Samuel Johnson called it the vanity of human wishes, and Buddhists talk about the endless cycle of desire. Social psychologists say we get trapped on a hedonic treadmill. What they all mean is that we wish, plan and work for things that we think will…

A newly discovered 1.8 million-year-old skull offers evidence that humanity's early ancestors emerged from Africa as a single adventurous species, not several species as believed, drastically simplifying human evolution, an international research tea…

Billions of dollars are flowing into online advertising. But marketers also are confronting an uncomfortable reality: rampant fraud. rampant:猖獗的,狂暴的 About 36% of all Web traffic is considered fake, the product of computers hijacked by viruses and pro…

China has tried your form of government and found it wanting. That was the message delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping during an expansive address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, this week that capped off his first visit to Western…

The appointment of India-born Satya Nadella as Microsoft Corp.'s CEO has caused a bit of a stir in China, where people are questioning why Indians but not Chinese are getting top jobs in the U.S. Language and familiarity with Western culture are the…

Buying real estate involves weighing a lot of factors: location, price . . . smell? Some condo developers are betting that the best way to a buyer's heart is through the nose. The latest sales tools are signature scents designed to enhance a buyer's…

AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS earlier this month, Kerry Washington, the star of the ABC-TV series 'Scandal,' wore a lilac Jason Wu gown, tailor-made to accommodate what she playfully called her little 'accessory'-a growing baby bump. These days, that's just…

Anyone who has felt like the odd duck of the group can take heart from new research from Harvard Business School that says sticking out in distinct ways can lend you an air of presence or influence. Standing out in certain circumstances, like wearing…

Mistrust between U.S. and Malaysian air-accident investigators has hampered a multinational probe into the jetliner that went missing three weeks ago, people familiar with the investigation said, with no clear leads emerging about who or what was res…

Entrepreneur and author ShaoLan Hsueh thinks that English-speakers can start learning to read Chinese in less than 10 minutes. The language, she says, has more than 20,000 written characters, which most students in China learn by rote memorization. M…

The default background for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system -- a perfect blue sky full of cotton-candy clouds above rolling hills with impeccably trimmed grass and daffodils -- is the spring day we wish could last forever. rolling hills:起伏群山  …

With startup-themed conferences, hackathons, meet-ups and cocktail hours regularly taking place, entrepreneurs are in no short supply of opportunities to meet people who could be helpful to their startups. cocktail:鸡尾酒 But there's a lot more to devel…

[Confident girls are often called the other B-word, and it can keep them from reaching their full potential, write Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chavez.] Sheryl: When my brother and sister describe our childhood, they will say that I never actually…

Like many 10-year-olds, Nick Wald takes private lessons. His once-a-week tutor isn't helping him with piano scales or Spanish conjugations, but teaching him how to code. Nick, a fifth-grader in New York, went in with no experience and has since learn…

Some drink only vegetable juice. Others soak in Epsom salts. It's all in the pursuit of ridding the body of months or years of accumulated toxins, said to be the cause of fat, fatigue, diabetes, memory problems and countless other conditions. soak in…

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama took ping-pong diplomacy to a new level on Friday on her weeklong tour of China as the two countries try a new tactic to build trust in a often tense relationship. diplomacy:外交           tactic:策略,战略 More than 40 years…

Much has been said about what the 'China Dream' really means to many Chinese -- whether it is national strength, cultural renewal or more modest personal goals. For many of those living in the vast countryside, the dream is a life in one a city and s…

Is your desktop or laptop computer starting to feel a little poky? Even after just a few months of use, your PC or Mac may start to lose steam thanks to a fragmented hard drive, too many programs running in the background, or even a rogue piece of ma…

What the world needs now is a Web-enabled toothbrush. That part is clear to several oral-hygiene companies. What they can't agree on is who was first to put teeth into the smartphone. The giant Procter & Gamble Co. last week demonstrated what it call…

It's a common scenario: You have an odd pain for weeks or are feeling too tired lately. So you head to a doctor, who may run a test or two. But no clear cause for the symptom shows up. Despite a dizzying array of high-tech medical tests, the reality…

Chinese author Lao Ma has a simple approach to his short stories: In the face of life, everything is funny. Mr. Lao, the pen name of Renmin University of China professor Ma Junjie, says there are plenty of laughable things in daily life that fuel his…

Overseas tourists continued to shun Beijing through 2013. shun:避开,避免,回避 Amid rising pollution and a strengthening yuan, the capital city saw its tourist numbers drop to 4.20 million visits from January to November from 5.01 million visits in 2012, ac…

The conference call is one of the most familiar rituals of office life -- and one of the most hated. ritual:典礼,宗教仪式 Abuses are rife. People on the line interrupt others, zone out or multitask, forgetting to hit 'mute' while talking to kids or slurpin…

If you find yourself needing to sit down to take off your shoes, it might be time to start paying attention to your sense of balance. People don't usually think about balance until they fall, but little signs such as relying on handrails to go up and…

When her husband died of cancer 10 years ago, Becky Aikman says she experienced grief and adapted to her loss -- but not in the way some people seemed to expect. proactive:有前瞻性的,主动地 About a year after his death, when Ms. Aikman felt it was time to st…

In the war for the Chinese Internet, messaging giant Tencent is taking the battle to rival Alibaba's territory as never before. Tencent, a leader in online messaging and gaming, said Monday it will pay $215 million for a 15% stake in online retailer…

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, lost contact early Saturday with the airline shortly into the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Government and airline officials said they weren't ready to speculate about what caused the Boe…

For much of the last year, intellectuals and officials in China -- land of world-beating students and, in a bygone age, the scholar official -- have been wringing their hands over the country's declining interest in reading. bygone:过去的        wringin…

AS AUTO MAKERS ADD far-out features to the latest cars at warp speed--everything from futuristic heads-up displays to simple perks like hands-free calling--the appeal of the newest showroom tech can be hard to resist. But a car, unlike a smartphone,…

The mass uprisings this summer in Egypt, Turkey and Brazil are powerful reminders that the middle classes drive history. What remains unclear, however, is where they are driving it. uprising:起义,升起 The world today is witnessing its third great surge o…