Topic Reading-Vol.2283-7/12/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Affirmative action: Trump 'to scrap' college racial bias policy

Preferential treatment to a certain group of people could mean unfair treatment to others, even though it was intended to maintain the diversity of the academic environment. Ever since an executive order to give preferential treatment to a disadvantaged group of people on federal hiring was signed by JFK back in 1961, affirmative action has been debated intensely especially for college admission guidelines. For example, students of affluent Asian-American families tend to score higher grades and advance to higher education because of their families’ intense focus on education compared with those of Latinos and African Americans families. As a result, prestigious universities like Harvard, whose admission rate is as low as 6%, have more qualified applicants from certain racial and family backgrounds over others. So, they set non-explicit guidelines to keep the diverse environment on their campus, which has made Asian-American students feel unfair.

While the world is becoming more diverged, the gap between the rich and poor seems to be widening and become overwhelming. And in the U.S., this topic is so controversial that each administration seems to have taken different actions.

Enjoy reading and think what is fair to all, opportunity or result.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44703874

Topic Reading-Vol.2282-7/11/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

South Korea cuts its work limit from 68 hours a week to 52

How much is hardworking and how long is overworking? South Korean workers seem to work too long. On average, they worked over 2,000 hours in 2017, the third-longest after Mexico and Costa Rica among OECD countries. That’s nearly 50% longer than its economic rival, Germany. Why do they work so long? Is that a way to show their loyalty to their employers or to compete with their co-workers? Are they all so ambitious to be successful in their careers or is that because of their collective culture?

Working long hours could cause physical, mental and social problems. Productivity and efficiency decrease, the stress level goes up and mistakes and errors increase, and fertility rate declines. In fact, an average Korean woman has only 1.2 children, the society is rapidly aging.

So, the lawmakers finally made a drastic move by limiting the maximum work hours per week from 68 to 52, a staggering 24% reduction!

Will this abandon a place for a retreat like “prison for people seeking peace and quiet”?

Enjoy reading and think what makes people work harder and longer.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/02/health/south-korea-work-hours/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2281-7/10/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Koko, the gorilla who mastered sign language, has died

She was a female western lowland gorilla born and grown in California. She was named Hanabiko, meaning fireworks child in Japanese, because she was born on the fourth of July. She understood 1,000 English words and communicated with 2,000 Gorilla Sign Language, a modified version of American Sign Language (ASL).

Koko demonstrated not only her intelligence to humans but also maternity to her pets. In fact, she adopted five kittens in her life. She named them All Ball, Lipstick, Smoky, Miss Black and Miss Grey respectively and cared for them as if they were baby gorillas. When she was signed that the first adopted cat was killed in a car accident, she signed "Bad, sad, bad" and "Frown, cry, frown, sad".

Indeed, Koko showed cognitive abilities and emotional capacity of the gorilla. She passed away unexpectedly but peacefully in her sleep about two weeks before her 47^th birthday.

Enjoy reading and learn what a gorilla can do.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/21/health/koko-gorilla-death-trnd/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2280-7/9/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

First confirmed image of the birth of a planet

Far away from our solar system in the Centaurus constellation, a newborn yet still forming planet was discovered. By using a coronagraph to block the light from the young dwarf star PDS 70 light, two teams of researchers captured an image of the disk and the planet. It is a gigantic gas planet that is at least a few times the mass of Jupiter, but it takes 120 years to orbit its star because of the distance from the star that is equivalent as the one of Uranus. Despite the distance, the newly forming planet is over twice as hot as our hottest planet, Venus.

You may wonder why this discovery is so significant. That’s because the processes behind early stages of planetary evolution have never been clearly observed. If such observation is realized over time, we might be able to learn how the earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago.

Enjoy reading and learn about this baby planet that is 200 million light years away from earth.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/02/world/newborn-planet-image-study/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2279-7/8/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Beer is being rationed in the UK

Is carbon dioxide, or CO2, good or bad? While it mustn’t increase in the air to curve global warming, carbon dioxide is necessary for our daily lives.

CO2 prolongs shelf life of food like meat because it slows the growth of bacteria. Without it, the shelf life becomes at least a day shorter. It is also used to stun chickens and port before slaughter. And CO2 gas carbonate drinks like water, cola, and beer. Can you imagine non-carbonated cola or beer?

So, what if there was a shortage of commercial and industrial CO2? In fact, some beer brewers in the U.K. were left no choice but to allocate the amount of beer to deliver to their retailers because they were unable to secure enough CO2 to keep up with their production. Also, some meat producers are using electric stunning instead before slaughtering cattle and chickens.

Indeed, modern lifestyle produces and uses CO2 a lot.

Enjoy reading and learn what CO2 does to our lives.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/27/news/co2-shortage-uk-beer/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2278-7/7/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

International Asteroid Day: Are we ready if an asteroid strikes Earth?

Have asteroids struck our planet? Yes, many times. Most recently, a 20-meter near-earth object, or NEO, entered the atmosphere and exploded over Russia in 2013 and caused substantial damages to a town called Chelyabinsk. The light from the meteor was brighter than the Sun and the energy released by the impact was about 30 times of that of the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. And of course, there was an asteroid of the size of a mountain that hit earth 66 million years ago wiped out 80% of life on earth including most of the dinosaurs.

So, when will the next impact like that occur? Fortunately, there aren’t any known or detected NEOs that could post an immediate, significant threat as of now. Though a number of asteroids hit our planet every day, most of them are so small that they burn up in the atmosphere. But there are more and larger asteroids that could cause a significant damage or even catastrophe to the planet. NASA has been working with other space agencies of the world trying to detect and predict any sign of life-threatening collision. They are hoping to give a pre-warning of such event as early as 10 years before the impact.

Is a 10-year notice too short or too long? What about announcing a year before next election?

Enjoy reading and learn about space objects near Earth.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/29/world/international-asteroid-day-space-missions/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.2277-7/6/2018

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Hunting the people who kill elephants

Poachers catch and kill animals illegally on someone else's land to get valuable parts of them, such as elephant’s ivory and scale and Rhino’s horn, which are used to produce decorative items, leather, and medicine. Since the demand for such items is high compared to the supply, they are highly valued and traded in the black market. So, there are poachers who hunt elephants and rhinos in Africa. Though the number of such animal killers isn’t large, they can kill quite a few numbers of such wildlife animals. In fact, according to a 2014 study, the population of elephants in central Africa dropped by 64% only in 10 years.

Also, there are people and organizations that transport such valuable items to markets of demand, such as China and Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, as the economy of these countries grows, so does the number of poaching of elephants and rhinos.

Killers, traffickers, and sellers. They are all part of the supply chain of killing wildlife animals. And of course, there are buyers who reward them for their risks and work with money.

Enjoy reading and think about which part of the chain the cause of this cruel practice really is.

https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=hunting-the-people-who-kill-elephants