1 . Despite the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines (疫苗), so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the US that the nation’s life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis.

The analysis of government statistics found US life expectancy fell by just under half a year in 2021, adding to a dramatic drop in life expectancy that occurred in 2020. Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health expert at Virginia Commonwealth University, who helped conduct the analysis, said many of the deaths occurred in people in the prime of their lives. And Woolf added that it drove the overall US life expectancy to fall to 76.6 years—the lowest in at least 25 years.

“Shame on the US,” said Noreen Goldman, a professor at Princeton University. The 2021 drop came after US life expectancy fell in 2020, dropping by almost two years. It’s unclear why this happened, but Woolf and others thought it may be due in part to some Americans more likely to live in states with fewer restrictions, so they let down their guard more, while often refusing to get vaccinated.

“The deaths that occurred in 2021 were a product not only of a lack of COVID-19 vaccines, which was a factor, but also being in places that didn’t observe policies like masking and social distancing that prevented spread of the virus, which was the main reason,” Woolf said.

The 2021 drop also widened the gap in life expectancy between the US and other countries, the analysis found. That was due primarily to lower vaccination rates in the US, researchers said. The researchers also said a big part of that was fewer restrictions and more vaccine hesitation in the US, which resulted in lower vaccination rates and a much higher death number. The other health problems like heart attack and overweight also played a role, they said.

“We spent a fortune on medical care and we’re a high-income country. Our government should be able to do far better,” Goldman said.

2 . The garment (服装) industry is one of the largest carbon polluters on planet Earth, and one of the greatest producers of waste. Three out of five of the 100 billion garments made in 2018 ended up in landfill within a year. Toxic chemicals land in the environment and worker communities, and the production of cotton uses up vast amounts of water.

The business model of fast fashion has led to an enormous increase in the amounts of clothes that are produced, sold, and thrown. According to McKinsey, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, and the average consumer buys 60% more garments each year. At the same time, these clothes are kept only half as long as they were a mere fifteen years ago.

About 100 billion items of clothing are produced each year; that’s nearly 14 items for every human being on the planet. Some of those never even reach the consumers; it caused a minor anger when in 2018 a luxury brand admitted to burning clothes just to protect the brand.

Yet, with clothes being so cheap, people do not wear at least 50 percent of their wardrobes, according to this study. The clothing and footwear industries together account for more than 8 percent of global climate influence, greater than all international airline flights and oceanic shipping trips combined. Water usage for growing cotton has led to huge lack of water, and coloring and treatment of garments make up 17%—20% of all industrial water pollution.

An industry that makes billions on the use of the planet does not suddenly become more sustainable (可持续的) when they start using organic cotton, or start burning their unsold goods (remember—people worked really hard for very little money on those clothes!) as a green fuel…

3 . Children’s books for those under age five often embrace science. Well before they enter their first classroom, children eagerly explore their environment in search of answers to an endless stream of why and how questions.

Roughly 1,100 books begin with “How do...”. Of those, approximately one tenth are about engineering and science (e.g. How Do Airplanes Fly? and How Do Animals Move?). In that tenth, the vast majority (well over 90%) are children’s books.

Children seem to be more interested in the hows and whys of the world than adults. A burst of research in the last decade confirms the apparent pattern in book titles. From three to six years of age, children ask many how and why questions, but then those questions decrease quickly during the elementary school years and beyond.

Most children’s spontaneous (自发的) love of science fades by adulthood. Is it a problem with science itself? Despite some claims to that, the real cause is a decline in wonder. Wonder is the engine that drives exploration and discovery, and when it disappears, a strong feeling of love for the workings of the world melts away.

Every child wants to know how the world works. We are all born with wonder — with curious minds, fascinated by the world around us. Young children and even infants are naturally engaging in intuitive science every day, often with complex methods.

This loss of wonder is not because we suddenly understand everything — we don’t — but because distrust, disengagement, and denial can become embedded into many aspects of our lives. Besides, the consequences (影响) of this loss of wonder are profound. Because loss of wonder can lead to especially poor understandings of underlying mechanisms, we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation (操纵) by others. Even worse, abandonment of wonder will take away the rewarding joy of discovery from us.

This loss of wonder, however, is not inevitable. We can all take simple action to reawaken that initial spark and live lives lit by wonder.

6 . How to Convince Your Parents to Give You More Freedom

As you grow up, it can happen that you want more time to go out with friends or more computer time, but your parents are concerned about you. In this case, how can you gain more freedom from your parents?     1     Here are some tips to help you make it.

Follow your parents' rules and instructions without complaint.     2    You are also sup- posed to take care of your chores, such as cleaning your room or finishing your homework in time without being asked. It will remind them how responsibly you've been acting and show them your self-control.

    3    Let them know what's on your mind and what's going on in your life. They'll be more likely to consider your requests if they understand your point of view. Ask them for advice regarding school, friends, or anything else you have going on. They will appreciate that you value their opinions.

Avoid dangerous behaviors and wrong companions. It will be much harder for your parents to give you more freedom if you're drinking, partying a lot, or hanging out with the wrong crowds.     4    Your parents can see how reliable they are. Always ask for permission before hanging out or staying out late. Your parents will feel relieved to know where you are and what you are doing.

Remain calm and accept their decision. Explain to them exactly why you think you can handle this particular freedom. If they say no, respect that choice. Becoming angry will only prove to them that you are not yet mature enough to handle additional freedom. Continue your good behavior instead. They might eventually recognize that you have grown up.     5    

7 . Agriculture may feed the world, but it is also contributing to environmental problems. Agriculture production uses about 70% of the Earth's fresh water and makes up about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. But it doesn't have to. Farming is moving inside, and farmers aren't exactly what they used to be.

Take for example Grover and Phil, two robots, or farmers of the future, working at Iron Ox, a farm tech company in Silicon Valley, planning to set up farms around the country in or- der to grow crops closer to consumers in a greener way. “We have different robots that are looking after the plants. They can check and scan them for issues, and change the amount of nutrients plants get and the amount of water they get, "explained Brandon Alexander, CEO of Iron Ox.

Iron Ox’s method is very different from what Alexander calls the“spray (喷洒) and pray” approach to agriculture on a Texas farm, where he grew up and more chemicals create more quantity at the expense of quality. “Besides, a lot of the water in field farming gets just washed out and never actually reaches the plants. And when 70% of your fresh water is going into farming, only 10% of that actually reaches the plants. It's just generating a lot of waste, ”he said. However, the indoor farming allows farmers to grow any crop at any time, regardless of climate change. It also uses hydroponics(无土栽培) , growing crops without soil so water goes directly to the roots.

“In the indoor farming industry today, even with all the investments into it, these investments are a drop in the bucket(桶) in spite of the great potential of this new industry,” he added.

Iron Ox is now magnifying its business in more states. Alexander says the company will produce about 100 times more produce over the next 18 months than it's currently producing to satisfy greater needs.

8 . In the not-too-distant future, driverless cars will drive our streets. These cars will need to make quick decisions to avoid endangering human lives — both inside and outside of the cars.

To determine attitudes toward these decisions, a group of researchers created a modern version of the classic exercise known as “the Trolley problem”. They raised a series of moral dilemmas (道德困境) involving as elf-driving car with brakes (刹车) that suddenly give out. Should the car change direction to avoid a group of passers-by, killing the driver? Or should it kill the people on foot but spare the driver? Does it matter if the passers by are men or women? Children or older people? Doctors or murderers?

To put these questions to a large range of people, the researchers built a website called Moral Machine, where anyone could click through the situations and say what the car should do “Help us learn how to make machines moral,” a video asks on the site.

What the researchers found was a series of near universal preferences, no matter where someone was from. People everywhere believed the moral thing for the car to do was to spare the young over the old, spare humans over animals, and spare the lives of many over the few. The in findings were published Wednesday in the journal.

Researchers found that the 130 countries with more than 100 respondents (调查对象) could be grouped into three groups that showed similar moral preferences. And these preference seemed to be connected with social differences. Respondents from collectivistic cultures, which “value the respect for older members of the community,” showed a weaker preference for sparing younger people.

The researchers noted that the study’s results should be used with extreme carefulness and they shouldn’t be considered the final word on societal preferences — especially since these respondents were much fewer than they had expected.

9 . There is a phenomenon education experts call “summer melt”. High school students graduate with the best of intentions to go to college, even committing to a school, but then life happens: jobs, family, and fear all get in the way.

Over the pandemic (疫情), the register at four-year colleges remained stable for Lancaster students, opposite to national trends. But the register at two-year colleges fell by nearly half, suggesting that students who would otherwise pursue community college were rethinking their plans. Community colleges were slower than universities to return to in-person instruction. Financial insecurity over the course of the pandemic also likely played a role in the phenomenon, as families struggled with their ability to pay for college. This summer a new factor is likely to be on the table for low-income students: the attraction of high-paying jobs.

Brahmin Ntege, who graduated from McCaskey in the spring, was working in a factory this summer producing battery wires and cables full-time. The son of an immigrant from central Africa, he was accepted to several colleges, including Pennsylvania State and Temple universities, and plans to attend Millersville University, a public college just outside Lancaster. Some of his friends, Ntege said, have different plans. They want to go to college, but have decided to work for now to save up money — something he said wouldn’t sway him and he would go to college, earn a degree and start making more money so that he wouldn’t have to do the 9-to-5 job which might kill his body.

For colleges and universities, it’s in their best interest to try to prevent “summer melt”. That’s especially important as the register has declined by nearly 10 percent over the course of the pandemic, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Every student, no matter whether they intend to go to college or not, needs to have access to quality advising to help them sort through possible plans, preferably from someone who already knows them. If all the students had that kind of support, they’ll be better off, whether they choose to go to college or not.