I wandered into the small store where I usually buy milk, when the store owner received a call from a customer. The customer and his wife had shopped there several months earlier. He noticed that his wife really liked one thing in the store, so he wanted to buy it as a surprise.

    But the customer was in Tennessee, far away from the store which was in Maine. What was more, he had been to the store several months earlier, and it was difficult to believe that the store owner would remember him, or what he was looking for.

    The store owner took a few close-up photos with her camera, and e-mailed them to the customer on the computer. The customer looked at the photos, and decided which one he wanted. They talked and discussed a price over the phone. She took care of the credit card transaction (交易) online, and promised the gift would be shipped out that afternoon.

    The store owner was really smart. She was willing to push herself to find new ways to make the transaction actually happen. And it did work. However, it was the first time she had ever done it.

    I was amazed that the store owner discovered a creative solution that could lead to a new way of doing business. I was impressed by what she did—so easily, but how difficult it is for many of us to make that leap(飞跃). I'm not just talking about technology, but about learning how to adapt to change. Most people hate or fear change unless they get to know exactly what change needs to be made. However, we should realize that challenge and opportunity go hand in hand.

A few months after we moved to a small city in France, I wanted to meet my husband for lunch at the university where he worked. I got lost. I had to call him for help. One of his friends said to him later, "How could she get lost? She just needed to go straight."

Well, no. That's the problem. You never "just go straight", because France is the land of roundabouts (弯道). Highways, major streets, little village lanes – if you go straight long enough, you'll end up going in circles.

    Even after a year here, I'd still get lost going to the grocery store, or just about anywhere that wasn't within a hundred yards of my house.

I admit I have a horrible sense of direction, can't read a map, and am not such a good driver. Plus, I've been spoiled (宠坏) by living in American cities, where you just indeed need to "go straight". But in France, driving became my nightmare — the roads are roundabouts within roundabouts.

    Finally I found a solution: a GPS program on my smart phone. I rely on it to get anywhere, even places I've been.

    But it does leave me feeling very bad and helpless when, often, the program doesn't work, can't find a GPS signal, or gives wrong information. I'd have to wait until my GPS gets recovered, or else I use my old solution: I call my husband. Is the GPS making us more stupid, or helping us going around more? In my case, it's probably both.

    Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone's life?

    If yes，don't care about sex or age! Come and join us, then you'll make it!

    Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant

    (No Pay with Free Meals)

    Place: Manchester

    Hours: Part Time

    We are now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don't miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!

    Role:

    You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary concern is to let them know they are valued.

    Skills and Experience Required:

    You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you'll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.

    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.”

    The pupils of Grangetown High have been busy getting to know their newest and tallest classmate — a 7-meter-tall giraffe outside their school.

    The giraffe is a huge sculpture (雕像). The school's headmaster noticed it in an artist's garden as he drove past one day, and thought it would be perfect for his school. “I knew everyone would love it," he said, "because our basketball team is known as the Grangetown Giraffes, and they wear giraffes on their shirts. So I asked them to write to the artist, asking how much it would cost to buy the giraffe. He was very kind and got it ready to deliver (递送) in six weeks — all for nothing! It was expected to arrive one Sunday morning, so that the pupils would see it when they got to school on Monday — at that time they had no idea that we were getting it."

    The artist, Tom Bennett was a university professor of chemistry before he retired in 2012 and only took up metalwork a couple of years ago. "I've always drawn pictures," he said. I can even remember doing it on my first day at school — I drew a horse. I wanted it to be the best horse picture ever, but I don't think I succeeded."Tom's first metalwork was a bicycle on which he and his wife could go cycling together, “It was the most uncomfortable bike ever created," he said, "so I gave up making bicycles and went into sculpture instead."

    Meanwhile the pupils at Grangetown High are very happy with their new classmate. "We're going to hold a competition to give it a proper name," said one girl. "Everyone likes the expression on its face, so perhaps that will give us some ideas."

    D. Mike Miles hadn't had a stable job in years. He bounced around from temporary agency to temporary agency, never sure when his last day would be. Sometimes, he lost a job with less than a day's notice. This was not due to a poor work ethic (职业道德) - from arriving early to staying late, Miles said he did everything he could to leave good impressions on employers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the US. But because Miles had a criminal record, he was always cut loose when it was time to let staff go.

    "It was like walking on eggshells. You just never knew when you'd be gone," he said.

    After his release from prison in 2007, Miles struggled to find stability – both mentally and financially. During this time, he lived in his mother's house and she helped him raise his daughter. When his mom passed away two years later, Miles said he became more determined than ever to create a healthy environment for his family.

    "I'm all she has, and she's all I have," he said. "I had to build a whole new relationship with my daughter, while building a whole new life for myself."

    It wasn't until October 2015, nearly a decade after he got out of prison, that a cousin told Miles about a food company that hires people who have difficulty finding jobs.

    Hoping this would clear up what felt like a thick cloud of uncertainty over his future, Miles submitted an application. He got an interview and soon after that, began his new job. His work involves everything from food production to maintenance (保存), not to mention it pays a livable wage of $15 an hour. He said it's the best job he's ever had.

    Miles' story is rare in Lancaster, where the poverty rate is around 30 percent – about double the national average. This figure annoyed Charlie Crystle, the co-founder and CEO of the company that gave Miles his job.

    Crystle said he wanted to inspire other companies and entrepreneurs (企业家) to rethink their current practices and ignite(引发)conversations about minimum wage and employment opportunities for everyone, including ex-offenders (有犯罪前科的人).

    Beyond providing employment and livable wages, the company also helps employees deal with the many challenges of reentry into society. This means anything from helping them find housing and health benefits to changing their schedules.

    Miles is now saving for a house. "It doesn't have to be a big house," he said. "I just want to be stable."