Please help. My best friend in the class, Rebecca, told me today that she is going to drop out of school!! She says that she has put off doing work for every class and no longer has enough time or energy to finish. She thinks her only choice is to quit. I know that she puts off a lot, and that this was a big problem, but I didn’t know it was so serious. Rebecca was going to talk to our teacher today about this problem, but she also postponed that meeting! I know she is feeling very anxious, but I’m worried she’s making a huge mistake. How can I help her with this serious problem? I don’t want her to leave school. 

Worried Friend 

Susan Brown, Seattle

    Research is now starting to reveal some puzzling ways in which music influences us. Why, for instance, are relaxing or uplifting effects sometimes only fully experienced after listening? Does a change of tempo in a sound track, or even silence itself, have a delayed impact on nervous system? Dr. Luciano Bernardi measured the heart rates, breathing rates, and blood pressure of 24 men as they listened to sections of slow and fast classical music, techno, rap, and more. To Bernardi’s surprise, bodily functions only drop significantly when the music slowed down or ended—or when he inserted an unexpected two-minute pause into each track. This delayed response occurred whatever music the subjectslistened to, or was most noticeable during gaps in slower music. 

    According to Bernardi, listening to music involves some focus of attention, and it’s only when that focus ends that the body fully relaxes. Bernardi claims we could tackle physical and mental stress by creating our own music, alternating between fast and slow rhythms, creating our own music to reduce stress and anxiety. It may not be what we listen to, but how we listen to it that turns music into therapy. 

　　Maritza, a professional yoga trainer, is one of almost 100,000 users of Bliive－a Brazil-based website that brands itself as the world’s largest online time-exchange platform. Bliive looks and feels like a social media platform. Its users trade services, including guitar lessons, air conditioner repairs and tarot card readings, without any cash or creditcard transactions. For each hour of service provided, the user receives Time Money, with which they can buy another service. Maritza earned almost 40 hours’ worth of Bliive services. With that much Time Money, she was able to create her own website about breathing techniques, including her own branding. Each person offers his help in one-hourchunks, and people who have “exchanged” Time Money can rate and review the quality of the service provided.

　　Bliive was founded a year and a half ago by Lorrana Scarpioni, a 24-year-old public relations student. She now employs a team of about a dozen people in Sao Paulo. She came up with the idea after watching documentaries about the sharing economy and alternative currencies. “If people were willing to engage in couch surfing－letting complete strangers into their houses－surely there was a potential for exchanging something as simple as one hour of a service,”Lorrana says.“Bliive is a collaborative network of time exchange. We see this platform as a movement that shows people the real value of exchanges and how they can develop themselves this way.”

　　Bliive takes the concept of the sharing economy－popularized by platforms including Uber and Airbnb－a stepfurther. It creates a new channel between the supply and demand of services, and does away with conventional cash altogether. More than 90,000 services are on offer on the website, making it larger than other barter-based sites. “Theno-money-involved transferences can be a great alternative to keep people developing themselves. We see a lot ofpeople who have graduated with very nice degrees, but they don’t have jobs,” she says. While Bliive aims to become more profitable, Lorrana is keen to retain its core values. “We use these talents and values to create a world that ismore collaborative and less competitive, more focused on the value of people, not just the value of money,” she says.

       Muhammad Ali was born in 1942 and was famous for his unusual boxing style, funny comments, and social justice work. His parents named him Cassius Clay Jr. One day when Clay was 12 years old, his bike was stolen in a local fair. He told a police officer that he would beat up the thief. The officer suggested that he learn how to fight.That officer was actually a boxing instructor and later became Clay’s first boxing coach. When he was only 18 years old, Clay won the gold medal at the Olympics. After that he won his first professional match. His unique style and perfect ring record made him very popular. Before a match, he often guessed for the fans in which round the match would end. In 1964, he boxed against the world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. Most people thought that Liston would win. However, Clay won, becoming the new world heavyweight champion. After winning, he told the world that he had changed his name to Muhammad Ali. When he retired at 40 years old, Ali had won 56 professional wins, and only 5 losses.

       During his childhood and youth, black people couldn’t go to the same schools or enter the same restaurants and so on as white people. Even after coming home with his Olympic gold medal, Ali was not allowed to enter white-only restaurants. Because of experiences like that, Ali often spoke about peace and racial justice in public. In 1988 he became the UN Messenger of Peace for his work in developing nations. Like many heroes before him, his legend will live on in the memory of the world.