The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.

    First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny balled （芭蕾）dancer. “I'm an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be wrapped up.”

    On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it's just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help circulate air, the carbon dioxide you exhale (呼气) has a tendency to form an invisible （隐形的）cloud around you head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.

    Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat,”Your inner ear thinks your're falling . Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you're standing straight. That can be annoying—that's why some people feel sick.” Within a couple days —truly terrible days for some —astronauts' brains learn to ignore the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.

    Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass. That's why exercise is considered so vital that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to maintain strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars.

    It was warm for a Sunday afternoon in early January. Kevin loved being outdoors among the wild rosebushes in front of his house with a view of distant mountains.

    It had been a good day for his wife, Sharon, too. They spent the morning in front of the house, talking and drinking tea. Sharon felt strong and tried her best to cook, starting a pot of homemade soup — a task that would have been nothing a few years ago, but is a little hard for her now. Her illness had left her weak, often puzzled.

    Sharon was the take-charge person in the family. She was seldom sick until 1997, when she began suffering from terrible headaches. One day at work, colleagues said she didn't look right and urged(敦促) her to go to the hospital. She rose from her chair and fell over. She could hear voices, but couldn't speak. It looked as if she'd had a stroke(中风).

    Other stroke-like symptoms (症状) followed. She had difficulty walking. She ran a fever all the time. The headaches never stopped. She and Kevin spent all their savings seeing doctors and on medical tests.

    In 2000, physicians said Sharon had brain damage that left her with symptoms resembling dementia (痴呆症). Once, she visited a familiar store and couldn't remember where the exit was. Another time, she was making spaghetti, but didn't know what to do after the water boiled.

    After seeing specialists, Kevin and Sharon came to believe that exposure(接触) to mould(霉菌) had caused Sharon's condition. Her world was certainly getting worse. At times she needed a wheelchair. The woman who never liked asking for help had to stay at home and rely on her husband.

    Chinese people are, quite rightly, proud of their food. However, when foreigners like Britons and Americans think of Chinese food, their impression of it is different to what you might think.

    Growing up in the UK, the Chinese food I was used to eating was food I now recognize as being from Guangdong. For example, a typical dish I would order would be pork in sweet and sour sauce, probably with some rice and spring rolls on the side. This is the type of food we generally eat because most Chinese immigrants(移民) to the UK have come from Guangdong. You can tell, because when most British people try to copy the sound of Chinese, they actually copy the sound of Guangdong people—hearing the real Putonghua is sometimes a shock to British people who have grown up thinking it sounds completely different!

    British attitudes to Chinese food may be changing, though. Chinese-American chef Ken Hom has been on British TV for 30 years, and he told BBC Food: "Chinese food at the beginning of the 80s (in the UK) was sweet and sour pork, mainly. Most Brits had the unchangeable view of Chinese food… Now you are seeing more local Chinese food from Sichuan, Hunan and other areas of China. It is no longer just Guangdong food." Similarly, to most Americans, Chinese food doesn't go too far past orange chicken and fortune cookies, but more Chinese local dishes are becoming successful, especially in big cities like New York.

    Attitudes have not quite changed completely, though. Many foreigners who live in China will be familiar with this question from a relative back at home: "Have they given you dog yet?" Yes, perhaps because people still know too little about Chinese culture, many people believe that Chinese people love to eat dog meat. And of course, some people do eat dogs, which to Americans is like "eating a member of one's family" according to Vision Times. Also, Chinese people eat many other things people in the West do not—chicken claws, duck heads and some animals' organs.

    But what do foreigners think when they come to China and taste real Chinese food? You'll be glad to know that in my experience, the impressions have been very good.

    How many times do you check your Facebook page in a day to see whether your latest post has got another “like” or “thumbs(拇指) up”?

    Although you might be embarrassed to admit how many times you do this, don't worry—psychological findings have shown it's completely normal. In fact, the pleasure we derive from receiving a “like” is equal to that of eating chocolate or winning money, and we can't help wanting more. According to the findings, which observed 32 teens aged between 13 and 18, the feedback circuit (反馈回路) in the teens' brains is particularly sensitive, and the “social” and “visual” parts of their brains were active when they received “likes” on the social network. The research also showed that though the thumbs up might come from complete strangers, the good they derive from them worked all the same.

    So, does it mean we should try our best to win as many thumbs up as possible? Not necessarily so if we know the reasons behind our desire for attention. In “why do people long for attention” by M. Farouk Radwan, he explained several cases in which people naturally longed for attention. Radwan said people who were an only child, who were used to being the center of attention in their house, may try to copy these conditions. Feeling “overlooked and unappreciated” might also lead you to long for attention. Other times, the state of being jealous, or wanting to cover your mistakes may also contribute to such longings.

    In fact, too much desire for attention can create anxiety, and in turn ruin your happiness even when you get it. So what can we do about it? The answer is quite simple. “If people could adopt goals not focused on their own self-esteem（自尊）but on something larger than their self, such as what they can create or contribute to others, they would be less sensitive to some of the negative effects of pursuing self-esteem,” wrote psychology professor Jennifer Crocker.

    So perhaps the answer to our addiction to “likes” is simply to focus on something larger than ourselves—a hard, but a worthy one.

    Feeding birds is a popular way to watch wildlife. But experts say it might put wild birds at risk.

    Feeding birds is not necessary for their survival except in extreme weather conditions. Feeders(喂食器)can definitely help birds get through that kind of weather. But most birds eat insects and show little interest in bird feeders. For those birds, we can grow native plants in a natural environment. Birds which are fond of eating seeds will be more likely to come to feeders if there is some cover nearby. This lets them feed and then fly to protective areas, such as in trees.

    The most common mistake people make with their bird feeders is that they put feeders in places where birds are easily frightened by passers-by, risk being hurt by cats, or risk flying into windows.

    So set up a bird feeder at least one meter away from a window. That way, if a bird gets frightened, it won't get killed when it hits the glass. Owners of cats should keep them inside home so they can't hurt the birds.

    Some birds are more aggressive at feeders. They eat a lot and do not leave much food for other birds. A solution is to put the food in more than one place by using different kinds of seeds or fruits. This can also increase the number and diversity of birds in your neighborhood. But don't feed wild birds anything salty, like potato chips, or food that could choke them, like bread.

    Pay attention to food quality and freshness. Unprotected food left too long in feeders will turn moldy(发霉), which can kill wildlife.

    Another word of advice: Always provide a supply of clean water for birds, but use care when looking for the right birdbath. If the birdbaths are too deep for birds, putting a few large stones in the water can give the birds a place to sit.

    Darrell Blatchley, a marine biologist and environmentalist based in the Philippine city of Davao, received a call from the Philippines, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (渔业与水产资源局) early Friday morning reporting a death of a young whale.

    When the necropsy (尸检) was performed, Blatchley told NPR, he was not prepared for the amount of plastic they found in the whale's stomach. "It was full of plastic nothing but nonstop plastic." he said "It was filled to the point that its stomach was as hard as a baseball." That means that this animal has been suffering not for days or weeks but for months or even a year or more," Blatchley added.

    Blatchley is the founder and owner of the D'Bone Collector Museum, a natural history museum in Davao. In the coming days, the museum will display all the items found in the whale's system. Blatchley and his team work with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and other organizations to assist in rescue and recovery of marine animals.

    "Within the last 10 years, we have recovered 61 whales and dolphins just within the Davao Gulf," he said. "Of them, 57 have died due to man whether they took plastic or fishing nets or other waste, or gotten caught in pollution — and four were pregnant."

    Blatchley said he hoped that the latest incident would launch the issue of plastic pollution in the Philippines and across the globe. "If we keep going this way, it will be more uncommon to see an animal die of natural causes than it is to see an animal die of plastic," he said.