Author: asthapokhriyal033993

Wormhole

The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter.

Wormhole theory

Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn’t what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist’s solution to the equations in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a “white hole,” a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.

In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of “bridges” through space-time. These bridges connect two different points in space-time, theoretically creating a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance. The shortcuts came to be called Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes.

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“The whole thing is very hypothetical at this point,” said Stephen Hsu, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oregon, told our sister site, LiveScience. “No one thinks we’re going to find a wormhole anytime soon.”

Wormholes contain two mouths, with a throat connecting the two. The mouths would most likely be spheroidal. The throat might be a straight stretch, but it could also wind around, taking a longer path than a more conventional route might require.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.

Certain solutions of general relativity allow for the existence of wormholes where the mouth of each is a black hole. However, a naturally occurring black hole, formed by the collapse of a dying star, does not by itself create a wormhole.

Through the wormhole

Science fiction is filled with tales of traveling through wormholes. But the reality of such travel is more complicated, and not just because we’ve yet to spot one.

The first problem is size. Primordial wormholes are predicted to exist on microscopic levels, about 10–33 centimeters. However, as the universe expands, it is possible that some may have been stretched to larger sizes.

Another problem comes from stability. The predicted Einstein-Rosen wormholes would be useless for travel because they collapse quickly. 

“You would need some very exotic type of matter in order to stabilize a wormhole,” said Hsu, “and it’s not clear whether such matter exists in the universe.”

But more recent research found that a wormhole containing “exotic” matter could stay open and unchanging for longer periods of time.

Exotic matter, which should not be confused with dark matter or antimatter, contains negative energy density and a large negative pressure. Such matter has only been seen in the behavior of certain vacuum states as part of quantum field theory.

“A wormhole is not really a means of going back in time, it’s a short cut, so that something that was far away is much closer,” NASA’s Eric Christian wrote.

Although adding exotic matter to a wormhole might stabilize it to the point that human passengers could travel safely through it, there is still the possibility that the addition of “regular” matter would be sufficient to destabilize the portal.

Today’s technology is insufficient to enlarge or stabilize wormholes, even if they could be found. However, scientists continue to explore the concept as a method of space travel with the hope that technology will eventually be able to utilize them.

Kalidasa: The Shakespeare of India

Kalidasa is known to bethe greatest repository of our national heritage. The serenity of his artistic accomplishment has earned for him a high place in the galaxy of world poets. Kalidasa’s imagination holds in perfect fusion the two elements of natural beauty and human feelings. In his case, both Eastern and Western critics, applying not exactly analogous standards, are in general agreement. He has always been held in high esteem.final hai test

Kalidasa has continued to display his relevance through the centuries. Surcharged with  wider human sympathy and universal appeal, his character has remained truly Indian. He has influenced the mentors of the middle ages, as well as the pioneers of Indian renaissance like Vivekananda and Tagore. Kalidasa continuous to shine throughout the world as one of the greatest exponents of Indian culture. The keen interest of the Western Orientalists made Kalidasa studies more popular in modern times. Kalidasa has thus gone a long way to help develop a deeper understanding between India and the other countries.

Popular legends on the life of Kalidasa

  1. Kalidasa, who was first quite a blockhead and was married to a princes, being stung  by the scornful words of his wife, determined to secure the favour of Gauri by penance with the result that the goddess conferred upon him high poetic genius. On his return Kalidasa was asked by his wife -… and the poet taking each of the three words as the beginning of three different works composed the Kumara, Megha and Raghu.
  2. It is said that Kumaradasa, the king of Ceylon, the author of the Janakiharana threw himself on the funeral pyre of his friend Kalidasa who was murdered by a courtesan of Kumaradasa (6th century A.D.) in Ceylon. The story is that Kumaradasa had written the following line –

on the wall of the mansion of the courtesan, and had promised a handsome reward  to one who would complete the samasya. Kalidasa who happened to see that line immediately wrote-

Then, the courtesan murdered him and wanted to secure the reward by claiming that she had completed the Samasya the king, however discovered the fraud, but overwhelmed with grief consigned himself to the funeral pyre of Kalidasa.

Kalidasa’s Profile –

Place & Date

It is known to all that Kalidasa is completely silent about himself regarding his date of birth and also the place. Peoples all over India praise to Mahakavi for all the time due to his poetical excellency. Therefore, people from particular place claim that Kalidasa belongs to their area. But if we go through his works thoroughly, we may find that Kalidasa belongs to Ujjain. In Meghaduta, he describes about Ujjain so beautifully where we may find his personal attachment to Ujjain can not be ignored. Scholars of Kalidasa are of the opinion that Kalidasa belongs to Ujjain during between the period of second century BC. to 5th century AD.

Impact on India and abroad

Kalidasa is unanimously admitted to be the greatest sanskrit poet and dramatist. In India he is praised by all his followers such as post dated poets and critics namely Mammta, Anandavardhancharya,Abhinav Gupta etc.

His poetical style influenced to all the post dated poets to the modern poets of this 20th century also.

In the same manner, we may also find in abroad. It was Sir William Jones who introduced the Shakuntalm to the westerners for the first time in the eighteen century; since then almost all the works of Kalidasa have been translated into various Languages and made known to peoples of different countries, and they have been greatly appreciated by them. There can be no doubt that Kalidasa can justifiably take his seat along with Shakespeare.

Works of Kalidasa –

Lyrics
Ritusanharam
Ritusamhara is a small lyrical poem of 144 stanzas in 6 cantos, mostly in vamshastha metre (cantos i, ii, v, vi), the variation being vasantatilaka (canto iii) and upendravajra (canto iv). The poem gives a graphic and poetic description of the six seasons of India.

Meghadutam
The meghaduta is smaller in extent then Ritusamahara, the first of the Purvamegha having 66 stanzas and the second half or Uttaramegha is having only 55. This is a poem describing the message of departed Yaksha to his wife, to be conveyed through a cloud.
A Yaksha, servant of lord, Kubera, made some mistake in his duty; Kubera punished him with a curse, banishing him from Alaka in to exile for a period of one year. Therefore, Yaksha sent his message to his wife through a cloud.


Epics
Kumarasambhavam
Kumarasambhava, a classical poem of 17 cantos, is based on the mythological myth of love and marriage of Shiva and Parvati, found in Indian epics. The deputation of Kamadeva – the cupid of Indian mythology – by the gods, to tempt the divine ascetic Shiva, to fall in love with Parvati, the destruction of Kamadeva by Shankara,Parvati’s resolve to win by renunciation and penance, what her beauty and charm failed to achieve by seduction, Shankara’s meeting with Parvati in the garb of an ascetic, their marriage and the birth of son Kumara, who destroyed the god’s’ enemy, the demon Taraka, are the highlights of this classical poem.
According to A.B. Keith, the well-known British historian of Sanskrit literature, “….to modern taste, the Kumarasambhava appeals more deeply by reason of its richer variety, the brilliance of its fancy and the greater warmth of its feeling”.

Raghuvansham
Raghuvansha, a long classical poem of 19 cantos, contains a brilliant account of the illustrious kings of Raghu Dynasty. It is indeed a gallery of brilliant kings – Dilipa, Raghu, Aja, Dasharatha, Rama – painted exquisitely by Kalidasa in which the picture of Rama is undoubtedly the best.
Writing about Kalidasa and his work, Raghuvansha, the reputed western scholar and critic, Monier Williams says “No (other) composition of Kalidasa displays more the richness of his poetic genius, exuberance of his imagination, the warmth and play of his fancy, his profound knowledge of the human heart, his delicate appreciation of its most refined and tender emotions, his familiarity with the workings and counter workings of its conflicting feelings – in short, more entitles him to rank as the Shakespeare of India”.


Drama
Malavikagnimitram
Malavikagnimitra is a five-act drama based on king Agnimitra’s love for a beautiful girl, Malavika. It is a lighthearted comedy of court life, and depicts the progress of king’s desire for the lovely maiden, through various hindrances. Malavika’s ultimate discovery as belonging to a royal family and the magnanimity of the elder queen, lead to the fulfillment of Agnimitra’s desire. According to the famous critic. R.D. Karmarkar, “Malavikagnimitra is on the whole, an enjoyable play. The plot is a very simple one and the action develops in a surprisingly swift manner and the reader finds that his interest is kept up right to the end”.

Vikramorvashiyam
Vikramorvashiya (Uravashi won by valour), a drama of five acts relates the romantic story of the mortal king Pururava and the divine nymph Urvashi. The king, through remarkable display of valour, saves the nymph from the clutches of a demon and falls in love with her, at first sight. The fire of love is fueled by the nymph’s separation as a result of her unavoidable return to heaven. However, in view of the consideration that God Indra, the lord of heaven, had for Pururava, his ally in his wars against the demons, the lovers are united in wedlock; but fate intervenes to separate them again and it is only a miracle that reunites them. The inevitable tragedy of love between the mortal and the celestial being is obvious, but again Indra’s indulgence brings to the royal couple, the lifelong pleasure of living together.
According to M. Winternitz, the reputed German scholar of Indology, the great popularity that this drama has enjoyed in India, is proved by the fact that there are several versions of its text. It has several times been translated in to German and other European languages. Attempts have been made for adapting it for the stage too.

Abhijnanashakuntalam
Abhigyanashakuntala, a drama of seven acts is based on the old legend of Shakuntala, described in Mahabharata. It is the love story of the king Dushyanta and the hermit girl Shakuntala. Their mutual attraction leads to their marriage by the Gandharva form of marriage in the hermitage. The curse of the sage Durvasa makes the king forget all about his wedding but the discovery of the sign ring given by Dushyanta to his bride reminds him of the happenings in the forest grove, leading to his ultimate union with his wife and son in the abode of divine beings.
Abhigyanashakuntala is, in every respect the most finished of Kalidasa’s dramatic compositions. The play is universally recognised as the best specimen of dramatic art in the entire Sanskrit literature. The reputed German poet Goethe, after reading a translation of the play had exclaimed,
“Wouldst thou the young year’s blossom and the fruit of its decline, And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed?
Wouldst thou the heaven and earth itself in one sole name combine
I name thee ‘Shakuntala, and all at once is said”.

The importance of water.

All plants and animals need water to survive. There can be no life on earth without water. Why is water so important? Because 60 percent of our body weight is made up of water. Our bodies use water in all the cells, organs, and tissues, to help regulate body temperature and maintain other bodily functions. Because our bodies lose water through breathing, sweating, and digestion, it’s crucial to rehydrate and replace water by drinking fluids and eating foods that contain water.

Water helps by creating saliva

Water is the main component of saliva. It’s critical for breaking down solid food and keeping your mouth healthy. If you find your mouth is drier than usual, increase your water intake. If that doesn’t work, see your doctor

  • It regulates body temperature

Staying hydrated is critical to maintaining a normal body temperature. Our bodies lose water when we sweat, and in hot environments. Sweat keeps our bodies cool, but our body temperatures will go up if we don’t replenish the water we lose. That lack of water causes dehydration, which in turn causes levels of electrolytes and plasma to drop

  • Water aids cognitive functions

Proper hydration is crucial to staying in good cognitive shape. Research has shown that inadequate water intake can negatively impact our focus, alertness, and short-term memory

  • Water protects the tissues, spinal cord, and joints

Water  helps lubricate and cushion our joints, spinal cord, and tissues. This helps us to be more physically active, and reduces the discomfort caused by conditions such as arthritis

  • It helps excrete the waste in our bodies through perspiration, urination, and defecation

Our bodies use water to sweat, urinate, and pass healthy bowel movements. We all need water to replenish fluids lost from sweating. We also need water in our systems to have healthy stools and avoid constipation. Drinking enough water helps our kidneys to work more efficiently  thus preventing kidney stones

  • Water maximizes our physical performance

Drinking plenty of water while working out, taking part in sports or just being on the move, is essential.  Keeping ourselves hydrated also affects our strength, power, and endurance

  • It helps to boost our energy levels

Drinking water helps to boost our metabolic rate. This boost has a positive impact on our energy levels. Drinking 500 milliliters of water can boost the metabolic rate by 30 percent in both men and women, one study has found. Negative effects of exercising in the heat, without staying hydrated, can result in serious medical incidents. In fact, extreme dehydration can cause seizures, and sometimes, even death.

  • Water prevents overall dehydration

Dehydration is the result of the body being deprived of adequate water. And,  since water is critical for the successful functioning of many bodily functions, dehydration can be very dangerous. Even leading to fatal consequences. Severe dehydration can lead to serious outcomes, including:

  • swelling in the brain
  • kidney failure
  • seizures

Make sure to drink enough water to replace what’s lost through sweating, urination, and bowel movements, to avoid dehydration.

The importance of water.

It’s pretty obvious that having adequate water in your body  is critical to nearly every part of it. Not only will maintaining your recommended daily intake help you to maintain your current state of good health, it could also improve it in the long run. The amount of water you need will depend on the environment and climate you live in, how physically active you are, and whether you are suffering from an illness, ailment or  any other health problems.

Here are some ways to make sure that  you drink enough water:

  • Carry a water bottle with you wherever you go. Keep taking sips from it as and when you feel the need
  • Track your water intake. Make sure you consume the optimum amount every day, which is a minimum of half your body weight, in ounces/milligrams

The sun won’t die for 5 billion years

In a few billion years, the sun will become a red giant so large that it will engulf our planet. But the Earth will become uninhabitable much sooner than that. After about a billion years the sun will become hot enough to boil our oceans.

The sun is currently classified as a “main sequence” star. This means that it is in the most stable part of its life, converting the hydrogen present in its core into helium. For a star the size of ours, this phase lasts a little over 8 billion years. Our solar system is just over 4.5 billion years old, so the sun is slightly more than halfway through its stable lifetime.

After 8 billion years of happily burning hydrogen into helium are over, the sun’s life gets a little more interesting. Things change because the sun will have run out of hydrogen in its core – all that’s left is the helium. The trouble is that the sun’s core is not hot or dense enough to burn helium.

In a star, gravitational force pulls all the gases towards the centre. When the star has hydrogen to burn, the creation of helium produces enough outward pressure to balance out the gravitational pull. But when the star has nothing left in the core to burn, gravitational forces take over.

Eventually that force compresses the centre of the star to such a degree that it will start burning hydrogen in a small shell around the dead core, which is still full of helium. As soon as the sun begins to burn more hydrogen, it would be considered a “red giant”.

The process of compression in the centre allows the outer regions of the star to expand outwards. The burning hydrogen in the shell around the core significantly increases the brightness of the sun. Because the size of the star has expanded, the surface cools down and goes from white-hot to red-hot. Because the star is brighter, redder and physically larger than before, we dub these stars “red giants”.

Earth’s fiery demise

It is widely understood that the Earth as a planet will not survive the sun’s expansion into a full-blown red giant star. The surface of the sun will probably reach the current orbit of Mars – and, while the Earth’s orbit may also have expanded outwards slightly, it won’t be enough to save it from being dragged into the surface of the sun, whereupon our planet will rapidly disintegrate.

Life on the planet will run into trouble well before the planet itself disintegrates. Even before the sun finishes burning hydrogen, it will have changed from its present state. The sun has been increasing its brightness by about 10% every billion years it spends burning hydrogen. Increased brightness means an increase in the amount of heat our planet receives. As the planet heats up, the water on the surface of our planet will begin to evaporate.

An increase of the sun’s luminosity by 10% over the current level doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but this small change in our star’s brightness will be pretty catastrophic for our planet. This change is a sufficient increase in energy to change the location of the habitable zone around our star. The habitable zone is defined as the range of distances away from any given star where liquid water can be stable on the surface of a planet.

With a 10% increase of brightness from our star, the Earth will no longer be within the habitable zone. This will mark the beginning of the evaporation of our oceans. By the time the sun stops burning hydrogen in its core, Mars will be in the habitable zone, and the Earth will be much too hot to maintain water on its surface.

Uncertain models

This 10% increase in the sun’s brightness, triggering the evaporation of our oceans, will occur over the next billion years or so. Predictions of exactly how rapidly this process will unfold depend on who you talk to. Most models suggest that as the oceans evaporate, more and more water will be present in the atmosphere instead of on the surface. This will act as a greenhouse gas, trapping even more heat and causing more and more of the oceans to evaporate, until the ground is mostly dry and the atmosphere holds the water, but at an extremely high temperature.

As the atmosphere saturates with water, the water held in the highest parts of our atmosphere will be bombarded by high energy light from the sun, which will split apart the molecules and allow the water to escape as hydrogen and oxygen, eventually bleeding the Earth dry of water.

Where the models differ is on the speed with which the earth reaches this point of no return. Some suggest that the Earth will become inhospitable before the 1 billion year mark, since the interactions between the heating planet and the rocks, oceans, and plate tectonics will dry out the planet even faster. Others suggest that life may be able to hold on a little longer than 1 billion years, due to the different requirements of different life forms and periodic releases of critical chemicals by plate tectonics.

The Earth is a complex system – and no model is perfect. However, it seems likely that we have no more than a billion years left for life to thrive on our planet.

Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels, original title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, four-part satirical work by Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift, published anonymously in 1726 as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. A keystone of English literature, it was one of the books that gave birth to the novel form, though it did not yet have the rules of the genre as an organizing tool. A parody of the then popular travel narrative, Gulliver’s Travels combines adventure with savage satire, mocking English customs and the politics of the day.

Summary

The book is written in the first person from the point of view of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon and sea captain who visits remote regions of the world, and it describes four adventures. In the first one, Gulliver is the only survivor of a shipwreck, and he swims to Lilliput, where he is tied up by people who are less than 6 inches (15 cm) tall. He is then taken to the capital city and eventually released. The Lilliputians indulge in ridiculous customs and petty debates. Political affiliations, for example, are divided between men who wear high-heeled shoes (symbolic of the English Tories) and those who wear low ones (representing the English Whigs), and court positions are filled by those who are best at rope dancing. Gulliver is asked to help defend Lilliput against the empire of Blefuscu, with which Lilliput is at war over which end of an egg should be broken, this being a matter of religious doctrine. Gulliver captures Blefuscu’s naval fleet, thus preventing an invasion, but declines to assist the emperor of Lilliput in conquering Blefuscu. Later Gulliver extinguishes a fire in the royal palace by urinating on it. Eventually he falls out of favour and is sentenced to be blinded and starved. He flees to Blefuscu, where he finds a normal-size boat and is thus able to return to England.

Gulliver’s second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, inhabited by a race of giants. A farm worker finds Gulliver and delivers him to the farm owner. The farmer begins exhibiting Gulliver for money, and the farmer’s young daughter, Glumdalclitch, takes care of him. One day the queen orders the farmer to bring Gulliver to her, and she purchases Gulliver. He becomes a favourite at court, though the king reacts with contempt when Gulliver recounts the splendid achievements of his own civilization. The king responds to Gulliver’s description of the government and history of England by concluding that the English must be a race of “odious vermin.” Gulliver offers to make gunpowder and cannon for the king, but the king is horrified by the thought of such weaponry. Eventually Gulliver is picked up by an eagle and then rescued at sea by people of his own size.

On Gulliver’s third voyage he is set adrift by pirates and eventually ends up on the flying island of Laputa. The people of Laputa all have one eye pointing inward and the other upward, and they are so lost in thought that they must be reminded to pay attention to the world around them. Though they are greatly concerned with mathematics and with music, they have no practical applications for their learning. Laputa is the home of the king of Balnibarbri, the continent below it. Gulliver is permitted to leave the island and visit Lagado, the capital city of Balnibarbri. He finds the farm fields in ruin and the people living in apparent squalor. Gulliver’s host explains that the inhabitants follow the prescriptions of a learned academy in the city, where the scientists undertake such wholly impractical projects as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. Later Gulliver visits Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, and there he speaks with great men of the past and learns from them the lies of history. In the kingdom of Luggnagg he meets the struldbrugs, who are immortal but age as though they were mortal and are thus miserable. From Luggnagg he is able to sail to Japan and thence back to England.

In the extremely bitter fourth part, Gulliver visits the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses who are cleaner and more rational, communal, and benevolent (they have, most tellingly, no words for deception or evil) than the brutish, filthy, greedy, and degenerate humanoid race called Yahoos, some of whom they have tamed—an ironic twist on the human-beast relationship. The Houyhnhnms are very curious about Gulliver, who seems to be both a Yahoo and civilized, but, after Gulliver describes his country and its history to the master Houyhnhnm, the Houyhnhnm concludes that the people of England are not more reasonable than the Yahoos. At last it is decided that Gulliver must leave the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver then returns to England, so disgusted with humanity that he avoids his family and buys horses and converses with them instead.

Little Ice Age

Little Ice Age (LIA), climate interval that occurred from the early 14th century through the mid-19th century, when mountain glaciers expanded at several locations, including the European Alps, New Zealand, Alaska, and the southern Andes, and mean annual temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere declined by 0.6 °C (1.1 °F) relative to the average temperature between 1000 and 2000 CE. The term Little Ice Age was introduced to the scientific literature by Dutch-born American geologist F.E. Matthes in 1939. Originally the phrase was used to refer to Earth’s most recent 4,000-year period of mountain-glacier expansion and retreat. Today some scientists use it to distinguish only the period 1500–1850, when mountain glaciers expanded to their greatest extent, but the phrase is more commonly applied to the broader period 1300–1850. The Little Ice Age followed the Medieval Warming Period (roughly 900–1300 CE) and preceded the present period of warming that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Geographic extent

Information obtained from “proxy records” (indirect records of ancient climatic conditions, such as ice cores, cores of lake sediment and coral, and annual growth rings in trees) as well as historical documents dating to the Little Ice Age period indicate that cooler conditions appeared in some regions, but, at the same time, warmer or stable conditions occurred in others. For instance, proxy records collected from western Greenland, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and western North America point to several cool episodes, lasting several decades each, when temperatures dropped 1 to 2 °C (1.8 to 3.6 °F) below the thousand-year averages for those areas. However, these regional temperature declines rarely occurred at the same time. Cooler episodes also materialized in the Southern Hemisphere, initiating the advance of glaciers in Patagonia and New Zealand, but these episodes did not coincide with those occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, temperatures of other regions of the world, such as eastern China and the Andes, remained relatively stable during the Little Ice Age.

Still other regions experienced extended periods of drought, increased precipitation, or extreme swings in moisture. Many areas of northern Europe, for instance, were subjected to several years of long winters and short, wet summers, whereas parts of southern Europe endured droughts and season-long periods of heavy rainfall. Evidence also exists of multiyear droughts in equatorial Africa and Central and South Asia during the Little Ice Age.

Effects on civilization

The Little Ice Age is best known for its effects in Europe and the North Atlantic region. Alpine glaciers advanced far below their previous (and present) limits, obliterating farms, churches, and villages in Switzerland, France, and elsewhere. Frequent cold winters and cool, wet summers led to crop failures and famines over much of northern and central Europe. In addition, the North Atlantic cod fisheries declined as ocean temperatures fell in the 17th century.

During the early 15th century, as pack ice and storminess increased in the North Atlantic, Norse colonies in Greenland were cut off from the rest of Norse civilization; the western colony of Greenland collapsed through starvation, and the eastern colony was abandoned. Iceland became increasingly isolated from Scandinavia when the southern limit of sea ice expanded to encapsulate the island and locked it in ice for longer and longer periods during the year. Sea ice grew from zero average coverage before the year 1200 to eight weeks in the 13th century and 40 weeks in the 19th century.

In North America between 1250 and 1500, the Native American cultures of the upper Mississippi valley and the western prairies began a general decline as drier conditions set in, accompanied by a transfer from agriculture to hunting. Over the same period in Japan, glaciers advanced, the mean winter temperature dropped 3.5 °C (6.3 °F), and summers were marked by excessive rains and bad harvests.

Causes

The cause of the Little Ice Age is not known for certain; however, climatologists contend that reduced solar output, changes in atmospheric circulation, and explosive volcanism may have played roles in bringing about and extending the phenomenon.

Increased volcanism

Cool conditions in different regions during the Little Ice Age may have been influenced by explosive volcanic eruptions, such as the eruptions of Laki in Iceland in 1783 and Tambora on Sumbawa Island in 1815. Explosive eruptions propel gases and ash into the stratosphere, where they reflect incoming solar radiation. Consequently, they have been linked to conditions of lower average temperature around the world that may last a few years. Some scientists hypothesize that such volcanic activity may strengthen and extend the negative phase of the NAO, thus bringing on cooler conditions in northern Europe. Other scientists, however, argue that explosive eruptions may be linked to warmer winter conditions across northern Europe.

Dark Web

The term “dark web” sounds ominous, and there’s a reason for that. The dark web is a part of the internet and made up of hidden sites that you can’t find through conventional web browsers. Instead, you must rely on browsers and search engines designed specifically to unearth these hidden sites.

There’s also plenty of secrecy surrounding this corner of the internet. Sites on the dark web use encryption software so that their visitors and owners can remain anonymous and hide their locations. It’s why the dark web is home to so much illegal activity. If you tap into the dark web, you’ll find everything from illegal drug and gun sales to illicit pornography and stolen credit card and Social Security numbers.

Dissidents who fear political prosecution from their governments might use the dark web to communicate with each other. You might visit the dark web to get medical advice that you want to make sure remains anonymous. Sometimes journalists use the dark web so that they or their sources can remain anonymous.

Here’s a guide that will help you learn about the dark web, the sites that populate it and how you can visit it. Be careful, though: The dark web can be dangerous. And if you want to explore it for illegal activities, you could face prosecution and jail time. Depending on where you visit, and what you download, you could also be exposed to scammers and cybercriminals who could attempt to infect your devices with malware or steal your personal information.

What’s on the dark web?

The dark web has earned some of its seedy reputation. A 2016 report from researchers Daniel Moore and Thomas Rid, of King’s College in London, looked at 5,205 live sites on the dark web and found that 2,723 contained illicit content.

What does this mean? The report found that visitors to the dark web can buy and sell guns, drugs, counterfeit money, other people’s Netflix accounts, credit card numbers, and more. You can also find software that you can use to access other people’s computers.

But, again, the dark web isn’t just for criminals. You’ll also come across online versions of books that have long been out of print, a collection of political reporting from mainstream news sites, and several sites run by whistleblowers looking to expose corporate and government corruption.

Drugs

The dark web might be most notable for providing black markets that visitors can use to buy illicit drugs. Silk Road is a good example. This site was famed for the drugs visitors could find on it. The FBI shut down Silk Road in 2013. A new version of the site came online later that year but was also shut down.

The founder of the site, Ross Ulbricht, who went under the false name Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested in late 2014 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. AlphaBay was another popular online marketplace filled with illegal products. It was shut down in 2017.

Passwords and usernames for streaming services

If you don’t mind stealing, you can find the passwords to a host of streaming services — both those offering mainstream movies and those hosting pornography — on the dark web. Cybercriminals sell these passwords to those who want to skimp out on paying the monthly fees for streaming subscriptions.

Passwords and usernames available typically include those for services such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services.

Credit card and debit card numbers

Here’s a scary one: According to a report by Gemini Advisory, 115 million stolen debit and credit card numbers were posted to the dark web in 2020.

Criminals sell these stolen numbers to other thieves. Armed with these numbers, criminals can make unauthorized purchases online using your information. And, yes, you can dispute these purchases, but who knows how much damage these thieves can do before you catch these illegal purchases?

Bank account numbers and passwords

If thieves sell credit and debit card numbers on the dark web, you can bet that they’ll sell bank account numbers and passwords to online savings and checking accounts, too.

According to a report by cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, more than 15 billion pieces of financial account details are now being sold in online marketplaces. According to the report, banking and financial accounts made up about a quarter of these online listings.

Again, criminals can do a lot of damage after buying your bank account details. They can use your account to make purchases and drain your savings or checking accounts quickly.

Social Security numbers

Criminals can also find Social Security numbers — along with other personal information like people’s birthdates, addresses, and phone numbers — for sale on the Dark Web.

Criminals can use your Social Security number to help steal your identity. That can lead to serious financial pain, as these thieves can use your identity to apply for credit cards in your name, apply for mortgage loans, and even file your income taxes in the hope of stealing your refund.

Difference between dark web and deep web

It’s easy to confuse the dark web with the deep web. But they aren’t the same.

The deep web is also hidden, in a way. But it’s home to benign sites, such as people’s password-protected email accounts, the intranets run by businesses, the online bank account pages of consumers, government databases, and private sites that require users to type in a log-in name and password.

Think of the dark web, then, as a small subset of the deep web that has become a haven for illegal activity.

Is it illegal to access the dark web?

Surfing the dark web isn’t illegal. Buying illegal drugs or firearms from a site on the dark web or downloading child pornography? That is illegal.

For instance, in the summer of 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service teamed up to arrest more than 35 dark web vendors of drugs, weapons, and other illegal products. The agencies also seized $23.6 million in illegal guns, drugs, gold, and Bitcoin.

Is Pluto a planet or not?

Pluto – which is smaller than Earth’s Moon – has a heart-shaped glacier that’s the size of Texas and Oklahoma. This fascinating world has blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows – but the snow is red.

Soon after Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was designated a planet, the ninth in our solar system. After Pluto was discovered, many astronomers presumed it to have been responsible for the perturbations they have observed in Neptune’s orbit. It was these perturbations that actually prompted the search for a planet beyond it. However, further observations determined that it was smaller than initially assumed. Also, after American astronomer James Christy discovered Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, in 1978, astronomers were able to determine Pluto’s mass and realized that it was a lightweight and didn’t exert a gravitational influence powerful enough to have induced the observed perturbations. Pluto was found to be smaller and less massive than all the other planets. Moreover, its orbit is highly inclined (17 degrees) relative to the ecliptic, the plane defined by Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The other planetary orbits have smaller inclinations.     

As telescopes got bigger and better, and were able to take clearer pictures of distant bodies like Pluto, astronomers began to suspect that Pluto was much, much smaller than the other planets. By the time the second Kuiper Belt object was discovered in 1992, astronomers knew that Pluto was even smaller than Earth’s moon, but it had been called a planet for so long that it retained its planetary status.

Astronomers had also known for decades that Pluto’s orbit actually crosses Neptune’s orbit. None of the other planets cross each other’s orbits, so why was Pluto’s orbit different?

Over the next few years, dozens and then hundreds more Kuiper Belt objects were discovered by astronomers, until finally, in 2005, astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, which is even bigger than Pluto.

  

In the early 21st century, astronomers were finding bodies of comparable size beyond Pluto, such as Sedna, Eris, Makemake, and others. These discoveries prompted the question: should the IAU confer planetary status on all these other worlds? In August 2006, the IAU convened its triennial meeting in Prague. Toward the end of this meeting, they voted on the adoption of Resolution 5A: “Definition of ‘planet.” By this newly adopted definition, a body has to fulfill three requirements to be designated a planet. First, a body has to have established a stable orbit around the Sun. Thousands of bodies meet this condition. Secondly, a body has to have developed a spheroidal shape. When a body is sufficiently large and massive, gravity will mold it into a spheroid. Pluto fulfills this condition. Third, and finally, the body has to have cleared its debris field. It has to be sufficiently massive so as to incorporate all proximate objects into it. Pluto fails on this condition, as its orbit passes close to or even within the Kuiper Belt, a region from which short periods comets originate. By adopting resolution 5A, the IAU demoted Pluto, firmly established the other eight planets as planets, and disqualified all the bodies beyond Pluto, all in one fell swoop.    
 
Although the recent observations by the New Horizons craft has shown us that Pluto is larger, more geologically dynamic, and contains a thicker atmosphere than once believed, it still doesn’t fulfill the third condition within Resolution 5A. The IAU will have to adopt a revised definition of planet in order to confer planetary status back onto Pluto.

Of course, some defiantly maintain that Pluto is still a planet and no resolution shall induce us to change our minds. 

The Real Santa Claus

Santa Claus—otherwise known as Saint Nicholas or Kris Kringle—has a long history steeped in Christmas traditions. Today, he is thought of mainly as the jolly man in red who brings toys to good girls and boys on Christmas Eve, but his story stretches all the way back to the 3rd century, when Saint Nicholas walked the earth and became the patron saint of children. Find out more about the history of Santa Claus from his earliest origins to the shopping mall Santas of today, and discover how two New Yorkers—Clement Clark Moore and Thomas Nast—were major influences on the Santa Claus millions of children wait for each Christmas Eve.

 

The Legend of St. Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus

The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey. Much admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best-known St. Nicholas stories is the time he saved three poor sisters from being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father by providing them with a dowry so that they could be married. 

Over the course of many years, Nicholas’s popularity spread and he became known as the protector of children and sailors. His feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death, December 6. This was traditionally considered a lucky day to make large purchases or to saasget married. By the Renaissance, St. Nicholas was the most popular saint in Europe. Even after the Protestant Reformation, when the veneration of saints began to be discouraged, St. Nicholas maintained a positive reputation, especially in Holland.

Sinter Klaas Comes to New York

St. Nicholas made his first inroads into American popular culture towards the end of the 18th century. In December 1773, and again in 1774, a New York newspaper reported that groups of Dutch families had gathered to honor the anniversary of his death.

The name Santa Claus evolved from Nick’s Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). In 1804, John Pintard, a member of the New York Historical Society, distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas at the society’s annual meeting. The background of the engraving contains now-familiar Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace. In 1809, Washington Irving helped to popularize the Sinter Klaas stories when he referred to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York in his book, The History of New York. As his prominence grew, Sinter Klaas was described as everything from a “rascal” with a blue three-cornered hat, red waistcoat, and yellow stockings to a man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a “huge pair of Flemish trunk hose.”

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal minister, wrote a long Christmas poem for his three daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” more popularly known as “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas.” Moore’s poem, which he was initially hesitant to publish due to the frivolous nature of its subject, is largely responsible for our modern image of Santa Claus as a “right jolly old elf” with a portly figure and the supernatural ability to ascend a chimney with a mere nod of his head! Although some of Moore’s imagery was probably borrowed from other sources, his poem helped popularize the now-familiar image of a Santa Claus who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve in “a miniature sleigh” led by eight flying reindeer to leave presents for deserving children. “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” created a new and immediately popular American icon.

In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper’s Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. It is Nast who gave Santa his bright red suit trimmed with white fur, North Pole workshop, elves and his wife, Mrs. Claus

Santa Claus Around The World 

18th-century America’s Santa Claus was not the only St. Nicholas-inspired gift-giver to make an appearance at Christmastime. There are similar figures and Christmas traditions around the world. Christkind or Kris Kringle was believed to deliver presents to well-behaved Swiss and German children. Meaning “Christ child,” Christkind is an angel-like figure often accompanied by St. Nicholas on his holiday missions. In Scandinavia, a jolly elf named Jultomten was thought to deliver gifts in a sleigh drawn by goats. English legend explains that Father Christmas visits each home on Christmas Eve to fill children’s stockings with holiday treats. Père Noël is responsible for filling the shoes of French children. In Italy, there is a story of a woman called La Befana, a kindly witch who rides a broomstick down the chimneys of Italian homes to deliver toys into the stockings of lucky children.

Melting of Ice Pole

It’s not exactly news that Greenland and Antarctica are shedding ice at record rates.

But in 2016, an eyebrow-raising idea ricocheted through the scientific community: It was possible, the authors said, that a warmer planet could push the towering ice cliffs at the fringes of the Antarctic ice sheet to essentially self-destruct, collapsing like a set of dominoes.

What was extra shocking was just how fast the ice could retreat under this runaway scenario, leading to about three feet of sea level rise fed from Antarctica alone by 2100—much faster than previous estimates, which generally proposed increases of only a few centimeters by the end of the century.

But two new pieces of research, published Wednesday in Nature, suggest a more measured retreat is likely in the coming decades. Both studies revise the estimates of just how much sea levels will rise by 2100 downward, suggesting that Antarctica could contribute somewhere between about three to 16 inches to the world’s oceans under the “worst case” scenarios.

Adding that to the other components that make up sea level rise—how the ocean expands as it warms (which will likely add about 10 inches), the melt from mountain glaciers (about six inches), and changes to the amount of water stored in lakes and rivers on land (one and a half inches), and the total is still a daunting number somewhere between just under two- to over three- foot range.

That is in no way a get-out-of-jail-free card, say the authors of both studies. It’s still an enormous amount of extra water that could slosh up onto coasts, enough to debilitate cities from Boston to Shanghai. But the most drastic impacts of sea-level rise, they say, are likely to kick in only after the turn of the century, giving communities around the world more time to adapt.

What’s more, changes to the ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica could also trigger planet-wide shifts in temperature, ocean circulation, and many other parts of the climate system, says says Nick Golledge, a climate scientist at the Antarctic Research Center of the University of Victoria, Wellington, and the lead author of one of the studies.

“The sea-level estimates maybe aren’t as bad as we thought, but the climate predictions are worse,” says Golledge.

What happens in the Antarctic…

In a separate analysis, the team led by Golledge found that their ice sheet model could match the modern and Last Interglacial records well—also without MICI. Warm water soaking the base of the ice sheets, they found, was enough to force key parts of the ice sheet to melt away.

They used that model to predict how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will speed up their melting in the coming decades. If the world continues to burn greenhouse gases unabated, following the worst-case scenario, the authors predict that the two ice sheets will add about 10 inches to the world’s oceans by 2100.

That number is similar to what the IPCC projected for the “worst case scenario” in their last comprehensive report in 2013, predicting about nine inches of sea level rise from Greenland and Antarctica. It is smaller than the number predicted by the 2016 study, which said that Antarctica alone might feed more than three feet of sea level rise into the oceans by 2100.

The sea level rise estimates may be lower, but the overall picture of how melting ice sheets will affect climate is grim.

Golledge and his colleagues also attached their ice sheet model to a global climate model, in order to see how the impacts of ice melting at the poles would influence climate and oceans in farflung parts of the world (in the past, ice sheet models have traditionally been run separately, primarily because computers haven’t been powerful enough to link them together).

Changes in the ice sheets, they found, could influence global climate profoundly—slowing down major ocean circulation pathways, skewing air temperatures around the world, and somewhat surprisingly, making climate more variable from year to year.

“What happens in the Antarctic does not stay in the Antarctic, and that’s what they show very clearly,” says Pattyn.

The impacts are already leaking out of the poles. “We’re living in a time when, even in the last few years, we have seen extreme weather events become even more and more common,” says Golledge. “Dealing with steady warming is easier, in many ways. But if things are just unpredictable and extremely variable from year to year—well, that’s a much harder problem for society to solve.”

Movie Review: Interstellar

In Interstellar, the final frontier is not outer space but the fifth dimension, which exists beyond the three dimensions of space and the time dimension of relativity. This is not surprising: director Christopher Nolan conducted ambitious experiments with space and time in his prior films Memento and Inception. Here he returns to the set with a hypothesis that rests somewhat uneasily on both the hardheaded persistence of science and the earnest vulnerability of the human condition. For instance, it is noteworthy that Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist who specializes in gravitational physics, served as a consultant and executive producer. Yet, Interstellar is a movie where “love” is uttered in the same breath as explanations for Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the formula to break the space-time continuum can be found in a child’s bedroom. What Nolan conveys is that the problem, the drive that pushes mankind to explore space is connected—inseparable, even—to the spaces of interiority we inhabit as individuals, and the solution lies beyond the perceptions cast in three dimensions.

What distinguishes Interstellar from his prior work is the way that Nolan tackles the consequences of the very same pleasure found in the technological offerings in his other films like The Dark Knight trilogy and The Prestige. Accordingly, his latest movie builds off these premises: that humans have exhausted all resources within 3D Earth, technology has accelerated its obliteration, and time is pushing the planet forward to ruin. The Atlantic’s Noah Gittell writes that when it comes to addressing the effects that technological fallout may have on the environment, “Hollywood has yet to adequately address [it]… When faced with unpleasant [End Page 92] realities, we all prefer a fantasy.”1 This is a movie that explores ways to escape Earth, and the protagonist Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is charged with carrying out an undercover NASA mission to find a suitable planetary replacement. Cooper agrees to the mission after discovering NASA’s underground headquarters and meeting its de facto head Brand (Michael Caine), who spells dire consequences for Earth. This imperative pushes mankind out of the dust and out into the stars.

In the world of Interstellar, if man is contesting his place under the sun, then where does technology fall? Computers no longer serve as totemic objects; rather, they appear in a home-worn ubiquitous way, much in the same vein as Her, Gravity, and other recent sci-fi films. In Interstellar, technology is no longer representational—it does not appear as glitzy gadgetry that typically serve as plot gimmicks nor as the focus of cyborgian suspicion like with Ridley Scott’s David in Prometheus or Spike Jonze’s Samantha in Her. The film’s droids come in the form of TARS and CASE, and the former, voiced with deadpan humor by Bill Irwin, portrays none of the tension that arises from artificial sentience the way that his predecessors do. In fact, most of the technology looks worn: the ship is called the Endurance and the images of the team’s take-off look like they were pulled from footage of Cold War era space missions. Man’s greatest endeavors are meant to look fragile. At a moment of grave miscalculation, Cooper rages at Brand, the professor’s daughter and a scientist of her own right (Anne Hathaway): “We’re not prepared for this.” Movie critic A.O. Scott observes, “The Nolans cleverly conflate scientific denialism with technophobia, imagining a fatalistic society that has traded large ambition for small-scale problem solving and ultimate resignation.”2 The movie occupies half of its screen time in dust-baked American farmland. By juxtaposing scenery evocative of the 1930s Dustbowl with televised memorials of elderly Americans recounting the blight with an innocuous black laptop on a kitchen table collecting dust, the film subtly jolts viewers back to the movie’s futuristic premise.

Should Plastic be Banned?

A truly wonderful and magical material, plastic was invented in the year 1907 by Leo Hendrick Bakeman in New York, United States of America. This wondrous material was made from phenol and formaldehyde in a cheap and easy method. Ever since this revolutionary invention, the world as we knew it changed. Plastic replaced many materials in industries. Plastic is so widely used around the world because of its following properties:

  • Plastic is a hard material
  • Plastics are a highly dense material
  • Its tensile strength is high
  • It is resistant to heat and high temperatures
  • It is a non-conductor of electricity and heat
  • It is light in weight
  • The production of plastic is cheap and simple

All these properties make plastic the most popular material for factories as well as consumers. With the invention of plastic bags, things started to take nosedive in terms of the per capita plastic produced in the world. Everything was hunky-dory until people started to realise that plastic can’t be degraded by natural causes. Its a non-degradable material and will stay in the environment for more than 500 years to come. It is estimated that more than 6 billion metric tons of plastic waste are lying on our earth with no place to go.

Enzymes and bacterias cannot degrade plastic because plastic is not made up of naturally occurring materials. It is a purely man-made material. Most of the plastic is dumped in open lands and far away in oceans. While this seemed like a logical idea until people released that they were polluting the environment, air, water and land. The hazardous chemical in the plastics started to be seen in fishes and crops we eat which ultimately meant that plastic waste that we assumed was gone, was slowly making its way back to our bodies through our food chain. It is said that human beings have already started consuming plastics in small portions and a plastic worth the weight of a debit card in consumed every year by a person.

While plastics can’t be banned completely, because it has made our lives better. Plastic is used in advanced medical equipment to save lives. They are used in the pharma industry, the travel industry and clothing industry and the truth is, human beings cannot live without plastic. But we can surely reduce the consumption of plastic. Banning plastics completely is not a sensible idea.

Why plastic bags should be banned?

There are various alternatives to plastic bags. Jute bags, paper bags and gunny bags are some of them. Plastics bags are not so much necessary that man cannot live without it. And certain kind of plastic bags can not be recycled as well. But they surely can be reused. The habit of reusing the same plastic bags comes into effect only when the manufacture of new plastic bags are banned.

More than 20 million metric tonnes of plastic waste is dumped in the ocean and open lands. More than 50% of these are plastic bags. They are creating enormous pressure on our environment and causing irreversible pollution. It will take a herculean task to get rid of all the plastic that is produced in the world as of now. If it is not banned, then it will be impossible to get rid of it ever and the existence of the human race will be in question.

There are areas in several parts of our ocean which is covered with plastic as big as the size of India. The aquatic life is consuming these plastics and we are consuming them which disturbs the whole food cycle in our ecosystem. Banning plastic bags will at least, if not totally eliminate plastic from our earth, reduce this disturbance to our environment.

What lies ahead for Afghanistan

On July 2, U.S. troops departed from the Bagram Air Base that coordinated the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, effectively ending their military operations in the country. The exit is part of President Joe Biden’s plan to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Ever since the remaining U.S. troops began pulling out on May 1, the Taliban have made rapid territorial advances. If the Taliban had controlled 73 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts before May 1, the number of districts went up to 157 in two months as of June 29. They contest another 151 districts, which leaves 79 districts firmly in the hands of the government. The Taliban’s military offensive is focussed on the northern districts, far away from their southern strongholds, and several provincial capitals are under threat.

Why did the U.S. invade Afghanistan?

Weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush declared war on Afghanistan, which was then ruled by the Taliban. Mr. Bush said the Taliban regime had turned down his demand to hand over al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who plotted the attacks. Inside Afghanistan, the NATO coalition troops led by the U.S. quickly dislodged the Taliban regime and established a transitional government. Al-Qaeda’s leaders and key operatives fled to safe havens in Pakistan. The U.S. rejected an offer from the Taliban to surrender and vowed to defeat the insurgents in every corner of Afghanistan. In May 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that major military operations in the country were over. The U.S. focus shifted to the Iraq invasion, while in Afghanistan, western powers helped build a centralised democratic system and institutions. But that neither ended the war nor stabilised the country.

Why is the U.S. pulling back?

The U.S. had reached the conclusion long ago that the war was unwinnable. Presidents, starting with Barack Obama, had promised to bring American troops back home from Afghanistan. But the U.S. wanted a face-saving exit. In July 2015, the Obama administration had sent a representative to the first-ever meeting between the Taliban and the Afghan government that was hosted by Pakistan in Murree. The Murree talks did not progress as the Afghan government disclosed after the first round that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died two years earlier.

Later, President Donald Trump appointed a special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, with a mandate to directly negotiate with the Taliban. Mr. Khalilzad and his team held talks with Taliban representatives in Doha that led to the February 2020 agreement between the U.S. and the insurgents. In the agreement, the Trump administration promised that it would withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. President Joe Biden endorsed the Trump-Taliban deal, but pushed the deadline for withdrawal to September 11. Mr. Biden said on Friday, “We’re on track, exactly where we expected to be.”

What are the terms of the Trump-Taliban deal?

Before the Doha talks started, the Taliban had maintained that they would hold direct talks only with the U.S., and not with the Kabul government, which they did not recognise. The U.S. effectively accepted this demand when they cut the Afghan government off the process and entered direct talks with the insurgents. The February deal dealt with four aspects of the conflict — violence, foreign troops, intra-Afghan peace talks and the use of Afghan soil by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (the IS has an Afghan unit, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISKP, which largely operates from Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan). According to the agreement, the Taliban promised to reduce violence, join intra-Afghan peace talks and cut all ties with foreign terrorist groups, while the U.S. pledged to withdraw all its troops, roughly 12,000 at the time of the signing of the agreement in February 2020, by May 1, 2021.

After the agreement was signed, the U.S. put pressure on the Afghan government to release thousands of Taliban prisoners — a key Taliban precondition for starting intra-Afghan talks. Talks between Taliban representatives and the Afghan government began in Doha in September 2020 but did not reach any breakthrough. At present, the peace process is frozen. The Taliban reduced hostilities against foreign troops but continued to attack Afghan forces even after the agreement was signed. Afghanistan also saw a series of targeted killings of journalists, activists and other civil society figures over the past many months, which the Afghan government says is a Taliban act. Kabul maintains that the Pakistan support for the Taliban is allowing the insurgents to overcome military pressure and carry forward with their agenda.

Is the Afghanistan government doomed?

The American intelligence community has concluded, according to The Wall Street Journal, that Kabul could fall within six months. None of the American leaders, from General Austin Miller to President Biden, is certain about the survival of the Afghan government. When Mr. Biden was asked this question on Friday, he didn’t say that the government would survive, but said, “They have the capacity to sustain the government”. One thing is certain — the American withdrawal has turned the balance of power in the battleground in favour of the Taliban. They are already making rapid advances, and could launch a major offensive targeting the city centres and provincial capitals once the Americans are out.

So, there could be three scenarios, according to experts. One, there could be a political settlement in which the Taliban and the government agree to some power-sharing mechanism and jointly shape the future of Afghanistan. As of now, this looks like a remote possibility. Two, an all-out civil war may be possible, in which the government, economically backed and militarily trained by the West, holds on to its positions in key cities and the Taliban expand its reach in the countryside, while other ethnic militias fight for their fiefs. This is already unfolding. A third scenario would be of the Taliban taking over the country.

Female foeticide in India

Female foeticide is the aborting of a girl fetus in the womb before its complete growth. Why? This is because that it is female? Female foeticide has become a disgraceful and shocking truth of our nation. In India a strong fondness for sons over daughter. People desire smaller families with comparatively greater sons by abuse medical technologies. It is one of the main motives for declining sex ratio.

Female foeticide is the procedure of abortion to terminate female fetus from the womb of the mother before taking birth after the sex recognition tests like an ultrasound scan. Female foeticide and even any sex recognition test is illegal in India. It is the shame for the parents who are despairing for a baby boy as well as doctors doing abortions especially for this.

Female foeticide has been in practice for periods especially for the families who have a preference only male child. Several religious, social, financial and emotional are the reason for female foeticide. Therefore the time has been changed now much however, many reasons and beliefs are ongoing in some families. Some main reasons for female foeticide are:

  • Generally, parents don’t want a girl baby because they have to give a big amount as a dowry at daughter’s marriage.
  • There is a faith that girls are always consumer and boys are the only producer. Thus Parents understand that son will earn money for the whole life and care their parents however girls will get married a day and will have a separate family.
  • There is a belief that the son will carry the name of the family in future however the girl has to carry the husband’s family.
  • This is a prestige issue in society for parent and grandparent to have a boy baby in the family besides having a daughter.
  • There is a stress on the new bride of the family to give birth to a male child so she is enforced to go for sex recognition and abort if girl baby.
  • Illiteracy, insecurity, and poverty of people in society are also major reasons for girl baby burden.
  • Science and Technological advancement and utilities have made this very easy task for parents.

Sex ratio denotes the ratio of females to males in a specific region. Many practices like female foeticide and female infanticide (killing a baby girl after her birth) have had a contrary influence on the sex ratio. Thus it rises and promotes many social evils.

As per the decennial Indian census, Sex Ratio of India is 107.48. It means 107.48 males per 100 females in 2019. Therefore India has 930 females per 1000 males. So, India has 48.20% female population compare to 51.80% male population.

Effective Measures to Control:

As we all know that female foeticide is a crime and social evil for the future of women. Hence we should notice the causes for female foeticide in Indian society. Female infanticide or female feticide is primarily because of sex determination. Some measures are:

  • Law must be implemented and one should be surely punished if found guilty for this unkind exercise.
  • Permanent cancellation of license should be done if it is going on in medical practice.
  • Marketing of medical tools specifically for illegal sex determination and abortion should be a bane.
  • Parents must be fined who want to kill their girl baby.
  • Campaigns and seminars should be regularly held to aware of young couples.
  • Women should be aware so that they can be more attentive to their rights.

Female foeticide is suicide. So, save the girl child and secure the future. There will be the dangerous results of the female foeticide. Demography reports warn India that in the next twenty years there will be a scarcity of brides in the marriage market mostly because of the adverse sex ratio.

NCC Experience

NCC- National Cadet Corps had been my acquaintance for 3 years and I have gained so much from that organisation which I don’t think could have been achieved from any other institution. My journey started when I took admission in Graphic Era Hill University. I have always been inclined towards sports and extra curriculum from my school so when I joined college, I opted NCC for taking my first step towards joining the defence forces.

NCC has given so much which has prepared me for my life. During my first year I felt totally different as I got introduced to different things like Drill, Ragda (Punishment), a uniform which only a few were able to dawn. I had never come across to these things before in my life. When I wore that uniform, I used to get a feeling of pride and fulfilment.  The most important values that I learned in NCC are Discipline, Punctuality and Unity. In my first year I attended CATC camp where several competitions were held like Public speaking, Dance competition, Group song, Drill selection test and many more, this camp made me realize that NCC is not just about being physically active rather it’s about the overall development of a person. Those 10 days of CATC can never be forgotten.

After completing my 1st year, I was promoted to the rank of corporal in my 2nd year which was my 1st step towards knowing what leadership is all about. Various rallies and walkathon were organized by us to make mass aware of various concerned issues like cancer, blood donation, Drugs, cleanliness and “Beti bachao beti padhao” initiative. Cadets used to walk long distances to spread the awareness. The 2nd year was a two-sided opportunity where I got trained as well as trained my juniors.

When I got into my 3rd year I was promoted to the rank of sergeant. My mates and I did selection of new cadets and it gave us a sense of responsibility. In the CATC camp I was the Master of Ceremony. After that I attended Advance Leadership Camp which was held at Malout, Punjab by 6 (Pb.) girls battalion for 12 days, 5 cadets from Dehradun were selected and I got the opportunity to be in that group of 5. Cadets from different states of India participated in the camp and we all made a great bond with one another. There were training sessions on leadership as well as SSB. Activities like lecturette and Group Discussions were organized in groups. Cultural competition was also held in which Uttarakhand directorate won 1st and 2nd prize in dance and singing competition respectively. In Tug of war Uttarakhand Directorate stood 2nd. It was overall a worldliness camp where I represented my State, my unit and my college and it was so overwhelming for me to leave that camp with so much of experience, it gave me a sense of pride.

This was all about my journey in NCC. I passed out with Alpha grading in my ‘C’ certificate examination and most importantly I became a self-confident, an outspoken and a learned person who aspires to touch the sky with glory.