1 . In looking through your social media, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed pictures accompanied by texts. The pictures are likely made possible by a text-to-image program called DALL-E. For example, Twitter user posted a tweet with the text, “To be or not to be, rabbi holding avocado, marble sculpture.” Then a matching picture appears below.

The AI models come from Google’s Imagen software as well as OpenAI. a start-up backed by Microsoft. On its website, OpenAI calls DALL-E “a new Al system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.” But most of what’s happening in this area is coming from a relatively small group of people sharing their pictures. That’s because Google and OpenAI have not made the technology broadly available to the public.

The text-to-picture services identify the most important parts of a user’s text and then guess the best way to picture those terms. There’s generally a text box, a button to start the generation process and an area below to display images. To indicate the source. Google and OpenAI add watermarks in the bottom right comer of images from DALL-E and Imagen.

Engineers trained the models on various collections of words and pictures from the web. OpenAI recognizes the potential for harm that could come from a model. To avoid the risk, employees removed violent content from training data, and there are filters（筛选）stopping DALL-E from producing images if users submit（提交）violent or illegal content.

Boris Dayma, a developer from Texas spelled out the problems in an explanation of their software. Despite the risks, Dhariwal, a research scientist at OpenAI, said it could open up creative opportunities for individuals and could help with commercial applications for dressing up websites. Results should continue to improve over time.

2 . Picture the scene: you’ve spent years working towards a very specific goal. You’ve put in countless hours of work and made many efforts along the way, but now that you’ve got there it doesn’t feel quite like you imagined. Instead of celebration, you feel emptiness, confusion and doubt.

Welcome to the anti-climax. The often-experienced but seldom-discussed downside of achieving life’s biggest milestones. Many of us work tirelessly towards our goals. We may spend our lives dreaming of the day we get married, publish our first hook or buy our first home. However, oftentimes, when we achieve these things it doesn’t feel quite as expected. In fact, the achievement of these goals feels a bit of a letdown.

So why do we often experience an anti-climax with big goals, even though we’re happy to achieve them? “An anti-climax can be an unexpected by-product of a milestone achievement. Usually, the more significant the milestone, the greater the anti-climax may be. The intensity（强度）of an anti-climax often relies on what we expect of this achievement.” says Rachel Vora. a psychotherapist（心理治疗师）.“The journey to achieving a milestone can he exciting and tiring in addition to giving us a sense of purpose and focus. Therefore, when this disappears overnight. we can often feel lost and confused, in spite of feeling proud of our achievement.

When this happens it can contribute to a mixture of emotions. We often falsely believe that we’ll feel completely different afterwards or that our feelings of low self-worth will disappear, but this is rarely the case. “Clients（客户）often present to me with an extremely great sense of ‘is this it?’ and ‘what now?’.” says Vora. “These feelings of confusion and disappointment, if let ignored, have the potential to cause clients to be in low spirits, or even worse.”

3 . I began a new job in a new city six months ago. Big moments of changing like this have a way of dragging up deep, hidden fears we don’t face in our longer periods of stability.     1     .I was constantly losing sleep, had lots of panicky doubt, and even some regret when I thought about the job I just left.

Change is risk. Our primitive brains translate risk into danger, and our survival as a species depends on avoiding it. Though philosopher Nietzsche famously said, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger”, the risk that it could kill you can easily cause anxiety.     2     . Me, no exception.

Unluckily, there are always big changes we must face at some point.     3     . The first thing I did when I doubted myself and my decision to take a new job and move to a new city was talk to people who know and care about me. So blinded was I by change-caused anxiety that I had lost sight of my common sense. I reached out to my friends and my old boss. They gave me so much good advice that I wrote it down and referred to it often in those early weeks.

    4     . Simply thinking about the past challenges where you came out on top is a reminder that you will do so this time as well. Sometimes our greatest difficulties become our greatest moments of success.

Change, while requiring adjustment—sometimes painful adjustment—often finds its way back to balance. Change and struggle are usually the only ways to get to someplace better.     5     . So, the sooner you discover what helps you adjust, restart, and succeed during change, the easier it will be to bag the next peak.

4 . Lapland's reindeer (驯鹿) grow well in winters of -30℃ and even colder. So when rain falls instead of snow during the coldest months in the Arctic,it makes food hard to get for them. Now one of the best-loved symbols of Christmas is probably dying out. Numbers have fallen by over half in the last two decades as the place warms at four times the global average rate.

The animals are used to pull sleigh (雪橇) rides for tourists. The rides are part of Lapland winter wonderland experiences in thousands of British tourists each year. But this year the working herd had to be moved 60 miles further north due to the absence of snow. As a result, they can't be provided in some areas, making it hard for people to earn a living.

Lapland is often described as Europe's last great wilderness, home to lynxes, brown bears, wolverines and golden eagles. Tourism is a big part of the economy, and the town of Rovaniemi is also the "official home of Santa Claus". But changing climate (气候) is threatening its tourism industry. A report by The Finnish Climate Change Panel warns of flooding and increased rainfall, with Rovaniemi most at risk. Firms that rely on snow "will have great effects on visit levels" and these industries may be forced further north.

Erkkila of the Arctic Husky Park in Rovaniemi says: "Tourists see pictures of the Santa Claus village covered in snow and when they get here they think, 'Is this the winter wonderland?'." The Husky Park bought a wheeled cart (车) six years ago as a replacement for sleigh rides when the snow fails.

In the past it was thought the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. But a report published last week by scientists showed the rate is actually four times the global average.

5 . Recent research discovered that a low-cost computer training program can help older persons drive less dangerously.

“We developed a training program, called Drive Aware, which could be used by anyone who has a computer,” says Jing Feng, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at NC State. “Drive Aware is a cognitive (认知的) training program for older persons that helps them notice traffic risks more effectively. The purpose of our recent study was to see how much Drive Aware changes trainees’ driving behaviors once they get behind the wheel.”

The researchers found 27 persons aged 65 and up to test Drive Aware. In a driving simulator (模拟器), all of the study participants (参与者) experienced a basic driving exam. The “active training” group was made up of nine of the study participants. Every two weeks, the active training group had two Drive Aware trainings. A group of nine additional study participants was asked to take “passive training”. This group watched videos of others receiving the Drive Aware instruction. This happened twice, with each lasting about a week. The control group, which was made up of the remaining nine study participants, received no training. After that, all 27 study participants performed a second driving exam in the simulator.

The study participants in the active training group experienced 25% fewer “unsafe incidents (事件)” following the training, according to the researchers. There was no obvious change in the number of dangerous incidents among study participants in the passive training and control groups.

“This testing was done with a fairly limited number of study participants,” Feng says. “If we can succeed in getting the fund, we’d like to further our testing with more people to clearly prove how effective this training is at reducing accidents among older drivers.”

6 . Some people have a dependency on an afternoon nap.     1     It can also help them feel more alert (机敏的)for the afternoon ahead. Even Boris Johnson supposedly favors a power nap during his work day. Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Leonardo Da Vinci were all famous nappers.

Napping is a great way to feel more rested and alert-and some research shows it car benefit our cognitive function.     2     If you need to be alert right after waking up, so-called "power naps" of 10-30 minutes are recommended.

While short naps are great for increasing energy, longer naps are more beneficial for learning. According to the research, they improve activation of the hippocampus—an area of the brain important for learning and memory.     3    

    4     It's possible that they help the brain clean up sleep-inducing (诱导睡眠的)waste products that would otherwise hold up brain activity, and that they refill the brain's energy stores. Short naps may also help improve your attention by letting particularly sleepy areas of the brain recover, hence preventing instability in the brain's networks.

Although napping has many positive short-term effects, they are not recommended for people who suffer from insomnia（失眠症）. Because naps decrease sleepiness, they may make it harder to fall asleep when going to bed in the evening.     5     For instance, if the best performance is needed instantly afterwards, don't nap, as it may take some time to fully wake up.

8 . There are many movies that you can focus on if you want to improve the way you are learning. Choose one of the movies below and the results will be great in the end!

The King’s Speech

The King's Speech tells the story of a man forced to speak to the world with a stammer (口吃).That movie is filled with lots of encouraging information and is a wonderful movie for those who love language classes.

Inside Job

Inside Job is an Oscar-winning film by Charles Ferguson. It provides a detailed analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008. which caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It's a movie for students who want to learn more about the economic market.

Whiplash

Whiplash is a story of a young drummer who wants to realise his dreams although he doesn't receive any help from the people around him. It\s an interesting movie that will help art students better understand how much hard work can help them realise their dreams.

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner with schizophrenia (精神分裂症).It follows his journey from the point where he is not even aware he has schizophrenia, to the point where Nash and his wife find a way to manage his condition. It includes some interesting physics elements that will help you quite a lot.

9 . According to a Facebook post by Kevin Leslie, a man was traveling with his young daughter when he was told he had to buy her a plane ticket or she could not board.

"This woman needs to be recognized," Leslie wrote. "A gentleman was checking in for his flight when the agent asked how old his daughter was. He said she had recently turned two. The agent then asked if she had a ticket, The man was confused because he was under the impression she could ride for free. He was hit with emotion. He mentioned he couldn't afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice. He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter and grabbing his head, you could tell he was heartbroken. This woman next to him at the front counter heard the whole thing. She walked over to him and asked what was wrong. After they talked for a bit they walked up to the counter together. She pointed back at his daughter and said, ‘I wanna buy her ticket.’ The agent said ‘You know how much this ticket costs right?’ The woman responded ‘$700 something?’ ‘$749’ the agent said. The woman said ‘that's fine’ and pulled out her credit card.”

“I was right there and I just said to her, ‘God Bless You!’ and they printed out the ticket,” Leslie continued in the post. ‘The agent kept talking about her goosebumps（鸡皮疙瘩）while the man hugged the woman and asked for her name to repay her. The woman just kept saying, ‘Don't worry about it. 'She knew she wanted to help that man and his daughter no matter what the cost. Please share this story because people like                    this need to be praised.”

Although Bolton planned to stay anonymous（匿名的）and did not buy the ticket to receive attention, after the post went viral on Facebook, a number of people left comments that revealed her identity.

Some of her personal friends and co-workers left comments that this is exactly the kind of thing that she would do, and that they are proud to know her.

10 . Parents and math teachers regularly asked by their school-aged charges whether math matters in real life now have an answer.

In a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week, Harvard Kennedy School Policy Professor Joshua Goodman took a look at what happened to students whose high school were required in the 1980s to increase the minimum level of coursework required to graduate. What he found is that the students were more likely to increase the number of math courses they took as a result of the change in standards and that translated into higher earnings down the line.

Put simply: About 15 years after they graduated, the high school graduates who went to school when these changes took effect saw their average earnings increase about 10% for every extra year of math coursework. The findings may add fuel to the steady drum of education experts, policy makers and others calling for an increased focus on science and math education.

The increase in required math courses didn’t necessarily produce rocket scientists, Goodman notes, because the extra coursework wasn’t at a particularly high level. But becoming familiar with and practicing relatively basic math skills allowed high school graduates to pursue and excel at jobs that required some level of computational knowledge, he said.

Goodman acknowledged that the earnings boost for the students connected with the uptick (上升) in math education may be dependent on the state of the economy. When Goodman checked in in the late 1990s and early 2000s on the earnings of the students who graduated in the late 1980s, he found that their earnings increased significantly if they took more math.