2 . Office Manners

Be punctual. As a newcomer, you should arrive early, not just on the first day and don’t be the first to leave at the end of the day.    1    It shows that you respect your colleagues’ time and, in return, they will respect your time, too.

Respect other people’s privacy. Knock before you enter someone’s office and do not read any correspondence lying on somebody’s desk. If you need to discuss a private matter with a colleague, make sure nobody else can overhear you.    2    

Be neat and clean.    3     It shows respect for both your colleagues and clients and is a sign that you are professional. Keep your personal workspace clean and neat at all times, for a messy desk will make people think that you’re an unorganized person.

    4    Remember to leave the photocopier in working condition. Return the stapler (订书机) that you borrowed with at least a few staples left inside. When you use up all the paper in the printer, put more in it for the next person. If a machine jams, try to undo the jam or to tell somebody else about it.

Don’t disturb others. Always apologize if you interrupt a discussion, someone’s concentration or other activities. Be aware of how loudly you may be speaking. If people in other offices comment on your conversations, perhaps your voice is too loud.    5    

In short, office manners are about being respectful and polite in the office. It is an essential part of growing professionally and becoming a more mature person in the business world.

3 . China is one of the countries most affected by typhoons in the world. While summer is the peak typhoon season, autumn typhoons might be more dangerous.

In September, Typhoon Conson and Chanthu formed successively in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Chanthu has become a super typhoon, bringing “gale-force winds and rainstorms to regions including Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu,” reported Xinhua on Sept14.

It’s no surprise that super typhoons occur in September. From the vernal equinox (春分), the subsolar point (太阳直射点) moves from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer (北回归线), heating the tropical ocean in the northern hemisphere(半球). The sea temperature reaches the highest from August to September, according to Weather China website.

“The warming ocean, especially the warming northern South China Sea, enhances typhoons before landfall(着陆),” said Xiao Zhixiang, a researcher of the Guangxi Institute of Meteorological Sciences, in the conference of the Japan Geoscience Union in 2020.

Autumn brings cold air, and when that cold air meets a typhoon, it could make it more destructive. “This will develop into a powerful typhoon due to the greater temperature difference between the cold continent and the hot sea,” said Woo-Sik Jung, a researcher at Inje University in South Korea, at the conference. “In other words, the larger the temperature difference, the stronger the wind, the more powerful the autumn typhoon can be compared to the summer typhoon.”

Megi, the 13th typhoon of 2010, was generated in October. Before making landfall in Taiwan, it entered the South China Sea and then headed north to land in Zhangpu, Fujian province, where Megi met cold air from the north. The typhoon led to more than 1,000millimeters of rainfall in Ilan, Taiwan, resulting in many deaths, according to Weather China.

Autumn typhoons are not only powerful but also often unpredictable. Three typhoons “with the most complicated paths in China” include Wayne in 1986, Nat in 1991 and Nari in2001. Among them, Nat and Nari were formed in autumn, according to the National Meteorological Center.

4 . This year’s Olympic Games have been closed to most spectators (观众) because of COVID-19, but the eyes of the world are still on the athletes thanks to five extra cameras—the first step in a 3D tracking system that supplies spectators with instant insights into each step of a race.

The tracking system being used in Tokyo, an Intel product called 3DAT, feeds live footage (影像) into the cloud. There, an artificial intelligence program uses deep learning to analyze an athlete’s movements and identifies key performance characteristics such as top speed and slowdown. The system shares that information with viewers by displaying the action of slow-motion, highlighting key moments. The whole process, from capturing the footage to broadcasting the analysis, takes less than 30 seconds.

“It’s like having your own personal commentator point things out to you in the race,” says Jonathan Lee, director of the Olympic technology group.

To train their Olympic AI via machine learning, Lee and his team had to capture as much footage of best athletes as they could. They needed recordings of human bodies performing specific moves, but the preexisting footage shows average people in motion, Lee says. “People aren’t usually seven feet in the air,” he notes, but world-class high jumpers reach such heights regularly.

In the footage, a team at Intel record every part of the body—eyes, nose, shoulders, and more. Once those key points were identified, the model began connecting them in three dimensions (维度) until it had a simplified performance of an athlete’s form. Lee thinks the AI could help everyone from Olympians to average gymgoers correct their form and track changes in their moves that may indicate upcoming injury. “Long-term, what this technology will do is help improve an athlete’s performance by giving them more information,” two-time Olympic champion Ashton Eaton said.

6 . TEDEd Hi Katherine!

This December, the TED-Ed team will host a series of 4 calls for students to learn about climate change, as part of our larger TED Countdown Initiative (方案)

Details about call series:

Each week during the month of December, we’ll meet at the same time on Zoom (an online meeting APP). Students should join in the calls on their own. We’d like students to be able to attend at least 3 of the 4 calls.

Register your students’ interest:

As we plan the time when we will meet with students, we’d love to see how many students are interested in this opportunity. Please share this interest with your students so they can register their interest. In this form we’ll ask them for their parent’s email address for permission.

Share this interest form with your students:

https∶//airtable. com/shr4U7DICbrdHuaGM

More about TED Countdown:

On January 25, we’re hosting the Countdown Summit in Scotland— the firstTED conference focusing on climate solutions. In April, TED hosted an online meeting and announced our plan to help the planet. And as always，education plays an important role in this mission (使命). That’s why we have chosen talks for students to do together virtually for a deeper understanding of this global issue and solutions.

We hope your students join us!

Please note that this event is only for studenst aged 3-19, in high school and below!

8 . Experts using a high-tech laser scanner (激光扫描仪) have discovered thousands of ancient Maya buildings hidden under the thick forests of northern Guatemala, officials said Thursday. Some 60, 000 buildings were found over the past two years in a scan of an area in the northern department of El Peten between Mexico and Belize, said Marcello Canuto, one of the projects’ lead researchers.

These findings are a “breakthrough in Maya archeology(考古),” Canuto said.

The new discoveries in this Central American country include city centers with sidewalks, homes, wide steps, farming facilities and so on, said Canuto, an archaeologist at Tulane University in the United States.

Among the finds was a 30-meter high pyramid (金字塔) that had been earlier recognized as a natural hill in Tikal. Also discovered in Tikal: a series of holes and a 14 kilometer-long wall.

The Maya development reached its height in what is present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, and parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras between 250 and 950 CE. Researchers now believe that the Maya had a population of 10 million, which is “much higher” than previous judgment, Canuto said.

The project depended on a remote (远程的) sensing method known as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). Aircraft with a LiDAR scanner produced 3D maps of the surface by using light in the form of laser linked to a GPS system.

The technology helped researchers discover sites much faster than using traditional archeological methods. “Now it is no longer necessary to cut through the jungle to see what’s under it,” said Canuto.

Details of the research will appear in a documentary to air on February 11 on the National Geographic TV channel, said Minister of Culture and Sports Jose Luis Chea.

9 . Whether you’re trying to persuade your kid to turn off the TV or your boss to give you a raise, how do we win the bargaining game? By being persuasive!    1     How can you be more persuasive — at home, at work, in your relationships? By using the 4 Ps.

Purpose

For example, do you want a 20 percent salary increase? Do you want your kid to limit video games to 45 minutes a day? Having a clear purpose in mind makes you confident because being clear does not allow for confusion or mixed messages.    2    

Preparation

This step is commonly overlooked (忽略) as we make request What’s the why behind your purpose? For example, if you want a raise, how much money are people in your role being paid at different companies? How have you gone above and beyond in your position over the past twelve months?    3     Preparation puts you in the strongest situation possible.

Presenting benefits

When we want someone to do something, we want to present the decision in their best interest. Once I was bargaining a conference room in a nice hotel and wanted to pay less. I didn’t mention my limited budget. I didn’t talk about my needs. What I did was to tell the manager that my guests would come to her hotel, see its amazing facilities, and even consider hosting their own conferences there.    4     My aim was to get a 20 percent discount. I got 30 percent. Win-win for all!

Patience

We are too likely to quit and leave dissatisfied from any bargaining. After more than ten years in sales, I can tell you that the best salesmen are patient enough. It’s true that success is a patience game.    5