Conflict is on the menu tonight at the café La Chope. This evening, as on every Thursday night, psychologist Maud Lehanne is leading two of France's favorite pastimes, coffee drinking and the “talking cure”. Here they are learning to get in touch with their true feelings. It isn't always easy. They customers - some thirty Parisians who pay just under $2 (plus drinks) per session - care quick to intellectualize (高谈阔论)，slow to open up and connect. “You are forbidden to say ‘one feels,' or ‘people think',” Lehane told them. “Say ‘I think,' ‘Think me'.”

A café society where no intellectualizing is allowed? It couldn't seem more un-French. But Lehanne's psychology café is about more than knowing oneself: It's trying to help the city's troubled neighborhood cafes. Over the years, Parisian cafes have fallen victim to changes in the French lifestyle - longer working hours, a fast food boom and a younger generation's desire to spend more time at home. Dozens of new theme cafes appear to change the situation. Cafes focused around psychology, history, and engineering are catching on, filling tables well into the evening.

The city's psychology cafes, which offer great comfort, are among the most popular places. Middle-aged homemakers, retirees, and the unemployed come to such cafes to talk about love, anger, and dreams with a psychologist. And they come to Lehanne's group just to learn to say what they feel. “There's a strong need in Paris for communication,” says Maurice Frisch, a cafe La Chope regular who works as a religious instructor in a nearby church. “People have few real friends. And they need to open up.” Lehanne says she'd like to see psychology cafes all over France. “If people had normal lives, these cafes wouldn't exist”, she says, “If life weren't a battle, people wouldn't need a special place just to speak.” But them, it wouldn't be France.

    Siri is an artificial intelligence (AI) that you can carry around in the pocket, where it waits patiently to be told what to do. In the week we spend together, my AI assistant has performed admirably in finding me restaurants, or the location of the nearest coffee shop.

    A typical command might be: “Reserve a table for two at a good French restaurant in San Francisco.” Siri responds by presenting a list of top-rated restaurants that can be booked on OpenTable.com. If you say which time you want, it can book you a table without your lifting a finger. In some ways Siri is just a fancy program to the 35 websites it can connect to, from taxi booking websites to movie review databases (数据库). But what's new is the way it can analyze the intentions of its users and use those sites to put them into action.

    Siri attaches possibilities to the explanation of each word and compare your location with other data, some of which you must provide yourself. To send email reminders, Siri obviously needs to know your email address. To “find me the flower shop closest to work”, it needs to know where you work. To pay bills or buy airline tickets, it would need to be linked to your credit card.

    That raises the question of how far we are willing to trust a piece of software that can go and do things for us based on what it “thinks” we mean. Siri may be simple, and always shows its explanation of a command before carrying it out. But it gives users a preview of a new balance between privacy, trust and convenience that the expansion of AI into everyday life is likely to develop.

Dear John,

    My name is Amber and I want to share my story with you because what you've shared about life and positive energy has changed my life. This past year has been one of the hardest for me. I felt I was stuck in a position that had nothing to do with what I wanted to do with my life. In January, after two years of being together, my boyfriend left me.

    I read your blog every morning as I drink my coffee at work, but it wasn't until this March that I told myself "no more negativity" as you taught readers in your blog.

    Since then I've got into new habits at work to keep my energy positive. When people walk in the front door, I'm the first face they see, so I smile big when I say "good morning" to them, especially on Mondays. Instead of waiting for someone to ask me for help, I offer it with an open mind. The CEO noticed my change and offered me the executive assistant position that I wanted.

    One of the biggest things I've taken to heart from your blog is changing my opinions on my job. Yes, it was not an important position, but when I was passionate （热情的） about it, I could make my life fulfilling.

    All in all, I have to thank you somehow for having the passion to help others because it truly is inspiring to me. So thank you so much, John. My life has changed because your words pointed me in the right direction, Take care!

                                                 Sincerely ,

                                                     Amber

    MONTREAL(Reuters)—Crossing the US-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost an American $10,000 for breaking Washington's strict new security rules.

    The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, who lives right on the Canadian border. Albert often crosses the border like the other half-dozen people of Township 15. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and go to church.

    There are many such situations in these areas along the largely unguarded 5,530-mile border between Canada and the US, which in some cases actually runs down the middle of streets or through buildings.

    As a result, Albert says he did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the US after attending church in Canada, as usual. The US customs station in this area is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later. Albert was told to go to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.

    Ottawa has given out special passes to some 300 Americans in that area so they can enter the country when Canadian customs(海关) stations are closed, but the US stopped a similar program last May. That forces the people to a 200-mile detour along hilly roads to get home through another border checkpoint.

    Albert has requested that the customs office change their decisions on the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday church since. “I feel like I'm living in a prison,” he said.

    I've personally traveled through many countries that have had U.S. government warnings issued for them, and I've been perfectly safe. Specifically, in the last year, I have travelled safely to both the Philippines and Mexico, and traveled to many South Pacific islands during the tropical cyclone (热带气旋) season and only experienced two days of light rain in six months! This is, of course, anecdotal, so it's important that you do your research before booking your trip.

    One thing I recommend doing is checking for recent posts on travel forums (论坛), such as Lonely Planet's Thorntree, to see what people are saying about the country you'll visit in terms of safety. The U.S. government may make out that an entire country is extremely unsafe when in reality, it's a small part of it that tourists will be unlikely to visit. Read the travel warnings, too, to see which parts of the country the government recommends that you avoid.

    Additionally, it's worth speaking to your travel insurance provider before you leave to check that you'll be covered during your travels to these countries. Some insurance .companies won't cover you if there's a severe warning for the country, but some will. Travel insurance is a necessity, so it's definitely something to check out before you leave.

    Keep in mind that the U.S. government will help you with emergency evacuation (撤离) from a troubled country, but it comes in the form of a repatriation (归国) loan via the Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (ACS), which can be called to rescue you from a bad situation abroad. Remember by heart that you'll have to wait overseas for the money to arrive and eventually repay the loan once you're home safely. Just another reason to get travel insurance!

    Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

    In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师), but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

    Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.