Rohingya People

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/centuries-in-one-country-yet-not-its-citizens/961615/

The ecological footprint

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet's ecological capacity to regenerate.^[1] It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle. For 2007, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.5 planet Earths; that is, humanity uses ecological services 1.5 times as quickly as Earth can renew them.^[2] Every year, this number is recalculated to incorporate the three-year lag due to the time it takes for the UN to collect and publish statistics and relevant research.

WWF:The Living Planet Report 2012 finds:

• Biodiversity continues to be lost: Populations of species continue to decline, with tropical and freshwater species experiencing the biggest declines. Learn more

• The U.S. has the fifth largest ecological footprint in terms of the amount of resources each person annually consumes. We rank only behind Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Denmark in the global rankings of the Ecological Footprint. Learn more

• Resource scarcity is already being experienced across the globe, as 2.7 billion people around the world already are forced to cope with water scarcity during at least one month a year.

WWF’s Solutions

Despite these challenges, we can create a prosperous future that provides food, water and energy for the 9 or 10 billion people who will be sharing the planet in 2050.

WWF urges governments at Rio+20 to start valuing nature in order to ensure food, water, and energy security. With the impact of our ecological footprint in mind, we must protect our natural resources while providing socio-economic benefits and allowing for sustainable development.

The challenge of sustaining life on an increasingly crowded planet is growing more complicated every day. How do we feed a growing global population and still maintain a living planet? WWF works to provide recommendations, that when taken together, could enable farms to feed 10 billion people and keep Earth habitable.

The Living Planet Report is the world's leading, science-based analysis on the health of our only planet and the impact of human activity.

Its key finding? Humanity's demands exceed our planet's capacity to sustain us. That is, we ask for more than what we have. The latest edition of the Living Planet Report was released in May 2012. You can read all about its findings in the links on the left, or click on the link and download the full report. 

In a world first, LPR 2012 was launched from space by astronaut André Kuipers in the International Space Station, in collaboration with the European Space Agency

Cable digitalisation

Computers use digital signals to send and receive data. Although digital signals can only be in the state 1 (on) and 0 (off), complicated combinations of these two values are used to send/receive data. Think of this example: 
Using only binary (values 1 and 0), we can create a string of values that is interpreted by a computer to be something more meaningful. For instance, the value 11000110 00110101 10010011 00101101 is interpreted to equal 198.53.147.45 in decimal format. In conclusion, the strength of using a digital system over analog is clear. Digital signals are easier to transmit and offer less room for errors to occur. This leads to accurate data transmission that in turn leads to faster transmission rates and better productivity

Today, nearly all electronic devices we use are digital. The main reason for the change from analog to digital is because digital signals are easier to transmit and are also more reliable

In analog technology, a wave is recorded or used in its original form. So, for example, in an analog tape recorder, a signal is taken straight from themicrophone and laid onto tape. The wave from the microphone is an analog wave, and therefore the wave on the tape is analog as well. That wave on the tape can be read, amplified and sent to a speaker to produce the sound.

In digital technology, the analog wave is sampled at some interval, and then turned into numbers that are stored in the digital device. On a CD, the sampling rate is 44,000 samples per second. So on a CD, there are 44,000 numbers stored per second of music. To hear the music, the numbers are turned into avoltage wave that approximates the original wave.

The two big advantages of digital technology are:

·         The recording does not degrade over time. As long as the numbers can be read, you will always get exactly the same wave.

Analog technology comprises of natural signals like human speech. With digital technology this human speech can be saved and stored in a computer. Thus digital technology opens up the horizon for endless possible uses.

A set-top box (STB) or set-top unit (STU) is aninformation appliance device that generally contains atuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other displaydevice. Set-top boxes are used in cable television andsatellite television systems, to transform the signal from the cable or satellite to a form that can be used by the television set or other receiver. It also enhances the quality of signal from cable or satellite.

The Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act will be amended

 The digital technology will offer improved quality of transmission and greater choice of content, albeit at a higher cost to consumers.

"This will benefit the entire broadcasting industry, both economically, and from the point of view of content," 

The broadcasting industry has been suffering from poor bandwidth of analogue cable, which will be resolved with digitisation, he said, adding this will also plug leakages in the revenue system by solving the problem of under declaration of subscribers in the analogue cable system

Balanta people:

The Balanta (meaning literally "those who resist", are an ethnic group found in Guinea-Bissau,Senegal, and Gambia. They are the largest ethnic group of Guinea-Bissau, representing more than one-quarter of the population. But despite their numbers, they have remained outside the colonial and postcolonial state because of their social organization.

 West Africa has a coup problem. Today, in the latest development in Guinea-Bissau's coup, the military said it wouldn't release the country's interim presidentuntil "conditions allow." Reuters also reports that the African Union has suspended the country's membership. Last month, another coup rocked neighboring Mali and the junta continues to cling to power.

"Although Mali and Guinea-Bissau are very close to each other geographically and they had coups within weeks of each other, their two upheavals are very different," writes Global Post's Andrew Meldrum. "In Mali, some mid-ranking military officers overturned an established democracy that had been functioning for 20 years. Guinea-Bissau, on the other hand, has had so many coups that no one of its presidents has completed a full term in office since the country became independent in 1974."

A second round of voting in presidential elections was scheduled to take place later this month, but on Friday, the heavy favorite, Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., was in army custody along with other senior officials.

The military, which has dominated politics in the country ever since it fought its way to independence from Portugal in 1974, announced it did not intend to stay in power and called a meeting of political parties late Friday.

But military officials did not say what their plans were for the nation of 1.6 million people, which is heavily dependent on aid and considered a major transit hub for Latin American drugs. Once again, in a country long accustomed to coups, the trigger was apparently the army’s perception that its prerogatives were threatened, diplomats said.

On Friday, a self-proclaimed “military command” announced on the radio that it had deposed the prime minister because of what it said was a “secret” agreement between him and military forces from Angola aimed at suppressing Guinea-Bissau’s army. It offered no evidence of the agreement, and diplomats and analysts said it seemed likely that the army was simply trying to eliminate Mr. Gomes before his probable victory in the second round of the presidential election.

vulture restaurants

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3497590.ece

Programme on National Monsoon Mission

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved the implementation of the programme of the National Monsoon Mission at the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) for a period of five years. The main objectives of the National Monsoon Mission are:  (i) To build a working partnership between the academic and R&D organisations both national and international and the operational agencies to improve the operational monsoon forecast skill over the country.  (ii) To set up a state of the art dynamic modelling framework for improving the prediction skill of:  a. Seasonal and extended range prediction system (16 days to one season)  b. Short to medium range prediction system (up to 15 days).  The Mission has a budget of Rs.400 crore for five years to support the research work related to the mission.  The National Monsoon Mission after its implementation will help to implement a dynamic prediction system for the prediction of monsoon in all time scales, short range to seasonal time scale at appropriate spatial scales with improved prediction skill. The forecasts based on this prediction system will cater to the needs of various sectors like agriculture, water resources management, power generation, disaster management, tourism and transport.  The programme will be undertaken through two sub-missions on two different time scales, (i) extended range to seasonal time scale to be coordinated by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune/ESSO and (ii) short to medium range scale, to be coordinated by the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF)/ESSO. The Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)/ESSO will provide the ocean observations for assimilation and the India Meteorological Department/ESSO will implement the research outcome of the efforts in operational mode. The Mission will support focused research by national and international research groups with definitive objectives and deliverables to improve the models in the short, medium, extended and seasonal range scales at appropriate spatial scales. The Mission will also support observational programmes that will result in better understanding of the processes. The progress of the National Monsoon Mission will be reviewed and monitored by two committees. The Scientific Review and Monitoring Committee (SRMC) will review the research proposals from different research groups and monitor the progress of the research work. The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC), which is the apex body will steer the programme, advise and direct midcourse corrections, if any.  Background: Prediction of monsoon rainfall variability in all spatial and time scales is very important for many sectors like agriculture, water resources management, power generation and natural ecosystems and thus economy of the country. The present statistical methods being used by the India Meteorological Department have some constraints to meet specific user requirements for forecasts on finer spatial and temporal scale. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of the state of the art dynamic models to improve monsoon prediction skills.

Touchscreen

There are three basic systems that are used to recognize a person's touch:

• Resistive
• Capacitive
• Surface acoustic wave

The resistive system consists of a normal glass panel that is covered with a conductive and a resistive metallic layer. These two layers are held apart by spacers, and a scratch-resistant layer is placed on top of the whole setup. An electrical current runs through the two layers while the monitor is operational. When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact in that exact spot. The change in the electrical field is noted and the coordinates of the point of contact are calculated by the computer. Once the coordinates are known, a special driver translates the touch into something that the operating system can understand, much as a computer moouse driver translates a mouse's movements into a click or a drag.

In the capacitive system, a layer that stores electrical charge is placed on the glass panel of the monitor. When a user touches the monitor with his or her finger, some of the charge is transferred to the user, so the charge on the capacitive layer decreases. This decrease is measured in circuits located at each corner of the monitor. The computer calculates, from the relative differences in charge at each corner, exactly where the touch event took place and then relays that information to the touch-screen driver software. One advantage that the capacitive system has over the resistive system is that it transmits almost 90 percent of the light from the monitor, whereas the resistive system only transmits about 75 percent. This gives the capacitive system a much clearer picture than the resistive system.

On the monitor of a surface acoustic wave system, two transducers (one receiving and one sending) are placed along the x and y axes of the monitor's glass plate. Also placed on the glass are reflectors -- they reflect an electrical signal sent from one transducer to the other. The receiving transducer is able to tell if the wave has been disturbed by a touch event at any instant, and can locate it accordingly. The wave setup has no metallic layers on the screen, allowing for 100-percent light throughput and perfect image clarity. This makes the surface acoustic wave system best for displaying detailed graphics (both other systems have significant degradation in clarity).

A resistive system registers a touch as long as the two layers make contact, which means that it doesn't matter if you touch it with your finger or a rubber ball. A capacitive system, on the other hand, must have a conductive input, usually your finger, in order to register a touch. The surface acoustic wave system works much like the resistive system, allowing a touch with almost any object -- except hard and small objects like a pen tip.

3G vs 4G

3G is currently the world’s best connection method when it comes to mobile phones, and especially mobile Internet. 3G stands for 3rd generation as its is just that in terms of the evolutionary path of the mobile phone industry. 4G means 4th generation. This is a set of standard that is being developed as a future successor of 3G in the very near future.

The biggest difference between the two is in the existence of compliant technologies. There are a bunch of technologies that fall under 3G, including WCDMA, EV-DO, and HSPA among others. Although a lot of mobile phone companies are quick to dub their technologies as 4G, such as LTE, WiMax, and UMB, none of these are actually compliant to the specifications set forth by the 4G standard. These technologies are often referred to as Pre-4G or 3.9G.

4G speeds are meant to exceed that of 3G. Current 3G speeds are topped out at 14Mbps downlink and 5.8Mbps uplink. To be able to qualify as a 4G technology, speeds of up to 100Mbps must be reached for a moving user and 1Gbps for a stationary user. So far, these speeds are only reachable with wired LANs.

Another key change in 4G is the abandonment of circuit switching. 3G technologies use a hybrid of circuit switching and packet switching. Circuit switching is a very old technology that has been used in telephone systems for a very long time. The downside to this technology is that it ties up the resource for as long as the connection is kept up. Packet switching is a technology that is very prevalent in computer networks but has since appeared in mobile phones as well. With packet switching, resources are only used when there is information to be sent across. The efficiency of packet switching allows the mobile phone company to squeeze more conversations into the same bandwidth. 4G technologies would no longer utilize circuit switching even for voice calls and video calls. All information that is passed around would be packet switched to enhance efficiency.

E- Ticket v/s I-Ticket

When ordering tickets online in India, you can opt between getting an E-Ticket or an I-Ticket. The main difference between an E-Ticket and an I-Ticket is how you get the ticket. With an E-Ticket, you receive an electronic form that you print and carry with you while with an I-Ticket, the actual ticket is produced and then sent to you via a courier.

The most direct consequence for this is the difference between the booking date and actual travel date. With an I-Ticket, you need to book at least two days before the actual date of travel to give time for the tickets to be mailed to you. Since you just print the E-Ticket, there is no associated delays. You can even book on the day of travel and just bring the printout with you.

But to ensure that the person bringing the E-Ticket is the one that booked it, you need to bring the identification papers you supplied when booking. This is used to confirm your identity. With an I-Ticket, you need not present identification papers as the tickets would serve that purpose.

You also need to consider that an I-Ticket is more expensive due to the cost of delivering the ticket to your location. The only additional cost of an E-Ticket is the cost of printing it which so small to be considered significant. In general, given the same destinations, an E-Ticket would usually cost less than an I-Ticket.

Lastly, you need to consider the situation where you might need to cancel the ticket for whatever reason. With an E-Ticket, cancellation is very easy and takes effect instantly. Not so with an I-Ticket, especially when the tickets have been sent. The process is a bit more difficult and time consuming not to mention the fact that you would get less of your money back