A new tool of communication called the “drift diary” is doing the rounds among young college graduates.

    The “drift diary”, like those ancient paper messages put into a bottle left to drift on the high seas to reach hundreds of miles away, connects lonely hearts.

    The “drift diary” was first started by a Beijing woman, who goes by the Net name Little S, in 2007. It has become the preferred tool of communication among youngsters afraid to reveal their innermost self to peers, but wanting to share their lives with others.

    The way it works is that the initiator（发起人）of the diary mentions it on popular  Internet forums such as Tianya and Douban. Those wanting to react or otherwise add to the diary then send their real names and addresses to the initiator via e-mails or text messages.

    The numbers in one group are usually restricted to between 30 and 50. The diary then passes on to another by express delivery or personal handover. The diary writers are mostly anonymous but if they wish to reveal their identity they can do so by posting their contact information at the end of their postings.

    The diary writers add not just words but also decorate the plain notebooks with cartoons, drawings or even dress it up with a ribbon or a new cover. Interesting experiences, travel journals, the simple joys of everyday living or sweet recollections of childhood, all find a place in these diaries. Most often, though, the writers set down their frustrations and predicaments.

    It usually takes one year for a diary to return to the initiator. The last recorder is the luckiest one, with access to all previous entries, while others can request photocopies of these from the diary's initiator.

    The first time she saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time he saw Juli Baker, he ran. For six years of living close by, they had played the same game of cat-and-mouse (Juli was the cat; Bryce was the unfortunate mouse).

    For years Juli dreamed of one thing: her first kiss from the boy. Nothing else seemed to matter. But when Juli's favorite sycamore tree is threatened by developers, things begin to change. She begins to see things and places and people in a different light. Things, for years, she thought to be important, become things she can live without; and people she thought to be the center of her universe, become nothing more than a star in a faraway galaxy.

    Things begin changing with Bryce also. It all begins with the eggs…which then cause a domino effect of changes with his relationships with his best friend, his father, the Bakers and, ultimately, Juli.

    I had seen this book on the shelf at bookstores for years, but never bothered to pick it up because it looked to be another book from Jerry Spinelli (not exactly my favorite author in the world) and so, continually, I would walk past it without giving it a second glance. If by chance I had picked it up, I most likely would not have read it, since the summary on the back didn't seem too appealing. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I heard about Flipped the movie. I read an interview with Callan McAuliffe (the actor who portrays Bryce) and thought that Flipped was a romance right up my alley; cute, innocent and as far from Jane Austin as you could get. After reading the interview and a summary of the movie, I found the plot-line to be somewhat appealing and a definite breath of fresh air opposed to the dark material I have been recently reading and writing. I found the book a few days later in a Goodwill bookstore and finished it in three days.

    The story isn't what you would consider deep…it isn't shallow and pointless either…I guess you could say it's the perfect balance of life-lessons and innocence.

    You read about Bryce and Juli (each from their own points of view) and how, throughout six years, their lives and views and opinions change and develop. Flipped is somewhat of a coming of age story about two kids learning to see life from the other's point of view and learning that growing up isn't about staying the same, but changing; changing likes and dislikes; changing friends and crushes and views on family.

Uniquely written, every other chapter showing the same scenes and events, only from the other's point of view, you see how the saying, "Two sides to every story," is true. You are able to see both Juli and Bryce's reasons for doing what they do and saying what they say…not just what the other sees.

    It will be interesting to see how this writing style comes into play in the movie. Overall I thought this story was incredibly cute and light-hearted, although it didn't entirely meet my expectations. Especially the ending. I felt as though it ended quite abruptly and that there was more story that needed to be told.

    But even with that, after having taken a step back and taken my mind off of Flipped, I find the story has stuck with me and stayed in the back of my mind, making me highly anticipate seeing this book turned to a film. I understand why it has been so popular for almost two decades and am looking forward to seeing Flipped on the big screen soon.

    We were on tour a few summers ago, driving through Chicago， when right outside of the city, we got pulled over(被迫停车). A middle-aged policeman came up to the car and was really being troublesome at first. He said,“ You were speeding. Where are you going in such a hurry?” Our guitarist, Tim, told him that we were on our way to Wisconsin to play a show. Then his way towards us totally changed. He asked, “Oh, so you boys are in a band(乐队)?” We told him that we were. He then asked all the usual band questions about the type of music we played and how long we had been at it.

    Suddenly, he stopped and said, “Tim, you want to get out of this ticket, don't you?” Tim said, “Yes.” So the officer asked him to step out of the car. The rest of us, inside the car, didn't know what to think as we watched the policeman talk to Tim. Then the policeman put Tim in the back of the police car and threw the car into reverse(倒车), stopping a few feet in back of our car.

    Now we suddenly felt frightened. We didn't know if we were all going to prison. Suddenly, the policeman's voice came over in a loudspeaker. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever, we have Tim here singing on Route 90.” Later we knew, the policeman had told Tim that if he sang one of our songs over the loudspeaker in the police car, we would get out of the ticket. Seconds later, Tim started screaming into the receiver. The policeman enjoyed the performance, and sent us on our way without a ticket.

    Is Paperless Office Really Paperless?

    A rising economy increased paper sales by 6 to 7 percent each year in the early to mid-1990s, and the convenience of desktop printing allowed office workers to indulge anything and everything. In 2004, Ms. Dunn, a communications supplies director, said that plain white office paper would see less than a 4 percent growth rate, a primary reason for which is that some 47 percent of the workforce entered the job market after computers had already been introduced to offices.

    For office innovators, the dream of paperless office is an example of high-tech arrogance（傲慢）. Today's office service is overwhelmed By more newspapers than ever before. After decades of development, the American government can finally get rid of the madness on paper. In the past, the demand for paper has been far ahead of growth in the American economy, but the sales have slowed markedly over the past two to three years, despite the good economic conditions.

    “Old habits are hard to break,” says Ms. Dunn. “There are some functions that paper serves where a screen display doesn't work. Those functions are both its strength and its weakness.” Analysts attribute the decline to such factors as advances in digital databases and communication systems. Escaping our craving for paper, however, will be anything but an easy affair.

    “We're finally seeing a reduction in the amount of paper being used per worker in the workplace,” says John Maine, vice president of a paper economic consulting firm. “More information is being transmitted electronically, and an increasing number of people are satisfied that information exists only in electronic form without printing multiple backups.”

    To reduce paper use, some companies are working to combine digital and paper capabilities. For example, Xerox is developing electronic paper: thin digital displays that respond to a stylus, like a pen on paper. Marks can be erased or saved digitally. Even with such technological advances, the increasing amounts of electronic data necessarily require more paper.

    “The information industry today is composed of a thin paper crust surrounding an electronic core,” Mr. Saffo wrote. The growing paper crust is most noticeable, but the hidden electronic core is far larger and growing more rapidly. The result is that we are becoming paperless, but we hardly notice at all. “That's one of the greatest ironies of the information age,” Saffo says. “It's just common sense that the more you talk to someone by phone or computer, it inevitably leads to a face-to-face meeting. The best thing for the aviation industry was the Internet.”

    When it comes to climate change, there are always some new, terrifying consequences to worry about—like ancient viruses and bacteria coming from the ice as the earth warms. Unfortunately, researchers fear we may see more of this in the future.

    Some of these viruses and bacteria may have been trapped for thousands of years, and it's not even totally clear yet what they are, let alone what kind of damage they might have.

    Researchers have met complex “giant viruses” in the melting permafrost(永久冻土) of Siberia. One such virus, 30,000 years old, was still infectious when it was discovered in 2015, though it posed no danger to humans. It turns out that permafrost is excellent at preserving bacteria and viruses that are temporarily inactive, and then become reactivated with warming.

    Scientists have discovered Spanish flu viruses in dead bodies buried in 1918 in the Alaskan tundra (冻原). When close to half of the population of a Siberian town in the 1890s died of smallpox (天花), their bodies were buried in the permafrost along the Kolyma River. The banks of that river are now beginning to wear away amid global warming, the BBC reports.

    In Siberia in August 2016, some 100 people and 2,300 deer were infected with anthrax(炭疽) in the first outbreak in the area since 1941. One boy died from the disease. Scientist believed the anthrax had been trapped in the body of a long-frozen dead deer and became active during particularly hot summer of 2016, releasing the bacteria cells into the environment.

But even in warmer climates, rising temperatures can help grow and spread dangerous diseases. Over a decade ago, researcher Paul Epstein prophesied the possible spread of mosquito-born illnesses as a result of climate change. “Mosquitoes are sensitive to temperature changes,” he said. “Warming speeds up their rates of reproduction and the number of blood meals they take, makes their breeding (繁殖) season long, and shortens the maturation period for the germs they spread” — all of which makes them more efficient at spreading disease.

    A trip to Paris is not complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower. To get the most out of your visit read our tips below:

    Visit at Night

    Riding up the Eiffel Tower at night and looking out over the streets of Paris, you'll see why Paris is known as the “City of Light”. At street level, the spotlights on the top of the Tower and the reflections (倒影) of the Tower in the Seine (塞纳河) are sights not to be missed.

    Purchase (购买) Your Ticket in Advance Online

    Avoid the long ticket lines at the Eiffel Tower by purchasing your ticket online from the Eiffel Tower website.

    You'll pick a time to visit and then select whether to print out the ticket or display it on your phone or iPad, a convenient choice if you buy your ticket in Paris without a printer.

    Don't Bring Valuable Objects with You

    Before entering the Eiffel Tower, your bags will be examined by a security officer. If an item you are carrying sets off the metal detector, the officer will take you away from the line for further inspection. Probably you will miss the chance to go up the Eiffel Tower.

    Have Drinks and Snacks at the Eiffel Tower

    If you're like us, after an exciting trip to the Eiffel Tower, you'll be ready to rest your legs and have a relaxing snack and a drink in a Parisian cafe. Across the Seine in the Trocadero area, there are many elegant cafes. The atmosphere is great, but the prices are in the stratosphere (极高水平). Actually, the perfect place for common visitors to eat and drink is on the Eiffel Tower itself.