【推荐1】About a billion birds die from flying into buildings each year in North America. Suspicions have been that birds may regard the open areas behind glass as safe passageways. Or they may mistake the reflected trees for the real thing.

Researchers would like to reduce collisions, which requires a solid understanding about what makes a bird more or less likely to die by crashing into a building in the first place.

“There was relatively little known at a broad scale. Previous studies were at one small study site.'' Jared Elmore, a graduate student in natural resource ecology and management at Oklahoma State University. So he and his colleagues used a previously created data set of building collisions for birds at 40 sites throughout Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

The first finding was obvious: bigger buildings with more glass kill more birds. But the details were more remarkable. "We found that life history predicted collisions. Migrants(候鸟), insect-eaters and woodland-inhabiting species collided more than their counterparts(同类).”

Most migratory species travel at night, when lights near buildings can distract or disorient(使迷失方向)them. And Elmore thinks that insect-eating birds might be attracted to buildings because their insect prey(猎物)is attracted to the lights. He suspects that woodland species get tooled by the reflections of trees and bushes in the windows. The results are in the journal Conservation Biology.

By understanding which birds are more likely to collide with buildings, researchers can perhaps determine the best way to adapt buildings, or their lighting, to help prevent such accidents. And by knowing risks, along with migration timing and behavior, building managers can better predict when birds are at their greatest danger - and improve lighting strategics accordingly.

Elmore's next project will use radar to help predict bird migrations. " I think that would maybe go a long way in terms of providing information to people, to the public, to building managers, on when they can get the most benefit in terms of lights-out policies."

【推荐3】If the benefits of physical activity were made into a pill, everyone would be on it. Studies show that moving improves nearly every aspect of health: boosting sleep, strength, and mental well-being. Still, most people don’t exercise nearly enough. According to data published in 2023, less than a third of U.S. adults get the government-recommended amount of physical activity in their free time: at least 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per day, plus a couple of muscle-strengthening sessions each week.

Why is it so tough to get people to do something so good for them? Physical limitations, health problems and modern life are certainly factors for many people. But research suggests there’s another factor: our brains don’t want us to exercise. For most of human existence, people had to be physically active to carry out the basic functions of life, such as finding food. Humans evolved (进化) to tolerate a high level of activity-but also to conserve energy for when movement was unnecessary, explains Daniel Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist. As a society, we no longer move much in daily life, but the evolutionary instinct (本能) to conserve energy remains, Lieberman says. “That voice ‘I don’t want to exercise,’ is completely normal and natural,” he says.

Physical-activity researcher Matthieu Boisgontier demonstrated that phenomenon in a 2018study. He gave people control of a digital avatar (化身) while they were connected to brain-activity monitors. They were instructed to move the avatar away from images of sedentary (久坐的) behavior that appeared on screen and toward images of physical activity. The study found that avoiding sedentary behavior took more brain power, suggesting that we have an “automatic tendency” to pick relaxing over moving.

That conclusion shows up repeatedly in research. Studies show, for example, that people consistently choose to take a lift instead of the stairs. “That natural instinct isn’t bad-it’s just that modern life gives us so many chances to give in to our preference for rest that we have reached an extreme that is no longer beneficial to our health,” Boisgontier says.

【推荐1】From camping to Frisbee (飞盘游戏), China’s urban residents are always on the lookout for the next outdoor activity in fashion. Over the last few months, farming vegetables has become the most popular one as more and more people seek to break away from urban routines for a short break back with nature.

Completely different from traditional farming, the pieces of land are divided into smaller parts so they can be rented out to families with kids, the elderly, and white-collar residents. They are usually located on the suburbs of cities, and promise potential tenants(租户)hours of peaceful gardening and beautiful scenery.

As their own “landlords,” inexperienced city residents get to experience the whole process—from sowing vegetable seeds and watering them to eventually harvesting the fruits of their labor. Shanghai resident Tai Xin rented a 100-square-meter plot of land on Shanghai’s suburbs that costs 1,000 yuan annually. She says, “I initially thought my seven-year-old son would be able to better understand crops, planting, picking, and agricultural science.” But her parents, who have been helping with babysitting, are now also engaged on the “farm”. “We’re pleased to be here,” she added. Tai says she visits the plot of land, around two kilometers away from her home, once in a while but only on weekends. She spends a couple of hours watering the crops, removing weeds, and sometimes just organizing a picnic with her family.

But like other outdoor activities, vegetable gardening, as an emerging trend, is not without its complications. Most of the land for such vegetable gardens are agricultural tracts (大片土地) rented from the local government, says Zhang Ling, who operates the Shanghai Shanxi Fruit &Vegetable Cooperative.

“The regulator wants to keep track of the kind of vegetables planted as well as the yield to guarantee the city’s food supply,” says Zhang. “It’s very difficult for us to track that since our customers are mostly amateur farmers and they could be very spontaneous(自发的)in what they want to plant. A failure to meet the regulatory requirements, however, may lead to the land rental contract being canceled.”

【推荐2】Online games are very popular among people. They make a large amount of money and have a large user base, including lots of teenagers. But now, new rules on online games have been introduced, which are aimed at fighting against addiction (成瘾) among underage players.

Adult players need to spend most of their time paying attention to work and family, and cannot play games as often as they want. However, underage players have more spare time, but less responsibility and self-control. Children without a clear purpose in life, where there is less family education and school management, might easily become addicted to all kinds of online games and online novels.

The most direct impact of an addiction to online games among underage players is on their psychological (心理) health. According to psychologists, people seriously addicted to games can become anxious, bad tempered, and avoid responsibility.

However, Chinese parents are more worried that their children will lack interest in studying if they become addicted to online games, as academic success is important for students. Additionally, when their children become addicted to such games, most parents do not know how to deal with the situation.

To carry out the new rules to the best effect, more specific issues need to be solved, such as managing foreign online games, ensuring that facial recognition technologies used by games companies have the wanted effect or making sure online game providers can only offer one-hour services to underage players on Saturdays and Sundays. While there are always loopholes (漏洞) in new rules, authorities should act quickly to close them.

There is no doubt that online games have harmful effects on young people. It is not acceptable for a large number of teenagers or those even younger, to become addicted to these games.

【推荐3】In recent years, much of my life as a consumer has shifted to what I like to call background spending as I`ve subscribed to more apps and streaming platforms.

While this explosion of subscriptions was sold to me on the idea that it would make my life more convenient, there was a certain sticker shock I felt upon discovering how much I was spending without realizing each month—after I’d already spent it, of course. You see, the thing about background spending is that it tends to happen, well, in the background without your full attention. And there lies the point.

“Hand over your credit card details and let us take care of the rest,” these companies promise us. But by agreeing to this trade, we’ve become passive consumers who are allowing the balance of capital to tilt(倾斜)away from us. It’s understandable why this model of subscription service is so inviting for businesses. Subscriptions offer the promise of “selling once and earning forever.” And while subscription services have been around for decades, more customers have been willing to sign up thanks to the popularization of smartphones. But while these subscriptions promise ease and happiness, not all of us are satisfied.

Last year, C+R Research asked 1,000 people to estimate how much they pay for their subscriptions before having them figure out this spending. They found the average monthly spend was more than 2.5 times of that people guessed.

If we’re going to rebalance the wheels of capital just a little, we could support a recently proposed rule from the Federal Trade Commission(FTC). In March, the agency suggested a “click to cancel” item that would require companies to make it just as easy to end a subscription as to sign up for one. Additionally, businesses would need to remind subscribers annually about their membership before these are automatically renewed.

If all that doesn’t work, I have another idea: an app designed to keep track of your various subscriptions and background spending. Oh wait, those already exist— for a reoccurring fee, of course.

【推荐2】Women experience a “gender tenure gap”, lasting in CEO roles at publicly listed companies for shorter periods than men, according to new research which may support the idea that female leaders are subject to a “ glass cliff ” where they are set up to fail.

The concept of the glass cliff is that women are more likely to be appointed as leaders when an organization is in a time of crisis, so that their position is seen as more precarious than male counterparts.

Researchers at the University of Exeter found in 2005 that women were more likely to be appointed as board members after a company’s share price had performed badly. Professor Ryan told the Observer that the Russell Reynolds analysis was “ robust and added to the body of work in this area”.

“If women are more likely to take on leadership roles in times of crisis, then it follows that their time in office is likely to be stressful, more heavily scrutinised and shorter in tenure. This reduced tenure could be for a number of reasons — because there is often higher turnover in times of crisis, because they are judged as not performing well, even though poor performance was in train before their appointment, or because when things start to turn around, men come back into leadership roles.” she said.

Chief executive roles have a very low turnover, she said, which makes progress harder. “I think men can enjoy a greater followership — support within the organization. They can suffer big setbacks and rise again. Women who have been CEOs tend to go off to an alternative career.

However, she said that there was cause for optimism. The number of women on FTSE 350 boards is now 41%, up from 9.5% in 2011, and appointing women is “now the norm”. Russell Reynolds also found in a survey of 1,500 leaders worldwide that there were no significant differences in how women and men were perceived by the people who worked for them, showing that they were equally effective as leaders, although women were seen as being better at coaching and development.