Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives (蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmer's crops.

    In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmer to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.

    Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenya and set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next，Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker in a tree close to each family.

    From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre-recorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall (瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.

    Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn't tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away.

    A painter has just completed his course. He took 3 days and painted beautiful scenery. He wanted to know people's opinion about his talent and painting skills.

    He put his creation at a busy street and just down below a board which read—"I have painted this piece. Since I'm new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes. Please put a cross wherever you see a mistake."

    While he came back in the evening to collect his painting he was completely shattered to see that whole canvass(画板)was filled with crosses, they criticized the painter ruthlessly.

    Disheartened and broken completely he ran to his master's and burst into tears.

    This young artist complained, "I'm useless and if this is what I have learnt to paint I'm not worth becoming a painter. People have rejected me completely."

    Master smiled and suggested, "My son, I will prove that you are a great artist and have learnt flawless painting. Do as I say without questioning it. It will work."

    Young artist agreed and two days later early morning he presented a replica(复制品) of his earlier painting to his master. Master took that gracefully and smiled.

    "Come with me." master said.

    They reached the same street early morning and displayed the same painting exactly at the same place. Now master took out another board which read—"Gentlemen, I have painted this piece. Since I 'm new to this profession I might have committed some mistakes in my strokes etc. I have put a box with colors and brushes just below. Please do a favor. If you see a mistake, kindly pick up the brush and correct it."

    Then they walked back home.

    They both visited the place the same evening. The young painter was surprised to see that actually there was not a single correction done so far. Next day again they visited and found painting remained untouched. They say the painting was kept there for a month for no correction came in!

    There are two kinds of secrets: secrets of nature and secrets about people. Natural secrets exist all around us; to find them, one must study some undiscovered aspect of the physical world. Secrets about people are different: they are things that people don't know about themselves or things they hide because they don't want others to know. So when thinking about what kind of company to build, there are two distinct questions to ask: What secrets is nature not telling you? What secrets are people not telling you?

    It's easy to assume that natural secrets are the most important: the people who look for them can sound authoritative (权威的).This is why physics PhDs are difficult to work with—because they know the most basic truths, they think they know all truths. But does understanding electronic theory automatically make you a great marriage counselor? Does a gravity theorist know more about your business than you do? At PayPal, I once interviewed a physics PhD for an engineering job. Halfway through my first question, he shouted, "Stop! I already know what you're going to ask!" But he was wrong. It was the easiest no-hire decision I've ever made. Secrets about people are relatively overlooked. Maybe that's because you don^'t need a dozen years of higher education to ask the questions that uncover them: What are people not allowed to talk about? What is forbidden or taboo?

    The best place to look for secrets is where no one else is looking. Most people think only in terms of what they've been taught; schooling itself aims to spread basic wisdom. So you might ask: are there any fields that matter but haven't been standardized? Physics, for example, is a real major at all major universities, and it's set in its ways. The opposite of physics might be astrology, but astrology doesn't matter. What about something like nutrition? Nutrition matters for everybody, but you can't major in it at Harvard. Most top scientists go into other fields. Most of the big studies were done 30 or 40 years ago, and most are seriously flawed (有缺陷的). The food pyramid that told us to eat low fat and large amounts of grains was probably produced by Big Food(美国著名食品公司)than real science; its chief impact has been to worsen our obesity(肥胖)problem. There^'s plenty more to learn: we know more about the physics of far away stars than we know about human nutrition. It won't be easy, but it's not obviously impossible: exactly the kind of field that could produce secrets.

    When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying, "We have to go to work now." you're left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 21st century and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. This is, until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the "work" they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre.

    Stage schools often act as agencies to supply children for stage and television work. More worthy of the name "stage school" are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education.

    A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all, what lively children wouldn't settle for spending only half the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day?

    Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in the year; those over 13 to 80 days.

    The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don't make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case.

    Facebook was running my life.

    But what killed Facebook for me was when I posted a photo, and five minutes later my son asked me how many "likes" it had got. His question was a wake-up call.

    "Likes" are signs of acceptance and approval(赞同). I had forgotten that acceptance and approval need to come from within and had unknowingly set him a bad example.

    Before absorbed in Facebook, I spent a lot more time reading books and magazines. I checked in with friends through texts, emails and phone calls.

    To set a healthier example to my son, I deactivated my Facebook account.

    I'd been in the habit of checking Facebook many times a day, so I had to come up with some new habits. I carried a novel and a crossword puzzle book around with me. I rediscovered knitting. I started taking yoga classes.

    I started to remember a few things. My body is fine just the way it is. I have friends who will help me out when I'm in trouble, and I will help them out. I do my best to be a good mother, and our son is happy and healthy. We are very lucky to be able to afford two vacations a year.

    I stopped looking at the world through my cellphone. I felt completely present in the moment. The break left me feeling better about myself, my family, my home and my life.

    After a few weeks, I returned to Facebook. Now I look at the photos of my friends' kids growing up and treasure how social media allows me to keep in touch with family. I no longer have the desire to post updates often.

    It is not an addiction(上瘾) any more.