1 . Everyone knows you must exercise regularly to keep good health. Indeed, staying physically fit is a big part of our culture. We consider (or rightly so) that healthy people are attractive people. Since most of us want to be attractive, there is no shortage of exercise clubs, training videos, magazines and books offering to help us stay physically fit.

Unfortunately, however, our culture doesn’t place the same emphasis on mental fitness. Although we tend to like men and women with strong, healthy-looking bodies, we don’t have the same degree of respect or attraction for smart, educated, mentally healthy people. This is a pity, because there are great rewards for people who have developed the ability to think well.

If your mind is well trained and flexible, you will be able to understand a great deal of what happens around you. And if you are also well educated-that is, if you understand basic science, mathematics, music, art, literature, history and so on—you will find it much easier to make good decisions throughout your life. Over the long run, this leads to a sense of control over your destiny (命运) and a much better life than otherwise (in another way).

People who are poorly educated or who don’t think well—that is, people who are not mentally fit—see things differently. Their world is controlled by mysterious, often malevolent (恶意的) forces. Such people live within a system they will never master, forced to follow rules they will never understand. Although it may not be obvious, most spend their lives being manipulated (控制) by others. They are told what to do, what to think, how to spend their money, and what they should and should not aspire (渴望) to in life.

In my opinion, if you want to live well, you must be able to use your mind well. For this reason, I want you to be able to concentrate, to solve problems, to understand complex ideas, and to think clearly and quickly. Such skills will make it easier for you to make informed decisions, understand current events, choose good friends, manage your money well, make wise long-term decisions and appreciate music, art and literature.

The key to developing such skills is to enjoy learning, and to have the ability and motivation to teach yourself.

2 . A month after Hurricane Katrina, I returned home in New Orleans. There lay my house, reduced to waist-high ruins, smelly and dirty.

Before the trip, I’d had my car fixed. When the office employee of the garage was writing up the bill, she noticed my Louisiana license plate. “You from New Orleans?” she asked. I said I was, “No charge,” she said, and firmly shook her head when I reached for my wallet. The next day I went for a haircut, and the same thing happened.

As my wife was studying in Florida, we decided to move there and tried to find a rental house that we could afford while also paying off a mortgage (抵押贷款) on our ruined house. We looked at many places, but none was satisfactory. We’d begun to accept that we’d have to live in extremely reduced circumstances for a while, when I got a very curious e-mail from a James Kennedy in California. He’d read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine, and wanted to give us (“no conditions attached”) a new house across the lake from New Orleans.

It sounded too good to be true, but I replied, thanking him for his exceptional generosity, that we had no plans to go back. Then a poet at the University of Florida offered to let his house to me while he went to England on his one-year paid leave. The rent was rather reasonable. I mentioned the poet’s offer to James Kennedy, and the next day he sent a check covering our entire rent for eight months.

Throughout this painful experience, the kindness of strangers has done much to bring back my faith in humanity. It’s almost worth losing your worldly possessions to be reminded that people are really nice when given half a chance.

3 . An 8-year-old Nigerian, Tani Adewumis, whose family is homeless, won first place at the New York State chess championship without a single defeat at the beginning of 2019 and he says he is not done yet.

“I want to be the youngest grandmaster,” Tani told The New York Times. Tani placed first in the tournament for kindergarten through third grade — an outstanding win for anyone. “It’s unheard of for any kid, let alone one in a homeless shelter,” said Russell Makofsky, who is in charge of the chess program.

Tani hasn’t had an easy life. His family left northern Nigeria in 2017 fearing attacks on Christians, and moved to New York City over a year ago where the boy learned how to play chess at school. School chess coach Shawn Martinez saw Tani’s potential after observing him stand out in the game a few weeks after first learning it early last year. He reached out to Tani’s family about joining in the school’s chess program, and learned they were unable to pay costs associated with membership. Shawn decided to abandon Tani’s fees, which can easily reach thousands with travel and chess camp admissions.

Seven victories later, the elementary school boy is one of the top players in the country for his age group. “He works very hard at his game,” Martinez said, believing Tani could achieve master status in the next year or two. The world’s youngest grandmaster qualified at the age of 12.

As Tani’s story hits national headlines, more people want to help. Makofsky, who set up a GoFundMe for Tani, said the family has received offers for a car, legal services, jobs and even housing. “My hope is that he’ll be in a home tonight,” Makofsky said.

4 . An 8-year-old Nigerian, Tani Adewumis, whose family is homeless, won first place at the New York State chess championship without a single defeat at the beginning of 2019 and he says he is not done yet.

“I want to be the youngest grandmaster,” Tani told The New York Times. Tani placed first in the tournament for kindergarten through third grade — an outstanding win for anyone. “It’s unheard of for any kid, let alone one in a homeless shelter,” said Russell Makofsky, who is in charge of the chess program.

Tani hasn’t had an easy life. His family left northern Nigeria in 2017 fearing attacks on Christians, and moved to New York City over a year ago where the boy learned how to play chess at school. School chess coach Shawn Martinez saw Tani’s potential after observing him stand out in the game a few weeks after first learning it early last year. He reached out to Tani’s family about joining in the school’s chess program, and learned they were unable to pay costs associated with membership. Shawn decided to abandon Tani’s fees, which can easily reach thousands with travel and chess camp admissions.

Seven victories later, the elementary school boy is one of the top players in the country for his age group. “He works very hard at his game,” Martinez said, believing Tani could achieve master status in the next year or two. The world’s youngest grandmaster qualified at the age of 12.

As Tani’s story hits national headlines, more people want to help. Makofsky, who set up a GoFundMe for Tani, said the family has received offers for a car, legal services, jobs and even housing. “My hope is that he’ll be in a home tonight,” Makofsky said.

5 . An 8-year-old Nigerian, Tani Adewumis, whose family is homeless, won first place at the New York State chess championship without a single defeat at the beginning of 2019 and he says he is not done yet.

“I want to be the youngest grandmaster,” Tani told The New York Times. Tani placed first in the tournament for kindergarten through third grade — an outstanding win for anyone. “It’s unheard of for any kid, let alone one in a homeless shelter,” said Russell Makofsky, who is in charge of the chess program.

Tani hasn’t had an easy life. His family left northern Nigeria in 2017 fearing attacks on Christians, and moved to New York City over a year ago where the boy learned how to play chess at school. School chess coach Shawn Martinez saw Tani’s potential after observing him stand out in the game a few weeks after first learning it early last year. He reached out to Tani’s family about joining in the school’s chess program, and learned they were unable to pay costs associated with membership. Shawn decided to abandon Tani’s fees, which can easily reach thousands with travel and chess camp admissions.

Seven victories later, the elementary school boy is one of the top players in the country for his age group. “He works very hard at his game,” Martinez said, believing Tani could achieve master status in the next year or two. The world’s youngest grandmaster qualified at the age of 12.

As Tani’s story hits national headlines, more people want to help. Makofsky, who set up a GoFundMe for Tani, said the family has received offers for a car, legal services, jobs and even housing. “My hope is that he’ll be in a home tonight,” Makofsky said.

6 . An 8-year-old Nigerian, Tani Adewumis, whose family is homeless, won first place at the New York State chess championship without a single defeat at the beginning of 2019 and he says he is not done yet.

“I want to be the youngest grandmaster,” Tani told The New York Times. Tani placed first in the tournament for kindergarten through third grade — an outstanding win for anyone. “It’s unheard of for any kid, let alone one in a homeless shelter,” said Russell Makofsky, who is in charge of the chess program.

Tani hasn’t had an easy life. His family left northern Nigeria in 2017 fearing attacks on Christians, and moved to New York City over a year ago where the boy learned how to play chess at school. School chess coach Shawn Martinez saw Tani’s potential after observing him stand out in the game a few weeks after first learning it early last year. He reached out to Tani’s family about joining in the school’s chess program, and learned they were unable to pay costs associated with membership. Shawn decided to abandon Tani’s fees, which can easily reach thousands with travel and chess camp admissions.

Seven victories later, the elementary school boy is one of the top players in the country for his age group. “He works very hard at his game,” Martinez said, believing Tani could achieve master status in the next year or two. The world’s youngest grandmaster qualified at the age of 12.

As Tani’s story hits national headlines, more people want to help. Makofsky, who set up a GoFundMe for Tani, said the family has received offers for a car, legal services, jobs and even housing. “My hope is that he’ll be in a home tonight,” Makofsky said.

7 . Vancouver has had a crazy property (房地产) market since it hosted the winter Olympics in 2010. The downtown area is forested with new apartment blocks. Prices have risen by nearly 60% in the past three years. But until recently developers have largely avoided Chinatown. It is an underdeveloped area. Many Chinatown residents are old and poor.

Developers now have Chinatown in their sights. Two years ago one built a 17-storey apartment building on its edge. This alarmed many residents, who had formed a group to stop the high-rise advance, now called SaveChinatownYVR. Ms. Melody Ma is its leader. Recently it has been successful.

The main theatre of battle is a car park known as 105 Keefer, where Beedie Living plans to build a nine-storey brick-and-glass apartment block. The developer promises 111 luxury flats, with rooftop landscaping and shops below.

105 Keefer is in an area rich with cultural associations. Just to the south is a monument to Chinese-Canadian builders of the Canadian Pacific Railway and veterans of the Second Word War. Across the street is the Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum. “A lot of people were frightened” because of the building’s “closeness to sacred sites in the heart of Chinatown,” says Ms. Ma. Some residents also fear that it will push up rents.

Conservationists hope that the parking lot is where they can stop development, which they say has spoilt the charm of other Vancouver neighborhoods such as Mount Pleasant. The dispute (分歧) is part of a debate about the city’s identity, says Andy Yan, an urban planner. Vancouverites, he says, are asking themselves, “Who are we? And what are we building for?” The people who might want to buy the flats that do not yet exist are, of course, not being consulted.

8 . For people, many other animals, family matters. Consider how many jobs go to relatives. Or how an ant will cruelly attack intruder (入侵的) ants but rescue injured, closely related nest-mates. There are good evolutionary reasons to aid relatives, after all. Now, it seems, family feelings may stir in plants as well.

A Canadian biologist planted the seed of the idea more than a decade ago, but many plant biologists regarded it as heretical-plants lack the nervous systems that enable animals to recognize kin (家族), so how can they know their relatives? But with a series of recent findings, the belief that plants really do care for their most genetically close peers-in a quiet, planty way-is taking root. Some species control how far their roots spread, others change how many flowers they produce, and a few tilt (倾斜) or shift their leaves to minimize shading of neighboring plants, favoring related individuals.

“We need to recognize that plants not only sense whether it’s light or dark or if they’ve been touched, but also whom they are interacting with,” says Susan Dudley, a plant evolutionary ecologist, whose early plant kin recognition studies sparked the interest of many scientists.

Beyond broadening views of plant behavior, the new work may have a practical side. In September 2018, a team in China reported that rice planted with kin grows better, a finding that suggested family ties can be used to improve crop yields. “It seems anytime anyone looks for it, they find a kin effect,” says Andre Kessler, a chemical ecologist at Cornell University.

9 . Vancouver has had a crazy property (房地产) market since it hosted the winter Olympics in 2010. The downtown area is forested with new apartment blocks. Prices have risen by nearly 60% in the past three years. But until recently developers have largely avoided Chinatown. It is an underdeveloped area. Many Chinatown residents are old and poor.

Developers now have Chinatown in their sights. Two years ago one built a 17-storey apartment building on its edge. This alarmed many residents, who had formed a group to stop the high-rise advance, now called SaveChinatownYVR. Ms. Melody Ma is its leader. Recently it has been successful.

The main theatre of battle is a car park known as 105 Keefer, where Beedie Living plans to build a nine-storey brick-and-glass apartment block. The developer promises 111 luxury flats, with rooftop landscaping and shops below.

105 Keefer is in an area rich with cultural associations. Just to the south is a monument to Chinese-Canadian builders of the Canadian Pacific Railway and veterans of the Second Word War. Across the street is the Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden and the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum. “A lot of people were frightened” because of the building’s “closeness to sacred sites in the heart of Chinatown,” says Ms. Ma. Some residents also fear that it will push up rents.

Conservationists hope that the parking lot is where they can stop development, which they say has spoilt the charm of other Vancouver neighborhoods such as Mount Pleasant. The dispute (分歧) is part of a debate about the city’s identity, says Andy Yan, an urban planner. Vancouverites, he says, are asking themselves, “Who are we? And what are we building for?” The people who might want to buy the flats that do not yet exist are, of course, not being consulted.

10 . Vijay Gupta is known to classical music lovers across the United States. He serves as the first violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In that job, he often plays to large crowds, including many very rich people. When he is not performing, he organizes concerts for homeless people. “They have reminded me why I became a musician.” He said.

Last week, Gupta was recognized for being a founder and the artistic director of Street Symphony. The group has performed at homeless shelters, jails and halfway houses for about eight years. Gupta is among the 25 winners of the 2018 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the “Genius Grant”. Each winner will receive $ 625,000 over five years to use as they wish. The money is coming from a private group, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It awards grants (补助金) to people whose work it considers exceptional and whose work “inspires hope in us all”. Gupta said he got the idea for Street Symphony while teaching Nathaniel Ayers, a trained musician whose mental illness led to his homelessness.

The 31-year-old winner said he did not know yet how he would spend the money. He has been a performer since the age of seven and the award will give him “space to breathe, plan and look ahead”.

Another winner is Rebecca Sandefur, an associate professor (副教授) of sociology and law in the University of Illinois. The Associated Press says her research actively supports new ways to involve poor communities in the U. S. justice system.

47-year-old Sandefur created the first national mapping of civil legal aid providers. It shows which states have the financial(金融的)resources to provide such aid and which don’t. She also found that the cost of legal services was only one of the things preventing poor people from getting lawyers. Among the others were fears of unfairness(不公平)in the legal system. Sandefur noted that a lot of attention had been paid to problems with the criminal justice system, but more attention must be paid to the civil side of the law, which also affected millions of people.