【推荐1】A stay-at-home parent is a parent who stays at home to raise children rather than going to work outside the home.     1     Today, however, some stay-at-home parents are fathers.

Many parents wish to stay home with the kids once they start a family.     2     Often both parents must work outside the home to earn enough income to support the family. If one parent earns enough, then the other parent often has the option of being a stay-at-home parent. But this often means giving up some potential income.

    3     For example, some parents choosing to be at home, especially the mothers, will provide day care not only for their own children but also for others’. Those can be the kids of their neighbors and friends. Thus, people can earn an income from home while looking after their own children.

A stay-at-home parent may also run a business from home and accompany the children full-time, too. However, it can be challenging. And income from a home business may not be steady at first.     4    

Luckily, now more and more companies give employees the option to work from home.     5     Studies have shown the love for the company and the company’s productivity (生产率) tend to increase when those wanting to work from home are given that option.

【推荐2】What goes on in our brains when we decide to hit the share button, and what makes something go viral? Since the dawn of the Internet, businesses, media outlets and influencers alike have been trying to answer these questions. Now, researchers have come one step closer to cracking this mysterious model by shining a light on the neuroscience (神经科学) of viral content.

“Our study finds a way to obtain brain signals that would predict how much information gets shared.” said Emily Falk, professor of communication, psychology and marketing and Hang-Yee Chan, a lecturer of communication.

Their new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 23, investigated both the U. S. and the Netherlands using a broader range of news categories—including health and climate change.

“When we see greater activation of regions that track self-relevance (Is it important to me) and social-relevance (Is it important to people I know), the news articles are more likely to be shared widely,” Falk and Chan said. By studying these brain responses, the team managed to build a value-based model to accurately predict how widely the articles would be shared online. This link between brain activity and sharing was seen in both the American and Dutch participants, suggesting that this model is accurate across cultures.

“Seeing how people’s brains react inside the scanner gives us insight into why people ultimately share information nowadays,” Chan said. “If we understand these signals, we might be able to use that knowledge to help important news get shared and stop misinformation from going viral.” It is also helpful for content creators to maximize their reach. “Our current study demonstrates how tapping into the brain would help content creators optimize their messages’ influence,” Falk and Chan said. “We are interested in building on these results to develop ways to counter harmful information and false news, in addition to spreading high-quality content.” “A lot of our most pressing problems in society are influenced by the decisions people make, and the decisions we make are influenced by the news. What you share matters, and so understanding why you share it matters, too.”

【推荐3】You’re watching your favorite TV show when a commercial (广告) break starts. First you see an ad for candy. Then there’s one for fast food. In response, your stomach growls (咕咕直叫).

Suddenly, all you can think about is how much you need a snack. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Researchers from McMaster University in Canada studied the effects of junk food ads.

The researchers examined the effects of advertising junk food on more than 6.000 kids through TV commercials and other types of media. They found that kids made unhealthy food and drink choices as quickly as 30 minutes after seeing the ads.

“There is too much unhealthy food advertising out there, which appears repeatedly,” says Behnam Sadeghirad. He’s one of the researchers who led the study. “This is dangerous for younger children because they lack self-discipline and don’t know the advertised foods are healthy or not.”

Food and drink ads are everywhere, from TV to the Internet. Companies want to make sure you know about their products. They spend nearly $1.8 billion a year on food ads aimed at kids, according to a report. The Nielsen Company tracked the number of food ads that kids saw in 2015.

It found that kids watched nearly 12 food ads on TV each day. Most of these ads weren’t for healthy foods. In fact, on average, kids saw only one ad per week for fruit and vegetables. Instead, most of the ads were for fast food, candy and sugary drinks.

Jennifer Harris, a professor at the University of Connecticut, says this is a big part of the problem. “Unhealthy foods are not things we should be encouraging kids to eat more often,” says Harris." But unfortunately those are the products being advertised to them the most.”

Health experts say it’s OK to treat yourself to a cookie once in a while. But what can you do to keep from having an unhealthy snack every time you see an ad for junk food? Harris says it’s important to learn to spot the techniques companies use in their ads. “What kids can do is notice what’s going on,” says Harris. “Think about, ‘Are these the products that are really good for my physical health?’”

【推荐1】The spread of COVID-19 meant millions of people faced the effects of loneliness. They asked how they could still find a sense of community when told to stay apart. One neighborhood responded in a creative way — a resident (居民) created some interesting “I Spy” games in which people of any age could join.

Emily Nelson, a person living in the Sunnymede neighborhood in South Bend, Indiana, created these games by using a Facebook group. At first, she asked people to tape paper shamrocks (三叶草) on their front windows or draw them in chalk on their driveways — anything that would be noticed by kids walking on the sidewalk. Neighborhood kids could add up how many they found and post the pictures to the Facebook group.

The neighborhood response was positive, so Nelson drew up a calendar through mid-April with other themed days, including Disney characters, Mario, hearts for healthcare workers, dinosaurs, and a bunny hunt. Nelson encouraged the walkers to dress in costumes that match the themes. In this way, she thought they’d enjoy themselves better in the special period.

For any neighbors who didn’t have themed objects, decorations, or chalk to use, another neighbor would put together packets of coloring paper that he or she could drop off in mailboxes as required. According to Nelson, she and her family saw more than 28 Disney characters posted around the neighborhood on the most recent day. Even the mailman, according to local people, took notice and asked about the sudden appearance of Disney items in windows.

Kids were not the only ones who had been excited. Neighbor Carolyn Evans wrote to Nelson on the Facebook page, saying, “We had a great time looking for characters today! What a fun thing for all of us to do! THANK YOU for creating this and THANK YOU to all of our neighbors who are taking part in it! Thanks to Nelson’s new games, grateful community members were a little closer to finding new ways to stay in touch.

【推荐3】Scott Kelly visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). He shared his experiences in space with students.

Kelly graduated from college with an engineering degree in 1987. He was later accepted into Navy flight school. In 1995, Kelly sent his application to NASA to become an astronaut. He thought, “If I’m going to fail at something, I might as well just fail at something that I think I can’t achieve.” That’s what Kelly told the audience at UW. To his surprise, he landed an interview.

From 1999 to 2016, Kelly took part in four space missions. His first was a repair trip to the Hubble Space Telescope. On his second trip, in 2007, he was the mission commander. Kelly finished his third mission in 2011. It was a five-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA was interested in the idea of sending people to space for an even longer period of time. The space agency then chose Kelly to set off on a 340-day mission to the ISS. The trip became one of the longest time ever spent in space.

The main purpose of the mission was to study how the human body responds to a long space flight. Space weakens your bones and muscles because your body doesn’t have to use them much in low gravity. That s why astronauts work out for at least two hours a day. Eyesight is also greatly affected by space travel. Kelly says that he wears glasses to correct his vision because of his time spent in space.

There’s still a lot to learn about the effects of space flights on the body. And there’s always work to be done in space. The more people who get interested in space, the more steps we can take toward a possible moon base, or even a Mars base.

For kids desiring to become astronauts, Kelly has some advice, “Choose something that you like, because if you like it, you’ll do better at it”.