【推荐1】When I was a baby, I entertained you and made you laugh. Whenever I was “bad”, you'd shake your finger at me and ask, “How could you?”--but then you'd give up, and roll me over for a belly scratch and I believed that life could not be any more perfect.

My housetraining was a long process, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. We went for long walks, runs in the park and car rides. We stopped for ice cream. I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day.

Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. Eventually, you fell in love. She, now your wife, is not a dog person, but I still welcomed her into our home. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement, I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them too. Your wife was afraid I would bite them. But nevertheless, as they began to grow, I became their friend.

Now, you have a new job in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You've made the right decision for your “family”, but there was a time when I was your only family.

I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the dog pound. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said, “I know you will find a good home for her.” They shrugged and gave you a pained look. The children were in tears as they waved me goodbye. And “How could you?” were the only three words that swept over my mind.

Is it better to live with hope or without hope? At first, whenever anyone passed my pen , I rushed to the front, hoping it was you, that you had changed your mind and that this was all a bad dream.

My beloved master, I will think of you and wait for you forever. I hope you receive more faithfulness from your family than you showed to me.

【推荐1】One of the ocean’s noisiest creatures is smaller than you’d expect-snapping shrimp (鼓虾). They create a widespread background noise in the underwater environment, which helps them communicate, defend territories and hunt for food. When enough shrimp snap (发出劈啪声) at once, the noise can dominate the soundscape of coastal waters.

Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, suggested that with increased ocean temperatures, snapping shrimp will snap more often and louder than before. This could raise the background noise of the global ocean. “They make a sound by closing a claw so fast. This makes a bubble (泡泡) and when that bubble explodes, it makes that snapping sound,” said Mooney.

Mooney detected a strong relationship between warmer waters and deafening, more frequent snapping shrimp sounds after experimenting with the shrimp in tanks in the lab and by listening to the shrimp in the ocean at various water temperatures. “As the temperature rises, the snap rate increases,” he said. This makes sense because shrimp are essentially cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature and activity levels are largely controlled by their living environment. “We can actually show in the field that not only do snap rates increase, but the sound levels increase as well.”

How the louder snapping shrimp would bother or benefit the surroundings remained to be seen. “We know that fish use sound to communicate,” Mooney said. “If the environment gets noisy, it has the potential to influence that communication. That’s something we have to follow up on.” There is also the possibility that the change of snapping shrimp disturbs instruments humans use to detect mines, which could have implications for national defense.

【推荐2】In a digital age, we almost never write things by hand. However, multiple studies have shown that this act has many benefits.

New brain research, led by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, confirms the same: choosing handwriting over using a keyboard results in better learning and memory.

“When you write your shopping list or lecture notes by hand, you simply remember the content better afterwards,” said Audrey van der Meer, author of the study.

The study was conducted using equipment to track and record brain wave activity. The participants included 12 young adults and 12 children. This is the first time that children have participated in such a study. Each subject was asked to write by hand and type on a keyboard while wearing a hood (风帽) with over 250 electrodes (电极). The sensors (传感器) in the electrodes are very sensitive and pick up the electrical activity that takes place in the brain. Each examination took 45 minutes per person.

The results showed that the brain in both young adults and children is much more active when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard. According to Van der Meer, plenty of senses are activated by pressing a pen on paper, seeing the letters written and hearing the sound made while writing. These sense experiences build contact between different parts of the brain, opening the brain up for learning.

Van der Meer believes that the outcomes stress the importance of children being challenged to draw and write at an early age, especially at school. “Learning to write by hand is a bit slower process, but it’s important for children to go through the tiring phase of learning to write by hand,” she said.

The hand movements used to form the shapes of letters can benefit a lot in many ways. “If you use a keyboard, you use the same movement each letter. Writing by hand requires control of your fine motor (精细动作) skills and senses. It’s important to put the brain in a learning state as often as possible,” Van der Meer added. For example, you might use a keyboard to write an essay, but you should take notes by hand during a lecture.

【推荐3】Dog people like to point out dogs’ long history as humankind’s best friend while even the most devoted cat owners may wonder at some point whether their cat really loves them.     1    . The secret of whether your cat feels bonded to you lies in their behaviour.

Look out for scenting (气味)

Cats use scent to identify their own members, by sharing a group scent profile. They have scent glands on their head and around their ears, and often rub their heads against people and objects that are familiar and comforting. Does your cat rub its head or side against your legs?     2    .

Look for blinks

Your cat might be secretly signalling their affection in the way they look at you.     3    . But they are more likely to slowly blink at people and cats they have a good relationship with.

    4    

One of the most obvious signs that your beloved pet is fond of you, is the way that your cat approaches you. A tail held in the upright flagpole position or shaped in a upright question mark shows a friendly intention. Wrapping their tail around your leg is another gesture that a cat has ultimate trust in you.

Sense their comfort zone

    5    . If a cat allows you to get close to them, that suggests a close bond, particularly where the contact is frequent or long lasting. Curling up on your lap for a nap and licking your hand or face are signs of deep trust.

【推荐1】When starting college, most students enjoy a week’s stay on campus before classes actually begin. What should you do with that time? Below are several tips to ease yourself into college life.

Participating in Campus Welcome Activities

Most universities host welcome events before the academic year officially begins, including freshmen orientations, campus picnics, and entertainments like concerts.

Participating in such events is a great way to learn about school facilities and understand campus culture: What do students do for fun? What are their favorite classes? What is the history of your university? It can help you observe campus life outside the classroom.

Exploring Campus

Getting to know where essential campus resources are—such as the student advising center, psychological services, and the tutoring center—will make your first few weeks on campus a lot easier, because you won’t have to look for them while still getting used to your classes.

Take some time to check out the buildings where your classes will be held. This will prevent you from getting lost in the first few days of classes and familiarize you with how long it takes to get from place to place. If you’re worried about taking classes one after another in different buildings, a quick test run won’t hurt. That way, you will avoid potential time delays in getting to your classes.

Starting a Routine

Before getting too excited about all of the fun things you will be able to do during the week, remember that you do have a pretty big schedule change coming up. Starting classes means being in different places at different times, so it’s a great idea to start getting used to that routine right this week.

What helps you most is to schedule your sleep. Following the planned time will ensure you have enough sleep to get to those early classes and stay wide awake.

If you have other daily routines, such as exercising or talking on the phone with family, work those into your day-to-day life before classes start so that you get a better idea of how they fit in with your schedule.

【推荐3】Search “toxic parents”, and you’ll find more than 38,000 posts, largely urging young adults to cut ties with their families. The idea is to safeguard one’s mental health from abusive parents (虐待型父母). However, as a psychoanalyst (精神分析学家), I’ve seen that trend in recent years become a way to manage conflicts in the family, and the severe impacts estrangement (疏远) has on both sides of the divide. This is a self-help trend that creates much harm.

Today’s social justice values respond to this reality, calling on us to criticize oppressive (高压的) and harmful figures and to gain power for those who have been powerless. But when adult children use the most effective tool they have - themselves - to gain a sense of security and ban their parents from their lives, the roles are simply switched, and the pain only deepens.

Often, what I see in my practice are cases of family conflict mismanaged. I see the terrible effect of that trend: situations with no winners, only isolated (孤立的;孤独的) humans who long to be known and feel safe in the presence of the other.

The catch is that after estrangement, adult children feel abandoned and betrayed. They carry the ghosts of their childhood, tackling the emotional reality that those who raised us can never truly be left behind, no matter how hard we try.

What I have found is that most of these families need repair, not permanent break-up. How can one learn how to negotiate (谈判;协商) needs, to create boundaries and to trust? How can we love others, and ourselves, if not through accepting the limitations that come with being human? Good relationships are the result not of a perfect level of harmony but rather of successful adjustments.

To pursue (追求) dialogue instead of estrangement will be hard and painful work. It can’t be a single project of “self-help”, because at the end of the day, real intimacy (亲密关系) is achieved by working through the injuries of the past together. In most cases of family conflict, repair is possible and preferable to estrangement - and it’s worth the work.