【推荐1】How to make conversation with a group of strangers

One of the most common fears is speaking to strangers. While most people don’t naturally enjoy talking to strangers, it is an art that you can learn. When you learn how to make conversation with a group of strangers, you never have to stand by yourself at a party again.

    1    Say hi and tell the group your name. Don’t focus on how boring you think you sound. Remember that others in the group are probably just as self-conscious as you are. Doing so to a group of strangers may result in making others feel comfortable enough to open up. They may secretly be glad that you made the first move.

Practice talking to as many strangers as possible throughout the day.     2    Soon it will be second nature for you to walk up to a group of strangers and introduce yourself.

Make a comment about something interesting in the environment. This may be something as simple as the decorations for the party or the band providing the entertainment.     3    

Ask for an opinion. People enjoy giving their opinion on any subject.     4    Asking for an opinion works immediately to break the ice and encourages the entire group to talk with you.

Learn to listen. Making conversation is about more than trying to find the right words to say.     5    And then find out the next thing you should say. Make sure that your response invites another response.

【推荐3】Trust—the Foundation of Relationships

Can you imagine an organization without trust, where the workers are suspicious(怀疑的)of one another? Are you willing to work with a manager who is quick to put down any potential worker that might take his place? As a leader, you must do your best to build trust in your followers. It is not about mastering techniques to win people over; it is about living a life full of honor and gaining the respect of your followers.     1    .

·Build your character

Trust is based on a very simple foundation. Will you do what you say? Do your words count for something?     2    . If you’re a person who cannot seem to live up to what you say, you have to work on it first. Before you can expect others to trust you, you have to do what you Say.

·    3    

Another thing that a leader should have is to trust others first. Laozi, a Chinese philosopher, once said, “He who does not trust enough, will not be trusted.” Trusting others means you don’t micromanage their behavior or activities.     4    . All these actions give your followers an assurance that you are indeed trusting their ability and character.

·Just take your time

    5    . Building trust is like making small deposits in a bank account; you make small deposits every month that add up to a considerable amount at the end of many years. Similarly, as you lead, it is in the small events that you will display your credibility as a leader that will accumulate that trust for you. Gradually, you will find you have in your hands an effective team that moves fast and works closely together.

Learn to trust, and learn to be trusted.

【推荐2】When you have to cancel your Thanksgiving plans due to the spread of the COVID-19, you may find yourself craving companionship as much as that pumpkin pie. That’s because parts of the brain respond to loneliness much like they react to hunger, according to a study in Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the brains of 40 healthy, social young adults after 10 hours of either fasting (禁食) or social isolation (隔离). They found that after being alone, participants’ neurological responses to social signals were similar to hungry people reacting to food — that is, certain areas of the brain linked to desire were turned on to start working.

For an isolated person, a picture of people laughing together caused the same areas of the brain to light up as when a hungry person looked at a big plate of pasta.

“Just like hunger is an unpleasant sensation that motivates us to seek out food and thirst motivates us to seek out water, loneliness is a biological need that motivates us to reconnect to others,” Holt-Lunstad told Insider.

Researchers were surprised to find that people who were prevented from socializing became much more focused on that need, and less reactive to hunger. As their loneliness increased, they became less responsive to images of food.

These latest findings suggest that the relationship between food and loneliness might be more complicated than we thought, despite the popular opinion of stress-eating to cope with social isolation. More research is needed to understand the complex ways people deal with loneliness.

Studies like this can help scientists understand how the brain processes loneliness, and possibly reduce the negative consequences. However, although loneliness may be similar to hunger, fixing it isn’t as easy as serving someone a hearty dinner because people are unique and they need varying levels of social interactions to meet their needs.

【推荐3】Before smartphones and desktop computers existed, astronomers relied on telescopes, and in some cases, simply naked eyes for observing the night sky. With the digital revolution, tools that people use for navigation, communication and education are prime targets for astronomy apps and programs.

There are dozens of apps for astronomy, as well as apps from most of the major space missions. Each one delivers up-to-date content for people interested in various missions. Whether someone is a stargazer or simply interested in what’s going on “up there”, these digital assistants open up the cosmos (宇宙) for individual exploration. Many of the apps are free or have in-app purchases to help users customize their experience.

Mobile and desktop stargazing applications show observers the night sky at a given location on Earth. Since computers and mobiles have access to time, date, and location information, the programs and apps know where they are. Using databases of stars, planets, and deep-sky objects, plus some chart-creation code, these programs can deliver an accurate digital chart. What the user has to do is look at the chart to know what is up in the sky.

Digital star charts not only show an object’s position, but also deliver information about the object itself, and can animate the apparent motion of planets and the Sun over time. A quick search of app sites reveals a wealth of astronomy apps that work well on smartphones and tablets. There are also many programs on computers. Many of them can also be used to control a telescope, making them doubly useful for sky observers. Nearly all the apps and programs are fairly easy for beginners to learn astronomy at their own pace.

Apps such as StarMap 2 have many resources available for stargazers, even in the free edition. Customizations include adding new databases, telescope controls, and a unique series of tutorials for beginners, available to users with iOS devices. Another one, called Sky Map, is a favorite among Android users free of charge. Described as a “hand-held planetarium (天文馆) for your device”, it helps users identify stars, planets and more.