WHAT can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough. A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later.

    The idea that popularity could have a serious influence on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work.

    “If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations,” said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding. “Also, friends always help each other. They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you are occasionally in low spirits,” said Xu. She believed that all this helps you “earn a higher salary.”

    Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism (交友狂症). A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts.

    But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency?

    “Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition of friend”, said Meghan Daum, who works with The Los Angeles Times in the US.

    Daum dislikes the idea that quantity trumps quality in the age of Friendaholism. She thought the idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, was to get as many of not-really-friends as possible. For example, a friend might be someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know. Although she agreed that social ties grease (润滑) the wheels of life, she also warned. “Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend.”

    The idea of cloning your pet sounds like a laughable waste of money, because it is. But it starts to seem a little less laughable when your own beloved pet starts getting older. If I had had a few hundred thousand dollars to spare, I know I would have half-seriously considered it for my dear little cat, who died last year. One couple that does happen to have a few hundred dollars to spare is Barry Diller and Diane, who have reportedly cloned their beloved Jack Russell Terrier (a kind of dog), Shannon, and now have two identical Jack Russell Terrier named Deena and Evita.

    When your pet dies, you just want your pet back, or at least as close a copy as you can get. So it's really no surprise that of the around 600 dogs cloned by Sooam Biotech Reaserch Foundation most were cloned for sad pet owners. The lab in Seoul, South Korea, is now the only place on the planet in the business of cloning pet dogs for pet owners.

    But, in fact, the technology won't give you your pet back. There don't yet appear to be any studies on the behaviour of cloned pets, but research on cloned cows and pigs has so far shown marked differences in behaviour and even looks in cloned animals. The DNA is exactly the same, but there are still differences in personality and appearance.

Even if Diller and Von Furstenburg raise their new dogs in the exactly same environment in the exactly same way that they raised Shannon, the new dogs will still behave differently. “The promise of pet cloning is that your cloned pet is going to behave and look like the one you already have — and that will not be the case,” said Professor Jorge Piedrahita at N.C. State. “We have cloned animals that were raised in the same environment, but they still didn't act the same.”

    As for old people, some of the applications are hard to use because they didn't grow up with them. They don't have simple models of how they should work, what to do when something doesn't work or where to go for help. We make it as easy as possible to be used for people who are not familiar with the technology.

    I think there is huge potential (潜力) and we are designing it. The ability to connect to friends, who remember the same movies and news and music, is really important, especially as people get old. They end up in retirement homes and they aren't always close to their friends. Allowing the network to help them connect with friends and family is a really powerful thing.

    My mother is an enthusiastic user of the Internet, although it took me years to get her to use e-mail. She was born with normal hearing, but lost it when she was 3. She was totally deaf for many years, until age 53, when she got ear aids. They work really well. That is a big change for her. But before then, her friends couldn't call her on the phone, so they insisted she use e-mail to communicate with them.

    Young people don't even think of the Internet as technology. It's just there, and they use it. There's been a very interesting change in communications styles between old people and young people. There are some kids who are now in their teens and aren't willing to make phone calls. And they think of e-mail as old-fashioned and slow.

    The reason why teens don't make phone calls seems to be that they don't know what to say. When they call they often stop for a while and there's this silence. On the other hand, texting is considered proper, and it's okay if you don't answer. You might have been distracted. It's not considered rude. But it is considered strange if you're in this kind of voice conversation and simply stop talking.

I first came across the concept of pay­what­you­can cafés last summer in Boone, N. C. , where I ate at F. A. R. M (Feed All Regardless of Means) Café. You can volunteer to earn your meal, pay the suggested price ($10) or less, or you can overpay—paying it forward for a future customer's meal. My only regret after eating there was not having a chance to give my time. So as soon as Healthy World Café opened in York in April, I signed up for a volunteer shift(轮班).

F. A. R. M and Healthy World are part of a growing trend of community cafés. In 2003, Denise Cerreta opened the first in Salt Lake City. Cerreta now runs the One World Everybody Eats Foundation, helping others copy her pay­what­you­can model.

"I think the community café is truly a hand up, not a handout," Cerreta said. She acknowledged that soup kitchens(施粥所) have a place in society, but people typically don't feel good about going there.

"One of the values of the community café is that we have another approach," she said. "Everyone eats here, no one needs to know whether you volunteered, overpaid or underpaid. "

The successful cafés not only address hunger and food insecurity but also become necessary parts of their neighborhood—whether it's a place to learn skills or hear live music. Some teach cooking to seniors; some offer free used books. Eating or working there is a reminder that we are all in this world together.

My 10 am～1pm shift at World Healthy Café began with the café manager—one of the two paid staff members. Our volunteer crew wasn't the most orderly, but we managed to prepare and serve meals with a lot of laughs in between. At the end of my shift, I ordered my earned meal at the counter, together with other volunteers. After lunch, I walked out the door, with a handful of new friends, music in my head and a satisfied belly and heart.

Smart Water Bottles

Hidrate Spark Smart Water Bottle

This bottle is our top overall pick, because it tracks your water intake, connects to your smartphone using Bluetooth, and records your data in a mobile app. If you forget to drink, this bottle will flash to signal to you. You can also use the app's Find My Bottle feature to track its location. It's available in a range of bright colors and sizes. The only drawback is that there's no self-cleaning feature.

ICEWATER Smart Water Bottle

If you're looking for a smart water bottle while saving some money, we recommend this one. There's a lock feature that stops water from flowing out when it's not in use. This bottle can play music through Bluetooth and comes in both plastic and steel versions. It's not dishwasher safe, however.

LARQ Bottle PureVis

It is perfect for walks, hikes, or sightseeing trips. To use the bottle's self-cleaning function, simply fill it up with water, press the switch, and wait. UV-C LED technology kills off harmful bacteria inside. Besides, the battery can last up to one month on a single charge. Just note that this bottle can't track your water intake.

CrazyCap UV Water Purifier & Bottle

It comes with a lifetime warranty (保修单), so you can be confident that it'll hold up even after the sudden fall. Unfortunately, it can't track your water intake, but the double-walled bottle can keep water cold for up to 24 hours or hot for up to 12 . There are a wide range of bright colors and patterns. The bottle has two self-cleaning modes. It will automatically clean every four hours.