A man walked into a small Irish pub and ordered three beers. Bartender was surprised, but he served that man three beers. One hour later the man ordered three beers again. The very next day that man ordered three beers again and drank quietly at a table. This repeated several times and shortly after the people of the town were whispering about the man, who was ordering three beers at once.

    A couple of weeks later, the bartender decided to clear this out and inquired: “I do not want to pry, but could you explain, why do you order three beers all the time?” The man replied: “It seems strange, isn't it? You see, my two brothers live abroad at the moment, one – in France and another – in Italy. We have made an agreement, that every time we go to pub each of us will order extra two beers and it will help keeping up the family bond”.

    Soon all the town have heard about the man's answer and liked it a lot. The man became a local celebrity. Residents of the town were telling this story to newcomers or tourists and even invited them to that pub to look at Three Beer Man.

    However, one day the man came to pub and ordered only two beers, not three as usual. The bartender served him with bad feeling. All that evening the man ordered and drank only two beers. The very next day all the town was talking about this news, some people pray for the soul of one of the brothers, others quietly grieve.

    When the man came to pub the next time and ordered two beers again, the bartender asked him: “I would like to offer condolences to you, due to the death of your dear brother”. The man considered this for a moment and then replied: “Oh, you are probably surprised that I order only two beers now? Well, my two brothers are alive and well. It's just because of my decision. I promised myself to give up drinking.”

    Recently I and other Red Cross volunteers met a group of victims from Hurricane Katrina. We were there, as mental health professionals, to offer “psychological first aid” and I was struck by the simple healing power of presence. As we walked in the gate to the shelter, we were greeted with a burst of gratitude from the first person we met. I felt appreciated, but also guilty, because I hadn't really done anything yet.

    I first realized the power of presence many years ago when a friend's mother passed away unexpectedly. I received a call saying she had just passed away. I wanted to rush down there immediately, but didn't want to intrude(打扰) on this very personal period of sadness. I was torn about what to do. Another friend with me then said, “Just go. Just be there.” I did, and I will never regret it.

    Since then, I have not hesitated to be in the presence of others. Once I sat at the bedside of a young man suffering from the pain of his AIDS-ralated dying. He was not awake, and obviously unaware of others' presence. However, the atmosphere was by no means solenm. His family, playing guitars and singing, allowed him to be present with them as though he were still fully alive.

    In my life, I am repeatedly struck by the healing power of presence. In it, none of us are truly alone. It not only is something we give to others but also changes me for the better.

    Dry Ice is a unique substance which has many uses. Essentially, dry ice is frozen CO2. The first report of what we now call dry ice came from the French chemist Charles Thilorier in 1834. In 1924, the Drylee Corporation of America named the solid form of CO2 as "Dry Ice", which is what it is popularly called today.

    At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2changes directly from solid to gas. It skips the liquid phase（阶段）which makes regular ice wet. Frozen CO2is also much colder than regular ice. But regular ice freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, CO2 changes from gas to solid at -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This extremely cold temperature makes it very dangerous to handle with bare hands. It can cause frostbite in a very short period of time.

    Dry ice has been used for a variety of purposes throughout the past century. Its primary use is to refrigerate food when electrical refrigeration isn't available. Through the process of sublimation (when CO2 changes from solid to gas), it can maintain cold food for a long time.

    If you've ever been to a play and seen heavy fog on the ground, it is likely that you have seen dry ice in action. This effect can be achieved because CO2 is heavier than air, so evaporated （挥发的）CO2 will sink and accumulate on the ground.

    Another interesting use for this substance is to bait（诱杀）insects like mosquitoes. These insects have sensors which guide them to CO2. They find the high concentration of CO2 in dry ice quite attractive.

    Mars has long been a mystery for human beings. We have been looking for evidence of life on Mars. In the 1960s scientists guessed that the polar ice cap of Mars was made of frozen CO2. More recent observations have shown that while the topmost layer consists of frozen CO2, the most of it is probably regular frozen water.

    Many people thought a computer wasn't supposed to be able to beat a top master at the ancient Chinese game, Weiqi, for at least another 10 years. But AlphaGo, an artificially intelligent system(人工智能系统) designed by Google, made it. It easily beat Lee Sedol last year, one of the best players in the world. It challenged the world's top players to show how much progress it had made over the past few years.

    In the late of May, 2017, AlphaGo appeared in China and played against 19-year-old Ke Jie in Wuzhen, China. He is No. 1 player now in the world. However, the result wasn't out of people's expectation. He lost the matches. Though Ke Jie tried his best and he once saw the victory just a step away, he lost his best chance when he became excited.

    At the press conference(新闻发布会) after the match, Ke Jie was interviewed by the reporters. He said he had realized how powerful AlphaGo was, and it was getting perfect. When a Chinese reporter asked him in English, the reporter spoke so fast that the interpreter(口译员 ) couldn't catch him. Ke Jie got kind of angry and told him that it was unnecessary for two Chinese to speak English. The reporter apologized to him and offered to ask him for a coffee.

    The cat and mouse game is over, but the challenge between man and robots will still go on.

    If you rent an apartment in Beijing, you also rent the landlord or landlady for at least a year. It's important you find a good match because you have to deal with them in the long term. For me, it was love at first sight with the elderly couple who owns my apartment.

    It was quite a tough trying to find the right apartment when I first arrived in Beijing. The apartments were either unsuitable or I find fault with the owners who looked indifferent at best and unfriendly at worst. But that all changed when the renting agent's car stopped in front of a hutong house in the heart of the capital.

    I saw an elderly couple, in their 70s perhaps, waving to me. They were warm and welcoming at first glance, and when I saw them attentively hanging up the curtains in what would become my bedroom, I was just about sold on the place and the owners!

    Chinese people talk about yuanfen, meaning fate that brings people together. Before I met my current landlords, I thought the concept of yuanfen was overrated. A generous landlady who liked me and wanted me to move into her apartment had used the term in reference to me. But it was this lovely couple that changed my mind about the concept.

    We have become accustomed to visiting each other at home. The couple's apartment is lovingly decorated, boasting a recent wedding photo of themselves taken in bridal wear. The landlord likes to smoke and sip tea, while the landlady takes great pride in her appearance.

    After three years, I dare say they treat me a bit like a "daughter", despite having two grown sons, one of them close by. They give me gifts of tea or clothes, and I bring them souvenirs from my trips. A match made in heaven, indeed!

    Runners never forget crossing the finishing line at their first marathon, and that will be especially true for Mike Kohler. When Kohler crossed the starting line in Fargo last Saturday, he thought he was going to run 13.1 miles, his first half marathon. Six hours later, he had "mistakenly” completed his first full marathon, 26.2 miles.

    Kohler, a 26-year-old plumber (水管工) who now lives in West Fargo, had lined up for the half marathon that he hoped to complete in 150 minutes. He didn't realize he was in a starting fence with the full marathoners. Several miles later, Kohler began to realize he was on the course for the full marathon. "The 8-mile mark was when I figured out that I had made a mistake," he said. "Between then and 13.1, I debated with myself about what I should do."

    At some point — he doesn't remember when — he doubled down on the distance. "After I decided I was going to keep going, the thought of quitting didn't come back. Run, walk, or crawl, I wanted to finish," he said.

    Until Saturday, Kohler's longest race was a 10-kilometer run, just over 6 miles. Even the most casual marathoners do a training run of 18 miles before the race. From his experience, he said he learned one thing: sometimes people can do more than they think they can.

    After his long race, he went right back to work, put in a 10-hour day and then boarded a flight to Scotland for a vacation. "I was pretty sore, but I found the more I kept moving, the less sore I was, so I tried my best to go about life normally — minus running,” Kohler said from Glasgow. "I needed a break from that for a bit."

    Not for too long, though. He's already considering the Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon in October.