【推荐1】Phillip, 27, from the UK, pulled at the heart strings of people across the world after giving his mother, Trish, a special New Year present — he surprised his mom with a voice recording of his late father, which he made with the help of AI.

The young man’s dad, John, passed away from cancer in 2022 — leaving his wife and children mourning. After seeing his mom struggling to get through the holidays, he turned to AI to give her a gift she would never forget.

In a video, which has so far had more than 6.2 million views, the 27-year-old showed viewers his mom’s reaction to hearing her late husband’s voice.

“My dad passed away from cancer 1.5 years ago so I decided to do something special for my mom this New Year,” he said as his mother unwrapped the present. “It’s been so long since we heard his voice, so I made her a video using AI software to match his exact voice. And the result was amazing.”

In addition to his father’s voice, Phillip made a video that featured photos of his dad. When Trish opened the photo book, tears immediately formed.

“Hi, honey. I love you. I want you to know you are the best mother to our kids and the strongest woman in the whole world,” the AI voice said. “I’m always with you. I hope you guys have a happy New Year.”

Phillip revealed that his wife, Kassandra, first gave him the idea to use AI to recreate his dad’s voice. Although he was skeptical at first, once he got to work using the text-to-speech software, he was shocked at the outcome. “When the program said it in his voice... I got chills(寒战) all over my body. That’s why I decided to do this no matter what,” Phillip said.

【推荐2】In the natural habitat, a binge-watcher is a strange sub-species of modern human beings. They are alone and are often found lying on their bed or sofa, still as a rock, looking searchingly into their laptop or at the TV. They rarely get up, only taking occasional breaks for those urgent calls of nature. Unlike so many others of their species, they don’t sleep at the end of every day. They stay up late and are often found to have red eyes.

This, of course, is a little bit exaggerated, but for many of us, binge-watching a show is how we consume our entertainment. With streaming services bringing seemingly endless content to the tips of our finger, creators tailor their shows to our needs and tastes, while their marketing team sells it to us as the next most bingeable show. I can’t help but wonder if this way of consuming television does us any good.

We’re advised to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per day, but staying up all night to finish shows like ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘The Fall’, which Netflix says are binged the fastest, won’t result in 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Netflix’s CEO Richard Hastings told analysts at a conference, “Think about it… when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night. We’re competing with sleep.” And it isn’t only the amount of sleep we get; the quality matters too! A study published in the Journal for Clinical Sleep Medicine reported that those who binged television more often were found to have poorer sleep quality. The mental arousal we get from watching TV doesn’t lend itself to peaceful sleep.

Besides, binging TV can cause weight gain. For every extra hour of TV watched, there was a 2% increase in the prevalence of obesity, according to a study conducted by Harvard that linked TV watching to obesity in children and adolescents.

While it is true that there’s growing evidence that binging isn’t good for us, the results aren’t all hopeless. Binging, occasionally, might have some benefits. For many people, binging is a good way to socialize. It gives people something to talk about at parties and with their friends. Fans of popular shows often hold viewing parties where people can binge-watch shows together and then discuss what they just experienced! This interaction can create a sense of community for many.

For others, binging might just be relaxing. After a long day, a few hours of Friends—still one of the most popular shows on any streaming platform—can ease the stress of a long day. A study followed 240 people through their binging and recorded their stress hormones. They noted for some people that their stress hormone levels decreased during their binging experience.

With binging, there is not a “good” or “bad” answer. Like many things, the key is moderation. Watching TV can be relaxing, but only if it doesn’t stop you from exercising, taking care of your health, and fulfilling your social responsibilities.

【推荐3】From chicken feet socks to green fish head masks, from sad frog toys to dinosaur costumes, “ugly” products have become popular among young people.

On the social media platform Douban, there is a group called Protection of Ugly Things with more than 200, 000 members. They post “ugly things” they see and buy in daily life. Many of the comments below the posts are “cute” and “the more I look at it, the more I love it”.

Some museums have also followed the trend and produced many “ugly” but impressive cultural and creative products. For example, on June 14, the Gansu Provincial Museum brought out a stuffed toy. It’s based on its famous bronze sculpture, known as Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow.

The toy recreates the details of the sculpture in a cute and cartoon style. The horse puts on a crooked smile, standing on a chubby green bird. This makes the toy “more fashionable and more fun”, so it can connect with ordinary people, the museum said.

In fact, some of the “ugly” products can also be useful. Yin Peixin, 11, from Hubei, has a cabbage dog toy. Unlike others, she doesn’t find it ugly. “It’s a creative design to mix cabbage with a dog. The toy makes me feel better when I’m upset. It also serves as a mini pillow to help me have a good sleep, ” said Yin.

According to Zhang Lei, a professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, the rise in the popularity of ugly things means that young people want to show that they’re different. Suffering from tiredness of “perfect” items, they hope to get pleasure and a new taste of life from something a little more “ugly”.

【推荐1】Discoveries at the famous Sanxingdui ruins in Southwest China show that the region’s ancient Shu Kingdom Civilization shared similarities with the Maya.

The Sanxingdui ruins belonged to the Shu Kingdom that existed at least 4,800 years ago and lasted more than 2,000 years, while the Mayan civilization built its city-states around 200 AD.

The bronze-made remains of tress unearthed at the ruins of the Shu Kingdom resemble the sacred ceiba tree, which symbolized the union of heaven, earth and the underworld in the Mayan civilization. “They are very important similarities,” says Santos, a Mexican archaeologist (考古学家) stressing that “the representations of tress in both cultures provide a symbolism that is very similar”.

The findings at the Sanxingdui ruins, considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, also show a new aspect of Bronze Age culture, indicating the ancient civilization already had technologies that were thought to have been developed much later.

While the lime span between the Shu kingdom and the Mayan culture is great, the findings highlight the closeness between the two civilizations. They developed in areas with comparable climates and reflected their worldview through related symbols. “In the end, man is still man, independent of time and space. What we have is that, at this latitude (纬度), both the Shu people and the Mayans looked at the same sky and had the same stars on the horizon,” the expert says.

One notable feature of the recent discoveries at Sanxingdui was the cross-subject work and technology applied by teams of Chinese archaeologists, which allowed the unearthing of artifacts as fragile as silk remains, which other types of less careful digging methods would not have been able to register.

Cooperation between Chinese and Mexican archaeologists could benefit projects in the Mayan world, where the rainy climate and humidity are problematic for the conservation of ruins.

“Every time our cultural knowledge increases, regardless of whether we speak one language or another, what it shows us is that we continue to be sister cultures and, therefore, the exchange of such knowledge is fundamental,” says Santos.

【推荐2】In November 2020, Stephanie Morton announced her retirement. The then 29-year-old athlete’s exit was a blow for the Australian Olympic program. “This decision wasn't made lightly. Eight months ago, I had such an idea, and thankfully I had the support of the Australian Cycling Team throughout the whole process, along with my family and close friends,” said Morton

Born in Adelaide, Morton stood out as an athlete throughout her childhood even though in a different sport. She grew up in a badminton-mad family. Her father coached the South Australian team, and her mother was its manager. It just so happened that when Morton was 15, her uncle suggested she test her power output on an exercise bike. “I always say cycling picked me. I didn't pick cycling,” Morton said.

Morton joined the national program midway through the reign of Anna Meares, who won a medal at every Olympics between 2004 and 2016.It was an unusual relationship-- Meares was Morton's coach, teammate and competitor.

In 2010, Morton took on the role as Tandem Pilot for the cyclist Felicity Johnson, with the combination winning three world titles across 2011 and 2012, followed by one gold medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. In 2014, Morton beat Meares for the first time at the national track championships. The same year, Morton won one gold medal and one silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. But it was after the 2016 Rio Olympics, a disappointing overall campaign for the Australian track team, that Morton really began to shine. Two silver medals at the 2017 World Champions were followed by three gold medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Compared with the pandemics global deaths, the retirement of an athlete might seem insignificant. For Morton, the next stage of her life now begins. The cyclist has studied criminal justice part-time throughout her cycling career and has previously shown an intention to join the police. Morton said, “I want to be an active and positive role model.”

【推荐3】I met the last speaker of Naati on an empty stretch of beach on Malekula, an island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. I told the man, Ariep, that I was in the country to study one of its native languages. When he learned I was a linguist, he excitedly shared that he speaks Naati.

Ariep explained the relationship between Naati and the other languages of the area. With a mix of pride and sorrow, he revealed that he is the last fluent speaker of Naati. Although a few of his family members have some knowledge of the language and make an effort to use it together, he fears that with his death, Naati will soon disappear. Naati’s situation is not unique. Of the about 7000 languages spoken on the planet today, 50% to 90% are considered vulnerable to extinction by the end of the century.

Languages are an invaluable source of culture. Understanding different languages is vital to understanding human cognition. A world with diverse languages benefits us all. Each language isa piece of the puzzle that we need in order to determine how language works in the mind. With each missing piece, we are further from seeing the full picture.

There are enough commonalities among language systems. In terms of sentence structure, all languages use the three basic elements: subject, object, and verb. Although these can be ordered in different ways, about 80% of known languages put the subject first, while only about 1% put the object first. Analyzing these patterns has real impacts for our lives. The more we understand about how language functions, the better equipped we are to improve our therapies for communication disorders and our methods for language teaching.

However, taking into account all languages is a huge challenge. Many languages are in danger of disappearing before they have been documented, taking with them irreplaceable information about human culture. For the sake of the speakers of endangered languages, for the sake of us all, we must preserve the world’s languages as we search for answers and work to ensure language diversity for generations to come.