“Attitude determines altitude.”
Anonymous
“आपकी मनोवृत्ति ही आपकी महानता को निर्धारित करती है।”
अज्ञात
Monday, October 30, 2023
Quote of the Day October 30, 2023
Google’s New Tools to Combat Misinformation and Enhance Image Understanding
In its ongoing battle against the spread of misinformation online, Google has introduced three innovative tools aimed at improving image understanding and fact-checking. These tools, “About this Image,” “Fact Check Explorer,” and AI-generated source descriptions within the “Search Generative Experience,” empower users to make more informed decisions and counter the proliferation of false information.
About this Image: Verifying Image Authenticity
Google’s “About this Image” feature, initially introduced earlier this year, is now accessible to global English language users via Google Search. This tool equips users with the means to verify the authenticity and background of images they encounter online. Key functions of “About this Image” include:
- Image History: Users can trace an image’s original appearance in Google Search, helping them determine if it has been previously published on other websites long before its current context. This aids in preventing misinformation caused by context manipulation.
- Usage and Descriptions: The tool provides insights into how an image is used on various web pages, along with opinions and information from other sources, including news outlets and fact-checking websites. This data assists in evaluating claims related to an image, offering diverse viewpoints and evidence.
- Image Metadata: When available, users can access metadata added by image creators and publishers. This metadata may reveal if the image has undergone AI generation or enhancement, providing transparency for AI-generated images.
Fact Check Explorer: Assessing Image and Topic Accuracy
Fact Check Explorer is a new tool designed for journalists and fact-checkers to gain deeper insights into both images and topics. It utilizes claim review markup to detect and present fact-check assessments conducted by independent organizations globally. Key features include:
- Fact Check Image Search: Users can upload or input the URL of any image into Fact Check Explorer to check if it has been featured in existing fact checks. The tool also offers an overview of different contexts associated with the image and their evolution over time.
- Integration with FactCheck Claim Search API: Google has introduced a beta version of the Image Search feature within the FactCheck Claim Search API. This enables authorized journalists and fact-checkers to access the fact-check image database through the Fact Check Explorer, streamlining image verification and fact-checking processes.
Search Generative Experience: Enhanced Source Information
For users participating in the Search Generative Experience (SGE) via Search Labs, there’s a new feature that provides AI-generated descriptions of certain sources. These descriptions are supplemented with information about reputable websites discussing the source in question. Key aspects of this feature include:
AI-Generated Source Descriptions: Users can view AI-generated source descriptions in the “more about this page” section of the “About this result” for specific sources. This feature is particularly useful in cases where no existing overview is available from Wikipedia or the Google Knowledge Graph.
Current Affairs-October 28, 2023
INDIA
- Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs postponed its adoption of a draft report on three Bills seeking to replace the existing criminal laws.
- Study: Chandrayaan-3’s lander module, Vikram kicked up 2 tonnes of lunar dust.
- Mizoram has highest cancer incidence rate in India, as per a new study.
- Karnataka, along with the Wildlife Trust of India, has launched the Hostile Activity Watch Kernel (HAWK) system.
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
- Mango exports from India rose 19% in the first five months of 2023-24, with the U.S. importing more than 2,000 metric tonnes; 41 countries bought the pulpy fruit this year.
- iPhone maker, Taiwan’s Wistron approved the sale of its India unit, Wistron InfoComm to the Tata Group.
- Reliance Jio has tested satellite Internet service, JioSpaceFiber, in four remote districts in India.
WORLD
- United States fighter jets launched airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
- United Nations said it was concerned that war crimes were being committed on both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
SPORTS
- Asian Para Games 2023: India finished the campaign with 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze to get 111 medals in total.
- World Cup: South Africa defeats Pakistan after 24 years with a close one-wicket victory.
- Arjun Babuta and Tilottama Sen get Olympic quota for Paris, with silver medals in air rifle in the 15th Asian shooting championship.
Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023
A recent report published by the United Nations University — Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) has raised a red flag regarding India’s dwindling groundwater levels. The ‘Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023’ focuses on six environmental tipping points, including groundwater depletion, and reveals a dire situation worldwide.
Global Aquifer Depletion Crisis
The report highlights a concerning trend: 27 out of the world’s 31 major aquifers are depleting faster than they can be naturally replenished. Groundwater, a vital freshwater resource stored in underground aquifers, serves as a source of drinking water for over two billion people, with 70% of withdrawals directed toward agriculture. Shockingly, more than half of the world’s major aquifers are now being depleted at an unsustainable pace, and groundwater is essentially a non-renewable resource.
Groundwater Crisis in India
In India, the situation is particularly dire. The report indicates that 78% of wells in the state of Punjab are considered overexploited, and the entire north-western region is expected to face critically low groundwater availability by 2025. The impending crisis poses not only a threat to farmers’ livelihoods but also jeopardizes food security and the stability of food production systems.
Understanding the Groundwater Tipping Point
The report emphasizes that the groundwater tipping point is reached when the water table drops below a level accessible by existing wells. This marks a critical turning point where farmers lose access to groundwater for irrigation, leading to potential food insecurity and systemic agricultural failures.
Global Impact of Groundwater Depletion
Approximately 30% of the world’s fresh water is stored as groundwater, which is occasionally brought to the surface through natural springs, lakes, or wells. Alarmingly, groundwater depletion has accelerated since the mid-20th century, contributing significantly to rising sea levels. Moreover, excessive groundwater pumping has even caused the Earth’s axis to tilt, affecting regions across India, China, the United States, Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and parts of northern Africa.
India’s Key Role in the Crisis
India stands out as the world’s largest user of groundwater, surpassing both the United States and China combined. The north-western region of India, particularly Punjab and Haryana, plays a crucial role in the nation’s food production, contributing 50% of the country’s rice supply and 85% of its wheat stocks. However, rampant overexploitation has left 78% of wells in Punjab in a depleted state, with predictions of critically low groundwater levels in the entire north-western region by 2025.
Global Food Supply Chain Implications
Groundwater depletion is intricately linked to international food supply chains. Many countries that overdraw their groundwater resources export products, grown with this unsustainable water source, to distant regions. For instance, the United States exports 42% of its crops irrigated with depleted groundwater, including corn, to countries such as Mexico, China, and Japan.
The Anti-Colonialist
During his life, Marx closely observed the main events in international politics and, as we can see from his writings and letters, in the 1880s he expressed firm opposition to British colonial oppression in India and Egypt, as well as to French colonialism in Algeria. He was anything but Eurocentric and fixated only on class conflict. Marx thought the study of new political conflicts and peripheral geographical areas to be fundamental for his ongoing critique of the capitalist system
When he lived in Algiers, Karl Marx attacked ~ with outrage ~ the violent abuse of the French, their repeated provocative acts, their shameless arrogance, presumption, and obsession to take revenge like Moloch in the face of every act of rebellion by the local Arab population. “A kind of torture is applied here by the police, to force the Arabs to ‘confess’, just as the British do in India”, he wrote. “The aim of the colonialists is ever the same: destruction of the indigenous collective property and its transformation into an object of free purchase and sale”. As Marx’s daughter Eleanor later recalled, what pushed Marx into making this unusual trip was his number one priority: to complete Capital. He crossed England and France by train and then the Mediterranean by boat. He lived in Algiers for 72 days and this was the only time in his life that he spent outside Europe. As the days passed, Marx’s health did not improve. His suffering was not only bodily.
He was very lonely after the death of his wife and wrote to Engels that he was feeling “deep attacks of profound melancholy, like the great Don Quixote”. Marx also missed ~ because of his health condition ~ serious intellectual activity, always essential for him. The progression of numerous unfavourable events did not allow Marx to get to the bottom of Algerian reality, nor was it really possible for him to study the characteristics of common ownership among the Arabs ~ a topic that had interested him greatly a few years earlier.
What was Marx doing in the Maghreb? In the winter of 1882, during the last year of his life, Karl Marx had severe bronchitis and his doctor recommended a period of rest in a warm place. Gibraltar was ruled out because Marx would have needed a passport to enter the territory, and as a stateless person he was not in possession of one.
The Bismarckian empire was covered in snow and anyway still forbidden to him, while Italy was out of the question, since, as Friedrich Engels put it, ‘the first proviso where convalescents are concerned is that there should be no harassment by the police’. Paul Lafargue, Marx’s sonin-law, and Engels convinced the patient to head for Algiers, which at the time enjoyed a good reputation among English people to escape the rigours of winter.
In 1879, Marx had copied, in one of his study notebooks, portions of Russian sociologist Maksim Kovalevsky’s book, Communal Landownership: Causes, Course and Consequences of its Decline. They were dedicated to the importance of common ownership in Algeria before the arrival of the French colonizers, as well as to the changes that they introduced. From Kovalevsky, Marx copied down: “The formation of private landownership ~ in the eyes of French bourgeois ~ is a necessary condition for all progress in the political and social sphere’. Further maintenance of communal property, “as a form which supports communist tendencies in the minds, is dangerous both for the colony and for the homeland”.
He was also drawn to the following remarks: “the transfer of land ownership from the hands of the natives into those of the colonists has been pursued by the French under all regimes. (….) The aim is ever the same: destruction of the indigenous collective property and its transformation into an object of free purchase and sale, and by this means the final passage made easier into the hands of the French colonists”. As for the legislation on Algeria proposed by the Left Republican Jules Warnier and passed in 1873, Marx endorsed Kovalevsky’s claim that its only purpose was “expropriation of the soil of the native population by the European colonists and speculators”.
The effrontery of the French went as far as “direct robbery”, or conversion into “government property” of all uncultivated land remaining in common for native use. This process was designed to produce another important result: the elimination of the danger of resistance by the local population. Again, through Kovalevsky’s words, Marx noted: “the foundation of private property and the settlement of European colonists among the Arab clans would become the most powerful means to accelerate the process of dissolution of the clan unions. (… )
The expropriation of the Arabs intended by the law had two purposes: 1) to provide the French as much land as possible; and 2) to tear away the Arabs from their natural bonds to the soil to break the last strength of the clan unions thus being dissolved, and thereby any danger of rebellion”. Marx commented that this type of individualization of land ownership had not only secured huge economic benefits for the invaders but also achieved a “political aim: to destroy the foundation of this society”. In February 1882, when Marx was in Algiers, an article in the local daily The News documented the injustices of the newly crafted system. Theoretically, any French citizen at that time could acquire a concession of more than 100 hectares of Algerian land, without even leaving his country, and he could then resell it to a native for 40,000 francs. On average, the colons sold every parcel of land they had bought for 20-30 francs at the price of 300 francs.
Owing to his ill health, Marx was unable to study this matter. However, in the sixteen letters written by Marx that have survived (he wrote more, but they have been lost), he made a number of interesting observations from the southern rim of the Mediterranean. The ones that really stand out are those dealing with social relations among Muslims. Marx was profoundly struck by some characteristics of Arab society. For a “true Muslim’”, he commented: “such accidents, good or bad luck, do not distinguish Mahomet’s children.
Absolute equality in their social intercourse is not affected. On the contrary, only when corrupted, they become aware of it. Their politicians justly consider this same feeling and practice of absolute equality as important. Nevertheless, they will go to rack and ruin without a revolutionary movement”. In his letters, Marx scornfully attacked the Europeans’ violent abuses and constant provocations, and, not least, their “bare-faced arrogance and presumptuousness vis-à-vis the ‘lesser breeds’, [and] grisly, Moloch-like obsession with atonement” with regard to any act of rebellion. He also emphasized that, in the comparative history of colonial occupation, “the British and Dutch outdo the French”.
In Algiers itself, he reported to Engels that a progressive judge Fermé he met regularly had seen, in the course of his career, “a form of torture (…) to extract ‘confessions’ from Arabs, naturally done (like the English in India) by the police”. He had reported to Marx that “when, for example, a murder is committed by an Arab gang, usually with robbery in view, and the actual miscreants are in the course of time duly apprehended, tried and executed, this is not regarded as sufficient atonement by the injured colonist family.
They demand into the bargain the ‘pulling in’ of at least half a dozen innocent Arabs. (…) When a European colonist dwells among those who are considered the ‘lesser breeds’, either as a settler or simply on business, he generally regards himself as even more inviolable than the king”. Similarly, a few months later, Marx did not spare to harshly criticize the British presence in Egypt. The war of 1882 made by the troops from the United Kingdom ended the socalled Urabi revolt that had begun in 1879 and enabled the
British to establish a protectorate over Egypt. Marx was mad at progressive people who proved incapable of maintaining an autonomous class position, and he warned that it was absolutely necessary for the workers to oppose the institutions and rhetoric of the state. When Joseph Cowen, an MP and president of the Cooperative Congress ~ considered by Marx “the best of the English parliamentarians” ~ justified the British invasion of Egypt, Marx expressed his total disapproval.
Above all, he railed at the British government: “Very nice! In fact, there could be no more blatant example of Christian hypocrisy than the ‘conquest’ of Egypt ~ conquest in the midst of peace!” But Cowen, in a speech on 8 January 1883 in Newcastle, expressed his admiration for the “heroic exploit” of the British’ and the “dazzle of our military parade”; nor could he “help smirking over the entrancing little prospect of all those fortified offensive positions between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean and, into the bargain, an ‘African-British Empire’ from the Delta to the Cape”.
It was the “English style”, characterized by “responsibility” for the “home interest”. In foreign policy, Marx concluded; Cowen was a typical example of “those poor British bourgeois, who groan as they assume more and more ‘responsibilities’ in the service of their historic mission, while vainly protesting against it”.
Marx undertook thorough investigations of societies outside Europe and expressed himself unambiguously against the ravages of colonialism. It is a mistake to suggest otherwise, despite the instrumental scepticism so fashionable nowadays in certain liberal academic quarters.
During his life, Marx closely observed the main events in international politics and, as we can see from his writings and letters, in the 1880s he expressed firm opposition to British colonial oppression in India and Egypt, as well as to French colonialism in Algeria.
He was anything but Eurocentric and fixated only on class conflict. Marx thought the study of new political conflicts and peripheral geographical areas to be fundamental for his ongoing critique of the capitalist system. Most importantly, he always took the side of the oppressed against the oppressors.
MARCELLO MUSTO
Source: The Statesman, 30/10/23
The empathy code
If we want to participate in public life in any capacity and find happiness as individuals, we must allow all realities to overflow into one another instead of compartmentalising our existence
There was a time when many of us could go about our lives with very little care about what was going on beyond our circle of existence. The use of the word, ‘our’, in the first line is specific. It refers to the socially privileged middle and upper classes. For those in this group who had financial difficulties or limitations, making ends meet and the aspiration for a better life shut out the outside world. For those who lived far above the common financial tree line, the real world was immaterial. Personal, emotional, and psychological struggles covered the entire spectrum of society although the causes may have been different.
Knowledge about happenings in the larger world were first received through announcers who went around villages. Then came posters, newspapers, radio, television and so on. The time it took for information to reach individuals depended on their location. The further away people were from a city, the probability that they got to know of worldwide happenings was lesser. When news did reach after a couple of weeks, what it really meant to them was also different. The understandings of space and time have been constantly changing. When someone in Thanjavur said ‘from the North’ about two hundred years ago, he was probably referring to Vijayanagaram or thereabouts. Today, when the same expression is used, it transports our imagination to the Red Fort. The inverse is also true. The idea of what is local has also expanded. Even if the extent of this comprehension varies from region to region, there is a universal understanding that all of us inhabit the local and the global simultaneously and our actions are all inter-connected.
The internet has played an enormous role in collapsing our world. Images, moving pictures and words travel the earth at the speed of light, offering people living on two ends of the planet glimpses of each other’s realities. Today, a person living in Maputo, Mozambique, can learn about the forest fires in Australia and a resident of Angamaly in India can gain insights into changes in government in South America. Even though all these happenings are available online and algorithms do their thing, the thirst to know more needs to come from the individual. Let us proceed with the assumption that this effort has been made.
Along with the innumerable joyful events, we are also constantly witnessing violence of various shades. There is a war in Ukraine, Gaza is being bombed insistently, Afghanistan is a land of oppression under the Taliban, and there are civil wars in Syria and in Lebanon. Within India, Manipur is still a place of deep division and aggression, Muslims and Dalits are targets of brutality, the number of activists and journalists being arrested is ever increasing, and constitutional institutions are under attack. In my state, Tamil Nadu, Dalits are targeted by powerful caste lobbies, honour killings are rampant, there is continued corporatisation of public services, and degradation of our environment. Then, there are local issues that engulf my city and ultra-local troubles faced by people in my suburb and street. I have listed those problems that come through my social media feed and interactions. I am certain they are mediated by my priorities and, therefore, ignore many concerns of others.
With so much information reaching us instantly, there is a thought that comes to the mind of any person engaged in this wider world dominated by hurt, anger and destruction. We wonder, at least occasionally, whether it is okay to find happiness, laugh at the silliest of things, and actively seek pleasure. I am not suggesting that people should remain permanently remorseful or live in guilt. But there is indeed a real emotional contradiction. At one moment, we read about a child being hacked to death and, then, within an hour, we are celebrating a victory in a cricket match. Even reading these two events in the same line is deeply disturbing. We can ignore this entire train of thought by speaking of separating the personal and the public or of the need for self-preservation. But this is escapism. A deeper discussion about this dichotomy is required without choosing sides between perpetual guilt and utter insensitivity.
What might be needed is to allow this contradiction to play out without judgement while we take part in both, completely and seriously. Happiness is also a serious business. When we stumble upon preciousness while spending time with our family or when we laugh hysterically at a meme, we should commit to those moments. Similarly, when we are learning about the horrors unfolding in others’ lives, even if it is via news bulletins, it must be a committed act. The problem is that both these activities are half-hearted. It is not only to protect ourselves from sadness but we are also unable to celebrate life. It is this overall state of dis-earnestness that needs to be discarded. When we give ourselves to whatever we are doing, there is honesty. With honesty comes pause and measure. This results in a tempering of our privileged lives. No one can prescribe temperament levels, but an inner compass becomes operational.
The jarring part of these shifts in states is the suddenness of the switch. When we look back at our day, we are uncomfortable with how we behaved. The lack of any flow in these transitions is reflective of the need to wish away or forget. One can understand the want to erase the unpleasant, but why would we do that to the pleasant? The presumption that we want to hold on to all happiness is flawed. If happiness is a product of, or results in an affirmation of our ‘self’, like when we receive appreciation, we will hold on to it. But if the delight is for someone else, in which we are partaking, it is only a passing phase. The reduced involvement in the happiness of others and the need to forget the negatives of life are two sides of the same coin.
As participants, we are also under pressure from within to react to all that is going on around the world. This is not to counter whataboutery, but to satisfy our own sense of equivalence. This urgency diminishes the intensity of our learning; whatever we say or do is thus superficial, if not trivial. This is, once again, not about the suffering of the people whom we speak of or for, but more about feeling better about ourselves. It might be wise to remain silent and let response take its own course. When it comes from such a place, it naturally gives the stage to those who need it while we remain on the sidelines as allies.
De-centralising life from our personal needs helps in finding a way to navigate the contrasts thrown at us. Empathy is not just about feeling another’s pain; it is as much about rejoicing in the celebration of others. Democratic values are born from empathy and collective happiness also finds its soul in empathy. If we want to participate in public life in any capacity and find happiness as individuals, we must allow all realities to overflow into one another instead of compartmentalising our existence.
T.M. Krishna
Source: The Telegraph, 27/10/23
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Quote of the Day October 18, 2023
“Sow a thought and you reap an action, Sow an action and you reap a habit, Sow a habit and you reap a character, Sow a character and you reap your destiny.”
Buddhist Proverb
“विचार से कर्म की उत्पत्ति होती है, कर्म से आदत की उत्पत्ति होती है, आदत से चरित्र की उत्पत्ति होती है और चरित्र से आपके प्रारब्ध की उत्पत्ति होती है।”
बौद्ध कहावत
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