Month August 2021

Paleontologists have discovered a new species – a microsaur – from a 308-million-year-old fossil unearthed in the United States. In deference to its tiny size, researchers called it Joermungandr bolti after a giant sea serpent from Norse mythology.

Microsaurs were small, lizard-like animals that roamed the Earth well before dinosaurs made their appearance. They lived during the Carboniferous period, when the forebears of modern mammals and reptiles, called amniotes, first appeared.

Joermungandr had a two-inch long snake-like body with scales, and four short, plump legs. Scientists were astonished to discover that the fossil contained the animal’s skin. They also discovered a pattern of ridges similar to those found on the scales of modern reptiles that dig into the ground. The scale shape led them to hypothesise that Joermungandr burrowed as well.

“It would probably have been a head-first burrower, using its head to smack itself into the soil,” said lead study author Arjan Mann from Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.

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An engineering professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has shown that a person’s poop can generate income that can buy books, fruits or coffee!

Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at UNIST, devised a virtual currency called Ggool, which means ‘honey’ in Korean. Each person using his eco friendly toilet earns 10 Ggool a day.

Cho’s eco-friendly toilet is connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure. The BeeVi toilet uses a vacuum pump to send faeces into an underground tank, reducing water use. There, microorganisms break down the waste into methane, which becomes a source of energy for the building, powering a gas stove, hot-water boiler and solid oxide fuel cell.

An average person defecates about 500 grams a day, which can be converted to 50 litres of methane gas, Cho says. This gas can generate 0.5kWh of electricity. When a person uses the toilet, the human waste helps power a building and the user earns money. UNIST students can pick up the products they want at a shop and scan a QR code to pay with Ggool.

“I had only ever thought that faeces are dirty, but now it is a treasure of great value to me,” said student Heo Hui-jin at the Ggool market.

A new species of skittering frog has been identified from the surroundings of the Thattekad Bird Sanctuary in Kerala. Researchers from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Mount Carmel College (MCC), Bengaluru, and National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar, made the discovery.

The new species is named Euphlyctis Kerala in honour of the remarkable biodiversity of the state. Kerala is known to have 180 species of frogs and there could be many more new species awaiting formal descriptions.

Initial studies suggest that Euphlyctis Kerala is found in the fresh water bodies of the foothills of the Western Ghats, south of the Palakkad Gap. Since these frogs live in fresh water bodies, conservation of these freshwater systems plays a crucial role in conservation of the species.

Members of the genus Euphlyctis (skittering frogs) have their distribution range from Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, pal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. Earlier, skittering frog species known from India were thought to be widespread across other countries, but this research shows some of the frogs as native to India.

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Facebook is taking steps to make Instagram, the photo- and video-sharing app with more than 1 billion users, safer for teens. They include automatically defaulting teen users under 16 into private accounts, making it harder for suspicious adult accounts to find them, limiting the options advertisers have to reach younger viewers with ads, and using AI to detect users’ ages. “We think private accounts are the right choice for young people, but we recognize some young creators might want to have public accounts to build a following,” Instagram said in a blog post. “We want to strike the right balance of giving young people all the things they love about Instagram while also keeping them safe.” However, critics say that even though Instagram appears to be addressing online predation, underage users, and advertising standards for teens, they also must be mindful of other issues including cyberbullying, self-harm and exposure to misinformation and adult content.

Giving users options has been frowned upon for years. The logic was simple enough: Most people won’t change their default settings anyway, so the onus is on the product to get things right automatically. More algorithms, fewer settings. Less friction! Now, people are being given more choices and more tools with which to decide their experience.

Facebook acknowledged it’s still trying to figure out the right way to verify people’s age — because there’s not much to stop new ones from just, you know, lying — and often, by the time someone reports a rule break, it’s already too late. The only option for the platforms is to be more proactive and more careful. Doing that with young users is an obvious choice, because the stakes are so high and the relative business hit fairly low, but it’ll be equally important and much harder to make the same decisions for the broader user base.

But whether it was Twitter serving the “Are you sure you want to share this article you haven’t read?” pop-up or some of these privacy-focused tools that let people choose who can reach or read them, the focus has clearly shifted away from building the One Perfect System to letting users build it for themselves. At the scale at which these companies operate, that’s the only way it’s ever going to work.

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Got a pile of Lego bricks lying around at home and have no idea what to build? Brickit uses an AI powered camera to rapidly scan the bricks and suggest things you can make. Spread out your Lego bricks, and let the app scan them. Seconds later, the app delivers options you can construct, without worrying about what to look for from the large number of bricks. Choose the project you want to build and follow the step-by-step building process on the app. The app doesn’t just mark the bricks you need for a particular project but also tells you where they are in the pile of Lego pieces! You can share your project with other users on the app. Brickit is available for iOS for now, and will be available for Android soon.

For many of us however, Lego is a big box containing a jumble of random bricks, each belonging to structures that were dismantled long ago. With the instruction manuals long gone, building more than a simple house feels like a daunting prospect. But what if you could scan all of the random pieces and be told exactly what you could make with them? This was the dream for the team behind Brickit, a new app that is inspiring kids and adults alike to build new creations from their old Lego. The process is very straightforward: simply lay out your bricks, point your camera at the unruly heap, and let Brickit do all the work for you. It will scan each individual piece, identify it, and then figure out which of Lego’s many sets you can build from what you have on hand. It will even tell you which bricks are missing.

As well as identifying the various bits in the pile, it will also provide you with illustrations of them in a similar vein to the official Lego instruction manuals. If you’re unsure of where to find these pieces in the undoubtedly huge pile, fear not because the app will then highlight each one in the original photo. As a result, building the proposed sets – assuming you have the correct bricks – becomes a relatively quick and easy task. Though, if you don’t have the right pieces to make any of the sets, you can attempt them anyway, substituting missing pieces for others that you have in your arsenal. This stage might require a bit of thinking outside the box but, as Lego’s original tagline goes: “Just Imagine…”

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A job application filled by Steve Jobs in 1973 when he was 18 years old has fetched US$3,43,000 (Rs 2,54,78,897) in an online auction. It’s said to be the only job application that he ever filled out as he, along with Steve Wozniak, started Apple in 1976. On it, Jobs listed “electronics tech” and “design engineer” as his special abilities and interests, and other skills such as “computer” and “calculator”. “The Steve Jobs Job Application from 1973 is a unique piece of history from the exact moment that a dreamer changed the world. It’s a snapshot into the mind of a future genius at a moment where any small deviation from the path ahead would have meant a very different world today,” the auction website said.

This auction, however, was the first of its kind in several aspects. For starters, it did not just have a physical copy of the job application. It even sold it off in an NFT or Non-fungible token format.

In fact, this was one of the main reasons the auction was conducted. A group of friends under the alias Winthorpe Ventures held the auction to understand if the digital asset had a similar value to its physical form. So while people bid for the physical job application in US dollars, the NFT was being auctioned off using Ethereum.

The group got the answer it sought by the end of the auction. The auction concluded with the print copy of the job application by Steve Jobs going for over four times what the NFT version received.

So, we now know that people are more interested in the actual letter written by Jobs himself, and not a mere digital copy of it. Can this principle apply to the rest of the art forms too? The answer will likely shape the future of NFTs in the world.

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Tech start-up, Ampere, wants to help you protect your eyes with Dusk, the “world’s first smart sunglasses”. Unlike classic transitional glasses made with photochromic lenses that automatically switch tint in response to brighter light, Dusk’s are made with electrochromic lenses that change tint in response to electrical signals. The lenses block 100% of UVA/UVB rays, and the frames weigh just 26 grams. A button on the underside of one arm cycles through three preset tint levels; for more detailed control the Ampere app has a sliding bar that lets users pick from zero to 100 per cent tint; the tint switch happens in 0.1 seconds. Favourite settings can be saved to find later. Dusk also has speakers and a mic for hands-free phone calls, summoning Siri and Google Assistant or listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts. The speakers are “open ear”, but only the wearer will be able to hear them. Use the Ampere app to sound an alarm to help you find them; there’s also space for Apple’s Air Tag in Dusk’s charging case, so that you never misplace it. Dusk’s IP65 rating means they can withstand dust, rain and other elements. The Dusk comes with 7 days of use when running just the tint-control features.

Picture Credit : Google

Kuchipudi, the classical dance style of Andhra Pradesh, is accepted as a solo dance but evolved from the dance-drama tradition of Bhagaveta Mela Natakam. Stories from Hindu mythology, particularly Vaishnava Sampradaya (cult of Lord Vishnu), are interpreted through the medium of stylized and rhythmic movements, typical hasta mudras (hand gestures) and expressional dancing. Kuchipudi lays equal emphasis to elegance and vibrant movements and is performed by both men and women.

Evolution and history

The word Kuchipudi comes from the village Kuchelapuram in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. The Sanskrit word Kusilava-puram refers to the village of actors, travelling bards or dancers. The authoritative text of dance and dramaturgy, written by Bharata Muni, known as Natya Sastra with 6,000 verses in 36 chapters, studied version, evolved during 500 BCE to 500 CE, that mentions the graceful movements known as Kaishiki Vritti. Pre-2nd century text calls one raga (musical melody) as Andhri (Andhra), related to Gandhari Arsabhi. The 1st milllenium Sanskrit text by Bruna Nettle credits its origin to 3rd century.

The copper inscriptions, from 10th to 15th century of Machupalli kaifat refers to Kuchipudi dance. According to Manohar Varadpande, Kuchipudi emerged in the late 13th century during the reign of the Ganga rulers of Kalinga; however, the dancers enjoyed royal patronage during the reign of King Krishnadevaraya in the Vijayanagara empire.

In 1678, the last Shia Muslim Sultan of Golkonda, Abul Hasan Qutub Shah, gifted the Kuchipudi village to the dancers, as he was impressed with their brilliant performance; however, during the reign of Aurangzeb, he was completely against arts and artistes and destroyed the musical instruments, too. The British, too, did not approve of classical dancers and performing art forms suffered a setback.

Pioneer mentors and technique

The foremost pioneers were Vedantam Lakshminarayana Sastri (1886-1956), Vempatti Venkataramaya Sastri and Chinta Ventaramayya Sastri. Prior to the Bhagavata nataka tradition, dancers interpreted stories related to Shaivism and were known as Brahmana Melas. According to the tradition, Natttuva Melas pertained to the invocatory Puja dance and the Kalika dance in the Kalyana mandapa, the Natya Mela pertained to ritual dances, Kalika dance for intellectuals and Bhagavatam for commoners.

Teertha Narayana Yati, who wrote the Krishna Leela Tarangani, was a sanyasin (sage) of the Advaita Vedanta and his disciple Siddhendra Yogi founded the systematised version in the 17th century. He also induced young Brahmin boys to take up Kuchipudi dance as he felt that if females danced, the purity of the dance will be affected.

Vempatti Chinna Satyam further refurbished the Kuchipudi dance and placed it on the international map. The technique is similar to Bharata Natyam but unlike Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi dancers are quite light footed with spring-like and bouncing movements that differs in the style of presentation.

Performance and music

Bhama Kalapam, an extract from Krishna Leela Tarangani, forms the mainstay of the Kuchipudi repertoire, besides Golla Kalapam of Ramiah Sastri which is an ethical satire between the Gopis and the Brahmins. Kritis of Tyagaraja and Padams of Kshtreyya, etc., are also part of the performance.

American Esther Sharman, renamed as Ragini Devi, whose daughter Indrani Bajpai or Indrani Rehman, and Yamini Krishnamurti, are among the foremost exponents. Leading exponents, Raja Radha and Kausalya Reddy, Swapna Sundari, Sobha Naidu, Vyjayanthi Kashi, Jayarama and Vanashree Rao, Narasimha Chari, Anuradha J., and young brilliant dancers including Yamini and Bhavana Reddy, Prateeksha Kashi, Avijit Das, Alekhya Punjala, etc.

Traditionally a Kuchipudi performance commences with invocations to Lord Ganesha, Lord Nataraja and Goddess Parvati, while paying salutations; the dancer also receives blessings for the successful performance without any hindrance whatsoever. After the Jatiswaram is performed which is a fine combination of music, melody and rhythm, interwoven with jatis, the display of rhythmic complex patterns of varied movements, followed with the Sabdam, Padam, Varnam, another Padam or Bhajan and finally the Thillana or the Tarangam which is the dance on the rim of the brass plate.

Performances are solo and dance dramas like Rukmini Kalyanam or Sreenivasa Kalyanam and other dramas pertaining to Lord Shiva, Rama, Kartikeya and Ganapati are also enacted and presented.

It was believed that if you have to please Lord Krishna, you have to don female attire at least once. During the 19th century, females were barred from performing Kuchipudi. Hence the tradition developed wherein male dancers attired like females, interpreting both masculine and feminine characters.

One of the mainstays of the Kuchipudi repertoire is the interpretation of Bhama Kalapam or the story of Satyabhama. Satyabhama, like other women, was in love with Krishna; she was a royal and beautiful lady but arrogant. Krishna wanted to teach her a lesson, hence asked her as to who was more beautiful, Satyabhama or Krishna. As expected, Satyabhama claimed that she was the most beautiful woman. Krishna argued with her and angrily drifted away. Satyabhama realised her mistake and asked for forgiveness. Bhama Kalapam is an extract from Krishna Leela Tarangani written by saint composer Narayana Teertha.

It is interesting to narrate here one of the Kuchipudi performances rendered by the renowned and dynamic Yamini Krishnamurti. She was interpreting the number Swami Ra Ra (Please come, My Lord) wherein the dancer as the heroine requests the Lord to come as soon as possible as she is unable to bear the pangs of separation. While interpreting this number with large expressive eyes, a Sardarji went up to the stage. The dancer responded, saying: “I am calling my Swami, My Lord, you are not He!”

Credit : Guru Vijay Shanker (The Teenager Today)

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I am friendly with a boy in my class. He seems to be very serious about our relationship. But his friends and others who know him tell me that he is using me and he doesn’t really love me. When I asked him about it, he said he loves me a lot. At times, I think of quitting this relationship but I can’t, as I too love him, and feel so bad to hurt him. I don’t want to break his heart.

 Sounds like you’re in a dilemma about whether you should listen to your boyfriend’s friends and discontinue your relationship with this friend, or follow your own feelings. Right now, he seems to be like the moon as – you see his good side, others see him “a user”.

Remember, there is no smoke without fire, and with many people – mostly ‘his friends’ warning you, it makes sense to speak to them directly or ask a trusted friend to do so on your behalf. Ask them what makes them think/say that he is using you. Observe his behaviour with others. Find out whatever you can; you owe it to yourself.

Reflect on whether your relationship with him is healthy. If you “feel bad when you hurt him”, “don’t want to break his heart”, and “can’t stop myself from loving him”, these could be signs of an unhealthy relationship. You can be caring and compassionate, but you are not responsible for his behaviour (thoughts, feelings, etc.); you can only be responsible for you. If you respect yourself and decide that a relationship needs to end if it is harmful to you even if you love him – it is your right! The choice has to be yours.

So even if you are continuing with the relationship, follow relationship safety rules, and take your time to commit. If he is genuine and isn’t using you, time will surely tell; till then you will have taken steps to be safe.

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My parents do not allow me to use Facebook or Instagram, but girls my age and even younger use them. My friends tease me about not being on my social media sites. I feel embarrassed to admit that I’m not even suing WhatsApp! I’ve tried to convince them to let me use social media as I do well in my studies, but to no avail.

It seems like that you are not only embarrassed but also feel frustrated that you cannot convince your parents about letting you use social media.

Be clear about why you want to use social media; it will help you to manage how much time you want to spend on it and what you put on it. Do some research on the safe use of social media – creating strong passwords, who to befriend and who not to, how to block users, what kind of posts are safe to place. Create a chart of safety rules you will follow for each site you want to be on.

Acknowledge and appreciate your parents’ love for you, and their concern for your safety. Encourage them to share exactly what they are worried about. Seek permission to share with them the research you have done because you want to be responsible user. Sharing information can help both of you to learn about safe use of social media. If they don’t agree, be patient and continue to discuss it with them. If they agree, put up the rules chart in your home and stick with it. Let your parents monitor your use for a while till they are convinced that you are doing fine. Keep communicating with them. Keep their trust and stay safe.

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