【推荐1】It isn’t just people who get road rage. Robins, a kind of small brown European bird, in the countryside become more aggressive when they hear the sound of traffic, according to a study.

When a robin arrives uninvited on another bird’s territory, they adapt their songs to ward the rival away, and adopt visual displays including swaying from side to side and threateningly baring their red chest feathers, before closing in and even going on the attack. Previous studies had found that robins living in cities were more physically aggressive than their rural cousins. The latest research suggests that noise pollution could play a part.

To explore the connection, scientists from UK and Turkey put a 3D-printed plastic model of a robin on another robin’s place at two locations: an urban park in Istanbul that was close to busy roads, and a quiet wooded area outside the city. The model intruder (闯入者) was also equipped with recordings of robin songs. Then, through a separate speaker nearby, they added traffic noise.

“In normally quiet surroundings, we found that additional traffic noise leads to rural robins becoming more physically aggressive, for instance approaching the model bird more closely,” said Dr Çağlar Akçay, the study’s lead author. But when they played the extra traffic to the urban birds, they did not become any more aggressive-instead they responded by singing less, suggesting they had perhaps learned to “sit out” temporary increases in noise.

Akçay and his team believed that the traffic noise was interfering with robins’ natural communication through song. “The high levels of noise that exist day and night in urban habitats, such as from traffic or construction equipment, may permanently interfere with the efficient transmission of acoustic (声音的) signals and this is likely to be the key reason why urban robins are typically more aggressive than rural birds,” he said.

【推荐2】The tickbird and the giraffe have a connection relationship that some scientists describe as win-win relationship and some as parasitism (寄生). This interspecies partnership is imbalanced in favor of the giraffe because it can live without the tickbird, while the tickbird is dependent on the giraffe for food resource.

The giraffe is a large mammal that lives in Africa along with other large grass-eaters. All these and many others host the tickbird. This bird has long been thought to remove ticks (扁虱) from its host, to the benefit of both—the bird eats the ticks, and the host is relieved of blood-sucking, disease-carrying insects—but recent studies reveal that this process is less than good. A secondary benefit to a host from the tickbirds’ presence is a sort of early warning system, since the birds make a loud sound if they sight an enemy. This is of less benefit to the giraffe than to other hosts because the giraffe has the advantage of great height and keen eyesight and is fully capable of spotting predators without the bird’s assistance. The tickbird is likely of greater benefit in this capacity to the nearsighted rhino.

They cross through the host’s hair looking for insects as their food. According to the researcher Paul Weeks, reporting in the journal Behavioral Ecology, tickbirds can and do enlarge tick bites and other wounds on their host body to seek for food resource, making the host-tickbird relationship unfair. The host, like the giraffe, however, would have a hard time keeping tickbirds off itself. So they tolerate the birds who cling to their bodies and chow down selectively at the buffet on the giraffe’s body.

【推荐2】Imagine an oxygen mask drops down right in front of you. What’s happened? Yes, a plane crash. But the chances of being killed are very slim. You’re more likely to drown in a bubble bath, choke on your breakfast or die in a car accident on your way to the airport.     1     So, what do you do with this yellow mask if it suddenly drops from the ceiling? Here are four things.

Your flip-flops (人字拖) may be comfortable, but they’re not going to perform well in case of an emergency. And neither will your high-heeled shoes. It’s reported that 68％ of passengers in plane accidents die from injuries in post-crash fires. So go for long pants and long-sleeved shirts — they’ll protect you from flames and sharp objects.

Where is the safest place to sit? According to Popular Mechanics, your best bet is to sit as far back in the airplane as possible unless the plane goes down tail-first. There is no such thing. It all really depends on the situation. Regardless of what section you’re sitting in, know where the emergency exits are.     3     So, you can find it even if the cabin is filled with smoke.

If you get to evacuate (撤离) from the plane, do it as quickly as possible. Don’t try to get your carry-on to take with you.     4    

The first three minutes after take-off and the eight minutes before landing are the most dangerous times of the entire flight. Make sure to keep your shoes on, your seatbelt fastened. Put your carry-on items under the seat in front of you to keep your legs from being broken. And pay attention to the emergency instructions.     5     Not all planes are the same, though.

【推荐3】The Oxford English Dictionary defines awe as a feeling of religious respect mixed with fear or wonder. Now a research, done by teams from the University of California Berkeley and UC Irvine, found that experiencing awe might make people help each other out more.

“Our investigation indicates that awe serves a vital social function.” said Paul Piff, an assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at UC Irvine. “By decreasing the emphasis on the individual self, awe may encourage people to give up strict self-interest to improve the well-being of others.”

After showing participants images of nature, Piff and his team asked questions. The researchers measured moral behavior. And they measured generosity. Those who reported feeling a sense of awe showed more moral behavior.

Awe is defined partly by the fear one feels in the face of something larger than themselves. In fact, the same generous behavior was observed in people who were shown scenes of natural disasters. According to Hoffman, whether it was watching scenes of the Amazonian rainforest or a violent volcanic eruption, participants were more willing to share resources with each other afterwards.

Awe doesn’t just inspire moral behavior. Recent studies suggest that experiencing awe may promote your immune system. And it could make you feel more creative, too. It can even make you feel that you have more time to get things done.

“When people experience awe, they really want to share that experience with other people, suggesting that it has this particularly great part much like virus.” Piff tells Hoffman. “Maybe this is another way that awe binds people together—by causing people to want to share their positive experiences collectively with one another.”

【推荐3】Sharing Joy with Others

Ah Nao is a “furry” (兽迷). At Super Furry Fusion, the biggest furry party in China, Ah Nao dressed up in an animal suit, performed on stage, met friends and played games. “It was the happiest time I’ve ever had,” he told TMPost.

Furries are fans of animal characters from movies, books and video games. They enjoy wearing animal costumes and role-playing. They also draw or write furry artwork and stories. “People are like families in this community and we can really be ourselves here.” said Ah Nao.

Many young people, especially those born after the year 2000, have created all kinds of similar communities based on niche (小众的) interests. These can include hanfu, voice acting, and even pen spinning.

Hui, another young person born after 2000, is the head of a community called “Home to Pen Spinners”. In this community, people share videos of their performances and learn more difficult tricks from each other. Earlier this year, Hui led two Chinese teams to the sixth Pen Spinning World Cup. Sixteen teams from 11 countries, including the US, Japan and France, took part. The Chinese teams won sixth and seventh places.

“Young people have a strong need to build their identity (身份认同感). In these communities they can have a sense of belonging and find better ways to express themselves.” wrote Yu Tao, a PhD in cultural studies at Heilongjiang University.

“People group together based not on birthplaces, family background or any other factors, but simply on the same interests.” Yu wrote. As Chi Benben, another furry, told TMPost, “The circle welcomes everyone. Some furries feel inferior (自卑的) in day-to-day life, perhaps because they are fat or disabled in some way. But they can all make friends and have fun here.”