You can tell a lot about people's general state of mind based on their social media feeds. Are they always tweeting（发微博）about their biggest annoyances or posting pictures of particularly cute kitties? In a similar fashion, researchers are turning to Twitter for clues about the overall happiness of entire geographic communities.

What they're finding is that regional variation in the use of common phrases produces predictions that don't always reflect the local state of well being. But removing from their analyses just three specific terms -- good, love and LOL - greatly improves the accuracy of the methods.

"We're living in a crazy COVID-19 era. And now more than ever, we're using social media to adapt to a new normal and reach out to the friends and family that we can't meet face-to-face. " Kokil Jaidka studies computational linguistics at the National University of Singapore. "But our words aren't useful just to understand what we, as individuals, think and feel. They're also useful clues about the community we live in. "

One of the simpler methods that many scientists use to analyze the data involves correlating words with positive or negative emotions. But when those records are compared with phone surveys that assess regional well-being, Jaidka says, they don't paint an accurate picture of the local zeitgeist（时代精神）.

Being able to get an accurate read on the mood of the population is no laughing matter. "That's particularly important now, in the time of COVID, where we're expecting a mental health crisis and we're already seeing in survey data the largest decrease in subjective well-being in 10 years at least, if not ever. "

To find out why , Jaidka and her team analyzed billions of tweets from around the United States. And they found that among the most frequently used terms on Twitter are LOL, love and good. And they actually throw the analysis off. Why the disconnect?

"Internet language is really a different beast than regular spoken language. We've adapted words from the English vocabulary to mean different things in different situations. " says Jaidka. "Take, for example, LOL. I've tweeted the word LOL to express irony, annoyance and sometimes just pure surprise. When the methods for measuring LOL as a marker of happiness were created in the 1990s, it still meant laughing out loud. "

"There are plenty of terms that are less misleading," says Jaidka. "Our models tell us that words like excited, fun, great, opportunity, interesting, fantastic and those are better words for measuring subjective well-being. "

The first set of Chinese stories presented in English scripts, titled Stories of China: Performed in English, was officially published by Foreign Language Press. Planned by the New Channel International Education Group with the participation of playwrights from China, the United Kingdom and the United states, the book provides a new way for young people to learn English while inheriting and spreading Chinese culture. 

The book contains 20 English scripts in novel formats covering a wide range of subjects. Unlike the most common English scripts for young readers on the market which are based on adaptations of European and American stories, those scripts presented in this book are unique for being based on classic Chinese stories, readapted and written in English. The book is divided into three grades in terms of grammar and vocabulary difficulty, making it suitable for young English learners from primary schools to junior and high schools. 

All the scripts in the book are written by top playwrights with elegant, pure and vivid language. The scripts are provided with a summary of the story in both Chinese and English, so that readers can fully understand the plot as well as the history and culture behind it. Readers can not only improve their English skills through immersive reading and performance but also appreciate Chinese culture. 

Hu Min, English education expert and founder of the New Channel, said the combination of traditional Chinese culture and English teaching has become a trend, guiding young people to tell Chinese stories to the world with their own wisdom and deep Chinese cultural heritage. The New Channel will offer special courses on Stories of China: Performed in English in its many schools across the country, and cooperate with primary and secondary schools in Beijing, Shanghai to offer English drama courses on a trial basis. Hu believes the courses will set off a new wave of enthusiastic learning among young people. 

After a long day under the beating sun, an ice cream might be a tempting treat. But would you be able to enjoy it if you knew it was made from insect "milk？" Gourmet Grubb, a food company, is hoping to use ice cream to introduce the public to the world of eating insects. Its ice cream uses EntoMilk, a dairy alterative made from insects known as the black solider fly, which is full of nutrients and friendly to farm and produce. "The ice cream flavors include chocolate, peanut butter and Christmas spices. We set out to change the way insects were seen, produced and used in the food industry, " said Leah Bessa, who co­founded Gourmet Grubb in 2017, "We were expecting a lot of push back. However, people said the first bite was not a taste of disgust but a pleasant surprise and they couldn't wait to have one more."

According to Bessa, EntoMilk has "a slightly taste of earth" and gives the ice cream "a rich, creamy taste". The insect "milk" ice cream is made with natural ingredients, such as raw honey, cocoa, spices and organic peanut butter. But it's not just about the taste — Bessa says the insect "milk" is also high in nutrients that are comparable to fish and meat like beef, chicken, and pork. EntoMilk is five times higher in protein than dairy.

"Insects need very little water, feed and space to grow, " Bessa explained, "They also produce little or no greenhouse gases compared to traditional livestock." Insects can be farmed indoors in small, controlled environments and they can be raised in urban areas, reducing the time of transporting the milk to the city. It also means they are less at risk of being impacted by outer climate patterns, which would affect cattle and crops. There is also potential for insect farming to reduce waste.

The United Nations predicts that the world will need to double food production to feed the global population by 2050 and has long promoted insect farming as a sustainable alternative protein source to traditional livestock. Although over 1, 900 insect species are estimated to be consumed by humans worldwide, insects are yet to reach the mainstream of Western cuisine.