Philo Farnsworth is not a name most people know. But his work changed the way we learn, the way we live, and even the way we think. Philo Farnsworth is responsible for one of the 20^th century: television.

    Philo Farnsworth was born in America in 1906. He was interested in science and technology at an early age. When he was twelve years old, he built an electric motor for his family's washing machine. When he was fourteen, he was already giving a lot of thought to electrons（电子）. As he was driving the family's horse-drawn plowing machine, he noticed the evenly spaced rows of the potato fields. This sight gave him the idea that electrons could scan（扫描） an image one row at a time—an idea that was the key to electronic television.

    By the time he was twenty-one years old, Farnsworth had started his own company and had managed to build the world's first electronic television. It was a very simple device（设备）. But after years of hard work, Farnsworth was able to introduce the kind of television we now use.

    Farnsworth was a great inventor, but lived an unhappy life. He had a legal battle with the company, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) over who the real inventor of the TV was. He won the case, but the government stopped companies from making TVs during the war, so Farnsworth didn't make much money from the invention.

    When Farnsworth was young, he imagined television as a convenient way for distant audiences to enjoy lectures by famous professors, or entertainment by the best symphonies（交响乐） and ballets. When he was older, television became much more popular, but he was very disappointed in the silly programs on TV. He even told his own son, “There's nothing on it worthwhile, and we're not going to watch it in this household.”

    I considered an active social life as basic human necessity. Yet when it dawned on me just how much time I was spending socialising, I realised I may be taking it to an extreme. I calculated that, on average, I was spending 22 hours or more each week on social activities. So, to see what would happen to my work output, health and wellbeing, I decided to try and cut out my social life entirely.

    I knew, at times, I filled my schedule simply out of fear of missing out (FOMO), but also as a way to shift focus away from my work. For one month, I declined all in-person activities with friends: going out for drinks; dinners; parties and non-work related events, to see if it would make me more productive, improve my focus and career prospects.

    On day one of the month-long experiment, I had to fight some anxiety over missing out. But as the days passed, I started to relax. I only had one option to consider for Saturday night—to stay home—and this limitation left me more satisfied in my decision. I felt more content working, reading or watching TV.

    While I found more time to work, I also noticed a change in my overall health. I found myself cooking more at home, doing daily exercise, getting to bed earlier each night, reading, and enjoying moments of rest and boredom throughout the day.

    Having no social life left me more free time than I'd imagine. Such idle moments are vital for creativity, and mind wandering has been linked to creative problem solving. During the experiment I found myself regularly brainstorming new ideas and reimagining existing projects.

    Of course socialising is an important way to build work contacts. While one month of no social life did not impact my relationship with existing clients, if I had continued, it may harm my ability to build new ones.

    What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定义) jokes as the pleasure that results from a feeling of triumph(胜利) by showing we're better than someone else in a certain way. According to Aristotle and many other philosophers，all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons—that is，putting it clearly，on showing that they are worse off than ourselves. Jokes raise our good opinion of ourselves at someone else's expense.

Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes. Someone may also use a joke to express their anger or their cruelty or any other kind of action that is not acceptable to us. We feel free to laugh when we hear about someone sliding on a banana skin. The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes，especially those involving cruelty，are so popular with certain people.

    Besides，all jokes depend on our enjoyment of laughing at something that is strange and out of place because it's different from things which are happening around it. The same situation can be either sad or pleasant，depending entirely on how strange and out of place it is. If a girl in a bathing suit falls into a swimming pool，we don't laugh because nothing unusual has happened. But if a man in a smart suit falls in，the situation is at once unusual in a pleasant way and we laugh. A good joke-teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens，and so we laugh.

    An “adulting conference” (AC)this week allowed Kentucky high school seniors the chance to learn how to change a tire, how to cook and other basic life skills—things that they may not have learned at home or in classes. A series of photos posted by Bullitt Central High School on social media shows students taking “adulting conference” are learning about personal finances, resumes and other essential skills at the event, which has been widely reported on the local and national news outlets.

    “I saw a Facebook post that parents passed around saying they needed a class in high school on taxes and cooking,” AC organizer Hardin told Louisville's WAVE 3 News. Those skills are taught at school theoretically, she said, but the event gave students a chance to fill in gaps in their knowledge.

    Students could choose to attend three workshops out of 11 total options, the school says. The workshops were held in cooperation with numerous community partners.

    Some young people have left home and graduated school without having those gaps filled, according to a report this week from CBS New York, which documented a trend of young people seeking outclasses to learn basic life skills.

    While attending a cooking class, 29-year-old Elena Toumaras told the station she's struggling with “simple things.”

    “I was so used to, when living at home, my mom always cooking,” she told the station.

    An“Adulting School” in Portland, Maine, aims to use a new online format to teach the youths skills like conflict resolution, sewing and appreciation for all, the station says.

    Students' financial literacy has been of particular concern to some experts, as financial education in schools has stagnated(停滞)in the U.S., with only 17 states requiring students to take classes in personal finance—a number that hasn't risen in years.

    “The majority of U.S. states are failing our students by declining to offer these fundamental courses which are critical to their financial stability and security later in life. And this will be changed.” Nan J. Morrison, president and CEO of the Council for Economic Education, told CNBC.

    Moving in with a boyfriend causes women to eat more unhealthily and put on weight. But the opposite is true for men, whose long-term health benefits when they move in with a female partner.

    Dieticians at Newcastle University said both partners try to please one another, and so change their dietary habits to suit their other half.

    It leads men to eat more light meals, such as salads, fruit and vegetables, while women choose to make creamier, heavier dishes curry or rich pasta sauces, which may please their partner. Women still have the strongest long-term influence over the couple's diet and lifestyle, as they still have the traditional role of shopper and cook in most households.

    The report, by Newcastle University's Human Nutrition Research Centre, reviewed the finding of a variety of research projects from the UK, North America and Australia, which looked at the eating and lifestyle habits of couples.

    The research shows that women are more likely to put on weight and increase their consumption of foods high in fat and sugar when they move in with their partner

    Women also use food as a comfort when dealing with emotional stress and have been found to gain weight when a relationship ends, while the same finding has not been observed in men.

    Many couples reported food as being central to their partnership, and eating together in the evening was particularly important to many.

    Report author and registered dietician Dr. Amelia Lake said, "The research has shown that your partner is a strong influence on lifestyle and people who are trying to live healthier lives should take this factor into consideration."

    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 positively 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.