BRIEFLY NOTED

My Fourth Time, We Drowned, by Sally Hayden. In 2018, Hayden, an Irish journalist, received a Facebook message from a man kept in a refugee (难民) camp, which afforded her a window into the horrors faced by African refugees. Through interviews with people involved, Hayden learns they are abused and sold as goods without mercy and how Western institutions like the European Union turn a blind eye.

Dream-Child, by Eric G. Wilson. This exciting representation of Charles Lamb is the first full-length biography (传记) of the Romantic-era essayist and poet since 1905. Perhaps best remembered as the co-author, with his sister, Mary, of Tales from Shakespeare, Lamb cared for his sister, who was in poor health. While faced with depression, Lamb was identified as a pioneer and his essays exhibited a look at modern city life.

Run and Hide, by Pankaj Mishra. Mishra’s novel follows three college classmates desperate to escape their lower-middle-class situation, casting a critical eye on self-made men. While two of them struggle with the heights they have reached, the narrator avoids becoming trapped in similar situations by returning to a mountain village to work as a translator. Written clearly, the novel gives the readers an insight into the ideas of freedom.

The White Girl, by Tony Birch. This novel, set in a remote Australian town in the nineteen-sixties, centers on an Indigenous (土著的) woman, Odette, and her granddaughter. As Odette attempts to protect her granddaughter, she finds inequality in society. Birch illustrates how Australia’s policies treated the Indigenous people unfairly.

Located 150 miles south of mainland Australia, Tasmania is known for its wildlife and landscape, including unique plant and animal species. Perhaps its most famous native animal is the Tasmanian devil, a small but violent animal. The island was also home to a large wolf-like Tasmanian tiger. It lived among the island’s famous giant tree ferns (树蕨), but was hunted by people until the last known animal died in a zoo in 1936.

A team of Australian scientists have discovered that Tasmania is now carbon negative, meaning it absorbs more carbon dioxide gas (CO₂) than it gives off. The team say their findings show the importance of forests in fighting climate change.

Large quantities of CO₂ act as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and causing climate change. Many countries have plans to become “carbon neutral” (碳中和), but Tasmania is one of the first places in the world to go carbon negative.

The fact came to light when a team from Australian National University (ANU) looked into the CO₂ emissions (排放) of each Australian state. CO₂ is produced by activities such as burning coal, oil and gas for power, but is also released when forests are cut down — especially if the wood is used to make paper and similar products. On the other hand, living forests absorb large amounts of CO₂. In 2011, campaigners blocked plans to build a large new paper factory in Tasmania, leading to a large decline in cutting down Tasmania’s forests. Consequently, CO₂ emissions dropped sharply and allowed forests to continue growing instead. Much of Tasmania’s power comes from hydroelectricity, which does not give off CO₂.

Scientists say that Tasmania’s achievement shows the important role of forests in managing CO₂. They say preserving forests around the world could help many countries to absorb more CO₂. “We need to store a lot more carbon in the environment,” explained Professor David Lindemayer of ANU, adding that “the most effective place to do that is in forests.”

Currently, video calls are becoming familiar challenges as the COVID-19 forces workers to communicate from their homes and offices.

Now scientists have revealed why we tend to end up raising our voices at our workmates: as video quality falls, we speak louder and vary our gestures (手势) in an attempt to make up.

“The gestures we make while talking, as well as other visual signals, are truly important and integrated aspects of how we communicate,” said Dr. James Trujillo, the first author of the research at Radboud University, in the Netherlands.

Trujillo said previous research had shown that when we cannot hear someone well, we speak louder, while the team’s recent work shows that when a video call is very noisy, people make their gestures more noticeable. Trujillo and his colleagues reported in a journal how they analyzed video calls between 20 pairs of participants, who sat in separate rooms and chatted freely to each other over a Zoom-like video call for 40 minutes. Over the course of the call, the quality of the video was changed in 10 steps between excellent and completely unclear, with half of the pairs experiencing improving video quality, and half experiencing it in the opposite way. The video quality during the call at each step was the same for both participants. The research tracked the participants’ gestures and aspects of their speech.

The team added that when gestures were not being used, speech was unaffected by decreases in visibility. However, when gestures were used, volume increased by up to five decibels (分贝) as video quality deteriorated, and then remained at this higher level as video quality decreased further—in other words, when gestures ceased to be useful at all.

“They know that the gestures being produce are vital to their communication, but their partner is going to have a harder time seeing them. So they increase the strength of the other signal — speech.” he said.

Susan, a school teacher, has been a source of love for her students and many people. She helped a friend raise funds for adoption, made quilts (被子), sold them, and gave the money to her workmate who lost her husband. She even helped someone rebuild the kitchen.

One might think that she is too busy doing things for others and does not have any concerns. Sadly, her husband is bating cancer for the third time now. Her small salary is not enough to cover all of their expenses.

Thankfully, Secret Santa stepped in secretly. He works with East Idaho News, led by Nate Eaton, who goes around Idaho spreading holiday cheer this season.

The big day came, and Nate paid this great teacher a surprise visit in the middle of her class. “We’re here because a Secret Santa wants to give presents to your teacher,” he said. Her students shouted in chorus for Susan to open gifts at once. Judging from the way she looked, she seemed to be holding back her tears. She was handed the first box containing $1,000 worth of gift cards from a Craft Store. She loves to visit the store, but never buys things at a regular price. Then, she opened the second box where lay a check for a thousand dollars. She, as well as her students, was obviously astonished.

Susan appreciated the gifts a lot. But there’s more! A gift larger than life was outside waiting for its owner. She was given a box with car keys inside. The kids burst into applause, truly happy for their dear teacher. Out of their school, she couldn’t believe a blue Chevrolet car was hers now.

Interestingly, though also in need, this woman still thought about whom she could help and where the gift should go. No wonder many people, including her students’ parents, love her a lot.

Indeed helping and loving people is not in vain. May we also be generous in giving out love and joy not only this season but at all times.