Topic Reading-Vol.954-11/21/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Seals discovered having sex with penguins

A mammal tries to have sex with a bird? How can that be possible? Whatever the reason might be, such acts were witnessed and recorded several times by wildlife researchers.

Marion Island, a sub-Antarctic island, is home to fur seals and king penguin. Both species are in different biological class, mammals and birds. Therefore this seal’s act doesn’t seem to be an attempt to produce offspring. Then, is that for fun?

Enjoy reading the article and seeing this amazing video of the trans-class sexual practice.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141117-why-seals-have-sex-with-penguins

Topic Reading-Vol.953-11/20/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

The vanishing world of the coral triangle’s sea nomads

The higher the appetite for healthy seafood in China, the faster the depletion of sea resources seems to occur in the Coral Triangle in south-east Asia. It lies between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and is the richest area for marine species in the world.

There are people who live in and depend on this rich marine resource, the Bajau. They spend more time in the sea than on the land catching pearls, sea cucumbers and fish, which are highly demanded in China, particularly Hong Kong. But there’s always imbalance between the demand and supply. Mother Nature doesn’t seem to be providing as much sea treasures as humans demand. And those sea nomads who depend on their traditional lifestyle are also affected by the climate change and over-fishing with modern tools such as dynamite.

Enjoy reading and learning what’s happening underwater in south-east Asia.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141115-sea-nomads-of-the-coral-triangle

Topic Reading-Vol.952-11/19/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Thousands of high school students skip Colorado state tests

Most of the students in Asian countries don’t protest against mandated tests by the prefecture or ministry. Instead, they work hard to prepare for such tests either they are within or beyond the curriculum. However, some high school students in Colorado decided to boycott the newly introduced science and social study tests by the state saying those tests include things they’ve never learned before or at least recently.

It is quite an aggressive and decisive way to make their voices heard by high school students because skipping such exams could have negative impacts on their grades or academic record.

Weren’t there any opportunities to avoid such confusion between the department of education and teachers?

Enjoy reading and leaning about this recent dispute over a mandated test to high school students.

http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-high-school-students-skip-colorado-state-tests-231126434.html

Topic Reading-Vol.951-11/18/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Separated at birth, reunited on Facebook

Can you imagine receiving a friend request in Facebook from a person whose face looks exactly like you? How about meeting an unknown person whose DNA is exactly the same as yours for the first time?

That what happens to these Korean born identical twin sisters who had been adopted and raised in other sides of the globe for 25 years. Thanks to the modern social network and video sharing space, namely Facebook and YouTube, they came to know each other only recently. If no one had ever found and told the French-side of the twins that she was on YouTube, they wouldn’t have known that they had a twin sister.

Although they still live separately in the US and France, they are constantly connected via the Internet and unseperable.

Enjoy reading and learning this amazing encounter.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/12/living/separated-at-birth-reunited-on-facebook-parents/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Topic Reading-Vol.950-11/17/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Translation tech helps firms talk business round the world

As you know, large part of the Internet content is still written in English. However, as the number of smartphone users increases on the globe, languages used on the Internet are expected to diversify much faster than before. Then, how fast will such diversified content or messages be translated to other languages?

There are firms that translate languages to other languages employing as many as thousands of linguists. There are also software and applications to do the task though not as precisely as human specialists do. It seems that Machine Translation, or MT, helps human linguists do the job faster and more efficiently.

Enjoy reading and learning how translations are done in today’s busy world.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29985865

Topic Reading-Vol.949-11/16/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

World's tallest man meets world's shortest man

Any idea of the height of the tallest living person on earth? What about the shortest? Then, what about the gap between those two?

Here are the answers. 251cm for the tallest and 54.6 cm for the r. Thus, the gap between the two is nearly two meters! So what if they meet and shake hands? That’s what happened on the 10th annual Guinness World Records Day in London, which is intended to celebrate record-setting achievements around the world.

While many in the world try to be listed on the Guinness list, it seems that these honorably listed men have had uneasy lives because their unusual height.

Enjoy seeing the historical photos of these unusual men and think of what their lives have been like.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/13/living/tallest-shortest-man-guinness/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Topic Reading-Vol.948-11/15/2014

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

China, US unveil ambitious climate change goals

Indeed a breakthrough to one of the most serious and critical global challenges. Combined, China and the U.S. contribute 45% of the greenhouse gas emissions, 29% and 16% respectively. But they had never agreed or joined to the efforts to set and work for reduction targets of greenhouse gasses that EU and other countries have been working on under The United Nations Climate Change Conference.

At least, the agreement by the two largest greenhouse gasses contributors is a positive move towards the COP21 that will be held in Paris, France in 2015. However, is such a bilateral agreement without coordinating or consulting with others in the world an appropriate process? Are more global agenda going to be decided by the two giants? Will they be as influential as or even more influential than the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, or P5?

Enjoy reading and learning about this historic move by the two giants.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-11/12/content_18902550.htm