1 . New research from the University of Portsmouth has shown a marked increase in shipping in the North East Atlantic. Scientists now warn that more monitoring is required to help protect sea life.

Researchers at the University of Ponsmouth have discovered that rates (率) of shipping in the North East Atlantic area rose by 34 per cent in a five-year period. The research is the first detailed survey of shipping activity in the North East Atlantic. Researchers used data from over 530 million vessel (船) positions recorded by Automatic Identification System(AIS). They looked at the change in shipping between 2013 and 2017 across ten different vessel types. In total the study area covered 1.1 million km², including waters off Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, and the UK.

Lead author, James Robbins said: “This change is likely to put more pressure on the marine (海洋的) environment, and may influence the protection of at-risk species. Renewed monitoring effort is needed to make sure that protective measures are enough to save species under threat in a changing environment.”

Some of the greatest shipping increases were found in areas close to the Spanish coast. The Espacio Marino de la Costa da Morte saw a rise of 413 percent in vessel activity. It is an area used to protect seabirds.

Dr. Sarah Marley, Visiting Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Shipping is the most widespread human activity in our oceans, carrying a set of threats-from unnoticeable effects like underwater noise pollution to serious results when ships hit whales.”

Professor Alex Ford. from the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said: “Given the well-documented effects that shipping can have on the marine environment, it is necessary that this situation continues to be monitored-particularly in areas used to protect vulnerable (脆弱的) species which may already be under pressure.”

2 . Santosh Jadhav, a 28-year-old farmer from Maharashtra’s Sangli district, had never dreamed he would be trending on YouTube tending to his land. But as you watch his videos on Indian Farmer—the channel he runs with his friend, Akash Jadhav, 27—you quickly understand why he is attracting millions of views.

Set up in 2018, Indian Farmer was a result of the two friends’ love of farming, technology and filmmaking. Their videos offer tips, advice and information on various aspects of agriculture, including direct-farming techniques, agriculture-related activities, new farming tools, and agricultural apps. In addition to explaining how agricultural markets function, the channel shares success stories from across the country. A section that draws the most attention features workable solutions to everyday problems and do-it-yourself mechanical quick-fixes.

“We were looking to do something together. Agriculture was something we had in common. Plus, we were young and idealistic—we wanted to do something with a social impact,” says Santosh.

The channel has certainly made a mark, as the numbers show. Since 2018, their channel has built a user base of 21.5 million, thanks to the affordable mobile data revolution and the increasing popularity of smartphones in India. While Akash takes charge of the production side of things, Santosh offers his hands-on knowledge obtained from running his family farm. According to them, the Indian Farmer channel adds an average of 60,000 subscribers and earns between 70,000 and 100,000 in revenue every month.

“Knowledge in this sector is often inter-generational: a farmer is limited to what the others nearby know and do. There was very little by way of books or culture channels that addressed the needs, mistakes and scarcities of farmers. Social media has changed things, enabling cross-sharing of knowledge, all for free,” Akash says.

3 . California has been using recycled wastewater for many years. A team has used it to make ice surfaces for the game of hockey(冰球运动). It has been used to make snow for the sport of skiing. And farmers use it to water their crops. But it has not been used directly for drinking water.

Recently, California officials approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. It is a big step for California.

California’s new rules would let—but not require—water agencies to take wastewater, treat it, and then put it right back into the drinking water system. That means proving to people that recycled water is not only safe to drink but also not dirty. California would be just the second US state to permit this, following Colorado. It has taken officials more than 10 years to develop these rules, a process that included several studies by independent groups of scientists.

A project in San Diego is aiming to produce nearly half of the city’s water through recycling wastewater by 2035. And the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California aims to produce up to nearly 570 million liters(升)a day for its 19 million people. Adel Hagekhalil is with Metropolitan Water. He said the new rules will permit new projects that have not yet been considered.

California’s new rules require the wastewater be treated for all bacteria and viruses, even if they are not present in the wastewater. In fact, the treatment is so intense that it removes all of the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good. That means the minerals need to be added back at the end of the process. Polhemus is a director of the drinking water group for the California Water Resources Control Board. “It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” he said, adding that it takes time and money to build these treatment centers. So, they will only be available for bigger cities at first.

4 . Movie stars might think their lives are private after leaving the acting location, but they ought to know that they have much power over their audience. The power gives them an ability to change people, events, even history, making them to have the responsibility of being good role models.

With time going on, movie stars become celebrities (名人) and in the process get a large number of fans. Some of them follow their deeds, dress, and act like them. In reality, they want to be like their favorite movie stars. If a movie star engages in acts that the society does not approve, those who look up to them, especially the teens, will do the same. Movie stars should be responsible for what they do and say as following the actions is now simpler because of social media. It is important to behave like a role model even when they think no one is watching.

Nobody is perfect, and movie stars also have had their down moments. They may not have been good role models at the time, but they can change the narrative by doing the right things. They can also turn the past shortcomings into positives by opening up about problems and how they overcame the challenges. And their audience can learn to discuss their problems and seek help.

People starring in movies are the target of companies to promote their products or services for a fee. Their celebrity status is a reason enough to think beyond the payment. A movie star should not recommend something that will influence the way teens live negatively. It would be wrong to promote something like sweetened drinks or foods without health benefits. Movie stars face problems like other people, but because of their influence, they have a responsibility to be role models in the public eye.

5 . While screen time is known to affect sleep, new research suggests that interactive (互动的) activities, such as texting friends or playing video games, put off and reduce the time spent asleep to a greater degree than passive (被动的) screen time like watching television, especially for teens.

The team studied the daytime screen-based activities of 475 teenagers using daily surveys. They asked the teens how many hours they had spent that day communicating with friends through social media and how many hours they spent playing video games, surfing the internet and watching television or videos. Finally, the researchers asked if they had joined in any of these activities in the hour before bed.

Next, the team measured their sleep time for one week. The researchers found that the teens spent an average of two hours per day communicating with friends via social media, about 1.3 hours playing video games, less than an hour surfing the internet and about 1.7 hours watching television or videos. For every hour throughout the day that they used screens to communicate with friends, they fell asleep about 11 minutes later averagely. For every hour to play video games, they fell asleep about 9 minutes later. Those who talked, texted or played games in the hour before bed lost the most sleep: about 30 minutes later.

Interestingly, David, lead author of the study, said the team found no obvious relations between passive screen-based activities and sleep. “It could be that passive activities are less mentally exciting than interactive activities,” said Anne, co-author of the study. “It’s a tricky situation,” she said. “These screen tools are really important to everyone nowadays, so it’s hard to put a limit on them, but if you’re really looking out for a teenager’s health and well-being, you might consider limiting the more interactive activities, especially in the hour before bed.”

6 . Moving around Bogota can be a bit of a Jekyll-or-Hyde experience. On the one hand, the city is infamous (声名狼藉的)for having the world’s worst traffic. Yet, on the other, its cycling infrastructure is considered a good model of sustainable urban mobility, according to the Copenhagenize Index, which ranks bike-friendly cities. The Colombian capital generated a now-international movement in the 1970s called Ciclovia, which sees 1.5 million people cycle across 128km of car-free streets each Sunday morning.

So, when the pandemic reached its shores in mid-March, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, an avid cyclist herself, introduced one of the world’s first plans to encourage bike travel, using traffic cones to create 76 km of temporary lanes.

“Everyone started using a bicycle, and they already knew how to get around on one because we have this bike culture thanks to the Ciclovia,” says Carlos Pardo, a local cycling advocate and senior advisor at the New Urban Mobility Alliance. Pardo got involved at the beginning of the pandemic by partnering with a local bikeshare company to provide 400 free e-bikes to health workers. Now, he’s busy persuading the public that the government’s new bike lanes should become permanent fixture (固定设施).

“Some drivers say, ‘you took away our lane’, but we’re saying, we took one car lane and made a two-lane bidirectional bike lane,” he explains. “So, you’re duplicating the effectiveness of the space, and moving more people per hour, per direction.”

Biking has enjoyed a renaissance (复兴) around the world as urban citizens avoid public transport for the relative safety of a two-wheeled commute. Now, many advocates like Pardo are working with local governments in the hope of turning these pandemic-response measures into lasting changes—ones that are more plausible now than ever after lockdowns provided an unprecedented (空前的)opportunities to fast-track infrastructure trials. The results of these urban planning experiments could not only radically shape the way we commute across global cities, but also make them more adaptable to future shocks.

8 . More than 170,000 people in California are unhoused. Even as the state has poured resources into fighting against the problem, the number of people without homes has ticked upward in recent years. On the surface, the state has one key advantage for people without a reliable roof over their heads: relatively consistent and livable weather. So one of my first thoughts when I heard news of a horricane attacking Los Angeles was just “What will happen to the city’s homeless population?”

City agencies quickly took action. As it became clear that the Los Angeles region could experience an extreme downpour and subsequent flooding, outreach teams fanned out across the river bank and dam areas across the city that have become home to a significant unhoused population, offering support to move them into shelters and motels (汽车旅馆).

Despite that, it’s obvious that the effects of climate change will hit the most vulnerable (脆弱的) hardest. We see this globally as extreme weather events hit countries that have contributed the least to the problem.

The most notable connection between climate change and the US housing crisis is the threat extreme weather poses to unhoused people. More unhoused people are affected as climate change drives increasingly unpredictable weather. People without homes know how to respond to expected seasonal events. But events like a near-hurricane in Los Angeles or a wildfire in ‘Maui can catch populations with limited access to information off guard.

Another link worth considering is the way in which climate change creates more homelessness and further stresses on housing systems. Hurricane Katrina, for example, displaced 800, 000 people. Four years later, 12,000 people remained without shelter.

Housing has been — and will continue to be — a key issue in Maui too as it recovers from the wildfire that killed more than 100 people. Maui has already had a housing crisis, the result of a high cost of living driven in large part by the tourism industry. And, now, many more are left looking for places to stay. Ashley Kelly, the chief operating officer at Hawaii’s Family Life Center, said: “Finding housing for any new clients is just not possible right now.”

9 . According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees over 50 make up more than one-third of the workforce in the United States. And the labor force aged 75 and older is expected to increase by 96.5% by 2030. As the workforce ages and increasing numbers of grandparents care for their grandchildren, what once was intended for new parents is now applied to grandparents. Some workplaces are offering a new paid leave policy (政策) for older workers—grandternity leave.

As the name suggests, one of the most popular use cases for grandternity leave is employees taking time off when they become grandparents to help care for their grandchildren. It also enables employees to take paid leave to deal with medical treatment, spend time with their families, and take time away from work as needed.

In a competitive labor market with more than 10 million open jobs, employers still struggle to retain senior employees. They fall under the Baby Boomer generation and are characterized by their deep love for work and company responsibility. They are prized for their historical knowledge and old-fashioned work ethic (职业道德). Therefore, employers are seeking new, nontraditional benefits for these employees to prevent them from taking another job. Grandternity leave is just one example of personalized benefits suitable for older workers.

A handful of companies are already starting to offer their own form of grandternity leave. For example, Saga has rolled out a five-day paid grandternity leave to its 2,500 employees. Scott Merry, a 57-year-old IT specialist with Saga took grandternity leave to care for his new-born grandson. “It was just wonderful. It’s nice to work in this type of culture which values family time.” he said. Another company that became an early adopter (使用者) is HireVue. “Attracting and employing a various workforce should be top of mind for any organization,” said one of HireVue’s managers. “Offering a variety of benefits like grandternity leave is key to that.”

10 . According to Americans for the Arts, more than two-thirds of U.S. adults say that the arts “lift me up beyond everyday experiences.” Still, only 30 percent attended a concert of any type in 2017; 23 percent visited an art museum; six percent attended a literary event. Fewer than half actively created art of any kind.

What has caused this phenomenon is that we do not have time for art — we are weighed down by our day-to-day responsibilities. Maybe you like to play a little background music while you work but most of us rarely, if ever, went to see a live performance, let alone visited a gallery. And reading poetry? Perhaps not since high school.

Too often, we let the realities of life get in the way of the arts, which can feel insignificant by comparison. But this is a mistake. The arts might be the single most in-depth experience you will ever be given to explore the nature and meaning of life. And if you make time to consume and produce art, you will find your life become fuller and happier.

Some philosophers address the problem of life consumed by work and material pursuits. They argue that art provides relief from this routine, expanding our perspective and bringing us closer to true reality.   

Think of a time when you heard a piece of music and wanted to cry. Or recall your fast heartbeats as you stared at a delicate lifelike sculpture. Chances are that it probably stimulated (刺激) a sudden awakening, much like the shock from a lungful of pure oxygen after breathing in smoggy air.

If you are among those who feel that art is “pure pleasure to experience and participate in,” you might see it the same way you see eating out, or skydiving: as a luxury (奢侈品) item in your limited budgets of time and money. As such, it probably gets the same sort of treatment as any minor hobby. Don’t make this error. Treat art more like exercise or sleep: a necessity for a life full of deep satisfaction.