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We Are Wired To Be Outside

Science is demonstrating what we intuitively know: Nature makes us happy.

A young man dives into McDonald Creek at Glacier National Park in Montana. "The frontal lobe, the part of our brain that's hyper-engaged in modern life, deactivates a little when you are outside," says author Florence Williams. 
PHOTOGRAPH BY COREY ARNOLD, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE
When we first see Elizabeth Bennett, in the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice, she is walking through a field, surrounded by birdsong and trees. Nature, for Jane Austen’s heroines, is always a source of solace and inspiration. And as Florence Williams shows in her new book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, modern technology is now revealing what goes on in our brains when we step outdoors—and why nature is so good for us. [Read Williams's National Geographic story "This Is Your Brain on Nature."]
When National Geographic caught up with Williams by phone in Washington, D.C., she explained why even a house plant can make us feel good, why the practice of “forest bathing” is now supported by the Japanese government, and how trees can lower the murder rate in our cities.
COURTESY W.W. NORTON
The Mappiness project was developed in the U.K. by a happiness researcher called George MacKerron. It’s a brilliant idea, which tries to capture in real time what people are doing and how it makes them feel. I downloaded this app onto my phone and used it for about a year. The way it works is, it pings you at random times a couple of times a day and gives you a list of options. Are you driving, doing childcare, cooking, hanging out with friends? Are you outside or inside and how are you feeling? Like, “I feel happy, not so happy.”
At the end of the year I got my data, which showed how I was spending my time and which activities made me feel a certain way. I try to spend a lot of time outside, make an effort to exercise. But I was shocked at how few times the app caught me doing those things; and how often it caught me doing things that didn’t give me a lot of satisfaction. Things like commuting or doing chores.
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Trump White House cannot keep its story straight on Flynn resignation

The Trump administration is operating within such a distorted reality of its own making that, after a weeks-long cover-up, they cannot keep their own story straight regarding the Trump team's ties to Russia and Michael Flynn's resignation.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Trump administration has had a rough time executing its communications strategy on the resignation of disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
In announcing the resignation, Donald Trump did not address the circumstances of Flynn’s resignation at all. And in multiple interviews, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway repeatedly stated that the decision to resign was Flynn’s, while asserting that it would be “inappropriate” to comment on whether Trump had been told of the Department of Justice’s warning, given weeks ago, that Flynn might be vulnerable to blackmail over his lies.
But not long after, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer opened his daily briefing by directly contradicting Conway, stating that Trump had asked Flynn to resign, and that Trump had been notified immediately of the Justice Department’s warning on January 26:

The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for General Flynn’s resignation. Immediately after the Department of Justice notified the White House counsel of the situation, the White House counsel briefed the president and a small group of his senior advisers. The White House counsel reviewed and determined that there is not a legal issue, but rather a trust issue.

So, in the course of a day, Trump went from having “full confidence” in Flynn, to reluctantly accepting his resignation because he had become a “distraction,” to demanding Flynn’s resignation over an “eroding level of trust” that apparently occurred in the space of several hours.
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LUKE CAGE STARS IN NEW SOLO COMIC SERIES FROM MARVEL

Following the debut of Marvel's Netflix-exclusive Luke Cage TV series last year, a new solo comic starring the bulletproof hero has been announced.
Power Man & Iron Fist writer David Walker is penning the ongoing series, which will feature illustrations by Nelson Blake II.
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Walker discussed how this new comic will differ from prior portrayals of Luke Cage, noting his new series will offer "a little more mature" take on the hero.
Luke Cage #1, written by David Walker and illustrated by Nelson Blake II
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Banned From U.S.: ‘You Need to Go Back to Your Country’



Social media shook with emotion. Headlines shouted the news. Legal scholars debated the order’s scope. But the most immediate effect of President Trump’s executive order barring refugees from entering the United States and halting entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries could be quantified on a human scale: refugees and other immigrants from the seven countries, some on their way to the United States on Friday when Mr. Trump signed the order, who were no longer able to enter the United States.
Here are some of their stories.
Hameed Khalid Darweesh, Iraq
Mr. Darweesh, a husband and father of three who worked for the United States military in Iraq for about a decade, was detained after arriving at Kennedy Airport on Friday night. He was granted a special immigrant visa on Jan. 20. When he filed for it, he said he had been directly targeted because of his work for the U.S. as an interpreter, engineer and contractor.
Although Mr. Darweesh’s wife and children were allowed into the country, he was initially detained. Mr. Darweesh was released on Saturday after lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court seeking freedom for him, as well as for another Iraqi who was detained at the airport.


Speaking to reporters and some protesters who gathered outside Kennedy Airport, Mr. Darweesh called America the greatest nation in the world and said he was thankful for the people who had worked on his behalf. “This is the humanity, this is the soul of America,” he said. “This is what pushed me to move, leave my country and come here.”
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‘Hamilton’ Is Coming to the Super Bowl

From left, Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones in the musical “Hamilton.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
The Schuyler Sisters are singing at the Super Bowl.
The National Football League said Friday that Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Jasmine Cephas Jones, the actresses who originated the roles of Eliza, Angelica and Peggy Schuyler in “Hamilton,” would reunite to perform “America the Beautiful” during the televised pregame show.
The three women are popular among fans of the Broadway musical — at the annual BroadwayCon gathering of theater fans, now underway in New York, some people dress as the characters, and at a recent Sotheby’s auction of Hamilton family documents there was particular interest in correspondence involving the sisters. (Eliza, of course, married Alexander Hamilton, and, after his death in a duel, became a champion of his legacy; Angelica was a confidante of both Alexander and Eliza.)
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