In the fall of 1959, Freed suffered a bad reputation for rumors of bribery (贿赂行为), and his troubles were too strong to be resisted. When WABC asked Freed to sign a statement swearing that he had never taken bribes, he refused and was fired. Although he later signed such a statement for WNEW-TV, he lost his television show as well.

    Finding himself unwelcome in New York, Freed fled to the West Coast, where he managed to land a daytime disc jockey (流行音乐播音员) job at KDAY in Los Angeles in 1960. Legal problems continued to bother him, though, and he was charged with taking bribes of more than $30,000 from a number of record companies. Publicly, Freed denied that he had ever accepted direct bribes, although he acknowledged that he had accepted gifts from record companies, but only for playing records that he was certain would become hits anyway. After a short time at KDAY, he left when the station management refused to let him promote his live rock ‘n' roll shows. He returned to New York, but not as a broadcaster. At the height of the great enthusiasm for the twist dance, he hosted a Manhattan twist revue (时事讽刺剧), but when this enthusiasm cooled, he found a disc jockey job at WQAM in Miami in 1962. During this difficult period, Freed began drinking heavily and lost his job in Miami after only two months. In December of 1962 he was found guilty in New York of two charges of commercial bribery and was given a six-month sentence and fined $300. This effectively ended his career.

    Freed spent the last years of his life in Palm Springs, California. Although he had redefined what it meant to be a disc jockey and named the music that had become an anthem (圣歌) for the world's youth, he was a disgraced (耻辱的) and broken man, no longer able to work in the business he loved. On January 20, 1965, he died in a hospital in Palm Springs.

    The year 3700, Earth is far too hot for any human to call it home. On this planet at least, man is nothing more than a memory--if there is anything left to remember the "wise man". But what about our wisdom--will any of it survive us?

    The conventional answer is no. Knowledge requires a knower, and there will be no knowing minds around then. But if information survives, perhaps in books or hard drives, maybe the knowledge isn't quite dead but dormant(休眠), ready to become alive with the help of other minds that develop over time or come to visit Earth in the distant future.

    At first sight, that seems to be reasonable: after all, we have done similar things with past knowledge. For example, we saved an ancient computer from a ship destroyed at sea off the southern coast of Greece, and succeeded in finding the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics(象形文字). Careful work can bring previously lost wisdom back to life.

    However, the key point is that there is a certain cultural continuity with those ancient times that allows us to reason and make progress in the dark: we know we are dealing with the legacy(遗产)of other humans. Without that link, the survival of objects and raw data doesn't guarantee the survival of knowledge. And a lack of continuity in language with any future intelligence would be a barrier. Knowledge is closely connected with language. When a language dies out, we can lose systems of reasoning that they contain. If that's lost, then it can't be recovered.

    All this means that other minds might not be able to fully make human knowledge alive when we are gone. It is better to concentrate on not dying out in the first place.

    Your next car could have two seats, three wheels — two in front and one in the back and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Elio Motors plans to make such a tiny car named the Elio. Its two seats sit front and back instead of side by side. The driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind.

    The starting price for the car is just $6,800. It has only one door, on the left side, which cuts a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It has air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features can be ordered through Elio's long list of suppliers. Elio will also sell the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers (特约经销商).

    Paul Elio dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors. In 2008, tired of high gas prices, he started working on a car that burns gas in a more effective way. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to attract buyers who might otherwise be stuck in their old, unreliable cars. “Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it,” he said.

    Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved (预订) one. Paul hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. So far, reservation holders are those who will use the Elio as a second or third car for work. Finally, though, he believes the car will interest high school and college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable.

    I've been really lucky this year. Not only did I have the opportunity to live in France, but I was able to see some other countries with my girlfriend. Now she is studying in Essen, a large city in Western Germany. I recently went to stay with her—it was my first visit to Germany! Essen is a very large city. It has all the conveniences of any large city so I felt immediately at home. I loved the variety of shops, restaurants, shopping malls, cocktail bars, nightclubs, parks and even a lake. There is also a city­wide network of trams, which makes getting around a piece of cake!

    I found the people to be really friendly, and most Germans speak very good English which made life easy for me. I was surprised by the casual attitude to alcohol in Germany, where it seems normal for people to drink beer on the street, or on the tram. My girlfriend and I visited two famous local cities, Düsseldorf and Cologne, which are both on the Rhine River. Düsseldorf is an urban metropolis with a great variety of restaurants. We took a boat tour on the river and went up the Rhine Tower, a really tall building which offers great views across the city. Cologne, as you might know, is world-famous for its perfumes. The cathedral there is an unmissable landmark. We made the effort to climb to the top of one of the cathedral's towers. The spiral (螺旋的) stairs seemed endless, but it was worthwhile for the impressive sights from the top.

    We also went in a cable car over the river and tasted a German delicacy called "Spaghettieis" which is ice cream with strawberry sauce! I also got to try the famous German sausage. I must admit, I really enjoyed the food! The only disappointment was the grey and rainy weather, which proves that Britain does not have the worst weather in Europe!

    Cli-Fi refers to "climate fiction"; it is a term invented by journalist Dan Bloom. These are fictional books that somehow or someway bring real climate change science to the reader. What is really interesting is that Cli-Fi books often present real science in a believable way. They become fun teaching tools. There are some really well known authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi and Margaret Atwood. A list of other candidate Cli-Fi novels was provided by Sarah Holding in the Guardian.

    What makes a Cli-Fi novel good? In my opinion, it has to have some real science in it. And it has to get the science right. Second, it has to be fun to read. When done correctly, Cli-Fi can connect people to their world; it can help us understand what future climate may be like, or what current climate effects are.

    One thing that is hard to imagine is the future. What will the world be like decades from now when Earth temperatures have continued to rise? What will agriculture be like? What will coastal communities be like? It is also hard to imagine what living a subsistence agriculture life is like, today. What happens to lives and communities when the rains change, or don't come at all? What would that world look like?

    One recent example of Cli-Fi literature is South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby. In this book we follow Cooper Gosling, who is traveling to a research location on Antarctica to create paintings. Yes, an artist is sent to live with researchers and crew ­ with funding from the National Science Foundation. After arriving at the South Pole, Cooper has to become acquainted with the strange social system that exists there. Ashley writes the book in such a way that you actually feel you are huddled(拥挤) in the cold with her and her co-workers.

Biofuels (生物燃料), gained from plants and animal matter, are a key solution to the environmental problems caused by fuels like coal. "Bioalcohol (生物酒精) is the most common biofuel and is produced by sugars found in materials such as corn. With some engine redesigned, it can be used directly by cars, buses, etc. ," says Professor Daniel Tan, "12 percent of transport fuel could come from biofuels, especially bioalcohol, by 2030. "

But a 2016 study of biofuels said, "Bioalcohol presently is mostly produced with food crops. Altogether, the environmentally-friendly biofuels rely on about 2-3 percent of the global water and land used for agriculture, which could feed a large number of hungry people. "

Energy experts have therefore been trying to deal with the problem. Recent research led by an international team found that the agave (龙舌兰) plant might offer a way out. This plant tends to be the right bioalcohol source to supersede others such as sugarcane (甘蔗) and corn.

Daniel Tan explains that the agave can be grown in unfavorable conditions and is not a major food crop. "It can grow in areas that lack water and rainfall without being watered by farmers, and it does not compete with food crops or put demands on limited water. This kind of useful plant is recently being grown in Australia. It can survive Australia's hot summers," he says.

The study finds that sugarcane produces just a little more fuel per square meter each year than the agave. However, the agave outperforms sugarcane in a range of areas, including pollution to the earth, and water using. The agave uses 69 percent less water than sugarcane and 46 percent less water than corn for the same amount of fuel produced. As for corn，it produces less fuel per square meter each year than the agave.

However, Daniel Tan states: "The first generation of bioalcohol from the agave recently faces a big competition from oil, whose recent low price makes it far more attractive to customers. Without some policy support from the government, bioalcohol production from the agave faces big challenges. "