Oh my God, the robots are taking over! We're doomed! Doomed! Now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's become clear that while we may or may not be doomed, the robots are taking over. The latest example is the government's new guidelines for self-driving cars.

    Tesla, Google and Uber are already testing driverless cars in cities across America. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick is among those predicting that by 2021, self-driving cars will play a big part in urban settings.

    Nearly 40,000 people died last year in this nation in automobile-related accidents, and we believes driverless cars can save tens of thousands of lives annually.

    Makes sense. Robot drivers are less likely to get drunk, drive without a license, text while driving or feel agitated at the scene of a pileup. On the other hand, I wonder how these highly sensitive cars will react, with walkers constantly dashing into the street. Will they jam on the brakes every 10 seconds?

    But there's a bigger picture. Not only are robots replacing humans behind the wheel, but behind the work desk, in warehouses, senior homes, you name it. Robots aren't just taking over in the workplace.

    The question is, where can't a robot function better than a human? How about writing songs? A robot can go through every combination of notes in record time and come up with a pleasing melody. The lyrics might be a different story. Is a Grammy-winning song co-written by Hank Human and R-3071 in our future?

    Finally, it's only a matter of time until we have robot politicians and presidential candidates. Why not? They can be programmed to be experts in world and domestic affairs and come up with the best solutions without corruption and bad humors.

     Actually, it's too bad such technology isn't available in 2016. Pretty sure the robot would win in a landslide.

    Dry Ice is a unique substance which has many uses. Essentially, dry ice is frozen CO2. The first report of what we now call dry ice came from the French chemist Charles Thilorier in 1834. In 1924, the Drylee Corporation of America named the solid form of CO2 as "Dry Ice", which is what it is popularly called today.

    At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2changes directly from solid to gas. It skips the liquid phase（阶段）which makes regular ice wet. Frozen CO2is also much colder than regular ice. But regular ice freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, CO2 changes from gas to solid at -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This extremely cold temperature makes it very dangerous to handle with bare hands. It can cause frostbite in a very short period of time.

    Dry ice has been used for a variety of purposes throughout the past century. Its primary use is to refrigerate food when electrical refrigeration isn't available. Through the process of sublimation (when CO2 changes from solid to gas), it can maintain cold food for a long time.

    If you've ever been to a play and seen heavy fog on the ground, it is likely that you have seen dry ice in action. This effect can be achieved because CO2 is heavier than air, so evaporated （挥发的）CO2 will sink and accumulate on the ground.

    Another interesting use for this substance is to bait（诱杀）insects like mosquitoes. These insects have sensors which guide them to CO2. They find the high concentration of CO2 in dry ice quite attractive.

    Mars has long been a mystery for human beings. We have been looking for evidence of life on Mars. In the 1960s scientists guessed that the polar ice cap of Mars was made of frozen CO2. More recent observations have shown that while the topmost layer consists of frozen CO2, the most of it is probably regular frozen water.

    I passed a man on the way home from work this evening. He was walking down the side of the carriageway. Actually, he was walking unsteadily. I slowed down wondering whether to stop and give him a lift, at least down to a safer part of the road. I couldn't be sure but he appeared to be quite drunk. I pulled over and watched him in my rear-view mirror. He was obviously well-oiled. A truck turned sharply to avoid him at one point-he didn't appear to care.

    Having stopped now, I thought I might as well wait for him to reach the car. Five minutes went by and he reached the car. My windows were down, and I asked him if he wanted a lift. He indicated that he was going to the next town, just out of my way, but not far enough to put me to trouble. So in he got.

    “Sorry, I'm really quite drunk. I've been at a funeral. My family are all really out of it, so I decided to walk home. I'm Ryan,” and he offered me his hand. I drove and we talked. He told me he'd buried his uncle, and that he was a traveler.

    He called me brother and offered me his cool shades as payment. I declined and said the joy was in the giving. Three times along the way he told me that, “Whatever we put out there comes back to us. Something good will come to you for picking me up.” We told each other where we came from, the places we've lived, and how we both ended up here. He apologized again for being so drunk. “Anywhere around here is fine for me,” he said. So I dropped him at the next junction. We shook hands and spoke each other's names again.

    I felt as if I'd been blessed somehow. I think I have been.

    With more than 100,000 people aged 100 or over, Spain is the country with the greatest life expectancy after Japan. How do you live to 100? Here 4 of the country's centenarians (百岁老人) give their advice on staying youthful.

Francisco Nunez, 112

    He is from Bienvenida, Badajoz, southern Spain. Nunez lives with his daughter. He says he doesn't like the pensioners' (领养老金的人) daycare center because it's full of old people, whose negative attitude towards life affects him deeply sometimes. Despite his old age. he has always maintained (保持) a youthful outlook, and that is what has kept him going on.  Pedro Rodriguez, 106

    He lives in Cangas de Onis, Asturias, northern Spain. Rodriguez plays the piano every day in the living room of the flat where he lives with his wife who is nearly 20 years younger than him. Their daughters visit them often. His hobby is something that he feels has kept him young. "The nuns (修女) taught me how to play the piano as a child," he says.

    Maximino San Miguel, 102

    He lives in Leon, northern Spain. San Miguel discovered his passion (酷爱) for amateur dramatics at the age of 80 and has participated in many local productions. He didn't go to school as a child because he was sent to work as a shepherd (牧羊人). He prefers reading books about drawing and traveling. Now this hobby, he said, has kept him full of energy.  Pilar Fernandez, 101

    She lives with her daughter Pili, granddaughters Flori and Ana in Ambas, Asturias, northern Spain. Fernandez suffered hunger and hardship during the war years alongside her nine brothers and sisters. To avoid history repeating itself, she limited herself to just one child. "From pure fear, I didn't have anymore," says Fernandez. One of the best things for her health, she says, is tending livestock (家畜) and a vegetable garden.

Bergl doesn't consider himself the next Thomas Edison, He's just a man loving animals, Africa and adventure, Yet, Bergl might have invented a tool as great as the light bulb (灯泡) ―a tool that uses modern-day technology to solve an almost prehistoric (史前) problem.

The tool is called the SMART. It is designed to be waterproof (防水的) , shockproof and poacher (偷猎者) proof. Bergl worked with worldwide wildlife groups to develop it in 2011. Since then it has been seen in more than 55 countries where poachers have forced the best-known but most endangered animals to nearly die out .

SMART works as a very simple smart phone―it lets the user record what they see, like animal sightings. changes in animals and illegal activities If a park ranger (管理员) sees something that is very important, that information can be sent to the cloud (云) and sent out to the base camp so they can take action and stop the killing 

Bergl and his workmates travel to African wildlife reserves now and then They teach park rangers in some of the most remote countries how to use SMART. "SMART makes collection of information easier It allows us to pay attention to the things that really important. according to what the information is telling an,"Aid Skim Young, manager of the Etosha National park in Namibia, "thanks to SMART, most of Africa's endangered animals seem to be coming back." 

Bergl never plans to make money from his small but great invention. SMART is free and doesn't even have a patents(专利).