There's no doubt that man is the smartest. But do you know what other animals are smart, too?

Dolphins

    Dolphins are very smart. Most of the “tricks” they're taught to do are actually behavior they would engage in on their own. They love to play, race and generally enjoy their life to the fullest. They speak a language we have yet to completely understand and like all civilized creatures, dolphins' mothers always provide their young children with guidance and possibly, love.

Great apes

    The great ape family primarily consists of gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans. Their brain chemistry is so similar to humans' that NASA once used chimpanzees in place of astronauts during many dangerous missions. Gorillas have been taught sign language and orangutans exist in complex familial relationships.

Elephants

    Everyone has heard the phrase “an elephant never forgets”. Elephants establish long-term friendships, recognizing and remembering their friends years later. If an elephant comes upon a fallen friend, it has even been known to feel sad.

Parrots

    As proved by this list, parrots are very smart. They are also the only animals listed that can actually hold a conversation. Some parrots know hundreds of words by imitating humans. The birds are also capable of remembering words and using them intelligently in response to situations.

    LastPass Password strength has been a topic about the Internet lately. I have seen lots of clever methods for creating and remembering strong passwords. Some are better than others, but in my opinion, none are enough. Here's the problem: It doesn't matter how strong your passwords are if you use the same one on multiple sites. All it takes is for a site to get hacked, like Gawker media, or even Sony did, and now your super-strong password has been stolen, and every site on which you used that password has been accessed.

    Enter LastPass. It's not the only password manager out there, but I like it the best. You create ONE strong password that you have to memorize and use it to access you LastPass database. The LastPass database is stored online, on LastPass's services. LastPass recognizes the site you're on and automatically logs you in (after, optionally, asking you to re-enter your master password). LastPass also has automatic form fill and automatic password generation. This means that you can have a different, unique, very strong password for every site you log into, but you only have to remember one master password. It's the best of both worlds.

    One argument against LastPass is that if their database is attacked, then all of your sites are in danger, and that's true, but if their entire line of work is keeping that information safe, I'm willing to take that chance. The alternative is rolling dice（掷骰子） or picking phrases to create passwords, writing all of them down on a piece of paper or something, and then having to manually type them in when I go to a site. A terrible mess.

    There is a free version of LastPass, with some additional features unlocked if you pay a $12 a year subscription.

    Jimmy is an automotive mechanic (汽修工), but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.

    One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said, “Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It's the least I could do. Please. I insist.” Jimmy agreed.

    Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applications waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease (润滑油) on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer's office with disappointed look on their faces. Finally his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked, “Do you really need to be interviewed?” Jimmy's heart sank.“ With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?” he thought to himself.

    Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy's surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.

    “Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce before you even stepped into the office. I just know you'd be a trustworthy worker. Congratulations!” Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.

    With the explosion of consumer choices in recent history, the latest must-haves would surely need to be upgraded more often than every 10 years. In 2002 a computer and basic mobile phone would have been enough for most people, but now? The public need a trendy notebook computer and a smart phone with WiFi connection to feel they are up-to-date. So when will we have enough things? When will we finally be happy? Well, it looks like the things we buy today will barely keep us satisfied for a few months.

    In the eyes of some psychologists, far from making us happy, greater consumer choice creates many serious psychological problems. A fundamental principle of the society is that more freedom is better and more choice in the marketplace means more freedom. Therefore more choice leads to more happiness. This is not the case, however.

    Imagine you go to a café offering chocolate and vanilla ice cream. You choose the chocolate and eat it happily. But what if the café serves 50 kinds of ice cream? You choose chocolate and then start to worry, "maybe blueberry would have been better, perhaps the half-fat ice cream would have been healthier. Stupid me, all these choices and I didn't make the best one! "

    In China's major cities we have now passed the point where more consumer choice is making us happier. We are annoyed by all the options we have, disappointed because our expectations are so high and angered at ourselves when we don't make a perfect choice every time.

    A newspaper reporter tells a story about traveling on a plane with high-speed Internet access. He thought this was amazing—the newest piece of technology he had heard of. Then the service went down. The man next to him was angry and swore. The reporter thought, "How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago!"

"Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here," wrote the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle. Well, not any more it is not.

Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favourite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration.

From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing De Viris Illustribus (On Famous Men), highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on its head. In The Prince, he championed cunning, ruthlessness, and boldness, rather than virtue, mercy and justice, as the skills of successful leaders.

Over time, the attributes of greatness shifted. The Romantics commemorated the leading painters and authors of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist's personal experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samual Smiles wrote Self-Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explores. "The valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self-help, if patient purpose, resolute working and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formulation of truly noble and many character, exhibit," wrote Smiles. "what it is in the power of each to accomplish for himself." His biographies of James Walt, Richard Arkwright and Josiah Wedgwood were held up as beacons to guide the working man through his difficult life.

This was all a bit bourgeois (庸俗的) for Thomas Carlyle, who focused his biographies on the truly heroic lives of Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte. These epochal figures represented lives hard to imitate, but to be acknowledged as possessing higher authority than mere mortals.

Not everyone was convinced by such bombast (浮夸的描写): "The history of all existing society is the history of class struggle" wrote Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto. "It is man, real living man, who does all that." And history should be the story of the masses and their record of struggle.

This was the tradition which revolutionized our appreciation of the past. It transformed the public history: downstairs became just as fascinating as upstairs. In place of Thomas Carlyle, Britain nurtured Christopher Hill, EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. Whole new realms of understanding—from gender to race to cultural studies—were opened up as scholars unpicked the diversity of lost societies.

The concept of a space elevator, while once confined to the realm of science fiction, is gaining traction as a potential reality within the next few decades. This belief is not unfounded, but rather stems from the ongoing advancements in aerospace engineering and materials science.

As an aerospace engineer and a physics professor, the allure of a space elevator—a colossal cable extending from Earth's surface into space, facilitating the transportation of both people and cargo—remains a compelling subject of study. In recent years, innovative approaches to design and engineering have surfaced, providing new insights into the feasibility and functionality of space elevators.

The rationale for constructing a space elevator is multifaceted. Firstly, it presents a significant opportunity for energy and cost efficiency, offering a more practical alternative to traditional rocket-based space travel. 

The economic and environmental benefits are substantial, as the space elevator would reduce the need for fuel-intensive rocket launches.

Secondly, the space elevator would revolutionize accessibility to space. The term "space mission" could evolve into "transit," reflecting the routine and weather-independent nature of space travel. This shift would not only make space travel safer for astronauts, mitigating the risks associated with rocket launches, but also open up the cosmos to a broader range of individuals and purposes.

Moreover, the space elevator acts as a gateway to the solar system. By releasing a payload at different points along the elevator, one could achieve orbit around Earth or the sun, depending on the release point, all without the need for propulsion.

While it may seem that I am an advocate for the space elevator, my true passion lies in the study of its mechanics and the potential it holds for our future. In a world facing numerous challenges, the pursuit of such ambitious projects allows us to dream of a time when humanity becomes responsible stewards of our planet, reaching for the stars while preserving our home.