1 . For the arts “to mean more, to more people,” as Arts Council England (ACE) argues that they should, would be excellent. Music, drama, dance, visual arts, poetry and literature are among the most precious human achievements. To live in a country in which these are more widely shared and enjoyed would be proof that we are making progress. The point is not to entertain or educate people, or bring communities together. Nor is it all about boosting jobs and investment. Imagination has intrinsic (内在的) value, and research carried out by ACE in the course of preparing its 10-year strategy showed that people from all walks of life value and get pleasure from cultural activities.

Positioning itself as a development agency, ACE will now hope to win government backing for a change of direction that orients it away from the biggest and most prestigious national institutions and towards the towns, villages and grassroots organizations that should be similarly deserving of attention. There, it envisions a role for itself “building the identity and prosperity of places,” bringing professional artists together with voluntary groups, particular in areas that have previously not been well represented on the cultural map.

ACE’s chair, Sir Nicholas Serota, quotes the first world war centenary (百年纪念) project devised by the artist, Jeremy Deller, and theatre director, Rufus Norris, as the model of what he wants his organization to be about. By dressing up volunteers as soldiers, and orchestrating their encounters with members of the public in settings across England, the artists succeeded in “dissolving the barriers between artists and audiences.”

The emphasis on participation- on culture as something that more people should actually do- is newer. This is the difference between being in a play or a band and buying tickets to watch them, and for ACE to play a more active role in promoting the former would be beneficial. This begins in childhood, and ACE clearly hopes that the government will think again about policies that have seen music, drama and other arts subjects systematically downgraded in favour of science, technology and maths.

To what extent the vision is realized will depend in part on whether ACE’s ambitions catch the government’s interest sufficiently to influence the upcoming spending review, and provide a counterweight to the scorn (轻视) that is regularly poured on the humanities. Around £400m has been cut from local government arts budgets since 2010, and ACE cannot plug this gap. The closure of youth clubs and live music venues, and growing financial pressures linked to the property market, are among other reasons for this worrisome narrowing of opportunities. So far Boris Johnson has offered few signs that he has in mind a starring role for the arts in post-Brexit Britain, although 2022’s Festival of Brexit is one such event. ACE’s plan should boost the profile of all those, in government and outside, who are arguing for more.

2 . States will be able to force more people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a Supreme Court decision Thursday that will leave shoppers with lighter wallets but is a big financial win for states.

The Supreme Court’s opinion Thursday overruled a pair of decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collect sales tax on certain online purchases.

The cases the court overturned said that if a business was shipping a customer’s purchase to a state where the business didn’t have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, the business didn’t have to collect sales tax for the state. Customers were generally responsible for paying the sales tax to the state themselves if they weren’t charged it, but most didn’t realize they owed it and few paid.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the previous decisions were flawed. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States,” he wrote in an opinion joined by four other justices. Kennedy wrote that the rule “limited States’ ability to seek long-term prosperity and has prevented market participants from competing on an even playing field.”

The ruling is a victory for big chains with a presence in many states, since they usually collect sales tax on online purchases already. Now, rivals will be charging sales tax where they hadn’t before. Big chains have been collecting sales tax nationwide because they typically have physical stores in whatever state a purchase is being shipped to. Amazon.com, with its network of warehouses, also collects sales tax in every state that charges it, though third-party sellers who use the site don’t have to.

Until now, many sellers that have a physical presence in only a single state or a few states have been able to avoid charging sales taxes when they ship to addresses outside those states. Sellers that use eBay and Etsy, which provide platforms for smaller sellers, also haven’t been collecting sales tax nationwide. Under the ruling Thursday, states can pass laws requiring out-of-state sellers to collect the state’s sales tax from customers and send it to the state.

Retail trade groups praised the ruling, saying it levels the playing field for local and online businesses. The losers, said retail analyst Neil Saunders, are online-only retailers, especially smaller ones. Those retailers may face headaches complying with various state sales tax laws. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council advocacy group said in a statement, “Small businesses and internet entrepreneurs are not well served at all by this decision.”

4 . Many of our most worrying problems, from overeating to not saving enough for retirement to not working out enough have something in common: lack of self-control. Self-control is what gives us the capacity to say no to choices that are immediately satisfying but costly in the long term — that a piece of chocolate cake (instead of an apple), that afternoon in front of the couch (instead of a visit to the gym).     1    

The problem of self-control has puzzled psychologists and behavioral scientists for decades. A great deal of research has identified situations in which self-control failures are likely to happen and tools to help people exercise better control.     2     These motivating incentives can increase our self-control, at least up to a point.

Entrepreneurs have also become interested in self-control, as is evident from the many diet and exercise apps and gadgets on the market. To take one notable example, on the commitment contract website stickK.com, users put down some money (say, $200) and state a goal they want to achieve (such as to lose ten pounds in a month).     3     If they meet their goal, they earn their money back. If they don’t, they lose the money.

Tools like stickK.com can be effective, but they are often difficult to implement. My colleagues and I conducted a new research to point to a different solution that may be easier to carry out: using rituals.

    4     Players in all sorts of sports have rituals that involve actions such as eating the same foods in exactly the same order before a game. From the way some prepare their coffee to the way people celebrate important life events, like weddings or graduations, rituals are a part of our daily life. And though they may seem useless, or even silly, research has found that rituals are powerful.

Get outdoors with us this summer and experience the excitement and peace within our unique programs. Research suggests that being physically active within green spaces helps reduce stress, anxiety and anger, and improves moods and overall health and wellbeing. Our Department combines experiential activities for your enjoyment.

All fitness levels are welcome; we can accommodate most accessible needs. Please contact Laurie Wright at wright@utsc.utoronto.ca with any questions. Trips are offered to registered U of T students first and then if there is space to staff, non-registered students and guests of the participants. Register at recreg.utoronto.ca or in person at the TPASC Registration Desk.

Participants will travel by bus up to the Horseshoe Valley Resort. You may choose between a 3-hour Treetop Trekking adventure or 2 hours of x-country mountain biking through the region’s forest trails. Treetop Trekking involves zip-lining (moving quickly with the rider suspended from a cable) and climbing through obstacle courses in a peaceful forest setting. Both adventures will be instructor-led and all equipment will be provided. No experience necessary. Beginner to advanced courses will be available.

A bus will transport students to Milton to either hike the area or rock climb. The rock climbing will take place at Rattlesnake Point and there is an opportunity for students to challenge themselves by climbing up to 80ft on some of the best rocks in Southern Ontario. All instructors are fully certified and all equipment will be provided. A custom course will be set up to meet the needs of climbers. The hike will take place through some of the Bruce Peninsula trails and Halton Parks. Participants will have over 20kms of trails to choose from. You may hike with a group or follow the map trails with some friends.

The Warsaw Caves Conservation Area and Campground takes its name from a series of seven caves found in the park. Join us as we explore the multiple courses through the caves have a picnic lunch. Come enjoy this natural underground jungle gym.

6 . The last few months had brought to my attention an important incompatibility between us — one that I’d never noticed before. Despite being a pair of lifelong travelers, Felipe and I seldom travel in a similar way. The reality about Felipe is that he’s both the best traveler I’ve ever met and by far the worst. He hates strange bathrooms and dirty restaurants and uncomfortable trains and foreign beds. Given a choice, he will always select a lifestyle of routine, familiarity, and reassuringly boring everyday practices. All of which might make you assume that the man is not fit to be a traveler at all. But you would be wrong to assume that, for here is Felipe’s traveling gift, his superpower, the secret weapon that makes him peerless. He can create a familiar habitat of boring everyday practices for himself anyplace, if you just let him stay in one spot. He can assimilate absolutely anywhere on the planet in about three days, and then he’s capable of staying put in that place for the next decade or so without complaint. This is why Felipe has been able to live all over the world. Not merely travel, but live. Over the year he has folded himself into societies from South America to Europe, from the Middle East to the South Pacific. He arrives somewhere totally new, decides he likes the place, moves right in, learns the language, and instantly becomes a local.

While Felipe can find a corner anywhere in the world and settle down for good, I can’t. I am infinitely curious and almost infinitely patient with minor disasters, which makes me a far better day-to-day traveler than he will ever be. So I can go anywhere on the planet—that’s not a problem. The problem is I just can’t live anywhere on the planet. I’d realized this only a few weeks earlier, back in northern Laos, when Felipe had woken up one lovely morning in Luang Prabang and said, “Darling, let’s stay here.”

“Sure,” I’d said. “We can stay here for a few more days if you want.”

“No, I mean let’s move here. Let’s forget about me immigrating to America. It’s too much trouble. This is a wonderful town. I like the feeling of it. It reminds me of Brazil thirty years ago. It wouldn’t take much money or effort for us to run a little hotel or shop here, rent an apartment, settle in ….” He was serious. He would just do that. But I can’t.

8 . The coast of the State of Maine is one of the most irregular in the world. A straight line running from the southernmost coastal city to the northernmost coastal city would measure about 225 miles. If you followed the coastline between these points, you would travel more than ten times as far. This irregularity is the result of what is called a drowned coastline. The term comes from the glacial (冰川的) activity of the Ice Age. At that time, the whole area that is now Maine was part of a mountain range that towered above the sea. As the glacier declined, however, it applied enormous force on those mountains, and they sank into the sea.

As the mountains sank, ocean water charged over the lowest parts of the remaining land. And the highest parts of the former mountain range, nearest the shore, remained as islands. Marine fossils found here are 225 feet above sea level indicating the level of the shoreline prior to the glacier.

The 2,500-mile-long rocky and jagged (锯齿状的) coastline of Maine keeps watching over nearly 2,000 islands. Many of these islands are tiny and uninhabited, but many are home to blooming communities. Mt. Desert Island is one of the largest, most beautiful of the Maine coast islands left behind by the glacier. Measuring 16 miles by 12 miles, Mt. Desert was very nearly formed as two distinct islands. It is split almost in half by Somes Sound, a very deep and very narrow stretch of water seven miles long.

For years, Mt. Desert Island, particularly its major settlement, Bar Harbor, has afforded summer homes for the wealthy. Recently, though, Bar Harbor has become a new arts community as well. But the best part of the island is the unspoiled forest land known as Acadia National Park. Since the island sits on the border between two different geographical zones, the park supports the plants and animals of both zones. It also lies in a major bird migration lane and is a resting spot for many birds.

10 . Success Requires “Ample Doses of Pain”

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has a simple message for young people who want to achieve greatness: No pain, no gain. That was essentially his message for students at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he made a speech at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“Greatness is not intelligence.     1     And character isn’t formed out of smart people; it’s formed out of people who suffered,” Huang said in response to a question about how students can maximize their shot at being successful.

    2     In 1993, he co-founded computer chip company Nvidia, where he’s served as CEO for more than three decades. The company’s success turned Huang into a billionaire. Now, with Nvidia’s chips in high demand for building AI software, it’s become one of the world’s most valuable companies with a valuation worth of $2 trillion.

“One of my great advantages is that I have very low expectations,” Huang said, noting that most Stanford graduates have very high expectations as a result of having an elite education. Often people with very high expectations have very low resilience because they are not accustomed to, or prepared for, failure. “     3     I don’t know how to teach it to you except for I hope suffering happens to you,” he said. Psychologists also tend to agree that resilient people are more likely to have the strength and confidence to handle challenges and bounce back from failure. Huang certainly had to struggle in his company’s early days.

“To this day I use the phrase ‘pain and suffering’ inside our company with great joy,” Huang told the Stanford students. “    4     You want greatness out of it.”