【推荐1】Why do visitors go to museums? I often ask this question to those who have ever come to a museum.    1    As an artist and part of the educational staff at the Walker Art Center, I hope to dig into visitors’ needs so that we could tailor museum experiences to create more successful visitor experiences. Here is my observation of each motivational identity and characterization of different types of visitors.

Professionals

This category includes teachers, educators, museum professionals, artists, and people in related fields.    2     For example, a photographer may attend with the goal in mind to take pictures or to learn about photography through exhibits. An art educator may be interested in the art to broaden the knowledge of his own field or to plan a lesson.

Explorers

    3     If you ask them if they like art they will say “yes”; but if you ask them if they come for something in particular, they will probably say “no”. They do not have concrete learning goals but they like to know new things. They may or may not know how to use the museum.

Experience Seekers

An experience seeker is a person who is checking off a list of landmarks to visit, whether personal or as a tourist.     4    They simply want to do “what you’re supposed to see in that city or area”. This type of visitors may need to see the museum’s highlights to feel satisfied.

Facilitators

Facilitators come because of someone else. They are perhaps bringing a friend or a group of people- possibly the children or students because they think the visit would benefit the others, not out of a personal need.    5    

【推荐3】Four of the Coolest Plant Shops in the State of California

Plants have given us comfort during the coronavirus pandemic, so it should come as no surprise that garden stores are more popular than ever. Here is a look at a few of our favorites.

All Time Plants

Location: 1322 Coronado Ave. Ste B, Long Beach, California 90804

All Time Plants is inside the coffee and bottle house. The storefront is now a hybrid coffee house-plant store-home store where visitors can shop for plants and home goods while enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or beer.

EnCactusar

Location: 3577 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, California 90065

The COVID-19 pandemic gave artists Jackie and Julio the opportunity to turn their hobby into their own garden center, a small business at their Boyle Heights home. It is a kind of place where staff members will carry your plants out to your car for you while offering care tips. Open Saturdays and Sundays only.

Flyplant

Location: 1801 E 7th St, Los Angeles, California 90021

Flyplant was founded at the height of the pandemic, by Filipina with a passion for helping plant growing. Their shop offers customers plant and pot pairings, plant-themed costumes and gardening tools. Recently, they have added hands-on workshops, where guests can learn how to plant and care for their houseplants.

Folia Collective

Location: 5052 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock, California 90041

Every plant at Folia Collective, from roses to ferns (蕨类植物), comes with a care card written by owner Danae Horst, a famous author in the field of home growing. Staff will ask you questions to help you pick the perfect plant and offer tips. Horst has houseplant gifts and, before the pandemic, hosted book signings and occasional cutting exchanges.

【推荐1】What to See in Dujiangyan City

Dujiangyan Irrigation (灌溉) System

Dujiangyan water conservancy (保护) project makes full use of local geographical conditions of high northwest and low southeast, according to the special natural feature of mountains and rivers and according to water potential to draw water without dam to irrigate by gravity. What is great is that it exists for more than 2,250 years, and it produces more and more benefits. After the completion of Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the Chengdu plain became a vast rich land.

Two Kings Temple

Two Kings Temple is located in the Minjiang River right bank slope (斜坡) and it closes to Dujiangyan in the front. It was Emperor Temple originally in memory of the king of Shu and later, it was offered sacrifices to Li Bing and his son, renamed the “Chongde Temple”. In the main hall, there is the statue of Li Bing and his son and there was water conservancy quotes, poet inscriptions (题词) and so on.

Fulong Temple

Fulong Temple is located in the Lidui Park. It is said that Li Bing and his son were here to prevent floods by water control. So in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to honor Li Bing, it was named “Fulong Temple”. In the middle of front hall there is Li Bing stone figure carved in the Eastern Han.

Anlan Suspension Bridge

Anlan Suspension Bridge is also known as “Anlan Bridge” and “Couple Bridge”. It is located in Dujiangyan Fish Mouth, known as the one of the five bridges of ancient China and is the most typical landscape of Dujiangyan. It was built before the Song Dynasty. The original bridge used wood block as base, hanging a thick bamboo cable cross the river.

【推荐2】It is often said the laughter is the best medicine. But researchers at the University of Oxford think the ability to belly laughs (捧腹大笑) was unique to early humans. This, they believe, made our ancestors (祖先) able to form much larger groups.

The researchers first tested the pain thresholds (临界值) of some volunteers. They divided them into two groups. One group was shown15 minutes of comedy videos, while the other was shown boring programs.

Through this experiment, the researchers found that those who had recently experienced belly laughs were able to withstand (忍受) up to10% more pain than they had done before watching the videos. To their surprise, the scientists also found that the other group was less able to with stand pain after watching 15 minutes of the “boring” programs.

Professor Robin Dunbar of Oxford University, who led the research, believed that belly laughs release chemicals called endorphins (安多芬) into the body which make us feel less painful.

However, not all comedy programs had such effects, according to Prof Dunbar. For example, though clever stand-up comedy was found to be enjoyable, it had no effect on raising pain thresholds.“Things that worked very well were interesting comedies such as Mr. Bean. Situation comedies such as Friends also seemed to be particularly successful,”he added.

In order to measure (测量) endorphin levels, the researchers put a bag of ice on the volunteers’ arms to see how long they could withstand them. They found that the greater the increase in pain thresholds, the greater the amount of endorphins produced.

The purpose of Prof Dunbar’s study was not to develop a new treatment. Instead, it was to study the role of laughter in the forming of human societies two million years ago.

“The next stage will be to see whether laughing really allows people to keep together and work as a group better and be more friendly towards each other. If that is the case, then it may explain why some two million years ago, the first humans were able to form large communities of up to 100,”Dunbar added.