Tibetan people are friendly and easy to get along with. However, Tibetans have different ways of behavior in many aspects due to their unique culture and religion. Be sure to respect local customs and be polite.

    Don't enter a monastery without permission. Don't smoke in monasteries. Don't touch Buddha statues, religious objects or prayer flags. Walk around monasteries (寺院), temples, dagobas, Mongolian cairns (Mani piles) and other religious structures in clockwise order with the exception of the Bon sites.

    Don t step on the threshold when entering a tent, house, or monastery. Don't touch the head of a Tibetan. The head is considered as a sacred part of the body. Remember to cross your legs when you are asked to have a seat. Don't stretch your legs with feet pointing to others.

    Don't drive away or hurt eagles. Eagles are considered holy birds in the hearts of Tibetan people. Don't disturb or injure cows or sheep with red, green or yellow ribbons because they are Tibetan sacrifice to worship gods.

    Don't take photos without permission. You'd better ask for permission before taking pictures of Tibetan people. Most Tibetan monasteries are not allowed to take pictures or you need to pay.

    Tibetan people are getting more used to habits of foreigners and being more tolerant due to rapidly developing tourism in Tibet. However, we still hope you can show respect to Tibetan traditions and behave well since their unique lifestyle is part of the charm of Tibet.

    One day, I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physical problem， while the student claimed a perfect score. I was elected as their arbiter. I read the examination problem: “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer(气压计).” The student had answered: “Take the barometer to the top of the building，attach a long rope to it，lower it to the street， and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of it is the height of the building. ”

    The student had really answered the question completely, but the answer didn't confirm his competence in physics. I suggested the student try again. I gave him six minutes to answer the question, warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. Five minutes later, he said he had many answers and clashed off one, which read： “Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, use the physical formula (公式）to calculate the height of the building. ”

    At this point, my colleague had to accept it, and then the student made almost full marks. I couldn't help asking the student what the other answers were. He listed many others ，and then added “Probably the best is to take the barometer to the administrator and said to him，' Sir, here is a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of the building, I will give it to you.，”

    Then, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

    The name of the student was Bohr who later was famous all over the world. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

    The meaning of silence varies among cultural groups. Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; thus efforts may be made to fill every gap(间隙) with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person's needs.

    Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied(暗示) is that the person wants the listener to think about what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for thinking.

    Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with disagreements among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions (指示，命令) are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.

    Nurses and other care-givers need to notice the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal worries their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient's silence is not disturbed too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing(治愈) value of silence can use this understanding to help in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.

    It is one of the oldest magic tricks in the book—a magician locks a woman in a box, with her head and feet sticking out from either end, and saws (锯) it in half. But when she finally jumps out of the box, the woman is unharmed.

    This trick was introduced nearly a century ago. It has been around for some time, but it never goes wrong. Why is it so successful? The answer is simple: the human mind is easily fooled.

    Our brain processes the world around us based on information that sensory organs, including the eyes, pick up. For instance, when we see a cow or a horse standing behind a tree, we automatically “fill in” the part of the animal's body that is hidden from our sight. “So the brain is taking this kind of very sparse (匮乏的) information about the world and it's generating this rich world by filling in information,” Stephen Macknik, a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, US, told Science magazine.

    But since our brains are filling in the gaps, sometimes they get it wrong. They tend to be driven by our previous experiences and we expect things to go as they have in the past even if sometimes they do not.

    This tendency explains magicians' success in fooling people with well-known coin tricks. For example, when you see a magician throw a coin up and down in one hand and then fake a coin thrown to the other hand, you would naturally believe that the coin is in the other hand.

Apart from the information gaps, magicians also use the “blind spots” theory when doing their shows.

    The most well-known experiment demonstrating this theory is called the “invisible gorilla (大猩猩)”, in which volunteers watch a video of two basketball teams. They are asked to count how many times the teams wearing white shirts pass the ball. In the meantime, a person dressed as a gorilla walks onto the court. But shockingly, half of the viewers don't notice the gorilla, even when they appear to be looking directly at it.

    Magicians employ this tactic (招数), what they call “misdirection”, in almost every one of their acts. They direct our attention somewhere else using comedy and music, which can make us miss stuff during the performance.

    In this Pennsylvania city, Pittsburgh is shrinking but getting wealthier. Since 2000, its population has declined by 95,000 while its income per capita (人均) has shot up 24 percent. The trend is taking hold in many other cities, like Buffalo in New York, Providence in Rhode Island and New Orleans.

    Some of these areas have created more high-paying jobs in energy, health care or education. Others have managed to reshape their manufacturing (制造业) for a new economy. Higher-paying jobs have a greater effect because they create demand for additional services. “The story in Pittsburgh is very positive, and other areas are looking at it as an example of the transformation that might be possible,” said Guhan Venkatu, who wrote an economic history of the area called “Rust and Renewal” for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have helped bring tech jobs and innovation (革新) to the area by sponsoring tech centers that help graduates start companies without moving to Silicon Valley or San Francisco. This has helped keep Pittsburgh's educated young population growing even as the entire population in the city has dropped.

    Pittsburgh has more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs than other shrinking cities, about 80,000 or 7% of all jobs. STEM jobs add productivity and income growth to the area. Manufacturers of high-tech medical equipment in the Pittsburgh area also have doubled employment in the last 10 years.

    However, some experts question whether growing income per capita can really make up for a declining population. According to Patrick Adler, a researcher at the University of Toronto, population loss does matter if it means lower-skilled workers have fled because of a lack of opportunity. What's more, high-paying jobs in education and health care can disappear if the population declines too greatly. So it'd be wise to find ways to increase the population.

    Wanted: A Personal Assistant

    I'm a very busy woman, looking for an assistant to help me with certain important tasks. This is not your average assistant job. What I'm looking for is someone to take care of some of my more personal business so that I may focus on my true passion: grocery shopping. Please apply if and only if you are willing and able to accomplish the following tasks:

    Work I would love to have a nine-to-five job. However, I find sitting in an office all day unbearable. An ideal assistant would secure a high-paying office job and excel in that setting, even going so far as to eagerly accept every invitation to after-work drinks.

    Go on family vacations I love my family, especially when I don't have to spend time with them. Thus, I will require my employee to attend all family vacations in my place. Since I'll miss out on spending time with my nephews, a good assistant will live-stream (直播) them for me the entire time while discreetly muting the live-stream whenever they start fighting.

    Exercise I am determined to get in better shape but find working out strenuous and tiring. The right candidate will exercise for a minimum of an hour every day and allow me to reap the benefits of his or her vigorous activity.

    Eat Just kidding—I love eating!

    Date I'm looking for love but find dating tedious and intimidating. Ideally, my employee will get a drink with a potential mate so he or she can do the tiresome work of getting to know someone and deciding whether I'll like him. If the romantic candidate advances past a third date, I'd be willing to step in and proceed with the relationship from there, excluding birthdays, holidays, and other high-pressure situations.

    Have a baby I'm eager to have a child, but being pregnant and giving birth seems hard. Likewise, raising a child seems daunting. I'd prefer to spend an hour or two with my child each day while someone else tackles the incredible responsibility of childrearing. Once my child turns 18, I will happily assume all parenting duties, excluding any financial obligations.