Sami Haddaddin showed how pain might be used in robots, by interacting with a BioTac fingertip sensor on the end of a Kuka robotic arm that had been programmed to react differently to differing amounts of pain.

The idea of developing an artificial robot nervous system may seem contrary to all expectations, but Kuehn says doing so is important in the same way that it is good for humans to feel pain. "Pain is a system that protects us, "says Kuchn. "When we avoid the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt. "So when robots can feel and react to pain, they will become smart enough to avoid it. The more dangerous the robot registers the threat to be, the faster it will withdraw and avoid the source of danger. Additionally, Kuehn and Haddadin say humans working alongside robots that feel pain, especially those in heavy machinery, will be protected around them.

They have tested out some of their ideas using a robotic arm with a fingertip sensor that can detect pressure and temperature. It uses a robot-tissue patch(小片)modeled on human skin to decide how much pain should be felt and thus what action to take. For example, if the arm feels light pain, it slowly withdraws until the pain stops, and then returns to its original task; severe pain, meanwhile, causes the arm to go into a kind of lockdown mode until it can get help from a human operator.

Such robots are likely to raise a host of questions, of course, if they become more common —if a robot acts the same way a human does when touching a hot plate, are we to believe it is truly experiencing pain? Only time will tell of course, but one thing that is evident, Kuehn and Haddadin's work could lead to robots that are more human-like than ever.