Topic Reading-Vol.2829-1/9/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

These Indiana twins were born just 30 minutes apart, but in different decades

Twins were born in different decades. Can you solve this riddle?

If one of the twins is born before midnight and the other is born after the clock strikes 12, they have different birthdays. Likewise, if one comes out on a New Year’s Eve and the other does after New Year’s crackers are fired, they have birthdays in different years. When such birth occurred before and after a new decade, the twins have birthdays in different decades. This is what happened in a small town in Indiana, USA. A baby girl was born at 11:37 pm on New Year’s Eve 2019 and her twin brother came out half an hour later. It was already the year 2020.

If such cross-midnight birth occurs, there may be twins born in different centuries and even millenniums.

The family are going to have to stay up late on New Year’s Eve each year to celebrate the twins’ birthdays.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about this rare twins’ birth.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/04/us/indiana-newborn-twins-different-decades-trnd/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2828-1/8/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The truth about the US’s most iconic food

The hot dog/hotdog is a grilled or steamed wiener or frankfurter sausage sandwiched by a sliced bun. Hotdogs are one of the most popular American foods and often eaten in stadiums, barbecue parties, amusement parks, cafeterias, and also on the street.

This iconic American sandwich was invented by a German immigrant Feltman back in 1867 in Coney Island, New York. He came up with an idea to sandwich his frankfurters with a bun so that beachgoers could eat his sausages at the beach more easily. His business expanded from a hotdog stand to restaurants and an amusement park, and at its peak, Feltman’s businesses sold 40,000 hotdogs a day.

Half a century later, a former employee of Feltman, Nathan started its business on the same island and sold his frankfurters at half the price. A century later, his hotdogs are sold over 55,000 supermarkets and restaurants in more than 10 countries. You may recall Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest that takes place on July 4 each year, nearly a 50-year-old event.

Whether you like hotdogs or not, here is an article about how a simple recipe could become a nation’s iconic food. How do you usually eat your hotdog, with ketchup, mustard, and/or onion?

Enjoy reading the article and learn about entrepreneurship in hotdog business.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190702-the-truth-about-the-us-most-iconic-food

Topic Reading-Vol.2827-1/7/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Democracy has taken a detour this century. Can it get back on track?

What is democracy? It literally means rule by the people, derived from Greek “Demos” (people) and “Kratos” (rule). The term was first used in the middle of the 5th century BCE to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states like Athens. Today, it is defined as a system of government by the eligible members of a community or state themselves or through elected representatives.

In the 20^th century, democracy became popular in many states as a result of wars, revolutions, decolonization, and economic circumstances. The most significant example is India, the largest democratic state with over 800 million eligible voters. In the meantime, moves to abuse or reverse democratization also occurred from time to time, like in the 1920s, 1930s, 1960s, 1970s, and in the 2010s when elected leaders or parties autocratize the nation. Hitler’s Nazi was one of the most radical examples of democracy-turned-autocracy. Recently, such regression of democracy or transformation to autocracy has been seen in Russia, Turkey, and India only to name a few. Another setback of democracy has also been seen in once regarded the most democratic nations like the UK and the US, where people’s interests and opinions are distinctly polarized like in Brexit and Trump’s impeachment trial cases.

According to the Varieties of Democracies Institute (V-Dem), over a third, or 2.3 billion suffer from such regression of democracy in 2018 compared with just over 400 million people in 2016. What happened in 2016? Someone was elected in the US, or Americans chose someone who changed the view of democracy. Is democracy now becoming a system to create or justify autocracy?

Enjoy reading the article and think which area you will see more radical changes a decade from now, in technology or politics.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/28/world/democracy-21st-century-analysis-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2826-1/6/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Will 2020 break the curse of the folding phone?

Which type of smartphone do you prefer, one that can be folded to carry easily or one that can be unfolded to double the screen size? Whichever the type is, the screen needs to be flexible and durable for daily use. The stress the folding part gets, especially the screen, is very severe as it could be opened and closed dozens of times each day. Today’s technology is nearly there to provide such durability but not yet at a marketable or affordable level. Some manufacturers launched folding phones last year, but the deliveries were delayed. One manufacturer says that their model can be folded over 100,000 times, which means you could fold it nearly 100 times a day for three years. But will it hold any residual value after three years? Also, folding phones still cost staggering prices, around or over $2,000. You could buy two or three iPhones at the price that usually keep a reasonable resell value after two years.

The question is whether the functions or style that people value more for their smartphones? Well, if you add two more zeros to smartphone prices, you can compare them with new cars. A conventional passenger vehicle costs around $20,000 to $40,000, a luxury sedan or SUV costs $50,000 to $120,000, and a super sports car may carry a $200,000 or higher price tag.

Since no more camera lenses are needed to already-loaded today’s smartphones, folding phones may be one of the hottest gadgets this year.

Enjoy reading the article and think about how much you’d spend on your next smartphone and which type.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50891446

Topic Reading-Vol.2825-1/5/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Japan's birth rate hits another record low in 2019

In Japan, a few years after WWII ended, over 2.5 million babies were born each year. The period is called the first baby boom. Decades later, that newborn generation produced a great number of offspring, as many as two million a year for a few years. It was called the second baby boom. However, those second baby boomers weren’t so enthusiastic about producing a new generation. The number of Japan’s newborn babies has been in consistent decline for the last 45 years due to the declining fertility rate. As the rate settled around 1.4 children per woman, the number of newborn babies went below one million mark in 2016 for the first time and dropping rapidly since then. About 979,000 babies were born in 2016, 946,000 in 2017, 912,000 in 2018, and in 2019, there were only 864,000 in 2019, a staggering five percent drop from the previous year!

In the meantime, over 1.3 million people died last year alone in the fast aging country. As a result, Japan lost over a half million population from the total of around 124 million. Since fewer babies are born from fewer mothers, people are living longer than any other country, and more people are dying of old age, Japan’s population is estimated to decline to below 100 million mark before 2015 and aging fast. This means that younger generations are going to have to support the elderly population for taxes, healthcare, pensions, and daily lives.

Who could have imagined that once rising Asia’s superstar nation is facing such a drastic population loss? Will the relatively isolated nation from foreign immigrants maintain its economy and workforce to sustain social infrastructures and welfare? Will they open the doors to welcome young immigrants?       In rural areas, over 20% of the houses are unoccupied. There surely are rooms for more people and will be more.

Enjoy reading the article and watching the video and learn how serious Japan’s population decline is and will be.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/25/asia/japan-birthrate-hnk-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2823-1/4/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Kung Fu Nuns in Nepal boost their health in the fight for women's rights

One can sit in a Zen temple and learn meditation for their soul, sit in church and learn to feel compassion for others, and sit in a classroom and receive education to help each other. But how can they learn to put meditation, compassion, or education into action? Knowing is one thing but doing is quite another. Look at politicians, priests, bureaucrats. Most of them are well educated and informed, many of them a well-paid, and some of them are well disciplined. But not so many of them go out of their nestles and try to help others with their hands.

Nuns of the Drukpa Order nunnery in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, practice Kung Fu. 800 nuns, aged from eight to eighty, undergo vigorous daily mental and physical practices starting at 3:00 am, including meditation, bicycle riding, jogging, running stairs up and down, and kung fu training with swords, sticks, and flags. With these ordeals, they are spiritually, mentally, and physically trained and disciplined not only for themselves but more importantly for others in a place where women have long been socially and religiously discriminated against and mistreated.

Enjoy reading the article and learn how women can rise in a severely discriminated region.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/20/health/kung-fu-nuns-wellness/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2822-1/3/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Russia 'successfully tests' its unplugged internet

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that links devices in the world. It is a network of networks that carries a wide range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.

In most countries, access to the global network is not restricted. However, in some countries, it is closely monitored and controlled, like the great firewall of China which blocks access to some foreign internet services, or Iran’s National Information Network that polices all content on the network and limiting external information.

Recently, Russia successfully isolated the net connection from the global network and made the nation’s network a gigantic intranet like an inter-campus or inter-office network. They could have full control over what can be shown, spoken, sent or received via the “Internet.” That could enhance the security of the state and connectivity with devices and systems like the Internet of Things in a way that the authority wants to regulate. Along with text, facial and voiceprint recognition systems, any individual who posts or voices unfavorable remarks could be identified by the authority as well. Also, people with limited access to such a national intranet may develop different views on people and things from others in the world.

A “free Wi-Fi” sign may not always mean a free access to the Internet in more places in the world.

Enjoy reading the article and think how influential the Internet could be for both  

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50902496