Take a seat, my dear. Daddy wants to share something with you. I would like us to have a heart-to-heart-even though, over the years, you have slowly broken mine. Oh shut up; you so have! If you go out and ask any mother or father out there, I guarantee they’ll say the same thing. It’s just what children always do. In fact, it’s what Daddy’s own mother continues to remind him still, to this very day, every time they speak on the phone.

When you were a little baby, you vomited (呕吐), pooped and peed all over me. In your teen years, you came home from parties and vomited red wine all over my already-dirty carpets. There was a time you even had a go at drugs and all those things I hate. Where does such heartbreak end?

However, I still want you to know you are loved, because various parenting magazines keep telling me that’s my responsibility: to make you feel special and valued and so on. And of course Daddy loves you! Don’t you see? And Daddy values you. Very much so. How could he not value you, when you, as a test-tube baby, cost so much to come into this world?

Now it’s time for you to hear the truth about parenting since you’re old enough. And it’s this: all kids annoy their parents. Like you, I started off adorable. Then I went through my weird-body-shape-and-acne (粉刺) years, lost all my cuteness, developed an attitude and never once did I apologize to my parents for stealing the best years of their lives.

When you become a parent yourself, here are some parenting skills you might want to try that have been passed down from countless generations of angry Asians before me. Passive aggression is always welcome. Regular scream “I wish you had never been born” will help keep your own kid’s self-respect in check. But whatever happens, ensure you earn enough money in your adult life. Then give it to me, so I can go on expensive international tours. If you do this I promise I’ll stop com-plaining and leave you alone, because we both know that’s what we really want.

Love you lots, my cutie pie.

Daddy

【推荐2】In a piece of video shared on TikTok last Monday, a woman named Anna explained that her dad, Beck Hanks, a beekeeper, died of lung cancer about nine years ago. But, before passing away, he wrote a note that he hoped one of his children would find one day, and finally after so long, her little brother John, who is now 16 years old, found it in his father’s beekeeping clothes.

The note said, “I hope one of my children is curious about beekeeping. Beekeeping is actually pretty easy and you can learn everything online if you have any trouble. So don’t be afraid. Have courage. Good luck. Love from Dad.”

Anna explained that her father bought a farm when he was in his 40s, and it was then that he took up beekeeping and other hobbies like raising cattle and horses. She added, “When he was diagnosed (诊断) with stage 4 lung cancer, the doctors told him that he had 18 months to live. However, he didn’t give himself up and struggled to live as usual. He was a fighter. He lived 5 years and a week after his diagnosis.”

This piece of video received over 50, 800 likes, 5, 333 comments, and 749, 100 re-shares in less than 24 hours, and in the comments, Anna added that while she doesn’t do beekeeping herself, two of her brothers are interested in it.

One user commented, “I lost my dad in 2020. This video makes me cry.” And another user said, “My dad is in the last few weeks of his life battling cancer. I’ll come back to see it if necessary.”And one also shared the story of her personal loss, writing, “I lost my husband half a year ago. He used to leave little notes all over the house. I can’t bring myself to move anything.”

【推荐1】TikTok is a fun, silly place. To scroll through(浏览)it is to take in a fantastic amount of people dancing and lip-syncing(对 口 型). There's a video of Cameron Diaz s wine drinking challenge, a very polite kid named Grey, and a clip from Taylor Swift's "Love Story" that you'll hear way too much. It's addictive and ridiculous.

But the platform has been in the news lately for reasons relating to privacy and security. What you're hearing in the news may force you to wonder if the app is safe to use? The short answer is that it's probably completely fine for most people to be on TikTok, as long as they keep in mind that, just as with other social media apps, it hoovers up data.

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram collect personal information from users with different levels of transparency(透明度)，points out Shuman Ghosemajumder, an internet security company. The first level is information that you're clearly aware you're sharing with them. This includes the email or account you used to sign up for the app, and of course the content you actively share on the platform.

The next level is data you may not be aware an app is collecting—such as details like your IP address and information about your device and its operating system. TikTok says in its privacy policy that it is also “scanning and analyzing” the messages you send over the platform.

Finally, the third category of data collection is the criminal kind which experts search carefully apps to find. But Ghosemajumder says it's extremely difficult for an app like TikTok to hide that. Has TikTok done that? Ghosemajumder says he knows of no evidence that it has.

Let common sense be your guide if you're using an app like TikTok. If you don't want thousands of people to watch you dancing in your living room with your family, then don't upload a video that shows just that. Ultimately, Ghosemajumder doesn't see much daylight between TikTok and its competitors. "There's no fundamental difference in using TikTok versus using Instagram," Ghosemajumder reflects.

【推荐2】HANGZHOU — Chinese internet giant Alibaba on Tuesday opened a hotel loaded with artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, automating a series of procedures like check-in, lights control and room service.

FlyZoo Hotel, opened in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, where Alibaba is headquartered, is known as the company’s “first future hotel”. Customers can check into the hotel by simply scanning their faces. The facial recognition system installed in the hotel also enables customers to use their faces as key cards to open doors and access another hotel service. Users can also control the lights, televisions and curtains in the room via Alibaba’s voice-activated digital assistant, while robots are deployed to serve dishes, cocktails and coffee. Hotel bookings and check-out can also be done with a few clicks on mobile through an app. “The AI-based solution can help customers save time and relieve hotel employees from repetitive work,” said Wang Qun, CEO of FlyZoo Hotel. The hotel is the latest example of Chinese tech companies’ attempt into traditional industries such as the hotel industry.

E-commerce giant JD. com announced in October its strategy to put smart home and electronic devices sold on its platform into hotels, in an effort to improve online sales.

In July, Baidu teamed up with Intercontinental Hotels Group in Beijing to allow guests to use its voice-controlled assistant to adjust room temperature and order room service at ease.

Before that, social media giant Tencent introduced QQfamily, a similar tech solution for hotel operators, in the southern city of Zhuhai last year.

“We want to install a ‘smart brain’ for hotels,” said Wang. “In the future, we will continue to make hotels smarter and more automated, as well as create more personalized experiences for consumers.”

【推荐2】TerraCycle is a company that has recycled and upcycled (升级改造) just about any garbage it can get its hands on. It upcycles things like pens and markers into dust bins and picnic tables and cigarette ends into railroad ties.

Now, TerraCycle wants to help families waste even less with a new book Make Garbage Great: The TerraCycle Family Guide to a Zero-Waste Lifestyle. The book is part wake-up call, part history lesson, part how-to, and part DIY arts and crafts instruction.

In an effort to help people do what they can to curb their contribution to the tons of waste created every day, Make Garbage Great gives the history of various materials, discusses why those various materials are a problem, and gives tips and DIY projects to recycle or upcycle each material.

There is a chapter each on plastics, metals, paper, glass, wood, rubber and organics. Each chapter is filled with tons of tips and ideas for reducing the amount of waste you create and for responsibly handling the waste you end up creating in your home. If you’re a conscious consumer, some of the information you may already know, but there are also tips in this book that will help you recycle more than you thought you were able to. It has information on where you can take old sneakers, pillows, and all that electronic waste that seems to pile up quicker and quicker each year.

Whether the book inspires you to get a little clever at dealing with your waste or simply inspires you to think before you buy or before you throw, anyone who is concerned about the amount of waste our culture creates will find some ideas here. Even the physical book itself is a bit of an inspiration. It’s printed on tree-free paper and is a reminder that there is usually a sustainable (可持续的) alternative to many of the products that we waste.

【推荐3】Chinese people are now spending more time surfing the net than watching TV, according to results of a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) published Thursday.

The survey, of citizens of five Chinese cities, found that 79 percent of interviewees use the internet for information, and 55.1 percent to read news on the internet. About 63 percent of the interviewees use e-mail. The average times spent surfing the net and watching TV were 2.73 hours and 1.29hours, respectively.

Only 10.4 percent reported use the internet primarily to send and receive email; 65.9 percent read online news; 62.2 quite often play games on-line. More and more people have taken an interest in the entertainment opportunities online. Up to 56.5 percent of interviewees quite often download music, and 53.5 percent get entertainment messages from the internet.

Yet the survey found that television is still the dominant mass medium. Seventy-nine percent of interviewees choose to watch TV to get information, and another 75 percent take newspapers as important as TV.

Five major web sites in the Chinese language, namely Sina, Sohu, Netease, Baidu and Yahoo are still ranked top ones by web users, and those that voted for Sina as the best among them were 30.9 percent.

Authorized statistics showed that web users in China have already exceeded 100 million, second to that of the United States.