Hope you have had a good learning week! Did you manage to change your not so good sleeping habits, if any, and have nice sleeps over the week?

Guess you have not got many assignments yet! So, let’s play a game. If you have a lot of assignments, I would strongly encourage you to take a short break and relax with this game.

Do you see movies in cinemas? How about Ne Zha? Or any Marvel movies?

Recently, Statista, the provider of all sorts of statistics, including some strange ones, reported that, there is a box office crisis in the United States, i.e. movies don’t sell anymore, even though a lot has been paid for the actors and actresses.  As a result, movies were made based on books, video games, or box office hits in the past.

So, here’s the game: Name at least one movie that belong to each of the following categories (ask your friends for help if needed, making the game more fun):

  • Original screenplay
  • Based on fiction book/short story
  • Based on comic/graphic novel
  • Based on real life events
  • Others
  • Based on nonfiction book/article
  • Based on TV
  • Spin-off
  • Based on folk tale/legend/fairytale
  • Based on (video) game

The above list is in the descending order of the market share of movies in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005. You can find the Statista article here: https://www.statista.com/chart/35074/box-office-market-share-of-movies-based-on-different-source-material/.

Hope you enjoy digging out the different movies, and then find time to watch them. Please also feel free to share your choices with me by replying to this mail.

After three weeks of classes, are you not sleeping enough already? If so, … oh no!

I recently saw this on someone’s post, but cannot share the source with you. Anyway, thought it would help to remind you of how you can affect your health and capability, and that the fact that you are young does not mean you can indulge in lack of sleep! Here are the points:

  1. A night’s poor sleep is as bad as being drunk; your brain performance is significantly reduced
  2. Only deep sleep can cleanse your brain of toxins
  3. Lack of sleep can lead to weight gain (please remember this if you worry about your look! But if you are skinny, sorry, this can’t help either!)
  4. Sleep is linked to memory, learning, and emotional control
  5. Do not think adults can go with only 6 hours of sleep continuously
  6. People who continuous lack sleep will always feel anxious and depressed
  7. Continuous sleep loss increases risk of heart diseases, stroke and other chronic illness
  8. Power naps of 20-30 minutes can boost focus and mood.

Do NOT think you can make up your lack of sleep during weekdays by sleeping more hours over the weekends. Think of your smartphones. If you keep them consistently at very low battery levels, charging them over the weekends will only make them at most 100% full, not 120%, not 200%.  But because they are constantly at minimal energy, their batteries deteriorate faster!

I hope you can sleep and rest well over this weekend. But please also try to change your habit to sleep more, and at the right time, during weekdays!

How was your first couple of weeks back to school?

For newcomers, FYI, I have covered quite a lot about sustainability. Natural disasters have been one of the main topics over this summer: people dead in Europe (Italy in particular) because of extreme heat, Portugal and Spain hit by wildfires, England and Japan experiencing the hottest summer. The list goes on and on. People keep saying there is little they can do to change the big world; and that’s the job of the scientists. But if the 20% of us living in the modern countries can each do something in our life style and habits NOW, the 100% of the world population will suffer less, at least not more, in the future. We have both the power, and the obligation, to contribute!

In a latest report by the United Nations (UN) on its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (see https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2025.pdf), only 13 of the 17 goals have little to 1/3 “target met” progress. In almost all of the goals, “stagnation” or even “regression”, are the major “progress”. That means NO PROGRESS! That is so sad!!! “Hunger” is UN’s number 2 target. You have always had enough food, often more than enough! Can you imagine undernourishment is still a big issue around the world? The situation was improved by 2014. Unfortunately, geopolitical conflicts have exacerbated the situation again. Just look at Israel’s daily shelling Gaza, which has been declared to be in famine (a term that is almost forgotten in this new century!)!

Please take a moment everyday to feel the world, not just your own lives, your own surrounding. Be responsible global citizens!

Have a good weekend! Start feeling the world today!

Welcome back to UM! An extra warm WELCOME to the new HCers joining us through the Open Application as well as recommended by your RCs and the Dean of Students. Also welcome to read my first Friday email of this semester.

I recently came across someone’s post (anonymous, and so I do not have a citation for it) about “How we are Taught to measure success” versus “A Better measure of success”. I shall provide my comment at the end of the mail, but here are the points.

“How we are Taught to measure success”

  • Job title
  • Salary

“A Better measure of success” (with one-eighth of each)

  • Good relationships
  • Lifelong learning
  • Making a difference
  • Liking what you do
  • Financial health
  • Career
  • Free time
  • Good health & wellbeing

Do you agree? As you can see, at HC, we emphasize on providing an environment for you to develop good personal traits, such as empathy and ethics, rather than merely academic performances, as important attributes for leadership in the future. Likewise, it takes time for a person to develop the above measures. For example, how often can we make a difference? How often can we have free time? While we need to have the opportunities, we should not wait for them to come. We can always create opportunities by building solid foundations. And by the way, do NOT misinterpret! “Financial health” does not mean you have plenty of money. It simply means you have a healthy financial structure, such as enough to spend on necessities, and perhaps being able to spare some for charity, rather than having a lot of money to buy luxurious brand items. Also, being able to have a balanced lifestyle to allow time for exercise, social gathering, sleeping, and still enough time to work and study is not as easy as it looks. I am sure you know very well.

I do not necessarily agree with every point above. Still, I think it might help you have a good start of your semester, and building up healthier lives for your future. Ultimately, what we at HC hope for is for you to become better and more useful persons for the world.

Talk to you next week.