Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.

My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome successful man devoted to his work and family, but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him; as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt bitter about him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A's and unhappy with my boy- friends if their fathers were not as "successful" as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.

    On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father's friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We walked around that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son's funny facial expressions. Gone was my father's critical air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?

    The next day my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him than at that moment. After so many years, I'm at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I'm delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was.

    Do you have any foreign friends? Do you know their characteristics(特征)?

    The Germans are very quiet and they always keep calm. They don't like to speak many words. They look very serious. They like different kinds of amusements. The Germans are very hard-working. They like tidiness, especially the women, who always keep their home clean.

    In some ways, the Englishmen look the same as the Germans. They are very quiet and never talk too much with the strangers. They are really polite, so we often hear they say “Thank you.” or “Sorry.” The gentlemen are also the Englishmen.

The French's holidays are very long. They like traveling and usually spend their long time on staying in other countries. The Frenchmen are more outgoing than the Germans. It is very easy to make friends with them.

    Compared to the Frenchmen, the Americans are more outgoing. And they are even opener than all of the Europeans. They don't like to depend on others. So it is very common that the students do part-time jobs in their free time. And in Americans' eyes, success is an important part in their life.

    It is a psychological strategy that all parents will be familiar with: instead of scolding an misbehaving child, focus instead in rewarding them for good behaviour.

    Now the idea is well received outside the nursery, with implications for everything from recycling clothes to policing.

    Consumers end up with piles of unwanted clothes. Every year in the UK, 300,000 tonnes ends up in landfill — 235 million individual items.

    Now however, apps such as ReGain, Regive and Stuffstr are making it simpler — and more worthwhile — for people to return their unwanted clobber.

    The ReGain app can be used to find one of 20,000 drop-off points. In return, the diligent consumer earns rewards such as discount coupons for high street retailers. Stuffstr works in partnership with John Lewis to help people get cash in return for unwanted items from the chain.

    “Possibly the one prediction that we economists get right is that if you incentivise (激励) a behaviour, you will get more of it,” says Dr Matthew Levy, a lecturer in economics at the London School of Economics.

    He cites research, including his own, showing that financial incentives encouraging regular exercise, stopping smoking and losing weight effectively promote healthy behaviours and that there is no backlash when the incentives are removed.“If anything, the incentives can be used to jump-start a healthy habit that keeps going,”he says.

    In the four months after its launch, the ReGain scheme received almost 17,000 parcels containing 47 tonnes of used clothes and shoes, of which 95% could potentially be reused, according to its founder Jack Ostrowski.

    “We need to find a way to influence behaviour, and discount coupons help,” he says. The platform is also working with brands and retailers to find ways to divert used clothes from landfills and into the production of new clothes, he adds.

    Other reward schemes have had success in encouraging behavioural change.

    When police in Canada issued “positive tickets”— coupons for free food or movie tickets — to reward good behaviour among young people, they reported an almost 50% drop in youth-related service calls.

    “My officers would say' In the old days we'd drive up in the police car and the kids would run away from us, now they run to us'.”

    In a similar venture, Hull city council have announced plans to launch a digital reward token — the HullCoin — that can be earned by volunteering and spent at local retailers.

    Elsewhere, a study on the recruitment of health workers in Zambia found that highlighting economic incentives during the recruitment process caused future employees to be more motivated and task-focused.

    “Obviously different groups are motivated by different factors,” says Ostrowski. “For some, the feel good factor is enough, and for others, that reward stimulus is required.”

    Eldon Musk, the entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and Space X, may have a little more time on his hands, as he's leaving his position on the board of the Open AI, according to a blog post.

    The departure is likely the result of Tesla's moving into the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which he said in 2017 would be the “best in the world” and would even be able to “predict your destination.” Musk will continue to “donate and advise the organization,” Open AI said in a blog post on Feb. 20, adding that “As Tesla continues to become more focused on AI, this will avoid a potential future conflict for Eldon.”

    Musk and Y Combiner CEO Sam Altman co-founded the nonprofit enterprise in December 2015, its mission is to develop safe artificial general intelligence and ensure those developments are made public. Open AI researchers published a paper on the site ArXiv.org, detailing the possible secure threats that come with “malicious” AI. In fact, Musk has heard the “evil AI” alarm several times. On Aug. 11, 2017, he warned that artificial intelligence poses a bigger threat to humanity, and he told a gathering of state governors that the government needs to regulate AI before robots start “killing people.”

    Musk's departure from the Open AI board could mean big things for Tesla. As Eton Goodbye, a financial reporter, noted on Futurism, the move “could signal that Tesla is more deeply committed to their own AI projects than we thought.” He added, “Those who have had their ears to any rumors (谣言) that Tesla is ready to deliver vehicles capable of Level 5 autonomy could take this new Open AI development as a sign that the company is inching closer to that unapproachable goal.” No company has reached that level of autonomy, which means that a driverless car could navigate any road under any conditions and that all the human “driver” would need to do is to input a destination.

    UK education is all about giving you inspiration to develop your knowledge and skills, freedom to be creative, and support to help you achieve your best.

    On a UK course you will benefit from excellent teaching and facilities. In order to accept students, UK education centres must meet strict quality standards set by the UK government and education bodies.

    With such a good reputation for research and education, universities and colleges in the UK attract some of the world's leading academics and professionals. You will be encouraged to express your own ideas and think for yourself.

    The attention to quality is reflected in the UK's excellent results:

    Four of the top six universities in the world are in the UK.

    The UK is a world-leading research nation. 54% of the research conducted by UK universities and colleges is classed as either "world-leading" or "internationally excellent".

    At the most recent inspection, 97% of further education colleges were judged satisfactory or better, for their overall effectiveness.

    In the recent BIS Tracking International Graduate Outcomes survey, more than 88% of international higher education graduates said they were satisfied with their UK learning experience.

    Likewise, in the Higher Education Academy Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey of UK postgraduate students, 93% rated the quality of teaching positively.

    For English language students, you'll find the UK has long been at the forefront of language teaching, and pioneered many of the techniques now used around the world. The emphasis is on learning the language through fun and participation: Instead of just listening to your teacher, your classes will involve games, problem-solving and discussions. You might also listen to songs, watch television or read magazines to practise your comprehension skills.

    The UK's boarding schools also offer excellent teaching, facilities and support. At UK independent schools (most boarding schools are independent), a teacher has just 9.4 pupils on average, so teachers have more time to give you individual support. This is reflected in the results: 91% of students from UK independent schools go on to higher education.