Topic Reading-Vol.4961-11/23/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

At least 67 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since ‘ceasefire’ began: UN

After two years of deadly and devastating war between Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and militant movement, a ceasefire agreement was brokered by the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey. The agreement went into effect on October 10, but it was so fragile that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s attacks since then, including no fewer than 67 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Also, as Israel continues restrictions on deliveries of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, tents, and food, many people in Gaza are untreated, unhoused, and starved. This is critical in the coming winter season, especially for vulnerable children who are shivering without blankets or shelter, let alone heating. A ceasefire agreement becomes effective not just upon signature but when it is monitored and implemented thoroughly.

Read the article and learn how devastating the situation of the people in Gaza is.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/21/at-least-67-palestinian-children-killed-in-gaza-since-ceasefire-began-un

Topic Reading-Vol.4960-11/22/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

US ends penny-making run after more than 230 years

The penny is a US coin representing one-hundredth of a dollar, or a cent. It has been produced since 1787 and has been the lowest currency for about two centuries. The most recent version of the penny is made of zinc, weighs 2.5 grams, and costs nearly four cents to produce. To save the production cost of $56 million annually, the US government has recently stopped producing the penny. Most of the estimated 300 billion pennies in circulation will end up falling out of use as businesses have already started rounding up or down prices. As electronic transactions have become the preferred payment method these days, this phase-out of this coin may not matter so much for most consumers. Also, New Zealand stopped producing its then-lowest-value coins in 2006, Canada did so in 2012, and the UK did so in 2024. It may not be so long before all coins, or even cash registers, disappear from stores or restaurants.

Read the article and learn about the end of the penny in the USA.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq8392vx8plo

Topic Reading-Vol.4959-11/21/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Affordability is in crisis. The solution: You’ll never own anything again

Unless you can afford to buy anything you need with cash, you ought to borrow money, including mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit cards. Because of the continuing inflation pressure, the American people owe more money for longer. For example, the auto industry now offers seven-year car loans, in addition to typical three-year or five-year loans. Also, the Trump administration recently proposed a 50-year mortgage to lower the monthly payment. Indeed, the longer you borrow money, the lower the amount you pay monthly will be. However, you’ll bear greater interest payments in total. For example, if you buy a $400,000 house at an annual interest rate of 5%, your monthly mortgage payment would be $2,147 with a typical 30-year term, but it’ll be $1,749 if you pay in 50 years. It looks rosy up front, but the borrower will pay $650,000 just for the interest, $276,000 more than a 30-year mortgage. Also, you are likely to keep paying the mortgage after retirement.

Recently, credit card debt rose nearly 6% from last year, and the rate of those who entered serious delinquency exceeded 3% in the US. Those who cannot bear any higher monthly payment tend to choose longer-term loans or use “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL), which simply increases their debts. Why do you buy things or services you cannot afford?

Read the article and learn how consumer debts are increasing in the USA.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/economy/affordability-crisis-mortgage-debt-bnpl

Topic Reading-Vol.4958-11/20/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

'It sounded kind of crazy': How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time

GPS satellites orbit at an altitude of approximately 20,000 km above the Earth’s surface. Below them, there is a layer of atmosphere that extends from about 80 to 1,000 km above the Earth’s surface, called the ionosphere, which contains ions and free electrons. When a significant shock wave occurs caused by a mega earthquake, volcanic eruption, rocket launch, or underground nuclear weapon test, it displaces a large amount of air, sending low-frequency sound and gravity waves upward into the atmosphere. This interacts with the particles in the ionosphere and causes slight distortions in the radio signals transmitted from GPS satellites to ground stations. Such distortions were recorded by the 2011 massive earthquake in Japan and the 2022 volcanic eruption in Tonga. NASA’s real-time disaster information and alert system, GUARDIAN, analyzes such distortions, identifies the causes, and then issues an alert accordingly. Along with the DART tsunami detection system that uses buoys moored to the ocean floor, NASA’s GUARDIAN could warn people in coastal communities of a tsunami before its arrival.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251111-how-nasa-spotted-a-tsunami-in-real-time

Topic Reading-Vol.4957-11/19/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

US nuclear weapons testing can forever scar a nation. Just ask the Marshall Islands

Humans learned to produce, deliver, and detonate nuclear weapons, but keep ignoring the long-term consequences and effects of them. It takes over 24,000 years, longer than civilized human history, for half of the atoms in radioactive plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotope used for nuclear weapons, to decay into a different element. Yet, the US exploded 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean between 1946 and 1958, which caused immediate health issues like skin burns, hair loss, nausea, and also led to a range of long-term effects, including increased rates of cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects, including severely deformed babies who were scarcely recognized as human beings. It made the beautiful tropical islands uninhabitable. In addition, nuclear fallout from those explosions was scattered by winds and was detected as far as Sri Lanka and Mexico. The US also conducted 100 atmospheric tests between 1951 and 1962, and hundreds of underground tests until 1992. In the same year when France and China conducted their last nuclear tests, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was created in 1996 and signed by major nuclear powers like the US, Russia, and China, but has not been ratified by the respective states yet. In the meantime, countries that didn’t sign the treaty, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, conducted two nuclear tests respectively.

Eight decades ago, over 200,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US atomic bombs. The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recently, US President Trump, who is openly eager to be awarded the prize, talked about the possibility of nuclear weapons testing, and Japanese PM Takaichi said she will nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. What do people of the Marshall Islands and Japan think?

Read the article and learn what the immediate and lasting effects of nuclear bombs from the Marshall Islands are.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/asia/nuclear-testing-marshall-islands-legacy-intl-hnk-dst

Topic Reading-Vol.4956-11/18/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Amazon lakes became ‘simmering basins’ as temperatures spiked to 105 degrees

During the heat wave and drought in September and October 2023, many Amazon lakes shrank substantially; some shrank by over 75%. Because of the low lake levels, river water became murky and absorbed the sun’s energy. Along with the intense sunlight and low winds, the temperatures of many lakes in the Amazon became extremely hot, above 37 degrees Celsius, and one of them recorded over 40 degrees, 10 degrees hotter than usual and even hotter than hot tubs. Furthermore, the heat was not recorded just on the surface but was also underwater. As a result, a lot of river fish and dolphins died, which also affected the lives of river communities. Indeed, when aquatic ecosystems are disrupted in the Amazon, the lives in and around the river are also severely affected. Another evidence of global warming. What will the ongoing COP 30 Amazonia, the UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, decide to do? 

Read the article and learn about how hot Amazon lakes were in the last two years.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/06/climate/amazon-lakes-heatwave-hot-tub-dolphin-death

Topic Reading-Vol.4955-11/17/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

How Russia’s drone attacks have reshaped the war in Ukraine: An illustrated guide

A little over a century ago, World War I saw widespread use of new technologies like poison gas, tanks, submarines, and airplanes, which dramatically changed warfare. A few decades later, in World War II, radar, aircraft carriers, and the atomic bomb appeared. In the following decades during the Cold War, nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, jet aircraft, nuclear-powered warships, and satellites were introduced, followed by GPS, guided missiles, countermissile systems, and stealth aircraft in and after the Persian War. Then the world has witnessed an extensive use of attack and reconnaissance drones since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These unmanned, remotely controlled or autonomous vehicles have significantly lowered the cost and casualty of war, both for attacks and counter-attacks. For example, an autonomous attack drone can be produced at just a few thousand dollars while a Patriot interceptor missile costs over three million dollars. Russia has been launching hundreds of such drones per night to attack Ukraine’s military, infrastructure, and town buildings, which obliterate civilian morale. As technologies and counter technologies are advancing rapidly and becoming less costly in warfare, the world is soon likely to see AI-operated unmanned aerial vehicles flying in war zones. Then, when will we see laser weapons and attack robots in war like in scientific movies?

Read the article and learn how drones are being used in the war in Ukraine.

https://edition.cnn.com/world/russia-drone-attacks-ukraine-war-intl-vis

Topic Reading-Vol.4954-11/16/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

‘Vibe coding’ named Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year

Collins English Dictionary chooses a Word of the Year from a shortlist of notable words or those that have come to prominence in the last 12 months. It chose “lock down” in 2020, “NFT” (Non-fungible Token) in 2021, “permacrisis”, a situation with constant and significant instability, in 2022, “AI” in 2023, “brat”, someone characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude, in 2024, and “vibe coding” this year. It is an artificial intelligence-assisted software development technique that uses AI to generate code from natural language prompts, allowing users to describe what they want in plain language and have the AI handle the technical implementation. Sounds familiar? It reflects how natural language is fundamentally changing our interaction with computers. Other words on this year’s shortlists are “broligarchy”, a small clique of super-rich with political influence, “taskmasking”, the act of giving a false impression that one is being productive in the workplace, “micro-retirement”, a break taken before the next employment or job to pursue personal interests, and “coolcation”, a holiday in a cool climate.

Read the article and learn about what words have become notable this year.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/06/tech/vibe-coding-collins-word-year-scli-intl

Topic Reading-Vol.4953-11/15/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The story behind the scramble for Greenland's rare earths

Greenland is the world’s largest island, larger than France, Germany, Spain, UK, and Italy combined, and about three times larger than Texas. The northern, ice-covered island is an autonomous territory in Denmark and is inhabited by about 57,000 dwellers. Greenland’s main economy is fishing, but the tourism industry is growing as a new airport opened in Nuuk last year, and two more airports are due to open next year. Greenland is also abundant in untapped natural resources, such as lithium, iron ore, gold, and also rare earth elements, which are vital for many essential modern technologies, including smartphones, TV screens, EVs, and even fighter jets. More than 60% of such rare earth elements are mined in China, most of which is processed there. The melting ice sheet has made previously inaccessible deposits of these crucial resources exploitable, and that is why Greenland has become a hot spot in mining projects and territorial disputes caused by the US. However, it is no easy task to build infrastructure for mining, transportation, and shipment in the icy, remote territory in accordance with environmental regulations.

Read the article and learn what is hot in the icy Greenland.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20251104-the-story-behind-the-scramble-for-greenlands-rare-earths

 

Topic Reading-Vol.4952-11/14/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Should you always treat a fever? The symptom that puzzled doctors for millennia

People used to think fever itself was a disease and needed to be treated. But we now know that we get fevers when our bodies are fighting off infections from viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Also, we get fevers as a sign of serious illnesses, such as scarlet fever, dengue fever, or yellow fever. A fever, a body temperature above 38 degrees, is part of our bodies’ innate response to infection or illness because a higher body temperature makes it harder for bacteria and viruses to survive and helps the immune system work more effectively. However, a rapid rise in core body temperature in reaction to certain medications or heat illness can be dangerous and harmful to our internal systems. Also, persistent high temperatures could lead to dehydration. Since a fever itself isn’t a disease but a sign of infection, an immune system response, or a symptom of other conditions, the cause of the fever needs to be identified and treated. A fever tells you something is wrong with your body.

Read the article and learn what fever does to our bodies.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251022-why-do-we-get-fevers-and-should-you-always-treat-them

Topic Reading-Vol.4951-11/13/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Xania Monet is the first AI-powered artist to debut on a Billboard airplay chart, but she likely won’t be the last 

Billboard is an American weekly music magazine. It publishes music charts that rank the popularity of songs and albums across different genres, including The Billboard Hot 100. Its rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the USA. According to the publisher, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings in the past few months, and an AI singer called Xania Monet is the first known AI artist on a Billboard radio chart. She was designed by a poet who writes the lyrics and sings them with help from a generative AI music creation program. She signed a multimillion-dollar deal with a music company and released an album and a seven-track EP this summer. Those who have listened to her singing might not have realized she is an AI-powered singer. Indeed, with anonymous and mysterious origins, who or how much is powered by AI is becoming hard to tell.

Read the article and learn about the new AI singer who is on a Billboard chart. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/01/entertainment/xania-monet-billboard-ai

Topic Reading-Vol.4950-11/12/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Saudi Arabia is making a massive bet on becoming a global AI powerhouse

Saudi Vision 2030 is Saudi Arabia’s ambitious, strategic framework launched in 2016 to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil, develop public service sectors, and create a vibrant society, including a regenerative tourism megaproject called Red Sea Destination and a massive entertainment, sports, and tourism project, Qiddiya. The kingdom also established an artificial intelligence company, Humain, earlier this year. It aims to develop and manage cutting-edge AI technologies and infrastructure, including next-generation data centers and AI infrastructure by taking advantage of the kingdom’s abundant and cheap energy resources. Also, Humain plans to develop advanced AI models, solutions, and multimodal Arabic large language models (LLM). In fact, the company is built and operated mostly by AI systems internally to run most parts of its functions, including HR, finance, legal, IT, and operations. Since Humain is built exclusively on AI infrastructure and operation and targeting the Arabic world, it might have a competitive edge at least in the picture.

Read the article and learn about Saudi Arabia’s ambitious AI initiative and investment.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/02/tech/saudi-arabia-ai-powerhouse

Topic Reading-Vol.4949-11/11/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Egypt's Grand Museum opens, displaying Tutankhamun tomb in full for first time

About a 40-minute drive from the Cairo International Airport, Giza is an Egyptian city on the west bank of the Nile, near Cairo. It is famous for the pyramid complex and the sphinx, attracting over 14 million visitors annually. Only two kilometers from the pyramids, the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) officially and fully opened to visitors on November 1. GEM is the world’s largest and newest archaeological museum with 100,000 artefacts from seven millennia, covering from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras, 20,000 of which had never been displayed in public, including King Ttankhamun's collections. GEM is a modern tourist attraction to enjoy ancient Egypt!

Read the article and learn what the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum is like.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4q403rpzo

Topic Reading-Vol.4948-11/10/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

World will overshoot 1.5 degree climate goal, UN says

According to the UN Environment Program, the world is going to miss the climate change target to limit the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This means the world needs to work even harder and faster to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the impact of climate change. However, with the current emission reduction target set by governments, the average temperature is predicted to rise 2.3 to 2.5 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial level. This would put more than twice as many people exposed to extreme heat as with the 1.5 degrees target. Actually, with current policies set by governments, the temperatures will rise by up to 2.8 degrees, well beyond the target. Now, the 2025 UN climate summit (COP30) starts today until the 21st in Belém, Brazil. It aims for a swifter transition to renewable energy sources, greater use of natural climate solutions, and more investment from both the public and private sectors, especially to help those countries most affected by climate change. However, the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, the USA, isn’t sending any high-level federal officials to the climate summit. Instead, it’s drilling more to extract oil and gas to burn. Which country will take the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

Read the article and learn how much the world has already warmed and will warm within a decade.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/climate/climate-target-overshoot-united-nations-global-temperature

Topic Reading-Vol.4947-11/9/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Planes, prayers, and a golden Buddha: Inside Cambodia’s $2 billion-dollar airport gamble

Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1992, Angkor Wat is a massive, 12th-century temple complex in Cambodia. Before the Pandemic, nearly three million people visited the magnificent ruin. The nearest airport was the 90-year-old Siem Reap International Airport, only 8 km from downtown Siem Reap, the gateway to the ruins of Angkor, but in 2023, it was replaced by Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport, located nearly 50 km east of the city center. Last year, just over a million international tourists bought tickets to the monument.

The capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, used to be served by conveniently located Pochentong International Airport, only 9 km from the city center. It was replaced by the newly built Techo International Airport in September this year. It is located a little over 20 km south of the capital. A massive nine-ton bronze Buddha statue sits in the departure area of the airport to convey peace and happiness to departing travelers. Both airports are expected to play key roles in Cambodia’s Sacred Tourism 2025-2035 to develop wellness, agricultural, and community tourism. The government hopes the modern airports will help draw more travelers to Cambodia. However, increased caution is advised for visitors due to safety concerns and border conflict with Thailand. How will the new airports help Cambodia’s tourism?

Read the article and learn about the newly opened airport in Phnom Penh.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/cambodia-techo-airport-phnom-penh-intl-hnk

Topic Reading-Vol.4946-11/8/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Design graduates 'competing' against AI for jobs

Three years ago when ChatGPT was released, most of us didn’t expect that AI would become as creative and productive as it is now. Only a few years later, AI can assist graphic designers by automating repetitive tasks like image resizing and background removal, generating creative assets such as logos, layouts, and characters, enhancing existing designs by improving image quality and suggesting color palettes, and even accomplishing whole creative tasks. This not only allows designers to be more efficient and focus on higher-level creative work but also reduces the need for graphic designers. It is predicted that graphic design jobs will be one of the fastest declining roles by 2030 because of AI. However, this is nothing new since graphic design has gone through technological change from letterpress to phototypesetting to desktop publishing, and now to Generative AI, and designers have adopted new technologies and upskilled to work with them. The question is whether design schools are teaching the necessary skills to work with AI. Also, design students, design job seekers, and designers need to have a positive and adaptable mindset to work with AI. After all, it is a new era that requires new skills and mindsets.

Read the article and learn how AI is affecting designers’ jobs.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9rv4p8pejo

Topic Reading-Vol.4945-11/7/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why the 5G symbol on your phone doesn't mean you have 5G

When you see the top of your smartphone, you’ll find the network provider and an icon of 4G or 5G in most civilized areas. 4G and 5G are both generations of mobile network technology, with 5G being the fifth and most advanced. While 4G is the fourth generation, capable of downloading or streaming videos and games at around 100 Mbps (megabits-per-second) speed, the fifth generation 5G offers significantly higher speeds, much lower latency (delay), and greater capacity, making it better for demanding applications like virtual reality at 1 Gbps or faster speed. But do you actually find the streaming speed or game’s responses faster when a 5G icon appears instead of 4G? In fact, the icon on your smartphone means that you’re in a 5G-enabled area, but not necessarily mean that your phone is connected to 5G. In fact, the network dynamically and seamlessly steers users to the best connection, either 4G or 5G, based on the real-time factors like signal strength. Unless you’re paying extra for 5G services, it won’t matter so much as you can still enjoy videos and games with 4G services. Rather, for ordinary users, the network capacity and busyness of the signal area seem to affect more to your phones.

Read the article and learn what the network icon on your smartphone means, and what you actually get.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crexqyj7n5lo

Topic Reading-Vol.4944-11/6/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

South Korea's fishermen keep dying. Is climate change to blame?

The fishing industry was once a significant part of South Korea’s economy, but it has been declining in recent years. The number of people employed in the industry declined to 114,000 in 2020 from 144,000 in 2015, and almost half of the workforce is now over 65 years old. The industry is then employing inexpensive migrant workers who are willing to work under harsh work conditions. However, they aren’t always given sufficient safety training, and their language barriers with other South Korean crew members could pose dangers when things go wrong at sea. In fact, as sea temperatures around the peninsula are increasing more rapidly than the global average, total fish catches in South Korea have been declining, forcing South Korean fishermen to sail farther out to search for fish. However, South Korean fishermen are facing strong and sudden wind gusts more often at sea, most likely caused by the rising sea temperatures. They are making longer travel and incurring higher fuel costs at rougher seas to catch a little more fish with untrained foreign labor. The prospect for South Korea’s fishermen seems quite gloomy.

Read the article and learn about the challenges South Korea’s fishermen are facing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg924nrgd3o

Topic Reading-Vol.4943-11/5/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Dazzling Liuyang fireworks festival sets night sky aglow

Liuyang is an inland city in Hunan Province, about 1,000 km from Shanghai. The city has always been the center of fireworks production and innovation in China for the last 14 centuries. Liuyang’s fireworks enterprises have been a prominent feature in major celebrations, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 Qatar World Cup. On October 24, the 17th Liuyang Fireworks Festival was held to ward off evil spirits, compete and promote their fireworks, and entice spectators. The show seamlessly blended traditional fireworks with drones, multimedia, and interactive technology, all of which are among China’s prime industries. The show’s highlight was a breathtaking display centered on a 160-meter-tall light tower. The director of the event cited that the show was meant to be a convergence of cultural memory, using fireworks to evoke emotion and connect audiences with shared dreams, and indeed, it was.

See the photos and videos about one of the world’s most immersive fireworks and light shows.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202510/25/WS68fca5baa310f735438b6eec_1.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4942-11/4/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, Exciting results from blood test for 50 cancers

There are over 200 types of cancer. They are classified based on the location in the body where the cancer begins and the type of tissue where it starts, such as in skin, bone, or blood cells. Early detection is essential for better and effective treatment and curing cancer. Usually, cancer is diagnosed through a combination of methods, including physical exams, laboratory tests, and imaging tests like X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. Launched in 2021, Galleri is a multi-cancer early detection test that analyzes blood for cancer signals, identifies methylation patterns, and predicts the most likely tissue or organ where the cancer may have originated. This will help the doctor decide if or which diagnosis should be taken for the patient. Since many cancers are often found when they have already advanced, an early detection tool like Galleri might increase the chance of a less burdensome cure and survival. Just a blood test to detect the early signs of 50 cancers!

Read the article and learn about a blood test that could detect 50 cancers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c205g21n1zzo

Topic Reading-Vol.4941-11/3/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Is it better to shower in the morning or at night?

Do you take a shower before going to bed or after getting out of bed? It may depend on the activities you did during the day and the environment you spent the day in. If you exercised or got sweaty during the day, you want to wash out the sweat and make your body clean. In the meantime, you may want to be refreshed by taking a morning shower to start the day. Both make sense. You take a shower after a day because you do not want to bring bacteria or dirt into your bed. Another advantage of taking a shower before you go to bed is that it seems to help you fall asleep smoothly. You also want to remove the sweat and microbes picked up while you were sleeping before you wear your clothes. Whichever the choice might be, one thing you want to remember is the bed linen. If you clean your body daily, either before or after your bedtime, but you don’t wash your bed sheets for over a week, you’ll be sleeping in accumulated sweat, bacteria, and microbes. What about pajamas?

Read the article and think about when you want to clean your body and how frequently you should wash your bedsheets.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250919-is-it-better-to-shower-in-the-morning-or-at-night

Topic Reading-Vol.4940-11/2/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

What's the best way to detect and destroy drones?

Drones have fundamentally transformed the war in Ukraine, becoming a dominant force in modern warfare across the air, land, and sea. Inexpensive to produce, easy to operate, and small to detect, drones are widely used for reconnaissance, strikes, and electronic warfare. Since it is too costly and ineffective to shoot down cheap drones with multi-million dollar missiles, drone-targeted detection and defense systems have been developed. Since drones can be produced with plastic, fabrics, or even cardboard and are often very small and quiet, a combination of technologies is being used to detect them, including specialized radar, acoustic sensors, radio frequency (RF) analyzers, and optical/thermal cameras. Once detected, the protective system tries to break the communication between the drone and its operator by emitting a powerful radio signal and then pushes the drone away. But there are drones controlled by fiber optic cables, preprogrammed, or autonomous, which don’t rely on radio signals. Drone technologies and their counter technologies are being developed rapidly for the frontlines and civilian defence.

Read the article and learn about counter technologies for aggressive drones.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy40yjz10ydo

Topic Reading-Vol.4939-11/1/2025

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

How daylight saving time affects our health

Often known as summer time, daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks during the summer months. DST is observed in most of Europe, Canada, the USA, and Egypt in the Northern Hemisphere, and Chile, New Zealand, and some parts of Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. Last Sunday, most European countries ended their daylight saving time, and Canada and the USA will end theirs on this coming Sunday, November 2. DST started in some countries over a century ago during World War I to conserve energy by allowing people to extend their use of natural light. However, this artificial time change seems to disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, which can lead to sleep deprivation, decreased sleep quality, and negative effects on mood, metabolism, and cardiovascular health, especially during the spring forward transition, causing immediate sleep loss and increasing the risk of health problems like heart attacks, strokes, and accidents. It is quite surprising to find such profound effects of starting a day just an hour earlier or later on our physical and mental health. If an hour is too much, can’t we adjust the time a little by little each day by using our smartphones instead of manually changing clocks for an hour a day, like people did a century ago?

Read the article and learn the impacts of daylight saving time.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251024-how-daylight-saving-time-affects-our-health