【推荐2】Positive Body Image Isn’t Enough

Body image as a construct focuses on our relationship with what our bodies look like. Most research in the field that’s been conducted with adolescent girls has focused on negative body image and its association with things like body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.     1     The Dove Self-Esteem Project is a leader in this evolution. Its website states that “our mission is to ensure that the next generation grows up enjoying a positive relationship with the way they look - helping young people raise their self-respect and realize their full potential.”

To fulfill this goal, we need to find ways to promote positive embodiment — that is, healthy ways of subjectively experiencing one’s body in the world that go above and beyond the way we look to the outside world.

1. Promote mindful self-care. In today’s “selfie” culture, where it seems like everything is about appearance, how do we help teens focus on the subjective, lived-in experiences in their bodies? One way is to promote mindful self-care — defined by Cook-Cottone (2015) as behaviors that cultivate an active appreciation for, and engagement with, the body. So, things that promote mind-body connection, like mindfulness, art, and the physical care of the body.     2    

2.     3     Girls learn from a very young age that their bodies are valued for what they look like. Thus, it’s important to promote body functionality, which encompasses “everything the body is capable of doing — rather than how it looks” (Alleva, Veldhuis, & Martijn, 2016, p. 10). For example, focusing on how strong a girl’s legs are and how they help her run and play soccer, rather than how “cute” she looks in her uniform.

3. Look at the social context. Positive embodiment doesn’t develop on its own. Teens are under pressure from all directions, including peers, social media, and parents.     4     And we can challenge society as a whole to promote places and spaces where girls can develop positive embodiment in a well-rounded way.

【推荐3】Many airlines overbook their flights — meaning they sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane. But why do they do it, and what happens to passengers who arrive at the airport only to learn that their seats are already taken?

Like any business, airlines want to make money. So, they try to fill as many seats on each plane as possible. After all, empty seats are a financial loss on airlines.

Airlines look at data from past flights to predict the number of expected “no-shows”, passengers who canceled their flight, don’t show up or arrive late because of the connecting flights. For example, if the data shows that eight people normally don’t show up for flights from New York to Los Angeles, the airline might sell eight extra tickets.

However, the airlines sometimes get their numbers wrong. If there are too many people and not enough seats, the airline may ask passengers to volunteer to take a later flight for compensation (赔偿) — which might include money, travel vouchers (优惠券), free meals and hotel rooms. Some airlines have offered as much as $10,000 to get people to volunteer. However, if there are no volunteers, airlines may have to make passengers give up their seats. This is called “bumping”.

Although there’s no exact science, it’s often the lowest fares that get bumped to the next flight first. This means those flying business class or first class are highly unlikely to be bumped. Airlines have also admitted to bumping people based on the time of check — in arriving last minute is not recommended. Certain groups are less likely to be denied boarding due to overbooking, such as frequent flyers, the elderly, families with young children and people with disabilities.

In the US, if a bumped passenger is able to arrive at their destination less than an hour late using another flight, no compensation is required by law — although airlines may offer some. If they arrive over two hours late, the law requires that they be given 400% of the one-way ticket price, up to a total of $1,550.

【推荐2】One of the best things about new technology is how it makes the world more accessible to people with disabilities. Take Siri or Alexa, for example. They are a convenience or even a toy for most people. But if you’re blind, they’re potential life savers, capable of sending messages or receiving instructions, entirely through the power of your voice.

What’s truly exciting is how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling the creation of even smarter accessibility features. On the most recent Google Pixel phones, it’s possible to turn on a feature called “Live Captions”. This means that deaf people can easily watch videos — or even make video calls. And perhaps more magically, iPhone will even let you create a simulation of your own voice and have it speak for you, giving us all technology similar to what Stephen Hawking used, but in the palms of our hands.

What I think is most striking though is what all of these clever accessibility features mean for the rest of us, who may not need to use the features for their intended uses. The idea behind smart headsets — if they’re ever going to be truly useful — is that they will work almost as an extension of brains and bodies. We’ll want them to give us directions when we need them, and help us understand our surroundings. And we’ll need a way to interact with headsets without buttons or a touchscreen, using our voice or by gesturing with our hands.

This is for sure a tricky technical challenge, but it’s actually possible to imagine how such headsets might work, because these fundamental technologies already exist thanks to accessibility features on smartphones already on the market.

Ultimately, this is a great way to think about accessibility features and why they’re so important on our modern devices. Because they don’t just help the people who need them — they help make our technology even better for everyone else too.

【推荐3】A recent experiment conducted at the University of British Columbia(UBC)in Canada has an “Aha!” moment for anyone who wants to form habits that increase everyday happiness and well-being.

Researchers walked around campus handing out $5 or $20 bills, asking participants to spend the money by the end of the day. The participants weren’t told what the purpose of the research was, only that they were part of a study. Half the participants were told to spend the money on themselves, the other half were tasked with spending it to benefit someone else. At the end of the day, those who had spent the money on others reported a greater sense of happiness and well-being than those who had spent it on themselves.

Aha! Kindness is connected to happiness. This likely won’t surprise many readers who live by the Golden Rule and generally attempt to anchor our happiness in ways we can contribute to the lives of others. But the UBC study is part of a broader idea that can help us deepen our commitment to these values during the busy holiday season and beyond.

Two students at the university have started a Random Acts of Kindness Club to strengthen that kindness is a daily habit. So far, the group has created public displays of inspirational and practical messages encouraging the community to care for their emotional health. Simple acts of kindness, members say, are benefiting themselves as well as making a difference in the broader community.

Elizabeth Dunn, the professor of psychology who led the research study, added that regularly practicing kindness to others can help us with another kindness habit, one that is often more challenging—kindness to ourselves. She said, “The form of compassion that is perhaps most beneficial for ourselves is really all about self-kindness…that same sort of gentle compassion that we would extend to a treasured friend or maybe a younger person in our life that we care about.”

【推荐1】With the outbreak of the COVID-19, multiple kinds of protective medical equipment, such as disposable(一次性的)masks, have been consumed. Market research indicates a sharp increase rate of 53% in the mask market alone. People often use these types of protective equipment and then throw them without thinking of the consequences, both on the ecosystem and human beings.

Disposable surgical masks are severely affecting the ecosystem. When improperly-handled masks enter the water system, they break up into smaller pieces. Complete masks can trap marine animals, resulting in their impaired mobility and even death. Meanwhile, the poisonous plastic particles will cause marine animals to be poisoned to death or weakness when they consume plastic. Furthermore, these harmful pollutants can severely affect reproduction, growth, and the development of the young. Just like their effects on marine animals, these pollutants can also contribute to severe harm in human bodies, especially in the neuron system. Exposure to micro plastics may cause particle poisoning, cellular damage and neuro-degenerative (神经退化的) diseases like Alzheimer’s disease(阿尔茨海默症).

Despite the potential harm to the ocean system and human neuron system, improperly-handled disposable masks will likely become a dangerous public health threat under the environment of a global pandemic. Instead of helping us fight against the COVID-19, to some extent, micro plastic pollution also causes the potential risk of speeding up the spread of the virus. Micro plastic particles in the ocean can be mixed up with water vapour to form aerosols in the atmosphere because they are small enough to enter the water cycle, where they are transferred from the marine system to the atmosphere in vast amounts and become a source for the disease COVID-19. thus causing the virus to speed up the spread of the global pandemic.

Humans will eventually suffer from the wrongdoing in the ocean systems because humans are nothing but temporary residents of the planet. Just like what the famous English anthropologist, Jane Goodall, has said, “Every individual matters. Every individual makes a difference.”