I recently posted a picture on Facebook from the movie Mad Max, a film where two groups race through the desert in steam punk vehicles, and wrote, “Actual picture of my way to work today.” It was meant to be a joke because of the sandstorms in Beijing, but one of my friends from back home thought it was real.

    I couldn't imagine how they could think that is actually what China is like. China has so many more conveniences and advantages than the West, and many of my friends agree. “I don't know how I will be able to deal when I go back home,” said a friend who is about to end her gap year in Beijing. “I've become so spoiled in China.

    China seems to be leading the way in innovation and convenience for daily life. Back home I could never shop, pull out my phone and scan a QR code to pay.

    There have been rumors of starting bike sharing in my hometown for years with little success while bike sharing suddenly appeared in Beijing overnight. I just step outside and scan a code, and I am on my way.

    Going out to eat with a group of friends back home was troublesome for both the group and the servers. Splitting checks and swiping (刷) 10 different cards or making change for each person in the group can be a pain. But with China's WeChat, you can quickly send your friends your part of the bill.

The list goes on...

    When I first arrived in Beijing, I was dead set on leaving in a month. That month has come and gone. Now, when someone asks me when I'm coming back, I think to myself, “Who knows?”

    While my friends think I'm riding through the desert on a motorbike, I am actually taking a “Didi” for what is the equivalent of $5 in the US.

    With all the conveniences and technology here, I may never want too go back.

    Lennon Flowers' mom was diagnosed with lung cancer when she was a senior in high school. This young woman gave up her big dreams to go to New York University and become an actor and instead entered the University of North Carolina so she could be close to home. Though she was surrounded by a community of friends, she rarely brought up her mom. “I became good at not talking about what was happening to me,” she explains. “I got really, really good at being really, really busy.”

    When her mother died during her senior year in college, many of Lennon's friends hadn't even known she was sick. In part, she said she kept silent about it due to her belief that it protected other people.

    Three years after her mother died, Lennon moved to Los Angeles for a job and, met Carla Fernandez. They had an immediate connection. Later, while apartment hunting side-by-side, Carla admitted that her father had died just six months earlier. Lennon shared her own story. A seed was planted.

    A couple of months later Carla organized a dinner party for five women, Lennon among them. All of them had lost a parent already though they were only in their 20s; all of them had felt alone in that loss.

    An emotional movement was born: The Dinner Party. Today, there are 31 “tables” across the country and the initial organization plans to create even more.

    Lennon says, “As people gather month after month, they branch out from talking about their lost loved ones and start exploring what those losses have taught them about the meaning of life.”

    Lost iPhone

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    Do you need a babysitter that you can trust?

    My name is Tina. I am a responsible babysitter that you can trust. If you are looking for someone dependable and affordable I am that person! I HAVE MORE THAN 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE (including disabled children)! I am a retired Home Health Aid and absolutely love children. I work with my sister Iris who has also 20+years as a teacher's assistant. WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETINC YOU! Available 24 hours and flexible with fees! I am fully bilingual—Spanish/English. Please email me or call 712-867-7688.

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    Part-time Chinese Babysitter Wanted

    Part-time Chinese speaking babysitter needed to assist with one-year-old twins and to perform some light house work as needed. Assistance needed Fridays and occasional weekends. Please provide your salary expectation. College students are welcome to apply.

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    Earthquakes are something that people fear. There are some places that have few or no earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly. Countries that have a lot of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous.

    The most talked about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906. Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.

    Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2,000 people died.

    In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. A hundred and forty thousand people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.

    One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 2008. It killed a large number of people. The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 400,000 people were killed or injured. This earthquake happened in 1556.

    Earthquakes worry people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People cannot prepare for earthquakes.

    As advances in auto-technology have placed a huge number of self-driving machines on our roads and sidewalks, a side product has materialized in recent years: robot-babysitting.

    In Phoenix, human attendants will remotely monitor Google's upcoming Waymo robot-taxis, using the cars cameras to evaluate and adapt to passenger or road challenges. State safety regulations typically require that auto-vehicles be accompanied at all times by humans. These professionals' job titles range from "robot handler" to "safety driver," but they have essentially the same responsibilities: monitoring robot behavior for safety and performance, and answering questions about the technology. Broadly speaking, robot-babysitting jobs fall under the umbrella of careers in automation, which include maintenance, engineering, and programming.

    However, some observers note that certain kinds of robot-babysitting –-- the kind that is boring and doesn't require much education –-- can make for thankless work. The safety drivers who sit in self-driving cars have described their roles as" exhausting" and "demanding," and many told me about the constant pressure to stay vigilant at all times. "It's incredibly hard to sit in a chair and stare at a computer without doing anything for eight hours," Ramsey said. "But you do not need a Ph.D. to do it." In March 2018, the field of robot babysitting took a beating when a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Arizona, hit a 49-year old named Elaine Herzberg. Dashcam footage showed that Rafaela Vasquez, the car's safety driver, had not been looking at the road when the accident occurred. Investigators are deciding if Vasquez will be charged with murder.

    According to the McKinsey Global Institute, 10 million to 800 million jobs globally could be lost to automation by 2030. In the long term, it's inevitable that robot-babysitters will go the way of elevator operators and lamplighters. But they'll also birth new robot-related roles." A huge number of jobs will be created as auto-vehicles are loosed into the environment,” Ramsey said. In 2016, Bosch started training students from Schoolcraft College, a community college in Michigan, in auto-vehicle repair: Toyota has trained students in maintenance as well. "We might even see a return to low-level jobs where people come and fuel the car for you," Ramsey said. "Until we can wirelessly charge, someone needs to refuel them.” The hardest-to-automate industries, as it happens, are the ones that require looking after humans: childcare, education, health-care aides. Robot babysitters might feel like they have gained the job of the future. But in fact, real babysitters might be better positioned.

    Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile (汽车). But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until 1896. That was eleven years after two Germans developed the world's first automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the production line that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many factory owners used methods of this kind before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. And he made the whole factory a moving production line.

    In the early days of the automobile, almost every car maker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first one. It was also the last race in which he drove the car himself.

    The race was in 1901, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered, but only two were left: the Winton and Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began.

    The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the Winton. His name appeared in newspapers and he became well-known all over the United States. Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. In 1903, a doctor in Detroit bought the first car from the company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one."

    The Model T was a car of that kind. It only cost $850. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers, even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T's were built in the first few years.