By 2050, a completely new type of human evolve as a result of extremely new technology, behavior, and natural selection. This is according to Cadell Last, a researcher at the Global Brain Institute, who claims mankind is undergoing a major “evolutionary transition”.

    In less than four decades, Mr. Last claims we will live longer, have children in old age and rely on artificial intelligence to do ordinary and boring tasks. This shift is so significant, he claims, it is comparable to the change from monkeys to apes, and apes to humans. “Your 80 or 100 is going to be so radically different than your grandparents,” Mr. Last says, who believes we will spend much of our time living in virtual reality. Some evolutionary scientists believe this age could be as high as 120 by 2050.

    Mr. Last claims humans will also demonstrate delayed sexual maturation, according to a report by Christina Sterbenz in Business Insider. This refers to something known as life history theory which attempts to explain how natural selection shapes key events in a creature's life, such as reproduction. It suggests that as brain sizes increase, organisms need more energy and time to reach their full potential, and so reproduce less.

    Instead of living fast and dying younger, Mr. Last believes humans will live slow and die old. “Global society at the moment is a complete mess,” he told MailOnline. “But in crisis there is opportunity, and in apocalypse (启示) there can be transformation. So I think the next system humanity creates will be far more sophisticated, fair, and abundant than our current civilization.”

    “I think our next system will be as different from the modern world, as our contemporary world is from the medieval (中世纪的) world. The biological clock isn't going to be around forever,” he added, and said that people could pause it for some time using future technology.

    The change is already happening. Today, the average age at which a woman in Britain has her first baby has been rising steadily stands at 29. 8. In the US, just one percent of first children were born to women over the age of 35 in 1970. By 2012, that figure rose to 15 percent.

    “As countries become socio-economically advanced, more and more people, especially women have the option to engage in cultural reproduction,” Mr. Last added. And as well as having more child-free years to enjoy leisure time, he believes artificial intelligence will make up the need for low-skill jobs. We may also spend a large amount of time living in virtual reality. “I'm not quite sure most people have really absorbed the implications of this possibility,” Mr. Last said.

    His views are detailed in a paper, titled “Human Evolution, Life History Theory, and the End of Biological Reproduction" published Current Aging Science.

    Shlander is a man from space. He thinks the people and things on the earth are very strange. He is now writing a letter to his friend at home. Here is part of his letter. Read it and answer the questions.

    Now I am in a strange world. It is very nice. There are many new things here. There are many earth monsters (怪物) here, too. The earth monsters look very funny. They have just one head, two arms and two legs. They have thin black strings(细绳) on their heads. Some earth monsters have brown or yellow strings. The earth monsters have a hole in their faces. Every day, they put nice things and balls from the trees into the hole. They put water into the hole, too. The earth monsters do not walk very fast. They move from place to place in tin boxes.

    At night, the earth monsters like to look at a square window box. This box has very small earth monsters in it.

    Why do some people live to be older than others? You know the standard explanations: keeping a moderate diet, engaging in regular exercise, etc. But what effect does your personality have on your longevity?Do some kinds of personalities lead to longer lives?A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society looked at this question by examining the personality characteristics of 246 children of people who had lived to be at least 100.

    The study shows that those living the longest are more outgoing,more active and less neurotic (神经质的) than other people.Long-living women are also more likely to be sympathetic and cooperative than women with a normal life span.These findings are in agreement with what you would expect from the evolutionary theory: those who like to make friends and help others can gather enough resources to make it through tough times.

    Interestingly, however, other characteristics that you might consider advantageous had no impact on whether study participants were likely to live longer.Those who were more self-disciplined,for instance,were no more likely to live to be very old.Also,being open to new ideas had no relationship to long life,which might explain all those bad-tempered old people who are fixed in their ways.

    Whether you can successfully change your personality as an adult is the subject of a longstanding psychological debate.But the new paper suggests that if you want long life,you should strive to be as outgoing as possible.

    Unfortunately, another recent study shows that your mother's personality may also help determine your longevity.That study looked at nearly 28,000 Norwegian mothers and found that those moms who were more anxious, depressed and angry were more likely to feed their kids unhealthy diets.Patterns of childhood eating can be hard to break when we're adults,which may mean that kids of depressed moms end up dying younger.

    Personality isn't destiny(命运),and everyone knows that individuals can learn to change.But both studies show that long life isn't just a matter of your physical health but of your mental health.

Holidays are the main times to see both sides of my family.

    At Thanksgiving, my mom, dad, brother and I go to my dad's side of the family, my grandpa's. When I was in 2nd grade, my grandma got in a car accident only miles from their house. At the time, I was in school. I was checked out and brought to church. Since then, holidays have never been the same. However, Thanksgiving is still good, although it would be better with grandma. At my grandpa's house, my uncle, aunt, dad and mom all get the dishes prepared for the feast. When the final family members arrive, and the food is downstairs, we dig in, the little ones first.

    Christmas is a little different. We have Christmas with my mom's side at my uncle's house, usually on Christmas Eve. We have dinner with homemade cupcakes for dessert, and relax until it is time to open presents. The kids get the most and we usually take a family photo. After everybody's gifts have been opened, my family say goodbye and go home.

    Easter has been a little different in the past few years. It started 3 years ago, when my family hosted my mom's side of the family. We put our dishes we made for the day on the counter. We kids go downstairs and play ping-pong or football. We are called up when everything is ready and begin eating. The kids go to a table in the living room, and the adults use the kitchen table. That is usually the Easter day for us.

    Each tradition gets better and better each year for some reason. I wonder what new traditions my family might come up with in the coming years.

                                                                        Bangkok Transportation Public buses

    The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) is charged with providing bus service to people living and working in Bangkok and the nearby provinces. As of February, 2005, the BMTA operated a total of 113 routes, served by 3,526 buses, of which 1,665 were regular buses and 1,861 air-conditioned buses. There were also privately-owned buses operated under the BMTA with a total of 3,535 regular and air-conditioned buses and 1, 067 minibuses including 2,325 small buses which provide services in lanes. An average of 3.4 million people use these services daily.

    Types of Buses and Fares

Fare Exemptions

The following passengers are eligible for bus fare exemptions：

⒈BMTA bus inspectors

⒉Mailmen in uniform while on duty

⒊Holders of BMTA employee ID cards

    Half-Price Concessions

    The following passengers are eligible for half-price fares when using the service of regular buses.

⒈The blind with a certificate from the Association of the Blind

⒉Soldiers and policemen in uniform

⒊Holders of official certificates or medals as specified by the Regulation on Bus Fare

    Fare Concessions for Air-conditioned Buses

    Holders of the following official certificates and medals are eligible for air-conditioned bus fare reductions.

⒈Victory Medal(Off-spring of this medal are also entitled)

⒉Border Service Medal

⒊Free-Mall Protection Medal

⒋European Royal War Medal

⒌Non-active War Veterans Classes 1 2 3 and 4

⒍BTMA Employee ID cards

    Search for bus route here

    @Bangkok Tourism Division

                                        Do dogs understand us?

    Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.

    A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).

    In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.

    In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.

    The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.

    Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.

    It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talk back. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!