【推荐3】Whoever wrote the song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” must have never experienced the holiday blues. Fortunately, psychological research suggests some effective ways you can use to beat the holiday blues.     1     Instead, they can help contribute to a healthy and happy life. Here are four strategies to help you make your own happiness recipe this holiday season.

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At family gatherings with cousins you secretly can’t stand, you tend to put on a happy face. Indeed, that might even seem like the most mature response — no drama, no conflict. But a 2011 study followed dozens of bus drivers, looking to see when they gave forced or honest smiles at their passengers. The results showed when the drivers pretended to have a good mood, their actual moods got worse, so trying to force happiness seems to have the opposite effects.

Let off sadness

The results of the bus-driver study can be explained by researchers who find that negative feelings like sadness or anger only increase when we try to control them.     3     We don’t like contradictory behavior.

Respond cautiously

Recently, scientists have been paying special attention to the benefits of caution.     4     A cautious response to a negative event reduces sadness we experience. Besides, it is associated with less anxiety, and may even carry physiological benefits.

Enjoy a mix of emotions

Of course, the holidays will bring a mix of highs and lows, but the most important lesson to keep in mind is that this variety of emotions might be the best thing possible for your overall well-being.     5     Just make sure you’re balancing them with lighter experiences. And don’t forget to give yourself a break.

【推荐1】A recent global survey of 2000 high-net-worth individuals found that 60% were not planning on a traditional retirement. Among US participants, 75% expected to continue working in some capacity even after stepping away from full-time jobs. “Many of these people made their wealth by doing something they’re passionate（有激情的） about.” says Daniel Egan, head of behavioral finance for Barclays Wealth Americas. “Given the choice, they prefer to continue working.” Barclays calls these people “nevertirees”.

Unlike many Americans compelled into early retirement by company restrictions, the average nevertiree often has no one forcing his hand. If 106-year-old investor Irving Kahn, head of his own family firm, wants to keep coming to work every day. Who’s going to stop him? Seventy-eight-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s job security is guaranteed in the Constitution.

It may seem that these elderly people are trying to cheat death. In fact, they are. And it’s working. Howard Friedman, a professor at UC Riverside, found in his research that those who work hardest and are successful in their careers often live the longest lives. “People are generally being given bad advice to slow down, take it easy, stop worrying, and retire to Florida,” he says. He described one study participant, still working at the age of 100, who was recently disappointed to see his son retire.

“We’re beginning to see a change in how people view retirement,”says George Leeson, co-director of the Institute of Population Ageing at Oxford. Where once retirement was seen as a brief reward after a long struggle through some miserable job, it is now akin（近似） to being cast aside. What Leeson terms “the Warren Buffett effect” is becoming more broadly appealing as individuals come to “view retirement as not simply being linked to economic productivity but also about contribution.”

Observers are split on whether this is a wholly good thing. On the one hand, companies and financial firms can benefit from the wisdom of a resilient（坚韧的）chief. On the other, the new generation can find it more difficult to advance — an argument that typically holds little sway to a nevertiree.

【推荐2】People who give, live longer, studies have shown. Now, a new study by University of Michigan shows that why people volunteer—not whether they volunteer—is what really counts.

For the study, Konrath and colleagues analyzed data collected in 2008 and 2012 aiming at the same random samples of 3,376 people. Overall, they found that just 2.3 percent of those who once worked as volunteers had died, compared to 4.3 percent of non-volunteers. They further found that how much people volunteered mattered as well—only 1.8 percent of regular volunteers died, compared with 2.5 percent of occasional volunteers.

But what really made a difference were people’s motives for volunteering. The researchers asked people to rate how important they found various reasons for volunteering, and they found that the more important people rated reasons such as feeling pity for people in need, the more likely they were to be alive. Those who rated motives related to personal benefit as more important were more likely to have died, and just as likely to die as those who didn’t volunteer at all. These reasons included volunteering because they enjoyed the social contact, to escape their own problems, or to explore their own strengths.

Konrath says the current findings suggest it may be a poor idea to encourage people to volunteer because it’s good for them. “Volunteering is increasingly being encouraged in schools and organizations. Some groups say that it’s okay to want benefits for yourself, and encourage people to think of volunteering as an exchange for personal interests. Some groups emphasize the health benefits received through volunteering.” Konrath added, “Of course, it’s reasonable for volunteers to expect benefits for themselves. But the potential health benefits of volunteering are significantly reduced if self-benefit becomes a person’s main motive.”

【推荐3】Is it your dream to fly and to work in space? Do you want to be a NASA astronaut? Like many jobs, the first thing would be to fill out the application. A record-breaking 18,300 people filled out applications recently when NASA announced it was filling its 2017 Astronaut Candidate program. But out of those 18.300 applicants, just eight to 14 will be hired by the U.S. space agency.

It will take 18 months to decide who will be in the new class of astronauts. NASA will review all of the files, which will later go to its current team of astronauts, to make sure they meet the basic qualifications.

The first requirement is the applicants must be U.S. citizens. They need a college degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics. They also need at least three years of experience in a similar field or at least 1,000 hours as a jet airline pilot.

There are requirements to pass a physical test. And then there are personality qualities tests as well. What kinds of personalities is NASA looking for in an astronaut? NASA’s Selection Manager Anne Roemer said, “I think leadership , teamwork, the ability to not only work on a team, lead a team, but also follow, be a follower on a team. Communication certainly plays a role, so it’s some pretty common skills that I think translate into even other professions.”

About 120 applicants will be invited to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, for a first round of interviews, about half of whom will go back for a second round. Once selected, they must complete two years of training in everything about spaceflight-things like learning about all the systems used by NASA, walking in space and Russian language training. Until the U.S. has a working vehicle to launch into space, NASA still depends on Russia to get astronauts into space.

【推荐2】Honey from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious. Most people, and many animals, like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees’ nest and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper — a little bird called a honey guide.

The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax in the beehives (蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees’ nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or person as it leads them to the nest. When they finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey, and the wax, always falls to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.

Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very determined in its efforts to get it. The birds seem to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.

【推荐3】Many of the most damaging types of weather begin quickly, strike suddenly, and disappear rapidly, destroying small areas while leaving neighboring areas untouched. Such event as a tornado struck the northeastern part of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987. Total damages from the tornado went beyond $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm.

Traditional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short-lived local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to study carefully the slight atmospheric changes that come before these storms. In most nations, for example, weather-balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at places separated by hundreds of miles. With such limited data, traditional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large areas than they do forecasting specific local events.

Until recently, the observation intensive method needed for exact, very short-range forecasts, or “Nowcasts,” was not possible. The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was extremely high, and the difficulties concerned in rapidly collecting and processing the weather data from such a network were hard to overcome.

Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems. Radar systems and satellites are all able to make detailed, nearly continuous observation over large areas at a lower cost. Communications satellites can send out data around the world cheaply and immediately, and modern computers can quickly collect and analyze this large amount of weather information.

Meteorologists(气象学者) and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment able to change weather data into words and graphic displays that forecasters can understand easily and quickly. As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality.