Two weeks ago, Ray Johnstone, an elderly man living alone in South Australia, posted a classified advertisement in search of a friend. Specifically, he was on the hunt for a fishing partner, as he no longer had anyone to share his hobby with. “I'm a widowed retired man who is looking for a fishing mate,” he wrote on Gumtree, “My previous fishing mate is now deceased. He will never accompany me to go fishing. I am a land-based fisherman. I have all the gear for all types of fish that is required for land-based fishing.”

    Like all of us, 22-year-old Mati Batsinilas was touched by the man's advertisement, so he reached out to him and arranged an outing. Rather than simply spend the day with Johnstone somewhere local, however, he and his family offered to take him on an all-inclusive weekend fishing trip of Stradbroke Island in Queensland. And, as expected, they had a good time. “Whilst on the island we covered four-wheel driving, site-seeing, fishing, swimming, chats with the locals and the best of all... just relaxing and chatting like mates,” Batsinilas wrote in a Facebook post. “Once you reach a level of maturity in life, age should only be a number. My respect for Johostone is obviously very high, but I treated him exactly the way I would have treated one of my 22-year-old mates.”

    Fortunately, it sounds like Johnstone won't have to place more classified advertisements any time soon. In addition to finding a friend, the pensioner has become a star on the Internet, with many social media users voicing their interests in meeting the now-famous fisherman.

    When I was a little girl, I remember that when my dad was repairing something, he would ask me to hold the hammer, so we would have time for a conversation with each other. I never saw my dad drinking or taking a night out. All he did after work was taking care of his family.

    I grew up and left home for college and since then, my dad had been calling me every Sunday morning. And when I bought a house several years later, my dad painted it by himself in the fierce summer heat. All he asked was to talk to him, but I was too busy in those days.

    Four years ago, my dad visited me. He spent many hours putting together a swing for my daughter. He asked me to have a talk with him, but I had to prepare for a trip that weekend.

    One Sunday morning we had a telephone talk as usual. I noticed that my dad had forgotten some things that we discussed lately. I was in a hurry, so our conversation was short. Several hours later that day I received a call. My father was in the hospital. Immediately I bought a plane ticket and on my way I was thinking about all the occasions I missed to have a talk with my dad. By the time I arrived at the hospital, my father had passed away. Now it was he who did not have time for a conversation with me. I realized how little I knew about my dad, his deepest thoughts and his dreams.

    After his death I learned much more about him and even more about myself. All he ever wanted was my time. And now he has all my attention every single day.

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes（基因）will stay there for a much longer time.

    In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16, 000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7, 000 genes of smokers had changed a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

    When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years. This means your body is trying to heal（治愈）itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years. It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement（水泥）— it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer ricks.

    Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed new artificial intelligence(AI) software to recognize and follow up the faces of chimpanzees(黑猩猩)in the wild. The new software will allow researchers and wildlife conservationists to significantly cut back on time spent analyzing videos, according to the new paper published in Science Advances.

    For species(物种)like chimpanzees which have complex social lives and live for many years, getting photos of their behavior taken from short-term field research can only tell us so much," says Dan Schofield, researcher and DPhil student at Oxford University's Private Models Lab, School of Anthropology. "By taking advantage of the power of machine learning to unlock large video files, it makes it possible to measure behavior over the long term."

    The computer model was trained using over 10 million images(影像):from Kyoto University s Primate Research Institute(PRI) video files of wild chimpanzees in Guinea, West Africa. The new software is the first to continuously track and recognize individual a wide range of poses, performing with high accuracy in difficult conditions such as low lighting and poor image quality.

    "Access to this large video file has allowed us to use deep neural networks to train models to a degree that was previously not possible," says Arsha Nagrad, co-auther of the study and DPhil student at the Department of Engineer Science, University of Oxford." Additionally, our new software differs from previous primate face recognition software in that it can be applied to videos with limited manual intervention(人工干预), saving hours of time."

    The technology can be potentially used to monitor species for conservation Although the present application focuses on chimpanzees, the AI software provided will be applied to other species, and help drive the adoption of AI systems to solve(解决)a range of problems in the wildlife sciences.

Most people assume that the human brain is set on "automatic"—that means it learns all by {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(it). But this isn't always true. We need to train ourselves to be better learners—to {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(active) take part in the learning process and to reflect on {#blank#}3{#/blank#} we have learnt. These kinds of learning behaviours are called "active learning". I suggest doing five things to take an active role{#blank#}4{#/blank#} your learning.

There are two {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(kind) of voices: the inner voice and the outer voice. Your inner voice expresses your {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(person) opinions, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} 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 {#blank#}8{#/blank#} way of learning. If you keep {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(pay) too much attention to it, you risk missing important information. Instead, active learners are open-minded and focus {#blank#}10{#/blank#} what the speaker / writer is saying, not on what their brain is saying in the background. In this way, they are in a better position to make decisions.

Oklahoma, one of America's Southwest Region, is full of fascinating history. While much can be learned about the state's past by visiting larger urban areas like Oklahoma City, the state capital, and Tulsa, those in the know will include at least a few smaller towns on their travel plans.

Guthrie

Guthrie was Oklahoma's first state capital and a focal point of the Land Run of 1889, an important event that saw thousands of settlers rushing to claim land across the Southwest. Guthrie Historic District is one of the best-preserved collections of Victorian-era architecture in the United States and encompasses over 2,000 buildings, including the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library, home to fascinating exhibits about Guthrie's early years.

Ardmore

Ardmore became an important hub for the nation's oil boom of the early 20th century. Its downtown retains much of its historic charm and early wealth, including the Santa Fe Depot, built in1915, which now houses the Greater Southwest Historical Museum. The Ardmore Public Library, dating to 1905, is another significant site that has been well-preserved, as is the Colcord Building, constructed in 1894 and one of Oklahoma' s oldest standing structures built with steel (it's now a luxurious 4-star hotel under Hilton's Curio brand). Be sure to also head out into the surrounding Arbuckle Mountains and nearby Lake Murray for a scenic drive.

Pawhuska

Pawhuska is the heart of the Osage Nation and played an important role in Oklahoma's oil boom. The town's fascinating past is enshrined in landmarks like the Osage Nation Museum, established in1938, and the oldest tribally owned museum in America, which describes Osage history, art, and culture vividly; while the 1914 Constantine Theatre is a striking reminder of early 20th-century entertainment that continues to host performances.