Topic Reading-Vol.3033-7/31/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The most powerful renewable energy

Ever since commercial electricity production began in 1870, electricity generation has been increasing steadily, and recently rapidly, to light houses and power computers. Though renewable energies, such as wind, solar and biofuels are taking some share, the combined total of these cleaner power represents less than 10% of the total power generation. Still, it is coal that generates the most electricity followed by natural gas. Combined, these two fossil fuels produce over 60% of the total power generation. The problem is the emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases from fossil fuel-based electricity generation account for a significant portion of world greenhouse gas emissions. On the bright side, hydroelectric power plants, which emit the smallest amount of greenhouse gas per generated power, produces about 16% of the total, far higher than Nuclear’s 10%.

The mechanism of hydropower is simple. It basically drops water from a high point to a lower point where turbines are waiting to spin. Sounds simple and eco-friendly, doesn’t it? However, this process usually takes place in water dams which were built with a significant impact on the environment and water ecosystem. Think of fish species that need to swim up to lay eggs like salmon. How can they clear the spinning turbines and blades of the powerplant? Also, there is a concrete wall and height they need to pass through.

To overcome these environmental challenges, some people are working on developing eco-friendly, sustainable hydropower plants.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about the challenges to build eco-friendly hydropower plants.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200713-the-most-powerful-renewable-energy

Topic Reading-Vol.3032-7/30/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Is Harvard worth $50,000 if it's only online? That depends on who you ask

A very difficult choice to make to start a new freshman year at one of the most prestigious universities, Harvard. The oldest institution of higher learning in the US announced that their new fall classes will be held online. Freshmen can choose to be on campus just in the fall semester but will take classes from their dorm rooms. They can also attend the same online classes from home. Each option costs $63,000 and $54,000 respectively. In other words, you’ll pay $9,000 just to live in the dorm for a few months, where you’ll have limited and smaller-scale chances to interact with other ambitious students, though there may not be as many foreign students as previous years. Is it worth paying the full tuition for online-only courses in the first place? Will $9,000 bring about a good return on investment? If you think neither is a viable option, there is another. You can choose to take a gap year before starting a freshman year hoping to enjoy full benefits of the prestigious Ivy League university with classroom courses, face-to-face interactions with the faculty members and fellow students.

For those who are enrolled in Harvard, this is going to be their first case study to figure out the return on investment and to make a decision.

Enjoy reading the article and think about which option you would choose if you were to study at Harvard.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/23/success/harvard-online-cost-student-decision/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3031-7/29/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Painting an airplane: Why every layer counts

When you board an airplane, do you check the identity of the aircraft? Usually, passenger aircraft are pained in certain ways to show the identity of the airline or promotional design. But have you thought about how they are painted?

When a new aircraft comes out of the production line, it is usually painted green for metallic aircraft and beige for those made of composites. They are the base colors for later painting jobs. While new aircraft are usually painted in the assembling factory, repainting works are done in other specialized painting companies. In fact, commercial aircraft are painted every several years to keep in good appearance. Also, when an airliner is merged, acquired, or rebranded, the belonging aircraft are repainted.

Do you have any idea how much and how long it takes, and what processes are needed to paint an aircraft?

Enjoy reading the article and learn how aircraft are painted.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/how-to-paint-an-airplane/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3030-7/28/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Coronavirus: China's cinemas start to reopen after shutdowns

In the last five years until 2019, about 10,000 cinema screens had been added each year in China. This rapid increase was mainly driven by its growing urban population and rising demand for entertainment, not to mention the hawkish investors who wanted to jump on the bandwagon. But since March, most of these movie theaters have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic not only in China but around the world. You can easily imagine how closed and shoulder-to-shoulder environment movie theaters are. Having been closed for nearly six months, these movie theaters are in financial crisis, if not already closed forever. Now, some of the theaters opened their doors again under China’s film administration’s strict guidelines. They are allowed to sell only 30% of the seats for half the number of films compared with last year. To make the situation even harder, they aren’t allowed to sell any drinks or beverages, which could generate significant revenues to cinema operators.

For movie-goers, it’s not a bad story even without pop-corns. But financially, it is surely a money-losing game for theaters. Can they raise the ticket price? Are there enough popular movies coming out?

Enjoy reading the article and think about what you would do if you owned a movie theater.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53468302

Topic Reading-Vol.3029-7/27/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

EU leaders strike 'historic' $2 trillion deal to rebuild Europe's economy

The EU is more united than ever before to cope with the economic and financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Without the UK, the population of the EU is a little under 450 million and the GDP is slightly over 17 trillion dollars. The population of the US is around 320 million and the GDP is about 2 billion more than that of the EU's. Now, the leaders of the union gathered, discussed, and argued for four days and finally agreed to establish an $858 billion recovery fund to boost EU economies from the crisis. To create the fund, the EU will become a major borrower in global financial markets. It was very difficult for financially wealthy countries like Germany and Frugal Four, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, and Sweden, to grant about half of the fund to the hardest-hit countries like Italy and Spain. But considerable and desperate efforts were made by the leaders and their administrations to keep the EU united rather than divided beyond their financial conditions and political calculations.

While the United States of America is getting more and more divided in multiple angles, the EU has demonstrated what political leaders can do to unite countries.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about the EU’s historic financial deal.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/21/economy/eu-stimulus-coronavirus/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3028-7/26/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Missing Kansas dog makes 50-mile trip to old home in Missouri

A four-year-old female Labrador, named Cleo, had been missing from her home for several days. Luckily, the dog was implanted a microchip that identifies personal information including her owner, so several days later when the dog was found on the pouch of someone else’s home, her owner was identified. Since the owner of the dog posted a missing dog appeal on Facebook, they were contacted by the owner of the house where the dog was found. Sounds like a good but ordinary story, doesn’t it? But the dog was found 80 kilometers away from her current owner’s home. And the house where she was found was her house until they moved away two years ago! Did she forget her present house and went to her old one? No one knows why and how the dog walked to her old house by crossing busy streets and rivers for 80 km.

Enjoy reading the article and learn how capable dogs are to trace something.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53471230

Topic Reading-Vol.3027-7/25/2020

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Summers could become 'too hot for humans'

As global warming progresses, winter is getting warmer and summer is getting hotter. In some regions, the daytime temperatures reach 40 degrees in Celsius, dangerously too hot to work outside. Indeed, one study suggests that over one billion people could suffer heat stress by the end of the century if temperatures kept rising by climate change. But is the temperature the only index that suffers people’s health the most? In fact, a place at a temperature of 40 degrees under the shade in an extremely dry place like the desert is much more livable than that of 30 degrees under the direct sun in a humid place like South Asia. Then what do we need to know?

The Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) measures that take not only heat but also humidity and other factors to give a more realistic description of the conditions, such as wind speed, sun angle, and cloud cover. The WBGT of below 30C is considered comfortable to the safe zone but over 30C could cause dehydration and heat stress. It sounds a little complicated to measure the conditions in your work or living environment but what you need to do is simple. Drink enough water, get sweat, and avoid being baked by the sun.

Enjoy reading the article and learn what you need to do to avoid this dangerous health condition before midsummer (In the northern hemisphere).

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53415298