Under the auspices of the Madras Publicity Board Mr. Young Necker delivered an interesting lecture on the “War” in the Y.M.C.A. Hall last evening [October 8]. Mr. Justice Kumaraswamy Sastry presided. The lecturer traced the development of the German Empire down to the commencement of the present war and said …
Read More »Daily Archives: October 9, 2018
The Influenza Epidemic.
Influenza appears to have broken out in parts of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. It is much regretted that this should have come when plague is still virulent and more or less widespread. At Bombay, it is hoped that the corner has been turned with the terrible second influenza epidemic that has …
Read More »Estimating India’s population
Researchers find that education levels are an important factor in projecting a country’s population Sometime in 2017, the UN released projections on India’s population. It said that the population would peak at around 1.675 billion people in the 2056-2066 period, and then decline slowly. However, these projections may have been …
Read More »Arise and a-woke
Corporates should be virtue warriors and earn the admiration of customers Though the wheels of justice moved slowly and it took more than 150 years to decriminalise homosexuality in India, the Internet dispenses instant justice, as illustrated by the case of a former employee of IT major Tech Mahindra. That …
Read More »Hard justice
With Brett Kavanaugh confirmed, Republicans enjoy great power to shape the U.S. agenda The U.S. Senate has confirmed the nomination of conservative-leaning judge Brett Kavanaugh, by a vote of 50-48, and he was sworn in as a ninth justice of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). The narrow victory of the second …
Read More »Five States
This round of polls has more than one thread; using them to spin a forecast for 2019 is risky As five States go to the polls with just months left for the Lok Sabha election, the temptation to read the results as pointers will be great. What makes the contest …
Read More »Time to avoid phrases that mock disabilities
We must stop the casual use of terms like‘turning a blind eye’ and ‘paralysed economy’ In our day-to-day interactions, we come across words and phrases like ‘turning a blind eye’; ‘falling on deaf ears’; ‘a paralysed economy’; ‘institutions running on crutches’; and ‘mute leadership’. What is common among these is …
Read More »The diaspora and disasters
As the Kerala floods have shown, the diaspora can shape political and economic responses Between August 8 and 20, the devastating floods in Kerala claimed nearly 500 lives, displaced over a million people, and directly affected over a sixth of the State’s total population. The State government’s latest report estimates …
Read More »Power politics at play
Proposed changes in the Electricity Act could leave the poor behind A few months before the next general election, the Central government has proposed a set of changes to the Electricity Act 2003. The amendments seek to enable a market transformation in electricity. The link between political power and electrical …
Read More »Indian democracy’s Westphalian moment
The Congress and non-NDA regional parties must forge ‘a practical accommodation to reality’ With the Election Commission having announced the schedule for elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana in November-December, the stage has been set for a ‘dress rehearsal’ of the elections to …
Read More »AI may predict Alzheimer’s disease 5 years in advance
It learns signatures from MRI, genetics and clinical data Scientists — including one of Indian origin — have created an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that can accurately predict whether a person’s cognitive decline will lead to Alzheimer’s disease in the next five years. Researchers from the University of Toronto in …
Read More »Font that helps you better recall text
RMIT varsity developed Sans Forgetica Researchers have created a new type font, called Sans Forgetica, to help people remember more of what they read. Sans Forgetica is believed to be the world’s first typeface specifically designed to help people retain more information and remember more of typed notes, said researchers …
Read More »100 years on, Spanish Flu holds lessons for next pandemic
Next influenza outbreak ‘could kill up to 150 million people’ It was the disease to end all others, infecting a third of humanity, killing tens of millions in their beds and prompting panicked talk of the end of days across continents still reeling from war. One hundred years on from …
Read More »Trouble for Hubble: gyro fails on space telescope
The Hubble space telescope, which has been in orbit since 1990, is currently out of action because of a gyroscope failure, the U.S. space agency said on Monday. NASA said Hubble went into “safe mode” on Friday because of the failure of another of the six gyroscopes used to orient …
Read More »‘Drunk birds’ puts spotlight on small U.S. city
After munching on berries that fermented due to an early frost, they get ‘typsy’ and fly into windows They fall out of trees. They fly into windows. They stumble along branches and wobble their small feathered bodies as if they’ve had one marg too many. Have the drunk birds come …
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