Topic Reading-Vol.636-1/7/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

13 comfort foods to boost weight loss

Two weeks after Christmas and a week after New Year’s Day, it may be time for you to rethink about your diet.

Vigorous exercise of course burns calories and fight fat and strict diet surely reduces calorie intake.

The question is how long can you endure such challenges? Also, it’s unhealthy simply to cut or reduce meals because it could unbalance the nutrition and unwise to sacrifice the satisfaction of tasting and filling your stomach because it is important for your mental health.

Are there any foods or dishes that provide both satisfaction and nutrition?

Enjoy reading and learning how to overcome these contrary challenges.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/26/health/gallery/comfort-foods-fat/index.html?hpt=hp_c5

Topic Reading-Vol.635-1/6/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

McDonald's on employee resources site: Not lovin' it

It seems convenient for a large corporation or organization like McDonald’s or Walmart to have an outside vendor operate an internal resource information services like website or newsletter to their hundreds of thousands of employees. However, it could create unthinkable, out-of-touch or lack-of-commonsense communication that wouldn’t have been done if its own employees had been doing the job themselves.

Would you dare to encourage your employees to take second jobs to compensate the low wage or not to eat foods from their own menu but to choose healthier foods from your competitors?

Enjoy reading and learning how generally-acceptable communication could fool a particular group of people.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/25/living/mcdonalds-employee-site/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Topic Reading-Vol.634-1/5/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Aircraft safety: Should planes have parachutes?

About one-tenth of small aircraft is equipped with a parachute that reduces the descending speed to just slow enough to land safely when it’s falling out of control.

That sounds like a rational idea, doesn’t it? Then why the rest of the small aircraft don’t have such a safety mechanism? What about large commercial airliners that carry hundreds of passengers?

There seems to be economical justification or motivation needed for aircraft manufactures, airlines or even governments to make such a costly and radical move because it requires huge, bulky and costly parachutes to work with such huge aircraft as well as large scale redesigning and manufacturing of the aircraft.

Enjoy reading and learning about this could-be-lifesaving safety device.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131223-should-planes-have-parachutes

Topic Reading-Vol.633-1/4/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

How do you design a building when your client is God?

Architects, like other professions, are required to realize what their clients want or achieve. For example, the newly opened 104-story One World Trade Center, or 1 WTC, is the primary building of the new World Trade Center complex in New York City and is the tallest building in the United States is part of an effort to memorialize and rebuild following the destruction of the original World Trade Center complex during the attacks of September 11, 2001. Another example is ancient Egyptian pyramids which were not only to rest the dead kings for the next world but also to show how great, wealthy and authoritative the rulers were to their people and perhaps to their enemies.

So what about religious buildings? There are numbers of historical, traditional and inspirational architectures around the world. They are expected to bridge not only the prayers’ spirits to their gods or prophets but also the people and their communities.

Enjoy reading the article and the photos of unique contemporary religious architectures.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/23/world/how-do-you-design-a-building/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Topic Reading-Vol.632-1/3/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Gaia space telescope's billion pixel camera to map Milky Way.

How many stars can we see in the night sky? How many stars are there in the universe?

Astronomers believe there are no fewer than 100 billion just in our galaxy, which is just a fraction of the Milky Way.

The Gaia space telescope equipped with a billion-pixel camera was launched into space by European Space Agency (ESA). The telescope is expected to help measure distances to those billions stars in order to build a three-dimensional picture of our galaxy. It is also expected to find more exoplanets on top of already-identified 167 of them.

As the estimated cost for this five-year project is a billion dollars, does it mean they are going to spend $1 or less to map a star?

Enjoy reading and leaning about this bold mission.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/18/world/europe/gaia-space-telescope/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Topic Reading-Vol.631-1/2/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

EU citizenship for sale -- for $880,000.

Whoever, no matter where he or she lives or what he or she does, may apply for a citizenship of one of the EU states, provided that the person is wealthy enough to afford €650,000.

What are the benefits or privilege to obtain such a pricy passport? Two most likely answers seem to be the freedom to travel without visa to over 160 countries around the world and the right to live anywhere in the 27 EU membership countries and get a job there.

This highly controversial law was legalized by a tiny island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, Malta, where only a little over 400,000 residents live in. The island country is no exception of recession in the southern European nations like Greece and Italy and is seeking investors and buyers of its assets. And its passport, which is more valuable in other countries than in the issuer, seems to be the best property they could offer to cash rich foreigners.

Enjoy reading and learning what selling-a-passport business is like.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/21/world/europe/malta-citizenship-program/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Topic Reading-Vol.630-1/1/2014

Happy new year to MEL School’s Topic Readers!

Here is this year's first topic reading for you.

How to Sell Your House to Chinese Buyers.

While diplomatic and military tensions in the Western Pacific waters are rising between the two superpowers, property businesses between them is heating up on American soil. The cash rich Chinese are now looking for real estates in America and the property owners in America want to sell their properties to those emerging buyers to the market.

One thing needs to be understood is that they are buying the properties mainly for investment. Therefore, there seem to be preferred markets, locations and properties on their shopping list. Also, they seem to be long-term and serious investors and study hard before inspecting their interested properties.

To close a deal with such buyers, there are some tips the seller’s side should know, including lucky and unlucky numbers and feng shui.

Enjoy reading and learning about how to work with property investors from China.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/sell-house-chinese-buyers-203205902--abc-news-topstories.html