1 . Dulse (掌状红皮藻) grows along northern, rocky coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. And its colourful, soft leaves hide an amazing taste. “I think it is a food of the future,” says Chris Langdon. He has been studying dulse for more than ten years at Oregon State University in Portland. He has found new ways to grow it faster. It not only grows cheaply and easily, but also is rich in protein (蛋白质). Those qualities allow creative cooks to bring this unlikely treat to our favourite restaurants.

People need to seek out new foods because the world has so many mouths to feed. As of2015, there are more than seven billion people on Earth, and by 2100 that number may double according to the UN. Feeding all of these people means not only improving the way food is grown, but also finding new foods. If nothing changes, within 35 years, the world’s population will be greater than the amount of food produced according to a report prepared by the Global Harvest Initiative.

Global warming is changing food production. Scientists say that rising temperatures will reduce the growth of important crops (作物) like wheat and corn. Developing countries will be hit the hardest. When crops fall, they will become more expensive. And since those foods are also used to feed animals like cows and pigs, meat prices will also rise.

All over the world, researchers are racing against the clock to work out how to best feed more people in the world. And some surprising ideas have begun to come out. Two years ago, scientists made the first burger from meat grown in a lab, rather than taken from an animal. The project cost more than $300,000, but it's a good start. Other researchers are developing crops that can grow well in the heat. Still others are finding ways to make meat animals produce more meat.

4 . Fragile. Oversensitive. Glued to their phones. Is this what comes to mind when we think of the teens of this generation? While there may be a grain of truth to these stereotypical (刻板印象的) characteristics, there might be more to this generation of teens than what is generally regarded.

Never before have the lives of any generation of teens been as strongly affected by mobile technology and social media as the teens of this generation. It follows then that there will be unique mental and emotional problems due to this new age of technology. As compared to their parents or grandparents who were likely less connected and more isolated, these teens are constantly exposed to their social circles and beyond. It is no wonder then that the mental health of this generation’s teens have been badly affected.

Moreover, as many of the older generations complain, the teens today are more individualistic in contrast to the more community-centered attitude of their parents and grandparents. Gone is the closeness among neighbors who are friendly with one another and quick to offer a helping hand when they see another in need. In its place, we have teens who may not even have a clue as to who lives in the unit next to theirs, much less offer a friendly no d or wave when they happen to cross paths with a neighbour.

However, the effects of technology on this generation of teens are not all bad. Actually, the very connectedness that social media brings about has led to an opening of minds and a flowering of dialogue among people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. In comparison, the parents or grandparents of this generation of teens probably did not have the same opportunity to get to know people outside of their social circles at their age, and are thus more likely to have fixed stereotypical opinions of people different from them.

To conclude, the teens of this generation differ in many ways from their past generations, in some ways more positive than others. Every generation is a product of the cultural, political and economic events of their time.

7 . What do you think of being roommates with someone from a totally different generation? Lately, more and more Americans are becoming intergenerational (跨代的)roommates, and they’re changing the way people think they should be living.

Since 1971, there has been a major rise in intergenerational living arrangements in the United States, which refers to people from different generations living together with at least one generation gap. In fact, data show that this number has actually become four times larger since then. In a Pew Research Center article, it shared that by March 2021, there were 59.7 million Americans that had many generations living under one roof.

There are many factors that come into play for these types of arrangements. For some, it’s because of the increase in the average life-expectancy age (寿命), a decreased birth rate, a rise in college educational fees, the ever rising rentals and more. But if anything, many say that one main reason behind the rise is that older people have space to rent out and that having younger people around just makes them happier.

A 25-year-old student Nadia Abdullah and her 64-year-old roommate Judith were content with their present life. Their arrangement was $700 a month from Nadia, plus the promise of her doing some help around the house. This also allowed Nadia to live just 6 miles from her working place. Nadia was matched with Judith through a renting center specifically created to find intergenerational roommates.

Another young renting center reviewer, Kaplan, also gave some opinions on the service, saying, “Through this, I lived with Sarah while attending Harvard. She provided the knowledge you just can’t Google — showing me how to garden, how to cook fish and add French Romanticism to life.”

8 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring.

As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore,we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. Toprotect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.

According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design ourenvironments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank onwillpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it’s better to just keep them out of sightto begin with.

The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy.

The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls.” Trolls are actors who internationally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.

By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.

10 . In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, there’s a famous saying, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” The surprise is part of the fun. Now blind box toys are bringing the magic of surprise to online shopping.

A blind box toy is hidden inside similar boxes but invisible from the outside. You don’t know what will be inside, although the toys typically come from pop culture, ranging from movies to comics and cartoons (动漫).

Blind boxes have become popular since they were first introduced from Japan to China in 2014. According to a 2019 Tmall report, the mini-series of Labubu blind box, designed by Hong Kong-born Kasing Lung, was named Champion of Unit Sales with 55,000 sold in just 9 seconds during the Singles Day shopping event. Most customers for blind boxes are young people aged 18 to 35.

According to The Paper, blind box toys are popular in part because of their cute looks. The typically site cartoon figures come in very small sizes, making them suitable for display almost anywhere. Even if blind boxes are not their top choice for decorations, the mystery and uncertainty of the process also attracts people. It’s the main reason why people buy blind boxes one after another.

“Expectíng the unknown is always a part of the box-opening process (过程),” said Miss Cao,24、who lives and works in Shenyang, speaking to Sina Nows. She said: “Until you open all the boxes, you cannot know what it is inside.”

Opening a blind box is a happy little surprise for our boring daily lives, something small but fun to wait for each day, week or month. When people open this simple little box, they may be disappointed, but the uncertainty is part of the fun. People will open more blind boxes and hope for a better result.

When someone remakes Forrest Gump, don’t be surprised if he says, “Life is like a blind box.”