As the rate of marriages declines in Japan, 'solo weddings' have become an increasingly popular option for single women to celebrate their youth and independence. We are seeing more and more women trailblazing lifelong careers in corporate environments and forgoing more traditional routes such as marriage and becoming full-time homemakers.

There are some Japanese agencies who are offering "weddings" for single women to encourage them to have "positive feelings about themselves". This package enables women to choose their own bridal gown, bouquet and hairstyle before taking part in a photoshoot in the city of Kyoto.

They say it is offering the opportunity to "experience the feeling of being a princess" to single women who are not sure if they will get married but want pictures of themselves in a bridal gown while they are "young and beautiful".
It also offers the service to women who are already married and for women who "believe that you don't really have to get engaged to be able to wear a bridal outfit".

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Prices start at ¥300,000 (£1,600), which includes a wedding kimono or dress, plus accessories, hair-styling, make-up, hotel accommodation for one night, a wedding bouquet and a mini photo album.

There are a variety of packages to choose from, but since the cheapest starts at around 300,000 yen, just like a real wedding, this may be something that you’ll only want to do once.

It goes without saying that this vacation is probably not for everyone, as to whether this is a glamorous weekend out or a depressing reminder of one’s relationship status really just depends on the individual’s state of mind. Ultimately, though, we see nothing wrong with a woman taking a couple of days to be fussed over, and if there’s a company out there willing to do just that, why not do a little selfish spending?

What do you think of this? Do you think this kind of business is doable in your country?

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A recent study looked at the relationship between these styles and depression. Depression is a serious mental illness that affects millions of people around the world. Scoring high on the two positive humour styles has been linked with various positive health outcomes, such as being happier and having healthier relationships. On the other hand, having high scores on the negative humor styles can have a negative effect on one's health.

The current study looked at the relationships between the four humor styles and depression. The researchers wanted to test whether people diagnosed with depression score high on the two negative humor styles, and low on the two positive styles. In addition, they looked at whether there is a genetic underpinning to the relationship between humor styles and depression.

To do so, they recruited a sample of 1,154 Australian twins. Three hundred thirty-nine of them were identical, and 236 were non-identical. All were same-sex twins, with both male and female pairs represented. Of the whole sample, 145 individuals were diagnosed with depression. All twins completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire and in addition, answered three questions pertaining to depression. These questions were taken from different scales and are in line with items used to diagnose depressive disorder, though no official diagnosis was performed.

The results of the study showed first, that women were two and half times more likely than men to suffer from depression, a fact that has been found in other studies. Second, as predicted, people diagnosed with depression used self-defeating humor more than non-depressive people. In addition, depressive twins used the two positive humor styles (affiliative and self-enhancing) less then non-depressive twins, also as hypothesized. Contrary to the prediction, there were no differences in the use of aggressive humor among the depressive and non-depressive twins.

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Next, the researchers looked at the possible genetic and environmental factors that may account for these correlations. Comparisons between identical and non-identical twins allow us to extract the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to a given trait or correlation by using behavioral genetics tools. Such analyses revealed that 26% of the differences in the depression scores were attributed to additive genetic factors, while 74% were due to non-shared environments (e.g., the twins being in different classrooms, having unique friends). Shared environments (e.g., raised by the same family) had 0% influence.

Other results showed that the positive correlation between the depression scale and self-defeating humor, and the negative correlation between the depression scale and self-enhancing humor, each have an underlying genetic factor influencing the correlations.

In conclusion, the study not only established that humor styles are correlated with depression, but also that at least some of these correlations are the result of some underpinning genetic influences (though not identifiable yet). The research also highlights the fact that humor is not always good for us, and in some cases might have severe negative effects.

Correlations, of course, do not imply causation, and it is unclear what they mean exactly. Do people suffering from depression choose to use more negative styles of humor and not try to improve their situation by using a more positive humor style? Or perhaps using a negative humor style is influencing depression? The third and likely possibility is that certain factors (both genetic and environmental) affect depression and the use of negative styles, but more research is needed on this topic.

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In 2018, world total agriculture and related land-use emissions reached 9.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2eq). Livestock production processes such as enteric fermentation and manure deposition on pastures dominated farm-gate emissions, together generating 3 billion tonnes CO2eq in 2018. It’s very concerning since there aren’t any new sustainable ways to continue traditional agriculture.

Cellular agriculture could be one way to minimize these emissions and lessen the effect on the environment.

Cellular agriculture is the production of animal-based products from cell cultures rather than directly from animals. After hunting and domesticating animals, cellular agriculture looks set to become the third phase of human sourcing of animal protein.

Various products like artificial muscle proteins, milk, eggs, gelatin, coffee, leather and silk are produced.

Various approaches-

1. THE CELL-CULTIVATION METHOD

2. THE ACELLULAR METHOD (precision fermentation)

1. THE CELL-CULTIVATION METHOD

The cell-cultivation method refers to growing meat directly from cells. Cells are the building blocks of all life. By cultivating them to produce meat and seafood, the raising and slaughtering of animals can be avoided. To produce cultured meat and seafood, stem cells are initially sampled from animals through a painless biopsy.

These cells are then fed with nutrients in large vats, also known as cultivators, where they multiply and differentiate. As they grow, they become muscle tissue, which is the main component of meat. A number of startups and companies are currently working on developing a variety of cultured foods, including beef, pork, chicken, fish, seafood, milk, and cheese.

2. THE PRECISION-FERMENTATION METHOD

The precision-fermentation method refers to the use of microorganisms rather than cell cultures to produce products such as milk and egg-white proteins. These products can be grown directly from microorganisms such as yeast in a similar fermentation process to that which has been used for many years in the food industry to produce enzymes such as rennet (a key ingredient to producing cheese) or vanillin (the main component of vanilla flavour), as well as other products. Startups and companies are currently working to develop milk, ice cream, cheese, gelatin, and egg-white.

Some products have already been commercialized, such as Greater’s ice cream, which uses Perfect Day’s flora-based dairy proteins.

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Hybrid products combine plant-based and cultured ingredients to develop tasty and sustainable products that will also potentially be cost-effective. The first proof-of-concept of hybrid products, chicken nuggets comprising 80% vegetable protein and 20% cultured fat, was unveiled in March 2019 by Peace of Meat, during a public event organised in Berlin.

Looking at it this way, plant-based and cultured products are not mutually exclusive categories but actually form a highly promising complementary strategy – together, they have the potential to accelerate market entry by combining two different approaches to arrive at a perfect result, rather than perfecting just one approach completely.

CHALLENGES

The most pressing challenges currently facing cellular agriculture include research, regulatory aspects, and consumer acceptance. More publicly-funded, open-source research is required to address technical challenges such as growth mediums, cell lines, and consumer safety. The regulatory framework for cellular-agriculture products needs further elaboration in order to create a supportive environment for producers and consumers.

In addition, consumers need to be informed about and updated on the potential benefits of, and current developments around, cellular agriculture in order to ensure widespread acceptance of these products. The CellAg Project focuses its efforts on key aspects within these three areas in order to help create encouraging conditions for introducing this new and promising method of protein production.

Various disadvantages and issues related to cellular agriculture-

1. Expensive– It is very expensive to produce. The technology employed and expenditure on research and development increase the cost of the products and make them non-affordable at present.

2. Safety Concerns- Whether genetically modified, factory-grown products are safe for us to eat is yet to be studied. There are ethical concerns similar to GMO crops. There can be a lack of trust between consumers and companies.

3. Potential issues over regulation– The process behind food regulation takes a long time. This could impact how quickly quality and safety among all products are standardised. Regulation is not easy. Testing methods for safety, which governing bodies for regulation demand time and resources. This could push development even farther back.

4. Cheaper alternatives– Better, cheaper and more effective alternatives regarding food supply for the present and future are present. Some argue that moving towards more plant-based diets (or diets with less meat, dairy and animal products) make better use of resources, and are cheaper, more effective, quicker to implement and healthier than what lab-grown meat can offer as a food source. We also already have several plant-based meat substitutes in the markets.

5. Complete Nutrition– Cellular Agriculture can control nutritional content like fat and protein content. But, overall nutrition is important too. There are certain nutrients that we can only get in bulk from natural agriculture outside a lab.

What do you think, will there be a lab-grown food revolution?

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Boeing arrives at this crossroads in the wake of two crashes within five months, in late 2018 and early 2019, of its best-selling 737 MAX jetliner that took the lives of 346 passengers. Now, according to Boeing’s own research, 40% of travellers are unwilling to fly on the plane, which had been grounded worldwide, costing airlines over a billion dollars in losses and shaking the confidence of investors and government regulators.

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As airlines try to cope with their own huge financial losses, they are now deferring orders and delaying deliveries of new planes. And Calhoun doesn't expect demand to bounce back any time soon.

"We expect it will take around three years for travel to return to 2019 levels, and a few years beyond that to return to our long term growth trend," he said.
Demand for the biggest commercial jets, widebodies, including the 777 and 787 that fly long-haul international routes, is particularly down and expected to remain so.

But it's not just the pandemic that is dragging down Boeing. The company is facing a huge challenge with its new 777X, a longer variant of the widebody 777, taking a $6.5 billion write-off on the still unfinished aircraft.

Boeing has also had a slew of other design and production problems with the 787 Dreamliner and the KC-46 mid-air refuelling tanker for the Air Force.
And then there's the 737 Max, a plane that Boeing had staked its future on as it became the best-selling commercial jet in the company's history before two crashes, five months apart, that killed 346 people.

Boeing is the largest manufacturing exporter in the United States, and its fate can sway the national economy. It employs more than 130,000 people, in all 50 states, and supports a network of thousands of suppliers.

Problems have been mounting on, as Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, said the messages revealed a “sick” culture at Boeing, noting that “the trust level was already in the toilet.”

The internal communications, which were provided to congressional investigators and cover a five-year period before the crashes in late 2018 and early 2019, show Boeing employees cavalierly dismissing the Federal Aviation Administration, which certified the Max as safe to fly. Ahead of a 2016 meeting to discuss training requirements for the plane, a Boeing employee described regulators as “dogs watching TV.” Another time, a Boeing employee wrote: “There is no confidence that the F.A.A. is understanding what they are accepting (or rejecting).”

This just brings bad faith on Boeing as a Customer and an employee too.

Boeing is absolutely in the worst shape it's ever been in, as is the broader commercial aero market. The company is facing serious market challenges with this terrible downturn, basically starting up the 737 Max program again, which is inherently costly, and of course, wrestling with developing this very expensive new derivative of the 777 that's entering a market that really doesn't want a plane in that class right about now.

At the end of the day, they've got a very strong position in a longtime growth market and they also have a very strong position in U.S. defence, which is still a very large market. They'll get out of this but in terms of where they find themselves at this moment in time, it's a pretty bad situation.

Boeing's road to recovery and eventual profitability is a very long one.

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In 1889, Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi began manufacturing and selling hand-painted playing cards in Kyoto, Japan.

Over the next four decades, the cards were so popular in Japan that the company became the largest card-selling business in the country, eventually creating “durable plastic-coated playing cards” with Disney characters on them, which also brought success, and exporting them worldwide.

The playing cards were even used by some notorious gangs, including the crime syndicate the Yakuza. Nintendo, loosely translated, means putting your faith in the gods.

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1929-1949

In 1929, Fusajiro Yamauchi retired and deemed his successor to be Sekiryo Kaneda. In 1933, a joint venture with another, unknown company was established and Nintendo Koppai was renamed Yamauchi Nintendo & Company.

1949-1964

When Hiroshi Yamauchi took control of the company, he renamed it Nintendo Playing Card Co. and Marufuku Company Ltd. to Nintendo Karuta Company, Ltd. Hiroshi met with Walt Disney Productions in 1959 to strike a deal that allowed Nintendo to place Disney's properties on their cards. This resulted in cards that sported recognizable characters such as Mickey Mouse.

It was Hiroshi Yamauchi who expanded Nintendo into various industries outside of just games between 1963 and 1968, shortly after it went public, giving him financial flexibility. The first offshoot? A “love hotel” — where you could rent rooms by the hour.

Video game beginnings

1977-1979

Nintendo had gotten a taste of electronic video games with devices such as the Love Tester, the Magnavox Odyssey and Laser Clay Shooting. In 1974 Nintendo distributed the Odyssey in Japan, they would subsequently decide to create their own video game console via a joint venture with Mitsubishi Electric.

The games they created were Color TV-Game 6 in 1977 and Color TV-Game 15 in 1978. The games consisted of various adaptions of the Atari game known as Pong with minor alterations. Both iterations sold over a million copies and further cemented Nintendo's position in the industry.

1980-1982

Gunpei Yokoi was once travelling on a bullet train in Japan when he glanced over and saw a man messing around with a portable LCD calculator. The man seemed bored and was just playing around with it to pass the time. This caused Gunpei Yokoi to come up with the idea of a portable LCD video game, which soon gave birth to the Game & Watch. Game & Watch games did not contain interchangeable cartridges and thus when you bought the game, you bought an entire piece of hardware. The first Game & Watch game released, titled Ball, was distributed throughout the entire world.

Then along came Shigeru Miyamoto — a young developer who created one of Nintendo’s now-infamous games in 1980: "Donkey Kong."

The original game consisted of a single premise: Jumpman, who was a carpenter, needed to rescue his girlfriend, Pauline, from his "crazed" pet gorilla, who'd kidnapped her. The player would have to run, jump, and climb a series of obstacles in an attempt to save her. According to The New Yorker, Miyamoto based the creation of Jumpman on Popeye.

After years of selling its games made for devices designed by other companies, Nintendo released its own game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, worldwide in 1985.

According to the company, the NES sold over 60 million units.

In 1985, Mario got his big break. Miyamoto reinvented "Donkey Kong" for the Nintendo Entertainment System and made Mario the star. The objective of the game remained the same: Rescue the girl, this time Princess Peach, and save the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Super Mario Bros." went on to become one of the most iconic video games — as well as one of the most mass-produced — of all time. The game’s music, too, has in turn become a phenomenon of its own. In March, a rare copy of the game sold for $100,00, making it the most expensive video game ever sold.

In 1991, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo (SNES), and a year later, "Super Mario Kart" (its most popular game). Today, the company says it has sold 4.7 billion video games.

On the first day of the Nintendo 64 launch in Japan in 1996, more than 500,000 consoles were sold. It was introduced in America in September that same year and ended up selling more than 1.7 million consoles by December.

Nintendo has experienced sales fluctuations throughout the years, booms and plateaus, but it continues to successfully market its consoles and games to the child in us all. And it's paid off — Nintendo's net sales for 2020 amounted to nearly $12 billion.

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1. Contact lenses – 1632

Leonardo da Vinci is credited with describing and sketching the first ideas for contact lenses in his 1508 Codex of the eye, In 1632, René Descartes furthered the evolution of contact lenses with a suggestion of corneal lenses. In 1801, Thomas Young on the basis of Descartes' idea and with a quarter-inch-long, water-filled glass tube and the outer end containing a microscopic lens used it to correct his own vision.

In 1827, English astronomer Sir John Herschel suggests grinding a contact lens to conform exactly to the eye's surface. He also suggested taking a mould of the eye to ensure accurate fitting, and this was something that finally became possible in 1884 with the development of anaesthesia. Sir John Herschel was probably the first person to describe the concept of cosmetic lenses.

2. Solar cells – 1883

In 1883, American inventor Charles Fritts made the first solar cells from selenium. Though Fritts had hoped his solar cells might compete with Edison’s coal-fired power plants, they were less than one per cent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity and thus not very practical. Some research on selenium photovoltaics continued for the next several decades, and a few applications were found, but they were not put to widespread use.

The next major advance in solar cell technology was made in 1940 by Russell Shoemaker Ohl, a semiconductor researcher at Bell Labs.

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3. Vending machine

Forget your Cokes – The earliest known reference to a vending machine is in the work of Hero of Alexandria, an engineer and mathematician in first-century Roman Egypt. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed holy water.

When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve.

Coin-operated machines that dispensed tobacco were being operated as early as 1615 in the taverns of England. The machines were portable and made of brass. An English bookseller, Richard Carlile, devised a newspaper dispensing machine for the dissemination of banned works in 1822. Simon Denham was awarded British Patent no. 706 for his stamp dispensing machine in 1867, the first fully automatic vending machine.

4. Electric car – 1828

In 1891, William Morrison built what we today would recognize as an electric car. It carried six passengers at a top speed of 14 miles per hour.

His car was instrumental in helping drum up interest in exploring the idea of an electric car as a major means of transportation.

5. DynaBook

This forward-thinking computer design seems prescient now. Alan Kay, considered one of the founding fathers of programming technology, developed this prototype in the late 1960s. The slate design had an LCD display and a full keyboard for typing. This was before anyone had invented a laptop or a tablet and decades before the Apple iPad took over the mobile computing market.

Even though computers still filled up part of a building, the futuristic concept made sense: you could carry all of your work to a meeting on one simple device. Interestingly, while the DynaBook never really came to fruition (after all, it was only meant as a concept and not for mass production), the concept finally materialized just over the past few months with the Windows 8 operating system. Now having a laptop without a touchscreen seems quaint and old-fashioned.

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The Indian government on Friday announced Tata Group as the winning bidder for Air India, clearing the way for the cash-strapped Maharaja going back to the founder exactly 68 years after India had nationalised its private airlines in 1953.

The Tatas pipped SpiceJet founder Ajay Singh with a winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore.

Let’s dive into how Air India started and how it ran before it was handed over to the Indian Government.

Start-

The airline was founded by J. R. D. Tata as Tata Airlines in 1932; Tata himself flew its first single-engine de Havilland Puss Moth, carrying air mail from Karachi's Drigh Road Aerodrome to Bombay's Juhu aerodrome and later continuing to Madras (currently Chennai).

The airline fleet consisted of a Puss Moth aircraft and a de Havilland Leopard Moth. Initial service included weekly airmail service between Karachi and Madras via Ahmedabad and Bombay. In its first year of operation, the airline flew 160,000 miles (260,000 km), carrying 155 passengers and 9.72 tonnes (10.71 tons) of mail and made a profit of ₹60,000 (US$840).

The airline launched its first domestic flight from Bombay to Trivandrum with a six-seater Miles Merlin. In 1938, it was re-christened as Tata Air Services and later as Tata Airlines. Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Delhi were added to the destinations in 1938. During the Second World War, the airline helped the Royal Air Force with troop movements, shipping of supplies, the rescue of refugees and maintenance of aircraft.

Nationalization-

After World War II, regular commercial service was restored in India and Tata Airlines became a public limited company on 29 July 1946 under the name Air India. After Indian independence in 1947, 49% of the airline was acquired by the Government of India in 1948. On 8 June 1948, a Lockheed Constellation L-749A named Malabar Princess (registered VT-CQP) took off from Bombay bound for London Heathrow marking the airline's first international flight.

In 1953, the Government of India passed the Air Corporations Act and purchased a majority stake in the carrier from Tata Sons though its founder J. R. D. Tata would continue as Chairman till 1977. The company was renamed Air India International Limited and the domestic services were transferred to Indian Airlines as a part of a restructuring. From 1948 to 1950, the airline introduced services to Nairobi in Kenya and to major European destinations Rome, Paris and Düsseldorf. The airline took delivery of its first Lockheed Constellation L-1049 and inaugurated services to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.

Indian Airlines merger

In 2007, Air India and Indian Airlines were merged under Air India Limited and the airline took delivery of its first Boeing 777 aircraft. The airline was invited to be a part of the Star Alliance in 2007. The combined losses for Air India and Indian Airlines in 2006–07 were ₹7.7 billion (US$110 million) and after the merger, it went up to ₹72 billion (US$1.0 billion) by March 2009.

By March 2011, Air India had accumulated a debt of ₹426 billion (US$6.0 billion) and an operating loss of ₹220 billion (US$3.1 billion) and was seeking ₹429 billion (US$6.0 billion) from the government.

Re-privatization

In September 2021, government-issued fresh tenders for selling the airlines, where Spice Jet's Ajay Singh-led consortium and Tata Sons shown interest in the bid. Finally, On 8 October 2021, Air India, along with its low-cost carrier Air India Express and fifty per cent of AISATS, a ground handling company, were sold for ₹18,000 crores (US$2.5 billion) to Talace Privately Limited, a Tata Sons' SPV.

Significance of this sale

Purely in terms of money, the deal does not result in as big a step towards achieving the government’s disinvestment target of the current year. Moreover, of the total AI debt of Rs 61,562 crore, the Tatas will take care of Rs 15,300 crore and will pay an additional Rs 2,700 crore in cash to the government. That leaves Rs 43,562 crore of debt. The assets left with the government, such as buildings, etc., will likely generate Rs 14,718 crore. But that will still leave the government with a debt of Rs 28,844 crore to pay back.

So, it can be argued that if the government had run AI well, it could have made profits and paid off the debts — instead of selling the airline (that can make profits) and still be left with a lot of debt.

From the Tatas’ perspective, apart from the emotional aspect of regaining control of an airline that they started, AI’s acquisition is a long-term bet. The Tatas are expected to invest far more than what they have paid the government if this bet is to work for them.

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The Dynasphere (sometimes misspelt Dynosphere) was a monowheel vehicle design patented in 1930 by Dr J. A. Purves from Somerset, UK. Purves' idea for the vehicle was inspired by a sketch made by Leonardo da Vinci.

In the early 1930s, the car of the future had just one wheel. That wheel, in fact, was the entire car. The Dynasphere, as inventor Dr J. H. Purves called it, offered a cabin within the circumference of the wheel for the driver and passenger to sit. Purves made two prototypes. The larger one featured a gasoline motor capable of 2.5-horsepower—enough to propel the thousand-pound wheel. The other ran on electricity.
In 1935, Purves developed a bus version to hold more passengers. Had it not been for difficulties in steering and braking, perhaps one-wheeled electric cars and buses would’ve taken over the roads and changed the course of automotive history.

The Da Vinci Connection

In 1930, Dr. John Archibald Purves, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh made and patented a monowheel vehicle that he built, inspired from a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch.
Of course, this is not the first time someone got Vincinspired and made a monowheel. Back in 1869, French national Rousseau of Marseilles built the very first monowheel vehicle in which the rider sat inside the wheel, steered it by shifting their weight in the direction needed, and basically left their safety to chance. The big wheel remained in the driver’s line of sight at all times, and if that were not enough, sudden braking would cause the rider to roll along with the wheel. Much like a gerbil running on its wheel.

Mechanics

The driver’s seat as well as the motor and the controls were a singular unit and came mounted on the interior rails of the monowheel with smaller wheels. When powered up, this unit would try and climb up the spherical rails, causing the larger one to start to roll forward. Steering was crude, and not much advanced from the French prototype of before.
This means the driver still had to throw their weight around, quite literally, in a bid to lean the wheel in the direction they wanted to go, lest gravity and other laws of motion take their course. Purves later envisaged that future models could come with gears to shift the inner unit in a lean-to turn the wheel in a better manner.
In fact, in another model made in 1932, a ten-hoop one, Purves added such “tipping” gears. Dr Purves also created the Dynasphere 8, a beach vehicle that could seat eight passengers.

What the issue with this vehicle was the braking. Brake hard enough, and the passengers rolled around like gerbils, and steering, even with gears, was rudimentary at best. Purves initially claimed that the Dynasphere could not be tipped over, but he was proven wrong, literally by himself. He also claimed that much like a kid’s toy, in case the Dynasphere did tip over, it would bob right back up. Due to this issue, people were not convinced by his words.

But when it comes to wheels, the more the merrier, right? We are assuming a lot of the people, even in the ‘30s, were of the same thought process and preferred to drive a vehicle that rode on four wheels, and could be turned by the steering wheel as opposed to a vehicle, that was but one wheel.

But what if the Dynasphere had really taken off? Traffic may have been a bit better, no?

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Ever heard of bouncing bombs? You have now.

Barnes Wallis, an assistant chief designer, came up with the idea for a bouncing bomb that could be used to target strategic dams in 1942. His idea formed the basis of the Dambusters raid that took place in May the following year, causing major damage to two out of the three targets selected.

His idea was advanced by research from another researcher, A. R. Collins, who discovered that an underwater explosion would have a greater effect if it took place with the device directly in contact with the target.

This later informed one of the most significant design modifications for the bomb – the need to impart backspin on it so that it would (a) fall behind the path of the plane and ensure that the explosion would not impact the aircraft and (b) so that the backspin would ensure the device stuck to the surface of the dam wall.

Barnes Wallis developed his idea at first on a very small scale – with marbles in a bath than with increasingly large models.

The bomb itself (technically a mine) was at first codenamed 'Highball' and interested the navy as a potential weapon against enemy ships. However, it eventually became known as 'Upkeep' after it first got the go-ahead for further development from the Air Ministry on February 26, 1943, and then, on March 17, the final decision was made to form a new squadron to deliver the weapon.

Size

Cylindrical in shape, the bouncing bomb, also known as Highball, measured 60 inches long and 50 inches in diameter. It contained 3 hydrostatic pistols, which measured the hydrostatic pressure of the water as the bomb sank until it was equal to the pressure corresponding to 30 feet depth. The bomb was also fitted with a 90 second time fuse so that if the hydrostatic mechanism failed, the bomb would still detonate.

The bomb weighed a total of 9,250 lb, 6000lb of this weight being explosive charge of TNT and RDX and possibly other materials to improve the efficiency of the explosion.

How did the bouncing bomb work?

There’s some nifty physics behind the dam-busting bombs that were used by the British in WWII. Just like skipping stones, to make a bomb bounce off the water you need to have enough speed and a perfect angle (about 7° in the case of the bomb).

If you get these just right, conservation of momentum means that the water pushes back on the bomb and kicks it up in the air. For multiple bounces, the magic ingredient is spin. Spin the bomb and you stabilise its motion, like a frisbee or a gyroscope. Before being released from specially modified aircraft, the bombs were held by v-shaped arms in the plane and rotated to the speed of 500 rpm by a hydraulic motor and belt drive. The planes had to fly at the low height of 60 feet and to be travelling between 240-250 mph. To help the aircrews obtain these specifications, two spotlights were fitted to the undercarriage of the plane and positioned so that they converged into one at exactly 60 feet.

This helped various countries to attack water-level structures with bouncing bombs.

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Although European countries and America as well have established themselves in terms of having number of growing EVs. In India, the race for EVs has just started.

Ahead of the EU's announcement that is only part of a broad strategy to combat global warming, many automakers announced major investments in EVs. Earlier this month, Stellantis revealed its own EV strategy that includes investing more than 30 billion euros by 2025. Mercedes Benz isn't the only one ‘going for it’ to be dominant, if not all-electric, by the end of the decade. Geely Automobile Holdings Limited's Volvo Cars are committed to going all-electric by 2030, while General Motors Co is aiming to be fully electric by 2035 and Volkswagen AG even plans to build half a dozen battery cell plants in Europe.

EVs in India

In fiscal 2017-2018, according to India’s Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), the EV market in India stood at about 56,000 units sold, as against about 25,000 units sold in fiscal 2016-17.  

For the 2018-19 fiscal, there were 129600 EVs sold and in 2019-20 the numbers increased to 155400.

Though EVs currently account for less than 1% of total new vehicle sales in the country, with appropriate government stimuli, they could possibly grow to over 5% in the next few years. While there are over 400 hundred thousand electric two-wheelers on Indian roads, there are just a few thousand electric cars. Industry volumes have fluctuated widely, depending on incentives offered by the government from time to time. Various other automobile manufacturers have now started working extensively towards introducing EVs in their portfolios. Major players like Renault, Hyundai and Suzuki, among others, had presented their EVs at Delhi’s 2018 International Auto Expo.

India has the largest two-wheeler market in the world, and this presents a humungous opportunity for manufacturers of electric bikes and scooters.

According to a study published by McKinsey, the demand for electric two-wheel vehicles in India is expected to reach around 8.2 to 9.2 million units by 2030. "It is mainly driven by urbanisation and migration, favourable governmental policies, lowered prices, and increased consumer readiness for e-vehicles," the study said

After Ola launched its electric scooter on August 15, the heat is on other electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers to catch up on the race to roll out the much-needed EVs of the future. While companies such as Ather Energy and Bajaj Auto are also in the running for producing India’s fleet of EVs, the question arises if Ola’s move would spark a price war among EV makers in India? Only time will tell.

However, there are some challenges that India’s EV industry faces, such as:

1. Lack of charging infrastructure: India requires a widespread charging infrastructure to meet the growing adoption of EVs. In addition to more charging stations, the lack of space is also a challenge since people need a place to charge their EVs. Also, the lack of affordable renewable energy is putting pressure on the coal-powered electricity grid.

2. Range anxiety: Potential EV customers are apprehensive when it comes to the range that an EV offers. They want to ensure that the vehicle would get them to their destination before the battery runs out. This is closely linked to the lack of charging stations in the country. Therefore, there needs to be a stronger push for charging infrastructure and other solutions like battery swapping stations.

3. High price - There is no price parity between electric vehicles and ICE vehicles in India. Electric vehicles are way more expensive than their conventional fuel-powered counterparts. For example, the Tata Nexon price starts from ₹7.1 lakhs, while the Tata Nexon EV price starts from ₹14 lakhs. This huge price difference discourages many interested EV buyers to shy away from making the final decision to buy a BEV.

4. Scarce battery technology - The lithium-ion battery is the most popular and widely used energy source for EVs. India doesn't produce lithium. The country doesn't produce li-ion batteries either. India relies on imports for EV batteries resulting in the sky-high price for these important components and eventually the EVs as well.
   

However, with a massive opportunity in offer for EV manufacturers as India goes through a revolution in the auto industry, it will most likely witness a spree of technological and financial innovation in the near future and will be able to overcome these challenges as well.

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Zomato IPO is a seminal event for the world of start-ups in India. Irrespective of one’s view on the valuation, this event will have a significant positive influence on start-ups and the broader economy.

Zomato’s start-

In November 2010, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah went for lunch at a cafe in the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon, a satellite town outside Delhi. The visit changed the way the two gentlemen thought of their business. It had been three years since Goyal and Chaddah had set up Foodiebay.com - a website that posted hundreds of restaurant menus, reviews of eating joints and recommendations.

As the two walked the mall, they realised that most of the people visiting the mall did not even know about the eating joints that dotted the mall's fourth floor. Wouldn't it be great if restaurant names and their menus were available to people on the move? The co-founders discussed as they dug into their lunch.  

After they returned to work, they summoned their chief technology officer and asked him to build a restaurant application that people could access on their smartphones.

Over the next month and a half, two things happened - Foodiebay metamorphosed into Zomato, and a Zomato application became available for Android. (If you are wondering what the name Zomato means, it's just a word that rhymes with tomato!)

The app was launched around the time the smartphone wave was picking up in India.

With support from its investors and multiple rounds of consecutive funding, Zomato built not only its valuation but also an interesting portfolio of investors which includes Info Edge India, Sequoia, Vy Capital, Singapore-based investment firm Temasek, and Alibaba’s Ant Financial. Ant Financial’s $200 Mn investment earlier this year led Zomato to cross the $1 Bn valuations.

2014

Zomato acquired Menu-mania for an undisclosed sum.

Acquired Poland-based restaurant search service Gastronauci for an undisclosed sum and Italian restaurant search service Cibando.

Raised $60 million at a post-money valuation of $660 million. 

2015

Launched food delivery. Faced its first major roadblock: a data breach, which the team resolved in 12 hours. Raises $50 million and $60 million in two rounds in the same year. 

Zomato also acquired Seattle-based food portal, Urbanspoon, for an estimated $60 million. Other acquisitions in the same year include MapleGraph, renamed as Zomato Base, NexTable, a US-based table reservation and restaurant management platform.

2017

Launched Zomato Infrastructure services, a service to help restaurants; also acquired Runnr.

2020

Acquired UberEats business in India in an all-stock deal, giving Uber Eats 10 per cent of the combined business. Raised $62 million from Temasek; Zomato raised $52 million from Kora, a US-based investment firm. Launched grocery business, Zomato Market. Elevated Mohit Gupta to co-founder role. 

Finally, consumer mobile start-ups. Zomato (and the other upcoming IPOs in the next 12 months) for many first-generation founders to aspire and build innovative businesses.

This can unleash the potential of thousands of smart entrepreneurs solving varied consumer problems. Indian economy is fraught with inefficiencies and offers opportunities for expanding access, product innovation, superior customer experience, disintermediation, cost reduction etc. across multiple industries to create large scale companies.

Private and public markets are now willing to reward and provide capital to companies that solve customer problems at scale. This is both from domestic and international sources of capital. This is great news for all entrepreneurs to build companies without the fear of losing due to a shortage of capital. Zomato has offered the right start to a new season of IPOs, which, apart from Paytm, will also see other start-ups such as lifestyle portal Nykaa, logistics firm Delhivery and insurance policy platform Policybazaar get themselves listed on the exchanges. What will be keenly watched is how other start-ups will be welcomed by investors as they decide to go public. Surely, a new era is being etched by these companies in the Indian stock markets.

The innovation ecosystem can only get better from here.

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Svalbard, the realm of the polar bear, has long fascinated travellers. Unique wildlife, wild nature and old mining towns are all found on the islands. The name Svalbard means "cold coasts" and was first mentioned in Icelandic texts in the 12th century. On Svalbard, you will find wild nature, old mines and polar bears. The islands are located between 74° ~ 81° N and 10° ~ 35° E. They cover 63,000 square kilometres. Nearly 65 per cent of the surface of Svalbard consists of protected areas, including three nature reserves, six national parks, 15 bird sanctuaries and one geo-topical protected area. Norway's largest glacier, Austfonna, is located on Svalbard. Austfonna is the world's third-largest ice cap after Antarctic and Greenland, with a glacier front of 200 kilometres.

History-

1596: Willem Barentsz discovers Svalbard
1600 - 1750: International whaling activities
1800 - 1900: Norwegian all-winter hunting and trapping
1906: John M. Longyear establishes the first mine on Svalbard
1920: The Svalbard Treaty is signed
1925: Norway is given sovereignty over Svalbard

Longyearbyen has 2,040 inhabitants. This is the seat of local government and Norway’s main administrative centre on Svalbard. The small colourful community has developed from being a typical village town into a modern community with different kinds of businesses and industries, and with a wide range of cultural activities and opportunities.

Other settlements are:
· Barentsburg (Russian mining community) 500 inhabitants
· Ny-Ålesund (Norwegian international research centre) 25 inhabitants
· Svea Gruva (Norwegian mining community) 240 commuters
· Hornsund (Polish research station) 11 inhabitants

Global warming reaches the far north

Being located at the margin of the rapidly declining sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean, Svalbard is among the fastest-warming regions on Earth. And this warming is testing the limits of the firn layer’s capacity to store meltwater.

Rising air temperature in the mid-1980s considerably increased the amount of water that was melting across the glaciers and rapidly filled the air pockets in the firn, progressively weakening its buffer capacity. To make matters worse, the firn layer retreated fast inland to reach the elevation of 450 metres – a critical point that left more than half of the archipelago’s glacier area unprotected.

The disappearance of firn leaves glaciers without their protective buffer, exposing the underlying dark bare ice at the surface. As dark ice absorbs more sunlight than the brighter firn, melt increased even further.

Being located among the fastest-warming regions on Earth, Svalbard glaciers are the canary in the coal mine. They can be seen as thermometers monitoring the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. It may not be too late to save part of Svalbard’s glacial landscape and the fragile ecosystems it supports, but time is quickly running out.

Seed Vault-

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has often been dubbed as the “doomsday” vault. It is a secure facility located inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago. Svalbard is a geologically stable area where humidity levels are also low. The Seed Vault is located well above sea level and protected from flooding. Apart from artificial cooling systems, the permafrost also offers natural freezing, providing a cost-effective and fail-safe method to conserve seeds.

Norway established and owns the Seed Vault, which is managed and operated through a partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of agriculture and food, the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre, also known as NordGen, and the international organization Crop Trust.

In total, five genebanks are depositing almost 6,500 seed samples at the Seed Vault: AfricaRice in Côte d’Ivoire, ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in India, the Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI) in Germany, SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre in Zambia and the national genebank in Mali.

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The fans who were watching it live were shell shocked. We haven’t witnessed something like this since the incident of Fabrice Muamba (where he suffered a cardiac arrest while playing an FA cup quarter-finals match with Tottenham Hotspurs), Abdelhak Nouri (from Ajax in Netherlands, 2017).

Fabrice Muamba playing for Bolton Wanderers.

It was heartbreaking to see someone collapse like this on live tv and you know something bad has happened. But everyone is praising the effort of Denmark’s Captain Simon Kjaer to save Eriksen’s life. Before the medics got there he secured his neck, cleared the airways and started CPR. This probably saved his life as well.

Christian Eriksen for Denmark

Sadly, the tragic events of that day have caused football fans everywhere to truly think about what is important in life. While it’s great to root for your team to win or for your rivals to lose, the scene that played out today at Copanhegan has put everything in perspective.

Why does sudden cardiac arrest strike active sportsperson?

Structural or electrical abnormalities can cause sudden cardiac arrest in sportspersons. These abnormalities may be inherited or must have remained undiagnosed. For athletes with an abnormal heart condition (which sometimes get undetected), exercise can be a trigger. In some sport, a hard blow to the chest can result in sudden cardiac arrest, and it is called “commotiocordis.”

Dr Louis (Cardiologist at Canadian Specialist Hospital ) says:

“Nowadays, cardiac arrests strike people who are very fit, following a healthy and active lifestyle, because of more physical exertion. If the heart has the capacity for a certain level of exertion, and an athlete or sportsperson constantly overworks it, then the chances of thickening of the heart muscle are higher.”

I have heard (and have been in 1 too) in a lot of cases where cardiac arrests take place at home and obviously we are not trained to do CPR and then we search for Ambulances (which at least in Indian semi-rural, rural places is very hard to get immediately) and by the time an ambulance arrives and the patient is taken to the hospital he/she is pronounced dead because he/ she wasn’t given the 2-4 minutes of necessary CPR before taking to the hospital. So I believe it’s very important for everyone to learn how to perform CPR. Heck, please teach in schools, colleges and provide training in offices as well.

If you ever get in such a situation, here’s a small guide on how you can give CPR at least until the paramedics arrive, this can potentially save a life.

What is the procedure for giving CPR?

The method of CPR treatment is different for children and adults. If the child is very small, he is allowed to breathe slowly with the help of two fingers or mouth. This helps the child to recover faster.

The method of giving CPR to an adult is different. Adults are laid out on a flat surface before this treatment. His chest is then pressed. Also, his chest is lifted off the ground in such a way that his head stays down. It also provides his body with a supply of oxygen that is already available in the blood.

Before you begin
Before starting CPR, check:
Is the environment safe for the person?
Is the person conscious or unconscious?
If the person appears unconscious, tap or shake his or her shoulder and ask loudly, "Are you OK?"
If the person doesn't respond and you're with another person who can help.

The American Heart Association uses the letters C-A-B to help people remember the order to perform the steps of CPR.
C: compressions
A: airway
B: breathing

Chest compressions

Open the airway

Rescue breathing

You can read the whole procedure from this link

Also, people usually rely on the song “Staying live” by Bee Gees to help them to get a rhythm of 100 beats per minute.
Here’s a video as well-

88% of sudden cardiac arrests occur at home? Hopefully, you’ll never have to use your skill but knowing CPR can give you the confidence to help save a family member’s life.

Most people think sudden cardiac arrest only happens to adults, but it can affect anyone at any age. This is why it’s a great idea for new parents and caregivers of infants and children to learn too.

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The race to the centre of the Earth-

Until 1970, geologists could only theorize about the composition of the earth's crust. In 1970, Soviet scientists engaged in a subterranean version of the Space Race, and went all-out to beat the USA in a journey to the center of the earth. While American researchers faltered with Project Mohole, a dig off the coast of Mexico that ran out of funding in 1966, their Russian counterparts took a more determined approach. From 1970 to 1994 their drill on the Kola Peninsula burrowed through layers of rock, reaching an ultimate depth of 7.5 miles. (The distance to the center of the earth is around 3,950 miles, but the continental crust is a mere 22 miles thick.)
The most intriguing discovery made by the Kola Superdeep Borehole researchers was the detection of microscopic plankton fossils four miles beneath the surface of the earth. Usually fossils can be found in limestone and silica deposits, but these "microfossils" were encased in organic compounds that remained surprisingly intact despite the extreme pressures and temperatures of the surrounding rock.

Project Mohole (Attempt by USA)-

Project Mohole

The deepest hole within the U.S. is the Bertha Rogers gas well in Oklahoma at 32,000 feet (6 miles) deep. The well was halted because it struck molten sulfur. Perhaps the most well-known effort to pierce the Earth is Project Mohole (which began in 1961), which was an attempt to drill through the Earth’s crust in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico where the crust is shallow. In 1966 funds ran out and the project closed. The goal was to reach a discontinuity between the upper mantle and the Earth’s crust called the Mohorovicic discontinuity - commonly termed the "Moho." The project fell quite short of the Moho, reaching only 601ft below the seafloor in 12,000 feet of water. Where they were digging, the Moho is 16,000 ft deep, so the team fell far short of their goal. However, valuable core samples were obtained and a lot was learned about deep-sea drilling.

Project Kola (Attempt by the Soviets)-

Beneath this rusty old metal cap lies some of our world's deepest mysteries. Though it measures just 9 inches in diameter, the hole beneath the cap extends 40,230 feet under the Earth or 7.5 miles. That's roughly a third of the way through the Baltic continental crust. It's the deepest borehole in the world.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled between 1970 and 1994 in a Cold War-era attempt by the Soviets to beat the United States in a race to drill to the centre of the Earth — or to get as close to the centre as possible. Though the space race stole all the headlines, this less-publicized subterranean quest was equally as competitive. The mysteries that it unearthed are still being analyzed today.

Before this, geologists could only hypothesize about the composition of the Earth's crust. Needless to say, the amount of geological data produced by the project was unprecedented. Mostly, it revealed just how little we really know about our planet.

The abandoned drill site.

According to information that we had at that time, we knew free water was not supposed to be present at very low levels, but the rock that they had discovered in that hole had been thoroughly fractured and was saturated with water. Free water was not supposed to exist at such depths. Geologists now surmise that the water consists of hydrogen and oxygen atoms that were squeezed out of the surrounding rock by enormous pressure, and is retained there due to a layer of impermeable rock above.

Researchers also described the mud that flowed out of the hole as "boiling" with hydrogen. The discovery of such large quantities of hydrogen gas was highly unexpected.

By far the most riveting discovery from the project, however, was the detection of microscopic plankton fossils in rocks over 2 billion years old, found four miles beneath the surface. These "microfossils" represented about 24 ancient species, and were encased in organic compounds which somehow survived the extreme pressures and temperatures that exist so far beneath the Earth.

The final mystery revealed by the borehole was the reason drilling operations had to be abandoned. Once the drill reached depths in excess of about 10,000 feet, the temperature gradient suddenly began to increase unexpectedly. At the hole's maximum depth, temperatures skyrocketed to 356 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degree celsius), which was much higher than the 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degree celsius) originally predicted. The drill was rendered useless at such temperatures.

The project was officially closed down in 2005, and the site has since fallen into disrepair. The hole itself was welded shut by the rusted metal cap that today covers it, as if to permanently hide the hole's many mysteries from the surface world.

Though the hole's depth is impressive, it's a small fraction of the distance to the center of the Earth, which is estimated to be nearly 4,000 miles (6438 kms) deep. By comparison, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which has reached the outer layers of our solar system, has relayed information from over 10 billion miles away. The human race truly understands less about the ground beneath its very feet than it does about the cosmos. It's humbling to realize just how much mystery still exists right here on our little blue world.

credits- slate.com

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Meet Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho. He has built a company from rural India. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, SaaS company Zoho is also experimenting with 10 village offices across Tamil Nadu, where its staff will be able to access its feeder offices.

Without disclosing the name of the village, he tells that he teaches Math and Science at the village school. Once the class is over, the Zoho Corp founder sits under a tree, just like a farmer would do after tending to his crops.

The Zoho experiment

The experiment in Tamil Nadu villages was conceived after a recent survey was conducted in Zoho Corp. The company found that a little over 40 percent of its total employees — around 3,500 people — said they would like to work closer to their hometowns.

This nudged Sridhar to pursue his lifelong dream of moving his employees closer to their villages. Over the last two years, the founder set up a customer support centre in the town of Renigunta in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. Its 120 member staff is from the local community, who live in villages and towns close to Renigunta.

With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting schools and offices, many of Zoho's employees working in Bengaluru and Chennai decided to move back to their hometowns. In fact, the company also encouraged its employees to move back home days before the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, 2020.

Another startup, Vumonic Data lab’s team has been staying and working together at their CEO’s house in Tamil Nadu.

Although not everything is easy for example- many villages have powercuts so they have installed inverters or solar inverters. The lack of proper infrastructure and connectivity issues meant many were unable to cope with the prolonged working hours. Some professionals who intend to return to cities once offices resume are also contemplating shifting to villages permanently in the near future. While Covid-19 has resulted in more flexible and agile workplaces, we will need a robust digital network, infrastructure, technology adoption, education and empowerment at the village level to sustain the ‘work from village’ model in the long term.

On a workation

Work from Mountains (WFM) is an initiative between Sunshine Adventures and Travel The Himalayas, and is led by Panki Sood and Prashant Mathawan. The founders wanted to help people get away after being cooped up indoors due to the pandemic, and decided to provide them a chance to work from beautiful mountain regions.

So far, they have eight properties across Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and will keeping adding more as the demand goes up. One of the guests drove all the way from Hyderabad to Uttarakhand and is working from the mountains now. Not all the properties have wifi or broadband, though 4G coverage is good everywhere. Their monthly charges start from `35,000 per room for two people and one can stay here up to seven months.

There are other cheaper alternatives too. This is just one of the example where people are willing go leave the urban life for a much simpler place.

Poll- Vote here

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Locals pick up the bounty from a fish rain or “lluvia de peces.”

According to the modern-day residents of Yoro, the fish rain is very much real continues to this day. Allegedly, smatterings of little silver fish rain from the sky at least once a year in the months of May or June.

Yoro is one of 18 departments in Honduras. The northern-central region is for the most part impoverished. It has fertile valleys and is largely known for producing grain. But Yoro is most infamously known for its alleged fish rain. The locals say that the Rain of Fish happens every year, sometimes more than once, at the end of the spring. The “lluvia de peces” (literally, “rain of fish”) only occurs after a heavy and devastating storm. But when the storm passes, the villagers know to eagerly grab their baskets and head into the streets where sardine-like fish have been littered. Weirder still, those fish have been found to not even be indigenous to Yoro’s local waterways.

The villagers hold that the fish must have come from none other than the sky in a miraculous show of divine intervention. “It’s a miracle,” one local reported. “We see it as a blessing from God.”

Not only the residents get free fish but I bet the Cats are having fun too.

The Science Behind it-

In the 1970s, a team of scientists from National Geographic were fortuitously on assignment in Yoro when they experienced the Rain of Fish.

The team didn’t witness the “rainfall” per se, but they were able to observe the fish on the ground following a large storm. From this, they provided what is the most likely explanation for the so-called annual phenomenon.

Curiously, the team realized that all of the washed-up fish were completely blind. The scientists hypothesized, then, that the fish must live in underground rivers or underwater caves where their exposure to light had rendered them blind. They figured then that the intense rainstorms and subsequent flooding would have forced the subterranean fish above ground.

Another theory to explain this rain of fish posits that waterspouts are responsible.

Waterspouts are funnel-shaped clouds that form over bodies of water and rotate around an axis point like a whirlwind or a tornado. The waterspout sucks condensation into the air and they are powerful enough to lift small animals from the water and then carry them onto the mainland. This theory is thin, though, as waterspouts aren’t known to be able to carry fish long distances and the fact that the fish that flood Yoro’s streets aren’t from their native waterways.

Wikimedia CommonsMap highlighting Yoro.

The fish could possibly come from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 100 miles away, which is way too far for a waterspout to have travelled with them in tow.

“Fish rain” or “animal rain,” has been reported in other parts of the world too, including Mexico, China, Thailand, and Australia. Fish and frogs are most common, but there have also been reports of spiders, birds, snakes, mice, and jellyfish.

There are no photographs of the phenomenon taking place and this is because, according to the residents, no one would dare go outside during such serious weather. So while there is no photo evidence of the fish rain as it’s happening, there are photos and videos of the strange, slimy aftermath.

Indeed, considering the lack of witnesses to attest to actually having seen the fish fall from the sky, it seems flooding rivers or underwater caves may be the most logical explanation for why all these little, blind, fish have appeared on the streets of Yoro after heavy rain the last 100 or so years. But this explanation, of course, is far less fun for the residents.

The Festival-

For about two decades, the occurrence has been celebrated in an annual festival that features a parade and a street carnival. Young women compete to be elected Señorita Lluvia de Peces — Miss Fish Rain; the winner of the pageant rides a parade float dressed as a mermaid.

Yet, beyond the festival, there are no indicators in the town of the phenomena’s central importance: no monuments, no plaques, no fish-shaped souvenirs on sale at shops around town.

Catalina Garay held bones from fish that supposedly fell during the storm a few days earlier and were cooked and eaten by the family. (Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times)

In the absence of more such investigations, it’s still faith that has filled the gap.

Local said “It works with the natural phenomenon when you need it,” he said, the suggestion of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I mean, God is behind everything.”

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1. Unheard cries and woes of Rural India-
   1 tweet and people from big cities might get Oxygen, hospital bed etc. What about those who are not on Twitter? Those who don’t have access to the internet?
   
   For example-
   Kolhapur district had a 3.4% fatality rate, the highest in Maharashtra. The national fatality rate during that time was 1.9%. The villages in Kolhapur are overwhelmed by this outbreak. Dr Nilesh Thackeray, a doctor in Kolhapur has been working at 2 village health sub-centres in the villages of Tardal and Alte. There are approximately 16000 people living in those villages. He’s the only one handling all the patients in those villages for the past year. He’s a single public doctor for 16000 people. This is just one district, imagine all other villages in India. (Reported by- Sanket Jain )
   
   While the big cities are getting all the needed attention, infrastructure to combat the 2nd wave. There has been a great deal of lapse in rural India to get all the necessary infrastructure to combat COVID. The reason for the high cases in rural India is mainly because many labourers, migrants who have travelled back from big cities might be a carrier. This is just the tip of the problem, another problem lies with educating them about Vaccines. I talked to 3 of my friend’s distant family members in the villages. They believed “there is no need for vaccine”.
   Questions like

   “What if something happens to me after the vaccination?”   
   
   “If people are still getting Covid in spite of getting the vaccination done, what’s the use?”

   were continuously asked throughout the interview I conducted with them. There needs to be a vast vaccine awareness program especially in rural India where there is hesitancy about the vaccines.

   

2. Israel-Palestine conflict:

   

   Palestinians inspect the damage of their destroyed homes in Beit Hanoun

   The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict began with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This conflict came from the intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine between Israelis and Arabs from 1920 and erupted into full-scale hostilities in the 1947–48 civil war.

   What happened now?
   Tensions are often high between Israel and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. Gaza is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has fought Israel many times. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank say they're suffering because of Israeli actions and restrictions. Israel says it is only acting to protect itself from Palestinian violence.

   Things have escalated since the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April 2021, with nightly clashes between police and Palestinians. The threatened eviction of some Palestinian families in East Jerusalem has also caused rising anger.
   
   While Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, bringing to an end 11 days of bombardment, the heaviest flare-up since the 2014 Gaza War, that has leftover 240 people dead and threatened to destabilise the volatile region. The recent calling of truce by Israel and Hamas(a political entity in Palestine) is significant given that they have a long history of military clashes.

   

3. Migrant crisis between Morocco and Spain-
   

   

   Many migrants and refugees using inflatable rings and dinghies have often made the dangerous journey from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. This week an influx of at least 8,000 was unusually high, threatening a humanitarian crisis.

   Many were young men, but there were also families and unaccompanied minors. At least one person died making the crossing and thousands have been expelled by the Spanish authorities. Many are worried the migrants’ rights have been violated during what they describe as a “rapid pace of expulsions”.

   Why is this happening?
   For 25 years, Morocco has instrumentalized migration. And every time Spain was not giving substantial compensation for the cooperation that Morocco was giving to Spain by controlling migrants, Morocco was, for a few days, hours, stopping to control the borders. And that's when there was an unexpected inflow. These events with the Polisario Front leader most likely triggered this situation for Morocco. But, most likely, Spain stopped sending investments, sending aid for development, and this has been the last straw for Morocco. And with these 6,000-8,000 migrants, Morocco has tried to punish Spain for not cooperating enough with them. 
   
   With both government having talks, the situation should resolve soon.

There are more protests happening in Hongkong, Indonesia, Russia, Peru, Haiti against the tyranny of the government and its draconian laws. Hopefully, innocent people don’t lose their lives and bring a change to the issue that matters the most.

Thank you for reading this edition of Sapience. Please share and subscribe if you liked the content and stay tuned for our next “Sapience”. 

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Well, meet Patrick Collinson. Founder of Stripe. You might have already guessed by now, he has a great sense of humour. The Tweet was accompanied by an engagement ring — which explained the kind of metrics Patrick was talking about.

History- John and Patrick Collinson first started working on Stripe in early 2010. The inspiration came when Patrick, who was working on a few side projects, kept complaining about how difficult it was to accept payments on the web. The two quickly developed a simple solution and within 2-weeks they had processed their first transaction. Over the next 6-months, they showed it to friends, watched people interact with it, and iterated as fast as they could.

But, more importantly, he has changed the whole payment industry with 7 disrupting lines of code. Stripe, (on 24 March 2021) raised a new $600 million round of funding that values the company at $95 billion — nearly triple its last reported valuation of $36 billion from April 2020, according to PitchBook data. But what makes Stripe so different and important in this space?

In a nutshell-
Instead of chasing 1000-hour programming contracts to build clunky, archaic payments solutions for each individual client, the Collinson brothers built 7 lines of code that developers could simply add to their websites.

The result is — a company that has more cash than it knows what to do with.

How does it work?

Source: Stripe Document

Their USP’s

1. Developers first-
When Stripe was launched in 2010, it was essentially a community of developers. Stripe didn’t sell to companies,” said Dmytro Okunyev, who is the founder of Chanty. “It sold to developers. That is, Stripe offered an alternative to PayPal and Authorize that was so much easier to implement that developers around the world were naturally inclined to use it.”

Back in 2010, setting up a payments system for your business was an extremely tedious process. Most integrations at the time took weeks and months to set up. It was an exhaustive process, involving several departments — from finance, legal to accounting.

The companies used to set unachievable goals and deadlines, and pass the responsibility onto developers who had to outdo themselves in order to meet expectations. Stripe changed all that by giving developers a quick and reliable way to set up payments, effectively bypassing the “decision-makers,” most of whom would have never believed that 7 lines of code can replace custom integrations that took up to 4-6 months to build.

A partial screenshot of Stripe.com, circa 2011. Courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

2. Payments made Simpler-
Stripe’s software made it simple for any website or app to accept payments, without having to obtain their own licences or strike deals with these big banks and card operators that the company has already integrated.

The Collinson brothers spent years creating relationships with these big banks, card operators etc. As a result, users only have to upload a couple of documents to set up their fully operational Stripe account.

3. Fewer hassles-
Paypal created a cost-effective way to safely accept payments 10 years ago, but the web has changed dramatically and accepting payments has not.

One of the biggest advantages of Stripe is that you don’t really have to know anything about finances to run it—which could save you from having to hire someone to do that for you in addition to your payment processor. All of the applications associated with the software, including revenue management, fraud protection, and a billing API that integrates with already developed websites, are found in the same place, making the system easy to use. In addition to this ease of use, Stripe doesn’t require much setup (if any) on your end, and you’ll be able to start making transactions right away.

I am personally a big fan of Patrick and the way he has taken stripe to this level.
He’s an inspiration to all the young founders out there. The Collison brother’s humble, problem-solving, product-first approach is what turned them into a massive success.

Key Takeaways-

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The water level in the Aral Sea started drastically decreasing from the 1960s onward. In normal conditions, the Aral Sea gets approximately one-fifth of its water supply through rainfall, while the rest is delivered to it by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Evaporation causes the water level to decrease by the same amount that flows into the Sea, making it sustainable as long as inflow is equal to evaporation on average. Therefore the diversion of rivers is at the origin of the imbalance that caused the sea to slowly desiccate over the last 4 decades. The level of salinity rose from approximately 10g/l to often more than 100g/l in the remaining Southern Aral. The salinity of the rivers varies with place and time, as well as through the seasons. 

Impact-

The primary effect of the Aral Sea desiccation has been the significant loss of water in the sea. The water level has dropped approximately 23 meters since the onset of its primary sources of water being diverted (Zavialov 2005). Although the water level has fluctuated up to a few meters in the past due to natural variability in the water flow from the rivers, by 1970, the water loss exceeded the limit of natural water level variation that has occurred in the past.

In the first desiccation period, the water level dropped by about 21 cm/year. In the next decade, water level decreased by 57 cm/year, and afterwards, the drop in water level started accelerating faster. The acceleration of the rate of water loss from the Aral Sea can be explained by the positive feedback between evaporation and Sea Surface Temperature.

Another factor that accelerated the evaporation is that the salinization of the lake has lead to vertical stratification. Stratification is characterized by a rapid change in water temperature and salinity level at a given horizontal or vertical region. Under this condition, the surface of the lake has a much lower salt concentration than the bottom of the lake, and thus heats up faster than if the salt concentration was distributed evenly.

The Aral sea desiccation period was accompanied by climate change. Before the desiccation period, the Aral Sea regulated the climate in the region by softening strong Siberian winds in the winter and cooling off the area in the summer. The exact temperature increase resulting from the Aral Crisis is difficult to measure because the entire Central Asia region has seen an increase in air temperature, so the effects due to the Aral Sea were not isolated.

Will water return?

Recovering the entire ancient water body requires the cooperation of all countries whose rivers feed it. The poor political relationship between many of them has been an insurmountable obstacle to structure a project with the minimum conditions to succeed. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are in confrontation with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the rivers Amu Daria and Sir Daria flow through these two republics, which used to be a part of the Soviet Union before its fall.

Attempts to recover the Aral Sea started in 1996 when a dam was built to retain water from Sir Daria, the river that flows into the north of the Aral Sea, to regulate the water level in this area of the lake and irrigate the surrounding land. The idea was to sacrifice the South Aral Sea to save the North Aral Sea. But the dam, built rudimentary with sand, mud and sticks, broke a few years later. Another 13 km long dam was built in 2004, as well as several hydraulic installations on the river bed that were financed by the World Bank.

The North Aral Sea increased its level by four meters in only six months, increasing its size by one third in one year and recovering part of its aquatic fauna. The most hopeful thing was to see that some of the water started timidly flowing towards the South Aral Sea (see the animation, above). The recovery of the northern part of the lake has been favoured by nature itself, which has reversed the negative loop of evaporation: water decreases to a certain volume with high salinity, slowing evaporation and stabilizing the process. Water, once 50 km from the city of Aralsk, is now only 15 km away. The recovery of the lake is still far away, but there are already symptoms that show it is underway. Fishing is reawakening in the North Aral Sea and farming is becoming easier. Healthiness has greatly improved and anaemia has decreased by 65% due to improved nutrition.

However, experts alert that full recovery continues to be extremely difficult, as many of the factors that triggered the disaster still exist. The South Aral Sea continues to lack short-term solutions and the climate crisis threatens with more droughts.

Thank you for reading this edition of Sapience. Please share and subscribe if you liked the content and stay tuned for our next “Sapience”. ☺️

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Image credit- BBC

On Saturday, India broke its previous record to count more than 3.46 lakh infections. India has seen record-breaking deaths in the last 24hrs, the health care system has been crippled and the doctors are exhausted, working overtime and even getting affected by COVID themselves. Although many of us are privileged to stay at home safely, there are people dying every minute because of no oxygen, no beds etc. To help with this issue, I have tried to collate all the resources that I can find.

This newsletter will be for all the Resources people might get help from. Feel free to share any links you’d like.

RESOURCES-
1. Covid resources 2. https://linktr.ee/Hopscotch_Health

3. Covid-twitter.com 4. covidpune.com

5. Ambulance- Help now 6. Oxygen- Bangalore

7. Beds- Bangalore 8. Food- Mumbai

9. Beds- Delhi 10. Beds- Thane

11. Beds- Navi Mumbai 12. Beds- Ahmedabad

13. Cases- dashboard- Chennai 14. All Resources- Gujarat

15. All INDIA Covid resources 16. All India Resources

17. Covid resources 18. Other resources

19. Covid facts and resources 20. Plasma

21. Plasma Donor 22. Hyderabad- Resources

23. Covid tools 24- Plasma

Data for cases

Verified NGO’s that you can donate to-

1. Dhoondh

2. Hemkunth Foundation- Delhi

3. Goonj

If you want to recommend any other Verified Ngo’s to whom we can donate, please add that in the comments section. or
You can reach out to me via Twitter

Oh and if you are wondering where PM cares fund is being spent- here’s the full analytics of the money spent :) Click on the link below
pm-cares.fund

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Stay safe.