【推荐1】The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards began its life modestly in 2015 as a photographic competition. And this year is no exception. The recently announced winners and finalists of the 2021 competition include a visibly uncomfortable monkey, three gossiping raccoons (浣熊), a joyful bird reunion, a fish who jumps high and an all-powerful prairie dog (土拨鼠).

A group of judges sorts through thousands of submissions from expert and inexperienced photographers alike, and determines one winner for each of the several groups- except for the peoples’ choice award, which is left up to members of the public.

This year’s top prize goes to Ken Jensen. His photo, taken in Yunnan, China, shows a golden silk monkey in a rather uncomfortable position with an appropriately surprised look on its face. The caption (图片配文) reads: “This is actually a show of aggression however in the position that the monkey is in it looks quite painful!” Another crowd favorite shows a pigeon with a flyaway yellow leaf covering its entire face, captioned: “I guess summer’s over.” The shot was taken by John Speirs when fruits and crops became ready to eat and were picked, and leaves fell.

The contest is more than just a delight to see. “The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards was born from the need for a wildlife photography competition that was light-hearted, modest and importantly, could make a difference to animals and our natural world,” reads its website. “Its founders realised that laughter was a uniquely effective tool to engage audiences of all ages and cultures with images of creatures they may never be able to see for themselves - and that the world could lose forever.”

Organizers Tom Sullam and Michelle Wood say they also donate 10% of their total net revenue to conservation organizations that protect endangered wildlife. This year, proceeds are going in Borneo.

Nature is healing, but it still has a long way to go.

【推荐2】Taylor Swift added another great honor this year—the first-ever Taylor Swift Award—at the 64^th yearly BMI Pop Awards.

Held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the ceremony honored the writers and publishers of the most-performed pop songs during the past year. The Taylor Swift Award was a recognition（认可）of both Swift’s musical influence and creative gift.

In her acceptance speech, Swift said that she was happy to get the award named after her. “It is really a relief that BMI decided to give me the Taylor Swift Award, because if they had chosen somebody else to give it to, I’d be like kind of angry about it.” the singer joked.

This eponymous（同名的）award marked only the second time in BMI’s history that the organization has presented an award in an artist’s name. Michael Jackson, a legendary（传奇的）artist, was the first to get that honor in 1990.

“Taylor Swift is one of the most popular singers in US. She has shown pop culture through her songs,” said Barbara Cane, BMI’s Vice President of Writer/ Publisher Relations, “She has had a deep influence, not only musically, but also through her personal belief and commitment to create a standard that values and respects music for everyone. We felt it suitable to award Taylor with an honor that is an special as she is.”

Swift also claimed four of the year’s most-performed songs to earn the honor of Pop Songwriter of the Year.

【推荐3】G-7 LEADERS READY TO HELP BATTLE AMAZON WILDFIRES

WITH“TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL MEANS”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced this afternoon that the G-7 leaders had reached an agreement on how to help fight the record number of forest fires currently raging in the Amazon.

“There is real convergence(趋同性) to say we all agree to help the countries harmed by these fires as quickly as possible,” the host of the G-7 summit told reporters in French from the conference venue in Biarritz. He went on, listing all of the contacts being made, “With all the countries of the Amazon… so that we can finalize very concrete technical and financial commitments.”

On Friday, Macron threatened to block an important EU trade deal with Brazil and other South American countries, claiming that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro had lied about his position on climate change.

Hours before the beginning of the annual meeting of word leaders on Friday, Macron released a video outlining his plan to mobilize all of the powers gathered in Biarritz to partner with Amazon countries “to invest first in fighting the fires and helping Brazil and the other impacted countries and then to invest in reforestation everywhere.”

Macron emphasized France’s stake in the fires, referencing French Guiana, a former prison colony and current overseas department of France located on the northeastern edge of the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro shot back, accusing Macron of having an “unacceptable” and “colonialist” mindset.

Over 75,000 fires have been recorded in the Amazon rainforest so far this year, more than double the 40,000 blazes recorded there in all of 2018, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. The fires can be caused by natural phenomena, like lightning strikes, but are often intentionally set by loggers and ranchers clearing land for cattle grazing of farming. Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic, has encouraged farmers to exploit the land and weakened government agencies tasked with enforcing environmental regulations, NPR reported.

Smoke from the blazes has reached as far east as the Atlantic coast and blocked out the sun as far away as Saō Paulo, more than 2,000 miles to the south. Meanwhile NASA is tracking a carbon monoxide plume stretching across Brazil into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

【推荐1】Donna Strickland was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou.It’s the first time in 55 years that a woman has won this famous prize, but why has it taken so long? We look at five other pioneering female physicists — past and present — who actually deserve the prize.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Perhaps the most famous snub (冷落): the student Bell discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967, when she was a PhD student at Cambridge.The Nobel Prize that recognised this landmark discovery in 1974, however, went to her male supervisor, Antony Hewish.Recently awarded a £2.3 million Breakthrough Prize, which she gave away to help under-represented students, she joked to The Guardian, “I feel I’ve done very well out of not getting a Nobel Prize.”

Lene Hau

Hau is best-known for leading the research team at Harvard University in 1999 that managed to slow a beam of light, before managing to stop it completely in 2001.Often topping Nobel Prize prediction lists, could 2019 be Hau’s year.

Vera Rubin

Rubin discovered dark matter in the 1980s, opening up a new field of astronomy.She died in 2016, without recognition from the committee.

Chien-Shiung Wu

Wu’s “Wu experiment” helped disprove the “law of conservation of parity”.Her experimental work was helpful but never honoured, and instead, her male colleagues won the 1957 Nobel Prize for their theoretical work behind the study.

Lise Meitner

Meitner led groundbreaking work on the discovery of nuclear fission.However, the discovery was acknowledged by the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was won by her male co-lead, Otto Hahn.