READING BETWEEN THE LINES, Appunti di Lingua Inglese

Scarica READING BETWEEN THE LINES e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! READING BETWEEN THE LINES 1. FORGET MINDFULNESS, STOP TRYING TO FIND YOURSELF AND START FAKING IT The history of Chinese philosophy is now the most popular course at Harvard. But why? Classical Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Mencius and Laozi weren’t rigid traditionalists who tought that our highest good comes from confining ourselves to social roles. They sought to make the world a better place by expanding the scope of human possibility. The mid-first millenium BC was a similarly turbolent age to our own , giving rise to debates about how to live, how to be ethical and how to build a good society. These chinese philosophers used not to ask too many questions. Their philosophy was mostly pragmatic based on small questions such as “how are you living your daily life”?. These thinkers emphasised that great change only happens when we begin with the mundane and the doable. Sometimes all of our questions take us in the wrong direction; so what alternatives do Chinese philosophers offer in their place? First of all it is important to look inside ourselves and discover who we really are, your true self. Our peronalities are in fact formed trough everything we do: how we interact with others, our reactions to things, the activities we pursue. You don’t behave in the same way when you speak to your mother or when you deal with a colleague, or your dentist. Each encounter draws out different aspects. Who we are consist of behaviour patterns and emotional mechanisms we’ve created out of habit over time. Once we have found oorselvers we must embrace and be true to that self. Confucius, born in the sixth century BCE, was the first great philosopher in the Chinese tradition. We flourish when we recognise our complexity and learn how to work with it trough self-cultivation. You grow when you understand that you’re not a hothead just because you tend to think of yourself as short- tempered, or shy because you see yourself as introvert. We aren’t just who we think we are, we can work on becoming better people all the time. When you smile as if you’re not angry, or bite your tongue instead of lashing out you’re faking it-acting more mature. Confucius teaches that certain rituals are transformative because they break patterned behaviours we’ve fallen into. We act infact “as if” we are different and our feelings are more mature. By doing so, we transform into someone who is kind and generous rather than someone exercising the right to express authentically honest but destructive feelings. As we repeat these rituals again and again we become better. Mencius, a Confucian scholar, saw the world as fragmented and capricious. We should work with the shifts and detours-change conversation, experiences that nurture an expensive life. Rather than making plans for our lives, a Mencian approach means setting courses in motion. We normally realise that life can change but at the same time we tend to proceed under the assumption that the world is generally predictable . When you plan your life, you make a decision for a future self based on the person you are today and not the one you’ll become. The Mencian way would follow the small and the double approach. When you are contemplating a career change your decision will be easier if you try out new related experiences on a small scale. See everything in the world as connected instead of divided and distinct so you can stay sensitive and connected to others. Laozi, teh founder of Taoism, advocates the power of weakness over apperent strenght. People often think this means harmonising with nature. But passivity is not what he really means though. He says we should see the world as connected and nota s distinct. Live your life as a series of ruptures, because that is what changes you over time. We’re encouraged to discover our gifts and strenghts and to hone them from a young age. As you grown you cultivate these natural proclivities until they become part of your identity. Our philosophers would encourage not focusing on who you think you are to break your preconceived notions. The purpose is not to make yourself better at these things, it’s to live your life as a series of ruptures, because that is what changes you over time. We hear that mindfulness will help us achieve peace and serenity in our fast-peaced lives. Mindfulness does not, on the surface, seem all the different from the Confucian notion of paying attention to your emotional responses. Cunfucian self-cultivation is about engaging with the world and cultivating yourself trough that engagement, each encounter and interaction. It embraces a very active and not passive way of cultivating oneself to become a better person. It’s the small actions trough which you conduct yourself that matter most in trasforming yourself for the better. If we define a traditional world as one in which humans passively accept the way things are and try to fi tinto a stable and pre-existing order, then we are the ones who are traditional. 2. GOOD RIDDANCE TO THE OLD CV CVS have changed but remember what you posted on Facebook because employers can scrutinise your very move. Nowadays cvs are transferred in friendly ways at bars for examples. But in these cases they might contain references such as a Linkedln profile or a Twitter feed. Cvs have move donline trough Linkedln but has its own special dangers. Anything less than 500+ connections shows taht you’re clearly not the serious networker you pretend to be. Linkedln is still better than Facebook, which is like having your drunk friends writing your cv for you. Sometimes you have to apply for a job online and a loftly disinterested computer will make the first cut. Employers often hire on attitude rather than skills and then use a computerised system that filters out anyone lacking the right skills. It saves time and therefore money. Computers have their limitation but surely they can help promote diversity in recruitment. On of the ways cvs have lost their power is that generations are much pickier about what they do and who they work for. They’re looking not only for salary and pension, but also for ethical, engaged , empowering things to do. The big change is that the whole employment world is now more transparent. Fprums and user groups introduce people horizontally across whole sectors. There are few dark horses or surprise candidates. People live their lives in a permanent always-on interactive CV. One lovely part of old Cvs was references. Now a Linkedln profile means you can be recommended and endorsed publicly by everyone, although this carries as much weight as being “liked” on Facebook. What would be really useful is a “stter clear” button. 3. MOKEN NOMADS LEAVE BEHIND THEIR SEA GYPSY LIFE FOR A MODERN EXISTENCE Brought to the world’s attention by the 2004 Tsunami, the seafaring tribe is struggling to reconcile tradition and modernity. The Moken is a nomadic and seafaring tribe of hunter-gatherers who live in the southern seas of Burma and Thailand. Little is konwn about their origins, buti s is believed they descended from migrant Astronesians who set sail from southern China 4000 years ago. Spending 8 months of the year at sea, the Moken roam in small flotillas of Kabang—boats fashioned froma single tree and shared by a nuclear family, and return to land only to barter fish and shells for essentials such as rice and petrol, or to wait out the monsoon season in temporary shacks. It is a way of life that has existed unchanged for centuries, but one that may not last for much longer. The 2004 Tsunami depleted the sources of the Monken’s only livelihood: the ocean’s array of seafood. International fishing boats are now wiping out the little taht’s left. Those moken who have moved ashore are often forced to take dangerous job for menial pay. Who stay at teh sea are sometims arrested for lacking papers or permits. Others return to land after months only to find their huts destroyed and luxury tourist resorts built in their place. The sea has changed and the life is changed too. Nearly all the men on the island are hire by Thai fishing boats to plant explosives on the seabed, or to dive for expensive and exotic rarities such as sea cucumber. Sometimes they are sent down with air trough thin connecting all the floors with a wide, spiraling ramp. The organisation also developed the facade in collaboration with local manufacturers, decorating it lightly. Their work is in fact about developing in villages new technology and new materials. Bringing such ambitious designs to rural communities presented unique challenges. Ruf must sometimes dedicate time and effort to convincing communities and getting them on board. As a result projects can take up to three years, even when the construction time is less than a year. The Hong Kong architects have redesigned a village from scratch, building earthquake-resistant homes and an innovative animal-rearing facility that will generate energy from biogas. Not only this is environmentally friendly, but it also hepls the community become more economically self-reliant. In ruf’s projects, form follows function. But the aesthetics of its buildings are carefully considered. There is for example space for residents to grow crops. Trough design you can add different froms of value. The design itself is in fact a from of value. Looking beyond China: Ruf’s research has led Bolchover and Lin to Mongolia, where they’re working on their first project outside China. Mongolia is experiencing similar patterns of urbanisation, but in its capital migrants aren’t moving into houses—they smply pitch their tents on the outskirts of the city. These traditional yurts, known in Mongolia as gers, are not incorporated into modern housing developments. This can lead to problems with waste disposal so RUF designed a hybrid ger that retains the characteristics of a tent but can be connected to the sewage system, electrical grid and main water pipes. It’s a project that preserves the ger as a traditional form of living. 7. WHY DID LOL INFILTRATE THE LANGUAGE? The internet slang term LOL (laughing out loud) has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, to the mild dismay of language purists. The OED defines LOL as an interjection used in electronic communications to draw attention to a joke or humorous statement, or to express amusement. It is both common lol where all the letters are pronounced separately or as a unique word. Love it or loathe it, lol is now a legitimate word in our lexicon, says the OED’s principal editor for the new words. This word serves a real purpose; it conveys tone in text, something that even the most cynical criticts accept. But the truth is, we do need emotional signifiers in tweets and emails, just as conversation has laugher. For youn internet entrepreneurs like Ben Huh, lol is both a tool and a toy. It’s part of their everyday life because it’s a polite way in emails of acknowledging someone. LOL means “ yes, I undrstand that was funny, but I’m not really laughing”. The lol word now grinds the ears of many people over the age of 25. One talks abou the death of the dictionary and another complains that LOL doesn’t sound anything like laughing and you can’t say it while smiling. There is a worrying trend of adults mimicking teen-speak, says Marie Claire of the Plain English Campaign in the Daily Mail. Adults are using slang words ignoring grammar. But lol is not a lazy, childish concoction; in fact when the OED traced its origin, found that 1980’s computer fanatics were responsible. The oldest written records of lol are in the archives of Usenet, an early internet discussion forum. It was also seen in the 1990’s at the end of emails. But there are also many mistake using LOL, for example meaning LOTS OF LOVE. It has also lent its name to some wildly popular internet crazes, like Lolcats, whose appeal spread far beyond the realms of cyber-geeks. Lol has become such a phenomenon because it’s simple and multipurpose, says the founder of a festival dedicated to the internet awesome. The megic of LOL is that is both inclusive and exclusive; on one level is simple to understand buti t also conveys somthing subtle depending on the situation. It also helps overcome an awkward moment. Researches say that slang words are not harmful to children’s vocabulary at all since the kids who use slang abbreviations are the more articulate ones. It’s called code switching. Slang is enriching the language. There will always be a minority who wants English to remain as a frozen beast, not admitting changes. But language is a vibrant, evolving animal. 8. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY NO LONGER OPTIONAL FOR BUSINESSES Selling a good product or service is no longer enough to attract today’s socially conscious shoppers, new research shows. A study by public relations and marketing firm revealed corporate social responsibility is now a reputational imperative, with more than 90% of shoppers worldwide likely to switch to brands that support a good cause, given similar price and quality. In addition, more than 90% of the consumers surveyed are more likely to trust and be loyal to socially responsible businesses compared to companies that don’t show these traits. Business that aren’t socially responsible run the risk of alienating their costumer base, the research found. 90% of the shoppers surveyed would boycott companies if they found the firms engaged in irresponsible business practices. The researches shows that more than ever consumers expect more from the businesses where they shop. Overall, more than 80% of those surveyed consider social and environmental issues when deciding where to work, what to buy, where to shop and which products and services to recommend to others. In addition to wanting companies for making resposible purchasing decisions. 20% of shoppers not only proactively seek out products and services they feel are responsible every time they shop, but also encourage others to do the same. The study shows that shoppers’ motives for buying such products are primarily altruistic, with nearly 40% saying these purchases are an attempt to help improve society or reduce environmental damage. About half of consumers buy with more individual motives in mind, including making themselves feel good or helping them live their values and improve their own lives. Shoppers are also increasingly turning to social media to learn more about a company’s social initiatives. Two-thirds of consumers use social media to address or engage with companies around the topic of corporate social responsibility, and while customers share positive information with their networks, more than a quarter communicate negative news. Social media ischanging the face of corporate social responsibility as citizens worldwide have unprecedented access to information about corporate behaviour. The pressing issues consumers most want companies to address include economic development, the environment, human rights, poverty and hunger. 9. THE HIGHTS AND LOWS OF TRAVELLING SOLO The author’s great African adventure started in 1982 from England and with 300 pounds in his pocket he reached Cairo alone. He had also the address of a never met relative in Nairobi. At that moment solo travel was the worst of all possible worlds. And so it can be; you’re vulnerable and isolated, prey to crime, depression and homesickness. For female travellers there are extra challenges and dangers. There’s no one to watch your bag, or your back and there’s never anyone to remind you why you came, remind you of the dreams that inspired the trip. Some week later the guy got off a truck in the Sudanese region of Kordofan. The town proved to be a village. There was no hotel, but there was a secondary school. There he found a teacher, Muhammed, packing his bag for the holidays. There were 2 bycicles parked inside the staff room. He asked for the next truck south buti t wouldn’t have been any for many days and then he followed Muhammed to his village riding the other bike. 24 hours later he was with the Baggara tribe, sleeping on a palm mat in a grass shelter and drinking the greenish water that seeped into dry river courses. For 1 week he experienced a way of life without electricity, running water, plastic, indeed almost anything from the outside world apart from two Chinese-made bicycles. It has been one of the most remarkable episodes of his life and it happened because he was alone. That is when it works. You’re forced into contact with people. Villains are soon spotted, trustworthy individuals embraced. You make decisions and your route changes drastically, without anyone to argue against. You draw pictures and learn languages. The sense of freedom that comes is addictive, even euphoric. You have only to resist the lure of the internet and the phone. I would not launch upon a first solo trip lightly: do some short practice runs close to home. The most vulnerable moments are when you arrive, so prepare for that. Find a base, among people you trust, and stick around for a while. If solo travel works and you find your feet, I recommend a hard-nosed attitude to communications. And when you find a friend, you never forget them. Like Muhammed, with who he exchanged letters for a few years , although he never saw him again. The lows are still lower, yet the highs are higher. 10. TRAVELLERS’ TALES: 3 VERY DIFFERENT BACKPACKING TRIPS A retiree, a career-breaker and a disabled traveller share the highs and lows of long-term travel. The older traveller: John Kirkaldy, 70, travelled around the world for a year. He had a terrible gap year when he was 18, so after a career as a university college lecturer, he decided to try again in his retirement. The year provided him with so many good experiences and as an historian he wanted to move by walking the most important battlefields. He did things he never thought he would such as selling clothes in a boutique in India while voluntaring, fronting a cacti stall in an Australian market. Perhaps most surprising of all was becoming the world’s least-likely bungee jumper from a bridge in New Zeland. He encountered nothing but friendliness on his travels. People did not just point out directions, but often walked with me to show the way. He stayed in hostels and cheap hotels and also cut corners by sleeping on trains, planes and buses, and at stations or airports. The cornerstones were, however, friends’ and friends of friends’ homes. There were of course a few downsides such as not seeing relatives for such a long time. That year gave him the confidence to deal with whatever life might throw at him in the future. The disabled traveller: Tony Giles, 40, spent 3 months backpacking around west Africa. He’s totally blind and 80% deaf in both ears without his hearing aids, but he has visited all seven continents and in 2017 he backpacked solo trough Africa. He researched the countries he wanted to visit using screen-reading speech software on his laptop. But mostly he learned to trust people he met on the streets to help him for example to get money because the african cash machines don’t have audio technology as in the UK. Travelling blind and partially deaf in Africa is challenging but rewarding, as most people simply want to help. Each bus journey was exciting and adventurous; he felt all the bumps and bounces, the twist and turns- it gave him a picture of the country as he travelled. His hosts took him to bus stations, told the conductor his stops, even if many locals were astonished that a blind guy travelled their country alone. He crossed the boarder of Burkina Faso with help from one of the guides from Ghana. Bucket showers and mud-brick houses are two of his greatest memories. The travel became difficult when it took more than 30 hours to reach Guinea, due to terrible roads and taking the wrong bus. When he reached the Guinea’s capital, his couch-surfing host had to rescue him from the military police who were being overly inquisitive about a blind guy roaming their city alone at 1am. He also reached a south Senegalese beach town with the motorbike. The career-break: Antonia Wilson was 30 when she travelled around the world for 10 months with her boyfriend. It was a winter night in London and her brother had just returned from backpacking with epic tales. Antonia’s boyfriend wanted to do the same so they paid a deposit on flights to take them around the world for 10 months, even if both had a career and life in the UK. First of all they explored south-east Asia( Thailand, Cambogia, China… the more cramped or hairy the journey, the more vivid the memory). Some moments of the trip felt wholly unreal: learning meditation with monks in Chiang Mai, camping on the Great Wall, meeting cowboys on Death Valley’s salty plains or seeing a giant turtle in Mexico. Food played a major part too; as winter approached it was Thanksgiving with family in New York and a slice of Iceland’s Golden Circle for her birthday. Not that being away was always rosy, long-term travel rarely is. Sometimes you get sick, tired or argue…but even that becomes a great story, eventually. This new priority doesn’t just mean creating food that can be photographed for social media, although plenty of eateries already cater to that need with the likes of grey ice cream and multicoloured bagels. The challenge for businesses is to make their premises attractive to social media influencers, so they pose up a storm in front of your store or hotel, luring in followers hungry for the perfect photo opportunity. Evelyn’s cafe in Manchester has capitalised on the modern customer’s desire for a photogenic backdrop. The manager says he was inspired by cafe culture in LA. Social media imagery was never part of the bar’s original plan, but when they realised they were so “instafriendly”, they adapted their approach and it’s now key to everything they do. Cafes and restaurants are stuffed with hanging plants, rose gold and inspirational signs, details designed to be featured online. It is not just interiors that are being reshaped; renowned architect Richard Rogers considers the Tuscan town of Pienza a world heritage site. Under Pope Pius II, the town was remodelled around a main square that feels like an outdoor room, encouraging visitors to linger and revel its beauty. The spectacular regeneration of king’s Cross station in London in recent years has gone further. Glittering glass buildings have shot up alongside plant-covered walls, colour-changing fountains and kitsch billboards. There there’s also the fictional platform 9 and ¾ that featured in Harry Potter books, where fans queue to crash trough the barrier. There’s even a professional photographer to mark your moment. Kate Beavis, an expert in vintage interiors, thinks this kind of pop-up urbanismi s becoming the norm. The things you see on instagram, such as pastel-coloured houses seem to be becoming more visible in cities and suburbs. Instagram selfie-wall opportunities are cropping up everywhere, even at events. This is now the norm, so it makes sense for architects to plan them in. In reality, this is what a trend is: something popular that works into our spaces and life. In 10 years, i twill be something else. London is not alone when it comes to installations that pander to our need for visual entertainment on our streets. In recent statistics released by Instagram, New York was the most photographed city, followed by Moscow and London. But LA, has realised the power of social media when it comes to design. A city nestled below the famous Hollywood sign, should not be much of a surprise that the demands of the lens are important to residents. A search on socila media shows the venue is a riot of colour, where the dep blue tiles command the most attention. Amelia Perrin, writer and instagrammer, is keen to visit places that will provide her with a good photo. Some restaurants for ex offer a kit to help you get the best shot. Perrin says she wouldn’t go to places just for nice decor, she believes venues know that food and decor definitely go hand in hand in importance. The neon-lit cafes of the US featured giant hot dogs or doughnuts on their roofs. These stylish roofs of the 1950s were specifically designed to attract the attention of drivers and be visible across lanes of traffic, serving simultaneously as billboards and working restaurants. The executive director of a lifestyle blog, echoes the need to keep design functional and evergreen in the face of huge social media trends. It is not just venues and neighbourhoods that are adapting their spaces for the smartphone generation. Museums and public buildings now look to social media to raise visitors numbers. The Louvre is the most photographed museum on Instagram. The museum’s popularity has recently been boosted by Jay-z and Beyonce’s decision to film the music video for Apeshit there. What does this mean for innovation in design? The more we rely on our smartphones, the more our ability to concentrate seems to dwindle, so the shops and spaces we visit are forced to work harder to offer us new ways to experience life through our gadgets. So many of us seem to view our surroundings only as a backdrop to our personal portfolio. But this comes at a cost. in the myth, when Narcissus looked down in that pond, he admired his own reflection. Now it seems we are all content to dismiss the beauty around us in favour of fiddling with filters. 14. LOGGED OFF: MEET THE TEENS WHO REFUSE TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA Generation Z has grown up online, so why are a surprising number suddently turning their backs on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat? Isabelle, an 18-year-old student who doesn’t want to disclose her surname, turned against social media when her classmates became zombified. Speaking face to face is losing importance. Another girl said that watching bullying online deterred her from using them. It is widely believed that young people are hopelessly devoted to social media. But for every young person hunched over a screen, there are others for whom social media no longer holds such an allure. These teens are turning their backs on the technology and there are more of them than you might think. According to a study by US marketing firm Hill Holliday of Generation Z, people born after 1995, half of those surveyed stated they had quit or were considering quitting at least one social media platform. She believes we will definitely see an increase in younger people quitting or reducing their use. And as younger Gen Zers notice this behaviour among their older siblings and friends, they too will start to dial down their use of social media. As the first generation to grow up online, Gen Z never had to learn social media, or at least not exactly. In fact, they glided trough every iteration in real time, effortlessly adopting each one. But a life lived in pixels from your earliest age is no easy thing. Amanuel, a 16-year-old boy quitted social media because there people present dishonest version of themselves. Social networks are also a competition for who can appear the happiest. In addition, if you’re having a bad day and scrolling trhough it, you’re constantly bombarded with pictures of people going to parties. Even if that’s not an accurate portayal of their lives, that’s what you see and it’s depressing. At school social media can be a brutal barometer of popularity. The number of followers you have determines your popularity. Sharp quit social media at 13 because he’d rather not know what other people think of him. A desire to build authentic offline friendships motivated some to quit. But when you’re from a digitally native generation, quitting social media can feel like joining a monastery. Teenagers not ready to quit entirely are stepping back for a while. A survey in US about taking time off social media found that 58% of teenagers had taken at least one break from at least one social media platform, mostly bacause feeling oppressed by the constant firehose of information. But quitting social media can create new anxieties. The biggest fear is missing out because it’s like everyone among your friends has gone to a party without telling you. There are some days, says Bielby, he’s really convinced to reinstalli t, not for himself, but to appear normal. In a world in which everyone is online, renouncing social media is a renegade, countercultural move. Quitting social media is a determined move: apps are in fact designed to be addctive, but when you do it’s such a relief. People often feel like social media is a part of them and their identies as teenagers but you’re no less of a teenager because you don’t use it. 15. MUSIC AND CULTURE What’s the best way to learn music? For many progressioni s best measured by the formal exam journey from grade 1 to the proficiency of grade 8. The established music education sector remains fixated on formal learning and in doing so fails to reflect the diversity of young people, the ways in which they engage with music and the achievements of those who learn away from the exam system. In recent years much has been done to encourage early engagement in musicgroup instrumental lessons for young children etc… But the progression from that point becomes fragmented and there’s a touch of snobbery towards those who provide routes to musical progression that aren’t measured by a pass, merit or distinction. Progression is an important part of all routes. It may comes a surprise that almost half the children who currently play an instrument presently don’t have lessons and almost a fifth of them never have done. That’s a large slice of our musical youth who are choosing non-formal routes. A report identifies significant inequities of opportunity in England that are preventing many children from reaching their full musical potential. Away from the school setting, many eager young musicians simply don’t know about the varied opportunities to participate in and learn. Economic and social barriers to learning aggravate the problem. While the National Plan for music education has laid the ground plan for collaboration, it has not yet succeded in providing an infrastructure that knits together the many and various strands for delivery. Music education and professional music organisations don’t coordinate effectively, making it difficult for children and their families to navigate the music landscape. Music hubs provide now a crucial bridge between schools and music professionals, but in some quarters, there’s still a sense that broader musical learning is a side issue. The most successful and enlightened ensembles and organisations recognise that the driving force for creativity, understanding and engagement is learning and participation. It’s central to their artistic output. The key to lifelong engagement in music is enjoyment, wheter young music enthusiasts ultimately become professional musicians, amateur music- makers or keen listeners. The challenge is to ensure that every child has the chance to realise their potential. We need to focus less on the best way to learn and more on the fundamentals of engaging children and young people in excellent music of all kinds. The music profession needs to work harder to articulate clearly what musical progression and success looks like in terms that are relevant and applicable across different genres and traditions. It’s our responsibility to articulate the impact that music can have on a child’s learning and wellbeing to education leaders, teachers and parents and to build diversity in music, so that children see people enjoying and participating who reflect their communities and the world around them. Quite simply, we need to get much better at telling people about opportunities for musical learning and where to find them. If we don’t close the fault line between formal and informal approaches to learning, then the inequities will prevail and we will fail many young people with musical talent. 16. TO BEAT PAIN, FIND THE RIGHT BEAT Listening to any music at all can help reduce suffering and speed recovery, says Lucy Atkins. If you’re stressed, depressed, in pain, anxious or simply want to boost your brain power and resolve, then invest in an Ipod. Music therapy is now being used to treat everything from autism to cancer. But the wider effect of music on our psyches is less publicised. Listening to music can help you to cope better with pain, exercise more effectively, be less aggressive. Indeed, if music were available in pill form, we’d all be popping it. One recent study found that listening to soothing classical music can reduce chronic pain by up to 21% and depression bu up to 25%. Other studies show that patients exposed to music experience less intense pain and use lowe doses of painkillers than those who suffer in silence. The director of an American hospital’s coronary care unit once said that half an hour of classical music produces the same effect as 10 milligrammes of Valium. Any music will do, as long as it is something you like. According to one Arts Council report, rheumatoid arthrities sufferers who listened to just 20 minutes of their favourite music daily reported a significant reduction in pain. Last year the charity put on 4000 concerts for adults and children in hospitals and care homes. We had paralysed stroke patients tapping their fingers to the beat and people who had lost their speech singing. The music don’t provide miracle cures, but they do give magical moments. While doctors do not fully understand the exact neurological effects of music, there is certainly more going on that simple distraction. Studies show that music can lower blood pressure and respiration rates, it may help increase production of endorphins and boost the immune system. Listening of your favourite music can alter your perception of pain and reduce stress. You may also feel calmer than others. Doctors are now installing sound systems in their waiting rooms; it also allows patients to gather their thoughts, and focus on what they are going to say. Surgeons who listen to their favourite music in th operating theatre are more calm, accurate and speedy. Some claims are however wildly inflated. The notion that listening to Mozart or paying it to your baby or foetus, can improve intelligence has not been scientifically proven, but certain kinds of music can manipulate the mind. For example french music at the supermarket gets you buying French wines. During exercise people work faster for longer if they listen to their favourite music. Sometimes, the genre is key; if you want to stick to your diet, avoid the Red Hot Chili Peppers and switch to classical FM: rock music makes you eat more and quicker. 17. WHY HISTORY MATTERS? History connects the past with the present: history matters because it helps us as individuals and as societies to understand why our societies are the way they are and what they value. Why on earth does it matter what happended long ago? The answer is that history is inescapable. It studies the past and the legacies of the past in the present. It connects things trough time and encourages its students to take a long view of such connections. Understanding the linkages between past and presenti s absolutely basic for a good young adults, 30% less likely to have started having sex at a young age. One limitation of the study is that it consisted mainly of children of white females of relatively high family socioeconomic status, and therefore might not be generalizable to a broader population, though prior research by VanderWeele suggested the effects of religious service attendance for adults may be even larger for black versus white populations. While previous studies of adult populations have found religious service attendance to have a greater association with better health and well-being than prayer or meditation, the current study of adolescents found communal and private spiritual practices to be of roughly similar benefit. 20. MY YEAR OF LIVING WITHOUT MONEY Is it possible to live without spending any cash whatsoever? After becoming disillusioned with consumer society, one man decided to give it a try. the morning he decided to give up using cash, the whole world changed. It was the same day news broke about the banks’ misbehaviour in the subprime mortgage market, so when he began telling people of my plans, they assumed it was in preparation for some sort of apocalyptic financial meltdown. The suppose the seeds of my decision to give up money were sown 7 years ago during his degree in economics in Ireland, when he stumbled upon a DVD about Gandhi. He said we should “be the change we want to see in the world”. His eureka moment came during an afternoon’s philosophising with a mate. We were chatting about global issues such as sweatshops, environmental destruction, factory farms, animal testing labs, wars over resources, when he realised he was looking at the world the wrong way. Instead, he decided to attempt what he awkwardly term “social homeopathy”. The key reason for so many problems in the world today is the fact we no longer have to see directly the repercussions of our actions. The degrees of separation between the consumer and the consumed have increased so much that people are completely unaware of the levels of destruction and suffering involved in the production of the food and other stuff we buy. The tool that has enabled this disconnection is money. If we grew our own food, we wouldn’t waste a third of it as we do today. If we had to clean out own drinking water, we wouldn’t waste it so freely. As long as money exists, these symptoms will surely persist. This man decided to give it up for one year initially and reconnect directly with the things he use and consume. The first step was to find a form of sustainable shelter. He located a caravan that someone else didn’t want any more. Having no means of paying bills, the next challenge was to set this home up to be off-grid. For heating he installed a wood-burner. A local memeber showed him how to make a rocket stove from a couple of old olive oil catering tins that were destined for landfill. While feeding the stove with broken-up old vegetable boxes, he would watch the moon rise in winter and the sun set in summer. Birds in the trees around yhe kitchen became his new ipod and observing wildlife taught him more than any documentary watched on tv. The one thing he did spend money on before beginning the experiment was a solar panel to supply him with enough electricity for a light, his laptop and phone. Solar isn’t ideal because of the embodied energy involved, but at the start of waht might be a lifelong journey, he couldn’t expect everything to be perfect straightaway. The last piece of his off-grid puzzle was a compost toilet; this should really be the symbol of the entire sustainably living moment, in the way the spinning wheel became a symbol of Swadeshi in India. Representing sanity and a respect for the earth, he made his alternative loo out of old pallets from a nearby hardaware store. Instead of the toilet roll he used old newspapers that newsagents throw away every day. He washed in a river or under solar shower and rarely used soap. For toothpaste he used a mixture of cuttlefish bone, which gets washed up on uk’s shores, and wild fennel seeds. Food was his only other real necessity; growing your own, wild food foraging, which is nutritionally exceptional and beautifully gentle on the environment and also securing waste food and other goods from local restaurants and shops. This is an incredible resource to draw on and it’s in cases like this that you learn not taking it for granted. He i salso trying to help people to reduce their own consumtions wherever they can, of course. But what he soon realised is that in a moneyless world everything takes much more time; handwashing clothes in a sink cold water using laundry liquid made by boiling up some nuts on the rocket stove, can take 2 hours instead of 10 minutes using a washing machine. He also found cycling around Bristol enjoyable and an economical alternative to the gym subscription. THE POINT IS spending time watching tv and stuffs like that kills you. 21. THE SECOND MIND Malcom Gladwell describes the part of the brain that runs our rapid decision-making system: imagine that i asked you to play a very simple gambling game with four decks of cards-two red and two blue. Each card wins you a sum of money or costs you some money and your job is to turn over cards in such a way that maximizes your winnings. What you don’t know at the beginning is that the red decks are a minefield. You can really only win by taking cards from the blue ones but how long will it take you to figure this out? A group of scientists at the University of lowa did this experiment a few years ago and what they found is that not knowing why we prefer the blue decks. Maybe they’re a better bet. The lowa scientists did something else; they hooked each gambler up to a polygraph-a lie detector machine- that measured the activity of the sweat glands that all of us have below the skin in the palms of our hands. Most sweat glands responde to temperature. But those in our palms open up in response to stress and being nervous. What lowa found is that gamblers started generating stress responses to red decks by the tenth card and also their behaviour began to change as well. They started favoring the good decks and taking fewer and fewer cards from a and b. so they began making the necessary adjustments long before they were consciously aware of what adjustments they were supposed to be making. The lowa study is just an experiment but also a powerful illustration of the way our minds work. What does the lowa experiment tell us? That in those moments our brain uses two very different strategies to make sense of the situation. The first is the conscious strategy. We think about what we’ve learned and eventually come up with an answer. This strategy is logical and definitive, but it’s slow and needs a lot of information. The second strategy operates quickly. It’s smart because it picks up the problem with the red decks almost immediately. It operates entirely below the surface of consciousness. It sends its messages trough weirdly indirect channels, like the sweat glands on the palms of our hands. It’s a system in which our brain reaches conclusions without immediately telling us that it’s reaching conclusions. 22. COMING SOON TO THE LIBRARY: HUMANOID ROBOTS They can speak in 19 languages and even do Tai Chi. They have blinking eyes, they walk, dance, speak. The primary purpose of humanoid NAO Evolution robots is to teach the kind of coding and computer- programming skills required to animate such machines. While it isn’t usual for public libraries to offer instruction in programming or robotics, Westport is the first in the nation to do it with sophisticated humanoid bots made by the french robotic firm Aldebaran. Robotics is the next disruptive technology coming into our lives from an economic-development perspective and job- and career-development perspective. Westport was among the firts public libraries in Connecticut to acquire a 3-D printer and to create a maker space, an area where patrons of all ages can try out equipment, dabble in computer coding or work individually to create DIY technology. But this isn’t the only public library with robots. The Chicago public library in partnership with Google, made 500 Finch robots available to patrons at six of its branches. Aldebaran said it has sold about 6000 robots world-wide, mostly to museums and schools. The NAO Evolution models, at nearly $8000 a machine, cost considerably more than the Finch machines, which run $99 each. The aldebaran robots are also more complex as they are equipped with two cameras, 4 microphones, motion sensors and sonar to detect walls. They can recognise faces and detect where sound is coming from. The robots come equipped with programming software, but embedded within that software are compatible programming languages, such as Python, that can be used to expand the capabilities of the NAO bots. Aldebaran also has a large development community continously adding new behaviour apps that facilitate everything from high-five gestures to a wake-up routine including yawning and stretching. The library plans to debut the robots Oct. 11 and begin programs and workshops soon after which will introduce participants to the software, said Bill Derry, the library’s assistant director for innovation. After he’s also planning a series of competitive programming challenges requiring contestants to have the robots recite a poem, give a speech and do a dance, among other things. The aim is to ivent something that could completely resemble artificial intelligence. While some have speculated that the Internet would render public libraries irrelevant, librarians say the proliferation of technology and digitized information has had the opposite effect. The growing emphasis in schools on science, technology, engineering and math gives library-based robots added relevance. 3-D printer and robotics in fact are very visceral and really speak to what’s possible in the future. Mr Giannini envisions the robots being programmed for “practical stuff” as well, such as helping patrons locate books or greeting elementary-school groups that visit the library. 23. NOW RIVERS HAVE THE SAME LEGAL STATUS AS PEOPLE, WE MUST UPHOLD THEIR RIGHTS Rivers around the world have been desecrated in every way. Now the Ganges and New Zealand’s Whanganui have legal standing, how will we protect their rights? Several geographically-distant but related events signalled a dramatic mind shift in humanity’s troubled relationship with nature last month. First the New Zealand parliament passed the Te Awa Tupua Act, giving the Whanganui River and ecosystem a legal standing in its own right, guaranteeing its “health and well- being”. A court in India gave the Ganges and Yamuna rivers the status of a legal person, with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities….in order to preserve and conserve them. The history of the rivers makes these proclamations remarkable. The Ganges has long been considered sacred and millions of people depend on it for sustenance, yet it has been polluted, mined, diverted and degraded to a shocking extent. Rivers are the arteries of the earth, and lifelines for humanity and millions of other animals and plants. It’s no wonder they have been venerated, considered as ancestors or mothers, and held up as sacred symbols. Can giving them the legal rights of a human help resolve this awful contradiction? New zeland and India have recognised the intrinsic rights of rivers, beyond their use for humans. Both recognise riversa s having spiritual, physical and metaphysical characteristics. These crucial extensions of law are based on ethical principles rarely recognised since the industrial age, but this is how indigenous peoples have long treated nature. What does it mean for a river to have the rights of a person? How can a river with no voice ensure such rights are upheld or ask for compensation if they are violated? The N.z. law recognises that past activities, including a hydroelectricity project, caused damage. The implication is that any such future activities could violate the river’s rights. The indian court’s orders are vague on some of these aspects. India put in fact its faith mostly in government officials and legal experts. Another issue is the Indian court’s equation of the Ganges with Hinduism. Hindus do venerate this river, but communities of other religions have lived along it for centuries. In an atmosphere of increasing religious divisiveness in India, these court orders must not be hijacked by forces of intolerance. The decisions in New Zealand and India come amid a growing global movement towards recognising the rights of nature. Since 2006, dozens of communities in the US have enacted the world’s first laws recognising such rights. Then in Panama, Bolivia and in 2009 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day. Crucially, in the US and Ecuador, people and governments can step into the shoes of nature; when people witness the failure of a government to uphold nature’s rights, they can bring cases on its behalf. At a time of acelerating species extinction, ecosystem collapse, and climate change, this movement marks a transformation in humankind’s relationship with the natural world. Recognisigng such rights does not stop all human use of nature, bt means that our actions must not interfere with the ability of ecosystems and species to thrive. Eventually, respect for nature should be built into how we live, and not because a law is telling us to do so. 24. A WORLD OF GOOD: VOLUNTEERING HOLIDAY OPPORTUNITIES Volunteering with one of these conservation projects or international charities could be a rewarding, even life-changing, experience. Plus tips on earning cash while you travel. Rainforest protector, Peru: the Crees ecoturism project works in the Peruvian Amazon to restore biodiversity to land damaged by farming. It has more 650 hectares under protection through replanting and working with communities on sustainable farming, but has bigger ambitions. The work is funded through