Some of the world’s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food unrest and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in production of some of the world’s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.

The authors study the four most important crops: rice, wheat, corn and soybeans. They find that the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.

There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world’s most populous (人口多的) countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down.

Second, production growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soybeans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “We have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”

The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organisation has argued.

Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert (回返) to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in production, which may not actually happen.

Is there a single word that motivates us more than “weekend”? It’s like the promise of a sweet holiday following what seems like long-time exhaustion. It’s the spring in our step that gets bouncier with each passing day — until by Friday, we’re practically bumping our heads against the ceiling.

The trouble is that the weekend is a rip-off. You think you’re getting 48 hours of unconditional downtime, but reality takes a discount. In fact, it takes most of Sunday. That’s when anxiety comes creeping in and another countdown begins: 12 hours until Monday. Sure, the weekend is free time. But the mounting stress of an incoming Monday can ease any joy you might get from a Sunday evening.

That feeling is so common among the Monday-to-Friday crowd that there’s even more than one name for it: the Sunday Scaries, or Sunday Fear Syndrome. Going from a countdown to the weekend to a countdown to Monday can be difficult. Even monster.com — a website that specializes in binding humans to the Monday-to-Friday cycle — admits it’s a problem. In a survey, Monster found that 76% of Americans have “really had” Sunday night blues.

For most people, Sunday is no holiday at all. It may all come down to the same problem: We can’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Even worse, we may develop some downright unhealthy coping strategies for that transition from weekends to Monday. Some might resists — staying up late, milking every minute of a fleeting Sunday in the form of mind-numbing distractions.

But why should Monday cast such a long and fearful shadow on our lives? Maybe it’s because the counter is reset and the weekend, or happiness, seems at furthest point. If, like most of us, you have a tolerable job, but don’t much like the whole idea of working, there are plenty of ways to make Mondays a little less stressful. Most importantly, don’t leave any unsettled Friday business hanging over the weekend. So, clear the decks and tie up loose ends.

Here’s something that’s surprisingly common: people who strongly advocate moral or noble ideals, but regularly use them to justify attacking and mistreating others — something which is surely neither moral nor noble.

Isn’t this inconsistent? How can someone loudly insist they’re a good person while behaving in ways that totally contradict this, without mentally short-circuiting in some way?

The answer is that there are many psychological and neurological (神经的) processes that allow people to engage in this behaviour that, for want of a better label, we’ll call ‘virtue bullying’.

A lot of virtue bullying could be seen as virtual bullying, which is to say it’s a lot easier online. We’ve all seen Facebook posts that make some simple, morally solid claim, such as “I support victims of [the latest disaster]”, which are then followed by something like “Share if you agree. I bet 97 per cent of you won’t.” Such posts are basically saying, “I’m a good, moral person ... and I’ll criticise you until you agree.” This isn’t the behaviour of a good person.

But it’s not internet-specific. Wanting to protect children is a good, moral aim, but consider all the books and shows banned or attacked in the US under the cover of protecting children. Indeed, throughout history, there have been many instances where individuals who considered themselves good and moral have committed terrible acts.

But why do good people treat others badly? Our brains work hard to enhance our self-esteem (自尊). A 2011 study found that an effective way to strengthen our self-esteem is to attack others, so our status (地位) becomes relatively higher. So, thinking you’re good while attacking others can be a very instinctive (本能的) process, sadly.

For humans, our morals are a key aspect of our identity and an important factor in our decision-making. We’re naturally protective of our identities and decision-making. If these things are rooted in morals and beliefs, we’ll be defensive towards anyone who poses a threat to them. This can lead to what seems to be inconsistent behaviours.

Ultimately, for all the explanations offered here, it should be acknowledged that some people are just not nice. How you deal with such people is up to you.