Why do human beings still risk their lives under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world? It is an increasingly urgent question, given the recent mining accidents in Sago, W. Va and Huntington, Utah. A small group of engineers and robotics experts look forward to a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work.

    Robotic technology, in particular, holds much promise, McAteer says, especially when it comes to mapping mines and rescuing trapped miners — the special operations of the mining industry.

    One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. It was called Groundhog. It used lasers(激光器) to “see” in dark tunnels and map abandoned mines—some of the most dangerous work in the business.

    The latest design is called Cave Crawler. It's a bit smaller than Groundhog, and even more advanced. It can take photos and videos and has more sensors that can detect the presence of dangerous gases. Incredibly, the robot has a real sense of logic. If it comes across an obstacle it gets momentarily confused. It has to think about what to do and where to go next. Sometimes it throws a fit just like a real person.

    The greatest problem, though, is cost. The money of the earliest research project was provided by the government, but that money had dried up, and it's not clear where future money will come from. Partly for that reason, and partly because of advances in safety, mining is not nearly as dangerous as it was in the past. Since 1990, fatalities(致命性) have declined by 67% and injuries by 51% , according to the National Mining Association.

    Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry. The robots do the most boring and dangerous jobs，but won't get rid of the need for human workers.

    You've flown halfway around the world; you've sniffed out this place that nobody in Falongland or Thailand seems to have ever heard of; so what on earth is there to do here? You consider this question as you sink into an old wooden beach chair that holds you above the sand.

    It was a long journey from Bangkok to Huaplee. By the time you found the bus station and got yourself sorted out, it took almost as long as the flight from Falongland.

    Huaplee is located just south of Hua Hin, about two hundred kilometres from Bangkok, down the west side of the Gulf of Thailand. Not many tourists find this place，and the ones that do wonder if finding it has been their purpose all along.

    There's an apparent laziness that surrounds you here. It's what this place offers, and it，s free of charge. The small waves that tap the shoreline seem to slow everything down. You settle into your beach chair in preparation for a long rest. You sit there and watch the sea.

It's early afternoon, so the cook comes out and asks what you'd like to eat this evening. Before long he's rushed off to the market to buy the ingredients for whatever it was that you ordered—every meal fresh and to order. No menu here.

    There is no poolside noise here but just that wonderfully warm, clear blue sea. There⁹ s no street noise. The only sounds are the murmurs of nature.For now you just count your blessings (福祉)，listing them in the sand with your toe (脚趾)• You don't have to worry about being late for work. You don't have to do anything.

    The beach to your right stretches off to the horizon (地平线)，slowly narrowing to nothingness only to re-emerge again on your left, now steadily widening until it covers the chair beneath you. Sand to your left and sand to your right; it's unbroken, endless. No start, no end, just sand, sun,and peace. Step off it, and you re-enter the world of traffic, stress, work，and hurry.

    Normally you，re the type who can，t sit still for more than ten minutes, but you're on Huaplee Lazy Beach now and, in the right frame of mind, it stretches all the way around theworld.

     “How could it take me so long to find it?” you wonder.

    As the world around them is changing, teenagers continue to need guidance and support from both parents. Studies show that teens who have an active relationship with their fathers are less likely(可能的)to involve themselves in dangerous behaviors and more likely to succeed in school and develop higher self-worth, because their fathers go beyond social expectations to devote attention to them.

    Peer(同龄人)pressure has always been a big part of the teens' experience. Even the best father can't completely protect their kids from the growing influence of their peer group. However, studies show that teenagers whose fathers focus on their lives are more likely to resist (抵抗)the more bad effects of peer pressure, taking drugs, for example.

    Teens may not like to admit it, but they are watching their parents closely and often follow their example. An interesting finding explains just how important parents are, especially Dad. Swiss researchers discovered that if Dad attends church, even though Mom doesn't, 44 percent of the kids are still more likely to keep going to church as adults. But if Mom goes regularly and Dad never shows up, only 2 percent of the kids continue to attend.

    Teenagers face a lot of difficult choices, especially in their later teens. Fathers don't get to make those choices for them, but they can be influenced. For example, teenagers can learn a lot from their parents' concern on what to do when they finish high school. Should they go directly to college and, if so, where? Should they consider going to trade schools, joining the army or looking for a job? A father's guidance brings a long-term perspective that teens often lack to these important decisions.

    When a child says their first word, it's an event to remember. But when a girl with nonverbal autism (自闭症) does it, it's a reason to ugly cry in a parking lot. And that's exactly what happened to Briana Blankenship from Athens, Alabama. Doctors said her daughter, Taylor, might never speak. But just days ago, the 5-year-old girl challenged it and proved them wrong.

    “I had basically accepted that I would never hear her voice,” Briana said.

“We communicate with limited sign language and gestures,” Briana said, “We also have an iPad that is locked so that the only program she can access is a communication program called LAMP. LAMP is what she uses to complete work in school and because of this, she is excellent at spelling especially for a 5-year-old.” Taylor is also in the “inclusion” Kindergarten class where she receives occupational therapy (治疗) to help with her fine motor skills. “Her dad and I also pay for her to go to gymnastics every week and it has helped her stop her tiptoe walking”.

    However, when Briana was taking her daughter to a gymnastics class, the impossible happened. “We were on our way there- running late- so I had to go through the closest drive-thru to grab her something that she would actually eat We rarely eat fast food so she recognized that she was about to get her favorite food, French fries, and started getting excited and giggling (咯咯笑) in the back seat. That's when I heard her say it. I whipped my head around and asked “Did you just say Momma?” and she looked at me and said it again.

    I broke down into tears. “I parked my car after getting our food and immediately called my husband and then my mother. I didn't have time to call anyone else before class started so I quickly posted the video to my Facebook page.” Instantly, people flooded Briana's inbox. “We have had so many messages from people that we are giving them light for their loved ones, or that we are making them feel less alone in the daily battles of parenting a nonverbal child.

    Have you ever heard someone say "You totally look like you're a Jessica" or something similar? People seem to think that they know what kind of person a "Jessica" or a "Michael" looks like. Why is this?

    According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, humans tend to associate people's names with their appearances, and can even guess someone's name based on how they look.

    Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, collected thousands of photos of people's faces. They labeled (贴标签于) each photo with four names. Then, they asked volunteers to guess which of the four names was correct.

    The volunteers were able to guess the right name 38% of the time. It seems that certain characteristics of faces give them clues about someone's name, Reader's Digest reported.

    However, this only worked when the volunteers looked at names from their own culture. In addition, the volunteers were not as good at guessing the real names of people who used nicknames(昵称)more often than their real names. This may show that a person's appearance is affected by their name only if they use it often.

    "This kind of face-name matching happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy (预言), as we become what other people expect us to become," Ruth Mayo from tile university told science news website EurekAlert.

    Earlier studies have shown that gender (性别) and race stereotypes (刻板印象) can affect a person's appearance. The researchers believe there are also similar stereotypes about names. For example, people tend to think that men named Bob should have rounder faces because the word itself looks round. People may think that women named Rose are beautiful. They expect them to be "delicate" and "female", just like the flower they are named for.

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