Topic Reading-Vol.3252-3/7/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Nation rolls out blueprint for transport

In the US, there is the National Highway System that connects major cities and facilities. The whole system, including the Interstate and other highways, is nearly 260,000 km long, the largest highway system in the world. Also, there are about 5,000 airports that are used publicly in 50 states. However, when it comes to high-speed rail systems, there is only one that stretches a little over 700km connecting Washington D.C, New York, and Boston. Everything seems to be measured by return-on-investment basis, including the power lines, in the US, which has made the world's most prosperous country comparatively imbalanced in the transportation network.

Now, China has just announced a new ambitious plan for a transportation network that is going to be completed by 2035. The new blueprint includes a 300,000km-long national highway system, a 70,000km-long high-speed railway system, up from 38,000km today, 400 additional airports, and 25,000km of waterways in the world’s third-largest country by land. Amazing scale and speed to build and upgrade the transportation system even for modern China’s standard. Is Taiwan included in the blueprint?

While the US political leaders can see and think only until the next elections, Chinese leaders seem to have a much longer scope to guide the nation. By the way, Xi Jinping will be still in his early 80s in 2035, about the same age as Joe Biden when he will end his current term as the President of the US.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about this newly disclosed blueprint of China’s transport system.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202103/02/WS603d8adca31024ad0baabfd9.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3251-3/6/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro warns of young authors self-censoring out of 'fear

He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to the UK when he was five. He later became a UK citizen, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and received a knighthood in 2019. Over his four decades of writing career, he wrote only eight novels and one book of short stories. As he admitted, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is indeed a privileged and established author. Now, his long-awaited new book, Klara and the Sun, was published. It is about an AF, or artificial friend, who is bought as a companion for a 14-year-old girl who suffers from a possibly terminal illness. Like his renowned novel, “Never Let Me Go,” it is not written from his immediate experience. In fact, his first novel was about a Japanese mother who lost her daughter by suicide. It certainly was a bold attempt for a young man to write about the emotions of a mother. He now encourages young writers not to overly censor themselves or limit themselves within their immediate experience. Also, even though he is optimistic about the future of AI, he wonders if it might bring about the next big ideology like communism or Nazism whose consequences cannot be controlled by humans.

Enjoy reading the article from an interview with a Nobel prize laureate.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56208347

Topic Reading-Vol.3250-3/5/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Why Japan took so long to start Covid-19 vaccinations, even with the Olympics looming

The postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are due to start in July. There is every reason to roll out the Covid-19 vaccination process as soon as and as quickly as possible in Japan. However, the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which had already been approved by the US, UK, and even WHO, took months longer in Japan. It actually came after conducting a domestic test of 160 participants on February 14, six weeks after the WHO approval. Were 160 samples sufficient to enough to prove the safety and efficacy of the vaccine? Are Japanese people biologically so different from others in the world?

Japanese people, companies, and governments are all obsessed with flawless procedures, products, and services. That’s why Japanese products are of high quality and services are of high standard. But in turn, when it comes to innovating, introducing, or trying out new things or ideas, Japan is awfully slow because people always worry about the problems rather than the benefits first. Even though there were past incidents that made Japanese people concerned about the side effects of the vaccination, there seems to be an urgency to contain this highly infectious disease for lives, the economy, and the Olympic Games.

Read the article and learn about Japan’s skepticism about vaccination.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/26/asia/japan-covid-vaccination-program-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3249-3/4/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

A Taste of China: Poulet kung pao 

Kung Pao Chicken is one of the most popular Chinese dishes around the world, especially in the US. The spicy chicken dish is accompanied by peanuts, vegetables, and chili peppers in a mouthwatering Kung Pao sauce. While the original Sichuan version uses chicken as its primary ingredient, some foreign versions substitute chicken with pork or fish with less spicy sauce. If you look up the recipe for Kung Pao Chicken, there are plenty to choose from. But the recipe is just one thing. In China, cooking isn’t just for preparing meals but is also art.

Here is a video that shows how a skilled Chinese chef cooks this world's popular dish beautifully.

Enjoy watching the video to learn how an authentic Chinese dish is prepared.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202102/16/WS602b1910a31024ad0baa90ba.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3248-3/3/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Jaguar car brand to be all-electric by 2025

Jaguar is a classic British automobile brand under Jaguar Land Rover Limited, which is now a subsidiary of India’s Tata Motors Limited. The 87-year-old brand is a British icon of luxury automobiles and has been admired around the world. However, the company is small in the automotive industry where scale is essential for cost efficiency and technology investment. Nowadays, many countries have already announced to prohibit the sale of gas or diesel cars around 2030, which promoted auto manufacturers to shift the gear to accelerate the development of electric vehicles. For Jaguar and Land Rover, it is quite challenging as their vehicles are relatively larger and heavier than conventional fuel-efficient vehicles. But they were left no choice but to move toward electric and decided to do it fast. True. If fossil-fuel-driven cars are going to disappear sooner or later, why will you invest your money and resources on them? Then, customers will be more interested in newly developed models than the ones that are going to become obsolete soon. Will there be enough gas stations on the road to fuel conventional vehicles 10 years from now? At least, there seems to be less tailpipe CO2 emission from this luxury brand on the road soon.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about what challenges automotive companies are facing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56072019

Topic Reading-Vol.3247-3/2/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

The worldwide web as we know it may be ending

The World Wide Web, or WWW, is an information system where documents and other web resources are identified by URL and accesses over the Internet, which is a network of networks or private, public, academic, business, and government. In most democratic countries, users usually have free access to almost any information or content free of charge unless it is a paid content, such as newspapers, music, and movies. In the meantime, internet access is usually regulated and sometimes censored by the national government. For example, China is known for its Great Firewall of China, which blocks access to selected foreign websites, such as Google and Facebook, and also to slows down cross-border internet traffic. India bans the use of popular Chinese apps like Tik Tok. Recently, Australia proposed a law that requires Internet platformers like Facebook to pay publishers fees for access. As the world is becoming more protective in trade, business, technologies, and information, the worldwide web is becoming less universal. In fact, there already are countries that have a nationwide web instead of WWW.

Natural resources, intellectual properties, technologies, and IC chips are now part of the national security in many countries, so is access to information.

Enjoy reading the article and learn about what the WWW is like now and is going to be like in the future.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/tech/splinternet-tech-regulation-facebook/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.3246-3/1/2021

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

China court orders man to pay wife for housework in landmark case

How much intangible value should be assessed on household chores? It probably varies by the situation, such as household conditions, financial situations, partner relationships, family size, and traditions. When a couple lives by themselves and both work for the same amount of time, they can more easily agree to split the housework nearly evenly. But when a child is born, it becomes increasingly difficult to share the burdens in the same way, and it is often the mother who does more housework and childcare than the father. In some cases, she may have to stop working and dedicate herself to domestic burdens. And if the couple decides to be separated, how should such dedicated housework be compensated?

China introduced a civil code that assesses the intangible property value of housework that took into effect last month. In a recent ruling, a wife was given a one-off compensation for her dedicated housework during the marriage as intangible property value she contributed. Such compensation is now granted for child-raising, caring for elderly relatives, and assisting partners in their work in China. In this case, the total amount of the compensation was 50,000 yuan, about $7,700 for five years. It is nowhere enough for a Beijing resident to hire someone to do the housework or childrearing. But it surely makes Chinese men rethink what they can or should do at home.

Enjoy reading the article and think about how much intangible property value should be justified for your housework.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56178510