2 . Notpla, a London-based firm, makes a seaweed-based substitute (代替物) for single use plastic packaging. Although some of Notpla’s products are suitable to be eaten, they are designed to be dissolved (溶解) after usage. Made of seaweed instead of a conventional plastic coating, the company’s packaging is fully biodegradable and ideal for use as packaging for kitchen and bathroom supplies like coffee and toilet paper.

According to the United Nations, 331 million kilograms of plastic garbage is produced annually around the world. About 60% of the estimated 9.15 billion tons of plastic produced since the early 1950s has been taken to landfills.

Plastics harm the water, the air, and our bodies. Many experts agree that single-use plastics are unnecessary and dangerous. Some governments and towns in the United States have taken action. New York has banned most plastic shopping bags, while plastic straws have been banned in Miami Beach. Overseas, India stated in August that it plans to place a wide ban on single-use plastics this upcoming summer, with the European Union already implementing this ban.

Seaweed comes in a variety of species and can be harvested or farmed. Notpla uses plants that have been farmed. Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslie, the inventors of Notpla, initially considered seaweed as a solution to the world’s plastic problem for several reasons. Seaweed is plentiful and grows quickly. Additionally it doesn’t compete with land crops and is highly favored for its ability to remove some waste products like carbon from the atmosphere.

In cooperation with the online food ordering service Just Eat, the startup recently tested its product. Last year, the two companies handed out 30, 000 takeaway boxes at various UK restaurants. Plans are in the works to offer the boxes across Europe in 2022. Notpla’s team intends to replace single use plastic in the supply chain more generally as they scale. The company recognizes the difficulty of such a job, considering the volume of plastics consumed around the world.

4 . Instead of paying to ship the items you don’t need to your new home, why not donate them? Your old household goods like furniture will go to a new home where they will be appreciated. Here are some charities that might help.

Furniture Bank Network

Furniture Bank Network helps people furnish their homes with practical secondhand items donated by people within the community. Tax receipts for the value of the donated items are given to donors (捐赠者). Recipients get the furniture for free. People can get furnishings from their local Furniture Bank only if they are referred to the organization through one of its social service partners. It also encourages applicants to help the organization with volunteer work.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity is a global non-profit. It collects monetary donations to build and remodel affordable housing so that those in need can apply for it. You can also donate furniture and other household goods to Habitat for Humanity. It resells these items in home improvement stores and uses the money to fund its humanitarian efforts.

Goodwill

Goodwill resells donated furniture and other household items to fund its charitable objectives. Goodwill uses its earnings to provide career training and employment assistance for unemployed individuals. It also offers discounts to the people enrolled in its training programs, allowing them to affordably furnish their homes and buy clothes for their families.

PickUpMyDonation.com

PickUpMyDonation.com isn’t actually a donation center and it doesn’t pick up your donations. Instead, it helps you find local non-profits and charity shops that do. If your donation isn’t large enough for a local non-profit to send a truck, PickUpMyDonation.com can still help. The company will put you in touch with a local moving company to pick up your donation and take it to a nearby center.

6 . Every year thousands of people come to the city of Pamplona, in north-eastern Spain, for the opportunity to run for their lives as six fighting bulls are released to charge through the town. There are injuries and deaths every year, but the event is of interest to many people. A paper just published in Science describes the insight the event offers into the psychology of panicked crowds.

That is a useful topic to explore. Arehitects, civil engineers and urban planners must try to work out how people will behave in the event of a disaster like a fire, a flood or a terrorist attack so they can design their creations to avoid potentially deadly collisions (碰撞). Unfortunately, solid information is hard to come by. Daniel Parisi, the paper’s lead author, realised that the Pamplona bull-runs offered the perfect natural experiment.

Dr Parisi and his team went to two different rooftop locations in Pamplona in July 2019, and filmed the runners as the animals were released, Later in the lab, they calculated the speed of the runners, the density (密度) of the crowd, the probability of a runner tripping and falling and the relationship between runner-group density and speed.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that runners picked up speed when the bulls drew near. Less expected was the finding that the speed of individual runners increased with the density of the crowd, which was contrary to a long-held assumption in architectural and urban-design circles that people will slow their pace as group density goes up, in order to lower the risk of a collision, which could lead to a fall and, perhaps, injury or death.

Yet it seems that, in the heat of the moment, people pay little attention to the danger of colliding with each other, and do not slow down. The responsibility therefore falls upon urban designers to work out how best to plan the construction of future tunnels, bridges and other passages that restrict flow. The only option may well be to make them wider.

7 . The “24 solar terms” (节气) originated and was first used in China. It was created thousands of years ago on the basis of practical needs of agricultural. Ancient Chinese people used it to guide agricultural production, explain special climate signs and even come up with healthy living tips. Last year, the 24 solar terms was added to UNESCO's world cultural heritage list(联合国教科文组织世界文化遗产名录). Now, it has been brought to life thanks to a creative designer from Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

On the eve of this year's Qingming Festival, Shi Changhong released (发布) his version of reproduced and packaged characters for each solar term in the form of “moving art” of gifs. Since their first release on Zcool on March 29, the gifs have won great praise among the general public and quickly flooded the social media with millions of hits during the festival period.

To maximize publicity, Shi released his work in three forms: the video, the animation and pictures. The background sounds add to the brilliance.

“When I watch the short video, I can strongly feel the Chinese-style elements hidden in it. And it is really cool to liven up traditional Chinese culture in such a unique way.” WeChat user Xiao Feifei said.

“It is really a comfort to me to see so many people like my latest work. To be honest, it would really surprise me if the work had not aroused great interest among Chinese people. The 24 solar terms is a deeply rooted concept that covers the essence of Chinese wisdom. However, only a small portion of people know all the names or the correct order of those terms. My intention is to increase Chinese people’s self-awareness to learn more about our traditional fine culture. Actually, the 24 solar terms work is only a part of my whole design program ‘Charm China’, which I started a year ago.” Shi told China Daily.

9 . China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day (Longtaitou) is one of them. This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar (阴历). It stands for the start of spring and farming. This year, the day falls on March 4th.

The dragon is important in Chinese culture. We Chinese people call ourselves the “descendants (传人) of the dragon”. Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragons.

On the day in ancient times, people put ashes (灰) in the kitchen. This was to “lead the dragon into the house”. People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest in autumn.

Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat “dragon whisker (细须)” noodles and dumplings called “dragon teeth”.

Today, many customs have faded away. But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the mother’s brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

10 . Last summer over 12,000 fans were at Wembley Arena in London, shouting and cheering. Thousands more were watching online.     1     It was eSports.

Millions of people in the UK play computer games for fun. Some of them have become professional gamers, playing games as their full-time job.     2     They practice for ten or more hours a day, five or six days a week. They do exercises like typing something and trying to type it faster and faster. They also study videos of other players and plan ways to defeat them.

    3     Are players athletes? Some say no. ESports players don’t need to run, jump, throw or do big physical action. At the moment, the UK government classifies eSports as kinds of games, not as sports.

But others say yes: eSports are sports. Players do need some physical skills, especially hand-eye coordination, reflexes, accuracy and timing. If darts, snooker and shooting are classified as sports, then perhaps eSports should be too.

    4     And they will be official medal sports in the Asian Games starting from 2022. Next step: the Olympics?

For many eSports fans and players, though, the most important thing is that eSports are growing in popularity and importance.     5