Topic Reading-Vol.4573-10/31/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Iceland embraced a shorter work week. Here’s how it turned out

Work-life balance generally means the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family or for yourself. The shorter the time you work, the higher the well-being usually will be. Instead of working 40 hours a week in five days, working 35 hours might give you another weekend day or a shorter work hour each day. Whichever the workstyle might be, workers who were given shorter work hours responded positively about their work-life balance. Iceland is a Nordic island country with a population of 400,000 people. Though the size of the economy is small, its GDP per capita is ranked 8^th in the world, meaning Iceland’s productivity is very high. They tried to find out if they could maintain or improve productivity in shorter work hours. Researchers found there was no decline in productivity or economic growth but a significant improvement in workers’ well-being. Most people used to work six days a week and now they work five days. Why not four days?

Read the article and learn how reduced work hours could affect productivity and the economy.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/25/business/iceland-shorter-working-week-economy/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4572-10/30/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Millions joined a livestream selling tickets to space on a Chinese rocket

The first space tourist traveled to space aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001. The passenger paid USD 20 million for his eight-day space trip. In 2021, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and an aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin took a 10-minute sub-orbital spaceflight on his company’s space capsule. Sub-orbital spaceflight reaches outer space where there is very little gravity for minutes and comes back to the earth while orbital space flights circle the earth. Whichever the space trip might be, the tourists can enjoy a zero-gravity experience and a magnificent view of the mother planet from space. Space X, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are now repeatedly sending tourists to space at a price of hundreds of thousands of dollars per seat. Recently, a Chinese commercial space firm put on sale two $140,000 tickets for a 12-minute sub-orbital spaceflight scheduled in 2027 on a shopping platform, Taobao. The sale was witnessed by some three million viewers and the tickets were sold immediately.

Nowadays, traveling to space sounds no more extraordinary than climbing the highest peaks or exploring Antarctica. Will there soon be a frequent flyer program for space flight?

Read the article and learn about China’s first commercial space travel.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/25/china/china-space-tourism-ticket-sale-livestream-intl-hnk/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4571-10/29/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

Amid McDonald’s-linked E. coli outbreak, here are symptoms to watch for and ways to stay safe

Recently, dozens of people who ate the Quarter Pounder hamburger at McDonald’s reported the symptoms of E. coli, a type of bacteria. The contaminated ingredient seems to be the slivered onions, which are used primarily for the product and not other items. E. coli are found in many places, including in the environment, foods, water, and the intestines of people and animals. Most of them are harmless and are part of a healthy intestinal tract. They help us digest food, produce vitamins, and protect us from harmful germs. However, some E. coli can make people sick with diarrhea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, sepsis, and fever. Though most people can recover without treatment after several days or a week, some may need supportive care for symptoms and fluids for hydration. Then how can we prevent such contamination? For meat or seafood, heat thoroughly. For vegetables and fruits, wash them with water. Do not use utensils that have touched uncooked meat or seafood for other foods. Once you’ve realized the symptoms of E. coli infection like severe diarrhea, keep hydrated.

Read the article and learn about what E. coli is and does to us.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/24/health/mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-symptoms-treatment-wellness/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4570-10/28/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

How long can you stand like a flamingo? The answer may reflect your age, new study says

Does it matter how long you can stand on one leg? The answer is yes. Balance reflects how the body’s systems are working together and is essential to prevent injury. For example, if you can quickly balance your body when you make a misstep, you may be able to avoid falling on the ground. Unfortunately, the ability to physically balance your body declines as you age. Older people tend to lose balance easily and fall. Of course, it is not just leg balance that keeps one in good shape. Static, dynamic, and overall strength are all essential for physical health and strength. But flamingo standing is one way to check how well you can balance your body. If you can balance for shorter than five seconds on one leg, whether on your dominant or non-dominant one, you have a greater risk of falling. To achieve healthy aging, you want to be physically active and work on strength and balance. But be careful not to fall when you check your balance!

Read the article and learn how important to be able to stand on one leg.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/23/health/balance-one-leg-old-age-wellness/index.html

Topic Reading-Vol.4569-10/27/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

India’s start-ups look to villages to drive next leg of growth

Of India’s 1.4 billion-plus population, nearly 70%, or around 900 million people, reside in rural areas. Also, as many as 450 million mobile phones are being used outside cities, more than the entire North American population. Now, investors and entrepreneurs are looking at the next wave of growth opportunities in this underdeveloped market. But India is so diverse. There are nearly 20,000 different dialects and as many as 650,000 villages that have unique cultural identities. So one size doesn’t fit all. Still, the business potential for local dialects is nonnegligible. For example, a film company identified 18 dialects whose populations are large enough to create movies in the dialects. Yet the business models designed and succeeded in urban cities don’t always work in rural markets, the underdeveloped India’s rural markets are waiting for investments and businesses.

Read the article and learn about India’s next business frontier.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62gpp3dn15o

Topic Reading-Vol.4568-10/26/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers, 

From Wimbledon to VAR, is tech hurting the drama of sport?

A line judge is an official positioned near one of the lines of the court of tennis, volleyball, or badminton, who is responsible for indicating whether a ball or shuttle has landed in or out of the line. In the Wimbledon tennis championship, there are nine line judges at a time on the center court. A player is given three challenges against human judgment to ask for an electronic line call. As the accuracy and dependability of the electronic judging system have exceeded human eyes, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour has decided to replace human line judge with an electronic system starting next season. Wimbledon, the most prestigious tennis tournament, has been using line judges since 1877 but will no longer use the 300 line judges. When the electronic line call can overrule the human eye, why do human judges need to make a call in the first place? Electronic judging seems to be well accepted in other sports like football, but the video assistant referee (VAR) is not so well. Why?

Read the article and learn how technologies work in sports games.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dy4434nj3o

Topic Reading-Vol.4567-10/25/2024

Dear MEL Topic Readers,

How to build a nuclear tomb to last millennia

Radioactive waste is a byproduct of nuclear reactors, fuel processing plants, hospitals, and research facilities. The radioactivity of all radioactive waste weakens with time, not in years or even centuries but in hundreds of millennia. Since there are no viable technologies to weaken radio activities, we have no choice but to keep those radioactive wastes somewhere safe. Geological disposal facilities (GDFs) are planned underground structures to contain the most radioactive, thus the longest-lived nuclear waste. GDFs are built under 500 meters to 1 kilometer below the ground in geologically safe and stable places. There are planned or in development sites in the UK, France, Finland, and other 20 or so countries. In time, there will be safer, faster, and more efficient technologies to store or weaken radio activities. But for the time being, we bury nuclear waste like Emperor Qinshihuang's terracotta army or Tutankhamun’s tomb that lasted thousands of years. Would time solve the problem?

Read the article and learn about how nuclear waste is being kept.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241018-how-to-build-a-nuclear-tomb-to-last-millennia