1 . We know it can be hard to put your phone to bed before you sleep. However, if you’re trying to improve your sleep, you really should ditch your phone at least an hour before bedtime. Luckily, our experts can help.

Scientific evidence suggests that the blue light emitted from your phone, tablet, computer, and TV suppresses (抑制) your body’s production of melatonin, a hormone (荷尔蒙) that plays an important role in your sleep cycle. Melatonin release in the evening helps you relax before bedtime. A 2013 study that analyzed technology use and sleep patterns with data from a National Sleep Foundation poll found that using devices like phones was tied to more sleep disruption than electronics that aren’t interactive.

Many of us use the excuse that our mobile devices serve as our wake-up calls, or keep them nearby to use meditation apps. If you want to use your phone as an alarm, consider setting it a couple of hours before you turn in for the night, and then setting the phone itself to bedtime mode for the rest of the evening.

Here’s another groundbreaking idea: You could get a real alarm clock. After reviewing them at Reviewed, we recommend the Sharp Dream Caster. Not only is it easy to set a wake-up time, the clock includes white noises and rain noises to help you sleep, plus a number of volume settings to pick what works best for you.

But an alarm clock won’t help you avoid doom-scrolling through social media. Take things a step further by avoiding using electronic devices. You can try reading a book (one made of paper), taking a bath or drinking a cup of chamomile tea.

Finally, if you want to keep up your meditation practice screen-free, consider the Morphée. It looks like a little music box and comes with a variety of breathing exercises and soundscapes to help you get to sleep.

2 . In America, we have a thing called stand-up comedy. This popular form of entertainment consists of a comedian standing up at the front of a club, holding a microphone, and telling jokes. Of course, comedy is popular in Chinese culture as well, but the performances are quite different from the style in the US. In China, it’s called cross-talk, which usually involves two guys engaging in an entertaining dialogue.

It’s believed that cross-talk came into being in the Qing Dynasty as a bit of a by-product of the imitation shows that were a popular form of entertainment in the Song Dynasty. After the PRC was established in 1949, this comedic art became more and more popular. Today, it’s still heavily featured in the CCTV New Year’s Gala programmes in China. The 1990s was the golden age of cross-talk; even foreigners studied the art of cross-talk. Mark Roswell, a Canadian named Da Shan in Chinese was relatively unknown in his native land but was a superstar in China. At the turn of the century, cross-talk began to decline, and many well-known actors left the stage.

There are four skills that are essential in cross-talk: speaking, imitating, teasing, and singing. Most of the time, it is performed with two actors—one serves as the lead actor while the other plays a support role. However, sometimes it is performed simply as a one-man show, and at other times there are several actors. In order to criticize something, the humor involved in cross-talk is satirical.

6 . More people than ever are interested in learning to speak Chinese. The challenge that many face is finding the best resources to learn this new language. Fortunately, there are 4 amazing tools that can make learning Chinese much easier.

HelloTalk

This is an app that connects anyone interested in learning a foreign language to a native speaker who is willing to engage in conversation with learners, and help them practice and master their new language. It includes a voice-to-text feature that is perfect if you cannot understand your conversation partner. The text- to-voice feature that is included helps you to learn the proper pronunciations.

iTalki

No tool is going to take the place of one-on-one interaction(互动) with a real person. This is why iTalki is one of the most popular online language learning systems. If you join the iTalki community, you will be connected with an instructor who is a native speaker. They will work with you one on one to improve your vocabulary and conversational language skills.

FluentU

FluentU has made a wide variety of videos for your viewing pleasure. Each one is in Chinese and is a real-world movie or video. With FluentU, you can interact with the videos, pause and get pronunciation and definition information. In addition to this, there are quizzes(小测验) added to the videos to help you evaluate your own progress.

Pleco

This mobile app was designed specifically to help users learn Chinese. It includes an OCR reader that can be used to scan(扫描) Chinese language characters for translation, the ability to translate Chinese words from other apps and web pages, a document reader and an audio translator. It also comes with several dictionaries and the ability to create flashcards.

8 . Where does food waste go? In most countries around the world, it goes into landfills (垃圾填埋场). But not in South Korea. The country banned food waste in landfills nearly 20 years ago and today, it is turned into animal feed, fertilizers and fuel.

Around the globe, 1.4 billion tons of food is thrown away every year. The waste goes into landfills where it can pollute the land and water as well as releasing methane — a greenhouse gas — into the air. In fact, food waste is the third-largest source of methane in the US.

The system that is in place in South Korea keeps almost 100 percent of unused food out of landfills. While other cities and local governments have put similar plans in place, it is not done anywhere else on a country-wide basis.

There are two reasons why South Korea passed laws to carry out mandatory (强制性的) recycling of food waste. First, the country’s cooking tradition of numerous small dishes resulted in large amounts of uneaten food. This food waste went into landfills. But the country’s mountainous geography didn’t allow for enough landfills to be built. That’s why the government forced recycling of paper and plastic in 1995 but food waste continued to be buried in landfills. But it was the neighbors of these landfills that demanded that another solution be found due to the very unpleasant smell from rotting food. The government banned organic waste from landfills in 2005. Another law that was passed in 2013 banned dumping liquid food waste in the ocean.

The system is not free but most of the cost is absorbed by the country. People can buy yellow recycling bags that are picked up on the roadside and some local governments have placed autonomous food waste collectors that require residents to pay a weight-based fee by using cards.

The food waste is collected from the bins every day except Sunday. Some of it is used to make animal feed or fertilizers and some is used to make fuel.

9 . I have always loved the Arthurian legend (传奇), as there is something quite special about King Arthur, and of course Merlin, my favourite character from the stories.

Death of an Empire is the second volume in MK Hume’s “Merlin” series which details Merlin’s life from birth. Merlin travels across the Roman Empire in search of his father, a voyage of discovery to understand just who he was. Eventually Merlin gets involved in the fight against the Hun’s invasion (入侵) of Europe at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain.

Serving under the General Flavius Aetius, Merlin builds a reputation by saving the lives of thousands of soldiers. When he finally reaches Rome, he saves many more. But a far deadlier conflict between Emperor Valentinian and Senator Petronius Maximus is around the corner and Merlin must use all his strength to carry out his work.

If I had to choose just one word to describe this novel, there would be no other choice than “immersive (身临其境的)”. There has clearly been a serious amount of research carried out by the author. Combined with the descriptive prose and imaginative story, the book really does attract you from almost the very start. The story really does feel like you are a part of it as Merlin travels across the Roman Empire.

The author does a great job of mixing the rich history with established Arthurian legend. The battle scene is handled very effectively. The author employs a very effective form to show the main fight and this not only adds a degree of tension and a good level of excitement but almost makes you feel like you are right there hearing about what happened.

Death of an Empire is a very fine novel, a wonderfully rich tale and a rewarding story.