【推荐3】For Lydia Koniordou, a famous Greek actress and former Greek minister of culture and sports, cultural preservation is essential to help people know who they are and learn what they should do in the future.

“The taller you want to grow, the deeper your roots must be. Our cultural past is our roots. If we don’t have really strong roots and depth in our perception (认识) of our identity, we cannot grow. Without these roots, we will be torn out very easily with the currents,” she told the journalist in a recent interview, adding cultural heritage is in fact very much alive and relevant today.

Speaking of her teaching experience overseas, Koniordou said she was very much impressed by her Chinese students when she gave seminars on ancient Greek tragedy at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2014-15. When the students worked on Alcestis, an Athenian tragedy by ancient Greek playwright Euripides, they thoroughly researched the costumes they would be wearing, the set, and the lights, among others, she recalled. “I feel they evolved and were transformed by this experience as I was transformed. They did not just play a role, but created a whole world and that is why the production had so much interest also for the spectators,” she said.

Koniordou participated in the production of Euripides ‘Electra’ together with Greek director Kostas Tsianos. “Tsianos did something very important for Greek culture. He connected folk forms of art, folk dances, songs and poetry with our classical past. We presented this performance in many places around the world, and the feeling that it stirred in the audience was quite similar, even though they didn’t always understand the language,” she said.

The Chinese civilization is a huge tree with very deep roots, and Greece also has a rich ancient civilization, she said, adding she believes that the two countries could promote cooperation and exchanges in many fields, such as in preservation of antiques.

【推荐1】For most of the traditional restaurants, it is challenging to deal with the increasing number of customers. But for Li Xianghui’s restaurants, things are different. Owning four restaurants, Li bought a number of cooking machines, which can operate tirelessly day and night. Packed in kits, all dishes are semi-finished(半加工的) and can be served within minutes after they are put into the machines.

“Automation (自动化) is the future for the restaurant business. It can avoid pressure from human costs in running a traditional restaurant and increase efficiency,” Li says. “There is a standardized process(过程) by the machines, which can make sure of the same taste of each order.”

The cooking machine can make about 2,000 recipes(食谱), according to Li. Once seated, customers scan a QR code(二维码) and use an app to make their meal selection and pay. With the only waiter putting the semi-finished food kit into the machine, the meal will be served in minutes. What’s more, the robot “cook” has attracted an increasing number of customers since the restaurant’s opening. Many customers say the taste is good and the price is not expensive.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have trained their robot “cook” to make a judgement about the saltiness of a dish at different stages of the chewing (咀嚼) process, like a similar process in humans, according to their research published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

Their results could be useful in the development of automated or semi-automated food preparation by helping robots to learn what tastes good and what doesn’t, making them better “cooks”. “If robots are to be used for certain aspects of food preparation, it’s important that they are able to ‘taste’ what they’re cooking,” said Grzegorz Sochacki, the paper’s first author.

【推荐3】Two towns in Boulder County, Colorado are struggling to recover after terrible wildfires destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings.

The Marshall fire and the Middle Fork fire began on Thursday morning as grass fires. Strong winds blowing at speeds of up to 175 kph helped feed the flames and spread them further. The fires spread through towns located between the larger cities of Boulder and Denver. Over 30,000 people were forced to leave Louisville, Superior, and two other nearby towns as the fire swept through the area.

By Friday morning, the wildfires had burned roughly 25 square kilometers. The Middle Fork fire was brought under control on Friday, but the Marshall fire was harder to stop Nearly 1,000 buildings were destroyed, including hundreds of homes, a hotel, and a shopping center.

In spite of the power of the wildfires, there have only been a few injuries. So far, no deaths have been reported.   Authorities initially suggested that the fire may have been caused by power lines downed by the wind. But company Xcel Energy reported Friday that none of its power lines in the area where the fire began had been downed, throwing that explanation into question.

Surprisingly, snow began falling on Friday night, helping to put out the fire. But by Saturday, the snow and falling temperatures had begun to cause new problems. Many homes in the area were left with no electricity and no gas for heating. With temperatures around -14℃, water pipes began freezing and breaking in many of the homes that had survived the flames.

Many people are looking at the part the climate crisis played in this disaster. Wildfire season used to run from May to November, but that’s no longer true. Temperatures in the area have been unusually warm since July. Jennifer Balch，who’s a fire scientist，told the Denver Post, “Climate change is definitely a part of this story, in that fire seasons are 1onger.”