Topic Reading-Vol.2972-5/31/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

This town is in two countries

Is there a part of another country in your town? Enclave is a part of a country that is surrounded by another country. For example, West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin for four decades during the Cold War. In this case, the enclave was surrounded by tall concrete walls that prevented people from crossing the border. Actually, there are quite a number of enclaves in the world beyond national, state, or district borders, most of which aren’t usually distinguished or recognized.

Baarle-Hertog is one such enclave in The Netherlands. The town consists of 24 small Belgian exclaves, all of which are within the Netherlands. These enclaves were created after the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843. Unlike West Berlin, all of the 2,700-or-so residents and any visitors can walk across the complex borders freely, some of which go through streets and even inside shops and cafes, thanks to the Schengen Agreement. So, you can have lunch at a Belgium restaurant, have coffee at a Dutch cafe, and do groceries at a Belgium supermarket, and sleep in a bed in the Netherlands.

Enjoy watching the video and learn about this Belgium enclave in the Netherlands.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/05/11/great-big-story-town-two-countries-gbs.great-big-story

Topic Reading-Vol.2971-5/30/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The CNN Travel quiz: Who, what, why, when and where in the world?

There is one thing that many of you wish to plan now but probably still hesitate to do. Traveling. Especially during the restrictive measures like lockdown, isolation, and state of emergency, many people want to go out somewhere to refresh themselves. Indeed, breathing the air and feel the atmosphere of different places, experiencing cultures and traditions of other peoples, enjoying foods and meals in local streets and markets, or just sleeping in a different bed makes you feel relaxed.

Now, do you want to check how well you know about other places and things in the world? Here are some quite tricky questions to test your knowledge of the world, such as cities, airplanes, wonders, and foods. Squeeze your brain instead of googling and try answering the questions, you’ll find how knowledgeable you are about the world.

Note: You’d better choose the categories that you have good knowledge of instead of challenging them all.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/travel-quiz-questions-may/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2970-5/29/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Why it's time to redesign the old air conditioner

Can’t live without air conditioners? Even if you don’t use or have one at home, most offices and commercial buildings are air-conditioned. Furthermore, data centers use air conditioners to cool the machines and processors to run the Internet and store data from all over the world. Surprisingly, while technologies for construction and information have evolved substantially for the last century, the basic designs of today’s air conditioners haven’t changed much since the first air conditioner was brought in the market back in 1926.

By the middle of the century, 4.5 billion air conditioners are estimated to be in use around the world, 3.3 billion more units than today. Many of those new air conditioners will be added in developing countries where temperatures are quite high, such as south Asia and Africa. According to the International Energy Agency, today’s air conditioners consume about 10% of the total electricity. It is obvious that the world is going to need to generate much more electricity in the coming decades especially when electric vehicles become popular. The world desperately needs innovations to control air temperatures and humidity more efficiently.

The Global Cooling Prize has recently been initiated to incentivize individuals, teams, and companies to design the next generation of air-cooling systems. The design must not only innovative but also practical. Of the over 2,000 participants, eight finalists were granted $200,000 to develop prototypes that will be tested in sizzling Delhi’s summer, whose average high-temperature is 33.6°C and the average low is 26.4°C.

Enjoy reading the article and learn how challenging it is to design and produce air conditioners of the 21^st century.

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/global-cooling-prize-india/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2969-5/28/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

In pictures: Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr amid coronavirus

Eid al-Fitr, or Festival of Breaking the Fast (Ramadan), is an Islamic holiday to mark the end of Ramadan, a month-long, dawn-to-sunset fasting. Usually, it is a three-day fest of gift-giving and gorge on special meals with loved ones, neighbors, and friends. However, under the coronavirus pandemic, such mass-gatherings and close interactions can not be held in a usual manner. Worshippers are checked their temperatures before worshipping, required to wear Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, such as a face mask, face cover and protective gloves, and maintain social distancing in the mosque.

The number of Muslims around the world is about 1.8 billion, nearly one in every four humans on Earth. Also, in countries like Turkey and Iran, where coronavirus has infected and killed many, nearly all the citizens are Muslims. How can they prevent the novel virus from spreading during the festive time? Only time will tell.

Enjoy seeing the photos of this annual religious event under a  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52787154

Topic Reading-Vol.2968-5/27/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Robot dog tries to herd sheep

In Topic Reading Vol.2957, a walking robot dog was shown to warn visitors to the park in Singapore to keep social distance, and they seemed to obey the warning. Now, another Boston Dynamics built robot was tested to herd sheep in New Zealand. This sheep-herding robot, called Spot, is designed to navigate sheep in tricky terrain, just like trained herding dogs do. It was sent to sheep and beef stations for test and let it run around with dogs. Interestingly, the dogs seemed to think Spot was just one of the machines and weren’t bothered at all. On the other hand, sheep seemed to have thought it was one of those herding canines and maneuvered away from Spot.

Will AI learn to herd sheep like herding dogs do or will it learn to work with the dogs like the robot assistant in Vol.2967?

Enjoy seeing the video and think about how soon humans will see a matching number of robots in the future.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-52762929/robot-dog-tries-to-herd-sheep

Topic Reading-Vol.2967-5/26/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The robot assistant that can guess what you want

For now, robots work by themselves. Painting and assembly robots in automotive factories do pre-programmed tasks in a separate zone. Delivery robots in some hotels carry things like drinks and a blanket to the assigned rooms. Flipping robots grill, flip, and place burger patties as programmed. However, there aren’t any robots that work along with humans autonomously, like holding a heavy object while the human worker is working on it, handing the right tool to the right spot timely, and reacts to avoid accidents.

Ocado, a British online supermarket, is now looking for a collaborative robot, or cobot, to improve the work efficiency of its workers. Though it is still at a test stage, their prototype cobot can monitor what its human coworker is doing and what he/she needs and provide assistance. Thanks to today’s machine learning, the artificial intelligence of the robot monitors and learns how to help human workers much faster than being programmed.

When will we see such robot colleagues in workplaces? Will they also understand and respond to a joke?

Enjoy reading the article and watching the video to learn what and how robots may help human workers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52547331

Topic Reading-Vol.2966-5/25/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The unsurpassed 125-year-old network that feeds Mumbai

It seems eating homemade lunch has long been an essential part of daily work life in Mumbai, India’s business capital. Interestingly, Mumbai workers seem to prefer eating delivered homemade lunch at their workplaces rather than taking their lunchboxes with them. The question is how do they get their homemade lunch at their workplaces?

The Dabbawallas is a lunchbox delivery and return system that delivers boxed lunch, or Dabba, from homes and restaurants to people at work. In the late morning, lunchboxes are collected at homes on time, carried to the district’s collection site, sorted by the destinations, taken to the respective delivery hubs by trains or bicycles, then distributed to their customers on time by bike or on foot. Sounds like one of those food-delivery services, doesn’t it? But they’ve been providing this service over a century at an affordable price to their customers while providing their deliverymen with decent pay and welfare, and more importantly pride. Recently, this food delivery system has been paid great attention by business school, delivery giants like DHL and online food-delivery companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats because of their nearly flawless and on-time delivery practices to serve nearly 200,000 customers daily.

It seems that dabbawallas are part of the social infrastructure in Mumbai.

But you may wonder why Mumbai workers aren’t taking their lunch boxes with them when they leave their homes in the first place. Is there any cultural, religious, domestic, or environmental reason? This question is unanswered.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about this century-old lunch delivery service network in Mumbai.    

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170114-the-125-year-old-network-that-keeps-mumbai-going

For your further interest, watch this video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX-0el2wuEU