Topic Reading-Vol.3671-4/30/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Here are 10 essential items for your car

When you drive a car, the most essential items to take with you might be your eyeglasses or sunglasses, driver’s license, and smartphone. But there are other helpful items that you may want to keep in your car, some are just in case and others are for convenience. For example, jump cables to recharge the flat battery. Even if you find someone to help you recharge your car battery, or you want to help someone else’s, nothing can be done without jump cables. Other non-essential but helpful items are wipes to clean the interior, screenwash to keep the windshield clear, and a pen & paper to leave or keep a note.

Enjoy reading the article and check which of those items you keep in your car.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-advice/here-are-10-essential-items-your-car

Topic Reading-Vol.3670-4/29/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Not smart but clever? The return of 'dumbphones'

A smartphone or dumbphone? Many people seem to think that a smartphone is the first item they need when they go out. Well, if you want to be connected with the rest of the world and friends all the time, and need certain apps for searches or payments, you surely need a smartphone. But if you don’t go out so often or don’t use those fancy apps that much, a dumbphone, a basic handset that gives you limited functions such as phone calls, text messaging, and photo-taking, might be your next mobile phone. Well, if you are at home and connected to the Internet all the time, you can use your PC or tablet instead of the tiny display of a smartphone. And a dumbphone is much cheaper itself and the monthly fee is substantially lower compared with iPhone with 5G. In fact, there are people who have switched back to dumbphones to be smarter.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about how to be smarter without a smartphone.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168

Topic Reading-Vol.3669-4/28/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Venice to charge daytrippers up to €10 to enter in 2023

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy. It is built on more than 100 small pieces of land that are separated by famous canals and connected by over 400 bridges. Founded in the 5th century CE, Venice became a major maritime power in the 10th century. The whole city is an extraordinary architectural masterpiece in which even the smallest building contains works by some of the world's greatest artists. The Site "Venice and its Lagoon" was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987. In the historical part of Venice, which is home to about 55,000 residents, as many as over 150,000 tourists visited on Easter Sunday alone. Such over-tourism has created not only the quality of life problems for the residents but also environmental problems for the city’s ecosystem. In fact, Venice was considered by UNESCO whether the city should be added to the “In-Danger” list. As the city still welcomes tourists but in a more sustainable and profitable fashion, it will soon launch an online booking site to control the traffic, especially day-trippers, first by offering privileges and later by charging a flexible fee, which will become expensive on busy days. This attempt will be closely watched by other busy tourist destinations where over-tourism has been causing living and environmental concerns.

Enjoy reading the article and think if a fee of 10 euros is too substantial enough to control the day visitors to one of the most popular tourist destinations.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-entry-reservation-fee/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3668-4/27/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Climate change: Wind and solar reach milestone as demand surges

Whichever the major driver, economy or environment, might be, the world has become more conscious of green energies. Despite the coal resurgence due to the increased price of oil and gas to meet the rising demand, wind and solar energies generated about one-tenth of the world’s electricity in 2021. Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, the share of those clean energies has doubled. For example, Denmark generated over half of its electricity from wind and solar. Another example is Vietnam, which pushed solar generation by paying fees to those who generate electricity. Now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made oil and gas even more expensive, more effort is being made to generate electricity by green energies. The question is if nuclear power should be considered clean or not. One thing is for sure. It is catastrophically dangerous.

Enjoy reading the article about the rise in wind and solar energy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60917445

Topic Reading-Vol.3667-4/26/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Self driving car guidance to be put in Highway Code

Sooner or later, you’ll be able to drive your car hands-free. Actually, the technology is already available and has been tested to prove its safety and practicality. It’s just a matter of regulatory approval as to under what conditions autonomous driving can be used and needs to be disengaged. In the UK, hands-free driving will soon be permitted on congested motorways provided that the driver can take control of the vehicle whenever required. The driver can watch videos that are projected on the driving monitor, which could immediately turn back to the driving mode when necessary. That’s nice especially when the traffic is jammed during rush hours. But the driver still won’t be permitted to use a mobile phone because it won’t tell them when to resume manual driving. What a pity! But rules will change accordingly to the technology.

Enjoy reading the article and think about the luxury of hands-free driving!

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61155735

Topic Reading-Vol.3666-4/25/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Why Koreans could soon become a year younger

How old are you? The simple and universal answer to this question is the number of birthdays the person has had after their birth. So, until the first birthday, the person (baby) is considered zero years old. However, in South Korea, the answer could be zero, one, or two because there are three different ways to speak of one’s age. For most legal definitions and administrative processes, a person’s age is counted in accordance with the international counting system. If a baby is born on December 30, the baby is still zero on his or her first New Year’s Day. There is another official way to count age, which starts at zero and adds one on every January 1. In this way, a baby who is born on December 30 becomes one year old just in two days. Then, there is a more widely used method, which gives one upon birth and adds a year on every January 1. Under this method, any baby becomes two years old on his or her first New Year’s Day. Since it is confusing to have different age counting methods when it comes to eligibility for driver’s licenses, vaccination, and pension, the new administration is considering standardizing the way age is counted. Will Koreans become younger soon?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about how age is counted in Korea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61117434

Topic Reading-Vol.3665-4/24/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Pet cloning is getting more popular despite the cost

Your pet is a family member. You adore your pet as much as you do. Unfortunately, the life expectancy of dogs and cats is usually not as long as yours unless you get a new pet at a later stage in your life. Some pet owners become so desperate to be with the same pet longer or forever. And where there is a strong need, there is an opportunity for a business solution. Pet cloning. If you take some DNA samples from your beloved pet dog, inject them into a donor egg, and put it into a surrogate mother, she will give birth to cloned puppies. Genetically, these puppies are identical to the original pet dog. You can enjoy very similar pet dogs to the original pet you adored. However, they may develop different behaviors or characters as they grow because they experience different situations and conditions. Some criticize such practices as unethical because there are many more dogs waiting to be adopted in shelters. Also, the cost to produce a cloned pet is as expensive as a luxury car. What do you think?

Enjoy reading the article and think if pet cloning will become more popular.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60924936

Topic Reading-Vol.3664-4/23/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Boom time for dog walkers, sitters and trainers

Pet dogs shouldn’t be left alone for more than four hours at a time, according to experts. And for some dogs, that is even too long to be alone especially after being attended to full time during the pandemic. Now, as more dog owners are returning to their offices or working out of home, more pet dogs need to be attended to, fed, and taken out for a walk during their absence. So, who is getting busier? Dog walkers, sitters, and trainers. Since the number of pet dogs increased dramatically during the pandemic, from 9 million to 12.5 million in 2020/21 in the UK, dog owners, especially the new owners need someone to take care of their beloved pet dogs. For dog carers, it is time to recover from the business fallout of the pandemic. As many people are booking summer travel, the demand for dog sitting is surging.

Enjoy reading the article about why and how dogs need to be taken care of.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61067507

Topic Reading-Vol.3663-4/22/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

How Nissan creates its signature 'new car smell'

Unless you are a new car salesperson or a mechanic of a new car dealership, you probably enjoy the smell of a brand car once every few or several years, or even less often if you usually buy a used car. But when you get in your new car, you enjoy the new car smell, which is a mixture of many materials inside the car, such as plastics, metals, fabrics, and maybe leather. Surprisingly, major car company like Nissan is trying to assure that the new car smell is not offensive to the new owner. In fact, there are sniff test engineers whose job is to check the smell of the assembled vehicles before mass production. The smell inside a car varies by the seating location, driver’s, passenger, and back seats because each position is surrounded by different materials. Those smell experts check the smell of different parts of the vehicle to detect an offensive odor. Also, since preference for smells varies from one culture to another, the standard of the smell quality varies by region. The same car smells different by market.

Enjoy reading the article about how a new car smell is created and assured.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/15/business/nissan-car-smeller/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3662-4/21/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Christine Lagarde keeps options open as Europe grapples with 'stagflation'

Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. When high inflation takes place, the value of a currency falls and then prices for goods and services rise accordingly. Moderate inflation doesn’t cause problems as long as people’s incomes are also rising. But if prices rise faster than the rate of wage increase, people suffer from high prices, especially the poor whose most of the income is spent on daily necessities. This condition is called stagflation, a combination of stagnant output and rapid price increases. As buying power declines, the economy falls into recession. This is what politicians, economists, businesses, and consumers are all afraid of the most. As Eurozone inflation reached 7.5% in March, the highest level in decades, the European Central Bank, ECB, is under heavy pressure to raise the interest rate to curb inflation. However, it is not that simple as Eurozone is still trying to recover from Covid and manage the impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, the ECB is walking on a very tight rope to manage the economic challenges during this very difficult time.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about inflation and deflation in Eurozone.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/14/economy/ecb-lagarde-inflation-interest-rates/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3661-4/20/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The microchip implants that let you pay with your hand

If you use a credit card, debit card, or mobile payment, and if you frequently go out and use those payment methods, there is a new option for you. Implanting a microchip in your hand that holds your payment information. Once implanted, you just need to put your hand closer to the contactless card reader instead of putting your card or smartphone. The cashier might be surprised to find the payment goes through just like with a plastic card. You won’t have to worry about your wallet or cardholder when you go out shopping any longer. Also, implantable microchips can hold other information, such as door locks, personal ID, insurance, driver’s license, and social security. When businesses, communities, and societies agree on unified standards, one implanted chip does all payments and ID checks. What will then thieves try to steal if there is no wallet? How can they steal the microchip information from a person?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about microchip implants for humans.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61008730

Topic Reading-Vol.3660-4/19/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Amazon is adding a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge

Inflation is on the rise everywhere and for everything. Fuel costs and wheat prices are rising because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Automobiles, new, used, or electric, are all getting more expensive because of the chip shortages and rising material costs, like lithium. And even prices for commodity items are increasing because of the rising fuel and transportation costs. Furthermore, labor costs are rising in some developed countries where people are looking for better-paid jobs, especially in the US. In fact, US consumer prices in March saw a staggering 8.5% jump from last year, the highest hike in the last 40 years. Everyone in the supply chain is trying to pass the yet increasing costs to their customers, buyers, or users. And there are quite a few ways to charge higher prices, such as raising the price, reducing the amount per package, or eliminating discounts. One way to raise the price is to add a surcharge, a charge in addition to the normal price, which has been popular in airfare for some time. Now, Amazon is imposing a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge starting from April 28 to users of Amazon’s fulfillment services, including storing, packing, and shipping. Will Amazon reduce the surcharge when the current inflation eases or raise it further when the inflation continues? Another question is why a percentage, not the size or weight? At any rate, everyone is struggling to pass the rising costs to someone next in line.

Enjoy reading the article and think if Amazon’s surcharge is rational or not.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/13/energy/amazon-fuel-surcharge/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3659-4/18/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

In China, luxury hotels are offering babysitting services to stressed out parents working from home

Working from home has become a common, or even new standard, for many office workers. They can save time commuting and spend more time with their family. However, for school children, studying from home is boring and demanding. They have to take intense online classes all day long without having time to interact with other students. Also, going to and from school with other kids is part of their daily activity and exercise. School children can be easily stressed and depressed when they are told to stay home all day and every day. So, their parents have to come up with some plan that encourages their children to keep studying online. When students were ordered to stay home and take online classes to prevent the Omicron variant from spreading in major cities like Shanghai in China, some luxury hotels started offering a package to babysit school children in their guest rooms during the day. It sounds like a study-cation package for children. Well, many hotels offer their rooms during the day for those who want to work in an isolated environment. For children, there is at least a place to go for a day. For parents, they can work or relax without taking care of their children. For the hotels, they can sell empty rooms during the daytime.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about this luxurious babysitting package in China.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-luxury-hotels-studycations-cmd/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3658-4/17/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Leave your shoes outside, these scientists say

In Hollywood movies, no one takes their shoes off when they enter a house. However, removing shoes at the door is customary in many more countries and cultures than you might think. As you might know that in Japan, Korea, and many most parts of China, it is unthinkable to enter a house with shoes on. Even among western cultures like Canada, New Zealand, Scandinavian nations, and eastern European countries, outdoor shoes are removed at the door. Also, the same custom is seen in India, northern African countries, and the middle east. The reasons vary, though. In places where delicate carpets are placed on the floor, including Japan’s tatami, it is simply unthinkable to enter with shoes on. Also, in northern territories and eastern Europe where there is snow in winter and mud in spring, wearing wet and dirty shoes inside the house is out of the question. In Islamic cultures, shoes need to be removed to enter a mosque or to pray. On top of all these cultural, environmental, and religious reasons, environmental chemists suggest there are much more downsides to keep wearing outdoor shoes inside the house as there are a lot of harmful pathogens on the bottom of shoes. Well, you take your shoes off when you take a shower or go to bed anyway. So, why not put off your shoes when you come home?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about the potential risks of wearing outdoor shoes inside.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/11/world/shoes-home-contaminants-scn-partner/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3657-4/16/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

South Korea: Why so many struggle to sleep

Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which one has trouble falling and/or staying asleep. The condition can be short-term like one night to a few weeks or can last a long time. In South Korea, where people work for long hours because of their work culture and social pressures, there are many people who suffer from work stress and sleep deprivation. To get longer and better sleep, some people tend to depend on medication, alcohol, and/or sleeping aid goods while others try meditation or Buddhist retreats. Unfortunately, any of these might help the stressed workers sleep a little better but won’t solve the underlying problem. Indeed, how long should they work a day or a week?

Read the article and learn about why so many South Korea’s workers suffer from sleep deprivation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60703300

Topic Reading-Vol.3656-4/15/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Child care is expensive everywhere. But this country tops the list

Parents used to get the return on investment from making and raising children when very little or no education was mandated and children started helping households and earning money at their earlier ages. Until the middle of the last century, most children received just primary education and started helping the family or earning money. However, nowadays in developed countries, middle and even higher education has become the norm. Also, as more both parents are working, they need someone to take care of their children while they are at work. Indeed, raising children is becoming more and more expensive. Also, in Eastern Asian countries like China, South Korea, and Japan, private tutoring has become part of middle, and even primary education. Furthermore, unlike in the US where students use loans to pay their tuition, it is customary for parents to pay college tuition in these countries. All in all, raising children is getting too expensive for parents in Eastern Asia to the point where many couples now choose to have only one or no child. It’s a pity that childcare and education seem to have become too much a burden for many parents.

Enjoy reading the text and learning about what childcare and education mean to parents.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/09/economy/global-child-care-costs-us-china/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3655-4/14/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Why France's daily baguette is costing so much dough

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hasn’t shown a sign of settlement, more lives of Ukrainians are being lost. In the meantime, since both Ukraine and Russia are major producers and exporters of wheat and corn, imports of those agricultural products are declining in European countries, as well as gas and oil from Russia. As a result, the prices of those essential food products and energy are rising skyrocketing. For example, bread is made of wheat and baked with a gas or electronic oven. Imagine the cost of wheat and energy bills have risen multiple times and are rising even higher. Also, the labor costs are soaring as the cost-of-living increases. If you run a bakery, you are left with no choice but to raise the prices. But you’re selling baguettes and croissants, which are essential food in France, and your customers are also your neighbors. There is only so much you can do to keep baking bread.

Read the article and learn about some of the impacts caused by the Russian invasion.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61015290

Topic Reading-Vol.3654-4/13/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

US life expectancy continues historic decline with another drop in 2021, study finds

Half a century ago, life expectancy in the US was about 71 years. Five years were added in the next quarter-century to 76, and life expectancy could have reached 79 if the coronavirus pandemic hadn’t killed nearly one million Americans. As a result, life expectancy in the US declined about 2.4 years in the last two years to 76.6 years in 2021, about the same level as 25 years ago. It seems that the US dealt with the novel virus so badly, or the American people didn’t follow the restrictions or guidance so well. Whichever the case might have been, the US’s fall in life expectancy is larger than any other high-income country. Also, we should not forget that around 20,000 people were killed by guns violence in 2020 alone in the US.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about declining US life expectancy.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/07/health/us-life-expectancy-drops-again-2021/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3653-4/12/2022-10th Anniversary

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

How the next 'supercontinent' will form

The present continents are above-sea level tectonic plates, pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle. Major continental crusts are North American Plate, Eurasian Plate, African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, and South American Plate. Also, there are oceanic crusts like Pacific Plate, Philippine Sea Plate, and Arabian Plate. Tectonic plates are like leaves drifting across a pond. Though they change their positions continuously, humans haven’t and won’t notice those changes as they are moving much more slowly than human evolution and history. In fact, the present seven continents were once a supercontinent called Pangaea about 200 million years ago. It broke apart and spread out to form the continents we see now. Geologists say that we are about halfway through a disperse-assemble cycle so that these now-separate continents will become one supercontinent again in the next 200 million years. Dinosaurs appeared and disappeared before the last breakup of Pangaea. It is clearly unpredictable if our descendants will ever exist to live on the supercontinent. But it is certain that the existing continents and islands are shrinking at a recognizable speed because of the sea level rise.

Enjoy reading the 10^th-anniversary issue of Topic Reading to learn about what the next supercontinent might be like.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220401-how-the-next-supercontinent-will-form

Topic Reading-Vol.3652-4/11/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Satellite pollution is threatening to alter our view of the night sky

As covered in Vol.3651-4/10/2022, over 2,000 Starlink satellites by Space X are orbiting Earth. The company is launching 42,000 more to create its mega-constellation of broadband connections. Also, Amazon has recently inked a contract to launch more than 3,000 satellites to provide internet service across the globe. With other satellites that are already orbiting or soon to be deployed, there will be more than 50,000 manmade satellites around Earth. Sounds like the sky is going to be jammed by satellites. It is predicted that one in every 15 points of light in the night sky is going to be a moving satellite within a decade. While those satellites will provide internet access at any place on Earth, they will be a problem for astronomers as they interfere with the observation. Traffic jams, collisions, and light emissions are increasing in space. The earth is surely in the process of becoming more congested and polluted.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about this ongoing astronomical revolution.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/04/world/satellite-pollution-night-sky-view-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3651-4/10/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Amazon announces huge rocket deal to launch its satellite internet constellation

Project Kuiper is a space project by Amazon to deploy a large broadband satellite internet constellation. It plans to deploy over 3,000 satellites to provide internet connections around the world. This ambitious plan is expected to compete with Starlink by Elon Musk’s Space X, which has already deployed over 2,000 satellites. In order to put more than 3,000 satellites in space, Amazon chose three companies to launch 83 rockets, including Blue Origin, the company’s founder Jeff Bezos’s rocket company. Amazon plans to start launching a few test satellites to orbit next year and make at least 1,600 satellites in operation by 2026. It seems that the space around Earth will be much more congested than now with thousands of satellites and an enormous amount of data transmissions. Will the space be safe to travel to?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about the new phase of the internet connection.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/04/05/tech/amazon-satellite-internet-kuiper-launch-deal-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3650-4/9/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Islamophobia rises in France as presidential election nears

Islamophobia is a term used to describe irrational hostility, fear, or hatred of Islam, Muslims, and Islamic culture, and active discrimination against these groups or individuals within them. Typical examples of attitudes, behaviors, and practices include physical or verbal attacks on property, places of worship, and people, verbal or online threats of violence, and abuse, and discrimination in education, employment, housing, or access to goods and services. In France, whose population is just over 67 million, there are about 5.7 million French Muslims living across the country, the largest Muslim population in western Europe. Unfortunately, many of those French Muslims seem to feel unfairly treated. They claim that discrimination, racial violence, and reactionary politics against their community are common everywhere and to everyone. In a survey conducted on Muslim emigrants from France, around 70% of the respondents said discrimination and racism were the main reason for leaving France. Is there any place where there is no racial or religious bias? Can we be fair to minorities?

Enjoy reading the article and think how

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/3/france-election-muslims-islamophobia-macron

Topic Reading-Vol.3649-4/8/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Infographic: Ramadan greetings in 16 different languages

The world’s most popular religion is Christianity with almost 2.4 billion followers or about one-third of the world population. Secondly, there are nearly two billion Muslims or one in every four people around the world. Each of Indonesia, Pakistan, and India has over two hundred million Muslims. On April 2, this year’s Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. During the month, observing Muslims wake up before sunrise and refrain from eating, drinking, or smoking during the daytime to achieve greater consciousness of God. Since Muslims around the world speak different languages, there are different ways to greet Ramadan Kareem or Generous Ramadan. Also, there are sign language and braille versions of the greeting. Ramadan is indeed a holy month for Muslims around the world.

Enjoy reading the infographic to learn about this global religious event.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/1/infographic-ramadan-greetings-in-16-different-languages-interactive

Topic Reading-Vol.3648-4/7/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Blue Origin successfully completes fourth space tourism mission

Founded by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, Blue Origin is the first company that started offering regular suborbital space tourism flights. On the first flight, Bezos himself and his brother were both onboard the New Shepard, Blue Origin’s suborbital spacecraft. The company just completed its fourth space tour with five paid passengers last month. Another company, Virgin Galactic, which was founded by entrepreneur Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, is also selling tickets for suborbital spaceflights to space tourists at $450,000 per seat. Branson himself was on board the first flight with three other employees. Also, founded by super entrepreneur Elon Musk, Space X offers trips to orbit the earth. It became the first private company that sent human crew members to the International Space Station in 2020.

Now, space tourism seems to be within the reach of those who can afford it financially and physically.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about space tourism.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/31/tech/blue-origin-rocket-space-launch-thursday-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3647-4/6/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Pluto has giant ice volcanoes that could hint at the possibility of life

Pluto is a dwarf planet that orbits the sun at around 40 astronomical units, or AU, which means almost 40 times farther from the sun than Earth is, or 5.2 billion kilometers away from us. It takes nearly 250 years to orbit the sun. It is made of ice and rock and the surface temperature is minus 229 degrees Celsius. In order to survey this distant dwarf planet and that region of the solar system, NASA launched an interplanetary space probe called New Horizon in 2006. The probe successfully flew 12,500 kilometers above the surface of Pluto in July 2015. There, New Horizon recorded 6.25 gigabytes of information, but it took over a year to complete transmitting the data to earth because of the distance and weakness of the signal. Ever since started receiving the data, scientists have been analyzing it and recently announced a surprising discovery, ice volcanos. What could it possibly mean?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about the findings of the distant dwarf planet.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/29/world/pluto-ice-volcanoes-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3646-4/5/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Photos: The Bangladesh town offering new life to climate migrants

Bangladesh is a country in South Asia that shares borders with India and Myanmar and has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal. With a population of over 160 million just in 130 thousand square kilometers, it is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Unfortunately, the population density is expected to go even higher as the population has been and will be increasing steadily. Also, the Bengal region is losing habitable land space as the sea level rises and the number of floods increases because of global warming. In fact, nearly 20 million people are going to have to lose their jobs, land, and home and relocate somewhere by the middle of the century. Mongola, a riverside town about 50 kilometers inland from the Bay of Bengal, is one such place where people are moving in to start new lives. New infrastructures are being set to accommodate the increasing population and more factories are being built to provide jobs. However, the country is already too densely populated and transportation and housing infrastructures are far from sufficient. For example, many people are waiting in long lines just to catch a boat to cross the river to work. On the boat, they have to keep standing next to each other without social distancing.

Read the article and see the photos of people’s lives under global warming.

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/3/30/photos-bangladesh-town-offering-new-life-to-climate-migrants

Topic Reading-Vol.3645-4/4/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

23 delicious reasons to try Turkish food

Modern Turkey is a transcontinental country on Anatolia, a large peninsula also known as Asia Minor, in Western Asia. It also includes a small portion of the Balkans in Southeast Europe and shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea. You can tell how expansive Turkey’s geography is and how diverse the people and cultures of Turkey are. Furthermore, it has a very long history of exchanges and interactions of people, things, and traditions through the Silk Road, maritime trade, and invasions. Accordingly, Turkish food is very diverse. There are Asian pilaf and manti, Greek dolma, various kebabs, pizza, and meatballs only to name a few. Also, Turks love food. They prepare and enjoy food with care, dedication, and passion. Want to check what Turkish food is like?

Enjoy reading the article and seeing the images of the most popular Turkish dishes.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/best-turkish-foods/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3644-4/3/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Extraordinary Antarctica heatwave, 70 degrees above normal, would likely set a world record

Concordia Research Station is a French-Italian joint research facility that opened in 2005. It sits about 3,200 meters above sea level on the icy continent. It takes over a week to transport cargo to the station to drive 1,200 kilometers from the sea-side research center. It is one of the three permanent, all-year research stations in Antarctica. The climate around the research station is frigid all year round. Average high temperatures in the summer months (Dec-Jan) are around minus 25 degrees Celsius and average low temperatures in the dark period (Mar-Oct) are below minus 60 degrees. Indeed, it is regarded as the coldest place on Earth. On March 18, they measured the record high temperature at minus 11.5 degrees, about 0.7 degrees warmer than the previous record of the month. It was unusually high as the average high temperature in March is about minus 48 degrees. This gap is as large as Washington DC, whose high temperature of the day was 16 degrees 16, experiencing 55 degrees all of a sudden. Though the impact of this single event won’t affect much on the overall condition of the continent, it might be another terrifying sign of global warming.

Read the article and learn about what the coldest place on Earth is like.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/weather/antarctica-world-record-high-temperature-anomaly-climate/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3643-4/2/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Beatings and forced abortions: Life in a North Korea prison

Ever since the Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel in 1953, numbers of North Koreans defected or tried to defect to their southern counterpart. Each year, more than one thousand defectors, over 70% are female, succeed to reach South Korea. Hunger, oppression, and political violence to name a few for the cause of those defections. Many of those defectors cross the Chinese border into Jilin and Liaoning provinces in northeast China, go through the country secretly to the southern borders to reach Thailand to ask for defection. Those who are captured in China are treated as illegal economic migrants and sent back to North Korea. Once returned, they face harsh interrogations and years of punishment, or even death, in political prison camps or in reeducation camps. Even those who only try to watch foreign videos or access web content are also put into such facilities for a long time. What are those prisons like? According to one defector, she was forced to sit cross-legged with her hands on her knees as long as 12 hours a day. Can you imagine what it’s like to sit on the floor in the same pose all day? But that’s just part of their day.

Read the article and see the images and the video to learn about the inhumane conditions of North Korea’s prison.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60870739

Topic Reading-Vol.3642-4/1/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

What you need to know about black boxes?

The black boxes were recovered from the crash site of China Eastern Airlines MU5735 that fell and killed all 132 people on board on March 21. What is the black box in aviation? It is a flight recorder equipped in an aircraft to facilitate the investigation of an accident or incident. There are two types of devices, one is the flight data recorder that keeps flight information, such as altitude, airspeed, heading, and engine thrust. This provides the status of the aircraft for the last 25 hours. The other is the cockpit voice recorder, which records the sounds and voices in the cockpit for the last two hours. By analyzing the information from these recorders, investigators can identify the cause and situation of the accident or incident. Despite their nickname, the black boxes are painted bright orange to be recovered easily. These boxes are made to be waterproof, fireproof, shockproof, and heat and collision resistant to survive a crash. They are placed in the tail of the aircraft for higher survivability. Once retrieved, the data is decoded and analyzed, which could take days, weeks, or even months depending on the condition of the data. It is regretful that all aircraft need to be equipped with such a device but it seems necessary to identify the cause of an accident or incident for safer air travel.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about aircraft’s orange boxes which are called black boxes.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202203/25/WS623d7cf7a310fd2b29e535cc_1.html