1 . Remember the woman in Port Hood, N. S. whose recipe for meat rolls spread all over the internet? The dog from Quebec that attracted hundreds of thousands of followers for its advice on surviving social isolation? The pilot whose path over Nova Scotia formed the shape of a heart?

All of their stories, and dozens more, are collected in a new book by two Canadian authors. It took Heather Down and Catherine Kenwell just a little more than seven weeks to collect the stories behind the 49 uplifting moments they recorded during the pandemic.

The book includes everything from the tale of Robbie Griffiths, the father from Paradise, N. L. who dressed up as Spider-Man so kids could have something positive in their day, to Carter Mann, the Grade 5 student from Sudbury, Ont, who wrote a poem to encourage front-line heroes including his own father, who is a health carer.

“Not Canceled: Canadian Caremongering in the Face of COVID-19” is a reminder that a lot of positive things happened during lockdown. The book’s title is a nod to the Canadian attitude and reaction to the pandemic, as the word “caremongering” has Canadian roots. Even the number of stories is no accident: it’s a reference to the 49th parallel, along which runs the Canada-U. S. border between Manitoba and B. C.

One of the stories in “Not Canceled” centers on the marriage of a couple in B. C. They may have had to shift their celebrations to a living room, but the ceremony was far from lonely. Friends showed up in their cars outside, with everyone tuned into the same radio station, so the bride and groom could have their first dance in the middle of the street.

Down wanted to document how the nation navigated such dark times with kindness. She told CTV News that “the response has been amazing. I’m so pleased.”

The stories included in the book are just the tip of the iceberg. Down says that there are so many stories left over that she and Kenwell might just have to do a second book.

2 . As my head moved up and down on the Zoom screen, private messages poured in from my colleagues: “What are you doing there?” “Are you sitting on a ball?” “Are you walking?” I could feel their eyes on me — inquiring, interested, confused. Clearly, this wasn’t a normal faculty meeting. I replied I was walking on my new under desk treadmill (跑步机).

I didn’t have to worry about workday inactivity earlier in my career. As a graduate student and postdoc, I went on frequent field excursions to collect soil samples in remote places. The fieldwork was physically challenging, a contrast to the lab tasks and desk work that were also part of my job. But when I became a professor, fieldwork became a rarity.

During the pandemic the situation grew worse. My schedule filled up with one online meeting or seminar after the next. And I “traveled” to them without leaving my desk. Although I had the luxury of a height-adjustable desk, which gave me the option to stand, I still felt unbalanced, and I began to experience back pain.

At home, I’d occasionally tried to work on my wife’s treadmill, which I’d repurposed by putting a wooden board across the handles and my laptop on top. I thought that might be just what I needed in my campus office, so I bought a treadmill designed to go under a desk. I decided to spend my entire workday on the treadmill. It took me several days to adjust, but I eventually got the hang of typing and speaking while walking.

When I’m at my desk, I spend nearly all of my working hours in motion. In the first couple of weeks, I was a bit exhausted when I got home at night. But over time, I developed more endurance. My back pain disappeared and I came to enjoy the time at my desk.

Most of the scientists I work with have sent me reassuring feedback. Some have even bought treadmills of their own. That has made me view my walking as a way to silently communicate a crucial message to my colleagues: There’re always ways to stay active if you want!

3 . During the COVID-19 pandemic (疫情), US citizen Elizabeth Hulanick has turned to toys from her childhood to deal with worry and stress. She started bringing Lego toys to work to build things out of the colorful blocks with her colleagues. She also started playing with Silly Putty, a toy made of special rubbery material that changes colors. She said it brought her comfort.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many adults turned to toys to recall feelings from their childhood. The stresses from the worldwide health crisis only made that trend grow.

Many toy makers see adults’ interest in toys as a durable thing, even after the pandemic fully ends. This so-called “kid-adult” market is a big part of the toy industry. The market is the second-fastest-growing group after customers aged 12 to 17.

Some toy companies are creating new products, services and websites designed for adults. For example, Mattel’s American Girl Cafe recently added alcoholic drinks to their menu after seeing adults show up without children. American Girl makes popular, costly dolls. Last year, the company Build-a-Bear started a website called Bear Cave for customers aged 18 and over. Products include a toy rabbit holding a bottle of wine. Even the fast-food restaurant McDonald’s is marketing to toy-loving adults. It started its adult Happy Meals in October. McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company sold half its supply of collectible toys in the first four days of the special deal. The Lego Group has been increasing its products for adults since 2020. It now has 100 toys designed for adult customers. Among the most popular toys for adults are Star Wars and Harry Potter-linked Lego sets.

Genevieve Cruz is senior director at Lego. She said, “The pandemic certainly served as a catalyst (催化剂) for this trend as adults found themselves stuck at home with nothing else to do and a lot of time on their hands. We do believe the trend goes beyond the pandemic.”

5 . Human beings are extremely adaptable creatures, and able to find something good in almost everything. A recent study asked the American population to find out what they consider to be the positive aspect of COVID-19.

A team from Harvard and Stanford conducted interviews of 3,113 participants over the seven-month period from March to September 2020.

The scientists found many things in the responses. Using statistical analysis, the researchers grouped words and themes together to find the most common silver linings in the storm of COVID-19 waves.

Number one, reported by 46% of participants, was quality time with loved ones, including “The kids are helping around the house more”, “I’m in touch with my family who live far away” and “My husband and I take more walks, resulting in more time together.

The second most-recognized silver lining was “life slowed down, and I could do things calmly without FOMO (fear of missing out).” They also noted that because life was slower, they could pursue low-cost hobbies merely for fun, and find time for thinking.

Number three was community coming together, not just in terms of the local community in which the participant was a member, but seeing communities come together all over the world.

The other six themes, reported by between 8% — 12% of participants, included the benefits of having a more flexible working schedule, or completely working from home, getting more health knowledge, and feelings of gratitude.

“Reflecting on benefits may help people better recognize the outside protective factors in their lives — such as having strong relationships with family or friends — or their own inside protective factors — such as being grateful,” the researchers note. “The process of identifying benefits may help people notice the protective factors in their lives, which are ‘skill, strengths, or resources that can help them deal more effectively with stressful events’. It serves as psychological buffers that protect individuals from the potential harms of tough situations.”

7 . There have been few precious positives during the COVID-19 pandemic but academies may have unearthed one: People look more attractive in protective masks.

Researchers at Cardiff University were surprised to find that both men and women were: judged to look better with a face covering hiding the lower half of their faces.

Dr Michael Lewis, a reader from Cardiff University’s school of psychology and an expert in faces, said research carried out before the pandemic had found that medical face masks reduced attractiveness because they were associated with disease or illness.

“We wanted to test whether the idea had changed since face coverings became common and understand whether the type of mask had any effect,” he said.

“Our study suggests faces are considered more attractive when covered by medical face masks. This may be because we’re used to healthcare workers wearing blue masks and now we associate these with people in caring or medical professions. At a time when we feel weak, we may find the wearing of medical masks makes us feel less worried or frightened and so we feel more positive towards the wearer.”

The first part of the research was carried out in February 2021. Forty-three women were asked to rate on a scale of one to ten the attractiveness of images of male faces without a mask, wearing a plain cloth mask, a blue medical face mask, and holding a plain black book covering the area a face mask would hide.

The participants said those wearing a cloth mask were significantly more attractive than the ones with no masks or whose faces were partly obscured (掩盖) by the book. But the medical face mask—which was just a normal, disposable kind—made the wearer look even better.

“The results run counter to the pre-pandemic research where it was thought that masks made people think about disease and that the person should be avoided.” said Lewis. “The pandemic has changed our psychology in how we view the wearers of masks. When we see someone wearing a mask we no longer think ‘that person has a disease, and I need to stay away’.”

9 . Last September, British artist Sacha Jafri set the record for creating the world's largest painting. Last week, the painting was sold for $62 million, which will go to charity.

Last year, as the COVID-19 spread and many countries went into lockdown, Mr. Jafri was in Dubai. Rather than feeling stuck, Mr. Jafri decided to take on a huge project that could“make a really big difference”.

He decided to create the world's largest painting. And he wanted to do it in a way that would include people from around the world. He asked children to send him pictures showing how they were feeling during the pandemic(疫情). He got artwork from kids in 140 different countries.

Using the children's ideas as a starting point, Mr. Jafri began to paint in a huge dancing room in a fancy hotel. It took Mr. Jafri seven months to create the painting. He worked long hours every day—often up to 20 hours a day. He hurt his back by bending over so much while he painted. It took over 1,000 paintbrushes and 6,300 liters of paint to create the painting. The painting, which was over 1,600 square meters, was around the size of four basketball courts.

Mr. Jafri hoped that his painting, called “The Journey of Humanity”, would help bring the world together during a difficult time. Since Mr. Jafri’s goal was to raise money to help children suffering from the pandemic, the painting was split up into 70 large parts. Mr. Jafri hoped that by selling the parts separately, he could raise $30 million.

But when the auction(拍卖) ended on March 22, Mr. Jafri did much better than that. A French businessman bought all the pieces. Knowing that the money would go to charity also motivated him to decide to pay more. He says he was poor when he grew up, so he's glad to be helping children around the world by buying the painting.