Judge Frank Caprio is a famous person in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. And, he is starting to get noticed around the world, too. He is an 80-year-old judge in the capital city of Rhode Island, the smallest state in the U. S.. One of his jobs is to take charge of traffic court. That involves talking to people who have gotten traffic tickets for going though red lights or parking illegally. They go to traffic court to question the tickets. Caprio hears what they have to say. Then, he decides whether or not the ticket is legal.

Caprio recently heard the case of a young man who was driving his mother's car. He went through a light after it turned red. After he spoke with the high school student, Caprio decided to let him off with a warning—if he promised to go to college and graduate.

    Another video from the Providence traffic court came out earlier this week. It showed a woman speaking with Judge Caprio about a parking ticket. She went to traffic court after getting a ticket for parking in an area that only permitted parking after 10 a. m. . The ticket was written at 9:59 a. m. . The woman said the clock in her car showed 10 a. m., so she thought it would be OK. After some conversation, the judge decided to dismiss the ticket.

    But Caprio did tell her, “You violated the city laws.” He held up a large book of rules. He smiled and the woman laughed. He said: “Our parking enforcement officers are second to none in the country!” After talking with the court officer, he said “I think 9:59 is close enough. Matter is dismissed.”

    The video was viewed over 1 million times in just two days. One person wrote of the video: “This is so cute. What a great judge. LOVE THIS.” Others wondered if the video was real, because it seemed so funny. But, there actually are judges out there like Frank Caprio. He is as real as they come.

    When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine The family you have chosen decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at 'bed and breakfast' houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

"We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses," they said, "because we found that most families were away on holiday."

I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought 'VACANCIES' meant 'holidays', because the Spanish word for 'holidays" is 'vacancies'. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said 'VACANCIES', which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said 'NO VACANCLES', because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word 'DIVERSION' means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word 'DIVERSION' on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said "Thank you" in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that "Thank you" in French means "No, thank you."

    We all know cameras. But have you heard of Google's new camera? It is a small, smart device, called Clips. It comes with a case that has a clip (夹子), but it's not designed to be worn on your clothing. Most interestingly, it uses artificial intelligence to take photography out of your hands so it can capture moments on its own.

    This roughly 2-inch by 2-inch camera, with a three-hour battery life and Gorilla Glass for toughness, is intended for candid moments, like when a child does something cute that may happen too quickly for you to pull out your smart phone.

    Onboard the Clips device, it uses machine learning algorithms (计算程序) to help capture scenes. Those algorithms include face recognition. “Once it learns that there's a face you see frequently, it'll try to get nice photos of those faces,” said Juston Payne, the device's product manager. And they also want it to recognize facial expressions, which involved “training it to know what happiness looks like”. The Google team also trained it to recognize what not to shoot—like when a child's hand is over the lens, or if it is tossed in a dark purse.

    The only way to see the images is by connecting the camera with your phone, as it has no screen for viewing or editing.

    Did people think it was strange? Yes, Payne admitted. But they said they addressed that by making it obvious what it is. A green light on the front signals that the device is on. Besides, unlike a camera meant to monitor your home, it is not connected to the Internet.

    “This product is only possible because of the way that technology has advanced,” Payne said. It was only in the past year or so that they could squeeze the technology down into a device this size. Going forward, we're likely to get more assistance from the artificial intelligence packed into our apps and gadgets.

    To help the environment, many Americans have made the change from paper and plastic(塑料的) bags to reusable shopping bags. But a report by a Florida newspaper says that reusable shopping bags sold by some supermarkets have high levels of lead (铅), which can be dangerous to humans, especially young children. Now, there's a call for a rethink about the use of reusable shopping bags.

    “When our families go to the store looking for safe and healthy foods, the last thing they should be worrying about is a bag,” Charles Schumer, a government official said.“ Quick and complete research will allow everyone to make right decisions.”

    The newspaper bought more than a dozen bags sold at Publix supermarkets from Florida supermarkets to test them for lead. The results showed that certain bags had lead levels that worried health officials. Some bags had enough lead in them to be considered dangerous waste if people were to throw the bags out with other rubbish. Lead in the bags may not move onto food. But over time, paint on the bags can break off and the bags can wear out. When this happens, lead can be freed.

    The bags with the highest levels of lead had beautiful designs and many pictures. Plain （朴实无华的） reusable bags without them are found to have little lead. People worried about lead levels in reusable bags can turn to cloth. Paper bags are also a good choice, since paper can be reused.

    Most airlines go all out to ensure their passengers have the best possible flight experience. Now, Europe's low-budget airline, easyJet, wants to extend the positive experience beyond the plane ride with “Sneakairs” —smart shoes that allow visitors to explore new cities and towns without ever looking at a map.

    To transform Sneakairs from an ordinary shoe to a tour guide，all the wearer has to do is enter his or her desired destination into the easyJet smartphone app. A built-in GPS will determine the wearer's starting location while the Google Maps navigation (导航)tool will help chart the best route. Whenever a change of direction is necessary, the app will communicate with the appropriate shoe via the Bluetooth and cause it to vibrate(振动). For example, if the wearer needs to turn right, he/she will feel the sensation in the right shoe. Should the user miss the turn, the smart shoes will both vibrate at the same time, reminding him/her to change course.

    Visitors that wander off the suggested path or decide to take a break for a cup of coffee or a meal have nothing to worry about. The smart app will automatically determine the new location and chart out a new route. Once the desired destination is reached, Sneakairs will vibrate three times to inform the user of the arrival and then go back to being ordinary shoes—until their navigation services are needed again!

    Sneakairs is certainly not the first navigation shoe in the market. However, easyJet is the first airline to offer them to passengers just as they are about to land in an unknown city. However, before Sneakairs can go mainstream, the easyJet team still needs to make some adjustments. Among the challenges that need to be addressed is the smart shoe's three-hour battery life, which is hardly enough for a tourist to catch all the delights a new city or town has to offer!

    We are the CEOs. We are the head designers. We are the top engineers. We are the senior creators. We are the inventors. We are the only maker of our own happiness.

    However, we still have learned that people's views on happiness often change with many outside things. Some people smile happily beside their new cars and homes. Students feel excited when they get better grades. Babies laugh loudly when they get new toys. Maybe true happiness has been lost in these things.

    How could we have allowed ourselves to be cheated for so long? Something outside may give us happiness, but what directs us to real happiness is inner (内在的) spirit.

    Our spirit is so easily broken, yet it is the single strongest thing we own. Why do people with terrible diseases still smile? Why do those with a broken heart still find joy? The inner spirit is powerful, and it is the only thing on earth that can be broken into pieces but can perfectly mend itself with time. Think about those who suffer a lot but still feel happy. Their inner spirit is very strong.

    Our inner spirit will be the greatest gift that we give ourselves. It is our compass (指南针) to happiness, but we are the tour guides.