EUROPE is home to a variety of cultural treasures. Lonely Planet, the world's largest travel guide publisher, has offered pairs of cities for culture-hungry but time poor travelers.

    London and Paris

    It takes you about two hours to travel from London to Paris by Eurostar, a high-speed railway service. The two capital cities have been competing in fashion, art and nightlife for decades — but each secretly looks up to the other.

    No one can doubt the grand and impressive beauty of Paris' Louvre Museum, but if you want to save money, you cannot skip the British Museum free to visit. Compared with London, Paris has more outdoor attractions, such as the beautiful green walkway La Promenade Plantee.

    In Paris, you'll see diners linger(逗留) over red wine. While in London, you can try some afternoon tea, eat fish and chips or salted cake.

    Vienna and Bratislava

    Austrian capital Vienna and Slovakia city Bratislava are an hour apart by train. But since they are linked by the Danube River, the best way to travel is by ship. A tour of the two cities is the perfect way to experience everything from 17^th century's Habsburg dynast splendor to sci-fi restaurants.

    Vienna is famous for Mozart and imperial palaces. You can appreciate the perfect blending(融合) of architecture and nature in the grand Scholoss Schonbrunn Palace, and reward yourself with a cup of Vienna coffee, which has made its way to the world's cultural heritage.

    Bratislava is best known for its fine dining—the remarkable UFO restaurant. You can enjoy a meat-filled dinner here in an amazing setting.

    Google's new camera, called Clips, is a small, smart device. 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 smartphone.

    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.

    Were people concerned it could seem 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 it 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 silicon has advanced" Payne said, noting that 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.

    During the period from 1660 through 1800, Great Britain became the world's leader. Language itself became submitted to rules during this period. This need to fix the English language is best illustrated (描述) in the making of The Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson. Guides to the English language had been in existence before Johnson began his project in 1746. These, however, were often little more than lists of hard words. When definitions of common words were supplied, they were often unhelpful. For example, a "horse" was defined in an early dictionary as "a beast well known".

    Johnson changed all that, but the task was not an easy one. Renting a house at 17 Gough Square, Johnson began working in the worst of conditions. Supported only by his publisher, Johnson worked on the Dictionary with five assistants. Compared to the French Academy's dictionary, which took forty workers fifty-five years to complete (1639-1694), Johnson's dictionary was completed by very few people very quickly.

Balanced on a chair with only three legs, Johnson sat against a wall in a room filled with books. Johnson would read widely from these books, mark passages illustrating the use of a particular word, and give the books to his assistants so that they could copy the passages on slips of paper. These slips were then stuck to eighty large notebooks under the key words that Johnson had selected. Fixing the word by this method, Johnson could record a word，s usage and its definition.

    How many passages were used? According to Johnson's modern biographer Walter Jackson Bate, the original total number could have been over 240,000. How many words were defined by the lexicographer? Over 40,000 words appeared in two large books in April of 1755. Did Johnson fully understand the huge task he was undertaking when he began? As he told his contemporary biographer James Boswell, "I knew very well what I was undertaking and very well how to do it — and have done it very well."

    Let us all raise a glass to AlphaGo and the advance of artificial intelligence. AlphaGo, DeepMind's Go-playing AI, just defeated the best Go-playing human, Lee Sedol. But as we drink to its success, we should also begin trying to understand what it means for the future.

    The number of possible moves in a game of Go is so huge that in order to win against a player like Lee. AlphaGo was designed to adopt a human—like style of gameplay by using a relatively recent development--deep learning. Deep learning uses large data sets," machine learning" algorithms （计算程序） and deep neural networks to teach the AI how to perform a particular set of tasks. Rather than programming complex Go rules and strategies into AlphaGo DeepMind designers taught AlphaGo to play the game by feeding it data based on typical Go moves. Then, AlphaGo played against itself, tirelessly learning from its own mistakes and improving its gameplay over time. The results speak for themselves.

    Deep learning represents a shift in the relationship humans have with their technological creations. It results in AI that displays surprising and unpredictable behaviour. Commenting after his first loss, Lee described being shocked by an unconventional move he claimed no human would ever have made. Demis Hassabis, one of DeepMind's founders, echoed this comment:"We're very pleased that AlphaGo played some quite surprising and beautiful moves."

    Unpredictability and surprises are—or can be—a good thing. They can indicate that a system is working well, perhaps better than the humans that came before it. Such is the case with AlphaGo. However, unpredictability also indicates a loss of human control. That Hassabis is surprised at his creation's behaviour suggests a lack of control in the design. And though some loss of control might be fine in the context of a game such as Go, it raises urgent questions elsewhere.

    How much and what kind of control should we give up to AI machines? How should we design appropriate human control into AI that requires us to give up some of that very control? Is there some AI that we should just not develop if it means any loss of human control? How much of a say should corporations, governments, experts or citizens have in these matters? These important questions, and many others like them, have emerged in response, but remain unanswered. They require human, not human - like, solutions.

    So as we drink to the milestone in AI, let's also drink to the understanding that the time to answer deeply human questions about deep learning and AI is now.

    As the international demand for narrative films （纪录片）continues to increase with popular streaming services like Netflix and others, the two questions then come： Will the coming generations receive most of their entertainment through visual means rather than through the written word? Will such an increase of narrative film reduce the importance of reading?

    Growing examples of this trend include the dimishment(减少)of fiction lovers, the ever­rising culture of computer games, the wave of streaming services of wide international reach, and movies filled with special effects made for children and teenagers. Nor must we ignore the economic dangers that lie ahead for the written word. The narrative film industry is a moneymaker that surpasses the publishing industry.

    The other underlying question, of course, is "does it really matter if the written word bows to the world of narrative films?" From my point of view, any diminishment of fiction delivered by words is a loss for mankind.

    There is no greater human feature than the imagination. It lies at the very soul of the human species. It is the brain's most powerful engine. It is the essential muscle of life and like all muscles it must be exercised and strengthened.

    Writing and reading are the principal tools that inspire and create our imagination. Anything that diminishes that power is the enemy of mankind.

    It should be known that I am not opposed to new media and technological advances. Instead, I have always felt it necessary to adapt to advancing technology. In fact, a number of my novels are in various stages of development for film, TV and live stage productions. My hope is that the written word will only stand to be complemented(补充) by technology, not pushed to the edge of extinction.

    Of course, there are those who will present arguments for the superiority of the moving image over the written word. Each has its place. My argument is for finding the right balance between it and the moving image.

    I love our kitchen. It's one of the most used parts of our home. About 9 years ago we updated our kitchen and got all new collections. At the time I didn't really do a lot of research on the functions of the equipment and I really wish I had. There were so many different choices on the market and I ended up buying some that I didn't really like all that much and now that it's time to update them again, I'll be more careful with the ones I choose.

    I've had my eye on KitchenAid for a while, especially the new KitchenAid equipment at BestBuy. The new KitchenAid equipment at Best Buy has a cook-like quality without the premium price that you might expect to pay, so it won't cost you a fortune. The equipment has a professionally inspired design that is a perfect balance of good taste and functionality.

    With the new KitchenAid equipment you will find cooking more optional and flexible, which contributes to your amazing performance while preparing a meal. Its five-door fridge offers organized storage and easier access to food.

    I love these new collections and I can't think of a better time to update your kitchen than right now, because when you buy now at Best Buy you will get 18 months financing or 5% rewards on major equipment and free delivery on purchases over $399. To learn more about how to transform your kitchen with the new KitchenAid collections, be sure to visit BestBuy.com.