The debate on network neutrality in India gathered public attention after Airtel, a mobile telephone service provider in India, announced in December 2014 additional charges for making voice calls over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) from its network using apps like WhatsApp, Skype, etc.

What is net neutrality?

While there are several definitions of Net Neutrality around the world, in general, net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet the same, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. That means companies like Airtel should not block or slow down access to any website or content on the Web to benefit their own services over those of competitors.

How can ISPs harm net neutrality?

Have you ever wondered why your downloads are always so slow even if you have already subscribed to the fastest internet service available in your area? In order for ISP to keep their bandwidth cost and load down, they would have to throttle the speed of certain services. To do that, ISP will have to implement the Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure that important packets are marked as priority and leave their routers first. To differentiate the different kinds of packets, ISPs have to analyse the packets to determine the importance of the packet. ISPs have also previously talked about charging extra for services like Skype that compete with its voice business. This means Airtel could additionally charge (apart from the normal internet bills) its customers for using Skype and might make its customers stop using Skype completely.

What is Free Basics?

On 10 February 2015, Facebook launched Internet.org in India with Reliance Communications. It aims to provide free access to 38 websites through an app. Only Bing was made available as the search engine. In May 2015, the Internet.org Platform, open to participation by any developers meeting specified guidelines, was announced. In September, the app delivering these services were renamed Free Basics. The problem here is the Facebook’s role as gatekeeper in determining what websites were on that list. The scheme was criticized for violating net neutrality. Though Mark Zuckerberg replied in an article for Hindustan Times stating that Internet.org will never differentiate between services, the scheme is still considered as a violator of Net Neutrality.

In the last few months, Facebook had entered into a tussle with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India over Free Basics and has been trying to garner support for the platform through advertising campaigns and a poll on its platform asking users to save Free Basics.

What is Airtel Zero?

On 6th April 2015, Airtel announced the “Airtel Zero” scheme. Under the scheme, app firms sign a contract and Airtel provides the apps for free to its customers. The cost of this data traffic will be borne by the partner. For example, if Flipkart signs up as an Airtel Zero partner, you will not be charged for data you use while accessing Flipkart, and Airtel will bill Flipkart for that session.

While that may sound great on paper, experts say that in the long term it’s against consumer interests, because consumers are more likely to use free services. They say smaller companies, who cannot afford to subsidize consumer access to their websites and services, are likely to lose out, stifling innovation in the country, which means fewer options for consumers in the long run.

Who regulates this?
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), regulates all Internet access in India and is currently in the process of forming the guidelines for all OTT players. In March 2015, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a formal consultation paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services, seeking comments from the public. The consultation paper was criticized for being one-sided and having confusing statements. It received condemnation from various politicians and Indian Internet users. Crusaders for Net Neutrality set up savetheinternet.in and netneutrality.in to spread awareness among public. The last date for submission of comments was 24 April 2015 and TRAI received over a million emails.

Takeaways in the Current Order:

TRAI said that no service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, which has an effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered on a basis of content.

This in effect disallows subsidized data packages that offer access to only select services, such as Whatsapp or Twitter, pack packages which are currently offered by various telcos to attract subscribers.  Free Basics and other similar services are banned.

The telecom regulator has also ruled that if a service provider is found violating the regulation, there will be a penalty of Rs 50,000 for each day of the contravention, subject to a maximum of Rs 50 Lakhs. The Service Provider will be given a chance to explain the violations, upon which the final penalties would be decided (from 50k to 50 lakhs).

TRAI is exercising its powers under the section 36 of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act 1997 (24 of 1997) to impose this order.

However, the aggrieved parties can go to a High Court under Section 227 of the Constitution and seek a quashing of the order.

TRAI has clearly backed Net Neutrality by referring to ISP License agreement which reads,

“The subscriber shall have unrestricted access to all the content available on Internet except for such content which is restricted by the Licensor/designated authority under Law.”

TRAI has also provided few solutions for Telcos. It has exempted intranets or closed communication networks from this regulation but has added a caveat saying if a closed network is used for the purpose of evading these regulations then the prohibition will definitely apply.

TRAI will review these orders two years after the expiry of the data of order; this means that in February 2018, the issue will be re-examined.

While Facebook says the current order is a disappointment, the telecoms are expected to stand against the order, meaning that they might fight asking to reduce the base price of the Spectrum Auction and might also ask for complete detailed Net Neutrality rules.

By far, this is the strongest endorsement of Net Neutrality that TRAI has given. But, on a whole, this is just a smaller aspect of the entire Net Neutrality debate. However, the issue of VoIP apps like WhatsApp or Skype and whether they could come under a licensing regime as telecoms have been demanding remains unresolved. Technically, India still does not have a law that endorses Net Neutrality as a whole. Until the Parliament passes one, the latest order is the closest India has to a pro-Neutrality stand.

Given that there’s no law on the subject, the debate is unlikely to end in 2016. As more and more Internet users come online in India, especially via mobile, the fight for their screen space, between telecoms, content providers will continue. The lack of a law means that telecoms might still go to court against the order.

The post TRAI’s Order – A small drop in the ocean of Net Neutrality appeared first on OutFocus.

Picture – KCNA.

North Korea claimed on Wednesday (Jan 6) that it had tested a hydrogen bomb, the most powerful kind of nuclear weapon. But skepticism arises whether it was actually a Hydrogen Bomb?

North Korea’s announcement on Wednesday coincided with a suspicious 5.1 magnitude quake near the underground site where North Korea has previously conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013.

The White House said Wednesday its initial analysis of the blast in North Korea is “inconsistent” with claims of successful hydrogen bomb test. Beijing’s state media has also said it “cannot support” claims of an H-bomb test, and that further analysis required. When asked about skepticism of whether the H-bomb test was actually successful, North Korean officials were defensive.

Before analyzing Whether or not North Korea’s claim is true, we need to understand some interesting things on Nuclear Weapons.

In the conventional understanding, there are two types of nuclear bombs: fission and fusion. Although they have nearly identical names, there is almost a 180-degree difference in their approach to blowing stuff up. Fission weapons use a particular isotope of a heavy, sort of unstable “metallic uranium or plutonium” (both radioactive). A trigger is used to kick off a chain reaction that splits each atom of stuff into two smaller atoms, neutrons, and energy. The neutrons smash into other atoms, causing them to split. Basically, the atom-splitting turns into a chain reaction splitting off even more atoms which throws off tons of energy. Atomic bombs or A-Bombs are examples of fission based nuclear weapons.

But in fusion, instead of splitting atoms, you go on combining lighter particles, to make heavier elements thereby releasing a huge chunk of energy and neutrons which could make other lighter particles fuse thereby inducing a chain reaction. The trigger in this case is an implosion type fission bomb (as combing lighter elements need tons of energy). Hydrogen bomb (H-Bomb) is an example of Fusion based nuclear weapon.

In this telling, fission weapons (A-bombs) are considered small or low-yield, meaning they generate explosions equivalent to tens or hundreds few kilotons of TNT. Fusion weapons (H-bombs) are much bigger weapons with explosive yields tens or hundreds of times larger, reaching up to tens of millions of tons (megatons) of TNT. “Tsar Bomba” (AN602 Hydrogen Bomb) by Soviet Union whose test remains the most powerful artificial explosion in human history generated about 50 megaton TNT. Castle Bravo by the USA whose test  the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States is about 15 megatons of TNT. Also from a design standpoint, H-bombs are, in a sense, both more efficient and more complex.

But wait! Before jumping into any conclusions, there is one more thing to be known that there are many weapons developed using a hybrid of both fission and fusion models. So the very definition of the “Hydrogen Bomb” is colloquial. Some analyst would call something as Hydrogen bomb based on whether it gets a big chunk of its explosive energy from fusion reactions. Others would consider the presence of hydrogen isotopes for the bomb part, regardless what contributes what portion of the final energy. Let’s call the former one “Big Original H-Bombs” and the latter “Boosted A Bombs with Hydrogen Isotopes”. But a boosted atomic bomb has nowhere near the destructive power of a hydrogen bomb, and it is not considered a thermonuclear weapon.

If you run a quick-and-dirty simulation, a 10 kiloton North Korean nuke detonated 1,000 meters over downtown Seoul produces 78,000 fatalities and somewhere around 270,000 estimated injuries. But if you hit that same target with a good old-fashioned high-yield weapon of 1 megaton, you get something closer to 1,625,000 dead with another 4,725,000 injured.

So the problem has to be rephrased. Whether North Koreans had succeeded in experimenting with a smaller Boosted A-Bomb or a big one? While it is improbable to say that North Koreans had a big one, there are assurances that it might have tested a smaller one, one that are easier to construct in comparison to the big ones. It is possible that North Korea tested a boosted atomic bomb, a weapon whose destructive power is increased by injecting tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen. This can help reduce the size of a weapon while keeping the yield high. That may have been what the North Koreans were trying to achieve as it could help them shrink the size of the warhead so that it could fit into the nose cone of a missile. Here are few reasons why North Korea might have tested a boosted atomic bomb.

The yield, or total energy released by the weapon, was close to that of North Korea’s previous three tests of atomic bombs, which are simple atomic missiles. Early indications are that the test had a yield of about 6 kilotons, or the explosive force of 6,000 tons of TNT. That is a smaller yield than North Korea’s last test. Even a failed H-bomb test would have resulted in an explosion of 10 to 50 kilotons.

Big H-bombs require huge rockets, which North Korea doesn’t really have. If the North Koreans really have big H-bomb, then, in effect, they don’t have any nuclear missiles, as none of their missiles have the ability to sling a giant bomb halfway around the planet. On the other hand, they could conceivably use a mediocre missile to launch a smaller, lighter nuclear device, effectively turning their missiles into nuclear missiles.

For now, the exact nature of North Korea’s latest weapon remains unclear. On Friday, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety failed to reach a conclusion after an analysis of air off South Korea’s east coast. It said that the amount of radioactive elements detected was too small to confirm the detonation of a nuclear device.

The agency responsible for monitoring atomic blasts, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, currently has 42 certified seismic stations and over 100 auxiliary stations distributed around the globe. Because seismic signals bounce through the Earth, not only did Russia and Japan pick up North Korea’s event, but so did the US.

Besides looking at the seismic signal’s strength, scientists have a hard time telling whether an explosion was chemical or nuclear. This is because with enough TNTs or other conventional explosive, a country could make a blast that looks a lot like nuclear.

The only way to be really sure about what happened is to detect specific trace amounts of radioactive material produced by the blast. But since the North Koreans held their test below ground thereby avoiding spewing fallout everywhere. All of those useful radioactive clues are trapped deep within the Earth.

Nevertheless, even a failed hydrogen test would be an advancement to North Korea. It might (and certainly would) try testing another one. And one day, if it succeeds in developing Hydrogen bombs, that could be bad news for world peace. With China (N.Korea’s only ally) furious about the test, US might play with the Chinese card along with implementing restriction sanctions. But it’s up to time to decide what happens next.

Sources :

Associated Press

People’s Daily, China

The New York Times

Nuclear Weapon Impact Simulation from

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

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Written by S G A Thomas, Asso. Editor.

The post Has North Korea developed a Hydrogen bomb? appeared first on OutFocus.

On 9 – 10 November 2015, Neyveli received it’s highest downpour in 20 years about 483 mm of rainfall, while rains continued  to lash Cuddalore, Chidambaram and Chennai. Due to continuous rain, low lying areas of Chennai are inundated by 13 November 2015. More than 1000 families left their homes to safety.

On 15 -16 November, Chennai received 246.5mm of rainfall. This is the highest amount of rainfall recorded since November 2005. On 17th November Chennai reached 1049mm of rainfall falling next to 1088mm of rainfall received in November 1918. The flooding that was caused became the worst in a century. The continuous rain led to closing of school and colleges across Puducherry, Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu

Photo: Map for Chennai on December 1 Source: NASA

Indian Meteorological Department predicted heavy rainfall over Tamil Nadu for another week as another low pressure system started to develop in Indian Ocean on 29th November. On December 1, 2015, freak weather conditions all came together on one single day to swamp Chennai with the heaviest rainfall in a century. The clouds dumped up to 490 mm of rain on parts of Chennai over 24 hours.

On December 2, PWD officials were releasing 30,000 cusecs from the Chembarambakkam reservoir. Consequently, the Adyar was in spate, flooding most parts of the southern and even central parts of the city. PWD officials insist that the discharge was necessary as they could not afford to risk the safety of the reservoir.

By afternoon of 1 December, 60% of the city’s power supply were suspended to avoid large-scale electrocution. A lot of difficulties in communication occurred as many mobile networks had lost their signals due to various damages caused in towers.

Photo : Waterlogged: Indira Gandhi Airport

Due to heavy rain, the runway of the international airport of Chennai was inundated leading to cancellation of flights. With airport shut, over 700 people have been stranded at the Chennai Airport. The Indian Navy’s air base at Arakkonam, 70 km west of Chennai, was readied for commercial flights to evacuate hundreds of passengers stranded The Railways had their own misery, much of the trains that were supposed to reach Chennai were stopped in stations before Chennai. Over 35 trains has been cancelled leaving over thousands of passengers stranded at Central station and Egmore.

Most people were stuck within their house as water level reached to 1m in some areas. People formed human chains to traverse treacherous stretches of roads many of which developed sinkholes, sought and found help on social media and dug in at some areas where the water level reached the second floor of apartment buildings.

Prices of milk, vegetables and food items have skyrocketed due to short supply and people were forced to fork out huge amount of money for buying essentials. Milk was sold at around INR 150 per litre and Water Bottles around Rs 100 per litre. Tensions were also palpable as growing lines at the ATMs raised worries of running out of money.

The department of financial services however launched alternative mechanisms like mobile ATM, ATM vans and mobile ATMs mounted on boats to reach people.

Diesel and petrol are in short supply and there were long queues of motorists at the few petrol pumps that were supplying them. Traffic too was affected very badly with vehicles having to navigate through stagnant waters that turned roads into rivulets. Potholes and craters and at places road caving in added to the motorists woes.

Piles of garbage have been swept up by the flood waters, sewage has entered the homes and where the flood waters have not yet receded, there is an unbearable stench. In some areas, people have spotted carcasses floating by, and rodents and snakes run riot in abandoned homes. The situation is ripe for an epidemic, if the State is not prepared.

14 patients were reported to be death due to lack of power supply in MIOT Hospital enraging the relatives and public. Over 300 people had lost their life, few during rescue operations.

#ChennaiRainsHelp – ‘Net’izens swift Responses:

The saving grace has been the reaction from civil society which has shown extraordinary generosity, ingenuity and fortitude in reaching out to the flood victims.

With Chennai coming to a standstill due to rains, social media has become a rallying point for the citizens of Chennai, with most of them offering food, shelter and accommodation for the ones stuck in different parts of the city.

One particular effort to crowdsource places to stay in the form of a google spreadsheet is being extensively shared, where people can fill details of the places where they can help along with a contact number.

It also has a volunteer form where anyone in Chennai can add their names to the list and help out with various tasks like cooking, driving for pick-ups, providing shelter etc.

Many volunteers from outside Chennai, sent much needed relief materials such as food packets, water cans, milk powder, napkins, medicines, clothes and Blankets. A number of malls, multiplexes and colleges have thrown their doors open to the stranded.

Google also has launched their crisis response page titled South India Flooding with resources such as emergency helpline numbers, list of relief centers and crowdsourced maps.

At a time when phone networks could not even sustain local calls and no TV or internet meant literally groping in the dark, radio stations came as a blessing. They relayed information to and from thousands of listeners marooned all over the city and beat glamorized television journalism during the three days of crisis that Chennai went through, and is going through.

In the absence of a coordinated flow of relief materials to the affected areas through a State nodal agency, volunteers of non-governmental organizations and philanthropists who headed to relief camps in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore were confronted allegedly by unruly political elements who sought to hijack their relief efforts.

 Photo : Army officials rescuing a family.

Two more ships, INS Shakthi and INS Sahyadri, arrived at the Chennai port from the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam on Saturday carrying 100 tonnes of relief materials and seven lakh litres of packaged water. The ships carried aircraft, 25 inflatable boats and a special rescue team of 108 divers.

Over 50,000 people have been rescued from flooded homes in various areas and lodged in relief centres opened by the Chennai Corporation.

A section of Army personnel complained that they were directionless in reaching people who needed them most as local logistical support was not available in full measure. Also, they had to handle requests to rescue relatives of VIPs at the cost of the commoner.

While most Tamil Celebrities had donated money via their trusts and even encouraged the relief works of their fan clubs, actor Siddarth along with RJ Balaji of Big FM took a step ahead in helping the victims and organizing the volunteers in rescuing them. Actor cum Director Raghava Lawrence also helped in relief works.

In solidarity with the people of Chennai and TN affected by the floods, a few of Telugu cinema’s actors have come together and formed an initiative called ‘Mana Madras Kosam’. Bollywood celebrities like Jacqueline Fernandez, Kalki Koechlin, Boman Irani and Abhishek Bachchan are also supporting this initiative and urging their Twitter followers to donate for the needy through the “Baby” actor’s trust. Collaborating with Ramanaidu Studios, Lakshmi Manchu and Navdeep have also asked people of Hyderabad to donate food and water supplies as well as sanitation supplies. Meanwhile ‘Badshah of Bollywood’ Shah Rukh Khan has donated INR 1 Crore.

While relief works shifted to the next phase in Chennai with the government focussing on rehabilitation and controlling disease outbreaks, in Cuddalore, vast tracts remained under water. In Cuddalore town, inundation continued in Jothi Nagar, Surya Nagar, Ragavendra Nagar and Gnanambal Nagar. The flow of materials to Cuddalore was regulated, but thousands of residents in remote areas, cut off by waters, continued to complain that they were being left out. However, inundation continued in many parts of the district on Tuesday with about 30,000 persons languishing in relief camps and 1.25 lakh accessing food in 71 government centres.

IS RAIN THE ONLY CULPRIT ?

What started out as a natural disaster in the state capital of Tamil Nadu soon became a more serious man-made one, with experts blaming bad urban planning and rampant “encroachment” by fly-by-night property developers for making the situation worse.

The worst affected were the southern suburbs that witnessed an unplanned real estate boom in the last decade with unapproved layouts springing up adjacent to wetlands and water bodies. Since the panchayats are unable to regulate unauthorized construction, residential development in low-level areas has mushroomed. Since the channels are also blocked, the inundation lasts longer.

Added to this was the inadequacy of drains. Most parts of the old city were relatively safe from flooding this time. Of the Corporation’s area, the 172 sq. km of the old city have storm water drains while the remaining 254 sq. km have no storm water drains but only drains constructed by the local bodies that are not connected to the rivers.

Photo : When media was too busy in debating intolerance, at Parthasarathy temple in Chennai, Muslims and Hindus prepare food for victims

While the flooding of the southern parts is recurring during winter, the flooding in the heart of the city exposed the government’s unpreparedness in anticipating the floods based on water release into the Adyar and in disseminating information in advance for the residents to act.

National media was accused of not covering Chennai Floods properly. They were busy covering INTOLERANCE issue, but to their surprise, ‘Humanity’ defeated the cooked-up INTOLERANCE in Chennai. The mosques of Madras have been thrown open to all and various churches, temples and the Chennai gurdwara are organizing food packets in the thousands, while colleges and malls, movie halls, hotels and local bakery chains are unconditionally offering free space and food. People are constantly posting about how many they can accommodate at home; they are actually sharing their homes with perfect strangers.

One major thing we have witnessed is the SPIRIT OF CHENNAI. The immediate swift co-ordinated actions from the Youth via Social Media couldn’t be even reached by the rescue operations from the State and Central Government. With nearly less help from political parties, it was the collective wisdom of the masses that had given the hope that this too shall pass and Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai, will emerge only stronger from the catastrophe.

UPCOMING WEATHER:

The waters have receded as of now, and people are slowly attempting to return to what is left of their homes in most areas of Chennai. Rain will decrease in northern part of Tamil Nadu but in southern part there is a chance of occurring very heavy rainfall over the coastal areas and heavy rainfall in the inner districts. Delta regions and south coastal regions is predicted to get severe rainfall.

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Inputs from Aakash S. Written by S G A Thomas.

The post Seestory: The disaster that became Chennai (and the recovery later) appeared first on OutFocus.

‘The Badshah of Bollywood’ Shah Rukh Khan who turned 50 on November 2 attended Twitter Town Hall meet. Khan’s remark on “Rising Intolerance in India” has opened a pandora box.
Here is a small glimpse of Khan’s Quotes during the meet.

“Religion cannot be defined by our meat-eating habits.”

“Whoever takes a stand against creative people will face a huge backlash.”

“In my house, everyone is free to follow their religion. My kids were confused about whether they were Muslim or Hindu, I said why not Christian? Sweet dish is prepared on Diwali in our house and I myself go to ‘Pooja’.”

“ I am an Indian-born movie star. I am an Indian-born Indian. I am Indian – how does that get questioned?”

 “Nobody has more right to live in this country than me, and I am not going to leave. So shut up.”

“People put words in the air even before thinking. Intolerance religiously…not being secular in this country is the worst crime you can do as a patriot”

“Religious intolerance, or intolerance of any kind, is the worst thing and will take us to the dark ages. Indians lose face over the questions that are asked. If you are a patriot, you must love your country as a whole, not parts of it as religions and regions.”

But then Leaders know how to fish in troubled waters. Even though SRK never mentioned the BJP or any particular party, some people, BJP Party leaders  have turned him anti national. Few even asked him to go to Pakistan.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted that SRK’s soul was in Pakistan and called him an anti-nationalist. BJP’s five-time winning MP Yogi Adityanath compared SRK to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and said that the actor was speaking the language of terror. He said: “All such people should go to Pakistan where they will be shown their true position in the scheme of things. Hafiz Saeed and Shah Rukh Khan speak the same language.”

Sadly, these statements came a couple of days after FM Arun Jaitley said that India was inherently liberal and tolerant. But BJP strongly disapproved of Hindutva leader Adityanath’s comments comparing Shah Rukh with Saeed, terming them “uncalled for” and maintaining that they did not reflect in any way the core belief of the party or Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

And then BJP pointed the finger at Congress, implicitly implying SRK is a congress agent. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said “And, when it comes to intolerance, then probably they are those illiterate people who do not know what the history of the country had been under Congress rule.”

“He (Shah Rukh Khan) should raise his voice on the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Mirchpur or Gohana incidents. Several such incidents happened when Congress was in power but then they were mum,” she added.BJP leader Manoj Tiwari said, “He (Shah Rukh Khan) has issued a statement when the Bihar elections are going on. He has always been close to Congress party and his closeness has been seen before as well. I consider his statement as a political comment.”
But the problem is it is not only BJP or Hindutuva supporters opposing Khan. Some of the Islam Community are also against Khan for his quote “Neither have I ever told Gauri (wife) to join me in Namaz, but she joins. Never has she told me Gayatri Mantra se Diwali me pooja karte hein, but I join.”. Hate comments against him included statements like he is not a TRUE MUSLIM and he does not deserve to follow Islam.

The problem got worse when people started to dig deep into the issue. The Anti-Sikh Riot, Destruction of 600 Temples in Kashmir, 2002 Gujarat Riot and so more are being added into the list.

While some are attributing the current ‘intolerance’ issue to the recent Bihar elections and says that the issue would fade out, others are considering it as a national issue and must be resorted to avoid further eruptions and insecurity within the nation.

The current “Intolerance” issue might have it’s root in the killings of writers who were against the idol worship and superstitious activities. It made 30 writers to return their awards. Further the killing of a Muslim man by a mob on a suspicion that he had ate beef fueled the flame and many started protesting against the government. Media covered it 24*7 making a huge challenge for the ruling government. Also the unnecessary comments from the BJP party members made it worse. What made it even worse was Prime Minister’s Modi silence on the issue. Just by standing against Current Government on Intolerance issue does not make Congress a hero. It had also it’s own bunch of historical mistakes. And covering a issue to make TRPs out of it is a job that media does regularly.

We shouldn’t be intolerant towards religion. There are other issues we need to be intolerant towards. Issues like lack of education, Women Security, and much more are overshadowed due to media’s attention on Intolerance in India. Just posting a FB post showing a pic of eating beef doesn’t help. Religious ideas are one’s own personal belief and should be respected.

But Modi has to break his silence and put an end to this issue. It is clearly evident that unless he could establish a control over the BJP Party members, this issue would be burning for next few months.

Update: Within a week, the media which rigorously covered SRK’s “Growing Intolerance within India” remark has now started to cover exclusive pics and videos of his next film “Dilwale”. This makes me think… were all these issues around intolerance just for the sake of Bihar Elections?

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Written by SGA Thomas

The post SEE STORY : Politics of Intolerance appeared first on OutFocus.

Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth. The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth, as is the tilt that produces the seasons.

Being very identical to our Earth, Mars was always a planet to be researched for understanding the Evolution of Earth. It also has been Elon Musk of SpaceX ‘a favorite candidate’ for construction of human colonies.

Early Speculations of Liquid Water in Mars:

Based on the initial observations such as observed periodic variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the polar latitudes, which appeared to be seas and continents; long, dark striations were interpreted by some as irrigation channels for liquid water. These observations, coupled with the fact that Mars has a 24-hour day, led astronomer William Herschel to declare in 1784 that Mars probably offered its inhabitants “a situation in many respects similar to ours.”

By the start of the 20th century, most astronomers recognized that Mars was far colder and drier than Earth. The presence of oceans was no longer accepted, so the paradigm changed to an image of Mars as a “dying” planet with only a meager amount of water. The dark areas, which could be seen to change seasonally, were now thought to be tracts of vegetation.

Percival Lowell thought that there were some underground canals from Poles to mid-Latitudes built by the Martians to irrigate their vegetation. Yet, it was proved false when Gererad Kuiper discovered that the major component available in Martian atmosphere was Carbon Dioxide and tests for Oxygen and Water vapour conduted by Walter Adams and Theodore Dunham provided negative results.

Thus the polar caps which was assumed to have a water in form of ice was then theoretically proved to be composed of CO2 ice because of the planet’s overall low temperature and apparent lack of appreciable water.

Recent Discoveries:

Yet in 2005,  radar data revealed the presence of large quantities of water ice at the poles and at mid-latitudes. The Mars rover Spirit sampled chemical compounds containing water molecules in March 2007. The Phoenix lander directly sampled water ice in shallow Martian soil on July 31, 2008.

Moreover in 2013, NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered that Mars’s soil contains between 1.5% and 3% water by mass but attached to other compounds and thus not freely accessible. Also in March 5, 2015  primitive ocean on Mars held more water than Earth’s Arctic Ocean was suggested by NASA scientists who, using ground-based observatories, measured water signatures in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. This finding was derived from the ratio of water and deuterium in the modern Martian atmosphere compared to the ratio found on Earth. Eight times as much deuterium was found at Mars than exists on Earth, suggesting that ancient Mars had significantly higher levels of water. Results from the Curiosity rover had previously found a high ratio of deuterium in Gale Crater, though not significantly high enough to suggest the presence of an ocean. These discoveries led to consider a small amount of water ice present within the dense CO2 ice.

Flowing Water on Mars :

New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

The first indication of the liquid’s presence came in 2011 from high-resolution images captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2006. They showed dark streaks that appeared to be flowing down the inner walls of the Newton crater in the Red Planet’s Southern Hemisphere. Lujendra Ojha first noticed these puzzling features as a University of Arizona undergraduate student in 2010, using images from the MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).

Ojha and his co-authors interpret the spectral signatures as caused by hydrated minerals called perchlorates. The hydrated salts most consistent with the chemical signatures are likely a mixture of magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate. Some perchlorates have been shown to keep liquids from freezing even when conditions are as cold as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 Celsius). On Earth, naturally produced perchlorates are concentrated in deserts, and some types of perchlorates can be used as rocket propellant.

The perchlorates on Mars are forming the streaks, called recurring slope lineae (RSL), on the Martian slopes during the planet’s warm season, when temperatures climb above -10 degrees Fahrenheit. The streaks then disappear during the cold season.

Perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars. NASA’s Phoenix lander and Curiosity rover both found them in the planet’s soil, and some scientists believe that the Viking missions in the 1970s measured signatures of these salts.

“This means the water on Mars is briny, rather than pure. It makes sense, because salts lower the freezing point of water. Even if RSL are slightly underground, where it’s even colder than the surface temperature, the salts would keep the water in a liquid form and allow it to creep down Martian slopes.” Ojha said in a statement.

The Second big announcement came on October 8, 2015 when the Curiosity rover has found geological evidence that lakes of liquid water existed in the base or slopes of Mount Sharp situated on the Gale crater in Mars, 3.5 billion years ago.

Curiosity has been romping around the Gale Crater looking for clues left behind in the sedimentary rocks. These tightly packed layers of rock, which formed from the steady accumulations of tiny sediment grains, provide an historical snapshot of the surface. And as we know from studying sedimentary rocks on Earth, these rocks often include evidence of life, such as fossils and microscopic biosignatures.

Images of the sediments show that gravel and sand that eroded off the northern wall of the crater were carried south in shallow streams that formed deltas at the boundary of an ancient lake. Although the lakes were not permanent, some may have existed for 10,000 years.

As Gale Crater’s northern crater wall and rim gradually eroded, gravel and sand were transported southward in shallow streams. Over the course of time, these stream deposits moved progressively closer toward the crater’s interior, where it transformed into finer grains downstream. In other words, the researchers discovered traces of ancient river deltas. These deltas represented the boundary of an ancient Martian lake where fine, mud-sized sediments had once accumulated.

John Grotzinger, a researcher at Caltech and chief scientist for the rover comments “The paradox is that where today there was a mountain, there was once a basin.”

Future Plans and Missions :

As of now, scientists are not sure where the water is sourced from. They hypothesize that it may be seeping up from underground ice or aquifers, or condensing out of the thin Martian atmosphere. Though the mystery could easily be solved with a water sample, it is not possible even though NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover is just about 30 miles away from the source.

That’s because the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prevents any nation from getting too close to a water source on another planet, for fear that it might contaminate it with microbes from Earth.

The one hope scientists have of getting near the liquid is with the help of the organic molecule analyzer that the European Space Agency plans to send on its 2018 ExoMars mission. While its primary purpose is to look for evidence of life on the Red Planet, it may be able to get near enough to the water flow and collect samples if complete sterilization can be guaranteed. Meanwhile, researchers have marked the areas where the water seems to be coming from as targets for future potential human mission sites.

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