Topic Reading-Vol.3671-4/30/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Here are 10 essential items for your car

When you drive a car, the most essential items to take with you might be your eyeglasses or sunglasses, driver’s license, and smartphone. But there are other helpful items that you may want to keep in your car, some are just in case and others are for convenience. For example, jump cables to recharge the flat battery. Even if you find someone to help you recharge your car battery, or you want to help someone else’s, nothing can be done without jump cables. Other non-essential but helpful items are wipes to clean the interior, screenwash to keep the windshield clear, and a pen & paper to leave or keep a note.

Enjoy reading the article and check which of those items you keep in your car.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/top-gear-advice/here-are-10-essential-items-your-car

Topic Reading-Vol.3670-4/29/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Not smart but clever? The return of 'dumbphones'

A smartphone or dumbphone? Many people seem to think that a smartphone is the first item they need when they go out. Well, if you want to be connected with the rest of the world and friends all the time, and need certain apps for searches or payments, you surely need a smartphone. But if you don’t go out so often or don’t use those fancy apps that much, a dumbphone, a basic handset that gives you limited functions such as phone calls, text messaging, and photo-taking, might be your next mobile phone. Well, if you are at home and connected to the Internet all the time, you can use your PC or tablet instead of the tiny display of a smartphone. And a dumbphone is much cheaper itself and the monthly fee is substantially lower compared with iPhone with 5G. In fact, there are people who have switched back to dumbphones to be smarter.

Enjoy reading the article and learning about how to be smarter without a smartphone.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168

Topic Reading-Vol.3669-4/28/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Venice to charge daytrippers up to €10 to enter in 2023

Venice is a city in northeastern Italy. It is built on more than 100 small pieces of land that are separated by famous canals and connected by over 400 bridges. Founded in the 5th century CE, Venice became a major maritime power in the 10th century. The whole city is an extraordinary architectural masterpiece in which even the smallest building contains works by some of the world's greatest artists. The Site "Venice and its Lagoon" was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987. In the historical part of Venice, which is home to about 55,000 residents, as many as over 150,000 tourists visited on Easter Sunday alone. Such over-tourism has created not only the quality of life problems for the residents but also environmental problems for the city’s ecosystem. In fact, Venice was considered by UNESCO whether the city should be added to the “In-Danger” list. As the city still welcomes tourists but in a more sustainable and profitable fashion, it will soon launch an online booking site to control the traffic, especially day-trippers, first by offering privileges and later by charging a flexible fee, which will become expensive on busy days. This attempt will be closely watched by other busy tourist destinations where over-tourism has been causing living and environmental concerns.

Enjoy reading the article and think if a fee of 10 euros is too substantial enough to control the day visitors to one of the most popular tourist destinations.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-entry-reservation-fee/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3668-4/27/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Climate change: Wind and solar reach milestone as demand surges

Whichever the major driver, economy or environment, might be, the world has become more conscious of green energies. Despite the coal resurgence due to the increased price of oil and gas to meet the rising demand, wind and solar energies generated about one-tenth of the world’s electricity in 2021. Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, the share of those clean energies has doubled. For example, Denmark generated over half of its electricity from wind and solar. Another example is Vietnam, which pushed solar generation by paying fees to those who generate electricity. Now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made oil and gas even more expensive, more effort is being made to generate electricity by green energies. The question is if nuclear power should be considered clean or not. One thing is for sure. It is catastrophically dangerous.

Enjoy reading the article about the rise in wind and solar energy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60917445

Topic Reading-Vol.3667-4/26/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Self driving car guidance to be put in Highway Code

Sooner or later, you’ll be able to drive your car hands-free. Actually, the technology is already available and has been tested to prove its safety and practicality. It’s just a matter of regulatory approval as to under what conditions autonomous driving can be used and needs to be disengaged. In the UK, hands-free driving will soon be permitted on congested motorways provided that the driver can take control of the vehicle whenever required. The driver can watch videos that are projected on the driving monitor, which could immediately turn back to the driving mode when necessary. That’s nice especially when the traffic is jammed during rush hours. But the driver still won’t be permitted to use a mobile phone because it won’t tell them when to resume manual driving. What a pity! But rules will change accordingly to the technology.

Enjoy reading the article and think about the luxury of hands-free driving!

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61155735

Topic Reading-Vol.3666-4/25/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Why Koreans could soon become a year younger

How old are you? The simple and universal answer to this question is the number of birthdays the person has had after their birth. So, until the first birthday, the person (baby) is considered zero years old. However, in South Korea, the answer could be zero, one, or two because there are three different ways to speak of one’s age. For most legal definitions and administrative processes, a person’s age is counted in accordance with the international counting system. If a baby is born on December 30, the baby is still zero on his or her first New Year’s Day. There is another official way to count age, which starts at zero and adds one on every January 1. In this way, a baby who is born on December 30 becomes one year old just in two days. Then, there is a more widely used method, which gives one upon birth and adds a year on every January 1. Under this method, any baby becomes two years old on his or her first New Year’s Day. Since it is confusing to have different age counting methods when it comes to eligibility for driver’s licenses, vaccination, and pension, the new administration is considering standardizing the way age is counted. Will Koreans become younger soon?

Enjoy reading the article and learning about how age is counted in Korea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61117434

Topic Reading-Vol.3665-4/24/2022

Dear MEL Topic Readers,  

Pet cloning is getting more popular despite the cost

Your pet is a family member. You adore your pet as much as you do. Unfortunately, the life expectancy of dogs and cats is usually not as long as yours unless you get a new pet at a later stage in your life. Some pet owners become so desperate to be with the same pet longer or forever. And where there is a strong need, there is an opportunity for a business solution. Pet cloning. If you take some DNA samples from your beloved pet dog, inject them into a donor egg, and put it into a surrogate mother, she will give birth to cloned puppies. Genetically, these puppies are identical to the original pet dog. You can enjoy very similar pet dogs to the original pet you adored. However, they may develop different behaviors or characters as they grow because they experience different situations and conditions. Some criticize such practices as unethical because there are many more dogs waiting to be adopted in shelters. Also, the cost to produce a cloned pet is as expensive as a luxury car. What do you think?

Enjoy reading the article and think if pet cloning will become more popular.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60924936