The Enigma (谜）of Beauty

    The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4,000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发）of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.

    There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive：beauty is power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are regarded as friendlier.

    But what exactly is beauty? It's difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we see it. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.

    The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes, fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits —the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders —equal health and genetic well-being.

    Not everyone thinks the same way, however. " Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts of expectations —mostly cultural, " says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at most Western fashion magazines：the women on the pages are thin. But is this "perfect" body type for women worldwide? Scientists' answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded overweight in Western cultures.

    For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describe exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always keep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.

    You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place. “They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. “They” are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as “they” are around. Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化)your victimization. The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.

    Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don't let this get in the way. They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don't blame themselves when they fail. Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的)moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.

Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺)in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others—and even themselves—to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them. Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.

    In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime. Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life.

    In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.

    Why do you go to the library? For books, yes—but you like books because they tell stories You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else's life. At one type of library you can do just that—even though there's not a single book.

    At a Human Library, instead of books, you can "borrow" people. People with unique life stories volunteer to be the "books." For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating as any you can find in a book. (If you attend, make sure to review the habits that make you a good listener.) Many of the stories have to do with some kind of depressing topic. You can speak with a refugee, a soldier suffering from PTSD (创伤后遗症), a homeless person and a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people to take time to truly get to know and learn from someone they might otherwise make a snap judgement about. According to its website, the Human Library is "a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered."

    The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. Romni Abergel and his colleagues hosted a four-day event during a major Northern European festival. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, hoping to raise awareness among youth about depression, which has been growing ever since.

    Though there a few permanent human libraries, most aren't place at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don't need a library card—anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio. Check out the organization's Facebook page to see when the Human Library might be arriving near you.

    Every month we look at a different artist. We think Haroshi is super cool—he makes sculptures(雕塑) from skateboards.

    Haroshi is in his late 30s. He's a skateboarder but he also makes things from wood. He began skateboarding when he was 15 years old and he loved it. He used to skate every day. Now, if you know anything about skateboarding, you'll know that skateboards don't last forever because they break. But Haroshi didn't throw his out because he was fond of them. Over time he built up a big collection and at the same time he learnt about all the different types of skateboard. Surprisingly, not all skateboards are of the same shape and actually they are often built in different ways. By the time he was 25, he had an enormous collection of old skateboards.

    He decided he had to do something with them so he started to cut them up. As he was doing that, he noticed some interesting patterns in the wood. He then cut more and stuck them on top of each other. The first thing he created from the wood was a piece of jewelry. He created something new from something old.

    Nowadays, however, he is known for his extremely large 3D wooden sculptures. His ideas generally come from skateboarding culture, ranging from skateboarding cats to cool trainers, but also everyday topics such as hurting yourself, getting better, being crazy about something and of course, growing up. All skateboarders will understand these. Haroshi has made over 40 pieces and each piece takes a very long time. There is no doubt that he is very talented but he's had no formal art training. He taught himself.

    Haroshi held an exhibition in London last month and three of us from @teenattack went along. As we entered the first room, we saw a huge bird that covered one wall. It was absolutely enormous! There was also a sculpture called Ordinary life. It looked like a broken leg—a very common problem, of course. It's incredible to think that these sculptures are all made from broken skateboards. But there's something else that is really interesting about Haroshi's work.

    In the twelfth century a sculptor called Unkei placed a glass ball in each of his works to show the heart of the piece. Haroshi also places something inside his sculptures—a piece of broken skateboard. In this way, he gives his sculptures life. We think that is just awesome!

    Finding a mountain goat resting high on a cliff(悬崖) might thrill many of the millions of tourists who visit Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park every year, but park officials say it might be time for the bearded animals to go.

    The problem, according to the park, is that Grand Teton's 100 or so mountain goats threaten about 80 bighorn sheep. The bighorn sheep numbered as many as 125 just a few years ago. The strong goats spread disease and compete with bighorn sheep for food. Unlike small-sized bighorn sheep, Grand Teton's mountain goats aren't native to the park. They were introduced to the park in the 1960s.

    Grand Teton spokeswoman Denise Germann said, “We've got a management responsibility to protect the native species. After hearing from the public on the proposal (建议) in January, park officials expect to decide as soon as mid-February on what to do about the mountain goats.”

    The goats are reproducing rapidly. Now might be the best time to reduce the animals before they're too many to bring under control, according to the Park Service.

    One wildlife biologist who studies bighorn sheep praised the proposal. Mountain goats' original habitat is nowhere close to where they've been introduced in the U.S. to provide hunting opportunities, said Rob Roy Ramey II, with Nederland, Colorado-based Wildlife Science International, Inc.

    Wildlife managers should get rid of mountain goats not only in Grand Teton but elsewhere to help struggling bighorn sheep, Ramey said. “Unfortunately, state wildlife agencies sell nonnative wildlife viewing opportunities to the public,” Ramey said. “This is not a zoo in the wilderness. It should really be for native wildlife.”

Daphne Soares, a biologist, makes an amazing discovery about alligators. The first time she got really close to an alligator (短吻鳄) was when she was helping to bold down an eight-foot American alligator. It was then that she noticed is face was covered with little black spots. This led to the discovery of the little black dots.

She started her study of the black dots. When she read the books and scientific journals, she learned that people had noticed the dots, but no one really knew what the dots were for.

To find out the secret she placed electrodes (电极) on nerves coming from some of the dots. When the nerves fired, they sent a message to the brain and created a tiny electric current. Just then she heard a small sound over a loudspeaker. She tired to see if the dots acted like eyes and temperature sensors, but nothing worked.

One day she was careless with dropping a tool into an alligator's tank. When she put her hand in the tank to get the tool out, she made small waves in the water. When they reached the alligator's face, she heard a noise over the speaker. She then realized that the dots must be sensitive to the changes in pressure when hit by waves of water.

After that, she is now studying blind cavefish. She is trying to learn whether they are blind from birth or lose their sight as they grow up. She is also doing more research on crocodilians (鳄目). She wants to find out how the genes of alligators with pressure sensors only on their faces differ from the genes of crocodilians that have pressure sensors all over their body.