Each year，half a million people die from brain aneurysms(动脉瘤)—when a blood vessel bursts in the brain.An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel that can burst.If that happens in the brain，it can be deadly.For survivors，physical disabilities are often severe.They may include memory problems，loss of balance，trouble speaking and even blindness.But new technologies are increasing survival rates and reducing disabilities.

    Beaumont Bacon is a survivor who makes light of her experience because she is a comedian.She uses humor to make others laugh.Now she's working on a new show.Michael Alexander is her doctor.He operated on Beaumont Bacon after her attack.“She had bleeding in the frontal area of her brain，so right above the eyes.The part that was in the brain was about maybe the size of an egg.So，that's a fairly large bleed.”

    Ms.Bacon had a better chance at survival than most people because of Dr.Alexander.He directs the Neurovascular Center in Los Angeles.The center offers new technologies that include placing a catheter(导管) into an aneurysm，then threading wires to promote blood clots(血栓)．This technique reduces the chances of another burst blood vessel.“You don't have to open up the skull or open up the brain to do surgery.It's all done from inside the blood vessels.So it reduces the amount of blood loss，and the recovery is much faster.”

    For Beaumont Bacon's recovery，the hospital worked to prevent problems commonly found in patients with a burst aneurysm.The problems include brain swelling that can shut down blood vessels.She spent a month in a coma(昏迷)—unable to communicate with doctors，friends and loved ones.But with a year of treatment，she recovered.Now，she is making people laugh.

    Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March, 1853—29 July, 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. He is considered one of the greatest artists with great influence on the greatest artists with great influence on the 20th-century art.

    Van Gogh spent his early adult life working for a firm of art dealers. After a brief period as a teacher, he became a missionary (传教士) in a very poor mining region. He did not begin his career as an artist until 1880; however, during the last ten years of his life, he produced more than 2,000 pieces, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawing and sketched (素描). He worked only with somber colours until he met Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris. Van Gogh used their bright colours and style of painting in a uniquely recognizable style. Most of his best-known works were produced during his final two years, when he was suffering from serious mental illness.

    In 1890, at the age of 37, van Gogh shot himself in the chest. He died two days later, with Theo, his brother and his best friend, at his side, who reported his last words as “The sadness will last forever”. It would not take long before his fame grew higher and higher.

    Van Gogh's mother threw away quite a number of his paintings. The only painting he sold during his lifetime, The Red Vineyard, was created in 1888. It is now on display in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Russia. Several paintings by van Gogh rank among the most expensive paintings in the world. On March 30, 1987 van Gogh's painting Irises was sold for a record of $ 53.9 million at Southby's, New York. On May 15, 1990 his Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for $ 83.5 million at Christie's, thus setting a new price record.

    For many of us, talking about money is embarrassing, especially revealing our income and spending habits in public. So it's no wonder that seeking investment advice from computer program is so popular.

    Consultancy firm Accenture found that 68% of global consumers would be happy to use robot-advice to plan for retirement, feeling it would be faster, cheaper, and fairer than human advice. “Many of our customers say they feel awkward in face-to-face meetings, preferring an online experience where they don't feel nervous,” says Lynn Smith, a director of robot-advice firm Wealth Wizards. So how does robot-advice work and is it really any better than traditional financial advice?

    Robot-adviser firms use algorithms (算法) to analyse your financial situation and goals and then work out an investment plan to suit you. Basically, you answer lots of questions online about your income, expenses, family situation, attitude to risk and so on, and then the algorithm allocates (分配) your savings to a series of investments, from index funds that aim to imitate a particular stock market index or sector, to fixed-income bonds.

    Robot-advice is certainly growing in popularity. But are we really happy to give up the human adviser completely? “No” is the short answer. Accenture finds that a significant proportion of us still want human interaction, particularly when our finances are complex. “When a customer needs advice surpassing a number of different regulatory regimes, human advice will be required, says John Perks, managing director of life and pensions at UK insurer LV, which launched its Retirement Wizard robot-advice service two years ago.

    The truth is that only about a quarter of funds managed by clever humans overcome the market as a whole, so when you take into account the much higher management fees you pay for that kind of service, the performance difference is likely to be marginal (微不足道的) for most of us.

    The robots may be coming, but in this case at least, they seem to be on the side of the small investor trying to save for a comfortable retirement.

    One October morning, I got off the all-night train in Mandalay, a city in Myanmar. A rough man came up and offered to show me around. The price he asked was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home. So I climbed into his trishaw(三轮车).

    As he was showing me around, he told me how he had come to the city from his village. He'd earned a degree in mathematics. His dream was to be a teacher. But of course, life is hard here, and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living. Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw so he could catch the first visitors off the all-night train.

And very soon, we found that in certain ways, we had so much in common—we were both in our 20s, we were both fascinated by foreign cultures—-that he invited me home.

    So we turned off the wide, crowded streets, and came to rough, wild alleyways(小巷). I really lost my sense of where I was, and realized that I could easily get cheated or something even worse.

    Finally, he stopped and led me into a hut. And then he reached under his bed. Something in me froze. I waited to see what he would pull out. And finally he took out a box. Inside it was every single letter he had ever received from visitors from abroad.

    So when we said goodbye that night, I realized he had also shown me the secret point of travel, which is to go inwardly(向内心)as well as outwardly to places you would never go otherwise, to go into uncertainty, even fear.

    At home, its dangerously easy to think we're on top of things. Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not, and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

    Windbreaks are barriers (屏障) formed by trees and other plants. Farmers plant these barriers around their fields, which help prevent the loss of soil, stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from damaging or destroying crops. Besides, extra trees and plants can be cut down and used or sold for wood.

    Windbreaks can be highly valuable for protecting grain crops. For example, in parts of West Africa grain harvests were as much as twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without them.

    But here is something interesting about windbreaks. They seem to work best when they allow some wind to pass through the barrier of trees or plants around a field. If not, then the movement of air close to the ground will lift the soil. Then the soil will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak works best if it contains only 60 to 80 percent of the trees and plants that would be needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to 10 times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak.

    There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees or other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are considered the best choices for windbreaks. Trees reduce the damaging effects of wind and rain. Their roots help protect soil from being washed away. And trees can provide animals outdoors with shade from the sun.

    Carri Kessler and her husband Will named their daughter Ottilie after a friend from the UK, who helped them a lot. However, right after their baby girl was born, the couple noticed a big problem: "No one could remember her name and no one could pronounce it, were going to keep having to introduce her!" Kessler told Today.com.

    The situation then grew worse as Kessler's grandmother admitted to sticking Post-it notes around the house to help remind her of Ottilie's name which can be pronounced either Ott-ill-ee or Oh-TEEL-ya. Three months after Ottilie was born, the Kesslers have decided to legally change their daughter's name. The couple came up with two possible names. They then settled on Margot after talking to a name expert.

    The Kesslers situation is not uncommon as an increasing number of parents experience the same as the Kesslers. According to Baby Center Canada, 11% of its users wish they could change their children's names due to being over popular mispronounced or simply unfitting. Parents care a lot more and think a lot more about names now than their parents.

    To deal with this, a number of name experts now offer services to help parents choose the right name. Couples have also looked for help from the Internet to choose their baby's name. However, parents can change their child's name in the event that they regret their choice. In Canada, the rules vary in each province. For instance, in Ontario, the child must have lived in the province for the past 12 months, or since birth if under the age of one. Each of the child's legal guardians(监护人)must also give permission.