Forgive the accidental. A sudden fall is humorous not because we like to see people fall, but because it surprises. Froma spilled（溢出）water glass in a meeting to Aunt Rae's teeth coming off in the Thanksgiving turkey, the embarrassment of accidents can be relieved by humor and a helping hand. After making sure that nobody's hurt, forgive accidents with a chuckle（咯咯地笑）rather than a scolding.

    Look for the unexpected. The kid whoused to look at you with his eyes closed during a test had the idea. Parents who serve green eggs and ham to their children on graduation day get the idea. Unexpected actions lighten an atmosphere and relax people.

    Learn to laugh with your kids. Most of what children say and do is funny. Help them learn that accidents are sometimes funny and sometimes occasions for joining in and helping another human being. By sharing laughs and attempting to explain humor, you develop your sense of humor, as well as help kids develop their own sense of humor.

    Electrical devices (仪器) could soon use power made by human energy. Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking. British scientist Max Donelan and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.

    The device connects to a person's knee. As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down. To do this, the device helps with the slowing down movement of the leg. The movements of the walking person push parts of a small machine that produces electricity. Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute. Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.

    There are several possible uses for the device. Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers. The device could also be used in hospitals to operate heart pacemakers (起搏器). It could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs.

    The experimental version of the device weighs about one and a half kilograms, but it is too costly for most people to buy. But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version. An improved version should be ready in one year.

    The developers hope the device will one day help developing countries. Nearly twenty-five percent of people around the world live without electric power.

    A similar product was invented in 2005 by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania. He created a bag carried on a person's back that also produces power from walking. The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag. But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.

    “There's a mother in PICU(儿童重症监护病房)who wants to talk about a kit she received,” the nurse told me. “Something about it made her cry.”

    I've been a child-1ife specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital since 2000. I help families understand diagnoses and treatment plans and manage the ups and downs that come with caring for a sick child. Tough talks with parents are part of the job, which still makes me feel nervous.

    The kits the nurse was talking about were something I had recently introduced to the hospital: Comfort Kits from Guideposts. They were supposed to make a child's experience here easier, not upsetting.

    When I came across the kits at a conference. I fell in love with them. A treasure box of items designed not only to entertain kids, but to comfort and inspire them. There's a coloring book, a stress ball, a CD of relaxing music, a hairy star named Sparkle, a journal and much more. I really believed these kits would help kids. I wished I hadn't been mistaken.

    At the patient's room in PICU I saw a little girl, sleeping soundly, surrounded by tubes and machines. My eyes met her mother's. The kit was open on her lap and tears were running down her cheeks.

    “I'm Shannon. I manage the Child Life Department.” I said. “I'm sorry if the kit upset you .It's a new item…”

    The mother shook her head. “This has been one of the worst days of my life .I felt so scared and alone. Then I was handed this box. I know it's for my daughter, but it's just the comfort I needed. I wanted to say thank you.”

    With that I knew Comfort Kits belonged here. We've been using them for almost three years now. Each child who's admitted to the hospital receives one. Every day I see kids coloring, journaling, playing with Sparkle.

    But as this mom showed me Comfort Kits aren't just for kids. The hope they bring, which can be in short supply in hospitals sometimes, is felt by the whole family.

    It seems that technology could be changing the places where we live. A project conducted by Johann Siau, a senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire's School of Engineering and Technology, has built on the university's InterHome project aimed to create a home that supervises people living at home who are weak or elderly.

    “We've developed a wristband type of device（装罝）,” said Johann Siau, “which allows us to monitor the condition of an elderly person, or whoever is wearing the device. It allows us to collect data of a person to see if the person has fallen or is away from where they are supposed to be. It connects an elderly person with an assisted living type of device with the InterHome.” The assisted living project is part of the university's wider InterHome project, which is the development of a smart house. The house stores the usage patterns of the person living there and can adapt to make it use as little energy as possible. Connecting the two together and building the service element（元素）allow us to introduce the assisted living idea to care for the elderly. It's very important that these technologies are there to help and support rather than to replace any of the existing services.

    The InterHome is not just a prototype（样品）or a vehicle for research. It's a study tool to help students from different scientific backgrounds learn about and develop technology. The InterHome combines the latest broadband technology, mobile data and communication. Researchers and students make sure that all the technology works together. Students get experience by developing new hardware and software themselves. It requires a variety of skills from students—electronic engineers, computer students, design students and so on. “The present plan we are working on is a smart home project in Watford with some commercial companies, ” said Johann Siau. “We are looking at how a smarter home can provide extra value services.”

    News anchors(主播) must have been reluctant to read out the following news: Xin Xiaomeng began working as the world's first female artificial(人工的) intelligence news anchor at Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, three months after a male robot joined the profession.

    Unlike previous news robots though, Xin does not read news like a cold machine; she reads it almost like a human being. The muscles on her face stretch and relax — and her reactions change as she continues reading. That's why many news anchors were worried: Will AI replace us in the near future?

    To find the answer, we have to analyze the technologies that support Xin at her job. Three key technologies are used to support Xin. First, samples of human voices are collected and synthesized (合成). This is followed by the collection and synthesis of human muscle movement samples. And third the voices and movements are married in a way that when the AI news anchor reads, the micro- electric motors behind her face move to make her expressions seem more human.

    Yet we need a thorough knowledge of deep learning technology to make a robot imitate a person's voice. The developer needs to collect tens of thousands of pieces of pronunciations, input them into the machine and match them with the text for the AI to learn and read. The process for imitating facial movements is similar. The developer has to analyze the movements of the 53 muscles in the human face, make a model set from the collected data for the AI news anchor to learn, and imitate the movements of facial muscles via programs

    Both the technologies used to make Xin's performance impressive are mature. The real difficulty lies in the third — the technology to match the pronunciations with facial movements so that Xin's expressions vary according to the content of the news report. In fact, Xin's expressions don't always change according to the content. As a result, her expressions look anything but human. Actually, AI is still no match for human qualities.

Most people assume that the human brain is set on "automatic"—that means it learns all by itself. But this isn't always true. We need to train ourselves to be better learners—to actively take part in the learning process and to reflect on what we have learnt. These kinds of learning behaviours are called "active learning". I suggest doing four things to take an active role in your learning.

Listen to the outer voice

There are two kinds of voices: the inner voice and the outer voice. Your inner voice expresses your personal opinions, while the outer voice tells you about opinions from what you hear or read. Although your inner voice can be useful, it can also get in the way of learning. If you keep paying too much attention to it, you risk missing important information. Instead, active learners are open-minded and focus on what the speaker/ write is saying, not on what their brain is saying in the background. In this way, they are in a better position to make decisions.

Ask questions

Asking questions is the easiest way to promote active learning. When you get information from someone, from books or the Internet, ask two, three, even five question about the topic. The answers will lead you to further learning, and the very act of working out questions will help you to achieve a higher level of understanding about the topic. In short: Do not stop being curious.

Get to the truth

Active learners do not accept everything they learn. They attempt to find the truth at the heart of each idea. Even when an idea sounds entirely unlikely, there may be an aspect of it that is based on truth. So if someone says that dinosaurs still exist today, think about why they believe this. Where does the idea come from? Do they have enough data to support their views? If you try to find out the source of an idea, no matter how crazy it seems, you will increase your chance of learning something.

Focus on the message

Many people miss out on learning opportunities because they let their feelings get in the way. They refuse to learn or ignore what is said because of who the speaker/ writer is. It is true that we cannot help disliking some people —this is human nature, after all. But do not forget you can still learn from them. Active learners do not judge people based on firs impressions or personal feelings. Instead, they separate the message from the message. This goes the other way as well—do not just assume that some people are always right because of who they are or just because they are your friends.