Topic Reading-Vol.5266-9/24/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Why caffeine makes some people buzz - and others barely notice

Regular coffee, Nescafé, espresso, Starbucks latte, energy drink, Coke, black tea, green tea, and chocolate all contain some caffeine. It doesn’t give you extra energy itself but boosts alertness, helps you stay awake and focus, and improves your mood and reaction times. While some people can slumber shortly after drinking coffee, others have difficulty sleeping even hours after their last cup. Why so? Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that blocks sleep-promoting chemicals in the brain and triggers a wave of alert energy, but how long it stays in the body varies by person. Ancestry seems to affect it to some extent, and smokers and regular coffee drinkers are found to be less sensitive to caffeine. Other factors also affect caffeine tolerance, such as medicines, pregnancy, and DNA. Knowing how caffeine-tolerant you are and how much your favorite drinks or snacks contain caffeine is one thing. Controlling the timing and amount of caffeinated food/drink consumption is another thing to manage your caffeine and sleep balance.

Read the article and learn what caffeine is and does to your body and mind.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gkd4zw564o

Topic Reading-Vol.5265-9/23/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

The humans are rejecting the machines that were supposed to help them

Nowadays, most fast-food restaurants and coffee shops have touch kiosk screens or  QR codes to take orders and process payments. At many supermarkets and convenience stores, shoppers pick up merchandise, scan the items, put them in bags, and make payments all by themselves. Customers are rarely greeted or thanked by humans. Fast food and retail businesses have automated these processes to improve efficiency, believing that customers would be pleased by machines. However, these touch screens and QR codes don’t seem to have made these processes any faster or the shopping experience any better. Actually, customers have missed the chance to be greeted, supported, or appreciated by human staff, and businesses have realized that customer engagement is valuable to customers’ experience. Indeed, good employees are not just labor costs but a valuable resource and asset for businesses. Then will smiling humanoids provide better customer experiences than kiosks?

Read the article and think about what you expect and get when you shop at a fast-food restaurant or supermarket.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/17/business/technology-retail-food-economy

Topic Reading-Vol.5264-9/22/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

To curb 'killer' machines in the age of AI

These days, voices calling for regulations on AI usage have increased. Public infrastructure disruptions, social service shutdowns, and business blackouts caused by AI attacks are all catastrophic to our modern lives. What about warfare and weapons? Modern warfare has been reshaped by the broader use of AI, operating unmanned vehicles like drones, identifying targets, analyzing intelligence, controlling weapons, and supporting decision-making. In warfare with AI, the time to verify information and exercise judgment is compressed, which could make commanders or operators misjudge or overreact to potential threats without verifying the underlying rationale or logic. Also, AI is vulnerable to changes in the situation, deepfakes, data poisoning, and network interruptions. For example, it could misjudge its own troops as enemies, or civilian vehicles as military ones. Such misjudgments are more critical when it comes to nuclear weapons. As AI evolution outpaces guidance and regulations, the risk of using AI in warfare increases. Furthermore, if AI-powered weapons are used in the wrong hands, like terrorists, the consequences could be disastrous.

Read the article and learn how disruptive the wrong use of AI in warfare could be.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202609/16/WS6aa9ecb3e4b06d4aa055e3e2.html

Topic Reading-Vol.5263-9/21/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

More than 100,000 people in Japan are now aged 100 or older

Each year on the third Monday of September, Japan commemorates Respect for the Aged Day to honor elderly citizens and celebrate longevity, and announces the number of people aged 100 or older. The first centenarian survey found there were  153 centenarians in 1963, and the figure increased to 1,000 in 1981 and 10,000 by 1998. This year, the fast-aging nation recorded over 100,000 people whose ages are 100 or older for the first time, up almost 8,000 from the previous year. About 88% of them are women, as their average life expectancy is over 88, ranking among the highest globally, while that of men is about 82. The country’s longevity is attributed to wholesome diets and a well-covered healthcare system. However, Japan’s population is aging and shrinking rapidly. Last year, only 671,000 babies were born, while 1,589,000 died, losing 918,000 people. With the total fertility rate below 1.2, the population will decline from the current 123 million to fewer than 100 million by 2050, nearly 40% of whom will be aged 65 or older. How many centenarians will there be then? Who will care for them then, their also-aged children, foreign care workers, or AI-empowered humanoids?

Read the article and learn about Japan’s century-old population.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmzezj5e18xxo

Topic Reading-Vol.5262-9/20/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

Here's how to catch up on sleep, the right way

Sleep is one of the most important functions in our lives. Adults should get at least seven hours of good sleep each night to allow the body to repair tissues, regulate vital hormones, and maintain cardiovascular and immune health. A good night's sleep also clears toxic waste, consolidates memories, and repairs neural connections, so that you’ll regain energy, feel refreshed, focus better, and become more productive. When you didn’t sleep enough during the week, you may try to catch up on the sleep deficit by going to bed too early or sleeping in too much on the weekend. While extra weekend sleep helps you repay some of the sleep deficit, it confuses your body clock and makes it more difficult to have a sound sleep that night. Indeed, waking up and getting light exposure at a different time confuses your circadian rhythm like jet lag. To help you recover from the sleep deficit, you may try getting up a little later in the morning or taking a short nap during the day on the weekend.

Read the article and learn the tips to recover from a sleep deficit.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260911-should-you-try-to-catch-up-on-sleep-at-the-weekend

Topic Reading-Vol.5261-9/19/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

What are the five pros and cons of artificial intelligence?

AI is so helpful and convenient. If you ask a question, AI searches for relevant information and finds you the answer right away. If you assign a task, AI generates a document, chart, or summary in a matter of seconds. It boosts productivity and helps complete tasks faster and more easily. In the meantime, workers’ roles change, and new skills are required to work with AI. In the world with AI, young graduates are facing difficulty getting entry-level jobs, and existing workers are required to keep upskilling. Also, generative AI can create fake text, voices, images, and videos to deceive people or security systems. As recently reported, AI can hack other systems and steal or destroy information or operations. Environmentally, AI is very costly. It requires a large amount of electricity to run and water to cool the servers. AI data centers also create noise pollution as they emit a constant hum 24/7/365. AI is reshaping workplaces, our lives, and the environment, and just like smartphones, we cannot live without it anymore.

Read the article and learn what AI does to and for humans.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/13/what-are-the-five-pros-and-cons-of-artificial-intelligence

Topic Reading-Vol.5260-9/18/2026

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Karaoke for one: China’s $1 trillion ‘loneliness economy’ gives a glimpse of the world’s future

Singlehood has been treated as a bridge stage between independence and marriage for young people. However, more people are now choosing to live by themselves longer and enjoy lonely lifestyles. Thanks to smartphones, they can spend time on video games, video clips, micro dramas, and SNSs as long as they want and never feel lonely. If they feel like talking or chatting with someone, AI companions are there 24/7. And businesses are becoming more accommodating to singledom, especially in Japan, South Korea, and China. Individual food packages at convenience stores and even supermarkets, smaller dishes and hotpot for solo diners at restaurants, and phone-box-sized karaoke booths for lone singers, to name a few. The so-called “solo economy” is attracting businesses because singles tend to have bigger wallets for themselves. Also, since the populations are fast shrinking and more people choose not to form families in these countries, single-person households have become an important market for businesses.

Read the article and learn about the increasing economy in Eastern Asia.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/12/business/asia-loneliness-economy-intl-hnk-dst