【推荐1】The Internet, search engines, virtual worlds. Have you ever got the feeling that you’re living in a science fiction?

Well, indeed you are.

For more than a century, inventors have been driven to create what sci-fi writers have imagined long before. Buck Rogers inspired a generation of scientists excited about space exploration. Ray Bradbury predicted home-theater systems. William Gibson dreamed up the Internet while writing Neuromancer on a typewriter. Not long after him, Neal Stephenson predicted virtual worlds in his 1991 novel Snow Crash. One of his readers was Philip Rosedale, who loved it so much that he wanted to build a virtual world based on it.

By the late 1990s, technology caught up to the novel, and Rosedale built the virtual world Second Life based on the “Metaverse” from the novel. With 1 million active users, Second Life offers virtual shops, bars, houses and even virtual television studios with virtual celebrities (名人) on virtual talk shows.

“I think it is pretty much what I imagined,” Stephenson says. “I just shoot for the stars, while he makes great things happen.”

But Snow Crash is a dark book. The world in the novel is filled with criminals, violence and environmental problems.

“Science fiction not only puts stars in our hands, it also helps us see the meaning of our work,” Philip Rosedale admits. “It makes it possible for us to see what all of our efforts could eventually lead to.”

In fact, most science fiction authors admit that their work is usually cautionary (警示性的). “While the inventors are rushing ahead and excited about this possibility or that possibility, we’re always standing there warning, ‘Hang on just a second. Let’s think about this a little more’” author William Gibson says. “But most of them will ignore you because they think they already know all things about any given hot topic of the day. But if you can convince them that you’re talking about a planet millions of miles away and hundreds of years in the future or the past, you can actually get them to examine more closely what’s going on right now.”

【推荐1】Many of us write a list of things we'd like to do before we die—often called a bucket list. Bucket lists have helped some people overcome anxiety which would have stopped them following their dreams. Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with exciting and new experiences—from skydiving to swimming with sharks—the list is unlimited.

A blogger called Annette White said she made a promise to live her bucket list which continuously pushes the comfort zone to its limits and beyond it. Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help you plan your life and give you focus. When the BBC reporter Helen Fawkes knew she was suffering from incurable ovarian(卵巢的)cancer, she took comfort in drawing up a bucket list——although she called it her “list for living” because these were things for making the most of life. Sadly, she was not able to achieve all of her 50 things before she died at the age of 45.

Creating a bucket list can certainly give us hope, but some people have argued it can be used as a coping strategy to try to control something uncontrollable—death Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was not really in favor of bucket lists ... “They take you away from the chance to be spontaneous(自发的).” It's probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else's idea of the perfect life. And also, following a fixed list of goals makes you less impulsive(冲动的)— your aims and wishes might change as you approach the day when you finally kick the bucket.

But why not at least dream of what we would like to do? Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky? Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we don't know what tomorrow will bring, so maybe we should live for today.

【推荐2】The practice of paying children an allowance became popular in America about 100 years ago. Nowadays, American kids on average receive about $ 800 per year in allowance. But the vast majority of American parents who pay tie it to the completion of housework. Although many parents believe that paying an allowance for completing chores (家务活) benefits their children, a range of experts expressed concern that tying allowance very closely to chores may not be ideal. In fact, the way chores work in many households worldwide points to another way.

Suniya Luthar, a psychologist, is against paying kids for chores. Luthar is not opposed to giving allowances, but she thinks it’s important to establish that chores are done not because they will lead to payment, but because they keep the household running. Luthar’s suggested approach to allowance agrees with that of writer Ron Lieber, who advises that allowances be used as a means of showing children how to save, give, and spend on things they care about.

This argument has its critics, but considering the way chores are undertaken around the world may change people’s thinking. Professor David Lancy of Utah State University has studied how families around the world handle chores. At about 18 months of age, Lancy says, most children become eager to help their parents, and in many cultures, they begin helping with housework at that age. They begin with very simple tasks, but their responsibilities gradually increase. And they do these tasks without payment. Lancy contrasts this with what happens in America. “We deny our children’s bids to help until they are 6 or 7 years old,” Lancy says, “when many have lost the desire to help and then try to motivate them with payment. The solution to this problem is not to try to use money as a motive for doing housework, but to get children involved in housework much earlier, when they actually want to do it.”

【推荐3】When opening certain mobile apps, users often find disruptive (有干扰性的) open-app advertisements that impact their experience. Open-app advertisements are advertisements that appear in between contents or during transition screens, such as when an app is loading the next page. Some of these advertisements can redirect users to another app if the phone is shaken, causing a lot of frustration for consumers.

These open-app advertisements function as gateways and become more common during online shopping festivals, redirecting users to shopping platforms such as Taobao and JD. Most smartphones have a gyroscope sensor (陀螺仪传感器) to detect shaking, leading to unintentional redirection. Many users not only find it annoying to find themselves on an advertisements page, but also have trouble disabling the gyroscope feature since sometimes their phones lack the choice to do so to avoid this issue.

In response, authorities have introduced detailed regulations on shaking advertisements gateways. A regulation published in December 2022 outlines specific rules for the design of “shake-to-open” advertisements. It says that these advertisements can only be “clicked through” if the phone’s rotation angle exceeds 35 degrees, with an action time longer than three seconds.

Additionally, in February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized that pop-up or open-app advertisements should not disrupt users’ experiences. A regulation introduced in May states that advertisements must include a clear button for users to close them.

Government enforcement of these regulations presents challenges, as the number of apps and developers is great. However, this should not be an excuse for internet platforms to break the rules, as this behavior causes far more harm than good. A survey by the Jiangsu Consumer Council showed that over 90 percent of users strongly dislike open-app advertisements, feeling that their rights are being threatened.

While these advertisements might lead to more clicks, the fact is that the advertisements may harm the credibility of the platforms that the advertisements lead to and weaken the users’ willingness to use the platforms. Platforms can achieve a mutually beneficial (互惠互利) solution only if they respect users’ choices and provide suitable advertisements that users are willing to accept.

【推荐1】Jamie Goldfarb had finished reading the last bedtime book to her three-year-old son, Kai, when he told her he was hungry. The mum usually complied with such requests since Kai had difficulty feeding as a baby. But this time, as she headed downstairs to fetch a banana, she heard him murmur, “Now that’s how you get a fourth book.”

Goldfarb was astonished that her sweet child would tell her a lie, but experts would say that Kai was engaging in complicated cognitive reasoning (认知推理) in his successful attempt for extra storytime. And according to researchers, lying provides a rich workout for developing brains.

Though experts agree that there’s no particular area in the brain leading to telling lies, certain regions of the brain are engaged during the construction of a lie. The brain must also juggle (兼顾) emotions, memories, and knowledge about another person, as well as think about alternative paths the lie could take. “It’s really a whole network of complex interactions (互动),” says US psychologist Immordino-Yang. And that’s why the ability to lie develops over time, as a young brain develops.

Starting around two years old, a child is probably going to tell his first lie to keep from getting in trouble — and he probably won’t be very good at it. Older preschool-age children tend to try to lie as a way to make themselves look better. “They may claim they did something that they didn’t do because they want to get praise, or they exaggerate (夸张) because they want the parent to think, ‘Oh wow, you’re amazing,’” says Victoria Talwar, author of the book The Truth About Lying. As children enter elementary school, their more-developed brains can craft more complex lies.

Parents might feel disappointed when they catch their children being untruthful, but experts advise avoiding shaming them — or calling them liars. “That won’t necessarily promote the behaviour you want,” Talwar says. Instead, she suggests parents focus on the behaviour they’d like a child to exhibit and use language that encourages truth-telling. When the lie is more involved, experts recommend having a direct conversation about it.

【推荐2】India has the world's worst air pollution. Home to 21 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, its poisonous air kills more than one million people each year.

Being the world's second largest brick producer, India's brick kilns (砖窋) account for of black carbon emissions globally. Architect Tejas Sidnal was astonished to discover the construction industry's role in the pollution crisis. "That was a crazy eye opener," he says. "As architects, we are responsible for so much air pollution."

Determined to make construction more sustainable and tackle India's air pollution, Sidnal launched Carbon Craft Design in 2019. The startup takes black carbon extracted from polluted air and upcycles it to make stylish, handcrafted building tiles (瓷砖).

To create the carbon tiles, Carbon Craft Design, together with Graviky Labs, uses a filter device to capture carbon soot (碳黑) from tail gas and fossil fuel generators, removes pollutants such as heavy metals and dust from the soot, and gives the purified carbon to Carbon Craft Design in powder form. The company then mixes the captured carbon with cement and marble waste from quarries to produce monochromatic tiles. The company aims to ensure each tile contains at least waste material. It sells the tiles to architects and retailers (零售商) for per square meter-a high price compared to regular tiles.

As the company expands production, Sidnal hopes to lower prices and produce a cheaper range of carbon tiles. "We want to hit the affordable sector," he says. "Sustainability is not only for the elite (精英)."

Since launching its first tiles a year ago, Carbon Craft Design's customers have included global fashion brands and architecture firms in India. In November 2020, an Adidas store in Mumbai covered the walls and the floor with its carbon tiles. Inquiries from in and out of India came flooding in.

Architect Manan Gala describes the carbon tile as a "winner", which, apart from being sustainable, has better strength than conventional cement tiles due to the carbon content, and the raw and rustic feel adds to the overall charm.

【推荐3】At the end of a long day, it’s tempting to dive into your social feeds or Netflix queue the minute you've finished eating. But back before screens took up all our free time, an after-dinner walk was a popular activity. “Italians have been walking after meals for centuries,” says Loretta DiPietro, a professor at the George Washington University, “so it must be good.”

Research backs this up. One study co-authored by DiPietro found that when older adults at risk for type-2 diabetes (糖尿病) walked for 15 minutes after a meal, they had steady blood sugar levels in the hours afterwards. The human digestive system turns food into glucose (葡萄糖). After a meal, glucose floods a person’s bloodstream. Insulin (胰岛素) helps pull that glucose into cells. But for people with impaired insulin activity, too much glucose can remain in the blood, which can cause heart disease and other health problems.

What good does walking do? “The muscles we use to walk use glucose as energy, drawing it out of circulation and therefore reducing how much is floating around,” says Andrew Reynolds, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Otago. Reynolds conducted a study of people with type-2 diabetes and found that just 10 minutes of walking after a meal helped control their blood sugar levels. “We saw the biggest differences with walking after dinner time,” compared to other times of the day, Reynolds says. “The production of insulin in response to a meal tends to decrease later in the day. Getting up and moving around at that time was very effective,” he says.

A little post-meal movement may also aid digestion. But more isn't necessarily better when it comes to post-eating exercise. “Exercising muscles pull more of the blood flow their way during activity, and the GI tract (消化道) gets relatively less,” says Sheri Colberg-Ochs, a researcher at Old Dominion University. “That actually slows down the digestion of food in your stomach during the activity. Anything but really intense exercise would probably work equally well.”

So make like the Italians and head out for a walk after your next meal. Your TV and the Internet will still be there when you get home.