【推荐3】David Lansdale has found a way to light up the lives of the elderly. He gets them wired to the Internet. “If you hit your enter key, it will bring up this particular e-mail . . .”

Pauline Allen is one of those who have started using the Internet, “I thought I was through with life, I was ready for a rocking chair, because I was 86 years old. And I haven’t found the rocking chair yet.” “You found the keyboard?” asks the reporter. “That’s right, I found the keyboard.”

The average age of Lansdale’s students is around 68. All are in nursing or assisted care homes. He used family relationships to introduce them to the World Wide Web.

David Lansdale says, “Here they are in California, and the family was back in New York. The opportunity to connect, to cross the time and space, was incredibly precious to them.”

“I hear you are so beautiful.” Lillian Sher writes an e-mail to a newborn great-granddaughter. Working with one another, the senior learn as a group. They learn to master the Internet and to overcome loneliness, helplessness, boredom, and loss of memory.

Mary Harvey says, “Bingo just doesn’t interest me. But this does, believe me, this does.”

Ruth Hyman, 94, is a star pupil and instructor. She says, “When I send a letter to my grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, they hang it up in their offices, just like I used to hang their drawings on my refrigerator. Ha, ha”

David Lansdale says, “There’s a collective benefit. There is an element of treatment. Remember we started as a support group.”

Dixon Moorehouse says, “I just wish I were 15 years old and getting to learn all this.” The senior call their weekly meetings Monday Night Live. And many say the meetings have given them new life.”

Ruth Hyman says, “Three years ago, they told me I wasn’t going to live. But I showed them, and got work, and I’ve worked ever since.”

【推荐2】TEENAGE KICKS

Satisfy your teens’ appetite for the unusual in Bristol with classic shopping and immersive art.

While it can be tricky to persuade some teens to embrace art, you’ll find it easier in Bristol. You won’t have to look too hard to encounter the handiwork of the city’s talented son, Banksy — who was born here — on a walking tour and there are 200 other o dd street artists in the city. There are spray-painting workshops too if your teens want to try this type of art themselves.

If all that graffiti leads to a new-found interest in art, then the next step is Wake The Tiger, a new immersive art experience. Through a maze (迷宫) of creative works, installations, hidden forests and secret passageways, you and your family will enter the fictional kingdom of Meridia and follow a fascinating storyline involving the secrets of the world’s four great associations. It’s perfect for teen fantasy fans.

If your teen is keen to develop their emo or fairy core style, take them to Park Street to discover the junk and vintage shops, including Uncle Sam’s Vintage, perfect for everything from American distinctive jackets to Levi’s jeans as well as The Vintage Thrift Store, Loot Vintage and Sobeys.

With dumplings to Caribbean-inspired wraps, St Nicholas Markets, or St Nick’s to the locals, has delicious lunch options. It’s Bristol’s oldest market, trading since 1743. When you’re finished, don’t miss the shopping: It’s also home to Bristol’s largest collection of independent retailers.

【推荐3】In Rachel Carson’s classic best-seller about ecological threats, Silent Spring, the author asked us to imagine what it would be like to awaken in the morning in which no birds sang. She wrote with grace, and she made us feel the loss. But how well have we acted on Carson’s warnings?

We haven’t been very successful, and neither have birds. A 2019 study led by Cornell University scientist Kenneth V. Rosenberg, which analyzed decades of data on North American birds, showed that the continent’s bird populations had dwindled since 1970. Grasslands were the hardest hit, with a documented loss of more than 700 million breeding individuals — a decline of more than 50 percent. The net loss amounted to nearly three billion individual birds, a figure that sparked a campaign with tips on what people can do to save them.

Given these data, it is tempting to conclude that despite the brilliance of her writing, Carson did not succeed in protecting birds. However, the 2019 bird study also suggests that protecting biodiversity is not a lost cause (败局已定的事). One important exception in the dark picture the scientists painted is wetlands and the waterfowl (水禽) that inhabit them. There bird abundance increased 13 percent. What distinguishes wetlands from other ecological areas? One answer is that wetlands have been especially shielded (保护) from excessive industrial activities for a long time. They are under the protection of the local and federal government.

The other encouraging exception in the bird study was raptors, a group that includes the majestic bald eagle. Bald eagles were on the verge of extinction at the time when Carson wrote, but they recovered in large part as a result of the ban on DDT, a substance used for killing insects.

A news story published by the Audubon Society notes that the numbers show that taking steps like wildlife management, habitat restoration and political action can be effective in saving species. Scientists have documented the current threat to biodiversity. Their data also show that if we act on this information, maybe we can change the outcome.