【推荐3】When Barcelona’s citizens emerged from a six-week lockdown at the end of April last year, they found that while the city had lain inactive, nature had been busy transforming the streets and parks into a wilderness. “The parks were shut, so no gardening was carried out,” says Margarita Pares, who heads the city’s biodiversity programme. “It was spring and it rained a lot more than usual. The result was an explosion in plant growth. And there were many more butterflies, as they are a species that reacts very quickly to changes in the environment.”

Once the gardeners went back to work, the question was whether to return everything to its neat and tidy state, or let nature take its course？The answer is neither. Pares says the council spent the previous two years working on plans to “naturalise” or “rewild” the city—and was about to announce this change of policy when the pandemic struck. By the time the lockdown ended, it was a lot easier to sell rewilding to the public desiring fresh air and open space. When it comes to embracing nature in its cities, Spain falls behind many countries. But it is hoped that Barcelona’s new policy will go some way to correcting that.

“In a city like Barcelona, it’s a case of replacing what exists with green infrastructure(基础建设),” says Lorena Escuer who has worked in Barcelona on a pilot scheme called Alcorques Vivos, which plants wildflowers at the base of trees in the streets rather than surrounding them with pavement. “It’s not having a park surrounded by asphalt(沥青)but introducing nature into the city,” she says. “People need re-educating. Their idea of a clean space is where there’s no life and the ecosystem is dead. There’s this idea that nature is something outside and that what’s natural for the city is for there to be nothing.”

“Rewilding has made us look at how we live and how we want to live. There’s no going back from here. The lockdown gave us a glimpse of nature in the city and it surprised us,” says Margarita Pares.

【推荐1】Playing video games is an enjoyable pastime for many of us. But have you ever thought of becoming a video game developer and designing your own games?

If so, Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Get in the Game” program might be for you. The program targets high school girls, giving them a chance to work alongside professional female game developers, with a view to encourage more girls to pursue a career in the tech industry.

EA is the largest video game development studio in Central Florida, US. This year, 15lucky students were selected for the program and given the chance to put the finishing touches onto future EA titles.

Edgewater High School student Lyla Lovett,17,raised her hands in celebration after she fixed an in-game glitch(故障) and successfully found a potential solution. Current EA software engineer Alanna Berklund said: “That trial-and-error is something that happens every day in game development.”

She added: “Building games is not simple ... you have to try a lot of things, and most of the time it's a matter of changing something and seeing what happens.”

Years ago, when Berklund was a new graduate, she would ask technology companies whether their business tried to hire women. “They would say, ‘we just hire the best people’.” Berklund concluded. “Technology has always been a boys’ club, and it's about not keeping the present situation.”

The gender(性别)gap in technology goes far beyond the video game industry. According to the National Center for Women in Information Technology, the percentage of female science-based degree students, in the US, dropped from 37 percent to 19 percent between1985 and 2016. This decline in female science students is one of the reasons why non-profit groups such as “Girls Who Code” have appeared in recent years.

As more industries look to fill technology jobs, it’s important that women are equally represented.

Lyla said spending a week with female engineers convinced her to pursue a career in the industry.

“It’s fearful when you see lots of men in the field. But seeing female developers working successfully in the industry makes me think change is possible,” Lyla explained.

She added that, working with other women in the technology industry was “a big thing in my life. It helped me learn to communicate better, to manage problems, and to express my feelings.”

【推荐3】It is the responsibility of a food business to ensure that the food provided to customers is safe to consume. In order to do this, proper food safety criteria must always be followed. This includes ensuring that food is not spoiled or expired. Best-before dates, expiry dates (到期日) and packaging dates are key to knowing what foods are safe to prepare and serve, and which ones should be disposed of. Different types of date markings on packages are used depending on the product.

A best-before date on a food package states when the duration of the food ends. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, durable life means “the anticipated amount of time that an unopened food product, when stored under appropriate conditions, will maintain its freshness, taste, nutritional value, or any other qualities claimed by the manufacturer (生产商).” This date can be found on a package underneath the words “best before”.

This date tells consumers that the unopened product should be of high quality until that specific date. The key with this date is that it is dependent upon the product being properly handled and stored based on the requirements of that particular food product. This means that failure to stick to the guidelines for handling and storing a particular product will affect its quality by the best-before date. This also means that the best-before date no longer applies if a package is opened.

An expiry date is not the same as a best-before date. These dates are required on certain foods that have specific nutritional compositions that could change after the determined expiration date. In other words, after the expiration date has passed, the food may not have the nutrient content as described on the label.

Expiry dates are required for formulated liquid diets, foods sold by a drugstore, meal replacements, nutritional supplements and infant formula. If a food has passed its expiration date it should be discarded and not used.