【推荐1】Stay safe in the sun

Summer is the ideal time to be outside having fun in the fresh air and sunshine. Sunlight can boost your vitamin D levels, which keeps your bones, teeth and muscles healthy.     1     However, from late spring to early autumn, the sun’s rays are stronger and can damage skin and make you feel unwell.

It’s of vital importance to protect yourself from the sun’s powerful rays. Everyone needs to take caution in the sun.     2     In strong sunshine the body can heat up quickly, and this can mean you sweat and lose a lot of water. This can make your body lose water, which can cause headaches, a dry mouth, tiredness, dizziness and fainting.

    3     It’s wise to wear a hat and apply sunscreen with SPF50 (sun protection factor 50) while in the sun. However, sweat and swimming can wash off sunscreen. It’s advisable to apply more throughout the day repeatedly. Never look directly at the sun even though wearing sunglasses. Be sure to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

Sunburnt skin is red, hot to touch, can feel sore and itchy, and even may blister.     4     Don’t put ice on it, and try not to scratch peeling skin. It’s important to tell an adult straight away if you feel unwell.

It’s sensible to be careful but playing in the sun is also good for your mood and your health.     5    

【推荐2】These days, if we’re not staring at our smartphones, we are sitting in front of computers. And more than half of office workers have reported the symptoms of eye strain (眼疲劳).     1    

Get regular eye tests. If you work on a computer every day, experts recommend having a comprehensive eye exam every year to detect (发现，查明) problems before they develop.     2    You should also measure the distance from your eyes to your screen at work and tell your doctor.

    3     The closer your phone/computer screen is to your eyes, the harder they have to work to focus. Studies on computer-related eye strain suggest that screens should be no closer than 40 cm from your face.

Take breaks.     4    However, it’s important to try to take regular breaks from staring directly at a screen, to give your eyes a chance to rest. It’s recommended that you take a 15-minute break after every two hours spent at your screen.

Make your screen more eye-friendly.     5     You can also increase your device’s refresh rate to ensure less change of the screen, and shift the screen’s color levels away from blue end of the spectrum (光谱) towards the softer yellow end.

【推荐3】As a woman who goes outside almost every day, I’m used to people looking at me for all kinds of different reasons. In certain cases, it can be harder to tell who’s looking where: on a crowded train, or across a packed bar. If you’re unsure if a person is noticing you, there’s a little trick that I have found to be very effective: It’s called mirroring.

In a 1999 study, psychologists defined mirroring as “nonconscious mimicry (无意识模仿)of the postures, facial expressions and other behaviors of one’s interaction partners”. It’s long been used as a strategy that successful people can employ strategically to show their engagement (参与度) during job interviews or at work. They believe when done on purpose, mirroring can help people understand each other’s ideas or feelings very well.

It’s a proven method. In an experiment, volunteers were asked for their opinions about a series of advertisements. A member of a research team mirrored half the participants, taking care not to be too obvious. A few minutes later, the researcher “accidentally” dropped six pens on the floor. Participants who had been mimicked were two to three times more likely to pick up the pens. The study concluded that mimicry had not only increased goodwill towards the researcher, but also contributed to an increased social orientation (取向) in general.

If you want to know how to figure out if a person is looking at you, just throw out some kinds of gestures and see who copies you. But not everyone uses mirroring to figure out who’s making eyes at who. My years of experience of analyzing the messages sent consciously and unconsciously by the human body has left me with particularly good powers of observation. However, the average person has not had the same chance to improve this skill.

Of course, once you’ve figured out who’s watching you, it’s up to you and the watcher to decide what happens next. Not everybody watches with intent or enjoys getting hit on in public, so knowing how to react properly is very necessary.

【推荐1】For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. On 28 April 2001, Dennis Tito achieved that lifelong goal-but he wasn’t a typical astronaut. Tito, a wealthy businessman, paid $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station. Only seven people have followed suit in the 20 years since, but that number is about to double in the next 12 months alone.

NASA has long been hesitant to play host to space tourists, so Russia has been the only choice available for those who look for this kind of extreme adventure. However, it seems the rise of private space companies is going to make it easier for regular people to experience space.

Personally, I see the beginning of an age when more people can experience space. With companies like Space X and Blue Origin hoping to build a future for humanity in space, space tourism is a way to prove both the safety and reliability of space travel to the general public.

Flights to space like Dennis Tito’s are expensive for a reason. A rocket must burn a lot of expensive fuel to travel high and fast enough to enter Earth’s orbit.

Another cheaper possibility is a suborbital (亚轨道) launch, with the rocket going high enough to reach the edge of space and coming right back down. While passengers on a suborbital trip experience weightlessness and incredible views, these launches are more accessible.

To our joy, three companies led by billionaire CEOs have emerged as the major players: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and Space X.

Now, Space X has two tourist launches planned. These trips will be costly, at $55 million for the flight. Blue Origin’s and Virgin Galactic’s suborbital trips are far more reasonable in cost, with both priced between $200, 000 and $250. 000. Though these prices are high, it is worth considering that Dennis Tito’s $20 million ticket in 2001 could pay for 100 flights on Blue Ongin soon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space, though, may prove to be priceless for a whole new generation of space explorers.