Even when you're extremely busy, you aren't using your time with 100% efficiency. There are gaps in everyone's schedule where they aren't doing anything important. Even if your schedule hasno gaps, there is probably lots of time where you aren't working as fast or as effectively as you possibly could.

    Why aren't you completely efficient? It's because time isn't thelimiting factor. If it were the limiting factor, people could work non-stop without breaks or any unproductive distractions. Instead, people, even those who are highly productive, need to take breaks, occasionally procrastinate(拖延) and slow downon tasks throughout the day.

    The real and most important limiting factor for productivity is your energy levels to pay attention. Energy levels limit your productivity because when you're tired, you can have ample time and still not get everything done. Your attention ability is also limited, because even if there are amillion things that need to be done, you can only focus on one or two at a time.

    You might not be able to insert another 4-5 hours into your schedule without making some sacrifices. But even extremely busy people can addan hour or two into their schedule without can celling anything. The reason it's hard to “find time” isn't a lack of time. It's because you don't have enough energy left to focus on something else that needs to fit into your day.

    I first suspected time wasn't the real problem during an extremely busy period in my life over a year ago. I was insanely busy, but at that time I still exercised regularly. I had daily-to-do lists with over twenty items, and I still found time to exercise. However, after a few weeks off, due to illness, stopped exercising. I was not busy by any standards, in fact, my schedule was incredibly light. Despite this free time, I found it hard to find time to exercise. It seemed to get pushed later and later into my schedule until it was gone. How can I explain this odd experience? I believe you haveknown it.

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. Tothis gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into thelaw. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. Theman thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in sometimelater on. "It is possible," says the gatekeeper, "but notnow." The gate to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walksto the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into theinside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: "If it tempts you so much, try going insidein spite of my prohibition. But take note. I am powerful. And I am only themost lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each morepowerful than the other. I cannot endure even one  glimpse of the third."

The man from the country has notexpected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone,he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat,at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar's beard, he decidesthat it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. Thegatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front ofthe gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be letin, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper ofteninterrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many otherthings, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at theend he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man,who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything,no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it allbut, as he does so, says, "I am taking this only so that you do not thinkyou have failed to do anything." ②

During the many years the man observesthe gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and thisfirst one seems to him the only barrier for entry into the law. He curses theunlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; later, ashe grows old, he only mumbles to himself. He becomes childish and, since in thelong years studying the gatekeeper he has also come to know the fléas ( PZ) inhis fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper.Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are reallydarker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But herecognizes now in the darkness a ray of light which breaks out of the gatewayto the law. Now he no longer has much time to live.

Before his death he gathers in his headall his experiences of the entire time up into one question which he has notyet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up hisstiffening body. The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the greatdifference has changed things considerably to the disadvantage of the man. ③ "You are insatiable (不知足的)."^t"Everyone strives after the law," says the man, "so how isit that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?" Thegatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach hisdiminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, "Here no one else can gainentry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I'm going now to close it."④

Woman Uses Daughter's Key to "Steal" Car

    Charlie Vansant, a college student of Athens, Ohio, who reported that his car was stolen, got a surprise when he learned a woman had mistaken it for her daughter's car and taken it — using her key.

    Kate Anderson became an accidental car thief when picking up her daughter's car near an Ohio University building last week. Anderson spotted the Toyota Camry（丰田凯美瑞）and used her daughter's key to unlock the car, start the engine and drive home — without realizing that the car wasn't her daughter's.

    When Charlie Vansant left class a short time later, he found only an empty parking spot. He first assumed the car had been towed, but when the police couldn't find a record of it, they took a theft(偷窃) report.

    The morning after Anderson took the car, her daughter discovered the Camry in the driveway wasn't hers. Anderson said she was able to find Vansant's name on paperwork in the glove compartment and look up his phone number on the website for the university.

    When Anderson told Charlie the car was in her driveway, "It sounded really suspicious at first, as she wanted to hold the thing for ransom (赎金) , ” said Vansant. He eventually went to the house with a police officer, where he was reunited with his car. According to the police report, the case was closed "because of mistaken car identity", and Anderson wasn't charged.

    Vansant seemed to blame the car company more than the "thief". "Her key fit not only my lock, but my ignition（点火装置）as well — so high-five for Toyota, I guess." he said.

    A person's chances of falling ill from a new strain (菌株) of flu are at least partly determined by the first strain they ever met with, a study suggests.

    Research in Science Journal looked at the 18 strains of influenza A ( 甲型流感) and the hemagglutinin protein (红血球凝集素蛋白) on its surface. They say there are only two types of this protein and people are protected from the one their body meets first, but at risk from the other one. A UK expert said that could explain different patterns in flu pandemics (流行病).The researchers, from University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest their findings could explain why some flu outbreaks cause more deaths and serious illnesses in younger people. The first time a person's immune system meets a flu virus, it makes antibodies targeting hemagglutinin protein that sticks out of the surface of the virus — like a lollipop (棒棒糖).

    Even though there are 18 types of influenza A, there are only two versions of hemagglutinin. The researchers, led by Dr Michael Worobey, classed them as "blue" and "orange" lollipops. They said people born before the late 1960s were exposed to "blue lollipop" flu viruses — H1 or H2 — as children. In later life they rarely fell ill from another "blue lollipop" flu — H5N1 bird flu, but they died from "orange" H7N9. Those born in the late 1960s and exposed to "orange lollipop" flu — H3 — have the opposite pattern.

    His team looked at cases of H5N1 and H7N9 — two kinds of bird flu which have affected hundreds of people, but have not developed into pandemics. The researchers found a 75% protection rate against severe disease and 80% protection rate against death if patients had been exposed to a virus with the same protein version when they were children.

    Dr Worobey said the finding could explain the unusual effect of the 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic, which was more deadly among young adults. "Those young adults were killed by an H1 virus and from blood analysed many decades later there is a pretty strong indication that those individuals had been exposed to a mismatched H3 as children and were therefore not protected against H1. The fact that we are seeing exactly the  same pattern with current H5N1 and H7N9 cases suggests that the same fundamental processes may govern both the historic 1918 pandemic and today's contenders (斗争者) for the next big flu pandemic."

    Jonathan Ball, professor of University of Nottingham, said, "This is a really neat piece of work and provides a reason why human populations have been sensitive to different strains of bird influenza over the past 100 years or so. The findings are based on analysis of patient records and they certainly need further proof in the laboratory, but nonetheless the results are pretty amazing and inspiring."

    The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism (相对主义), are simply reflections of local social and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.

    History has witnessed the endless productions of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert halls, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries, Unique works of this kind are different from today's popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.

    In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because "the general principles of taste are uniform (不变的) in human nature," the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after two thousand years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.

    Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.

    The American Craftsman style is a type of design. It was popular from 1900 to the 1930s. It changed the style of building in the United States.

    The craftsman style originally began in Europe. The British Arts and Crafts style arose in the 1860s. The unique designs of this movement tried to offer dignity to the common person. Handmade items were preferred because they were thought better than items that were mass-produced. But this British style was still Victorian. It still only served the wealthiest clients.

    In 1897 a group of Boston architects brought these handcrafted styles to American. They planned a show of craft objects, which turned out to be a huge success. Here they realized the potential and established the Society of Arts and Crafts on June 28, 1897. Its slogan was "to develop and encourage higher standards in the handicrafts."

    The American style began as the Victorian Era was ending. It emphasized handmade work. Originality and simplicity were highly valued. Local materials and the quality of the handicraft were very important, these traits were meant to dignify the modest homes of the middle class.

    These simple designs used glass and wood that were produced locally. They were also very elegant. The metalwork was a reaction to Victorian Opulence. The increase of mass-produced housing items was rejected. The American Craftsman used clean lines. It also relied on sturdy structure. Natural materials were always used in these houses if possible.

    This style introduced many changes to the average American home. New designs were made for families without servants. This was a trait of the new middle class. The kitchen went from being a hidden room to a prominent one. Another development was the breakfast nook. This new area provided the family with a place to gather at any time of day.

    Also, inspirational to the Craftsman style were the Shaker and Mission designs. The American Craftsman style led to the Art Deco Movement of the 1930s.