【推荐2】Does the happiness of parents play a role in shaping the overall happiness of their children? Scientific studies have shed light on the far-reaching connection between parental happiness and the positive development of kids. It seems that parental happiness has an important influence on the emotional, social, and cognitive (认知的) development of children.     1     If they know their mental and emotional happiness has an impact on their children, perhaps it can motivate them to view it as part of being a good parent.

    2     For example, they can join in activities that bring them joy and satisfaction. This could include hobbies, exercise, pursuing personal goals, or taking time for relaxation. When parents improve their own happiness, they can better support their children’s happiness.

Another great idea is sharing experiences and creating many memories together. The idea is twofold.     3     At the same time, the shared experiences and showing their children how happy they are to do something they love can be incredibly valuable as well.

One of the main aspects of being happy parents is feeling comfortable, confident and able to be themselves, despite their new status and huge responsibility. Honestly, when parents prioritize their own happiness, it has positive effects on the overall happiness of the family.     4    

When parents put their own happiness first, they become role models for their kids. They see the importance of self-care, pursuing passions and maintaining healthy relationships.     5     So, parents should accept their uniqueness, enjoying life!

【推荐3】Few people knew about online food delivery apps ten years ago, but today, many would find it hard to live without them. In China alone, over 400 million people use such apps. For better or for worse, online food delivery services have changed the way we eat, and they are also having a huge impact on our society.

These services have no doubt brought us many benefits. They provide jobs for millions of people and help restaurants find more customers. Since the apps are very convenient, they also benefit consumers: we can now have meals delivered at any time of day, despite bad weather or busy schedules. This is especially important for people who work long hours, since they might not have time to cook. Not only do these apps save time, they also provide us with a wide variety of restaurants to choose from. They have proved to be useful for retired people as well: seniors who live far away from restaurants and supermarkets can now get hold of meals and groceries more easily.

However, we must not forget the drawbacks of online food delivery services. For one thing, they make it even easier to order unhealthy food, high in sugar, fat and salt. Food safety is another problem: it can be hard to establish where the food actually comes from, and whether the owner is legally permitted to run a restaurant. As couriers need to deliver the orders as quickly as possible, some pay little regard to traffic rules. In recent years, there have been a number of terrible traffic accidents because of this. Moreover, the industry is creating unbelievable amounts of packaging waste: over a million tons of online food delivery boxes are thrown away every year. Experts assume that this number will continue to grow in the future, and this will have a negative impact on the environment.

【推荐1】Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. Now a company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.

When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager. In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.

Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories(轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.

It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.

To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend(下降)slowly is added to the software’s “pre-alert” list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for five seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures(使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.

The first full-scale Poseidon system was officially opened at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools—and he was once an underwater escapologist(脱身杂技演员) with a circus. “I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives,” he says.

【推荐2】For years, Mark Hager worked as an at-sea fishery observer, going out on New England fishing boats for days or weeks and keeping detailed records of every fish caught or thrown back. The work could be perilous: on one trip, a boat turned sideways in 20-foot seas, and Hager and the crew put on survival suits in case they had to jump overboard. But the counting was essential to protecting the ecosystem.

In the early 2000s, the fishing industry began fixing video cameras on boats, so that humans could track the data from ashore. In 2019, Hager and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute launched a company, New England Marine Monitoring, based in Portland, Maine, to provide technology support for ships using electronic monitoring. His team has to watch hours of video footage (镜头), look for each moment when a fish is discarded (丢弃), then make a note of the species and the time it was discarded. In ten hours of video, there might be 45 minutes between each case of a discarded fish.

When Hager consulted with other scientists, they came up with a new idea. Now, Hager and his team are using their notes as training data for an artificial intelligence (AI)algorithm (算法)-programming the AI to scan (扫描) the video footage and indicate points of interest along the timeline for a human to look through. “Instead of ten hours of video, we’ll be able to look at about 100 pictures, which we can do in about 20 minutes,” Hager says.

The result could save time and money, but Hager has a bigger goal. He wants to prove that AI algorithms can be used to count every fish that’s caught and discarded. To be effective, the algorithm will need to be able to identify the total volume of a fish haul (一网的捕鱼量), count containers of fish,and potentially even count and measure individual fish. Using video monitoring to count a small amount of the total catch is one thing. Using it to count the entire haul on a ship is a huge challenge — one that has never been achieved before.

【推荐3】Japan has started releasing wastewater into the ocean. But this isn’t the kind of wastewater that flows from city streets into stormwater drains. It’s treated nuclear wastewater used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, stricken by an earthquake over a decade ago.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved the plan by Japan to release more than a million tons of treated nuclear waste water from the destroyed Fukushima power plant into the ocean, believing Japan’s claims that the wastewater would be safe. However, Neighboring countries and other experts say it remains environmentally harmful that will last generations and may affect ecosystems all the way to North America.

Local fishermen, who heavily depend on the ocean’s resources, fear a huge decrease in their marketability. “Japan’s self-interest should not harm the well-being of humanity in the long run.” They said.

The release of the wastewater into the sea is a threat to the ocean environment and will damage Japan’s international image. The amount of money Japan would need to spend in restoring (恢复) its international image will far exceed that required to solve the problem in an eco-friendly way.