Ahead of so-called Singles' Day on the 11th of this month，2013, online sales have already begun peaking.

    The leading e-business platform, tmall.com, has promoted(促销) its fifty-percent-off discount(折扣) to attract consumers. They are also trying to attract buyers through social media. Vice President of tmall.com Wang Yulei says more than 20 thousand online stores have joined the Double 11 Day sales. But this number has doubled. The final number of how many products going to be on sale has not been known yet. But so far, many more products planned to be put on shelves with discounts.

    During last year's Singles' Day, tmall.com, together with taobao.com, reached a record of 19.1 billion yuan in sales, which considered a milestone in the e-business history of China.

    Singles' Day was first started by Chinese college students in the 1990s as the opposite of Valentine's Day, a celebration for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date: Nov. 11—or double 11—for singles. Single young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to show love to someone and end their single status.

    But now, the Singles' Day has been promoted as a kind of grand craze just for the shopping season, thanks to thousands of discounted products being promoted online.

    Taobao.com was the first big e-retail platform which used the double 11 idea to promote sales. Taobao.com reached one million yuan worth of sales on that day in 2009, when they first promoted the Singles' Day idea. In 2010, the sales increased to 936 million yuan. The figure climbed up to 5.3 billion yuan in 2011, putting huge demand on shipping services. The figure doubled in 2012.

    E-commerce is considered to be replacing the traditional retailing industry, but the reality is that both sides are learning from each other.

    Rodney Smith, Jr. started mowing the lawns (割草坪) in Huntsville, Alabama last fall. He used his time between classes at Alabama A&M to reach a goal of mowing 100 yards before winter. Smith has been cutting grass for free to help single moms, the elderly, and the disabled, while teaching the local youth the values that can turn boys into men. “I'm doing something positive. I want boys to follow me and be better than me,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

    Rodney is from Bermuda. He says people there help each other and are always friendly. “That's what drives me to help people.”

    In May this year, he was getting ready to launch his mowing service for the summer when he heard about a 93-year-old woman trying to cut grass by herself. Smith and a friend showed up to do the job for her.

    In November, a local TV station gave him $300, calling it a special gift for his good work. After he received the money, he used it to create the non-profit(非盈利的) service group, Raising Men Lawn Care Service. He also started a page to collect money to buy lawn equipment and other things—including T-shirts with special logos.

    After I read about Rodney's story, I told my friends about him. We also planned to mow lawns for single moms, the elderly and disabled in our neighborhood. And I hope more and more young people will join Rodney's service group—Raising Men Lawn Care Service.

    When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at hospital.

    On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was to reach for his toast, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him spread butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite!

    When I got up from the table that evening, I remember bearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said: “Honey. I love burnt toast.”

    Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his toast burnt. He took me in his arms and said. “Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's really tired. And besides, a little burnt toast never hurt anyone!”

    You know, life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. This good quality is the base of any relationship — husband-wife or parent-child or friendship! As far as I'm concerned, I'm not the best engineer as expected. However, I have made my efforts. That's enough.

    So learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life. Burnt toast isn't a deal-breaker! Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket but into your own. You will appreciate the value of every soul including yourself.

    Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English ruler tried to conquer(征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result in that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south is an independent country.

    In the 1840s the main crop, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage(短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

    For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people will work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

    The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Creeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived(复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

    "Have a nice day!" may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless expression. When my friend Maxie says "Have a nice day" with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.

    "Have a nice day. Next!" This version of expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out the door. The words come out in the same tone(腔调)with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else's is the management's attempt to increase the business.

    The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression serves us when we don't know what to say." Oh, you just had a tooth out? I'm terribly sorry, but have a nice day."

    The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says "Have a nice day" to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don't know has tried to be nice to you.

    Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that it is a little uninteresting. The salesgirl, the waitress, the teacher, and all the countless others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it's nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don't care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.

Robots have long been drawing inspiration from animals, with the creation of robot dogs or snake-shaped robots. And yet, the field of robotics is far less enthusiastic about the other kind of living things—plants. Barbara Mazzolai, an Italian roboticist owes this to a misconception about plant behavior: that they cannot move or think. "It's not true at all, " she says. To challenge this view, Dr Mazzolai and her team recently launched a machine called "FiloBot", a robot based on a climbing species. 

To survive, a climbing plant must switch between several different behaviors. In forest environments, it must first grow out of the soil and travel along the ground in search of a support to hold onto, such as a nearby tree. Once a support is located, though, the plant fixes itself around the object and then growing towards the light. To choose the best angle to grow upwards, a climbing plant uses its shoots(芽) to receive information about light and gravity. 

FiloBot has sensors on its main shoot. It can 3D-print its body with plastic and grow at a controllable rate. These functions, researchers found, enabled FiloBot to cross gaps, and find things to attach to. The lack of heavy on-board computing device means that it is light and requires minimal care, while its slow pace means that it doesn't disturb things around it, making it possible to move through a complex, unseen environment, or monitoring disaster sites. 

For now, FiloBot is still being tested. Its tendrils(卷须) have not left the laboratory. Still, it has already been employed in deconstructing plant behaviour. For example, it was long assumed that climbing plants find their supports by growing towards shade, though the exact mechanism was unclear. FiloBot could imitate this behaviour by detecting far-red light, which is typical of shaded areas, providing clues to how plants do it. 

Dr Mazzolai hopes that such projects will inspire other roboticists to take their cues from plants and develop completely new technologies.