Hindu Notes from General Studies-02
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Pakistan backed terrorists will continue attacks in India, says U.S. intel chief
News:
- Terror groups supported by Pakistan will continue to carry out attacks inside India, the United States intelligence chief has warned.
Beyond News:
- Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats’ remarks came days after a group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked the Army’s Sunjuwan camp in Jammu on February 10, killing seven people, including six soldiers.
- On February 12, a gunfight broke out between security forces and militants, who took shelter in a building in Karan Nagar area of Srinagar after their attack on the CRPF camp in Karan Nagar area of Srinagar was foiled.
- Mr. Coats said in his testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that,Pakistan, in fact, will continue to threaten the U.S. interests by deploying new nuclear weapons capabilities, maintaining its ties to militants, restricting counter- terrorism cooperation, and drawing closer to China.
- Without specifically referring to any terrorist incident by Pakistan-based groups, Mr. Coats told the lawmakers that he expected increased tension between the two Asian neighbours.
Use technology for welfare of children: Supreme Court
News:
Supreme Court has said that,India’s status as a technological powerhouse in the world would remain on paper if the state does not take advantage of its resources to benefit the children or track the missing ones.
Beyond News:
The apex court, while stressing the need for use of technology in Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) and Child Welfare Committees (CWCs), said it was “disheartened” that there was an acute shortage of computers and peripherals in these bodies.
A Bench said that, the use of technology would help in dealing with crucial issues like tracing and tracking of missing children, rescuing those working in hazardous industries and victims of child sexual abuse.
The apex court also said that the Centre and States need to look into this aspect and provide necessary software and hardware to JJBs and CWCs for their functioning.
It directed the MWCD to continue to make creative use of information and communication technology not only for the purpose of collecting data but also for other issues connected with the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
The court said this in a judgment in which it passed a slew of directions for implementation of provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
The verdict came on a PIL seeking implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act and its rules. The petition has raised the issue of alleged apathy by the governments in implementing the welfare measure.
Hindu Notes from General Studies-03
U.S. telescope to help solve mystery of dark energy
News:
- A 45-year-old telescope in the U.S. will create the largest three-dimensional map of the universe, which could help scientists solve the mystery of dark energy that is believed to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Beyond News:
- The 4-metre Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope, put inside a 14-storey, 500-ton dome atop a mile-high peak, closed to set the stage for installing the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).
- According to Xinhua, the new instrument would begin a five-year observing run at Kitt Peak National Observatory after its installation next year. Besides finding evidences about the universe’s expansion, DESI would help set limits on theories related to gravity and the formative stages of the universe.
- Instead of one at a time they can measure the velocities of 5,000 galaxies at a time, they will measure more than 30 million of them in our five-year survey.
It could even provide new mass measurements for a variety of elusive yet abundant neutrinos, a kind of subatomic particles.
- The expansion of the telescope’s field-of-view will allow DESI to map out about one-third of the sky.
- Installation of DESI’s components is expected to begin soon and to wrap up in April 2019, with first science observations planned in September 2019.
Drones beat humans at the #EpicDuck Challenge
News:
A study has found that,drones can be used to monitor wildlife more accurately than traditional counting approaches.
Beyond News:
The researchers made fake bird colonies out of the rubber ducks on a beach in Australia. Experienced wildlife spotters challenged those who counted birds from drone imagery to see which group could get closest to the actual number of fake birds.
The ground spotters counted the fake birds using binoculars or telescopes. Meanwhile, a drone was flown over the beach, taking pictures of the birds from the sky at different heights.
Researchers made a computer algorithm to count the ducks automatically, which yielded results just as good as humans reviewing the imagery.