In the latter part of the 20th century, child labor remains a serious problem in many parts of the world. Studies carried out in 1979, the International Year of the Children, showed that more than 50 million children below the age of 15 were working in various jobs often under dangerous conditions. Many of these children live in underdeveloped countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Their living conditions are crude and their chances for education small. The poor income they bring in, however, is necessary for the survival of their families. Frequently, these families lack the basic necessities of life—adequate food, decent（得体的、合适的）clothing and shelter, and even water for bathing.

    In some countries industrialization has created working conditions for children that are comparable to the worst features of the 19th-century factories and mines. In India, for example, some 20,000 children work 16-hour days in match factories.

    Child-labor problems are not, of course, limited to developing nations. They occur wherever poverty exists in Europe and the United States. The most important efforts to eliminate（根除）child-labor abuses throughout the world come from the International Labor Organization (ILO), founded in 1919 and now a special agency of the United Nations. The organization has introduced several child-labor conventions（规定）among its members, including a minimum（最低）age of 16 years for admission to all work, a higher minimum age of specific types of employment, compulsory（强制的）medical examinations, and It depends on voluntary obedience（服从）of member nations.

    Recently, my mother asked me to drop off some letters at the post office and pick up some stamps for her. Without giving it a thought, I took the letters and purchased her stamps.

    A few days later, she mentioned that one of the letters I had mailed was missing a stamp, and asked me if I had put a stamp on it. She had remembered asking me to put a stamp on it, though I certainly had not heard her. So, unfortunately, it looked like the letter, which was a bill of course, would come back marked "Return to Sender for Insufficient Postage". A few days went by and I returned to the post office to pick up our mail. While I was there, I saw the postmaster and happened to tell him about Mom's letter missing the stamp. I asked him to be on the lookout for it coming back. It was then that he told me his story. "You know," he said, "I immediately saw after you had dropped the mail off that your letter was missing a stamp. I also noticed that it was a bill for a credit card company. I thought to myself that you have always been kind to me and my partner, and I wanted to return the favor. So, to prevent your mother from getting charged a late fee from the credit card company, I took money from our change dish (extra pennies for folks who need one), and purchased a stamp for you."

    When I heard it, I couldn't believe it. What a blessing that was! I thanked him over and over again for putting the stamp on the letter for us. Then, I immediately dumped(倾倒) all the change out of my purse and into the penny dish in order to help others out in the future. When I got home, I was able to tell Mom the good news. This was kindness karma(因果报应) in action, I believe!

    A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.

    According to course instructor William Barry, associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, a feat he described as “remarkable.” The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.

    Before becoming a student, Bina48 appeared as a guest speaker in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course, Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry. Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.

    “Some interesting things happened in the class,” said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is “fairly simple — it's a feeling,” said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning “31 different versions of love,” said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.

    Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bina48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.

    In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely.

    Whenever we see a button, we are eager to press it because we know something will happen. This is true in most cases, for example on a doorbell and on the "on/off" button on the TV. But some buttons are actually fake, like the "close" button on a lift.

    Many people are in the habit of pressing the "close" button because they don't have the patience to wait for the lift doors to shut. But lifts "close" buttons are a complete scam, at least in the US-the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.

    It started in the 199os when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only US firefighters and repairmen can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys.

    But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless. According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control." Perceived（能够感知的）control is very important. It reduces stress and increases well-being," Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor, said," Having a lack of control is associated with depression."

    Experts have revealed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, many offices in the US have fake thermostats（温度调节器）because people tend to feel better when they think they can control the temperature in their workspace.

    But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little" white lies", they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

   "That habit is here to stay," John Kounios, a psychology professor, said," Even though I have real doubts about the traffic light buttons, I always press them. After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting.  So why not press the button in the hope that this one will work?"

Kindle E-reader, 8th generation

    Free Touchscreen Display

    Price: $79. 99

    ● Thin and light for one-handed reading

    New Kindle is 11% thinner and 16% lighter than the previous generation Kindle, making it easy and comfortable to hold in one hand.

    ● Read like real Paper

    Kindle creates text similar to what you see in a physical book. The blacks and whites on the screen are uniform, improving text and image quality.

    ●Long-life battery

    Kindle doesn't need power to show a page of text, allowing you to read for weeks on a single charge.

    ● Thousands of books, no distraction (分心)

    Kindle is designed to be an e-reader. It satisfies your love of reading without interruptions like e-mails and phone calls.

    ●Look it up without leaving your page

    Smart Lookup combines entries from The New Oxford American Dictionary with information from Wikipedia, so you can know meanings, characters and more without losing your place.

    ●Adjust your text size

    Choose from eight text sizes to prevent tired eyes, so you can keep reading longer.

    Customer reviews:

    ※ Damon, May 21, 2019

    The price is great with an extra $ 20 off and this new Kindle is smaller in my hands than my old one. I was sad to lose my old Kindle, but this one is terrific.

    ※ Jason, January 26, 2019

    I miss the original Kindlers size—this one is too small. Also, the screen is overly sensitive and things pop up (弹出) and the battery doesn't last as long as the original Kindle. But my biggest disappointment is that this Kindle doesn't allow you to transfer everything from the original Kindle、so I lost all of the information from my old one. Overall, disappointing.

    ※ Susan, November 17, 2018

    I had the original Kindle, and the battery lasted for weeks. This battery only seems to last a few days, however. The other problem I have with this version of the Kindle is the touch screen. It is annoying when you are reading and start turning the wrong way. Sometimes, it's hard to get the page to turn the way you'd like it to.

    Researchers in Australia have discovered an effective new method to capture the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is damaging our planet and transform it into something solid, making it much easier to store.

    Carbon capture isn't new, but previous methods call for the gas to be compressed into liquid and then injected underground. Widespread usage of that technology has been locked by economic and environmental concerns due to possible leaks. Instead, in a study published in Nature Communications, the group details their sustainable and cost-effective plan for transforming CO₂ into coal.

    This new process involves a liquid metal catalyst(催化剂)that is efficient in conducting electricity. CO₂ gas is dissolved in a container with some liquid. Once electricity charge is introduced, the CO₂ begins to turn into solid pieces of carbon, which can be collected and stored.

    What makes this particularly unique is that the entire process can occur at room temperature. Previous experiments have only shown a gas to solid conversion at extremely high temperature, which made it impossible on a large scale. Now, the researchers are hoping that their work will be used to create even further when it comes to carbon storage.

    In an interesting side benefit, the solid carbon also works as an electrode(焊条), which opens up a world of possibilities. "A side benefit of the process is that the carbon can hold electrical charge, becoming a super battery, so it could potentially be used as a part in future vehicles," explains Dr. Dorna Estrafilzadeh, a researcher. "The process also produces fuel as a by-product, which could also have industrial applications."