December 15, 2017: Friday News Roundup

The holiday season is heading into the home stretch, folks, and those year-end listicles and best-ofs are appearing with greater frequency. We’ve got a couple of those in today’s roundup, along with tech that can ease your holiday travels and tips for job-hunting when you’ve been fired. And robots. Always robots.

This Robot Went to College
Her name is Bina48, and she took a course on “the philosophy of love.” Sounds like a gut class to us, but the goal of this experiment wasn’t to show that a bot can earn passing grades. It was more about easing students’ concerns about AI and showing that Bina48 could “communicate and build rapport with human classmates.”

How to Apply for a New Job After You’ve Been Fired
We hope this is advice you’ll never need, but it can happen to anyone. If you’re looking for guidance on how to represent your last position on your resume and how to talk about it in interviews, read on. The first step is simply to think through what you’ve been through once you’ve had time to recover from the initial emotions.

What Tech Tools Frequent Travelers Should Always Pack
Here, the Frugal Traveler columnist shares what he’s learned from visiting countries around the world while staying on a budget. From device chargers to itinerary-planning apps, there are some great suggestions for using tech to enhance your travel experience and prepare you for getting around in unfamiliar lands.

7 Favorite Science Books of 2017
We know many Udemy students are science lovers and avid readers, so this list is for you! These selections range from the story of American women codebreakers during WWII to a lyrical look at the “sound of spacetime” and a graphic novel about the nature of our universe. Dig in!

Year in Search 2017
No year-end review would be complete without a look back at what the world Googled. Check out the top searches in the realms of entertainment, sports, news, elections, and more.