Earlier this year, the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users' personal Facebook webpage.  Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.

    When Google News began in 2002, many saw it as the death of the newspaper. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader's personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo! have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.

    Should we be worried about such developments? I think we should. One concern is that facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn't their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.

    There's also a concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.

    Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don't think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.

    When you're having a hard time with your homework or when you're preparing for your term paper, these student-focused websites can help you with just about anything you need. The key to getting the most out of these online resources is to know how they can best be used to your advantage.

Facebook

    Although Facebook can be one of your biggest time-wasters and distractions when you are supposed to be getting work done, it can also be one of your most valuable resources. Most of your classmates will probably have a Facebook account, so anyone you need to connect with about a class you missed or about a problem is usually just a few clicks away.

SparkNotes

    With a free library of history timeline, philosophy study guides and library summaries, SparkNotes has covered just about any reading-related jam you find yourself in. Just run a search for the book, play, or short summary of the material you are supposed to read.

Amazon.com

    Do you finish every term with many expensive textbooks you will never open again? Instead of letting the money spent go to waste, get back some of your cash by selling your books on Amazon.

RateMyProfessors.com

    Choosing new classes can sometimes be like trying to pick out your clothes in the dark, a total guessing game. Which teacher gives out the hardest problem sets? How much homework will that history professor give you every week? At RateMyProfessors.com, students all over the country rate their professors on quality, helpfulness, and how hard their classes are.

 Wikipedia

    While Wikipedia isn't aimed specifically at students, it is difficult to think of another website that does more to reduce the pain of paper writing and researching. Wikipedia gives you a quick way to find sources and get the details of almost any topic you need to research — all without walking to the library.

    Of all nature's disasters, forest fires are often considered the most frightening. Moving at lightning speed, huge walls of flames can burn acres of land in just a few minutes. And although technology, including the use of fire-retardant chemicals, has greatly helped the fight against forest fires, they still do great damage.

    According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the fire season last year was the worst on record in terms of the number of fires and acres burned. There were 96. 385 fires and 9.873429 acres affected by fire in a year that was 125% more destructive(毁灭性的) than the10-year average. These fires cost the federal government $1.5 billion to fight, and this figure does not include the money spent by local and state governments as part of the effort.

    Fires in the southern states represented half of the national total last year with Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas being home to a usually high amount of activity. Wildfire has also taken place in Western states such as California, Colorado and Alaska throughout the past 10 years.

    It is said that two-thirds of forest fires are started accidentally by people. Almost one quarter are purposely set, while lighting causes 10%.

    Forest fires can have advantageous effects. Charcoal(木炭) enriches soil and some plant species(种类) grow well after fire. The cones of the jack pine tree, for example, will not spread their seeds unless there is heat. Douglas fir trees grow best in open sunlight areas after fire.

    Music icon Bob Dylan will not attend the Nobel ceremony in December because he has other commitments(承诺), the Swedish Academy said on Wednesday.

    “The Swedish Academy received a personal letter from Bob Dylan yesterday where he explained that he could not make himself available in December …,” it said in a statement.

    “He wishes that he could accept the award personally, but other commitments make it unfortunately impossible. He said that he felt very honored by the Nobel Prize,” it added. The Swedish Academy said it respected Dylan's decision, but that it was “unusual” for a Nobel laureate(获得者) not to come to Stockholm to accept the award in person. Nobel laureates are honored every year on December 10 ─ the death anniversary of the prize's founder Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist，inventor and philanthropist.

Several other literature prize winners have skipped the Nobel ceremony in the past for various reasons —- British writer Doris Lessing because of ill health, British playwright Harold Pinter because he was under treatment in the hospital and Austrian p laywright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek due to social phobia(社交恐惧症).

“We look forward to Bob Dylan's Nobel lecture, which he must carry out — it is the only requirement — within six months starting from December 10,2016,” the academy said.

    Cities usually have a good reason for being where they are, like a nearby port or river. People settle in these places because they are easy to get to and naturally suited to communications and trade. New York City, for example, is near a large harbour at the mouth of the Hudson River. Over 300 years its population grew gradually from 800 people to 8 million. But not all cities develop slowly over a long period of time. Boom towns grow from nothing almost overnight. In 1896, Dawson, Canada, was unmapped wilderness(荒野). But gold was discovered there in 1897, and two years later, it was one of the largest cities in the West, with a population of 30,000.

    Dawson did not have any of the natural conveniences of cities like London or Paris. People went there for gold. They travelled over snow-covered mountains and sailed hundreds of miles up icy rivers. The path to Dawson was covered with thirty feet of wet snow that could fall without warming. An avalanche(雪崩) once closed the path, killing 63 people. For many who made it to Dawson, however, the rewards were worth the difficult trip. Of the first 20,000 people who dug for gold, 4,000 got rich. About 100 of these stayed rich men for the rest of their lives.

    But no matter how rich they were, Dawson was never comfortable. Necessities like food and wood were very expensive. But soon, the gold that Dawson depended on had all been found. The city was crowded with disappointed people with no interest in settling down, and when they heard there were new gold discoveries in Alaska, they left Dawson City as quickly as they had come. Today, people still come and go — to see where the Canadian gold rush happened. Tourism is now the chief industry of Dawson City — its present population is 762.

    The National Beekeeping Centre Wales is a free attraction in the countryside that teaches children about the importance of honeybees – with the chance to try lots of local honeys.

    This friendly visitor centre is a supporter of Welsh honeybees, which are increasingly under threat from climate change and loss of wildflower meadows (草地). It raises visitors' awareness of environmental issues and shows the 4,000-year history of beekeeping and honey-making, from the ancient Egyptians to the Romans. A Hive (蜂巢) Aid scheme lets you adopt a beehive(from £50 per person), and regular courses (from £60 per person) train new generations of beekeepers.

    Fun fact

    Bees pollinate (授粉) about a third of everything we eat and play an important role in sustaining (维持) our ecosystems. In economic terms, honeybee pollination could be worth up to £200m to the UK alone.

What about lunch?

    Next door is the Furnace Tearoom, part of the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre, which serves light bites – wraps (卷饼), fruit salads (£7) and coffee. And the nearby Pavilion Restaurant at the National Trust's Bodnant Garden has cooked food, including baked potatoes (£5) and daily specials such as local casseroles (焙盘) with bread rolls (£6), plus coffee and cakes.

    Exit through the gift shop

    There is a range of bee-themed gifts in our gift shop, including bee toys (£2), wooden honey candy (£2) and a selection of honeys all made by Welsh producers (£5). The bestselling Bodnant honey (£8) goes fast.

Getting here

    We are located just off the A470 on the Bodnant Estate in the Conwy Valley, and 10 minutes from the A55 north Wales coast road. Follow the brown signs just after Bodnant Gardens.

    Value for money

    Visits and activities for kids are free, though donations are welcome. Taster days (from £60) and the weekend beekeeping course (£80 per person) are held at Abergwyngregyn village, 10 miles west down the A55.

    Opening hours

    The Visitor Centre opens daily from 10 am-4 pm but it is volunteer-run, so phone ahead to check. Expect lots of fun activities around the annual Conwy Honey Fair.