3 . Don’t Get Lost in the Term of Eco-tourism

Given that tourism produces harmful emissions, the term “green travel” can seem contradictory. Green travel will not solve the climate crisis, but knowing what to look for can allow you to make choices that do less harm and more good if you do choose to travel.     1    

Don’t get hung up on the terms.

The key to better understanding and identifying sustainable travel options is recognizing that it’s actually actions—not words—that matter. Definitions can vary from person to person.     2    

Ask questions.

Before you book a tour or hotel, prepare questions. For example: Do they support the local economy? Are they ensuring the preservation of the natural environment?     3     However, if you can’t find answers on the website, contact the property or tour operator directly.

    4    

You don’t have to plan a responsible travel and the ever-changing term alone. Contact organizations that provide training, accreditation and transparent standards. You can also join responsible travel communities on social media, where you can ask questions, share resources and learn alongside other travelers who share your values.

Start now.

You can’t do everything at once right away. Decide what you can do. Maybe it’s contributing to a conservation or community project.     5     Anyway, when you know better, do better.

6 . Working Together to Save the Sea Turtles

Florida has some of the best beaches in the world. Thousands of people visit the state to enjoy the sand. But these beaches are also home to five species of sea turtles. A major problem is facing these interesting creatures.     1     So how do Floridians protect these special animals?

Some volunteers and researchers in Florida take direct action to help the turtles. They look closely at the sand to find the fin (鳍) marks the mother sea turtles left there.     2     When they’ve figured out where the eggs were laid, they mark the area off so that no one disturbs the eggs. They also collect information about the nests and tracks to help people studying sea turtles.

These are not the only Floridians taking action to help protect these creatures. Florida’s government has passed laws to save the turtles. One of these laws is “Florida’s Marine Turtle Protection Act”. This law prohibits anyone from disturbing or destroying marine turtles, nests, or eggs.    3    

Another way Floridians work together to save these creatures is through organizations like the Sea Turtle Conservancy. The Sea Turtle Conservancy helps people take steps that will help reduce the threats that put sea turtles in danger. For instance, bright lights on buildings near the beach can negatively impact sea turtles. Baby sea turtles usually hatch on the sandy beach and head to the ocean. When there are bright lights coming from the other side of the shore far from the ocean, the baby turtles get confused.     4     To help save these turtles, The Sea Turtle Conservancy works with property owners to make lighting in their buildings sea turtle-friendly. They also encourage Florida residents to turn off their lights at night if they live close to a beach.

    5     Sometimes, turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish. They eat this trash and die. Florida residents can volunteer for beach clean-ups and make sure to pick up their own litter. They can also vote for state leaders who want to protect the sea turtles’ habitats. Every individual in the community has the power to make a difference!

7 . Recreational Sports Membership

Ohio State University has some of the best recreation facilities (设施) in the country. Our Recreation and Physical Activity Center (RPAC) has opened in the past 10 years, whose facilities and programs are designed to fit all your needs and schedule.

RPAC Membership Rights

A membership is your ticket to take advantage of all the facilities and programs.

Classes and programs

Group fitness, sport clubs and outdoor adventure programs are only available to current RPAC members. You can attend unlimited free group fitness classes as part of your membership. An extra payment will be required if you prefer personal training classes.

Guests and Family Participation

Members may sponsor up to two guests during a visit. A daily guest pass is required for each guest to enter RPAC, and members must be present at the time of buying a pass. The pass is accepted at all facilities for unlimited re-entries in a one-day period.

RPAC aims to offer a family-friendly environment. Members are able to enjoy quality time with their families free of charge in a variety of family-friendly accommodations, including family changing rooms, the Lounge game room, and Leisure pool.

Locker and Towel Rental

RPAC offers full-service men’s and women’s locker rooms featuring large and medium size lockers, which can be rented either monthly or yearly. RPAC towel service is available in addition to day lockers at various locations throughout the facility.

RPAC Membership Responsibilities

In an effort to create a welcoming and safe environment for all members, you have the responsibility to follow the following policies:

Filming and photography in the facilities must be approved in advance.

Cell phone photography and video are not permitted in locker rooms.

Fighting and rough play are not permitted in all facilities.

Shoes are required in all public areas of all indoor facilities, except for locker rooms and swimming pools.

All equipment checked-out from RPAC must be returned at the required check-in time. You may be charged for the equipment returned late or damaged.

Please contact member services if you have any other questions about your RPAC membership.

8 . Supermarkets have long been suffering as one of the thinnest-margined businesses in existence and one of the least-looked-forward-to places to work or visit. For more than a decade, they have been under attack from e-commerce giants, blamed for making Americans fat, and accused of contributing to climate change.

Supermarkets can technically be defined as giants housing 15,000 to 60,000 different products. The revolutionary idea of a self-service grocery, where people could hunt and gather food from aisles rather than asking a clerk to fetch items from behind a counter, first came about in America. There is some debate about which was the very first, but over the years a consensus has built around King Kullen Supermarket, founded in New York in 1930.

For some 300 years, Americans had fed themselves from small stores and public markets. Shopping for food involved mud, noisy chickens, clouds of flies, nasty smells, bargaining, and getting short-changed. The supermarket imitated the Fordist factory, with its emphasis on efficiency and standardization, and reimagined it as a place to buy food. Supermarkets may not feel cutting-edge now, but they were a revolution in distribution at the time. They were such strange marvels that, on her first official state visit to the United States in 1957, Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ insisted on an impromptu (即兴的) tour of a suburban-Maryland Giant Food.

The typical supermarket layout has barely changed over the past 90 years. Most stores open with flowers, fruit and vegetables at the front as a breath of freshness to arouse our appetite. Meanwhile, they keep the milk, eggs, and other daily basics all the way back so you’ll travel through as much of the store as possible, and be tempted along the way.

In the early days, as the supermarket multiplied, so did our suspicion of it. We have long feared that this “revolution in distribution” uses corporate black magic on our appetite. The book The Hidden Persuaders, published in 1957, warned that supermarkets were putting women in a “hypnoidal trance (催眠恍惚状态),” causing them to wander aisles, bumping into boxes and “picking things off shelves at random.”

9 . In the annals of human history, few subjects have generated as much excitement, debate, and guess as artificial intelligence (AI). This revolutionary technology, which enables machines to perform tasks that once required human intelligence, has the potential to transform every part of our society, from healthcare and finance to transportation and entertainment.

At its heart, AI is all about data. Massive amounts of data are fed into algorithms that learn from this data, allowing them to make predictions, recognize patterns, and even make decisions. This “machine learning” is the driving force behind many of the AI applications we see today, from virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to more advanced systems like IBM’s Watson, which can analyze vast amounts of information to assist doctors in diagnosing diseases.

The transformative potential of AI is undeniable. In the medical field, for instance, AI can assist in early detection of diseases, predict patient outcomes, and even suggest treatment options. In finance, algorithms can predict stock market trends, and provide personalized financial advice. In transportation, self-driving cars equipped with AI systems promise to reduce accidents, ease traffic jams, and transform urban landscapes.

However, with great potential comes great responsibility. The rise of AI has caused debates about is ethical implications (道德含义). The machines are only as good as the data they are fed, and there’s a growing concern about biases (偏见) being built into AI systems. For instance, facial recognition technologies, used in everything from unlocking phones to police monitoring cameras, have come under check for misidentifying individuals based on race or gender.

Moreover, the widespread adoption of AI could lead to significant job displacement. While new roles and industries might emerge as a result of AI, it is not sure that these will pay off the jobs lost. This could increase income inequalities and causes difficulties to social systems.

Another major concern is the “black box” nature of AI. Many AI systems operate in ways that even their creators don’t fully understand. This can be problematic, especially in critical applications like healthcare or criminal justice where understanding the logic behind a decision is important.

Then there’s the potential for AI to be weaponized. In the hands of evil actors, AI could be used to spread misinformation, control public opinion, or even engage in internet warfare. The global community must come together to set standards and regulations to prevent such misuse.

On the brighter side, many experts believe that by setting the right frameworks and investing in education and retraining, we can use the power of AI for the greater good. By fostering (促进) a culture of continuous learning and staying abreast (并排的，并肩的) of technological advancements, society can benefit from the promise of AI while avoiding its potential dangers.

In conclusion, artificial intelligence stands as one of the most profound inventions of our time. While it offers vast opportunities, it also poses significant challenges that we, as a society, must welcome. As we stand at this technological crossroads, our choices will determine whether AI serves as a benefit or a harm for humanity.

10 . We often think about relationships on a scale from positive to negative. We are drawn to loving family members, caring classmates and supportive mentors. We do our best to avoid the cruel uncle, the playground bully and the jerk boss.

But the most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones. They’re the ones that are a mix of positive and negative. We often call them frenemies, supposed friends who sometimes help you and sometimes hurt you. But ifs not just friends. It’s the in-laws who volunteer to watch your kids but belittle your parenting. The manager who praises your work but denies you a promotion.

Everyone knows how relationships like that can tie your stomach into a knot. But groundbreaking research led by the psychologists Bert Uchino and Julianne Holt-Lunstad shows that ambivalent (矛盾情绪的) relationships can be damaging to your health — even more than purely negative relationships.

I had assumed that with a neighbor or a colleague, having some positive interactions was better than all negative interactions. But being cheered on by the same person who cuts you down doesn’t reduce the bad feelings; it increases them. And it’s not just in your head: It leaves a trace in your heart and your blood.

Even a single ambivalent interaction can cause harm. In one experiment, people gave impromptu speeches on controversial topics in front of a friend who offered feedback. The researchers had randomly assigned the friend to give ambivalent or negative comments. Receiving mixed feedback caused higher blood pressure than pure criticism. “I would have gone about the topic differently, but you’re doing fine” proved to be more distressing than “I totally disagree with everything you’ve said.”

The evidence that ambivalent relationships can be bad for us is strong, but the reasons can be harder to read — just like the relationships themselves.

The most intuitive reason is that ambivalent relationships are unpredictable. With a clear enemy, you put up a shield when you cross paths. With a frenemy, you never know whether Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde is going to show up. Feeling unsure can disrupt the body’s calming system and activate a fight-or-flight response. It’s unsettling to hope for a hug while also preparing for a likely quarrel.

Another factor is that unpleasant interactions are more painful in an ambivalent relationship. It’s more upsetting to be let down by people you like sometimes than by people you dislike all the time. When someone stabs you in the back, it stings more if he’s been friendly to your face.