【推荐1】My biggest regret of 2023 was the relationship to my smartphone. I spent the equal of January, February and March looking at that tiny screen. While some of that time was necessary for work, or staying connected with family, I became glued to it. This habit started to make me feel uneasy.

So, in December, I made a big change. I swapped my expensive iPhone for a basic flip phone (翻盖手机), which only cost $108. This decision was met with disbelief, especially from my seven-year-old daughter who couldn’t understand why I chose such a device. However, I was determined to reduce my screen time and take back control of my life.

Making the switch was neither easy nor fast. I had to adjust to its limited functions and learn to live without the convenience of having everything at my fingertips. There were moments when I felt frustrated, like when I couldn’t use a smartphone app to charge my electric car or navigate without Google Maps. Despite these challenges, I survived, and even progressed during the month.

It was a relief to disconnect my brain from the internet regularly and for hours at a time. I read four books. I even did a magic jigsaw puzzle. After two weeks, I noticed I’d lost my thumb twitch — physical desire to check my phone in the morning, at red lights, waiting for an elevator or at any other moment when my mind had a brief opportunity to wander.

“Our health is struggling against many of these services and companies that are competing for our time and our energy and our attention,” said Matthew Buman, a professor of movement sciences at Arizona State University. I told him about my own strategy — the flip phone. He said it probably made my mind feel more free and feel as if I had more time (both true), but that in our society, it’s hard to maintain that in the long term.

【推荐1】The Grand Canal is the mother river of Yangzhou. Simultaneous (同时) with her, Yangzhou city was built, developed, achieved prosperity, and even went into less importance with her downfall. Pi Rixiu, a poet of the TangDynasty, once made the following comment on Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty who had the Grand Canal built: “Everyone complains that the Sui Dynasty ended because of the canal; however, it is still an important way for people to travel. If he hadn’t had so many palaces and dragon boats built, his merits could have been compared with Dayu.” The poet not only criticized the emperor’s dissolute behavior, but also fully recognized his achievements. Nowadays, the Grand Canal still shoulders the responsibilities of transporting coal from the North to the South, transporting grain from the South to the North, and delivering water from the South to the North.

The ancient Guazhou Ferry is located where the ancient canal and the Yangtze River meet. The following is a famous ancient poem eulogizing the Guazhou Ferry. Moonlight on the Spring River by Zhang Ruoxu, a Yangzhou citizen in the Tang Dynasty, described the beautiful scenery of Guazhou of the dim moonlight with gently flowing river.

In spring the river rises as high as the sea,

And with the river’s tide uprises the moon bright,

She follows the rolling waves for ten thousand li,

Where the river flows, there overflows her light.(Zhang Ruoxu)

According to the government’s planning, every effort will be made to maintain the original style of the ancient neighborhoods and streets in the old town of Guazhou.

【推荐2】On our first morning at the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, the air was still. The captain made a brave choice: Our ship would hold close to the ice shelf so that the sonar system would peer beneath it while producing a detailed map of the seafloor. The scientists on board, along with the writers like me, were the first people in the history to visit this part of Thwaites. Our task was to bring back as much information as possible about the place where ocean and ice meet.

If Antarctica collapsed, it could threaten the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing global sea levels to jump 10 feet or more. In terms of the fate of our coastal communities, this particular glacier is the biggest wild card, the largest known unknown. Will Miami even exist 100 years? Thwaites will decide.

Reading about the collapse of Antarctica’s glaciers, I feel I am being encouraged to jump to a conclusion: that no matter what we do now, what lies ahead is bound to be worse than what came before. This kind of thinking turns Antarctica into a passive symbol of the coming disaster. But what if we were to see Antarctica as a harbinger of change rather than doom(厄运)? This is why I came to Thwaiters. I wanted to find out: Antarctica has the power to rewrite all our maps.

This week a paper analyzed the data from that exploration. The authors suggested that sometime Thwaites retreated at two to three times the rate we see today. Put another way: At the coldest period of the planet, Thwaiters is stepping farther outside the script we imagined for it, likely challenging even our most detailed predictions of what is to come.

It took us nearly a month to arrive at the edge of Thwaiters. It is one of the most remote region on Earth. But despite the distance, what happens there is shaping us just as much as we are shaping it. If we can begin to recognize the agency of this faraway glacier, we will be one step closer to embracing the modesty that climate change demands.

【推荐2】Most of us enjoy stories-whether it’s reading a wonderful book, listening to a friend tell a joke or watching a programme on television. Did you know that writing stories is actually good for you, too？On 23 June it is National Writing Day, an annual celebration of creative writing.    1    

What is creative writing？

Creative writing is based on your imagination-fiction and poetry are good examples. Fiction is written work that describes events and people the writers imagine. Fiction can include novels and short stories.    2     Scripts (剧本) for a play, film or TV show and fan fiction count.

Is it really good for me？

Many people find creative writing cathartic, which means they feel relaxed because they’re releasing thoughts and emotions that they’ve kept bottled up. According to the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families, writing about a character’s feelings can make it easier to understand your own feelings.    3    

Another benefit of creative writing is that it can increase your self-esteem（how positive you feel about yourself）. It can help you realize that your voice is important and powerful. Children’s author Mark Haddon says. “    4     It’s about learning that you, your family. your culture and your view of the world are rich and interesting and important.”

The power of imagination

    5     This space can help you to think more positively about a problem you might have, or simply allow you to escape to a magical, make-believe world.

【推荐3】New Orleans in 1834 was one of the busiest international port cities in the world. However, the city wasn’t just importing goods from across the world. It was also importing deadly diseases like yellow fever and smallpox. In an effort to treat these diseases and train more doctors, the Medical College of Louisiana was formed.

In 1847, the Medical College of Louisiana was a newly established public institution, later known as the University of Louisiana. But in 1884, Paul Tulane, a native wealthy businessman from Princeton, New Jersey, wanted to express his appreciation for the city that brought him a fortune. He donated more than $1 million in land and cash for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral and industrial education. His generous gift transformed the University of Louisiana into Tulane University.

Now, Tulane University has become one of the most honored educational and research institutions in the country. To be exact, Tulane University is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, a select group of the leading research universities in the United States and Canada with outstanding programs of graduate and professional education and scholarly research. Tulane University is also ranked by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a university with very high research activities. Of several thousand higher educational institutions rated by the foundation, Tulane University remains in an extraordinary category that includes only two percent of universities nationwide.

In 2014, Michael Fitts was named the President of Tulane University. Fitts introduced a new era at Tulane University — focusing on creating the most meaningful student experience anywhere and greatly increasing and deepening the university’s level of interdisciplinary teaching and research. His efforts were quickly establishing Tulane University as a place where the best minds from the widest variety of fields seek solutions to the world’s most urgent problems throughinterdisciplinary cooperation and innovation.