Topic Reading-Vol.4542-9/30/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

s AI the answer for better government services?

Nowadays, more and more customer services are automated with AI chatbots, especially after the emergence of ChatGPT. It provides plain, easy-to-understand, credible-sounding responses within a blink of an eye. However, such AI-generated responses aren’t always reliable or accurate unless their language models are closely updated, monitored, and retrained. This is quite essential for government services where accountability is uncompromisable. Estonia, the front-runner in digital services, uses Natural Language Processing, NLP, whose algorithms break down a request into small segments, identify keywords, and infer what users want. Though the system isn’t as flexible or human-like as ChatGPT, its responses are more dependable. After all, we are still at the dawn of AI development and adoption. Sooner or later, AI will become more sophisticated, accountable, and responsible.

Read the article and learn how AI can be used in government services.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmllxl89jlwo

Topic Reading-Vol.4541-9/29/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Is filtered water healthier than tap water?

In developing countries where access to clean drinking water is hard to gain, water filters are very effective at stopping bacteria like E.coli and Legionella. They could save many lives, especially of children and infants. However, tap water is safe to drink for countries and regions where it is tightly regulated, processed, and delivered. Yet many people use water filters to improve safety, taste, and smell. For example, water filters reduce lead from water that comes out of rusty water pipes. Also, filters can help remove PFAS, or forever chemicals” that persist in our bodies and could lead to health problems like liver damage, obesity, fertility issues, and cancer. In the meantime, water filters could also remove beneficial minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, and iron. Since there are many types of water filters, you may clarify the purpose of filtering water if you ever want to use one.

Read the article and learn how water filters could help improve our lives.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240417-is-filtered-water-healthier-than-tap-water

Topic Reading-Vol.4540-9/28/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Would you let AI plan your next holiday?

As AI becomes a helpful tool for planning activities, more people are using AI to plan their trips. There are AI-powered tools specialized for travel planning, including AI Trip Builder, Trip Planner AI, Just Ask Layla, and Romie by Expedia. Depending on your requests, they provide recommended plans and even itineraries for your trip, including transportation, points of interest, restaurants, and activities for adults or kids. They seem to give helpful and personalized recommendations just in a few seconds, which might take hours to research individually. However, such information is only as good as the AI planner is trained on. Also, some AI planners just search for information on the web, which might not have been verified. Then how should you use AI travel planning tools?

Read the article and learn how AI tools might help you plan your next trip.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3qp15x73o

Topic Reading-Vol.4539-9/27/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Scientists looked deep beneath the Doomsday Glacier. What they found spells potential disaster for the planet

Located east of Mount Murphy, Thwaites Glacier is a broad and vast Antarctic glacier. The Florida-sized, 1,000-meter-deep glacier is often described as part of the weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet because of its vulnerability to irreversible retreat and collapse even under relatively little warming. It is also dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier” and has been closely monitored because of its potential impact on global sea level rise. For now, the outflow from the glacier accounts for 4% of global sea level rise, but if the melting accelerates further, it could increase sea levels by over 60 cm. Once that happens, the vast Antarctic ice sheet the glacier has been holding would collapse and raise sea levels by meters. Recently, scientists used underwater robots to study how fast the Doomsday Glacier is melting and when it might collapse. They found that the retreat of the glacier has accelerated for the last three decades and ice loss is speeding up. Has the world already passed the tipping point?

Read the article and learn about the status and potential impact of the vast glacier in Antarctica.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/climate/doomsday-glacier-thwaites-melt-sea-level-rise/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4538-9/26/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

‘Panda Dogs’: Chinese zoo goes viral for luring visitors with painted pups

The Chow Chow is a spitz-type dog breed originally from Northern China. The breed has a very dense double coat, and its fur is very thick. The standard colors for Chow Chows are black, blue, red, cream, and cinnamon.  Image

The giant panda has black fur on its ears, limbs, shoulders, and around the eyes, and the rest of its coat is white. So, a Chow Chow dog won’t look like a giant panda cub. But when fluffy Cow Cow dogs are painted in black and white, they look like giant panda cubs. That is what a zoo in southern Guangdong province in China did to lure zoo visitors. The sign shows that the dogs are Panda Dogs. A video shot by a visitor went viral on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. The Panda Dogs are drawing much more attention than when they were just Chow Chow dogs. Whether they like the new coat color or increased attention is unknown, but the zoo certainly enjoys having more visitors only by painting the dogs. But isn’t it against animal welfare to paint dogs to entertain zoo visitors?

Read the article and see the photo and video of Panda Dogs in a zoo in China.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/travel/guangdong-china-panda-dog-zoo-intl-hnk/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4537-9/25/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Banana wine brings sweet taste of success to Malawi farmers

Bordered by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique, Malawi is a small landlocked country in Southeastern Africa, about the same size as North Korea. Its GDP per capita, the total value of goods and services per person, is among the lowest in the world. Over 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, and sellable agricultural products have been limited to tobacco, cotton, and tea. These days, global warming and extreme heating are ripening bananas faster, causing losses for banana farmers. So, in order to cope with climate change, banana farmers in northern Malawi formed a cooperative to make use of over-ripe bananas for business. Banana wine. They peel overripe bananas, cut them into small pieces, mix them with sugar, yeast, raisins, and water, and put lemons to cover the wine. The wine has a slightly sweet and fruity taste with a light lemon and banana flavor. As this innovative banana wine becomes popular, the cooperative is hoping to buy machines to increase production. What a sweet idea!

Read the article and learn what banana wine tastes like for customers and producers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly35nvk9n7o

Topic Reading-Vol.4536-9/24/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Norway sees electric cars outnumber petrol models

Norway is rich in oil and natural gas, most of which is exported. It is the world's 5th largest oil exporter and 3rd largest natural gas exporter. In the meantime, it is one of the most progressive countries to reduce fossil-fuel vehicles on the roads. While other European countries are putting off the schedules to switch to zero-carbon vehicles, Norway is still on track to end the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2025. In fact, most new cars sold in the country are already electric vehicles, and over half of the 2.8 million privately registered vehicles are now all-electric. Tax breaks along with free parking, tolls, and charging are some of the incentives to drive EVs, which are mostly funded by oil and natural gas exports. Can oil-rich Persian Gulf states do the same instead of just constructing skyscrapers and mega-airports?

Read the article and learn how Norway is switching to EVs so smoothly.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx25ljxpygeo