The Queen has had to say goodbye to one of her longtime companions, her beloved pet corgi Holly, who has sadly passed away aged 13. The corgi will probably be familiar to royal fans who would recognize her from the 2012 London Olympics opening video.

    The dog was suffering from old age and was put down at Balmoral after suffering from an illness, leaving Her Majesty three surviving pet dogs, Willow and two corgi-dachshund crosses, Vulcan and Candy.

    According to a spokesperson for Buckingham palace, the Queen was deeply upset by Holly's passing and she doesn't like seeing her dogs suffer. Holly had attained a very good age. She gets more unsettled if they suffer and she knows that putting a dog down is often the kindest solution. She was devoted to Holly and wherever the Queen was, the dog was never far behind.

    Holly was included in one of the portraits for the Queen's 90th birthday, along with her other three pet dogs. Although the Queen usually has several pet corgis, it was recently revealed that she is keen not to breed（繁殖）any more of the dogs. Monty Roberts, a horse trainer who has previously given advice to Queen, told the Daily Mail, “She wouldn't leave any young dogs behind if she died. She wanted to put an end to it. Her Majesty had previously named one of her dogs after her friend, but the dog died in 2012. Dogs love for less time than human beings and we know we're going to lose them—but they are part of the Queen's family. She'll be quite upset.”

    We have a problem，and the strange thing is that we not only know about it, but also celebrate it. Just today, someone boasted (自夸) to me that she was so busy she's averaged four hours of sleep a night for the last two weeks. She wasn't complaining; she was proud of the fact. She is not alone.

    Why are rational (理性的) people so irrational in their behavior? The answer is that we're in the midst of a bubble (泡沫). I call it “The More Bubble”.

    The nature of bubbles is that something is overvalued until—eventually—the bubble bursts, and we're left wondering why we were so irrational in the first place. The thing we're overvaluing now is the opinion of doing it all, having it all, achieving it all.

    This bubble is being enabled by a combination of three powerful trends: smart phones, social media, and extreme consumerism (消费主义). The result is not just information overload, but opinion overload. We are more aware than at any time in history of what everyone else is doing and, therefore, what we should be doing. In the process, we have been sold a bill of goods: that success means being supermen and superwomen who can get it all done. Of course, we boasted about being busy—it's code for being successful and important.

    And our answer to the problem of more is always more. We need more technology to help us create more technologies. We need to move our workload to free up our own time to do yet even more.

    Luckily, there is a solution to asking for more: asking for less, but better. A growing number of people are making this change. I call these people Essentialists.

    These people are designing their lives around what is essential and removing everything else. These people arrange to have actual weekends (during which they are not working). They create technology-free zones in their homes. They trade time on Facebook with calling those few friends who really matter to them. Instead of running to different meetings, they put space on their plans to get important work done.

    So we have two choices: We can be among the last people caught up in “The More Bubble,” or we can join the growing community of Essentialists and get more of what matters in our one precious life.

    Taxi-booking app Uber agreed to sell its business in China to Didi Chuxing. The two firms had been fierce competitors, but Didi Chuxing had controlled the Chinese market with an 87% share.

    Uber China launched in 2014, but it had failed to make any profit for a long time. Cheng Wei, founder and chief executive of Didi Chuxing, said the two companies had learned a great deal from each other over the past two years in China. He added that the deal would set the mobile transportation industry on a healthier path of growth at a higher level. As part of the deal, Mr. Cheng would join the board of Uber, while Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick would also join Didi's board.

    Uber's China business would own its separate branding while US-based Uber Technologies would hold about 17.5% in the combined company. Didi Chuxing is backed by Chinese Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba.

    Uber had been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor. Last February, the company admitted it was losing more than $1 billion a year in China. “Funding their Chinese dreams was becoming too expensive for Uber,” Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA, told the BBC. Travis Kalanick said, “As a businessman, I've learned that being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart.”

    The fierce competition had led both companies to spend much more on their journeys. The combination is likely to see fewer such subsidies（补贴）. “One thing to watch carefully is how quickly consumers feel the impact as subsidies are withdrawn.” Mr. Clark added.

    The deal with Didi Chuxing came just days after China had agreed to provide a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps. Both Uber and Didi welcomed the decision. The new rules took effect last November and could, among other things, forbid such platforms to operate below cost.

    Want to stay away from colds? Put on a happy face.

    Compared to unhappy people, those who are cheerful and relaxed are less likely to suffer from cold, according to a new study. It's possible that being happy helps the body fight illnesses, say the researchers from New York University.

    “It seems that positive feelings may reduce the danger of illness,” said the study's chief researcher Sheldon Cohen.

    In an earlier study, Cohen found that people who were cheerful and lively caught coughs and colds less often. People who showed positive feelings were also less likely to tell their doctors that they felt ill.

    In this study, Cohen's study interviewed 193 adults every day for two weeks. During the interviews, the people told researchers about the happy or sad feelings they had that day.

    After the two weeks, the people were given colds by doctors and had to stay alone in a room for six days.

    The result showed that everyone in the study was equally likely to get ill. But for people who said they felt happy during the research period, their illness was less serious and lasted for a shorter time.

    Cohen believes that when people experienced positive feelings, their body may produce a chemical that helps fight illness and disease. So if you are worried about your health, look on the bright side more often.

    Teenagers around the world can be happy with the news that the brain will ignore parents' order when they tap on their smartphones. A new scientific study from the University College London has shown that humans may temporarily go deaf when they're focusing on something visual at the same time.

    The researchers played the normal-volume sounds in the background. And 13 volunteers experienced inattentional deafness as their visual tasks became increasingly difficult. “We found that when volunteers were performing the demanding visual task, they were unable to hear sounds that they would normally hear,” Maria Chait said in a statement. “The brain scans showed that people didn't filter out the sounds on purpose. They were not actually hearing them in the first place.”

    The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that the centre of sights and the center of sounds share limited resources. Inattentional deafness is a common everyday experience and the study explains why, according to UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Professor Nili Lavie.

    If you try to talk to someone focusing on a book, game, or television program and don't receive a response, they aren't necessarily ignoring you. They simply might not hear you at all. This could also explain why you might not hear your bus or train stop being announced if you're absorbed in your phone, book or newspaper. However, some loud sounds will still be able to break through.

    Some situations could become potentially dangerous when the quieter ones go unheard. As you can imagine, in the operating room, when a doctor concentrates on his work, he might not hear the equipment beeping. It also applies to drivers who concentrate on complex directions. Fortunately, experts have given us some useful tips on preventing such situations.

    It was a mid-winter's day. My Mom had ordered me and my two brothers outside so she could get a little housework done.

    My brothers were seven and five years older than me and much bigger as well. Still, it was I who decided to start the snowball fight. I hit one of them when they weren't looking and soon we were all making and throwing snowballs as fast as we could. Being little helped me avoid the first dozen or so snowballs that came my way until the one that caught me in the back of the head and sent me sliding into the two foot deep snowdrift. I felt two hands grasp my shoulders as my oldest brother lifted me out safely. I laughed as I dusted the snow off.

    Later Mom called us back inside for a lunch of hot, chicken soup. I drank it slowly and then sat near the old, wood stove in our living room and let the warmth quickly dry my damp socks and jeans. It felt so nice. I couldn't describe the feeling back then but I know now that it was pure happiness.

    In those innocent days of childhood there was no regret for the past or worry for the future. Each moment could be enjoyed just the way God intended. Each day could be filled with fun, laughter, and love. I think that we all need to re-experience that feeling in our lives. We need to live with childlike joy while keeping our adult wisdom. We need to throw a few snowballs and drink a few bowls of soup afterwards. We need to trust in our Heavenly Father's love for us and share our love with others as well. Life here is too brief not to enjoy all of its precious moments.