TomBen’s Web Excursions

2022-06-22 15:31:53 ‘What are our lives for?’: a philosopher answers kids’ existential questions

Every child is a natural philosopher. They’re puzzled by the world and they try to puzzle it out. And they’re good at it, too. Kids are clever and courageous thinkers. In fact, adults can learn a lot from listening to them – and thinking with them.

If God created everything, who created God? Leyha, 7

I sometimes feel like I’m the only real person and everyone else is a robot. How can I know if that’s true? Ursula, 8

Why are there numbers? Sahil, 5

Where was I before I was born and before I was in your belly? Melia, 4

Where was I before I was here? Josh, 3

Where do you go when you die? Homer, 7

What is it like to be dead? Arthur, 8

What are our lives for? Caspar, 5

But we are here, and we should care about each other, even if the universe doesn’t care about us. There may be no meaning to our lives. But we can find meaning in our lives by filling them with family and friends and fun – and projects that make the world a better place. You get to decide what your life is for, Caspar, so try to make it something cool.

Why is it bad to have everything I want? Abraham, 4

Why do people end up doing things that they don’t want to do? Sarang, 4

Do the needs of the many outweigh those of the few, or do the needs of the few outweigh those of the many? Arthur, 7

Is your imagination made of atoms? Josie, 7 打开/如何

2022-06-22 15:27:06 The Most Powerful And Inspirational Photos Ever Taken

https://theydiffer.com/article/tw/110348018/the-most-powerful-and-inspirational-photos-ever-taken 打开/如何

2022-06-22 15:26:15 原来 #健康码 包含了我们这么多个人信息，是这样被调用的｜搜信源

https://mailchi.mp/7b0d81d28e2b/0o2lmgepuz 打开/如何

2022-06-22 15:25:19 China’s mental-health crisis is getting worse

Much of China’s population has experienced some form of lockdown this year. If the virus is not causing enough anguish, there is also the struggling economy. China’s youth-unemployment rate has shot up to 18.4%, the highest on record. Don’t complain too much, though, lest the state take notice. Censorship, surveillance and oppression, on the rise ahead of a Communist Party congress later this year, add to the anxiety

But the government itself is a big part of the problem. It is not just that lockdowns and oppression lead to anxiety and depression. The party is also trying to use psychotherapy to mould compliant, socially conservative citizens. 打开/如何

2022-06-22 15:24:33 Anne Lamott Interview

There is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder. But the good news is that creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.

Then I bring up the bad news: You have to make time to do this.

First of all, no one needs to watch the news every night, unless one is married to the anchor. Otherwise, you are mostly going to learn more than you need to know about where the local fires are, and how rainy it has been: so rainy! That is half an hour, a few days a week, I tell my students. You could commit to writing one page a night, which, over a year, is most of a book.

I’ve heard it said that every day you need half an hour of quiet time for yourself, or your Self, unless you’re incredibly busy and stressed, in which case you need an hour. I promise you, it is there. Fight tooth and nail to find time, to make it. It is our true wealth, this moment, this hour, this day.

https://www.sunset.com/travel/anne-lamott-how-to-find-time 打开/如何

2022-06-22 15:20:40 You Need a Horror Movie Friend for a More Frightening, Less Lonely Life

We were all careful with one another, but a layer of brutality ran just below the surface, an implicit understanding that sometimes calling a classmate’s story “interesting” meant you actually thought it was trash.

Our politeness kept the program from descending into violence, but it sometimes left me craving a more honest, instinctual response.

One thing that helped keep me sane was horror cinema. In these films, mood is not subservient to message: The mood is the message, working to disperse the sedative haze of the everyday. Not everyone in the program was receptive to this point of view.

But sharing that understanding with someone makes the world, perhaps paradoxically, less scary. You can’t undo what is terrible about the universe, but you can stand against it together. 打开/如何

2022-06-22 07:38:50 A New York Times analysis of over 100,000 government bidding documents found that China’s ambition to collect digital and biological data from its citizens is more expansive and invasive than previously known.

Here are the investigation’s major revelations:

Chinese police analyze human behaviors to ensure facial recognition cameras capture as much activity as possible.

Authorities are using phone trackers to link people’s digital lives to their physical movements.

DNA, iris scan samples and voice prints are being collected indiscriminately from people with no connection to crime.

The government wants to connect all of these data points to build comprehensive profiles for citizens — which are accessible throughout the government. 打开/如何

2022-06-18 15:24:37 The Six Forces That Fuel Friendship

Accumulation

The simplest and most obvious force that forms and sustains friendships is time spent together.

One study estimates that it takes spending 40 to 60 hours together within the first six weeks of meeting to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend, and about 80 to 100 hours to become more than that.

Attention

Connection can come from anywhere, at any time, if both parties are open to it.

Paying attention goes a long way when forging these unexpected friendships—noticing when you click with someone, being open to chance encounters.

Because as much as we may feel like our social networks are set and settled, it’s never too late to meet someone who will be important to you for the rest of your life.

Intention

Attention only gets you so far without action. When opportunity arises, you have to put yourself out there, and that requires courage, vulnerability, and a willingness to let things be awkward.

Most friendships require a bit of courtship to get going.

This is the hardest part of friendship. It takes energy and thought, and our mental and physical resources are often spread thin.

Ritual

One thing that seems to make keeping up with friends easier is ritual. I personally find that the effort of coordinating hangs (or even phone calls) is the biggest barrier to seeing my friends.

It’s much easier when something is baked into my schedule, and all I have to do is show up.

For instance, while working from home during the pandemic, I’ve gotten lunch every Friday with my friend who lives around the corner (when it’s been safe to do so).

Imagination

Society has a place for friendships, and it’s on the sidelines. They’re supposed to play a supporting role to work, family, and romance. It takes imagination not to default to this norm, and to design your life so that friendship plays the role you really want it to.

there are friends who choose to love each other radically every day. Their love does not stand on the sidelines.

Grace

I’ve come to believe that friendship doesn’t always have to be about presence; it can also be about love that can weather absence.

I cite grace here as the final and most important force in friendships, I mean it in two ways. One is the forgiveness that we offer each other when we fall short. The other is the space that creates for connections—and reconnections—that feel nothing short of miraculous. 打开/如何

2022-06-18 15:21:20 带上 83 岁老妈妈，三姊妹六孩子 #移民 #英国── 一个 #香港 家族的 迁徙故事 打开/如何

2022-06-18 12:58:23 Human Attention has become a Marxist commodity At the core of Marx’s Capital is his definition of a commodity: a thing made by human labour that has both a use value (a capacity to satisfy some human want or need) and an exchange value, the latter coming… 打开/如何