【推荐1】Many of us mistakenly believe that it's wrong to think we have any good qualities. We may spend a lot of time blaming ourselves for our negative qualities, thinking that self criticism is the key to improving our performance. However, a constant focus on our supposed shortcomings can stop our efforts to make friends with other people. How can we believe that others could like us if we believe our inner being is flawed（有缺陷）?

If someone seems to dislike you, the reason for that dislike might have little or nothing to do with you. The person who doesn't like you might be fearful, or shallow, or busy or shy. Perhaps you and that person are simply a mismatch for each other at this particular time.

Don't take yourself out of the game by deciding that your flaws are bigger than your good qualities. In fact, some of the very qualities you consider to be flaws may be irresistible to someone else. For all the factors that might cause one person to reject you, there are at least as many factors that will work in your favor with someone else.

You might be thirty pounds over your ideal weight, but you may have a wonderful laugh and a real enthusiasm for life. There are many people who don’t mind your extra pounds. You may drive a shabby car, but you might be a great dancer and a loyal friend. There are people out there looking for loyalty, or fun, or sweetness, or wisdom, and the package it comes in is not important. If you are worried that you are not beautiful enough to attract friends, keep in mind that not everyone is looking for physical beauty in their friends. You can decide to feel inferior（自卑） because you don't have much money and you don't drive a nice car. You can believe that this is the reason that you don't have many friends in your life. On the other hand, if you are very wealthy you may be suspicious that everyone is after your money and that nobody really likes you as a person.

The point is that you can focus on just about anything and believe it's the reason you do not have friends and cannot make any.

【推荐2】Before I spoke to his school,Matt was waiting for me.He sat in his wheelchair unable to move.As soon as he saw me he started smiling.He could not talk but I pretended the sharks were eating his cereal and his laugh melted the hearts of everyone walking by.

One of the teachers told me that he was actually very smart,he just could not control his muscles due to a childhood disease.He was happy and very popular at his school—his parents' love and encouragement made all the difference.On the contrary,at a book signing session,I met a girl by the name of Anne.She walked up with her morn with a bright smile.Anne asked about my book with a slur in her speech indicating a slight head injury.I told her about it and she smiled the whole time and asked me to sign one for her.I did.

Five minutes later,I heard a voice from Anne's father,"You know you will not understand the book.You aren't smart enough."He said it so loudly that people were staring in their direction.She was absolutely crushed and her bright smile was now replaced with a look of total despair（绝望）.He brought the book back to me and asked me to take it back.I asked him if he would allow me to purchase the book for Anne.He said no with a heartless response.I thought back to Matt.He could not speak,walk,run or play but was actually very happy and even doing well in school because of the love and encouragement of his parents.Anne on the other hand had a slight learning problem and may never know happiness or success because of a stern father.

What kind of parent are you? The truth is that whatever you are telling your kids-makes the difference between their success or failure in life.

【推荐3】Best Sleep Music Apps

If you’re in search of a better night’s sleep, trying a sleep music app might be the answer. Here are some sleep music apps to choose from.

Calm

Calm has an impressively large library of relaxation and sleep-causing sounds. It stands out for providing the latest collection of modern music from popular artists. This app offers a free version, but to really take advantage of what Calm has to offer, you had better choose the paid version, which costs $69.99 for one year. A lifetime membership is $399.99.

Headspace

Headspace is an app designed in the simplest way that makes it quick and easy to use its library of sleep-specific music, so it is friendly to the aged. Helpful suggestions point out features like how to set a timer without making you feel the app difficult to use. Headspace only costs $39.99 yearly.

Relax Melodies

Relax Melodies is designed to calm your mind with relaxing sounds. “Discover” page helps you find some app features, like bedtime stories and breathing exercises. Though its free version provides a great introduction to the idea of sleep music, the paid version unlocks a larger library of sounds. It only costs $49.99 yearly or you can pay $8.99 a month.

Pzizz

One thing that sets Pzizz apart is its voice narration (旁白), with male and female options available. Usually, the voice is low and calm. If you find the presence of a voice to be comforting or benefit from someone helping you to relax your mind and body, then Pzizz is suitable for you. Monthly costs for it are $7.99, yearly $49.99 and lifetime $249.99.

【推荐2】Scientists have figured out how to obtain abundant amounts of oil from duckweed (浮萍), one of nature’s fastest-growing water plants. Changing such plant oil into biofuels for transportation and heating could be a big part of a more sustainable future. For a new study, led by Shanklin, a biochemist, in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, researchers genetically engineered duckweed plants to produce seven times more oil: per acre than soybeans — currently the most commonly used biofuel-producing plant.

Unlike fossil fuels, biofuels can be regained faster than they are used. Fuels made from new and used vegetable oils, animal fat can have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels do, depending on how they are sourced, but there has been a recent opposition against them. This is partly because so many crops now go into energy production rather than food. Besides, biofuels take up more than 100 million acres of the world’s agricultural land.

Duckweed, common on every continent but Antarctica, is among the world’s most productive plants per acre, and the researchers suggest it could be a game-changing renewable energy source mainly because of the fact that it grows readily in water, so it wouldn’t compete with food crops for agricultural land. Moreover, Shanklin and his team found a way to sidestep a major biotechnological hurdle.

According to Rebecca Roston, a biochemist at the University of Nebraska, who was not involved in the study, engineered green plants typically expend a lot of energy on oil production and thus stop growing. For the new study, Shanklin says, the researchers added an oil-producing gene that would be inactive at first, and then “turn it on like a light switch” by introducing a particular molecule (分子) only when the plant had finished growing.

This process “went fabulously well,” Roston says. “If it works in other species, this can solve one of our biggest issues, which is how we can make more oil in more plants without negatively affecting growth.”