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Cristian Dior X Bali's Kain Endek
The opening look of Dior’s Spring/Summer 2021 show during Paris Fashion Week featured warp-print fabrics native to Bali known as kain endek, a piece that the French fashion house says is the result of a collaboration with local artisans.
Kain endek is popular among many Balinese and believed to have originated from Klungkung regency. Though the woven fabric has been around for centuries, endek reportedly only became more commercialized around the ‘80s.
https://coconuts.co/bali/lifestyle/balis-kain-endek-gains-spotlight-on-diors-runway-during-paris-fashion-week/

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Are we real?

Maybe this kind of of question sound so stupid, but somehow this topic make huge discussion between scientist. Sometimes we think that this world is just a dream or simulation, like mc in film or tale. Sometime this world fell unreal. But this question finally answered, the conclusion is as far we think that we real that become reason that we real.

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Why Spicy Food Hurt So Good?

I finally find the answer of this question! It is because capsaicin, the chemical in spicy foods that makes them so hot. When capsaicin hit your tongue, the sensation will received as a pain. It triggers the release of endorphins, a "happy" chemical that give you instant feeling of pleasure.

This way of getting pleasure may a bit similar to drug addiction, but experts say there's no harm in enjoying the burn.

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First Follower: Leadership Lessons from A Dancing Guy
- article by Derek Sivers

The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.

Becoming a leader is a challenging decision to opt since you might be the first one who start the movement. This article is mainly talking about becoming the first follower that embraces the value from the leader.

Leadership is somehow over-glorified. Not to mention that it's too much, but leader can't be called as a "leader" with no followers.

I love the way the writer chose on delivering the words. He started with a video showing a man with no followers before the first guy came and joined. Then, the first follower took a really important role to show how to follow and finally all people can join.

Indeed, at first, the leader looked ridiculous, bu as more people joined, people who didn't join are the ridicule one.

New words:
flint(n): a hard grey rock
spark(n): percikan; bunga api
guts(n): feeling or reaction based on an instinctive emotional response rather than considered thought; or more likely keberanian
emulate(v): imitate
fence(n): barrier

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Silent Voice

Silent Voice is story about deaf people who got bully and different respond from society. This story is more about social problem is life about psychology problem, cause the story highlight many point of view.

This movie tell us one of the major issues that we as a society that we have. This movie addresses it so well. As most cases, we only see one side of the story and those sides can be justified by their own reasoning but since we were able to look at both sides, this affected us on an emotional level that is quite deep that can resonate with anyone that has been bullied or has been a bully. Personally being in a similar situation in real life can relate with it deeper and sorta understand what being lonely is about without any friends to count on because I was different. But just like the movie, everything changed for the better as she was able to make friends with everyone. But the movie ending really makes you want to know more about how their life progresses and if they evolve romantically.

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1984 by George Orwell
This is one of George Orwell's most famous masterpieces. tells of a very authoritarian state system and the power of a regime that observes every behaviour of its citizens until no place escapes observation.

"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
YOU" (page 1, chapter 1)

I like this quote because it immediately describes the state of the country the author wants to describe. This book tells about the regime's power which is very monitoring every movement of its people. I've read a little of this book (in Indonesian version) but I am confused because the translation's language isn't familiar and too poetic. I hope I can more understand if I read the original version, but it just the same or maybe more confusing.

Vocab:
1. gritty (adj) = like sand (seperti pasir), brave, steadfast (tabah)
2. tacked (v) = sticked
3. enormous (adj) = very big
4. ragged (adj) = rough
5. contrived (adj) = artificial, are made slowly

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Twelfth Night in St. Bethlehem

This is another story from the book "The Magic of Cats". The quote that I like is words from Starr, a four-years old girl that lost her special friend, Q, a long-grey hair cat.

“It’s Twelfth Night, and Q is following the star of St. Bethlehem home. We have to be there to greet him.”

I like this quote because it’s teach me that we have to trust that God will give us anything that we need. So when we pray to God and he hasn’t granted our wishes yet, believe that it's not time for our prayers to be answered.

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Positive Outlook Predicts Less Memory Decline

Summary:

A new study finds that people who feel enthusiastic and cheerful -- what psychologists call 'positive affect' -- are less likely to experience memory decline as they age. This result adds to a growing body of research on positive affect's role in healthy aging.

Based on that article, “positive affect’ can impact daily life, such as long-lasting memory and social relationship. As people getting older, their memory also getting worse. To lessen that negative impact, the result of that research reminds us to live life happily—get positive affect with the aim that our memory had a less memory decline in the future.

Extraversion (sociableness, sociability): enjoy being with people, participating in social gatherings, and are full of energy.

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We may wish some memories could last a lifetime, but many physical and emotional factors can negatively impact our ability to retain information throughout life.

A new study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people who feel enthusiastic and cheerful -- what psychologists call "positive affect" -- are less likely to experience memory decline as they age. This result adds to a growing body of research on positive affect's role in healthy aging.

A team of researchers analyzed data from 991 middle-aged and older U.S. adults who participated in a national study conducted at three time periods: between 1995 and 1996, 2004 and 2006, and 2013 and 2014.

In each assessment, participants reported on a range of positive emotions they had experienced during the past 30 days. In the final two assessments, participants also completed tests of memory performance. These tests consisted of recalling words immediately after their presentation and again 15 minutes later.

The researchers examined the association between positive affect and memory decline, accounting for age, gender, education, depression, negative affect, and extraversion.

"Our findings showed that memory declined with age," said Claudia Haase, an associate professor at Northwestern University and senior author on the paper. "However, individuals with higher levels of positive affect had a less steep memory decline over the course of almost a decade," added Emily Hittner, a PhD graduate of Northwestern University and the paper's lead author.

Areas of future research might address the pathways that could connect positive affect and memory, such as physical health or social relationships.

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amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; fertility; healthy aging; alzheimer's research; memory; intelligence; dementia; educational psychology

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Positive outlook predicts less memory decline

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A new study finds that people who feel enthusiastic and cheerful -- what psychologists call 'positive affect' -- are less likely to experience memory decline as they age. This result adds to a growing body of research on positive affect's role in healthy aging.

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Yudiansyah Arya Dinanta
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

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Diego Maradona dies: Three days of mourning begin in Argentina as tributes pour in

Summary:
Maradona wasn't just a sportsman for Argentinians, he was an icon, a political player and of course, a loveable people. There is deep sadness as people prepare to pay their respects to their superstar footballer.

But his influence goes beyond Argentina - South Americans are proud of their footballing heritage so this news has resonated across the region.

In neighbouring Brazil, where their man Pele vied for the title of world's best footballer, Maradona's death was headline news - much of the rivalry between the two countries can be put down to the two players, such is the passion for the beautiful game here.

The reasons :
Maradona is one of my favourite football players because he have a good attitude and good skills.

Vocab:
vied=compete
unequivocally=explicitly
midday=noon
rogue=trickster

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Today's football superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo "could not even dream" of being admired as much as Diego Maradona was, says his former Argentina team-mate Ossie Ardiles.

Three days of national mourning have begun in Argentina after Maradona died on Wednesday at the age of 60.

His body will lie in state at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, during that time.

"To be Diego Maradona was incredibly beautiful," Ardiles told the BBC.

"But on the other hand, it was not easy at all. Right from a really early age, he was subject to the press all the time. He didn't have a normal childhood, he never had normal teenage years.

"Everybody wanted to be with him, everybody wanted a piece of him, so it was incredibly difficult."

How Maradona's tormenting of England made him an Argentine deity

Obituary - Argentina's flawed football icon

An extraordinary life in pictures

Football Daily podcast: Remembering Diego Maradona

Maradona, who played for clubs including Barcelona and Napoli, was captain when Argentina won the 1986 World Cup, scoring the famous 'Hand of God' goal against England in the quarter-finals.

Former Tottenham midfielder Ardiles, who played alongside Maradona at the 1982 World Cup, said he was "a god" in Argentina, in Naples and all around the world.

"He will be remembered as a genius in football," he added. "You can see the extraordinary amount of interest that he generates.

"People like [Juventus and Portugal striker] Ronaldo, or people like [Barcelona and Argentina forward] Messi, they couldn't even dream of having this kind of admiration.

"That was the Maradona phenomenon - all the time."

A post-mortem examination was due to take place on Maradona's body later on Wednesday after he died at about midday local time at his home in Tigre, near Buenos Aires.

The former Argentina attacking midfielder and manager had successful surgery on a brain blood clot earlier in November and was to be treated for alcohol dependency.

A minute's silence took place before Wednesday's Champions League matches and the same will happen before all other European fixtures this week.

Messi and Ronaldo were among current players to pay tribute, while Brazilian football great Pele said he hoped one day they would "play ball together in the sky".

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said Maradona "made world football better".

"There was a banner in Argentina, one year ago, that I read that said: 'No matter what you have done with your life, Diego, it matters what you do for our lives,'" former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Guardiola added.

"It expresses perfectly what this guy gave us. The man of joy and pleasure and his commitment for world football."

Former Tottenham manager and Argentina defender Mauricio Pochettino said: "Broken with pain. Diego, you were my hero and friend. I was so fortunate to have shared football and life with you."

The Vatican said Pope Francis, an Argentine and a football fan, would be remembering Maradona in his prayers.

Fans mourn their hero

In Argentina, Wednesday's match between Sport Club Internacional and Maradona's former club Boca Juniors was postponed.

Fans flocked to La Bombonera, Boca Juniors' stadium in Buenos Aires, where many were in tears - despite, in the case of some, being too young to remember Maradona's playing days.

They also congregated in the San Andres neighbourhood, where Maradona lived, and to La Plata, where he most recently was manager of local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.

In the country's capital, "gracias Diego" replaced train information on digital metro signs, while fans sang La Mano De Dios (The Hand Of God) in city suburbs.

Thousands of miles away, they also gathered outside Napoli's San Paolo stadium, which was lit up in tribute to the man who scored 81 goals in 188 appearances for the Italian club.

Fireworks erupted in the sky as those below, clad in Maradona shirts and even Maradona face masks, chanted and wept.

Maradona wasn't just a sportsman for Argentinians, he was an icon, a political player and of course, a loveable rogue. There is deep sadness as people prepare to pay their respects to their superstar footballer.

But his influence goes beyond Argentina - South Americans are proud of their footballing heritage so this news has resonated across the region.

In neighbouring Brazil, where their man Pele vied for the title of world's best footballer, Maradona's death was headline news - much of the rivalry between the two countries can be put down to the two players, such is the passion for the beautiful game here.

But rivalry was put aside with Pele paying tribute to Maradona as a dear friend.

"One day, I hope, we will have a kick about together in heaven," he said.

A statement from Napoli said: "Everyone is waiting for our words but what words could we possibly use for a pain such as this that we are going through?

"Now is the moment for tears. Then there will be the moment for words.

"We are in mourning. We feel like a boxer who has been knocked out. We are in shock. A devastating blow for both city and club."

A day of mourning will take place in Naples on Thursday.

The mayor of the city, Luigi de Magistris, has called for the Stadio San Paolo be renamed in honour of Maradona.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast, Paul Elliott, who played against Maradona while at Pisa, said: "I have to say it was remarkable. There was a sublime talent that this man had, an aura, a presence, and you know when you feel a sense of energy.

"Napoli is a very poor part of the south of Italy, but their whole world was built around Maradona and Napoli.

"If you look at where the club was when he arrived, the impact of one man unequivocally was the key and the catalyst to the success that they had, and the way he just gave everybody hope.

"That was just by his remarkable, sublime talent."

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'To be Maradona was incredibly beautiful'

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Today's football superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo "could not even dream" of being admired as much as Diego Maradona was, says his former Argentina team-mate Ossie Ardiles. Three days of national mourning have begun in Argentina after Maradona died on Wednesday at the age of 60.

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Confidence, How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs and Achieve Your Goals by Martin Meadows

Favorable Quote:

Nothing succeeds like success

The proverb tells us that one success leads to a bigger success. So, don't be afraid to try one thing leading to a success since it can let you in another success.

The proverb above gives me a bunch of spirit to achieve my dream as i'm such an unconfident person. Sometimes, i can't deal with my anxiety because i'm truly afraid to pass the future. However, since i realised my dream won't be achieved just like blinking the eye, i need to be brave and be more confident to pass the obstacles that might come in the future.

The reason why i like this book is simple. This is the first free book i found in google books. Moreover, it gives me abundant of insights on the first 5 pages.

New words:
- mediocre(adj): common, ordinary, average
- pinnacle(n): top, peak
- sedentary(adj): tending to spend much time for sitting down with no activities; being inactive
- leveraging(v): use something to maximum advantages

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The Space Race

Space races happen between 2 superpower countries which are the United States and Soviet Union (well known as Russia). What makes this race more special is the time where space races begin. It began  from the Cold War in 1950 and ended 1970 where these two countries finally worked together on space missions.

The battle between 2 countries which has superior technology makes it interesting. It's not just about the technology, but the political side too, United States with capitalism and Soviet Union with communism system-whose better. Both countries will show their best and all sources they have to win this race.

~vocabulary~

arms race : a competition between nations to have the most powerful armaments

armaments : senjata

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The Space Race began in the 1950s. It was the time of the , in which the United States and the Soviet Union fought for technological superiority. Each country wanted to prove that its political and economic system - capitalism on one side and communism on the other - was better. Both superpowers wanted to launch the first satellite and put a human being into space. The Space Race was also a part of the arms race after World War II.

In 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the western world by launching the first man-made object into space. Sputnik was a small ball with four antennae sticking out of it. Four months later the United States launched Explorer I. To the shock of the US, the Soviets had beaten them in the first phase of the Space Race. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human sent into Earth orbit, only a month before American astronaut Alan Shepard was launched into space.

The American defeat was a blow to the western world. In the early 1960s John F Kennedy, America's newly elected president, announced that the US were willing to show that they could put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. After the Mercury and Gemini projects had sent astronauts to earth orbit, Project Apollo faced the task of putting a team of three astronauts into lunar orbit and sending two of them to the moon's surface. During the 1960s, NASA received more money than ever before.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11's lunar landing module Eagle touched down on the moon's surface. Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. The Americans had finally achieved a major victory in the Space Race.

After 5 more lunar landings rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union ended. In the 1970s, the Americans and the Soviets started working together on space missions. The race to the moon was over and funding for NASA was reduced radically.

The Space Race produced many failures on both sides. While Russian rockets blew up on the launch pad ,three Americans got killed during a ground test in 1967. The most dramatic event came when oxygen tanks exploded during Apollo 13's mission to the moon; however, NASA managed to get the astronauts safely back to earth.

Buzz Aldrin becomes the 2nd human to walk on the lunar surface

Related Topics

Words

achieve = do; succeed in something

announce = to say officially

arms race = when two or more countries fight to have the largest number of weapons

beat = win over; be the first

blow = setback, shock

Cold War = unfriendly relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II; it lasted until the end of Communism

decade = a period of ten years

economic = system of producing goods in a country

face the task = to have a very difficult problem to solve

failure = disaster, breakdown; not a success

funding = here: money from the government

however = but

human being = person

launch = start

launch pad =place from where a rocket takes off into space

lunar = moon

major = very big, important

man-made = not natural, made by people

mission = trip, journey

orbit = when an object moves around the earth or another planet

oxygen = gas that is in the air and which we need to breathe; it has no colour and no smell

radically = very much; almost completely

receive = get

reduce = lower

rivalry = conflict, competition

rocket = object used for carrying things or people into space

stick = come

Soviet Union = communist country that existed between 1922 and 1991; it was the largest country in the world

superiority = being better than others; in control

superpower = country that had great political power and a big army

surface = the top layer of an object

technological = about new inventions and machines

touch down = land

victory = win

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The Space Race- The Fight to Reach the Moon

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The Space Race began in the 1950s. It was the time of the , in which the United States and the Soviet Union fought for technological superiority. Each country wanted to prove that its political and economic system - capitalism on one side and communism on the other - was better.

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The Story Girl

quote :
“I do like a road, because you can be always wondering what is at the end of it.”
Excerpt From: L. M. Montgomery. “The Story Girl.” Apple Books.

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snow piercer

The thing that makes this movie special is the timeline, that earth already frozen causes disaster from humans itself. Mr. Wilford makes a train that will save humans called snowpiercer, but only bourjois people can buy the ticket. Many rebellions were forced to get in snowpiercer without a ticket.

Many accidents happen that make this story interesting. Even some mysterious story behind snowpiercer itself. The rebellion's aim is to defend humanity and change the system in snowpiercer.

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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
- page 1, chapter 1
I don't know about how to interpret the paragraph above, I take it because I love the comparison that the writer has done. I've searched it on internet and I've never thought that this paragraph was so popular and and discussed by many people on various platforms. But I think it talks about that the period that the writer has mentioned is not different with other period. it just the same.
it captures the duplicity of our human nature, and since cities and cultures and countries are comprised of people, we often find this strange duality manifesting itself not just in ourselves, but also in our perceptions of the world. (AP News)

New words:
1. Epoch - a period of time, age
2. Prophetic - correctly stating or showing what will happen in the future, like or connected with prophet or prophets.
3.
4.

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A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens in 1859, is a historical novel depicting the era of the French Revolution. In its opening lines we find one of the greatest quotes in English literature:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

This quote is probably so relevant to each generation because it captures the duplicity of our human nature, and since cities and cultures and countries are comprised of people, we often find this strange duality manifesting itself not just in ourselves, but also in our perceptions of the world.

The series of contrasts listed in Dickens' quote can so easily be applied to the different outlooks of two people in different political parties, or of two citizens, or people with different cultural, or generational backgrounds, who value different things. Two people in the same country, and living at the same time, or in the same scenario, can have totally opposite perspectives while analyzing the very same data or experience.

In our country today, there are people who are convinced that this is the best of times; while others are just as adamant that it is the worst of times. There is more information available to most of us today than at any time in history, so more wisdom ought to be available to us, yet daily we encounter people who behave with such foolishness to cause one to conclude that they have no brain or thinking ability at all.

We have Bibles in our homes, and the ability to read them to gain the wisdom of God, and yet few people bother to do it. We have more access to Bible study, worship, and spiritual food, but fewer people attend worship to feed their souls. Many people are highly educated, while living in total spiritual darkness, with no awareness of God, nor of who Jesus is, or even enough awareness to realize He is missing from their life. As a culture we have free access to life in the light, and yet so many choose to live in the dark.

With the kinds of opportunities, education and technology available to us today, we should be living in the best of times; yet the availability of all these things can jumble our priorities, overwhelm our schedules, and overload our senses. We have access to seemingly endless new fruit and experiences; yet some people look at that scenario and become overcome with stress and hopelessness, because they do not find the renewal of life and hope they desire.

Life often offers a mix of the good, and the bad; the wise and the foolish, joy and delight as well as sadness and despair. In truth, much of what we find in life is what we are looking for in it. In Proverbs 23:7 (NASB) we read: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he..." We become like what we think. The world view that we embrace inside us, becomes the lens through which we view that world.

Jesus warned us that it is not things that enter into us as food or drink that taint or destroy us; it is the things which come out of our hearts, mouths and actions. Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:18-19 (NASB95): "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."

We see the world through the lens of our own heart. To change our perception requires a change of our heart and its perceptions. Our heart gives out, what we have put into it. How is your perception today? How's your heart? Our perceptions don't change until our heart changes. Is your life a tale of hope or despair? What do you see through the lens of your heart?

Award-winning columnist Dr. Ed Jordan is pastor of Gwynn's Island Baptist Church, Gwynn, VA. He can be reached at szent.edward@gmail.com.

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A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens in 1859, is a historical novel depicting the era of the French Revolution.

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The Diary of A Young Girl: the Definitive Edition

My Thoughts:
I love how Anne Frank who only a young girl is able to express her and their (people of Germany) suffering through writing. She was thirteen back then, but she can reveals about extraordinary conditions under condition of escape from Nazi occupation. the facing hunger, the frustrations of living under such unbearable strain, the petty misunderstanding, and etc.
I hope in the future there will be young people with unusual insight, like Anne Frank, and not only expressing themselves through writing but dare to speak in front of people, stating what is right and what is wrong.

Quote:
I hope i will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and i hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.

I love how Anne can keep her diary until people in the next generation can read it. Because she knew, she could not trust anyone in her era.

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The official website of the Anne Frank House, with the most complete and up-to-date information about Anne Frank, her diary, and the Secret Annex. Visit our museum and read more about our educational activities across the world.

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Spongebob : sponge on the run (2020)

Quote :
don't worry, Gar-bear. I'll be back before you can say "Why did he cruelly abandon me like that?"

This film especially this quote tell us about the friendship of Garry and SpongeBob where Garry is stolen by the God of the Sea (Neptune) and SpongeBob tries to find Garry accompanied by his best friend, Patrick. this film is filled with many sad scenes that make our tears dry

new word :
finicky : rewel

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Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

I love to read fantasy book. This book is impressed me from how the author made the storyline, and the character’s trait. The depiction is so clear.

So far, I have only read about one chapter from this book. in the first chapter, I can get a moral value:

“Don’t ever lie. Being liar is addictive but too risky. Even though you only want to impress your friend, do not be delusional. It will place us to into unpleasant situation.”

Here I give the synopsis,

“Aru Shah is a smart and salty middle school girl who just wants to impress her snooty private school friends. She takes them on a tour of the Indian-American Museum her mom curates, where her friends dare her to do the one thing she is forbidden to do: light an ancient lamp that will supposedly start the end of the world”

Some new words:

1. Grandeur: the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand

2. Sneer: a facial expression of contempt or scorn; the upper lip curls

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Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

This is the first question from Professor Snape to Harry in his first day school at Hogwarts. As we know Snape love Lily, Harry's mother so much. But, indirectly Snape kill her, when he trying to give the forecast to Voldemort. According to the Victorian Language of Flowers, asphodel is a type of lily meaning 'my regrets follow you to the grave' and wormwood means 'absence' and symbolizes bitter sorrow. The entire question has a hidden meaning of "I bitterly regret Lily's death".

New words
1. Goblet : somethings like glass, but this is for drinking wine, Piala
2. Forecast : a prediction for future, ramalan
3. Quivering : the action of trembling or shaking with a slight rapid motion, gemetaran; grogi

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Plastic film used in food packaging kills coronavirus.

Quote : If you want your foods are sterile, just wrap it in transparent stretchable plastic for 15 minutes.

New words :
turmeric-kunyit

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In tests conducted at the University of Sao Paulo's Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICB-USP), the PVC film proved capable of eliminating 79.9 per cent of the particles of SARS-CoV-2 in three minutes and 99.99 per cent in up to 15 minutes. According to the study author Lucio Freitas Junior, elimination of the virus by the material was extremely effective and fast.

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Chicken Soup for The Soul "The Magic of Cats"

The fact that I love cats and I have read other great Chicken Soup's book makes me guess that I will love this book. And yeah, I guess it right. The magic of cats truly exists. Reading a few stories about the magic of cats make my love for cats increase. From the stories, I can conclude that cats are not only a pet, and I've felt it. Cats can also be a best friend, even can be considered as family. Indeed caring for a cat is sometimes not easy, but you will find a pleasant when you look at his act and mischief.

Here is one of the quotes from this book :
"There is something about the presence of a cat... that seems to take the bite out of being alone."
~Louis J. Camuti

I like this quote because it is on point. Sometimes, when I am alone at home, cat is the best friend for me.

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It’s a failure of the government to see forests not as a source of food, so they have to be cut down

The government thinks that humans need food to live, but not oxygen to breathe.

How do you interpret that quote?

New Words!

1. Ostensible - ​seeming or stated to be real or true, when this is perhaps not the case.

2. Waiving - to choose not to demand something in a particular case, even though you have a legal or official right to do so.

3. Exacerbate - something worse, especially a disease or problem

4. Degazetted - To remove an official status from something, by publishing the fact in an official gazette.

Source meaning from Oxford Dictionary

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New rule puts Indonesia's protected forests up for grabs for agribusiness

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JAKARTA - Indonesia's dwindling forests may be cleared for farmland under a government-led program to boost domestic food production, raising fears of a surge in deforestation. The government's "food estate" program calls for establishing millions of hectares of new farmland, mostly for rice and other staple crops.

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1. Find an interesting article (topic: science)
2. Read the article.
3. Write down quotes you got (interesting sentences from the article)
4. Post the link here + Give reason why you like the quote (you may give questions to your friend)
5. Write the new words you find + the meaning
6. Read others' articles and give comments/ questions/ feedback/ whatever.
7. Don't forget to read the others' new vocabularies.

"Read, not only to do the task. Read, because you want to learn (new) things around."
Andriana Vita

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Quote:
Scared to death.

It’s not just a figure of speech – it turns out you really can die of fright.

We need to control ourselves, not to be scared easily.
How about you? What are you scared of?

new words:
- cynophobia – the fear of dogs

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Home alone at night, you hear a loud crash. In an instant your heart starts racing, your muscles tense and your breath quickens. You are immediately alert, primed to fight or flee the source of the sound, which turns out to be a pile of books falling off that shelf you've been meaning to fix. But in that moment, your brain and body reacted as if you were in mortal danger.

Fear is one of our strongest and most primal emotions. It's a big bad world out there, and being afraid of certain things protects us from potential danger to make sure we survive. Some evolutionary fears are hard-wired into our brains, but we can also develop new fears throughout our lives. As children we pick up on what makes our parents anxious, and we may also learn to fear certain things after negative experiences. Despite this, most of us are able to ignore our fears when it's clear we aren't in any immediate danger. We can enjoy the view from the top of a skyscraper rather than worry about falling, or turn out the lights safe in the knowledge that a predator won't devour us in the night.

However, people with phobias have an excessive fear response that causes both physical and psychological distress. These extreme fears are divided into three different groups: agoraphobia, social phobia and specific phobias. Agoraphobia is generally referred to as the fear of open spaces, but it applies to the dread of any situation that is difficult- to escape from, or where help would not be available if something went wrong. Social phobia is the intense fear of interacting with people or performing, while specific phobias are the fear of a particular situation, activity or thing. These irrational fears can cause major disruptions to everyday life; somebody with acrophobia - an extreme fear of heights - may experience a panic attack simply trying to walk across a bridge. Depending on the trigger of their phobia, sufferers often go to great lengths to avoid situations that could affect them.

The cause of phobias is not always clear, but many cases are linked to experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. For example, somebody may develop cynophobia - the fear of dogs - after being bitten. But whether the trigger is rational or irrational, as soon as the brain registers a scary stimulus, it activates the fight-or-flight response, thus preparing the body for action.

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Home alone at night, you hear a loud crash. In an instant your heart starts racing, your muscles tense and your breath quickens. You are immediately alert, primed to fight or flee the source of the sound, which turns out to be a pile of books falling off that shelf you've been meaning to fix.

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Quote:
But MotoGP’s current technical regulations don’t help inline-fours, because Michelin’s rear slick can overheat if riders overuse the edge of the tire.

This is another reason V4 engines are currently so successful because the rider who can turn his motorcycle quickly into the corner and quickly out of the corner abuses the edge of the tires less.

new words:
-Crankshaft - Part of engine

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Why are MotoGP V4s faster than inline-4s? - Motor Sport Magazine

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Ducati and Honda have ruled MotoGP's top-speed charts for years and are the dominant race winners. Here's why

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Quote:
Neutron stars are ancient remnants of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary journey through space and time.

What if a neutron star collided with a black hole? lmao.
Neutron stars are so dense that

only a few kilo meters in diameter

neutron star can weigh as well as our sun.

New words:
- boast: possess
- eon: an indefinite long period of time
- pulsar: a celestial object that emits regular pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation at rates of up to one thousand pulses per second.

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Latest News

Neutron stars can have a resounding impact around the universe. Scientists recently announced the first detection of gravitational waves created by two neutron stars smashing into each other.

About Neutron Stars

Neutron stars are ancient remnants of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary journey through space and time.

These interesting objects are born from once-large stars that grew to four to eight times the size of our own sun before exploding in catastrophic supernovae. After one such explosion blows a star's outer layers into space, the core remains-but it no longer produces nuclear fusion. With no outward pressure from fusion to counterbalance gravity's inward pull, the star condenses and collapses in upon itself.

Small but Mighty

Despite their small diameters-about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers)-neutron stars boast nearly 1.5 times the mass of our sun, and are thus incredibly dense. Just a sugar cube of neutron star matter would weigh about one hundred million tons on Earth.

A neutron star's almost incomprehensible density causes protons and electrons to combine into neutrons-the process that gives such stars their name. The composition of their cores is unknown, but they may consist of a neutron superfluid or some unknown state of matter.

Neutron stars pack an extremely strong gravitational pull, much greater than Earth's. This gravitational strength is particularly impressive because of the stars' small size.

When they are formed, neutron stars rotate in space. As they compress and shrink, this spinning speeds up because of the conservation of angular momentum-the same principle that causes a spinning skater to speed up when she pulls in her arms.

These stars gradually slow down over the eons, but those bodies that are still spinning rapidly may emit radiation that from Earth appears to blink on and off as the star spins, like the beam of light from a turning lighthouse. This "pulsing" appearance gives some neutron stars the name pulsars.

After spinning for several million years pulsars are drained of their energy and become normal neutron stars. Few of the known existing neutron stars are pulsars. Only about 1,000 pulsars are known to exist, though there may be hundreds of millions of old neutron stars in the galaxy.

The staggering pressures that exist at the core of neutron stars may be like those that existed at the time of the big bang, but these states cannot be simulated on Earth.

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Latest News Neutron stars can have a resounding impact around the universe. Scientists recently announced the first detection of gravitational waves created by two neutron stars smashing into each other. About Neutron Stars Neutron stars are ancient remnants of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary journey through space and time.

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Quote:
Then again, if we really have reached peak gold, the rush might not last very long.

Not all the great deals of effort is good for the future world.

new word:
scrutinize: examine or inspect closely and thoroughly.

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For 1,000 days, the caravan stood with banners and placards pinned to its side: "We are not afraid. This is our land. This is our home. We will die for it." Irish flags flutter in the wind. This is the anti-gold mine protest site set up by a group of locals in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

With 460 million-year-old veins of gold strewn hither and thither in the rock deep underfoot, the prospect of a mine in Curraghinalt, in a remote corner of the Sperrin mountains, has been talked about for decades - but it has never yet materialised. A recent application by a mining company to extract the seams of precious metal, has brought the prospect closer still. If successful, the firm says it could bring new jobs and money to the area. But many here want to keep things the way they are.

"I devote all my time to this campaign, I just feel it's our future," says Fidelma O'Kane, a retired social worker and lecturer who is concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the mine.

"My main worry is that the water will be poisoned, the air will be poisoned, the land will be contaminated - and ultimately people's health will suffer," she adds, explaining that she would never accept a mine, of any kind, in this area.

The company hoping to extract precious metals here, Dalradian Gold, says that it has put in place a swathe of environmental safeguards, and promises several economic benefits for locals. Still, the online planning proposal for the mine has attracted tens of thousands of comments, mostly negative, and a public inquiry will now take place to decide what will happen next.

Heralded by some as a potential boon for Northern Ireland, where jobs and investment opportunities stagnated during the 30-year period of conflict known as the Troubles, experts say Curraghinalt could become home to the largest gold mine in the UK, were it to go ahead.

The question now hovering over the rolling Sperrins is, what is more valuable: keeping the gold in the ground, or taking it out?

This query could hardly be voiced at a more pivotal moment. The price of gold rocketed during the pandemic, spurring renewed interest in excavation projects and even an illegal mining boom in parts of the Amazon rainforest. Yet gold is proving ever-more difficult to release from the ground. The technical challenges may be well known, but environmental protests and local politics are less predictable. At what point does mining gold stop being worth the effort?
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Last year, global gold production fell by 1%, the first decline in a decade, according to the World Gold Council, which promotes the gold industry. Some analysts argue we have reached "peak gold" - which means that the maximum rate of extraction has passed and the production of gold will continue to fall until, eventually, mining for it shall cease entirely.

However, demand for the stuff shows no sign of slowing down.

"It's kind of a perfect storm," says Matt Miller, vice president of equity research at CFRA Research, an investment analysis company. "Or, a better way to say it is, the fundamentals for gold may never be stronger than they are now."

According to CFRA, about half of the world's gold, excluding that still buried in the ground, is used in jewellery. As for the other half, one quarter is held by central banks and a final quarter is owned by private investors or used in industry.

Miller is among those who believe we have reached peak gold. The price of a single ounce of the glittering yellow metal breached $2,000 (£1,550) this summer and still rests comfortably above $1,900 (£1,470). Twenty years ago, the same ounce would sell for less than a quarter of that amount. The latest surge, following the emergence of Covid-19, has been linked to weakening currencies, including the US dollar. Governments are borrowing huge sums to pay for their pandemic response plans and printing money to fill the gap, say analysts, which means that the value of currency has become more volatile. Gold on the other hand is viewed as a stable asset, of which there are finite amounts, meaning that investors deem it trustworthy.

But Covid-19 has also caused disruption to gold mining operations themselves and supply is not likely to bounce up to meet rising demand any time soon. As such, the gold mining industry is actually sitting on the makings of a "major crisis", argues Miller.

"My view is that gold demand will continue to trend upwards," he says. "More and more of that is going to come from the recycling, which basically means that gold is trading hands."

He predicts that recycling old jewellery, coins or even the seemingly miniscule amounts of gold in the circuit boards of electronic devices, will become an increasingly significant source of the metal in the future. CFRA's data suggests that around 30% of the world's gold supply in the past 20 years was actually recycled, not mined. Refineries that recycle "scrap" gold - old jewellery, coins and bars - do use toxic chemicals and energy in their processes, but some environmental impacts may be much lower than mining. One recent study of gold refineries in Germany found that, kilogram for kilogram, the production of 99.99% pure gold via recycling was 300 times less carbon intensive than mining it from underground or open pit mines.

This means that obtaining one kilogram of recycled gold would produce 53kg of CO2 equivalent - but to mine a kilogram of the same material would cause 16 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to be emitted. Recycling scrap gold from electronics fell in between the two but was still better than mining - at one tonne of CO2 equivalent for every kilogram of gold turned out.

Like any large-scale industrial operation, gold mining can also have local effects on the environment. Public opposition to gold mines in some parts of the world has become a barrier to gold production, says Miller. Such resistance does not only exist in Tyrone. Take the Pascua-Lama mine in Chile, for instance. After years of protests from local activists on environmental grounds, the project was halted by regulators.

But where gold mines have become established, they can become giant operations. The world's largest produce many tonnes of gold annually and the biggest of them all, Nevada Gold Mine in the US, churns out more than 100 tonnes every year. Even smaller gold mines can support the livelihoods of many people within the communities that bloom around them. Take the city of Val d'Or (Valley of Gold) in Quebec, Canada. There's been a town there ever since gold was discovered in 1923. Various other metals including copper and lead are now also extracted in the area and a surplus of mining jobs has attracted people to Val d'Or in recent years. The town's ice hockey team, the Foreurs, even has a mascot with a hard hat named "Dynamit" - a reference to the dynamite used to blast away rock in mining.
Political barriers
As for Curraghinalt, it was bloodshed that kept the gold in the ground for many years. During the Troubles, several political and sectarian groups in Northern Ireland turned to violence, carrying out shootings and bombings, for example. So when one company eyed the potential for a mine at Curraghinalt in the 1980s, it struggled to obtain a permit for explosives, given the security risks of keeping them on-site at the time.

But a decade later, Curraghinalt seemed to promise a more hopeful future, remembers Adrian Boyce, professor of applied geology at Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. Around the time of the Good Friday Agreement (the political accord signed in April 1998 that helped bring an end to the Troubles), Boyce and colleagues took part in an initiative to study the geology of Curraghinalt and assess its commercial potential.

"It was really a fresh hope for the people of Northern Ireland and that's the impact that I saw for it," he recalls. "At a time when, you know, not a lot of people were investing in Northern Ireland."

He mentions the Omagh bombing, in which a group calling itself the Real IRA detonated a car bomb on a Saturday afternoon in August 1998, killing 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins. Omagh is a 20-minute drive from Curraghinalt. In the minds of some, the economic opportunities of a brand new gold mine offered Northern Ireland a chance to escape the horrors of the past - and still offers the local area economic hope for the future.

Back in the 1990s, it was the price of gold that ultimately stymied the mine's prospects, says Boyce. But that is no barrier now. And, he says, the size of the mine - Dalradian estimates it could produce 130,000 ounces (4 tonnes) annually for 20 years or more - makes it unique in the UK.

"For gold, Curraghinalt is far and away the biggest gold mine that's ever been found in the UK," says Boyce. "It dwarfs everything else."

Yet the story of Curraghinalt speaks to the challenges of industrial gold mining in 2020, especially when operating near existing communities in an area of natural beauty. The mine is situated in a fairly remote part of Northern Ireland surrounded by farms and wilderness. Omagh, for instance, has a population of fewer than 20,000 people.

Since 2009, Dalradian has been excavating samples from below ground at its site in Curraghinalt while promoting plans for the mine to locals. The proposals include building an underground mine, rather than an open pit-style project, and extracting ore that would be processed partly in Tyrone, partly overseas.

Following fierce opposition, in 2019 Dalradian dropped its plan to use cyanide at the site. In some gold mining operations, solutions containing cyanide are used to dissolve gold from ore mined out of the ground so that the metal can be extracted and collected. Dalradian also says it has reduced water usage by 30% and gas emissions by 25% as part of its aim to become Europe's first carbon neutral mine.

But campaigners continue to express concerns that chemicals could be washed into nearby rivers and harm local wildlife. Pollution from the mine could also negatively affect people's health, they claim. And they also fear that a large heap of "tailings" - waste material extracted from the mine and left aboveground - would blight the area's scenery.

BBC Future had arranged to tour Dalradian's site in Tyrone but the company cancelled the visit two days before it was due to take place without explanation.

In a statement, a spokesman for Dalradian said: "This is a safe and environmentally responsible project which will emulate the successes of other modern mines in Europe."

The company says it has listened to the community, offering tours and changing its mining processes when concerns were raised.

"People can also be assured that the project is being scrutinised by an independent, robust planning process and that it has been designed to meet exacting standards. We've held around 100 meetings with regulators so far and the local Public Health Agency has made no objection to the project on public health grounds."

And regarding the tailings: "The dry stack will have an average thickness of 17m (56 feet), will be replanted during operations, is located in a natural hollow and will be blended into the local landscape."

In a recent application for permission to discharge materials including heavy metals into a nearby stream, Dalradian also mentioned corrosive substances such as sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide. On this point, the spokesman said, "Although it's not expected that they will be used routinely, as they will be stored on-site they must be listed in the discharge consent."

A treatment plant would be used for water management, he added, and noted that the mine offered a "massive opportunity" at a time when Northern Ireland's economy faced uncertainty over Brexit.

While campaigners like O'Kane say they will not accept the mine under any circumstances, there are certainly some who would. It is difficult to get a sense of exactly how many in Tyrone are for or against. The Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure planning portal contains more than 41,000 public comments about Dalradian's proposals, more than 90% of which are objections. When asked by BBC Future why many of these responses appeared to be duplicates, the department said it believed the figures were an "accurate summary" of representations received.

Duplicates can arise for a number of reasons, a spokesman said: "They can relate to individuals making a representation on more than one occasion given there has been various amendments to the proposal."

With a public inquiry now looming over the plans, it's up to the authorities to investigate and represent the interests of local people before coming to a decision about whether the works ought to go ahead, suggests Boyce. "Let the politicians do what politicians are paid to do," he adds.

In recent years, across the Irish Sea in Scotland, local objections were raised over plans for a different mine, at Cononish, in Loch Lomond National Park. Boyce notes that environmental concerns were voiced there, too, but ultimately the project gained support and was granted planning permission. The first gold from the mine could be produced as early as November.

A mine at Curraghinalt that proved to be productive would certainly attract interest from investors, argues Chris Mancini, a research analyst at Gabelli Gold Fund, which invests in gold. And he argues that it would be safe, environmentally speaking.

But it won't do for some. For Fidelma O'Kane and her fellow campaigners, the mine has become anathema - a threat to the very character of the place where they live.

"The area is a beautiful area, it's designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty," insists O'Kane. "We don't want it industrialised with heavy industry.

"The clean, green image of our country would be gone forever."

Whatever happens next at Curraghinalt, there's no doubt that Dalradian's efforts have sparked many discussions locally about what people would be willing to accept. It's the sort of debate that could well become more common if the price of gold remains high and companies seek out small but nonetheless lucrative gold deposits in places that may have little or no tradition of gold mining.

Then again, if we really have reached peak gold, the rush might not last very long.

--
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For 1,000 days, the caravan stood with banners and placards pinned to its side: "We are not afraid. This is our land. This is our home. We will die for it." Irish flags flutter in the wind. This is the anti-gold mine protest site set up by a group of locals in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

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Quote:
It’s common sense that if you drink too much of anything it’s probably not good for you, but there’s no strong evidence that drinking a few cups a day is bad for health.

We just have to drink and eat what we want as what our body need because every food and beverage always have their pros and cons.

New word:
Jitters: slight irregular movement, variation, or unsteadiness, especially in an electrical signal or electronic device.

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Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. Humans have been drinking coffee, a natural source of caffeine, for centuries, but there have been mixed messages around its effect on human health for decades.

"Traditionally, coffee has been seen as a bad thing," says Marc Gunter, head of the section of nutrition and metabolism at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). "Research from the 1980s and 90s concluded that people who drank coffee had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease - but it's evolved since then."

With more, larger-scale population studies emerging over the last decade, Gunter says, scientists now have data from hundreds of thousands of coffee-drinkers. But what does the research tell us - and is coffee consumption providing health benefits, or risks?
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Coffee has been associated with an increased risk of cancer because it contains acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance found in foods including toast, cakes and chips. However, the IARC concluded in 2016 that coffee is not carcinogenic, unless it's drunk very hot - above 65C (149F).

Not only that, but more research has found that coffee may actually have a protective effect. Some studies have shown an association between coffee drinking and lower severity, and recurrence, of colon cancer in patients, for example.

In 2017, Gunter published the results of a study that looked at the coffee-drinking habits of half a million people across Europe over a period of 16 years. Those who drank more coffee had a lower risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and cancer. These findings are consistent with research from other parts of the world, including the US.

Gunter says there's enough consensus across observational studies to confirm that people who drink up to four cups of coffee a day have fewer diseases compared to those who don't drink any.

The potential benefit of coffee could go further. Coffee-drinkers in Gunter's study were more likely to smoke and had unhealthier diets than non-coffee drinkers. This would suggest that if coffee does lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, it might be more powerful than we think - it's overriding the effects of unhealthy behaviours.

That's true whether it's a cup of decaffeinated or caffeinated coffee. Decaf coffee has similar amounts of antioxidants as normal coffee, research has found. Gunter didn't find differences between the health of people who drank caffeinated versus decaf, which led him to conclude that the health benefits associated with coffee are due to something other than caffeine.
Cause and effect
However, all of this research was based on population data - which doesn't confirm cause and effect.

People who consume coffee may simply have better underlying health than people who choose not to, says Peter Rogers, who studies the effects of caffeine on behaviour, mood, alertness and attention at the University of Bristol. That's in spite of their unhealthier lifestyle habits, as found in Gunter's research.

"Some people suggested there might be protective effect, which is somewhat controversial as it's based on population evidence," he says.

Meanwhile, people who consume coffee regularly often have higher blood pressure, which should increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. But, Rogers says, there isn't evidence that higher blood pressure from drinking coffee is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Clinical trials looking into coffee - which could better determine its benefits and risks - are rarer than population studies. But a group of researchers recently conducted a trial in which they observed the effects of drinking caffeinated coffee on blood sugar.

The small study, conducted by the Centre for Nutrition Exercise and Metabolism at England's University of Bath, looked at how coffee affects the body's response to breakfast after a fragmented night's sleep. They found that participants who drank coffee, followed by a sugary drink that stood in for breakfast, had a 50% increase in blood sugar, compared to when they didn't consume coffee before 'breakfast'.

Still, this kind of behaviour would have to happen repeatedly over time for the risk to accumulate.

Putting people into lab settings also brings up the question of how relevant the findings are to real life - indicating that neither population, or lab research can provide definitive answers on how coffee affects our health.
Coffee and miscarriage
Advice on caffeinated coffee consumption is particularly confusing in pregnancy. Esther Myers, chief executive of EF Myers Consulting, carried out a review of 380 studies and concluded that four cups of coffee per day for adults, and three for pregnant women, shouldn't lead to any adverse effects.

However, the Food Standard Agency advises pregnant and breastfeeding women not to have more than one to two cups of coffee per day. This year, a review of previous studies concluded that pregnant women should cut out coffee entirely to reduce the risk of miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirth.

Emily Oster, economist and author of the book Expecting Better, which explores the data behind around pregnancy recommendations, also found guidance around coffee to be inconsistent.

"The big concern is the possibility that caffeine consumption is linked to miscarriage, especially in the first three months," she says.

But, she says, there isn't much randomised data on this, and drawing conclusions from observational data isn't reliable.

"Women who drink coffee in pregnancy are likely to be older and are more likely to smoke. We know age and tobacco consumption are causally linked to higher rates of miscarriage," she says.

"The second issue is that women who are nauseous in early pregnancy are less likely to miscarry. These women also avoid coffee - it's the kind of thing that bothers you if you're already feeling sick - so a lot of women who are nauseous and aren't consuming coffee are less likely to miscarry."

Two to four cups of coffee a day, Oster says, don't seem to be related to an increased risk of miscarriage.
Caffeine jitters
Aside from coffee's potential effects on heart health, cancer and miscarriage, there is how it influences the brain and nervous system. Caffeine is a psychoactive drug, which means it affects our cognition.

Within the general population, some people can drink caffeinated coffee all day long, while others become anxious after one cup. Studies have found that differences in our genes can affect how differently two people metabolise caffeine. But, Myers says, "we don't understand why one person is perfectly fine with a level of caffeine and another person is not".

For regular drinkers, meanwhile, there's bad news for those who drink coffee for a boost in concentration.

"As the body gets used to receiving caffeine on a daily basis, there are physiological changes that adapt the body to live with caffeine and maintain normal function," says Rogers. "Consuming coffee produces no net benefit to our ability to work efficiently because we become tolerant to that effect, but as long as you keep consuming it, you're probably not worse off."

The only people who stand to use caffeine to their advantage, he says, are those who don't drink it regularly.

At the other end of the spectrum, many people joke about being addicted to coffee. But in most cases, they're just dependent, says Rogers.

"There's low risk of addiction to caffeine - if you take it away from someone, they don't feel great but they're not strongly craving it," he says.

Coffee, he says, demonstrates the difference between addiction, where there is a compulsion to get the drug, and dependence, where the user's cognitive performance is impaired, but they don't go to lengths to get it.

The only thing coffee-drinkers need to be aware of, he says, is withdrawal. "Anyone who drinks a few cups of coffee a day is dependent on caffeine. If you took their coffee away, they'd be tired and would maybe have a headache," Rogers says.

These symptoms depend on how much coffee the person was drinking, but they usually last between three days and a week, he says - in which time, caffeine is the only thing that will alleviate them.
Kinds of coffee
The way you brew your coffee - whether lovingly crafting it from bean to cup or throwing some instant powder into a mug - doesn't seem to change the association with better health. By studying people across Europe, Gunter found that various types of coffee still were associated with health benefits.

"People drank a smaller espresso in Italy and Spain; in northern Europe, people drank larger volumes coffee and more instant coffee," says Gunter. "We looked at different types coffee and saw consistent results across counties, which suggests it's not about types of coffee but coffee-drinking per se."

Still, researchers from a 2018 study found that the relationship between coffee and lifespan were stronger for ground coffee than for instant or decaf - although these were still found to be healthier than not drinking any coffee at all. The discrepancy, the paper states, could be because instant coffees have lower amounts of bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, which are known for their anti-inflammatory properties.

While it may not help you through a busy day at work, Gunter says the available, up-to-date evidence suggests that drinking up to four cups of coffee a day could have health benefits, including lower risk of heart disease and cancer.

"It's common sense that if you drink too much of anything it's probably not good for you, but there's no strong evidence that drinking a few cups a day is bad for health," he says. "If anything, it's the opposite."

--

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Why coffee could be good for your health

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Caffeine is the most popular psychoactive drug in the world. Humans have been drinking coffee, a natural source of caffeine, for centuries, but there have been mixed messages around its effect on human health for decades.

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Quote:
the point is that public pools may be gross, but your body is pretty great at warding off infections.
this

I get new information and from this article I will be more alert about personal health. What do you think? is it dangerous to swim in public pools too often?

new words:
- bogus - fake, not genuine or true
- popsicle - A piece of flavoured ice or ice cream on a stick

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Let's start with the gross stuff: Up to 10 grams of poop can wash off a little kid's butt in a pool. Ten grams is a pretty small amount, but multiply that by the number of children in your average public pool over the course of a hot summer day. Think about how much poop that is. And now think about the last time you got an infection from swimming in a pool.

Was it last summer? The summer before that? To be fair, young kids are far more likely to get sick because they end up swallowing the water, so think back to when you were little. Anything? Probably not. Even if you spent most of your childhood in public pools, odds are you never got seriously ill from the bacteria and parasites in there.
[Related: The complicated, century-long relationship between swimming pools and chlorine]
To be clear, it's not because pools are clean. Pools are awful. They're full of poop and pee and probably some blood to round it all out, and lots of them don't have the proper concentration of disinfecting agents. About 17 percent of people say they've peed in a public pool before (and let's be honest, if 17 percent are willing to admit it, there have to be way more pool-peeing people who aren't).

Which isn't to say that no one gets sick from pool water. The Centers for Disease Control just put out a report noting that Cryptosporidium outbreaks have risen an average of 13 percent each year from 2009 to 2017. Pools and other swimming spots (like water parks) accounted for 35 percent of those outbreaks, while the rest were mainly from cattle or from a childcare facility.

We chlorinate pools because, when dissolved in water, chlorine breaks down into two chemicals that destroy microorganisms' protective walls: hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions. But crypto has a thick coating on it that doesn't allow chlorine to break through, so it persists even if pools are properly treated. All it takes is some little kid to go swimming too soon after having an infection to spread crypto to the whole pool. As the CDC notes, "one diarrheal incident" can deposit 10 to 100 million Cryptosporidium oocytes, which other small children are likely to ingest (let's face it, everyone swallows pool water when they're little).

And if the pool doesn't have the right balance of disinfecting chemicals, crypto isn't all you have to worry about. You can catch pus-filled rashes from Pseudomonas, a fever and cough from Legionella, and diarrhea from Shigella, Giardia, Norovirus, or E. coli. Some of these bacteria are chlorine-resistant, some aren't. The point is that public pools are full of microorganisms just dying to give you the runs.

About eight in every 10 pool inspections find serious health code violations. Of those eight, one will be so serious that the pool has to shut down immediately. Lots of these violations have nothing to do with the actual detection of bacteria or viruses. They're more to do with whether there are enough disinfecting agents in the pool. But that's exactly how you end up with outbreaks-failing to disinfect properly. The CDC estimates that half of all spas are in violation of the health code and that one in nine should be closed immediately. That's gross. Communal water is gross.

But consider this: There are more than 300 million pool visits every year in the US yet only around 1,400 people get infections from the revolting water they swim in. That's a pretty tiny number of infections considering how filthy those pools were, statistically speaking. Way more people have to go to the emergency room for injuries from pool disinfectants- roughly 4,500 people annually -than get sick from the bacteria those disinfectants protect us from. Kids who accidentally eat the chemicals or people who inhale more fumes than they realize can end up hospitalized.

And here's an even more crucial statistic: about 3,300 people drown accidentally every year, half of whom die in swimming pools. One in five accidental drownings are children, and for every kid who dies there are five more who require hospitalization.

Pools may be gross, but your body is pretty great at warding off infections. You're exposed to all sorts of bacteria on a daily basis, the vast majority of which don't make you ill. Pool water probably won't be the thing that gets you. Young children are the ones most susceptible to Cryptosporidium infection anyway, so as an adult you have little to fear. There isn't even a solid upward trend in infections caught from pools, only for those caught from child care centers and cattle, and the CDC itself noted that it's unclear whether the overall upward movement is simply due to better testing. It's probably also true that the CDC's numbers are an underestimate-plenty of kiddos get sick without needing to visit a doctor, and thus won't get tested in the first place. But even so, there are many more dangerous things about swimming pools than the many bacteria living inside them.
[Related: Teach your kids to respect the power of the ocean]
If you're still grossed out (as you should be), remember to not go swimming for a few days after you have diarrhea. And if you have kids, keep them out of the water if they've got a GI bug. Also, for so many reasons, don't drink pool water.

By the way, that whole "don't swim for an hour after you eat" thing? Totally bogus. Have your popsicle and eat it too. Just don't eat it in the pool, or any bad poops you have afterward are your own fault.
This post was updated on April 23, 2021.

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Swimming pools are full of poop, but they probably won't make you sick

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Sure, 10 grams of poo can wash off a little kid's butt-but it's only a tiny percentage of the bacteria people in swimming pools get sick from.

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Many issues and myth spread in our social life about Covid-19. It is dangerous? yes, but don't panic but still think about protocol.

Get many information as you can, to well know about this virus. Think again about what you hear and see.

New words:
-skyrocketed -melunjak tinggi
-catastrophe -malapetaka
-mandated -di bawah pengawasan

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These observations could inform future missions to the moon that will scout out lunar water as a potential resource for human visitors.

I interested with this sentence because in the future, if we have to go to the moon, we have some additional water resources.

New Word
sunlit-> illuminated by direct light from the sun. (yang disinari matahari)
emanating-> originate from; be produced by. (berasal)

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Past observations have suggested that there's water on the moon. New telescope observations conclude that those findings hold water.

Spacecraft have seen evidence of water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles ( SN: 5/9/16), as well as hints of water molecules on the sunlit surface ( SN: 9/23/09). But water sightings in sunlit regions have relied on detection of infrared light at a wavelength that could also be emitted by other hydroxyl compounds, which contain hydrogen and oxygen.

Now, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, has detected an infrared signal unique to water near the lunar south pole, researchers report online October 26 in Nature Astronomy. "This is the first unambiguous detection of molecular water on the sunlit moon," says study coauthor Casey Honniball, a lunar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "This shows that water is not just in the permanently shadowed regions - that there are other places on the moon that we could potentially find it."

These observations could inform future missions to the moon that will scout out lunar water as a potential resource for human visitors ( SN: 12/16/19).

SOFIA, operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center, is a 2.5-meter telescope that rides aboard a jumbo jet to get clear views of the sky ( SN: 2/17/16). During a flight in August 2018, the telescope detected 6-micrometer infrared light emanating from a region near the moon's southern Clavius crater. This wavelength of light is generated by the vibrations of sunlight-heated water molecules, but not other compounds containing hydroxyl, which consists of an oxygen atom bound to a hydrogen atom.

"I thought it was really brilliant" to confirm the presence of water on the moon with observations at this wavelength, says Jessica Sunshine, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland in College Park. Sunshine was involved in past observations that spotted hints of water on the moon, but was not involved in the new study.

Based on the brightness of the observed infrared light, Honniball's team calculated a water concentration of about 100 to 400 parts per million around the Clavius crater. That's less than half a liter of water per metric ton of lunar soil. This concentration was about what the researchers expected, based on past spacecraft observations.

These water molecules are not frozen in ice, like the water in permanently shadowed regions of the moon. Nor is it liquid, Sunshine says. "There's no moon puddles." Instead, the water molecules are thought to be bound inside some other material on the lunar surface.

"The only way for us to be seeing water on the [sunlit] moon is if it is sheltered from this harsh environment," Honniball says. These water molecules could be encased in glass forged by micrometeorite impacts, or wedged between soil grains that shield the water from blistering solar radiation.

Water could have formed on the moon itself, from hydrogen ions in the continual outward flow of charged particles from the sun reacting with oxygen on the surface ( SN: 10/6/14). Or, if the water is stored in impact glass, it could have been delivered to the moon by micrometeorites.

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

Maria Temming is the staff reporter for physical sciences, covering everything from chemistry to computer science and cosmology. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.

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Water exists on sunny parts of the moon, scientists confirm

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Past observations have suggested that there's water on the moon. New telescope observations conclude that those findings hold water. Spacecraft have seen evidence of water ice in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles ( SN: 5/9/16), as well as hints of water molecules on the sunlit surface ( SN: 9/23/09).

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Though still only a concept, “our ice home is not science fiction” says Sheila Thibeault.

this invention proves that Idea can arise through another fantasy from different field. What we need to do just look, imagine, and make it happen.
A great discovery always starts with simple things depending on where our thoughts take the lead.

_in the past, everyone used to see how an apple fell from the tree, But why only Isaac Newton thought about the theory?_

New words :
SETI - An abbreviation for search for extraterrestrial intelligence, meaning life on other worlds.

another words and the meaning available on the article

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Frozen’s ice queen commands ice and snow — maybe we can too

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In the Frozen movies, Elsa magically manipulates snow and ice. But scientists, too, make snowflakes. If they reinforce it, architects can build with ice and snow.

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Taking too much can create new health problems, stressing certain internal organs and leading to a dangerously high calcium buildup in the blood.

This quotes is very relatable with our life. Whatever that you take too much it is not good for you.

New words :
- Placebo : inactive treatment, a pill or tablet form, or it may be an injection or a medical device
- Rigorous : extremely thorough, or accurate

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Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org | Reprints FAQ

Editor's Note:

The story was updated on October 31, 2020, to correct that the paper in Drugs in Context was published in June, not July.

A version of this article appears in the November 21, 2020 issue of Science News.

Citations

A.R. Martineau et al. Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. British Medical Journal. Published online February 15, 2017. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i6583.

S.A. Lanham-New et al. Vitamin D and SARS-CoV-2 virus/COVID-19 disease. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health. Published online May 13, 2020. doi: 10.1136/bmjnph-2020-000089.

M. Singh and R.R. Das. Zinc for the common cold. Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews. Published online April 30, 2015. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001364.pub5.

H. Hemilä et al. Zinc acetate lozenges for the treatment of the common cold: a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. Vol. 10, January 2020. Doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031662.

I. Wessels, B. Rolles and L. Rink. The potential impact of zinc supplementation on COVID-19 pathogenesis. Frontiers in Immunology. Published online July 10, 2020. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.01712.

R. Güerri-Fernández et al. Lower baseline zinc levels are associated with poorer outcome in COVID-19. ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease. September 23, 2020.

S. Arentz et al. Zinc for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and other acute viral respiratory infections: a rapid review. Advances in Integrative Medicine. Published online August 1, 2020. doi: 10.1016/j.aimed.2020.07.009

S.R. Bauer et al. What is the role of supplementation with ascorbic acid, zinc, vitamin D, or N-acetylcysteine for prevention or treatment of COVID-19? Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. June 2020. Doi: 10.3949/ccjm.87a.ccc046.

L. Zhang and Y. Liu. Potential interventions for novel coronavirus in China: A systematic review. Journal of Medical Virology. Published online February 13, 2020. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25707.

H. Hemilä and E. Chalker. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Published online January 13, 2013. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4.

S. Michienzi and M.E. Badowski. Can vitamins and/or supplements provide hope against coronavirus? Drugs in Context. Published online June 22, 2020. Doi: 10.7573/dic.2020-5-7.

Laura Beil is a contributing correspondent. Based outside Dallas, Beil specializes in reporting on medicine, health policy and science.

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Here's what we know about using supplements to fight COVID-19 | Science News

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Unless you're deficient, there's little evidence yet for taking Vitamin D and other supplements to treat or prevent a coronavirus infection.

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It’s common sense that if you drink too much of anything it’s probably not good for you, but there’s no strong evidence that drinking a few cups a day is bad for health

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TOKYO: Japan's new 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality has thrown a spotlight on its efforts to find new, greener fuel options, including an ambitious but controversial liquid hydrogen venture.

Japan is trying to create something new with a big risks and impact.

New Words :
-Venture : business, effort, venture, attempt, enterprise, work
-Plentiful : many, much, ample, plentiful, considerable, substantial

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Share this content

TOKYO: Japan's new 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality has thrown a spotlight on its efforts to find new, greener fuel options, including an ambitious but controversial liquid hydrogen venture.
Why hydrogen?
The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is a joint Japanese-Australian project intended to produce plentiful, affordable fuel for Japan. Here are some questions and answers about the venture:

Japan has few fossil fuel resources, and relies heavily on imported liquified natural gas (LNG), coal and nuclear power, which has been curtailed since the Fukushima disaster.

The mountainous, natural disaster-prone country is struggling to ramp up its renewable energy production, and is therefore investigating a variety of fuel alternatives.

It has invested heavily in hydrogen, which produces only steam and no carbon dioxide when burnt, making it the focus of some interest.

Japan currently produces hydrogen domestically, in liquid and compressed gas forms, mostly from natural gas and oil.
What is HESC?
It uses it in microfuel cells for residential buildings, experimental power plants and fuel cell vehicles, but production domestically is limited and expensive.

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain is an experiment to see whether Japan can establish a durable supply of liquid hydrogen from Australia, to be burned to generate electricity.

The hydrogen will be produced and liquified in the Australian state of Victoria, where it will be extracted from a type of coal known as lignite.

This so-called brown coal currently effectively lacks a market, making it a potentially attractive, cheaper alternative to domestic hydrogen production for Japan, despite the extra costs of bringing it 9,000 kilometres by sea.
How will it work?
The project's pilot phase, partially funded by Japanese and Australian authorities, has received investment of around A$500 million (US$350 million).

From next year, a site on an artificial island near Kobe in western Japan will become the pilot terminus for the world's first ship designed to transport liquid hydrogen, a Japan-built vessel called the Suiso Frontier.

For now, the imposing spherical tank 19 metres in diameter on the site is being used to store domestically produced liquid hydrogen.

If the tests are successful by 2022 or 2023, the project will be extended and will enter a commercial phase after 2030. A new terminus in Japan will then be built, along with larger ships.

Is hydrogen really green?
But the process is complicated: to be transported by sea as a liquid, hydrogen needs to be cooled to -253 degrees Celsius - an expensive process that uses a lot of energy.

Hydrogen's green credentials depends largely on how it is produced.

Green hydrogen can be manufactured by electrolysis of water, using electricity obtained through renewable energy.

But every tonne of hydrogen produced from coal emits 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than double the CO2 emissions created when hydrogen is produced from natural gas.

Comparing the emissions from producing hydrogen to those from burning coal is complicated, experts say, but they agree that it won't be considered environmentally friendly unless produced renewably.

HESC backers insist it can be environmentally viable - if not renewable - through carbon capture programmes.

One Australian initiative, called CarbonNet, would see the captured CO2 buried under the seabed near Victoria.

For HESC backers like Motohiko Nishimura of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan's 2050 carbon-neutral deadline "will have a great positive impact" on the project.

But not everyone in Japanese industry is convinced, including Shigeru Muraki, an executive at Tokyo Gas, who favours investment in ammonia fuel instead.

"Even with carbon capture and storage methods, it can't be considered as green hydrogen," he said, referring to the HESC project.

He sees green hydrogen produced from renewable sources as likely to become price competitive with time.

And environmentalists like Nicholas Aberle, from the campaign group Environment Victoria, are deeply sceptical.

They fear "a situation in which coal-to-hydrogen can only be made commercial without (carbon capture), and we can see greedy companies trying to push ahead despite the climate impacts," he told AFP.

Commercial-scale hydrogen production from coal without carbon-capture would be "climate vandalism", he said.

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Ambitious but controversial: Japan's new hydrogen project

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Share this content TOKYO: Japan's new 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality has thrown a spotlight on its efforts to find new, greener fuel options, including an ambitious but controversial liquid hydrogen venture. Why hydrogen? The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is a joint Japanese-Australian project intended to produce plentiful, affordable fuel for Japan.

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If you want to know how to sleep better, the answer is simple but remarkably underrated in our productivity-obsessed culture: get more sleep

There is many theory about how to get better sleep, but the answer is simple : sleep longer

New word :
- deprivation : a situation in which you do not have things or conditions that are usually considered necessary for a pleasant life:

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If you want to learn how to sleep better, then you're in the right place. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know if you want to get better sleep. I'll explain the science of sleep and how it works, discuss why many people suffer from sleep deprivation without knowing it, and offer practical tips for getting better sleep and having more energy.

Plain and simple, the purpose of this guide is to explain the science of how to sleep better. You can click the links below to jump to a particular section or simply scroll down to read everything. At the end of this page, you'll find a complete list of all the articles I have written on sleep.
I. The Science of Sleep II. How Sleep Works III. How to Sleep Better
The Science of Sleep

Sleep is one of the strangest things we do each day. The average adult will spend 36 percent of his or her life asleep. For one-third of our time on earth, we transition from the vibrant, thoughtful, active organisms we are during the day and power down into a quiet state of hibernation.

But what is sleep, exactly? Why is it so important and so restorative for our bodies and minds? How does it impact our lives when we are awake?

The Purpose of Sleep

Sleep serves multiple purposes that are essential to your brain and body. Let's break down some of the most important ones.

The first purpose of sleep is restoration. Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities. While this is completely normal, too much accumulation of these waste products has been linked to neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

Alright, so how do we get rid of metabolic waste? Recent research has suggested that sleep plays a crucial role in cleaning out the brain each night. While these toxins can be flushed out during waking hours, researchers have found that clearance during sleep is as much as two-fold faster than during waking hours.

The way this process occurs is fairly remarkable:

During sleep, brain cells actually shrink by 60 percent, allowing the brain's waste-removal system-called the glymphatic system-to essentially "take out the trash" more easily. The result? Your brain is restored during sleep, and you wake up refreshed and with a clear mind.

The second purpose of sleep is memory consolidation. Sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, which is the process that maintains and strengthens your long-term memories. Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to form both concrete memories (facts and figures) and emotional memories.

Finally, sleep is paramount for metabolic health. Studies have shown that when you sleep 5.5 hours per night instead of 8.5 hours per night, a lower proportion of the energy you burn comes from fat, while more comes from carbohydrate and protein. This can predispose you to fat gain and muscle loss. Additionally, insufficient sleep or abnormal sleep cycles can lead to insulin insensitivity and metabolic syndrome, increasing your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

All of this to say, that better sleep is critical for your mental and physical health.

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Alright, so sleep is important, but how much sleep do you really need? To answer that question, let's consider an experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington State University.

The researchers began the experiment by gathering 48 healthy men and women who had been averaging seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Then, they split these subjects into four groups. The first group had to stay up for 3 days straight without sleeping. The second group slept for 4 hours per night. The third group slept for 6 hours per night. And the fourth group slept for 8 hours per night. In these final three groups-4, 6, and 8 hours of sleep-the subjects were held to these sleep patterns for two weeks straight. Throughout the experiment the subjects were tested on their physical and mental performance. 1

Here's what happened...

The subjects who were allowed a full 8 hours of sleep displayed no cognitive decreases, attention lapses, or motor skill declines during the 14-day study. Meanwhile, the groups who received 4 hours and 6 hours of sleep steadily declined with each passing day. The four-hour group performed worst, but the six-hour group didn't fare much better. In particular, there were two notable findings.

First, sleep debt is a cumulative issue. In the words of the researchers, sleep debt "has a neurobiological cost which accumulates over time." After one week, 25 percent of the six-hour group was falling asleep at random times throughout the day. After two weeks, the six-hour group had performance deficits that were the same as if they had stayed up for two days straight. Let me repeat that: if you get 6 hours of sleep per night for two weeks straight, your mental and physical performance declines to the same level as if you had stayed awake for 48 hours straight. 2

Second, participants didn't notice their own performance declines. When participants graded themselves, they believed that their performance declined for a few days and then tapered off. In reality, they were continuing to get worse with each day. In other words, we are poor judges of our own performance decreases even as we are going through them.

The Cost of Sleep Deprivation

The irony of it all is that many of us are suffering from sleep deprivation so that we can work more, but the drop in performance ruins any potential benefits of working additional hours.

In the United States alone, studies have estimated that sleep deprivation is costing businesses over $100 billion each year in lost efficiency and performance. 3

As Gregory Belenky, Director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University, puts it: "Unless you're doing work that doesn't require much thought, you are trading time awake at the expense of performance."

And this brings us to the important question: At what point does sleep debt start accumulating? When do performance declines start adding up? According to a wide range of studies, the tipping point is usually around the 7 or 7.5 hour mark. Generally speaking, experts agree that 95 percent of adults need to sleep 7 to 9 hours each night to function optimally. Most adults should be aiming for eight hours per night. Children, teenagers, and older adults typically need even more. 4

Here's a useful analogy for why sleep is so important.

The Theory of Cumulative Stress

Imagine that your health and energy are a bucket of water. In your day-to-day life, there are things that fill your bucket up. Sleep is one of the main inputs. These are also things like nutrition, meditation, stretching, laughter, and other forms of recovery.

There are also forces that drain the water from your bucket. These are outputs like lifting weights or running, stress from work or school, relationship problems, or other forms of stress and anxiety. 5

The forces that drain your bucket aren't all negative, of course. To live a productive life, it can be important to have some of those things flowing out of your bucket. Working hard in the gym, at school, or at the office allows you to produce something of value. But even positive outputs are still outputs and they drain your energy accordingly.

These outputs are cumulative. Even a little leak can result in significant water loss over time.

Keeping Your Bucket Full

If you want to keep your bucket full, you have two options.

1. Refill your bucket on a regular basis. That means making time for sleep and recovery.

2. Let the stressors in your life accumulate and drain your bucket. Once you hit empty, your body will force you to rest through injury and illness.

Recovery is not negotiable. You can either make time to rest and rejuvenate now or make time to be sick and injured later. Keep your bucket full. 6

Ok, But Can You Catch Up on Sleep?

Extra sleep can remedy some of the negative effects of several bad nights of sleep. New research found that catching up on sleep on the weekends brought daytime sleepiness and inflammation levels back to baseline; however, cognitive performance did NOT rebound.

What exactly does that mean? If you're not getting enough sleep during the week, you cannot depend on catch-up sleep on the weekends to restore your focus and attention. The only way to keep levels of those performance measures high is to make sure you're getting adequate sleep every night.

Now does this mean you shouldn't even try to catch up on sleep? No. If you're already sleep deprived, you should definitely try to get some extra sleep. But the best thing to do, both for immediate performance and for the long-term, is to prioritize sleep every night-not just on the weekends. 7

How Sleep Works

The Sleep-Wake Cycle

The quality of your sleep is determined by a process called the sleep-wake cycle.

There are two important parts of the sleep-wake cycle:

1. Slow wave sleep (also known as deep sleep)

2. REM sleep (REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement)

During slow wave sleep the body relaxes, breathing becomes more regular, blood pressure falls, and the brain becomes less responsive to external stimuli, which makes it more difficult to wake up. This phase is critical for renewal and repair of the body. During slow wave sleep, the pituitary gland releases growth hormone, which stimulates tissue growth and muscle repair. Researchers also believe that the body's immune system is repaired during this stage. Slow wave sleep is particularly critical if you're an athlete. You'll often hear about professional athletes like Roger Federer or LeBron James sleeping 11 or 12 hours per night. 8

As one example of the impact of sleep on physical performance, consider a study researchers conducted on the Stanford basketball players. During this study, the players slept for at least ten hours per night (compared to their typical eight hours). During five weeks of extended sleep, the researchers measured the basketball players accuracy and speed compared to their previous levels. Free throw shooting percentage increased by 9 percent. Three point shooting percentage increased by 9.2 percent. And the players were 0.6 seconds faster when sprinting 80 meters. If you place heavy physical demands on your body, slow wave sleep is what helps you recover. 9

REM sleep is to the mind what slow wave sleep is to the body. The brain is relatively quiet during most sleep phases, but during REM your brain comes to life. REM sleep is when your brain dreams and re-organizes information. During this phase your brain clears out irrelevant information, boosts your memory by connecting the experiences of the last 24 hours to your previous experiences, and facilitates learning and neural growth. Your body temperature rises, your blood pressure increases, and your heart rate speeds up. Despite all of this activity, your body hardly moves. Typically, the REM phase occurs in short bursts about 3 to 5 times per night.

Without the slow wave sleep and REM sleep phases, the body literally starts to die. If you starve yourself of sleep, you can't recover physically, your immune system weakens, and your brain becomes foggy. Or, as the researchers put it, sleep deprived individuals experience increased risk of viral infections, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, mental illness, and mortality.

To summarize: slow wave sleep helps you recover physically while REM sleep helps you recover mentally. The amount of time you spend in these phases tends to decrease with age, which means the quality of your sleep and your body's ability to recover also decrease with age.

Age-Related Sleep Changes

According to Harvard Medical School researchers, "As people age, it takes longer to fall asleep, a phenomenon called increased sleep latency. And sleep efficiency - the percentage of time spent asleep while in bed - decreases as well."

Based on my calculations of the above data, the average 80-year-old gets a whopping 62 percent less slow wave sleep than the average 20-year-old (20 percent of the average sleep cycle versus 7.5 percent). There are many factors that impact the aging of body tissues and cells, but it stands to reason that if your body gets less slow wave sleep to restore itself each night, then the aging process will accelerate as a result.

In other words, it seems reasonable to say that getting good sleep is one of your best defenses against aging quickly.

The Circadian Rhythm

What is your sleep-wake cycle dictated by?

Answer: the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a biological cycle of different processes that happen over a time span of about 24 hours.

Here are some key points in the typical 24-hour cycle:

6 A.M. Cortisol levels increase to wake your brain and body

7 A.M. Melatonin production stops

9 A.M. Sex hormone production peaks

10 A.M. Mental alertness levels peak

2:30 P.M. Best motor coordination

3:30 P.M. Fastest reaction time

5 P.M. Greatest cardiovascular efficiency and muscle strength

7 P.M. Highest blood pressure and body temperature

9 P.M. Melatonin production begins to prepare the body for sleep

10 P.M. Bowel movements suppressed as the body quiets down

2 A.M. Deepest sleep

4 A.M. Lowest body temperature

Obviously, these times are not exact and merely display the general pattern of the circadian rhythm. The exact times of your circadian rhythm will vary based on daylight, your habits, and other factors we will discuss later in this guide.

The circadian rhythm is impacted by three main factors: light, time, and melatonin.

Light. Light is probably the most significant pace setter of the circadian rhythm. Staring into a bright light for 30 minutes or so can often reset your circadian rhythm regardless of what time of day it is. More commonly, the rising of the sun and light striking your eyes triggers the transition to a new cycle.

Time. The time of day, your daily schedule, and the order in which you perform tasks can all impact your sleep-wake cycle.

Melatonin. This is the hormone that causes drowsiness and controls body temperature. Melatonin is produced in a predictable daily rhythm, increasing after dark and decreasing before dawn. Researchers believe that the melatonin production cycle helps keep the sleep-wake cycle on track.

The 2-Process Model of Sleep Regulation

In 1982, Dr. Alexander Borbely published an article in the journal Human Neurobiology describing something he called the 2-process model of sleep regulation. This conceptual framework for sleep describes two processes that occur simultaneously to regulate sleep and wake states.

Process 1 is sleep pressure. Basically, sleep pressure mounts from the moment you wake up, to the time when you go to sleep. While you're sleeping, pressure decreases. If you get a full night of sleep, you start the next day with low sleep pressure.

Process 2 is wake drive, which counteracts sleep pressure and is controlled by a 24-hour rhythm that repeats in a wave-pattern.

It's important to understand this process because it helps reveal an important point about sleep in our modern world that I learned from sleep scientist Dan Pardi:

For millions of years, humans and our ancestors have evolved to sleep at night (when it is dark) and wake during the day (when it is light). However, in the modern world, we work inside all day, often in areas that are darker than the outside world. And then, at night, we look at bright screens and televisions. Low light during the day, more light at night: It's the opposite of naturally occurring cycles and it seems quite likely that it could mess up your wake rhythm and circadian rhythm. 10

The result of this shift? Drowsiness and impaired function through the day. We'll talk more in just a minute about how to sleep better, including actionable steps you can take to anchor your rhythm, but it pretty much comes down to this: Use common-sense light habits. Get outdoor light exposure during the day, and turn down the lights and turn off your screens after dark.

When Should I Go to Sleep?

If you're getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep, does it matter when you get it?

"The time of night when you sleep makes a significant difference in terms of the structure and quality of your sleep," said Dr. Matt Walker, head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

The ratio of REM to non-REM sleep changes through the night, with non-REM sleep dominating cycles earlier in the night and REM sleep kicking in closer to sunrise, Walker said. That means a late night could result in insufficient amounts of deep, non-REM sleep. As we discussed earlier, it's crucially important to get healthy amounts of both REM and non-REM sleep.

So how early do you need to be to bed to get enough of each type of sleep? Walker says there's a window of several hours, about 8 p.m. to midnight.

The best time for you, though, will vary.

Till Roenneberg, a professor of chronobiology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich who studies the biological roots of sleep, says each person has a unique internal timing profile called a sleep chronotype that determines where on the scale from "early bird" to "night owl" we fall. Your chronotype is largely genetic.

When choosing your bedtime, try not to fight your physiology. The best bedtime will differ a little bit for everyone, but it's crucial that you pay close attention to your internal clock and what your body is telling you. As long as you're getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep, just focus on finding the time that works best for you.

How to Sleep Better

How to Fall Asleep Fast

Develop a "power down" ritual before bed. The light from computer screens, televisions, and phones can hinder the production of melatonin, which means your body isn't preparing the hormones it needs to enter the sleep phase. Specifically, it is the blue wavelength of light that seems to decrease melatonin production. Developing a "power down" routine where you shut off all electronics an hour or two before sleep can be a big help. Additionally, working late at night can keep your mind racing and your stress levels high, which also prevents the body from calming down for sleep. Turn off the screens and read a book instead. It's the perfect way to learn something useful and power down before bed. (Another option is to download an app called f.lux, which reduces the brightness of your screen closer to bedtime.)

Use relaxation techniques. Researchers believe that at least 50 percent of insomnia cases are emotion or stress related. Find outlets to reduce your stress and you'll often find that better sleep comes as a result. Proven methods include daily journaling, deep breathing exercises, meditation, exercise, and keeping a gratitude journal (write down something you are thankful for each day).

How to Improve Sleep Quality and Duration

If you want to know how to sleep better and boost your performance there are 3 levers you can "pull" to give yourself a boost.

Intensity refers to how well you sleep. The percentage of sleeping time you spend in slow wave sleep and REM sleep largely determine the quality of your sleep each night. 11

Timing refers to when you go to sleep. What time do you go to bed? This factor is important for two reasons. First, if you get in bed around the same time each night, it is easier for your body to develop good sleep habits. Second, the time you go to sleep should be in accordance with your circadian rhythm.

Duration refers to how long you sleep. This one is simple: how much time do you spend sleeping each night? 12

How can you use these 3 levers to sleep better?

When it comes to intensity, the truth is that there isn't much you can do. Your body largely manages the intensity of your sleep cycle (how much time you spend in slow wave sleep and REM sleep) for you. It adjusts automatically based on what you need and how much time you are spending asleep. Exercising consistently, being smart about light habits, and getting proper nutrition will help, but these actions only indirectly improve sleep intensity. 13

This is actually good news because it simplifies things for you. Because your body manages the quality of your sleep on its own, you only need to focus on two factors: timing (when you go to bed) and duration (how long you're in bed).

If we make another assumption, then we can simplify the situation even further. That assumption is this: You wake up at approximately the same time each day.

If you wake up at about the same time each day, then your sleep duration is basically determined by when you go to bed. Generally speaking, if you get into bed earlier, then you'll end up sleeping more. Improve the timing and you'll improve the duration as well.

And that brings us to this practical punchline...

From a practical application standpoint, timing is perhaps the most important of the 3 levers of sleep. The intensity of your sleep is managed automatically by your body. The duration of your sleep is largely dependent on when you get into bed (assuming you wake up around the same time each morning). And that means getting to bed at an earlier, more consistent time is critical for improving the quality and duration of your sleep. 14

Daily Habits for Better Sleep

Next, let's talk about how to sleep better by harnessing the power of a few simple, daily habits.

Get outside. Aim for at least 30 minutes of sun exposure each day.

Turn out the lights. When it gets dark outside, dim the lights in your house and reduce blue or full-spectrum light in your environment. F.lux, a free software app for your computer, makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

Avoid caffeine. If you're having trouble falling asleep, eliminating caffeine from your diet is a quick win. If you can't go without your morning cup of coffee, then a good rule of thumb to keep in mind is "No coffee after noon." This gives caffeine enough time to wear off before bed time.

Stop smoking or chewing tobacco. Tobacco use has been linked to a long line of health issues, and poor sleep is another one on the list. I don't have any personal experience with tobacco use, but I have heard from friends who have quit successfully that Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking book is the best resource on the topic.

Use the bedroom for sleep and sex only. Is your bedroom designed to promote good sleep? The ideal sleeping environment is dark, cool, and quiet. Don't make your bedroom a multi-purpose room. Eliminate TVs, laptops, electronics, and clutter. These are simple ways to improve the choice architecture of your bedroom, so that sleep is easier and distraction is harder. When you go to the bedroom, go there to sleep.

Natural Sleep Aids

Exercise. There are too many benefits to exercise to list them all here. When it comes to sleep, exercise will make it easier for your brain and body to power down at night. Furthermore, obesity can wreak havoc on your sleep patterns. The role of exercise only becomes more important with age. Fit middle-aged adults sleep significantly better than their overweight peers. One caveat: avoid exercising two to three hours before bedtime as the mental and physical stimulation can leave your nervous system feeling wired and make it difficult to calm down at night.

Temperature. Most people sleep best in a cool room. The ideal range is usually between 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 21 degrees Celsius).

Sound. A quiet space is key for good sleep. If peace and quiet is hard to come by, try controlling the bedroom noise by creating "white noise" with a fan. Or, use ear plugs ( here's a good pair).

Alcohol. This one is a slippery slope. It is true that having a drink before bed - a "night cap" - often does help people fall asleep. However, while it makes it easier to fall asleep, it actually reduces the quality of your sleep and delays the REM cycle. So you fall asleep faster, but it's possible that you'll wake up without feeling rested. It's probably best to improve your sleep through other methods before resorting to alcohol to do the job.

Final Thoughts on How to Sleep Better

Cumulative sleep debt is a barrier between you and optimal performance. If you want to know how to sleep better, the answer is simple but remarkably underrated in our productivity-obsessed culture: get more sleep.

All Sleep Articles

This is a complete list of articles I've written on sleep. Enjoy!

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The Science of Sleep: A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night

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Want to learn how to sleep better? Look no further. This guide walks you through everything you need to know to learn how to sleep better every night.

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Playing video games may also help children develop problem-solving skills.

Take the good side of playing games because not all playing games is bad. There are definitely good sides to playing the game.

New word :
- Violent : great, superb
- Adolescent : adult

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Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits, review finds

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Playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children’s learning, health and social skills.

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Video games are the key to an effective training.

By playing video games, we can learn and train many things with fun way.

New words:
- surpassing : of a large amount or high degree; exceeding, excelling, or extraordinary
- praise : the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation
- adequately : in a way that is sufficient, suitable, effective, or appropriate

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"But just because someone has experience of mental illness doesn't mean they're going into psychology for the wrong reasons."

Sometimes someone who has mental problems in the past is more likely to be a great psychologist because he/she can help others with the same problem to get up from their mental condition.

New Words:
I haven't found new words in the article.

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A thought-provoking article by Andrew R. Devendorf asks whether personal experience with mental illness is a strength or a weakness in clinical psychology.

Devendorf explains that applicants for graduate courses in psychology are often advised against mentioning their own mental health struggles, or those of their family, during the application process.

For instance, one guide titled, Uncensored Advice for Applying to Graduate School in Clinical Psychology states that an application should not contain "information that is widely inappropriate and unprofessional. Applicants who disclose their own psychopathology, for example, are often 'screened out.'"

Devendorf tells how when he was applying for a research scholarship in clinical psychology, he decided to disclose that his brother had died by suicide at the age of 27. Devendorf felt that this fact was relevant, as it had deepened his interest in depression and his desire to help people with that condition.

Devendorf didn't get the scholarship, and one of the evaluating committee members told him that the reference to his brother had hurt the application:

They mentioned the other committee members expressed discomfort in reading my application with comments such as this: "He has the awards, publications, and research experience, [so] why would he feel the need to share this?"

These members reportedly voiced disapproval for my "oversharing" and were unwilling to discuss my application further. They viewed my personal experiences as a potential bias harming my objectivity as a young scientist.

Devendorf goes on to argue that the stigma within psychology against disclosing one's own experiences needs to end. He points out that personal experience can offer many strengths to a psychologist, such as increased insight into mental illness and more compassion for other sufferers.

Being someone who has been a mental health researcher while suffering from mental illness myself, I found Devendorf's article very interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone involved in clinical psychology.

I generally agree with everything Devendorf says, although I do think that there is a problem if someone goes looking for a better understanding of their own mental health by seeking a career in psychology. That's not what psychology is about, and I'm afraid that anyone who goes into psychology hoping for self-knowledge (or self-treatment) is likely to be disappointed.

So I can understand why applications get rejected if they give the impression that the applicant is hoping to do self-focused "me-search" rather than research.

But just because someone has experience of mental illness doesn't mean they're going into psychology for the wrong reasons. If the stigma of "me-search" is leading perfectly good applications (like Devendorf's) to be rejected, then there is something wrong there.

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Should Psychologists Talk About Their Own Mental Health?

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A thought-provoking article by Andrew R. Devendorf asks whether personal experience with mental illness is a strength or a weakness in clinical psychology. Devendorf explains that applicants for graduate courses in psychology are often advised against mentioning their own mental health struggles, or those of their family, during the application process.

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The old adage “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” simply means that what we consider beautiful is based on the stories we tell ourselves—a subjective experience colored by the unconscious and by the culture at large.

New word :
- unconscious = the part of the mind which is inaccessible to the conscious mind but which affects behavior and emotions.

- ruthlessly = without pity or compassion for others.

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The topic of beauty and its influence on others has been debated among cultures throughout human history. Beauty has been widely regarded as a mysterious and seductive force on the psyche that reveals its power through stories of politics, marriage, power, and social status.

The old adage "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" simply means that what we consider beautiful is based on the stories we tell ourselves-a subjective experience colored by the unconscious and by the culture at large.

You've probably heard these stories before, of handsome men getting away with more than they should, or attractive young women getting out of speeding tickets because of their looks. Physical attractiveness does create a powerful first impression on the mind, so powerful in fact that we may go much beyond looks and simply start generating assumptions about a person's success, status, parenting, and intelligence, even if they prove not to be true.

To understand our susceptibility to beauty, then, we need to acknowledge the power of first impressions. First impressions linger in the mind and influence the way we see and treat others. Once an impression is rooted, it takes a lot to change our attitude about a person. If you go to a party and the host is generous and kind, you're more likely to forgive him when he does a keg stand or spills cranberry juice on your white shirt.

This comes from our adaptive and evolutionary behavior. As David McRaney says in You Are Not So Smart:

"To speed up processing, your brain tends first to apply very simple labels to the things you encounter minute by minute. You can thank your ancestors for paying attention to these labels for millions of years, because some of the things you are most likely to encounter in life are now hardwired into your mind as being good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

"When you make decisions and kindle beliefs based on innate sensations, psychologists say you are using the affect heuristic. An affect, in psychological terms, is a feeling that needs no further analysis. It isn't a coherent thought with words and symbols attached, but rather, a raw emotional state, a twinge or a jolt, or just a general sensation that sets a tone or a mood."

This heuristic influences what psychologists call the halo effect. The halo effect causes one trait (e.g., beauty) to drastically color your perception of all other traits. If you think someone is beautiful, you are also likely to assume they're smart, ambitious, interesting, etc. We've all made these assumptions before, for good or ill. McRaney continues:

"In the last one hundred years of research, beauty seems to be the one thing that most reliably produces the halo effect. Beauty is shorthand, a placeholder term for an invisible mental process in which you are privy only to the final output.

"Like the words delicious and disgusting, it describes a distinct variation of the affect heuristic. To see and judge a face as beautiful is to experience a tempest of brain activity informed by your culture, your experiences, and the influences of your deep evolutionary inheritance."

Let's take a look at some of these studies.
Why Beauty Is The Most Powerful First Impression
In 1972, psychologists Karen Dion, Ellen Berscheid, and Elaine Walster conducted a study to see just how beauty elicits the halo effect. The subjects, however, were told that the study was focused on first impressions. Each person received three envelopes containing three photographs that the researchers had rated on a scale of attractiveness-highly attractive, average, and not so attractive.

The subjects had to look at the photographs and then judge 27 different personality traits. They had to determine which person in the set of photos possessed traits like altruism, stability, etc. Then they had to judge whether these people were happy, along with their marital, parenting, and career status.

The results? With nothing but a picture to base their judgments, participants judged that highly attractive people possessed most of the positive traits, and possessed them more strongly, than others. They were also seen as happier and more successful, as better parents and as holding better jobs.

Wow.

All of these assumptions were determined from one picture. But it makes sense, because humans are always predicting, always going beyond what's at face value. This is like seeing someone wearing black-framed glasses and thinking they're sophisticated, smart, or nerdy when all they're doing is wearing glasses. If they happen to be smart or nerdy, this impacts our memory and in turn how we begin to label others wearing similar glasses.

In another study from 1974, researchers gave essays to participants with a photo attached to it. Some received an essay with a photo of an attractive woman, others an essay with a photo of an unattractive woman. The participants were asked to rate the quality of the writing; researchers didn't mention the photo in their questions.

The result? When people assumed the essays were written by an attractive woman, they judged them as better written, more in-depth, and more creative. The catch? The essays were identical.

As McRaney concludes:

"When the scientists ran [this same] study with essays purposely written to be awful, the disparity between the ratings was magnified. As Landy and Sigall wrote, you expect better performances from attractive people, but when they fail, you are also more likely to forgive them.

"In short, as Landy and Sigall pointed out, you expect more from pretty people well before you know anything else about them, and when they fall short of your expectations, you give them more of a chance to prove themselves than you do people less symmetrical or slender or muscle-bound or bosom-heaving or whatever cultural or era-appropriate norms of attractiveness are woven into your perception."

The halo effect isn't limited to physical attractiveness. That 5-star-reviewed vacuum cleaner, the book with "New York Times Bestseller" stamped on the cover, or "Oprah's Book Club"-all of these labels have profound influences on whether we give a product our own thumbs-up or thumbs-down-and whether we pull out a credit card for it or not. It's a mental shortcut to allow us to make quick decisions instead of sitting there weighing all the different variables.
We Are Our Own Worst Critic
Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, much of our self-esteem and what we believe to be beautiful is diluted by the media. Without self-awareness, we can be pulled left and right in search of what's beautiful and acceptable.

The ideal thin woman or a guy with a chiseled jawline with abs is ruthlessly, and inaccurately, portrayed on TV and in magazines. People are becoming more aware of the effects of Photoshop and other tools, but it proves difficult to set aside artificial standards of beauty and be more compassionate toward ourselves and others.

Dove did a wonderful campaign and study on this effect, showcasing how we're our own worst critics, and how when others describe us, they celebrate and appreciate us, whereas we criticize and condemn.

The danger in all of this is ignorance of the halo effect, being blinded by the luster of a good hair day or a popular cultural label. To overcome it, a scientific and psychological understanding of beauty and its effects are helpful. It's difficult to resist putting things on a pedestal, to not view items or people in a hierarchy. But with careful consideration of what we're viewing and telling ourselves, perhaps we can achieve a level of objectivity that allows us not to be blinded by the halo above one's head, so we may ultimately learn to appreciate beauty in all of its forms.
Paul Jun is the author of Connecting the Dots: Strategies and Mediation on Self-Education.

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The Surprising Power of A Beautiful Face

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The topic of beauty and its influence on others has been debated among cultures throughout human history. Beauty has been widely regarded as a mysterious and seductive force on the psyche that reveals its power through stories of politics, marriage, power, and social status.

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New Words :

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Political contestation is as much about cultural identity and recognition, as it is about allocating material resources

New words:
- Distinguishable : different ways of framing problems may have profound consequences for distribution
- Tapping : the action of striking against something with a quick light blow or blows, or a sound made in this way.
- Bidding war :  a circumstance in which two or more prospective buyers of a property compete for ownership through incrementally increasing bids.

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We often refer to something as being 'political', or 'all about politics', to mean it boils down to a power struggle between people or groups. The idea is that politics is a process of manoeuvring to assert rival interests.

Of course, this notion of competition over interests or power is very relevant to politics with a capital 'P', or party politics. Indeed, we might start by defining politics as a process of competitive claims-making by rival parties, with the aim of mobilising support to put these programmes into action. But beyond this broad definition, it's useful to unpack what this competition is about and the way in which it plays out. Both of these questions will help us develop a rather more nuanced (and hopefully less cynical!) view of politics.

First, what is politics about? One of the classic answers to this question is that politics is about who gets what, when and how. On this view, politics is essentially about settling contestation over the distribution of material goods. This may have been a fair characterisation of politics in the post-World War II era - an era that saw the rolling out of progressive taxation and welfare provision by a relatively centralised state and a party political system based on a traditional left-right ideological cleavage.

Yet the notion that politics is solely, or mainly, about distribution has been challenged over the past three or more decades. The increasing salience of 'post-ideological' contestation around values and lifestyles suggests that politics is as much, or arguably more, about identity and culture as it is about material resources. Much of our contemporary political debate revolves around issues that are not neatly categorised as left or right, such as the environment, gender and sexual rights, immigration and security.

Political contestation is as much about cultural identity and recognition, as it is about allocating material resources

Another challenge to this classic view comes from the 'ideational turn' in studies of politics. Scholars have shown how politics is as much about contestation over ways of framing or narrating policy problems, as it is about struggles over distribution. Of course, the two may not be easily distinguishable: different ways of framing problems may have profound consequences for distribution. But the point is that politics is a battle of ideas, in which participants attempt to control the narrative through tapping deep-rooted values and beliefs, rather than invoking objective self-interest. This recognition of the importance of narratives chimes with debates on 'fake news' and the potential for significant divergence in the way rival political groups frame policy issues.

The second question is about the process of politics: how are these rival claims translated into policy? In multi-party democracies, the obvious answer to this is through winning elections, which allows parties to implement their programmes.

MPs leaving the State Opening of Parliament, December 2019. Photo by Adrian Dennis - WPA Pool / Getty Images.

But this rather transactional account is misleading. Electoral competition tends to create a 'bidding war', in which rival parties promise ever more appealing programmes. Voters often assume that these programmes can be straightforwardly implemented - as if they are consumers choosing a product. But in reality, manifesto claims are often discarded or watered down in the face of limited resources, viability, or political veto. What results is disappointment and disillusionment in democratic politics.

One of the challenges for political science, then, is to chart and understand these changes in the nature of politics. We need to understand that political contestation is as much about cultural identity and recognition, as it is about allocating material resources and to make sense of the disappointment in politics generated by the gap between the transactional view and the messier reality. Only by elucidating these trends can we develop institutions that can renew democratic debate and trust in politics. No mean feat in the current political climate, but definitely worth our best effort.
Christina Boswell is Professor of Politics and Dean of Research of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2019.

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Professor Christina Boswell FBA explores how definitions of politics have shifted in recent years and sets out the contemporary challenge for political scientists.