【推荐1】With the first quarter of 2021 crossed out of your calendar, have you stuck with your New Year’s resolutions? If yes, congratulations! Keep on doing it! However, it won’t surprise anyone if you are among the majority of people who fail to make any changes.

Procrastination, meaning delaying actions for one reason or another, may play an important part here. For example, when we read a book or write articles, the efficiency will decrease if we have a cell phone close by and we have to finish the plans next day.

Apart from procrastination, overconfidence may also be part of the problem. Israeli-American behaviorist Daniel Kahneman has identified something called “planning fallacy ”. This means we believe our own projects will proceed as planned even though similar tasks took more time.

Why do we keep making this mistake? In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman says it’s because of “optimism bias” . He also says we underestimate the time we will need. In one famous example, planners originally estimated the Sydney Opera House would be completed by 1963. It was actually completed in 1973, an entire decade later. “Optimism and even overconfidence can generate false beliefs, leading us to overrate our abilities,” Kahneman wrote.

According to US writer Steve Pavlina, we could make a to-do list of upcoming tasks, and write down a rough estimate for how long we expect each task to take. Chinese news site Qdaily also noted, “People could use historical data in a proper manner. Previous experiences can help them see future trends.” Another way is to try and be more objective — take more of an “outsider” view. The ability to think about your experiences from a more detached point of view, rather than an immersed one, is important.

These methods aren’t enough to send a man to the moon. You also should take action right now.

【推荐2】As the government encourages “social distancing” in the fight against coronavirus, people are facing the prospect of being told to stay at home for weeks. But what if a parent or older person in your life doesn’t already have access to video calling tech?

“You might want to consider getting a specialized device to make video calls to your loved ones,” says Kate Bevan, an editor of a consumer magazine. “Once they’re set up, they’re very simple to use but you do have to dig through settings in their apps to connect them and that’s not always as easy as it might be.”

Age   UK,   the   charity   for   older   people, says that the choice of technology should be “as user-friendly as possible” for those unaccustomed to controlling video-chat software. “Something integrated like a video call app on a smartphone, tablet or a laptop with a built-in camera, for example, will often be easier,” says Caroline Abrahams, the charity director. “Older people may also prefer physical interfaces (界面) like a mouse rather than a touchscreen.”

“To protect people’s privacy, it will be important to ensure that any new devices are secure and not likely to be hacked (非法入侵), and that anyone using a new device has access to ongoing support to help them learn how to use it and deal with any issues or problems,” she adds.

An   integrated   kit   can   be   the   easiest solution. Amazon, Google, and Facebook all have smart devices with screens for video calls. One problem with all these devices is their expense and another is their need to be on a stable wi-fi connection at all times. Sometimes, a smartphone might be the better option.

But a new smartphone, even a mid-range one, can be much more expensive. And Bevan warns against hand-me-downs past a certain age. Apart from lower camera quality, there can be security concerns. “If you’re considering passing old smartphones and tablets on to a relative, do be careful that they’re still getting security updates,” she says.

【推荐2】On Nov. 16, seven astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) woke up to an alarm . A Russian missile (导弹) test had just bombed a satellite into more than 1, 500 pieces of space debris (残骸). Some got very close to the ISS.

NASA says space debris like this can travel at more than 28, 000 km/h. That’s much faster than a bullet (子弹) (about 3, 500 km/h). Even a pea-sized piece of debris could “wipe out” a space station or kill an astronaut if he or she is doing a spacewalk, says Live Science.

Since the 1950s, humans have sent thousands of rockets and satellites into space. Many are still there, and we now face an ever-increasing problem of space rubbish. In 2006, for example, National Geographic reported that a tiny piece of space rubbish hit the ISS, taking a small piece of glass out of a window. In June of this year, a piece of debris ran into one of the station’s robotic arms, which are just like the arms of a robot, and left a hole.

Scientists are trying different ways to deal with the problem. One way is to use a huge net. In 2018, the UK’s Survey Space Center caught some space rubbish with a net in an experiment. It first found the debris, and then collected it with a net and a harpoon (鱼叉).

Another way is to use robotic arms. Clear Space 1, the European Space Agency’s task to clean space rubbish, is going to be sent into space in 2025. It will use robotic arms to catch debris. This plans to throw the debris into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up as it falls because of strong friction (摩擦).

【推荐3】After orbiting Earth for six months, the three crew members of China’s Shenzhou XIII mission have departed (离开) from the Tiangong space station and returned to the mother planet on Saturday morning, finishing the nation’s longest manned spaceflight.

The reentry capsule (返回舱) touched down on the Dongfeng Landing Site in the Gobi Desert at 9: 57 am. Carrying the mission crew (机组人员) , the Shenzhou XIII spacecraft undocked from the Tiangong station at 12: 44 am. It circled the Earth several times to gradually approach the mother planet.

In the last hours of their stay inside the Tiangong, the astronauts worked with ground controllers to transmit some experimental data back to Earth and sort out materials. Zhai Zhigang and his crewmates spent 183 days in an orbit about 400 kilometers above the Earth since their Shenzhou XIII spacecraft was launched on Oct 16. And they were the second inhabitants (居民) of China’s lasting space station named Tiangong. The crew has set a new record for China’s longest spaceflight, almost doubling the previous record of 92 days created by the crew in the Shenzhou XII mission.

During the Shenzhou XIII mission, the astronauts carried out two spacewalks that totaled more than 12 hours. The crew members also carried out two science lectures from the space station for Chinese students. In those lectures, which were live streamed worldwide by China Media Group, the astronauts showed viewers how they live and work inside the space station and the physical phenomena. In one experiment, Wang Yaping used a Bing Dwen Dwen toy, the popular mascot of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, to show how objects fly in weightless environment.

Such lectures were based on the country’s manned spaceflights and presented by the astronauts. Featuring interactive teaching, the activitities were mainly targeted at youngsters as the students on the ground were able to communicate with the three astronauts in real time during the class. The agency said the Shenzhou XIII’s space-based lessons marked the start of the Tiangong Class series, China’s first extraterrestrial (地球外的) lecture series that aims to popularize space science and inspire youngsters to pursue their “science and space dreams”.