Diesel and you: Traffic pollution can cause 'facial dark spots'
Phosphorus shortage? In the past, the phosphorus cycle was closed: crops were eaten by humans and livestock while their faeces were used as natural fertilisers to grow crops again. These days, the cycle is broken. Each year 220m tonnes of phosphate rocks are mined, but only a negligible amount makes it back into the soil.
Russia’s forgotten Mari pagans: Reverence for nature permeates this culture. Yumo is considered the creator of the highest laws governing the cosmos.
CSE study: Delhi's air quality worsened after end of odd-even scheme.
Congestion charging is the way forward: A more durable effect on pollution might come from a congestion-pricing programme, in which drivers are charged for using the roads at certain places and times. This approach, which has been successful in places like London and Singapore, allows cities to effectively reduce car use at periods of peak congestion and pollution. The Delhi government should pilot the use of congestion charging, and invest any income from the charge in high-quality, high-capacity public transport with zero local emissions.
"Merkel invited me": Officers encountered many distraught, crying, frightened pedestrians,
particularly women and girls. They reported "fights, thefts, sexual
assaults against women, etc." Groups of male migrants were repeatedly
named as perpetrators.
Marxist yoga: While CPI (M) leaders challenged allegations that the academy and the yoga programme were politically-motivated, the line-up of party leaders watching the demonstration gave the lie.
Defrocked! Catholic Church to Crack Whip on 'Pervert' Priests
Southeast Asia's longest tunnel to come up in J&K: 14 KM Zojila tunnel to cost Rs10,050 crore. The 6.5 km long Z-Morh tunnel to cost Rs2,716.90 crore. ..Compare this against the cost of Bullet train.
Electric buses: Plan to convert 1.5 lakh state transport corporation buses into electric ones in a phased manner.
Battery tech:
Automotive Research Association of India and Vikram Sarabhai Space
Centre to jointly design and develop car batteries and offer the
technology for mass production
Col. Mahadik's sacrifice: On one hand Kiran Rao thought of escaping the country while on the other, Col. Mahadik’s bereaved wife, Swati, had announced her firm determination that her children would serve in the Indian Army.
IS finds Indian Muslims 'inferior': South Asian and African IS fighters have a disproportionately high level of casualties as they are forced to the
frontlines as foot soldiers. The six Indians killed so far are Athif
Vaseem Mohammad (Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Karnataka), Maulana
Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki
(Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid alias Bada
Sajid (UP).
At times, the 'inferior fighters' are given a vehicle loaded with explosives, asked to go near a destination and call a certain number. They are told the purported individual would come and meet them to explain the mission. However, as soon as the number is dialed, the car explodes due to a pre-set mechanism aimed at destroying a specific target.
Why Pakistan persecutes the minority Ahmadi group:
"In Pakistan, it is very easy for people who want to settle scores with
their enemies to accuse them of blasphemy. They know that there are
immediate arrests in blasphemy cases, and sometimes people are killed on
the spot."
Madhuchandan, a software engineer from US is making farmers richer! "Our agriculture scientists are misleading farmers. Once a group of farmers were advised to set the waste on fire after the sugarcane field was harvested. The fire actually destroys the micro-organisms that are needed to maintain the soil fertility. The biggest drawback of our country is that we have agriculturists who have lot of theoretical knowledge but have no practical wisdom. Our agriculture universities should have experienced farmers instead of experts," points out Madhu.
India should master Solar Thermal: Solar thermal technology only works in hot sunny countries. The price is
falling, and its growing capacity to store energy is arousing
interest. The cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels is falling much
faster but the International Energy Agency expects them both to play a
part in an energy revolution which is likely to see solar as the
dominant source of electricity globally by 2050.
Paddy Padmanathan of Saudi-owned ACWA Power, which is running the
Moroccan solar-thermal project, said: "Whether you are an engineer or not, any
passer-by is simply stunned by it. You have 35 soccer fields of
huge parabolic mirrors pointed to the sky which are moveable so they
will track the Sun throughout the day."
Democratic revolutions, the manufactured kind: “After the end of the Cold War, a single center of domination emerged in the world, and then those who found themselves at the top of the pyramid were tempted to think they were strong and exceptional, they knew better. Then, adopting policies based on self-conceit and belief in one’s exceptionality and impunity this single center of domination, the United States, began to export so-called democratic revolutions".
How did it all turn out? Says Putin: “An aggressive foreign interference has resulted in a brazen destruction of national institutions. … Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster. Nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life.”
(1) A moderate Muslim states that ISIS is wrong, they aren't "true" Muslims, and Islam is a religion of peace.
(2) A questioner asks: what about verses in the Quran like 4:89, saying to "seize and kill" disbelievers? Or 8:12-13, saying God sent angels to "smite the necks and fingertips" of disbelievers, foreboding a "grievous penalty" for whoever opposes Allah and his Messenger? Or 5:33, which says those who "spread corruption" (a vague phrase widely believed to include blasphemy and apostasy) should be "killed or crucified"? Or 47:4, which also prescribes beheading for disbelievers encountered in jihad?
(3) The Muslim responds by defending these verses as Allah's word -- he insists that they have been quoted "out of context," have been misinterpreted, are meant as metaphor, or that they may even have been mistranslated.
(4) Despite being shown multiple translations, or told that some of these passages (like similar passages in other holy books) are questionable in any context, the Muslim insists on his/her defense of the Scripture.
Lies, Duplicity and Deceit in the name of Allah: "If America is the sole reason for the rise of global jihad, one wonders if it was America that was responsible for the assassinations of several Islamic caliphs in early Islam and the bloody Battle of Karbala in 680 CE.".
Rightists Against Land Acquisition Ordnance: "I am a firm believer in property rights. That means, when A owns something and B wants to buy it, it's a transaction between A and B only. Land is property. If someone owns the title to a piece of land, then it is for that person to decide what to do with it. End of story".
Girls in labs: "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when
they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with
you, and when you criticize them they cry."
Mental enslavement among Indian Muslims: During festivals in India or Pakistan, you increasingly find some Muslims dressed in Arab garb. It is time to address Arab cultural imperialism, because it is far more dangerous today at least in the sub-continent.
Authorizing land grab: Section 101 of the UPA Act states that if the acquired land remains unutilized for a period of five years from the date of taking over the possession, the land shall be returned to the owners. The NDA amendment has swapped a defined period – that of five years – with “a period specified for setting up of any project or for five years”. Trying to be clever here, the mandarins. Starting January, 2015, any company can specify a period of say 10 or 20 years and were they to sit on the land for that long, it will remain with them. This sounds like land grabbing, especially for private projects where the government is also involved.
Another Tarun Tejpal? Rajendra Pachauri reigned over a culture of high-fives, hugs and other forms of physical contact that some women found loaded with sexual innuendoes.
G Madhavan Nair: "Aryabhatta knew about gravity before Newton. Our ancient scriptures also had information on metallurgy, algebra and astrology way before the western world knew about them".
Dr Manjul Bhargava, Princeton: The first explicit statement of the Pythagorean theorem -- the geometric theorem, occurs about 800 BC in the Shuba Sutra of Baudhayan
How a 'Made in India' project was scuttled: Instead of the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40, which HAL could build, export, overhaul, upgrade and even modify into a light-attack aircraft, powerful lobbies have promoted a Swiss trainer
Secular Rape: Japanese student gang-raped for 12 days -- Sahid, Sabir and Wasim Khan, posing as tour guides, took the woman to Digha, a beach town in Bengal.
Yesu and Slavery in S Korea: Slavery has been so pervasive that regional judges have shown leniency toward several perpetrators. A pastor who lived on Sinui for 19 years sympathized with farmers (slave lords) forced to deal with disabled, incompetent workers whom he described as dirty and lazy.
So far plastic, antibiotics in animal food sources & soy have come up in our discussion of early puberty in girls: http://t.co/luzI6BHdHj
— KQED Forum (@KQEDForum) January 2, 2015
Vivek Murthy, the new Surgeon General, isn’t afraid to take a stand:
So who became a Muslim?: “Those regions of the most dramatic conversion of the population, such as Eastern Bengal or Western Punjab, lay on the fringes of Indo-Muslim rule, whereas the heartland of that rule, the upper Gangetic Plain, saw a much lower incidence of conversion.”
(...so, the weak willed ones converted, while the strong-willed ones remained steadfast in the face of intense pressure and threats. There is a lesson for Bharat here: Ghar wapsi should see more success in Bengal and Assam, if Hindus are persistent).
India should learn: Qualcomm earned about half of its global revenue of $26.5 billion in China
for the fiscal year ended Sept. 28, with a large chunk of profit coming
from higher-margin royalties earned from the company's licensing arm.
The China settlement is likely to include the
imposition of fines, a significant reduction of licensing fees the
company charges Chinese handset manufacturers and the termination of
cross-licensing arrangements the company imposes on the manufacturers
using its chipsets.
"The Peshawar attack is in complete agreement with the Prophet's teachings because when the Prophet killed the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, he put the same guideline, that only children who have hair below their belly button (pubic hair) are allowed to be killed. Killing of women and children is also in accordance with the teachings of the Prophet. Those who object to this claim can refer to Sahih Bukhari, Vol 5, Hadith 148"
OPEC trying to sabotage America's shale oil: The increase in global oil supply is attributed to the sharp ramp up of US shale. OPEC's objective is to "clean up" the US shale market. Oil prices will eventually rise once this occurs.
Riskless Capitalism: In India, promoters have a class of "super" equity which retains all the upside in good times and very little of the downside in bad times
Radar net protects tigers: Built by Anish Arora at Ohio State University, the work was originally designed as a way to monitor the flow of people across the country's borders
The Grammar of a Dharmic Narrative: "There is something that keeps us united as a single nation no matter how splintered the society is. That something is what I call the Dharmic narrative, a civilizational continuum."
Grooming Ordeal: Yorkshire Muslim teenage girl tells of grooming ordeal
If Muslims are so fond of Garba, why don't they arrange Garba dance in Muslim society? What's the need to dance with Hindu women only?
— Tapan Ghosh (@hstapanghosh) September 16, 2014
Fully convinced that real goal behind creating Telangana is 2 revive Nizamiyat in Peninsula.RSS as usual clueless
https://t.co/3g4cNZaw8Y
— Sushupti (@Sushuptii) September 14, 2014
