【推荐1】Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never shines, where rainfall is irrelevant（不相干的）and where the climate is always right. The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with controlled light, temperature, wetness, air quality and nutrition. It could be a high-rise building in New York or a sprawling complex（综合楼） in the Saudi desert. It may be an answer to the world’s food problems.

The world is already having trouble feeding itself. Half of the people on earth live in cities, and nearly half of those—about 3 billion—are hungry or ill-fed. Food prices, currently increasing, are buffeted by dryness, floods and the cost of energy required to plant, harvest and transport it. And prices will only get more unstable. Climate change makes long-term crop planning uncertain. Farmers in many parts of the world are already using water available to the last drop. And the world is getting more crowded: by mid-century, the global hungry population will grow to 9 billion.

To feed so many people may need to expand farmland at the expense of forests and wilderness, or finding ways to completely increase crop output.

Gertjan Meeuws has taken the concept of greenhouse—growing vegetables and house plants in enclosed（封闭的）and controlled environments. In their research station, water flows into the pans when needed, and temperature is kept constant. Lights go on and off, creating similar day and night according to the rhythm of the plants.

A building of 100 square meters and 14 layers（层）of plants could provide a daily diet of 200 kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables for the entire population of Den Bosch, about 140,000 people. Their idea is not to grow foods that require much space, like corn or potatoes.

Here sunlight is not only unnecessary but can be harmful. Plants need only specific wavelengths of light to grow. Their growth rate is three times faster than those under greenhouse conditions. They use about 90 percent less water than outdoor agriculture. And city farming means producing food near consumers, so there’s no need to transport it long distances.

【推荐3】The twilight (朦胧的) time between full wakefulness and being sound asleep may be packed with creative potential. Rumor has it that Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, used to prefer such moments between wakefulness and sleep. Supposedly, he used to fall asleep in a chair holding two steel balls. As he fell asleep, the balls fell into metal pans. The resulting sound woke him. Then, he could write down his inventive ideas before he fell into a deep sleep and forgot them.

Researchers tested Edison’s method of developing creativity with 103 healthy people. Volunteers came to the lab to solve a tricky number problem. After doing the task 60 times, they earned a 20-minute break in a quiet, dark room. They relaxed in chairs, each holding a light drinking bottle, something like the steel balls that Edison used. Participants were told to close their eyes and rest or sleep if they desired. Meanwhile, machines monitored their brain waves. About half of the participants stayed awake. Twenty-four fell asleep and stayed in the shallow short stage of sleep called N1. Fourteen others progressed to N2, a deeper stage of sleep.

After their rest, participants returned to their number problem. The researchers saw a clear difference between the groups. People with a shallow early sleep were 2.7 times as likely to spot the hidden trick as people who stayed awake. Shallow sleepers were 5.8 times as likely to spot the trick as people who reached the deeper N2 stage.

Such differences in such experiments are rare, says Delphine Oudiette, a cognitive neuroscientist. “The results raise an interesting possibility. It may help people to learn to reach that twilight stage of sleep on demand. It seems Edison was onto something about the creative powers of nodding off. But don’t put too much faith in his habits. He also is said to have considered sleep ‘a criminal waste of time’.”

【推荐1】Why do you go to the library? For books, yes－but you like books because they tell stories. You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else’s life. At one type of library, you can do just that－even though there’s not a single book.

At a Human Library, instead of books, you can “borrow” people. Individuals volunteer as human “books” and participants in the event can “read” the book－meaning they would have a one-on-one conversation with the volunteer and share in a dialogue about that individual’s experience. “Books” are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination (歧视) based on race, religion, class, gender identity, age, lifestyle choices, disability and other aspects of their life.

For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating and as attractive as any you can find in a book. Many of the stories have to do with some kind of stereotype. You can speak with a refugee (难民), a soldier suffering from PTSD, a homeless person or a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people to challenge their own long-held beliefs to truly get to know, and learn from someone they might otherwise make a quick judgment about.

According to its website, the Human Library is “a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.” It provides the opportunity for the community to share and understand the experiences of others in their community.

The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. Ronni Abergel and his colleagues hosted a four-day event during a major Northern European festival, hoping to raise awareness about violence among youth. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, which has been growing ever since.

Though there are a few permanent human libraries, most aren’t places at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don’t need a library card－anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio.

The stories these “books” tell range from fascinating to heartbreaking and everything in between. And that’s the very point of the organization－to prove that no person can be summed up in just one word. It seeks to show people that you truly can’t judge a book by its cover－or by its title or label.

【推荐2】New Year’s resolutions(决心) have been around long enough that we all tend to stick to the same ones—hit the gym, lay off the candy, read more books, call your mother—regardless of whether we follow through with our intentions.

While January 1st seems like the perfect time to have a new start again, exactly when people developed that mindset(思维模式) isn’t common knowledge. It turns out that the modern belief of a New Year’s resolution isn’t as old as you thought. According to many historians, the ancient Babylonians were the first group of people to make New Year’s resolutions. However, instead of making a commitment to self improvement, they made a commitment to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.

An ancient Roman tradition from 46 B. C, bears even more likeness to modern resolutions. Emperor Julius Caesar declared January the month of Janus. Romans believed Janus looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future. In his honor, they made sacrifices to the god and promises of good behavior for the coming year.

But the modern New Year’s resolution didn’t fully form until centuries later. The practice was common enough by the early 1800s. An article in 1802 states, “Statesmen have sworn to have no other object in view than the good of their country. The physicians have determined to advise the use of medicine no more than is necessary, and to he very reasonable in their fees.”

The first time “New Year’s resolution” appeared as a phrase was in the January 1st issue of a Boston newspaper in 1813. “I believe there are a lot of people,” the article goes, “with a serious determination of beginning the New Year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall accept punishment for all their former faults and wipe them away.

So as you make (and possibly fail at) your New year’s resolutions, know that you’re in good company.

【推荐3】The cola wars became a cultural phenomenon. Credit for that goes to Donald Kendall, PepsiCo's brilliant former boss, who died on September 19th aged 99. A gifted salesman, he rose quickly through the ranks from his start on the bottling line to become the firm's top sales and marketing executive at the young age of 35.

Seven years later he was named CEO. In 1974 he invested in the Soviet Union, which allowed Pepsi to become the first Western product to be legally sold behind the iron curtain. By the time he resigned as boss in 1986, PepsiCo's sales had shot up nearly 40 times, to $ 7.6 billion. His legacy continues to shape the industry.

Mr. Kendall offered a mix of strategic vision, principled leadership and marketing talent. Two years after taking charge he acquired Frito-Lay, a leading producer of snacks, giving PepsiCo an advantage of diversity that continues to this day. PepsiCo brought in $ 67 billion last year in sales compared to Coca-Cola's $ 37 billion.

But his most famous move was the all-out marketing blitz (闪电战) against Coca-Cola, long the global market leader in non-alcoholic drinks. The two firms had competed for decades, but they mostly fought low-grade battles. Mr. Kendall changed that, by forcing both companies into an advertising arms race. In 1975 Coca-Cola spent around $ 25 million on advertising and PepsiCo some $18 million. By 1985 those figures had shot up to $ 72 million and $ 57 million, respectively. In 1995 Pepsi outspent Coke by $112 million to $ 82 million.

This was a risky strategy for both cola competitors but it paid off by helping non-alcoholic drinks win a greater "share of throat". Last year Coca-Cola and PepsiCo remained in the leading position as usual. Also, the cola wars benefited both companies by turning them into "the world's best marketers". Today a decades-long addiction to cut-price quantity growth has been replaced by a focus on income and profits.