A ground-based system that uses much stronger signals than GPS can find your location in cities and indoors. It is a new positioning system that could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your directions again.

    Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to send a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as outdoors, and the makers claim that the receivers can be shrunk(缩小) to fit inside a regular cell phone. Even the US armies, which invented GPS technology, signed a file last month agreeing to a test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

    “This is one of the most important technology developments for the future of the positioning industry,” says Nunzio Gambale, CEO and co-founder of the firm Locata, based in Griffith, Australia.

    As for the Locata's correctness, Christopher Morin of the US Air Force tested it recently at White Sands, and it worked to within 18cm along any axis(轴). Morin said it should be possible to get the exactitude down to 5cm.

    The tests were performed in an open desert where GPS also worked beautifully, but its signal was weak—like a car headlight from 20,000 kilometers away—and easily cut off by solid objects(实心的物体). Locata's signal was far stronger, though not guaranteed to work in a complex urban environment, said David, speaker of the UK' s General Lighthouse Authorities.

    Locata's technology will face competition in the race to transform indoor navigation. But it could shine in specific areas, Gambale said. Robots with Locata could easily navigate inside buildings without the complex optical(视觉的) systems they need at the moment. And the process that handles correct location data could not only guide you around a mall, railway station or airport, but also take you to the exact shelf in a shop for the product you want. It would be small and cheap enough for smart phones and it should be available within five years—a similar path to the one GPS took on its way towards the world, he said.

    If a stranger offered you money to keep a suitcase in your spare room，would you accept? How about the other way round：if you had too many belongings，would you consider trusting someone you met online with their safekeeping? Anthony Paine believed enough of us would answer “yes” to these questions to launch his own startup(新兴公司)，Stashbee．His business links people with space to those who need it．

    And it's just one player in the booming “sharing economy”，an industry that relies on people renting out things like their beds，bikes and even parking spaces．Airbnb，a company valued at 200bn RMB，provides a platform for those renting property short-term．DogVacay pairs holidaymaking pet owners with pet-friendly hosts，and aims to be profitable by 2017．

    All their business models revolve around one simple word：trust．So，how does Stashbee measure up? BBC journalist Dougal Shaw decided to try it out for himself．He had some odds and ends to store while renovating his house，and met a host through the site who could keep them for 475 RMB for two months．All relatively smooth and painless．

    Heavyweights(行业巨头)in the traditional storage industry，such as Big Yenow and Access，aren't convinced．A representative from Access told Shaw he was skeptical about storing with “amateurs”．He considered 24／7(全天候) access to the items and better security as the main advantages of his service.

    Stashbee agree that dealing with security concerns is important，but say business success depends more on people overcoming a distrust of strangers we've been taught since childhood. They aren't alone．Companies such as Costockage，Roost and Spacer all run similar storage businesses，and are all relying on a shift in consumer attitudes．

    And the concept of social storage doesn't stop there．CityStasher believe there's a gap in the market for those who want to store things for extremely short periods of time．

    Would you try it out? It's a question of trust．

    With all the traditional media channels, including newspapers, magazines and television shows, shrinking, advertisers are worrying about how they can reach customers. Banners(横幅) ads on our devices are ugly and disturbing. To overcome various digital problems, the ad industry has been serving up a sneaky(不光明正大的) solution: make ads look less like ads and more like the articles, videos and posts around them.

    This trend, called native advertising, has taken over the Internet; even the websites such as NYTimes.com and Wall-Street.com are using it. On Facebook and Twitter, every 10th item or so is an ad; only the small subtitle “Sponsored（赞助）” appearing in light gray type tells you which posts are ads.

    Won't dressing up ads to make them look like reported articles mislead people? Sometimes, yes. An Interactive Advertising Bureau study found that only 41 percent of general news readers could tell such ads apart from real news stories. And it's getting worse. Advertisers worry that the “Sponsored” label discourages readers from clicking, so some websites are making the labels smaller and less noticeable. Sometimes the labels disappear entirely.

    At a recent talk about the difficulty of advertising in the new, small-screen world, I heard an ad manager tell an impressive story. She had gotten a musical performance – paid for by her soft drink client- perfectly inserted（插入）into a TV awards show, without any moment of blackness before or after. “It looked just like part of the real broadcast!” she recounted happily.

    Look, it is great that native advertising works. But if advertisers truly believe in their material, they should have no problem labeling it as advertising.

    For now native ads continue to be a fashion- with no laws governing them and no labeling standard. But that could change; the Federal Trade Commission has begun considering regulation. If the new generation of digital advertisers clean up their act according to the regulation, native ads might become more acceptable.

    We just love giving cards in Britain. If there's a special occasion coming up, there's no doubt that we'll be there, card in hand, to celebrate it. And this isn't just for birthdays; we also give cards when people are ill or when they have got a new job. And even if you forgot somebody's birthday, there are even "sorry it's late" cards. So you can pretty much find a card for any occasion.

    Before coming to Italy I had never even considered that our love for card giving might not be shared by other countries. In fact, my workmates told me that hardly anyone sends Christmas cards in Italy and that they actually don't really give birthday cards either! Unbelievable! In the UK, if a close friend or family member didn't get me a card I'd feel upset! However, the only place you can buy cards in Italy is in a shop which sells school things. In comparison, we have whole shops that sell them in the UK and we even have different types of card shops.

    Although cards can take up your time, from choosing the perfect one, to thinking up the personal message inside, I think it's a really nice gesture. And especially with Christmas cards, it adds to that festive feeling. When I sit down to write countless cards to friends and family, I get that little bit happier that it will be Christmas soon! Especially when I see my own Christmas cards, proudly sitting on my desk wishing me a very merry Christmas.

    Of course, the problem comes when they're no longer needed, when Christmas is over. It makes me sad just to throw them all away, so I try and hang on to my favorite ones.

Delicate, shining, and soft to the touch. The fabric called silk {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (find) its way into the heart of Chinese people in the past thousands of years.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} origin of it is not clear, but the ancient Chinese people {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (credit) their own wisdom to Leizu, wife of the Yellow Emperor, as the inventor of sericulture (养蚕业).

The style and texture (质地) of silk are {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(variety). Hangluo satin from Hangzhou,Zhejiang province, is famous for its airy and thin texture, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Yunjin brocade from Nanjing, Jiangsu province, a luxurious fabric often {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (use) for royal clothes, represents China's silk weaving (纺织) technique at its best time. Yunjin brocade is best made  {#blank#}7{#/blank#} hand, in a complex procedure that comprises more than a hundred steps. Even the most skilled artisans can only weave a few centimeters a day.

In the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC—AD 24), with Zhang Qian{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (open) up the routes to the western regions, silk graced countries in Central Asia, and later other parts of Eurasia and beyond.  {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (appropriate), its name marked China's major international trade {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (route), the ancient Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road.

As one of the wonders of ancient China, silk is not merely a type of fabric but a cultural symbol and a representative of elegance.

Scientists and spiritual teachers alike agree that the simple act of smiling can transform you and the world around you.It can make us appear more attractive to others. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So before you read on,slap a nice,genuine smile on that face of yours.

How Smiling Affects Your Brain

The act of smiling activates neural messaging that benefits your health and happiness.For starters,smiling activates the release of neuropeptides(神经肽) that work toward fighting off stress.The feel-good neurotransmitters(神经介质) are all released when a smile flashes across your face as well. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

How Smiling Affects Your Body

You're actually better-looking when you smile.A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia reported that seeing an attractive,smiling face activates the region in your brain that processes sensory rewards. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It also explains the 2011 findings by researchers at the Face Research Laboratory.They found that both men and women were more attracted to images of people who made eye contact and smiled than those who did not.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Did you know that your smile is actually contagious(传染性的)?In a Swedish study,subjects were shown pictures of several emotions:joy,anger and surprise.When the picture of someone's smiling was presented,the researchers asked the subjects to frown.Instead,they found that the facial expressions went directly to what subjects saw. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} If they don't,they're making a conscious effort not to.

A.How Smiling Affects Those Around You

B.Each time you smile,you throw a little feel-good party in your brain.

C.So if you're smiling at someone,it's likely that they can't help but smile back.

D.And it can even lengthen our lives.

E.How Smiling Affects Your Facial Expressions

F.They not only relax your body,but also lower your heart rate and blood pressure.

G.This suggests that when you view a person smiling,you actually feel rewarded.