Topic Reading-Vol.2836-1/16/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

After a 6-year-old finished chemotherapy, his classmates welcomed him back with a standing ovation

Leukemia is a cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues. In people with leukemia, the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells, which don't function properly. Some forms of leukemia are more common in children, and others occur mostly in adults. Though the exact cause of Leukemia hasn’t been identified, it seems to develop from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Treatment for leukemia could include chemotherapy, biological therapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplant.

A three-year-old boy in Ohio, USA was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2016. He had been treated with different types of chemotherapy and procedures for the next three years until December last year. During the period, he was in and out of school because of the treatment he had to take and the severe side effects he suffered from. After those difficult three years when he returned to school, he was welcomed back with cheers, applause and a standing ovation by his schoolmates and teachers. What a wonderful treatment after difficult times!

Enjoy reading the article about a boy and his family who underwent hardships of cancer.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/11/us/classmates-cancer-trnd/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2835-1/15/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Does music make exercise more effective?

There is no need to explain that daily walking helps you improve your physical and mental health. It not only burns calories but also increases your blood flow and even brain cells. But which is the better way to get the most mileage out of daily walking, slow leisurely waking or high-speed walking? A study in Britain, where overweight and obese are major physical and medical problems, found that 10-minute’s brisk walking at around 100 paces per minute gives more such benefits than walking 10,000 steps at a casual pace. Sounds rewarding? Then how fast is the 100-paces-per-minute walking? It’s about as fast as you can talk but not sing.

Understanding is one thing but doing is another. What could help you walk faster? A simple answer is to walk to high-tempo music. This way, you can enjoy not only music but also health and mental benefits.

Enjoy reading the article and decide if and how fast you walk.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51024034

Topic Reading-Vol.2834-1/14/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

In pictures: Iran's sites of cultural importance

Iran, or Persia, is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations. It started with the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BCE, later followed by the Achaemenid Empire, whose territory stretched from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley in the sixth century BCE.

After Arab Muslims conquered the Sasanian Empire in the seventh century CE, Persia became a major Islamic power and contributed greatly to art, philosophy, and science in the Muslim world.

After the Islamic Revolution, which ousted the US-backed King Pahlavi and his administration, it became an Islamic republic in April 1979. Later in November, a group of Muslim students seized the United States Embassy and took the embassy with 52 personnel and citizens hostage for as long as 444 days, demanding the US to extradite Pahlavi to Iran. This hostage crisis and the supreme leader Khomeini’s anti-West cultural moves lead to economic sanction by the US and further deteriorate the ties between the two nations.

Now, the US attacked and assassinated Iran’s a heroic military commander in Iraq, Iran declared that it would no longer abide by any of the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal and retaliate with “crushing revenge” for the killing of the commander. Then the US president Donald Trump threatened to respond to any Iranian retaliation by attacking Iranian cultural sites!

Look at the photos of just a few of Iran’s sites of cultural importance and think if the US president is about to follow the suit of the Taliban, which dynamited and destroyed the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamyan in Afghanistan in 2001.

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-51007585

Topic Reading-Vol.2833-1/13/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Facebook to ban 'deepfakes'

Deepfakes are technologies or media that that replace an existing image or video with someone else’s likeness by using artificial intelligence. The technology creates fake images or videos of popular or influential people, such as politicians, stars, or artists, in pornographic videos, fake news, hoaxes, and financial fraud. Such fake videos look so realistic that they could mislead the public perception of certain people that could affect the person’s reputation, relevant businesses, or even an election result. Platformers of video clips, such as Google and Facebook, have been trying to detect and eliminate harmful and misleading deepfake videos, and Facebook has recently announced that it will remove videos modified by artificial intelligence from its platform. This is not an easy task, though. They need not only to check the reality and authenticity of the video or image but also to fact-check what the person actually did or say. They seem to need AI detector or fact-checker to combat AI-created deepfakes.

Enjoy reading the article and learn what deepfakes are about.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51018758

Topic Reading-Vol.2832-1/12/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

World's first 350km-per-hour driverless bullet train goes into service in China

Another milestone by China’s railway network. China already has the world’s largest high-speed railway network, having added 5,000 kilometers in 2019 alone to 35,000 kilometers at the end of the year and is extending another 2,000 kilometers this year, which will represent over 70% of the world’s total. The newest line opened on December 30, connecting the capital city and 2022 Winter Olympic host city Zhangjiakou. The 174-km high-speed railway track has reduced the travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou from three hours to 47 minutes at a maximum design speed of 350 km/h. What is amazing is not just the speed of the operation and construction, which took just four years, but how it is run. It is the world's first automated high- speed railway. The train automatically starts, stops and adjusts to the different speed limits between 10 stations. Also, there are smart cars that offer convenience and comfort for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes and media personnel at slightly higher ticket prices.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about China’s smartest and coolest high-speed train line.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/driverless-bullet-train-china/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2831-1/11/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

10,000 camels at risk of being shot in Australia as they desperately search for water

Lying in the remote northwest of South Australia, Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, or APY, is a large but sparsely-populated local government area for Aboriginal Australians. There are only 2,300 residents in a land that is as large as the state of Kentucky, USA, where over four million people live. Because of the heat, drought, and bushfires, many wild animals have been disturbing human lives in the region searching for scarce water. While koalas and kangaroos have been widely covered by news media and videos and receive sympathy from the world, wild camels in Australia are rarely paid attention to. But they are so desperate that they even risk themselves to lick just a little bit of water that comes out of the air conditioner of human houses.

Indeed, humans dominate and warm the world at the cost of nature and other species.

What will they do with the corpses of the shot camels? Will they be left in the field to let the bushfires burn them?

Read the article and guess how many camels have been killed by today.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/07/australia/australia-camel-cull-scli-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2830-1/10/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Japanese businessman spends $1.8 million on massive tuna

At the first auction each year at Tokyo’s largest fish market, Toyosu, the successor of the famous Tsukiji market, some bidders try to get an iconic item like tuna at however high the price is. This year, a businessman who owns and runs a chain of over 50 sushi restaurants in Japan spent 1.8 million dollars for a bluefin tuna. Since the tuna weighed 276 kilograms, he paid about 6,500 dollars per kilogram, or 65 dollars per 10 grams, just about a piece of sashimi, including non-edible bone.

He surely pleased the fisherman who caught the tuna. But will his customers have to pay the price, or is that part of his PR activities? In either case, he didn’t spend as much as he did last year. It was 3.1 million dollars last year for nearly the same size of tuna. Presumably, he was ready to pay more than 1.8 million dollars this year. He may keep the saving for next year’s auction. Will there be a counter bidder next year?

Enjoy reading the article and learn about how serious to get and serve the first tuna of the year in Japan.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/expensive-tuna-japan-intl-scli/index.html