レアジョブ英会話 Daily News Article Podcast

At a time when productivity means optimizing every second and screens blur the line between work and home, some people are slowing down and disconnecting by looking at communication devices from the past.

Tactile activities ranging from writing letters and typewriter clubs to TikTok communities showcasing calligraphy skills and wax seals are giving retro writing instruments a resurgence. More than quaint throwbacks, the pursuits provide their enthusiasts with opportunities to reduce their technology use, be more intentional with time, and build meaningful connections with others.

I feel as though my pen pals are my friends. I don't think of them much differently than if I were chatting with a friend on the phone, in a coffee shop, or at another person's house, said Melissa Bobbitt, 42, a devoted letter-writer who corresponds with about a dozen people from her home in Claremont, California, and has had up to 40 pen pals at one time. Focusing on one person and really reading what they are saying, and sharing what's on your heart is almost like a therapy session.

In a society shaped by constant availability, hands-on hobbies like writing letters and scrapbooking require focus and patience. The act of picking up a pen, sealing an envelope with wax, and laying out pages may yield aesthetically pleasing results, but it also creates a space for reflection.

Stephania Kontopanos, a 21-year-old student in Chicago, said it can be hard to put her phone and computer away, especially when it seems all of her friends and peers are on social media and her classes and personal life revolve around being online. There are times when I'm with my friends and at dinner, I'll realize we are all on our phones, Kontopanos said, adding that she tries to put her phone down at those moments.

Writing and sending letters is nostalgic for KiKi Klassen, who lives in Ontario, Canada. In October 2024, Klassen launched the Lucky Duck Mail Club, a subscription-based monthly mail service that sends participants a piece of her art, an inspiring quote, and a message. She says her membership includes more than 1,000 people across, at most, 36 countries.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Sleep is usually associated with complex animals with brains and nervous systems. But new research suggests it may be far older and far more basic than previously thought.

Scientists at Bar Ilan University in Israel studying jellyfish and sea anemones have found evidence of sleep-like states in animals without brains, helping explain why sleep may have evolved in the first place.

Unlike humans and other mammals, jellyfish have no brain and no eyes. Instead, it has a simple nerve net, a loose network of neurons distributed throughout its body. Despite this basic anatomy, scientists have found that jellyfish follow regular cycles of activity and rest that meet the biological criteria used to define sleep.

To study this behavior, researchers monitored jellyfish and sea anemones continuously using infrared video, allowing them to observe movement during both day and night without disturbing natural light conditions.

“The key finding is that you have a very basic organism, doesn’t have a brain or eyes. They still can sleep,” says Oren Levy, a life sciences professor at Bar Ilan University. The researchers found that jellyfish sleep for roughly eight hours a day, mostly at night, with short rest periods around midday. Sea anemones, another simple marine animal, also showed clear sleep patterns, though their rest occurred mainly during the day.

To confirm these were true sleep states rather than simple inactivity, scientists tested how the animals responded to stimulation. The most significant findings came when researchers examined what was happening inside the animals’ nerve cells.

Using specialized imaging techniques, they measured DNA damage within neurons during wakefulness and sleep. DNA carries the genetic instructions that allow cells to function. Damage to DNA can occur as a result of normal metabolic activity, environmental stress, or prolonged cellular activity. If that damage is not repaired, it can impair cell function or lead to cell death.

In both jellyfish and sea anemones, DNA damage in neurons increased while the animals were awake. During sleep, levels of damage decreased, suggesting that sleep allows time for cellular repair processes to take place.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Crowds flooded the freshly opened showroom floors on Day 2 of the CES and were met by thousands of robots, AI companions, assistants, health longevity tech, wearables, and more.

Allergic to dogs or cats but still dreaming of a furry companion? Chinese tech brand Ollobot may have an answer in its new “cyber-pet,” OlloNi, which debuted at the show. The company says the furry AI robot on wheels is meant to be a warm and expressive alternative to the rigid humanoid home robot.

A screen mounted at the robot’s neck acts as its face, allowing it to make eye contact with humans and respond with thousands of dynamic expressions designed to mirror human emotion and interaction, according to the company.

Volunteers at Ollobot’s booth got a reaction when they scratched behind the purple robot’s 'ears' and its 'eyes' instantly widened, like it was thrilled.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride—that’s exactly what some conference attendees did at Strutt’s booth.

Curious volunteers sat blindfolded in the robotics company’s new self-driving personal mobility chair called the EV1, which senses its surroundings and navigates on its own. With the push of a button and a forward lever, the chair guided riders through a small course, looping them around without requiring any active control.

Tony Hong, CEO and founder of the Singapore-based Strutt, told The Associated Press that the chair has a full suite of sensors that helps it avoid bumps, walls, people, and other obstacles, adjusting in real-time as it drives.

In the Nexbie booth, the company is hoping their 3D printed shoes will be a hit with customers seeking comfort, breathability, and a unique style. A mesh-like web of a special plastic forms the entire shoe from sole to uppers in a uniform construction. The brand has adapted the technology into a variety of styles, from leisure to athletic, in a variety of colors.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the entire United Nations climate-fighting apparatus takes America's environmental isolation to another level and is likely to damage both the United States and the world as the planet flirts with ecological tipping points, experts say.

Leaders from around the world say the United States will be left behind as more than 190 other nations join in what they call a blossoming green economy that is transitioning from polluting coal, oil, and gas to cleaner and cheaper solar, wind, and other renewable energies.

The action on January 7 starts the process to pull the U.S. out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It's the main way nations negotiate, monitor, and enforce agreements to curb worsening climate change, and is a bigger step than Trump's 2017 and 2025 withdrawals from the bedrock 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at limiting warming.

The framework was negotiated in Brazil in 1992, championed by Republican U.S. President George H.W. Bush, and ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate. It's what Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden used to justify signing and reactivating the Paris deal without needing Senate approval. The Trump administration also withdrew from a United Nations climate science panel, a biodiversity-saving effort, and the Green Climate Fund to help poor nations, as well as many other international collaborations.

It is a more serious step, definitely. The world loses a lot, and it is very damaging, said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. The U.S. turns its back against science, against global collaboration, against any kind of action on climate change. So, yes, in that sense, it's more fundamental and more damaging than earlier efforts.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in announcing the U.S. withdrawal, said the Trump administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation's sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The origins of snowboarding go back to Christmas Day 1965, when an engineer named Sherman Poppen strapped two skis together to give his daughters something to do. He called it a snurfer and started selling them the next year.

Jake Burton came along, refined the toy, and helped turn snowboarding into a mass-market sport. Along the way, superstars like Shaun White and Chloe Kim redefined what could be done in the air, and the sport is always reinventing itself in terms of tricks.

There are three snowboarding events in what's called the park (halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air) and two more that involve racing (snowboardcross and parallel giant slalom or PGS). The park contests are the core of the sport. They are judged events that include qualifying and finals, where riders are scored on the complexity of the tricks and how high they fly. Snowboardcross is a rugged form of four-wide racing down a winding course, and PGS is the closest this sport has to Alpine skiing.

All eyes are on Chloe Kim's recovery from a shoulder injury to see if she can win an unprecedented third straight title in the halfpipe. On the men's side, the best rider standing in the way of Japanese star Ayumu Hirano's repeat bid on the pipe is Australian Scotty James. Esther Ledecka of the Czech Republic is the GOAT and two-time defending champion in parallel giant slalom. American Red Gerard, the 2018 slopestyle champion, is in good form and looking for a return to the podium after finishing fourth in China.

This sport truly put itself on the map when the American trio of Ross Powers, Danny Kass, and JJ Thomas swept the halfpipe podium in 2002 at the Salt Lake Games. The sport then belonged to White, whose third gold medal in 2018 in a narrow victory over Hirano stands out as one of the most dramatic contests the sport has seen. White retired after finishing fourth in an emotional farewell at the 2022 Games.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Dogs are great at learning action commands like sit and stay. They're less good at remembering the names of things, like what their squeaky or stuffed toys are called. Only an elite group of gifted word-learner dogs can retain the names of hundreds of toys. Scientists know of about 50 such pooches, but they aren't yet sure what's behind their wordy skills.

Now, new research is pushing the limits of what the dogs can do. Scientists already knew that these extraordinary pups could learn the names of their stuffed pizza and doughnut toys from playtime with their owners. In the latest study, they discovered that the pups can also understand new names by eavesdropping.

Ten gifted dogs—including a Border Collie named Basket and a Labrador named Augie—watched their owners hold a new toy and talk to another person about it. Then the pups were told to go to another room and retrieve that specific toy from a pile of many others. Seven out of the 10 dogs successfully learned the names of their new toy stingrays and armadillos from passively listening to their owners.

This is the first time that we see a specific group of dogs that are able to learn labels from overhearing interactions, said study author Shany Dror with Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and the University of Veterinary Medicine in Austria.

The pups even succeeded when the owners put the toy in an opaque box and then spoke to another person about it, creating a disconnect between seeing the object and hearing its name. Only a few other animals, like parrots and apes, have demonstrated a knack for this kind of eavesdropping. It's also essential to human development: Children under age 2 can pick up new words from listening, including ones their parents may not have intended.

However, these special dogs are fully grown, so the brain mechanisms enabling them to eavesdrop are likely different from those of humans, Dror said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The crisp crinkle of fallen leaves beneath your feet. The swish and trickle of water moving through a stream. A breath of crisp, fresh air. Spending time in nature can be invigorating or produce feelings of peace and calm. But many professions allow little time or access to the outdoors during the workday.

After a youth spent climbing trees and playing soccer, Anna Rose Smith found it difficult when her first job as a psychotherapist in Utah required working in a windowless office. So, she spent her lunch breaks outside, walking to nearby fountains or gardens. She picked up flower petals or leaves from the ground and brought them back to her desk, where she would listen to recorded bird songs, sometimes incorporating the soothing chirps into sessions with clients.

It helps to just have that reminder that these things are going on outside, Smith said. I can remember, no matter what happens in this room or with my job today, there's still going to be birds singing.

Getting to trees or shorelines can be challenging during work hours, especially in cold weather and urban environments. But there are ways to enjoy the outdoors and to bring the natural world into your place of work, even if it's a windowless cubicle.

Scheduled meetings don't have to take place indoors. An in-person appointment can happen on a park bench. Smith sometimes suggests a walk and talk meeting at a nearby greenway.

Mobile devices mean virtual get-togethers aren't limited to conventional workspaces. You can also attend Zoom meetings while walking a wooded path.

Atlantic Packaging, a sustainable packaging manufacturer headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, encourages employees to hold meetings in the courtyards of its facilities or while taking a walk, said Becca Schusler, the company's wellness director.

Separate from meetings, a group of Atlantic Packaging employees gets together for Walk it out Wednesdays, a weekly time to take strolls together. It helps provide a quick break in the day where they can reset and refocus, Schusler said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

More artificial intelligence is being implanted into Gmail as Google tries to turn the world's most popular email service into a personal assistant that can improve writing, summarize far-flung information buried in inboxes, and deliver daily to-do lists.

The new AI features announced could herald a pivotal moment for Gmail, a service that transformed email when it was introduced nearly 22 years ago. Since then, Gmail has amassed more than 3 billion users to become nearly as ubiquitous as Google's search engine.

Gmail's new AI options will only be available in English within the United States for starters, but the company is promising to expand the technology to other countries and other languages as the year unfolds.

The most broadly available tool will be a “Help Me Write” option designed to learn a user's writing style so it can personalize emails and make real-time suggestions on how to burnish the message.

Google is also offering subscribers who pay for its Pro and Ultra services access to technology that mirrors the AI Overviews that have been built into its search engine since 2023. The expansion will enable subscribers to pose conversational questions in Gmail's search bar to get instant answers about information they are trying to retrieve from their inboxes.

In what could turn into another revolutionary step, “AI Inbox” is also being rolled out to a subset of “trusted testers” in the U.S. When it's turned on, the function will sift through inboxes and suggest to-do lists and topics that users might want to explore.

“This is us delivering on Gmail proactively having your back,” said Blake Barnes, a Google vice president of product.

All of the new technology is tied to Google's latest AI model, Gemini 3, which was unleashed into its search engine late last year. The upgrade, designed to turn Google search into a “thought partner,” has been so well received that it prompted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company makes the popular ChatGPT chatbot, to issue a “code red” following its release.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Kenza Bennani, a Moroccan fashion designer, has made it her mission to modernize the traditional caftan. The garment recently made it onto the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

A variety of modern caftans are displayed in the New Tangier boutique, each with its own unique color, fabric, and cut, inspired by Moroccan heritage but designed for everyday wear, not only for special occasions.

We design modern Moroccan clothes with a focus on different origins, as we are a crossroad of different civilizations historically. And so we try to reinterpret these different cuts and different heritages in a way that is contemporary, says Bennani.

The work is done in her grandmother's house. It's here where she sits and sketches new designs, carefully selecting the right color and texture from fabric swatches. The result is a little different from the caftans her ancestors would have worn.

“We're focusing on the form and the function of traditional Moroccan clothes and not focusing on the ornamental aspect, which is generally what is expected of Moroccan clothing, and that way that allows us to really kind of highlight the beauty of the cut and the modernity of the cuts, and the fact that they're extremely body-friendly, they're unisex, they're the same shapes for men and women, and we try to just really don't invent anything new. We're just really kind of digging into the history of Moroccan clothing,” she says.

Her work has won the praise of Hicham Bouzid, creative director of the cultural agency “Think Tanger.” For him, the Moroccan caftan is a symbol of national identity, passed down from mother to daughter, and from master to apprentice, for over eight centuries.

Artisans bring her designs to life in the basement of the house, tracing the pattern on fabric, sewing the cloth together, and carefully cutting each piece. Their skill is just as important as the designer's. The process of creating a single garment takes between 18 and 35 hours. Bennani is very strict about what materials are used.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

In a sparse shack on the rural roadside in Kiambu, at the edge of metropolitan Nairobi, Safari Martins uses unconventional techniques to cut hair.

On the shack’s wooden walls hang a shovel, an iron, agricultural shears, and a wrench.

“I just use unconventional tools,” Martins says, smiling, moments before sliding a razor-sharp shovel edge across his client Ian Njenga’s head, lopping off a swath of hair in the first of a series of moves that yields a surprisingly clean haircut.

Unconventional tools are a hallmark for Martins, who is one of Kenya’s most recognizable barbers with around 1 million followers on each of his Instagram and TikTok accounts, where he is known as Chief Safro.

As he makes precision cuts across Njenga’s head, a helper stands to the side, capturing every moment from different angles on a smartphone camera.

Influencer barbers are a new trend in Kenya, where social media usage has exploded in recent years and platforms like TikTok are being used both for entertainment and as a lucrative side hustle.

Born in Rwanda and now based in Nairobi, Martins started barbering in high school in 2018. Using borrowed clippers, he began offering trims outside classrooms and in cramped dormitories. Five years later, he added a camera and dropped a conventional trimmer—and never turned back.

Martins went viral for zany barbering methods, but he has increasingly incorporated traditional African folk tales into voiceovers on his videos. “I’m motivated by African culture, by African stories,” he says, adding that one of his tools, a sharpened iron box, was blessed by village elders.

The barber’s staying power has come from the haircuts themselves, which his customers say they love—and the chance to be featured on one of Kenya’s most magnetic social media accounts. “If I compare him with other barbers, his talent is next level,” says Njenga, who first visited Martins last year.

“When I get shaved here, I get very comfortable, while walking in the streets, I get very confident.” The draw of a unique barbering experience and five minutes of social media fame is enough for customers to push past the price.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.