Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease．But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

    Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露）to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses(分析) now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风）within as little as a few hours after exposure．In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物）were up to 5% more likely（可能的） to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure．A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U．S．Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好）quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

    The authors of both studies stress（强调）that these risks are relatively（相对的）small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure．However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices．So stricter regulation（规章制度）by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

    We all fail,all the time.We might miss a call with a client because of an emergency work meeting,or miss that meeting because another project has suddenly become urgent.And then we (or our families) get sick,and we have to shift priorities around again.

    These unsystematic failures are benign,though.They reflect that all of us have limited resources.There simply is not enough time,energy,or money,to do everything you want to do all the time.Part of being a responsible adult is learning to make trade offs: balancing your conflicting goals and trying to get as much done as you can in the time you have.

    The thing you really need to watch out for is the systematic failure.The systematic failure happens when there's a particular goal you want to achieve,but never get to.The causes of systematic failures usually boil down to some combination of these three factors:

    1).Short-term pressures versus long-term goals.Most of us prefer to achieve pressing short-term goals rather than put time into long-term projects.Lots of research suggests that our brains are wired to prefer tasks that pay off in the short term rather than those whose benefit is long-term.The people who do manage to accomplish their long-term goals create regular space to make progress on them.

    2)._________Without even realizing it,we often do what is easiest to accomplish rather than what we say is most important.Email is a great example.If you are like most people,you keep your email program open at work all day. Consequently,each new message is an invitation to drop what you are working on to check it.It feels like work and it's much easier than finishing that 100-slide presentation.Simply shutting off email for a few hours a day can remove this source of distraction from the environment.

    3).Working for too long.Many workplaces create pressure to stay at the office for more and more hours,which (paradoxically) creates opportunities for systematic failures.Work is not an iron man competition where the last person there wins.Most people have an optimal（最佳的）number of hours they can work each day.For example,I can be productive at work for about 8-9 hours a day.If I spend any more time at work than that,then at some point,I start doing "fake work."

    The next time you run into trouble,assess whether it's an unsystematic failure or a systematic one.When you notice a systematic failure in your life,you need to make a change in your behavior.If you don't make a change,you will continue to fail.

    Finally,if you experience a lot of unsystematic failures,it might be worth rethinking the number of tasks you are taking on.Perhaps you need to offload some responsibilities onto someone else,before you start experiencing more systematic failures.

    Everyone wants to win, and everybody knows it. Take the case of Olympic athletes, who train hard each day for years to reach the top of their sport and hopefully win a gold medal. Since every competitor's goal is to win, we assume that the silver medalists would be less happy than gold-medal winners, but still happier than those in third place. Common sense says that our levels of happiness should have something to do with our levels of achievement – except that often this isn't the case.

    Researchers found that bronze medalists actually appeared on the whole to be happier than silver medalists. How could that be? The answer, in a word, is gratitude. Silver medallists, who compared themselves to the gold medalists, experienced disappointment at having been close to winning the gold, but falling short. The bronze medalists, on the other hand, were thankful to have won a medal at all, comparing themselves to all those who didn't even reach the Olympic platform.

    If happiness, then, is the aim of life, perhaps our achievement-centered culture is getting it all backwards. We focus on what we want rather than on what we have. We forget to be grateful, and as a result we forget to be happy.

    We're from a culture that teaches us to envy others – another person achievements – and that is always looking forward to what comes next. Yet in a better society, might we not look at what all of our earlier nexts have already earned us?

    I encourage any person who struggles with frustration （挫折）in their life to take out a notebook and a pen each evening before bed, and to write down all the things that they have gratitude for. It's not a cure for dissatisfaction, to be sure, but many people quickly discover that, when they actually stop to think about it, they have things pretty good and happiness comes.

    Those bronze medalists, after all, can't be wrong.

    It's common for children to grow up being told to minimize daydreaming, and instead to focus on lessons and class work. Historically, daydreaming students who go off on their own thoughts, rather than focusing on the teachers, the blackboard, or their class work, are often encouraged to stop allowing their attention to wander and to bring themselves back into the present moment. They're described as uninterested in school work and their future. Traditionally, daydreaming is seen as a practice that results in bad consequences.

    But recent studies are beginning to renounce those common beliefs by pointing out the potential benefits that daydreaming may provide. PsychCentral reports that Mary Smith, a psychological scientist and researcher, recently examined scientific writings and studies to gain a better understanding of the role of a reflective brain. These studies have shown that the brain has a network that is active when a person is daydreaming and that brain network can help memory and learning.

    Though paying attention in school is important, these results suggest that there should be time for students to daydream, too. Giving them the chance to reflect and daydream can help improve learning and development. Research also indicates that when students are permitted to daydream, they experience less anxiety and become more motivated. On the other hand, if students are warned against daydreaming, their knowledge of themselves and the world around them may suffer.

    As a result, educators are encouraged to promote a balance between outward and inward attention. A little bit of daydreaming to break up the hard focus on school activities can be beneficial, and it may help students become better, active learners.

    As for students, the lesson here is not to be afraid of doing some daydreaming. Sure, you want to pay attention to the vital information conveyed to you during your classes, but don't get discouraged if your mind wanders. A little bit of daydreaming is healthy.

    In the early 1980s, one of our neighbors asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to give as gifts for the holidays. My mom agreed and news of the unique gift baskets my mum was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood. My mum was busy throughout the holiday season, so she asked a friend to help her. When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this job could be turned into a business and they did it.

    My mum went into her business because she had a creative idea. She got orders and filled orders. But there was no purpose and no real strategy(策略). In 1991, my mum's partner got into financial trouble and there was not enough money to support either my mum or her partner.

    So if you are led by your creativity or enthusiasm, make sure you ask yourself what you want out of your business. If you don't set goals, how will you know what direction to go in? Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy? Are you looking for a hobby? You can't keep scores if you don't know what game you are playing.

    After my mom's partner gave up, she had to abandon(抛弃) her business to support herself. She swore（发誓）she would run a business again and do it differently the next time. However, there wasn't a "next time" for her. She passed away just after her 51st birthday. She never had someone tell her how important having a goal was. She never had an opportunity to be everything that she could be.

    There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you. Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever that may mean to you.

    Bees may soon need to add protein shakes to their diet. Pollen (花粉) normally provides their protein (蛋白质). But rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the air have reduced the protein in pollen. That's what a new study finds.

    Scientists compared recently collected flowers from Canada goldenrod. Then they compared pollen in them to pollen in goldenrod reserved at a museum in Washington, DC. They found today's plants have less protein. Protein levels in pollen from the older flowers were 18 percent. Today's goldenrod pollen has only about 12 percent protein. That's about one-third less than 172 years ago. Over that same period, CO₂ levels have gone up by more than one-third. Back more than 170 years ago, they were about 280 parts per million in air. Today they are about 398 ppm.

    To test whether CO₂ changes had played a role in the falling protein levels, the researchers did some tests. They grew goldenrod for two years at CO₂ levels of up to 500 ppm. More CO₂ in the air led to lower levels of protein in the flowers' pollen.

    Joan Edwards, one of the researchers, says that this drop in pollen protein could affect a bee's diet and health. It would be like eating junk food, tasting good but offering less nutrition (营养).

    Honeybees need to eat lots of protein. They use it to feed their young. They also need it to keep their immune systems healthy, says Cédric Alaux, a bee biologist at the French agricultural research agency.

    Bee populations have been decreasing worldwide in recent years. A drop in their food quality might play a role, Edwards says. And that drop might affect crops too. "The health of the bee population is not just for the flowers and the bees and biodiversity." She worries it also could play a role in "human health and well-being."