Quote of the Day
“Think not on what you lack as much as on what you have.”‐ Proverb
“अधिक ध्यान उस पर दें जो आपके पास है, उस पर नहीं जो आपके पास नहीं है।”‐ कहावत
Friday, March 20, 2020
Solar, Lunar eclipses 2020: When and where to watch eclipses this year
We are compiling a list of all the solar and lunar eclipses of 2020 along with their timing and areas where these will be visible.
When the Sun, Earth, and the Moon align in a straight line (or form an almost straight configuration), we witness either a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse depending on the position of the Earth. A solar eclipse happens during the New Moon when the Moon moves between Earth and the Sun to cast a shadow on the Earth blocking the rays of Sun. A lunar eclipse happens during a Full Moon when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon blocking the Sun’s rays from directly reaching the Moon.
Solar eclipses in 2020
There are three kinds of solar eclipses — total, partial, and annular along with rare hybrid that is a combination of an annular and a total eclipse. There are between two and five solar eclipses every year. This year, there will be two solar eclipses— one is scheduled for Jun 21 and the other one is expected to occur on December 14.
Annular solar eclipse on June 21, 2020
As per timeanddate.com, the first solar eclipse of the year 2020 will fall on June 21. It will start at 9:15 am as per Indian Standard Timing (IST) and be visible until 3:04 pm. The full eclipse will start from 10:17 am to 2:02 pm where 12:10 pm will see the maximum eclipse.
The June 21 event will be an annular solar eclipse where the Moon will cover the Sun from the centre leaving the outer rim visible, thus creating a ring of fire. The event will be visible in India as well as much of Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. Parts of Europe and Australia will also witness the June 21 event.
Total solar eclipse on December 14, 2020
The second and last solar eclipse of the year 2020 will occur on December 14. As per timeanddate.com, the solar eclipse will start at 7:03 pm IST, reach the full eclipse by 8:02 pm, and the maximum eclipse will occur at 9:43 pm. The full eclipse will end at 11:24 pm, after which the partial eclipse will start and end by 12:23 am on December 15, 2020.
The December 14 event will be a total eclipse where the Moon completely blocks the Sun and casts a shadow over the planet. The celestial event will be visible directly from South America, Pacific, Atlantic, parts of Indian Ocean and Antarctica. Some parts of Africa will also witness the solar eclipse directly.
Lunar eclipses in 2020
Just like solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are also of three kinds– total, partial, and penumbral. The year 2020 has been listed to hold four lunar eclipses– one of which has been already witnessed in January. The remaining eclipses have been scheduled to occur in June, July, and November.
Also, just like the first lunar eclipse, the upcoming lunar eclipse of the year will be penumbral ones, which means the Moon travels through the faint penumbral portion of Earth’s shadow.
Lunar eclipse on June 5-6, 2020
As per timeanddate.com, the second lunar eclipse of the year will occur between June 5 and June 6. It will start at 11:15 pm IST on June 5 and reach the maximum eclipse at 12:54 am on June 6. The penumbral eclipse will end at 2:34 am on June 6, 2020. It will be visible in India along with much of Asia, much of Europe, Australia, Africa, South/East South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.
Lunar eclipse on July 5, 2020
The third lunar eclipse of the year will occur between July 5. As per timeanddate.com, it will start at 8:37 am IST, reach maximum eclipse at 9:59 am, and end at 11:22 am. As evident from the timing, it will not be visible in India. The regions which will withness the penumbral lunar eclipse of July 5 include much of Africa, much of Nort America, South/West Europe, South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Antarctica.
Lunar Eclipse on November 30, 2020
The fourth and final lunar eclipse of the year will occur on November 30, 2020. It will start at 1:02 pm IST, and reach the maximum eclipse at 3:12 pm. The penumbral eclipse will end at 5:23 pm on November 30, 2020. This eclipse will also be not visible from India. As per timeanddate.com, the regions where it will be visible include much of Europe, much of Asia, Australia, North America, South America, Pacific, Atlantic, and the Arctic.
Notably, there will be a total of four eclipses in 2021– two will be solar eclipses and two will be lunar ones.
Source: Indian Express, 19/03/2020
What is Plogging and where did it originate?
Started in Sweden by Erik Ahlström in 2016, plogging is an eco-friendly exercise through which people pick up trash while jogging or brisk walking as a way to clean up litter and also take care of their health.
During his morning walk at a beach in Mamallapuram Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen picking up plastic litter, water bottles and other trash from near his resort where he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for informal summit talks. In a tweet shortly after, PM Modi wrote: “Plogging at a beach in Mamallapuram. It lasted for over 30 minutes.”
The activity that the Prime Minister was referring to is an international fitness trend called ‘Ploggi
What does Plogging mean and where did it originate?
Plogging is a combination of two words: jogging and Swedish phrase for pick up, ‘plocka upp’. Started in Sweden by Erik Ahlström in 2016, plogging is an eco-friendly exercise through which people pick up trash while jogging or brisk walking as a way to clean up litter and also take care of their health.ng’.
It all began after Ahlström, who during his commute to work in Sweden, frequently encountered litter dotting the landscape. The same trash would remain on the roads for weeks at a stretch without anyone picking it up. This prompted him to pick up the trash during his commute and dispose of it properly. Soon, this became a habit. Eventually, he included the trash cleanup into his daily running and exercise routine, which is how ‘plogging’ came into existence.
Impact of Plogging
Ever since the movement took shape in Sweden, it has spread globally, thanks largely to social media and word-of-mouth. Search for #Plogging on Instagram or Twitter and one can see people post before and after pictures of the area cleaned up and brag about their trash haul after plogging. Given that plogging is very accessible and easy to do, lends it a much wider appeal, which explains its growing influence globally.
Since then, the movement has been adopted and implemented across the world by fitness and environmental enthusiasts. Over the last few years, several groups have popped up across Europe, US, South America, Asia and Africa that galvanise communities to take affirmative action against plastic pollution through a positive intervention like plogging. As per Ahlström, plogging for half an hour will burn at least 288 calories on an average as compared to just 235 calories from regular jogging. The fact that plogging addresses both the health and environment aspects make people feel they are positive agents of change and that anyone can do it. To make it a little more physically challenging, some even throw in a few exercises as they fill up their trash bags.
Now, India too has jumped onto the plogging bandwagon after the Narendra Modi-led BJP government organised the Fit India Plog Run that took place pan-India on October 2, as part of the Fit India Movement launched by the Prime Minister on August 29. To this effect, PM Modi also urged citizens of the country to shun single-use plastic during his Mann Ki Baat address on September 29 while asking people to start plogging for a litter-free India.
Source: Indian Express, 12/10/2019
Dealing with the human condition
Uncertainty is giving rise to anxiety, guilt, shame, panic. Respond better
The suicide of a young man, who was admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital after flying in from Sydney, even as test results to ascertain whether he had the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were awaited, is a wake-up call. There has been commentary on safety measures required to deal with the outbreak and the individual, social and institutional actions required. But not enough attention has been paid to the toll the disease — and the messaging around it — is taking on mental health.
Covid-19 is new. Rarely, if ever, in recent history have human beings across the world — be in Boston or Bengaluru, Wuhan or Doha, Rome or Seoul — experienced a common set of concerns, driven by a single factor. From its roots to its symptoms, from its treatment protocol to a possible cure, uncertainty is rife. This uncertainty is causing fear, anxiety, panic among people — about themselves, about their loved ones, about their future. This is coupled with a sense of shame among those who are either suspected or have the infection, because of the stigmatisation of Covid-19 patients. Yes, there are people who could have been more careful; yes, there has been a streak of irresponsibility in those should have followed treatment protocols. But it must be emphasised that a patient who gets infected is not guilty, but is actually a victim. Targeting individuals or families with traces of the case is wrong. Unacceptable racial attacks — be it against Chinese-origin Americans in the United States or against people from the Northeast in India — is only adding to this sense of vulnerability. Misinformation is not helping.
The government must weave in the mental health dimension in the way it approaches Covid-19. There has to be sustained counselling and therapy for patients and suspected cases. There has to be better messaging, which battles the sense of shame associated with Covid-19 and emphasises that social distancing is a temporary measure and patients are not criminals. There has to be kindness and empathy in the way families, neighbours, and communities engage with each other. Only a humane response can help deal with the deeply vulnerable human condition of these times.
Source: Hindustan Times, 19/03/2020
Calendars & New Years
Human measurement of time has been dependent on earth’s rotation on its axis that gives us our day and night, and the earth’s revolving around the sun that gives our year 365 days and a quarter. Today, the Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used worldwide, along with many other calendars. The teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, which gave to the world a new Calendar, starting in 1844 CE, state that the phenomenon of time here in this world, defined as it is by our planet’s days, lunar months and solar years, changes upon death, when the rotating earth, the sun, moon and stars are purely human construct governing our existence on the planet. In the afterlife, there is no such conception of time. For, it is a plane of existence freed from the limitations of material world. Therefore, through daily reflection upon the influence of the Divine on this earthly plane, one realises that laws, both spiritual and mundane, govern humankind’s perception of time. With the globe as our homeland, it is high time humanity adopts a new calendar that is truly universal as an expression of the power of unity in diversity. Through this new calendar, sacred moments globally acknowledged and commemorated would further strengthen humanity’s understanding of its common destiny in the context of time and space, and, thereby, recast the rhythm of life ushering in the promised era of peace and prosperity, the Aquarian Age, described in the Sacred Scriptures as the Ram Rajya, or Kingdom of God, on earth.
Source: Economic Times, 20/03/2020
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Coronavirus: This is how a filmmaker in Wuhan documented his wife’s Covid-19 journey
The filmmaker's video series titled "Our Coronavirus Diary" recorded their experience of fighting the virus.
An emergency room nurse in Wuhan tested positive for coronavirus after handling several patients at a hospital. Her filmmaker husband documented the entire journey of the lockdown in China in January and also shot their life in quarantine. This man’s journey after he realised his wife has symptoms of the disease is heartbreaking.
“By mid-December, my wife started getting worried. She said there were more and more patients with similar symptoms. She was worried and didn’t want to go to work. But she would still put her uniform on. So I knew she wasn’t going to just abandon her patients. But one day she called me around 8.50 am and said ‘I got it’. I knew immediately what she meant,” he shared in a BBC video.
On January 26, they were informed that she had been infected. The filmmaker was actually documenting the lockdown that started in China since January but when he received news of his wife, he continued to film their daily chores. “My mind went blank. I wasn’t sure what to do next. Initially, her symptoms were mild and the medical resources were already overstretched. So the doctors prescribed some medicines and told us to self-quarantine at home,” he said in the video.
The visuals also show his wife crying in a locked room and scolding him if he came in for cleaning or disinfecting the area. He also recorded how he used to leave a bowl full of soup and move away so that she could open the door and take the bowl in. “I decided to keep filming because I was scared she would get worse. Her fever was going high but none of the hospitals had any beds available. Only after 13 days of being tested positive, she was taken to a hospital; that’s when they knew that it has gone worse. My heart sank. I kicked myself for not taking her to the hospital sooner,” he recalled.
The filmmaker’s video series titled “Our Coronavirus Diary” documented the couple’s experiences of fighting the virus. According to China.org.cn, her condition has been stable for several days now, and the most recent nucleic acid test results came back negative, according to her Weibo post on March 5. She will finally be discharged from the hospital after conducting antibody tests.
Source: Indian Express, 18/03/2020
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