Topic Reading-Vol.3047-8/14/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

What is WeChat and why does Trump want to ban it?

When you go to China, it’s not Facebook, Google, or email, but WeChat that does it all. It was originally a messaging app but it has become a lifeline platform as it added functions like searching, contacting, booking, reporting, payment, and bank services over time. It has 1.2 billion active users, most of whom live in mainland China. Users of WeChat not only stores personal information but also adds traces of any activity, interaction, and transaction every time the app is used. For example, information like when, where, and what the user ate lunch and paid how much, and with whom if he or she shared the bill. Such information of an ordinary citizen is only valuable for businesses to provide tailor-made recommendations and promote suitable products or services. But if the information, interactions, and transactions of business executives or government officials are shared by their competitors, especially by government controlled or subsidized enterprises, it could bring about a competitive advantage to China and pose risks to other countries. That seems to be the rationale the Trump administration is using to ban the use of Chinese app in the US.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about what WeChat is about.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/07/tech/wechat-trump-ban-explainer/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3046-8/13/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Covid-19 is taking elevator anxiety to the next level. This Indian tech company has a solution

Touching something that is touched by others, like elevator buttons and touch panels, now makes you feel unsafe. Some study has found that there are more bacteria on elevator buttons than toilet seats. But when you ride an elevator, you need to push or touch the button of the floor you want to go to unless it is already lit. How do you do that? Do you always wear gloves when you go out or put ones on when you have to touch something? Do you use something to push or touch, or spray disinfectant on the button before you touch it? This is a very serious issue for those who live in a tall apartment or work in a multi-floor office building as they need to use an elevator multiple times a day. But when there is a problem, there are solutions. You could use a toothpick to press a button. At a shopping mall in Bangkok, foot pedals are installed to choose the floor with a foot. In some buildings, touchless buttons have replaced conventional buttons. Whichever the way it might be, you want to avoid touching an elevator button even after the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the article and think if you want to bring something to get on an elevator next time.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/03/business/india-touchless-elevator-buttons-hnk-spc-intl/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3045-8/12/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Going back to work or school? An algorithm may warn you to keep your distance from others

Companies and businesses used to encourage their people to interact with each other in person until the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. They set up offices and “campuses” in high-rent cities like New York and Tokyo with caféterias and game rooms. Now, they are moving in the opposite direction. Companies want their employees to keep social distancing, wear facemasks/shields, and avoid interactions at work.

You might have heard of or used a contact-tracing app to stay away from potentially coronavirus infected people. In some offices, factories, and warehouses, there are numbers of cameras that are monitoring if people are far enough apart and wearing facemasks. Such AI-powered surveillance systems are being used in large companies like Amazon, and managers are warned if their social distancing guidelines are not followed.

Do you feel protected or intimidated to be monitored all the time at your workplace?

Read the article and think about what makes you feel safer to work and live under the new normal.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/ai-social-distancing-in-offices-and-schools/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3044-8/11/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

This village in India plants 111 trees every time a girl is born

The male-to-female sex ratio at birth is slightly biased towards the male, at around 105 or 106, which means that there are 105 males for every 100 females at birth on average. Since males die younger than females, the sex ratio for the entire world population is very close to even, 101 males to 100 females. However, in some countries like China and India, boys are much more preferred than girls by parents. And some of them take artificial measures to produce/raise boys, such as selective pregnancy termination, abortion, and … even after birth. As a result, male-to-female sex ratios in these countries are very uneven. For example, it is estimated that the sex ratio at birth is 1.11 and 1.17 under the age of 24 in China, and 1.11 and 1.14 in India, where traditionally and culturally boys are favored. Also, there is a costly dowry system, which the bride’s family is obligated to give to the bridegroom and his family as a condition of marriage.

However, villagers in Piplantri, a village located in Rajasthan State in northern India, have been planting 111 trees every time a girl child is born in the village. They also ensure these trees survive and attain fruition as the girls grow up. In fact, they’ve planted over 350,000 trees, which represents 2,700 baby girls over time! It seems that the girls, women, and trees have brought fruits to the community.

Enjoy watching the video to learn about a fruitful tradition in a small village in India.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/great-big-story/2020/08/03/great-big-story-india-trees-girl-born-gbs.great-big-story

Topic Reading-Vol.3043-8/10/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Explorer's mission to photograph a century of climate change in Patagonia

How much warmer is it now compared with 100 years ago? Can you imagine the impacts of a one-degree difference in Celsius on nature? You know sea levels are rising as ice sheets melt in Antarctica, Greenland, Arctic Sea, and glaciers around the world. But how much?

Here is a photographer who takes photos of the same remote locations at the same time of year as the photos were taken a century ago to show the changes in nature in Patagonia, a sparsely populated region at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. There used to be massive glaciers that covered the surface, but they disappeared completely or receded more than 10 kilometers. Where have then gone? The answer is so clear.

Though the newly taken photos look so beautiful, they also show nature is changing at a dangerously fast speed.

Read the article and compare the before-and-after photos to learn the changes in Patagonia.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/04/americas/cristian-donoso-patagonia-climate-change-spc-c2e-intl-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3042-8/9/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The long road to returning first-ever samples from Mars

Is it worth spending billions of dollars to collect dirt samples from Mars’s surface and bring them back to Earth? It seems so. Since Mars has no tectonic or volcanic activities, not to mention the meteorological or aquatic influences like Earth, things and traces of potential lives once might have existed on the surface billions of years ago are expected to be preserved. So, NASA recently launched a rocket to send Perseverance rover to Mars to collect samples on an ancient lade bed and river delta, where lives might have existed three to four billion years ago. Five years after Perseverance’s landing on Mars, NASA and European Space Agency will cooperatively launch the Mars Ascent Vehicle lander and rocket to fetch the samples. It seems like a very complicated and nail-biting mission. First, the samples collected by Perseverance will be transferred to the ascent vehicle. Then, the vehicle will be launched to rendezvous with an ESA spacecraft orbiting Mars in 2028. Once the ESA orbiter catches the samples, it will head back toward Earth and pass the samples to an entry vehicle that will be orbiting Earth. The sample containers will finally land on Earth in 2031. And that’s not the end. Some of the samples will be preserved for scores of years to be better analyzed in the future when more advanced analysis will be made. What a long-scope project it is!

Enjoy reading the article and learn a mission that is cooperated by many and in the future.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/01/world/mars-mission-samples-scn/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3041-8/8/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

US firearms purchases skyrocket during pandemic, according to FBI records

In America, any adult can buy firearms if they pass the background check that is conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI. Therefore, this firearm background check is a good indicator to show how many firearms are being purchased. And the FBI saw a record 3.9 million firearm transactions in June alone and 3.6 million in July, nearly 80% more than the previous year. Why are Americans buying more guns in such a time of difficulty? They tend to buy more guns when a deadly shooting incident occurs, maybe because they want to protect themselves more or stock up their guns before stricter gun regulations take place. This year, gun sales also sparked in March to 3.7 million. It seems that Americans are buying more guns when the coronavirus infections surge. Indeed, their lives are threatened by an agent, but are Americans trying to protect themselves by guns instead of face masks or social distancing? Has the $600 weekly Federal ​Pandemic Unemployment Assistance been boosting gun sales?

Read the article and think if it is effective to protect yourself with firearms when hundreds of people have been dying each day by the novel virus.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/03/politics/gun-background-checks-fbi/index.html