Topic Reading-Vol.2864-2/13/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Antarctica logs hottest temperature on record of 18.3C

Lying around the South Pole, Antarctica is the world’s southernmost continent. The fifth-largest continent is covered by a vast ice sheet and is the world’s highest, driest, windiest, coldest, and iciest continent. In fact, the ice sheet contains nearly 30 million cubic kilometers of ice, which is about 90 percent of the world’s ice and 80 percent of its freshwater.

You may wonder how cold or warm the continent is. Temperatures reach a minimum of below −80 °C in the interior in winter and reach a maximum of between 5 °C and 15 °C near the coast in summer. Over the last half-century, however, temperatures on the icy continent have risen by almost 3C, and on February 7, a record high temperature of 18.3C was logged on the continent's north-west tip. Since the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming regions on earth, the record-setting temperature indicates that global warming is accelerating. In fact, it was only five years ago when the previous record of 17.5C was logged.

While glaciers are retreating and ice sheets are melting on the icy continent, humans are still warming the planet at an unprecedented pace. Sea levels are going to rise soon.

Read the article and learn about what is going on in Antarctica.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51420681

Topic Reading-Vol.2863-2/12/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Nike's controversial shoe will be commercially available this year

The Nike ZoomX VaporflyNEXT% is evolutionary competitive running shoes. A full-length, carbon fiber plate underfoot provides a propulsive sensation to help the runner push the pace. The lightweight VaporWeave material is strong and water-resistant. The midsole material in the forefoot delivers exceptional energy return. By combining these technologies and materials, the shoes seem to provide a competitive edge, as much as a 4% boost in the running economy. In fact, the shoes helped a Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge run a marathon distance within two hours at a special event in Vienna, Austria last October.

As the 2020 Olympic Games are looming on the international sporting calendar, there have been serious arguments as to whether such high-tech thick-soled running shoes could be worn by athletes. How much technologies can contribute to human capabilities? World Athletics approved Nike’s particular shoe product but banned any shoes with soles thicker than 40mm or with more than one plate to enhance their spring. Why 40, not 30 or 50?

Soon, you may see a lot of runners who look 4-centimeter taller than usual on the track or road.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about the breakthrough running shoes that have broken a few world records.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/06/sport/nike-alphafly-shoe-running-spt-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2862-2/11/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

More medics rush to join the fight in Wuhan

As of yesterday, over 40,000 people have been infected and nearly 1,000 people died of the navel coronavirus. Most of them are in China and Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Central China’s Hubei province and now the epicenter and the frontline to battle the deadly disease. China has been making its best effort to contain the infectious disease, inspect and care for the patients. Hospitals in Wuhan are the most infected places with coronavirus on earth now. It is like a battlefield. Whoever works there has a chance to be infected, like soldiers fighting in the frontline. There are never enough medical staff to cope with the increasing number of desperate patients who have nowhere to go. Indeed, it is the frontline and also the last line of defense against the fast-spreading virus. To help the understaffed medical facilities and overworked staff, doctors and nurses are arriving from around the country. Whatever the motive they have, mission, patriotism, or empathy, their courage to go to the most contaminated facilities of the epicenter is highly admirable. Imagine, they are spending long hours in the air full of viruses and caring for the infected patients. Yet, they look like having full of energy and commitment to go and work there.

加油武漢、加油中国!

See the photos and learn how hard China is fighting the novel virus.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/10/WS5e40b153a3101282172762ff_1.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2861-2/10/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Watch this: Latest tips to prevent novel coronavirus

China has been making its best and most effort to stop spreading the coronavirus. Some cities are locked down, public transportations are stopped, roads are closed, spring holidays are extended, businesses and schools are closed. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, a new 1000-bed hospital was constructed in less than two weeks to house the increasing number of patients. Probably only China can take such drastic measures and enforce restrictions so swiftly and thoroughly, thanks to the mighty ruling party. Remember, there are over 1.3 billion people in the populous country.

Then what can and should people do to prevent from infecting others or being infected by others? In fact, there isn’t anything special you can do other than ordinary measures and cares to prevent and deal with the flu. Wear a mask, sit or stand apart from others, use hand sanitizer, disinfect seats and doorknobs, and ventilate the air, not to mention washing hands and gargling often. Of course, you should avoid going out, contacting people, or talking or eating with others. Also, take temperatures twice or more a day to find any sign of infection. If you have a high fever or coughs, go to the hospital with a mask on. But if you have no choice but to stay home, try to stay away from your family members, maintain a balanced diet, and do moderate exercise if the body temperature is not so high.

Now, the hardest part in some places is to find facial masks.

Watch the video and learn what you can do to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/04/WS5e38e5bea310128217274b75.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2860-2/9/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Somalia declares emergency over locust swarms

Grasshoppers are usually solitary and harmless to humans. However, under certain circumstances, they change their behavior and habits and become more abundant, gregarious, and nomadic, called locusts. Although an adult locust eats its own weight in food daily, or about one half of a gram, when they become gregarious, they eat more and travel over 100 kilometers in a day and eat anything they find on the way. Such a transformation of usually harmless grasshoppers into destructive desert locusts, including changing the color, eating much more, and breeding much faster and more easily, occurs in a response to overcrowding.

Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is a small, poor and insecure country with its GDP per capita ranked nearly the bottom on the world’s list. Now, they declared a national emergency as large swarms of locusts spread across east Africa. Already poor farmers are losing their hope for the next harvest. With this overwhelming swarms of locusts, some are as many as 80 million locusts per square kilometer, spraying pesticide is hardly effective to protect their farmland.

It sounds as destructive as the coronavirus outbreak.

Read the article and watch the video to learn about what locusts do to humans and nature.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51348517

Topic Reading-Vol.2859-2/8/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

How you can get hotels to use less plastic

When you stay in a hotel room, you’ll find a variety of plastic items, such as the room key, bottled water, and toiletry bottles. According to the chain scale segment in 2018, there are over five million hotel rooms in the U.S. Imagine how much single-use plastic is disposed of from there daily and yearly. However hard you try to reduce the use of such environmentally unfriendly materials in your daily life, you still find many hotels are still depending on such convenient and economical plastic items. But things are changing. More hotels are eying sustainability, avoidance of the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance, to become more competitive and guest friendly. They are driven by customer feedback more than ever before to stay competitive, thanks to guests’ reviews and comments on hotel booking sites.

Sooner or later, you’ll find more hotels offer non-plastic room keys, purified water machines, and large pomp-topped bottles in the bathroom. Will you enjoy the stay better that way?

Indeed, sustainability seems to drive businesses to save the planet.

Enjoy reading the article and think about what you can do to travel in a more environmentally friendly way.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/hotels-using-less-plastic/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2858-2/7/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Greta Thunberg to trademark 'Fridays for Future'

Originally staged by a Swedish schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg, in August 2018, Friday’s for Future is an international movement of school students to prevent climate change. The cause encourages students to take time off from class on Fridays to participate in demonstrations to demand political and business leaders to take action to prevent climate change and replace the use of fossil fuels with renewable energy. In September last year, a series of strikes took place with millions of participants in more than 150 countries. Surely, the name became popular enough to be used for other purposes.

Now, in order to prevent people from using her name and the movement for commercial purposes, Thunberg is trademarking her name and the #FridaysForFuture movement. Also, she has set up a non-profit foundation to manage the financial side of #FridaysForFuture, which is essential to make the cause sustainable and independent.

The incumbent US Treasury Secretary told her to study economics before lecturing investors. But she seems to be able to work with experts to manage the financial and economic aspects of the movement.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about this global movement to stop climate change.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51308536

p.s. If you want to know more about the movement, Check https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/