Monday, March 13, 2017

Quick notes: Wake therapy, Tamo Racemo...

  • Early morning light has an antidepressant effect: Investigators combined chronotherapy with psychotropic medication and found that depressed patients got better within 48 hours. This therapy is the most rapid antidepressant treatment that we have. What Kind of Sleeper Are You?


  • Tata TAMO Racemo concept: Small, mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive --  all of the proper sports-car basics.Tamo Racemo is also available as a free download in Forza Horizon 3


  • Study: Volkswagen's excess diesel emissions will lead to 1,200 premature deaths in Europe. After paying more than $20 billion in fines and settlements, VW is looking to ditch diesel.


  • Center dithers on Western Ghats: The Environment Ministry has dithered, for the second time in three years, from bringing into force a law that will make about 56,825 sqkm of the ecologically-rich Western Ghats out of bounds for industrial development. States doing their best to thwart it too.


  • Stealth drones: China has begun to develop military drones that can evade radar and anti-aircraft weapons.  


  • Reader's comment in The Hindu on burkhas on campuses: Faith and culture are two separate things. For a faith like Islam which has been exported to other lands, often without approval or consent of the importers, it is really illogical to also expect an autonomous concomitant travel of the culture of the deserts along with the faith to a land of greenery and Himalayan rivers. This is because faith is predicated on the inner self while culture is for the outer self. The outer self can be very different in different lands despite the same faith ruling the inner self. An example being the diversity of cultures in India while people endorsing the Hindu faith.

    It is sheer illogicality to argue that outer self needs to also be the same much as the inner self across individuals, unless it's an argument based not on faith, but rather on something that is non-religious but presumed to be universal, viz., ''modesty of the woman''. When it's a matter of 'modesty of the woman', then please don't be dishonest and bring in a 'cultural' twist -- Ashwini Sharma.


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