Along Route 1, in Thomaston, Maine, is a store filled with handicrafts-birdhouses and dollhouses, salad bowls and sailing ships-all made in Maine state prisons. Ted and Barbara Widmayer have been shopping here for decades. "We found the quality to be excellent, " said Ted.

Prisoners have been making things in Maine since the 1800s. Charlie Jones came here when he was 20, sentenced to 75 years in a state where there is no parole（假释）. In the workshops, he discovered he had a talent for carving. One of Jones' earlier projects was a golden eagle. which he learned to carve from a book.

"It's amazing to see the amount of talent that the residents have here," said Randall Liberty, commissioner （局长）of Maine's Department of Corrections．"We have more than 100 residents working here daily. They do about US $ 1. 6 million worth of work. "One of Maine's programs allows residents to earn a college degree. The money for it was donated by Doris Buffett, who lived in Rockland, Maine. "She gave us an initial US $2 million donation," said Liberty. "And that's the best money I've ever seen invested in anyone."

Charlie Jones is one of the graduates. "The college program is incredible," Jones laughed. "When we used to walk to dinner, we could hear people talking about their former crimes. But now when going to dinner, you'll hear somebody talking about their philosophy class or their history class. "

Liberty said, " The individuals that graduate have about a 5％ recidivism（再犯） rate, as opposed to a 60-65% nationally. That means 95% of the people who go through this program don't go back. "

When Doris Buffett died in 2020, Charlie Jones made a table, with legs made of books, to honor her. It's also carved with the names of courses open to prison residents, and the professors who teach them. On the table was a book telling Doris Buffett's story, and a thank-you note.

Isaac Newton's book, the Principia, transformed human understanding of the forces of nature, providing a mathematical basis for the movement of planets, moons, and comets(彗星), as well as objects on Earth. Recently, a new survey has more than doubled the known number of first editions of the book, including the first ones found in Asia. Nearly 200 first editions of Principia were newly identified in the survey, bringing the total known number to 386. The volumes cover 27 countries on five continents, including Africa and Australia.

Until now, the size of the Principia's first edition had been thought to be small-around 250-based on a 1953 survey that put the number of copies at 189. That figure partly reflects a long-held idea that the book, formally titled the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, was virtually incomprehensible outside of a small circle of expert mathematicians. But the new survey suggests that the great volume, at 500 pages and written in Latin, may have been popular in many parts of the world.

Behind the pages of the Principia, in which Newton laid out his three laws of motion, is an interesting history that involves the astronomer Edmond Halley and ether great figures. Most famous today for the comet that bears his name, Halley sought Newton's input on the shape of planetary orbits, a question that Halley and his colleagues had been puzzling over. Excited by Newton's answer—an ellipse(椭圆), and even more so by a paper he later sent to show his calculations, Halley pushed Newton to write the Principia, then funded its publication and was key to promoting it.

Such a precious book of knowledge carries enormous value. "In a sense, the Principia combined all the work that was done for the previous hundred years," says Mordechai Feingold, a science historian at the California Institute of Technology. "It took Newton to put together the ideas, that Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and other scientists had put forth insofar as heavenly bodies(天体) are concerned, to realize that Earth is a planet like any other planet and there's a mutual(相互的) attraction between all those heavenly bodies. "

Empathy(同理心) is one of those strange qualities—something almost everyone wants, but few know how to truly give or receive it. In a world where self-satisfaction is emphasized, it is in short supply but high demand. This is all the more reason to teach the next generation what it means to have empathy for those around them.

What Is Empathy？—Many people confuse sympathy and empathy, but they are two distinct values. Empathy is not just the ability to understand someone's feelings；criminals often take advantage of people by appearing to understand their feelings and subsequently gaining their trust. Empathy is more than that. Not only is it the ability to recognize how someone feels, but it also values and respects the feelings of another person. It means treating others with kindness, dignity, and understanding.

Kids Need To See Adults Show Empathy—While some children are gifted with naturally kind hearts, in most cases kids need to see empathy modeled by the adults around them. It begins with the way parents relate to their children. Parents who show an interest in the things that matter to their kids and respond to emotions in a positive and caring way are teaching the skill of empathy.

Meet Emotional Needs—When children have their emotional needs met, two things happen. They learn how to meet the emotional needs of others and they are anchored in what they are receiving, meaning that they are secure enough to give to others when the need arises but first they need to receive. An empty jug cannot fill a cup.

It's a good idea to talk to kids about emotions and how other people experience them. Give their emotions names(for example, jealousy, anger, and love) and teach them that these are normal. Talk to them about how to handle emotions in a positive way and point out situations where other people are experiencing emotions. Teach them about respecting the emotions of others and show them how to act in a situation where a response is required.