Rawat seeks Centres help

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Paying Uttarakhand a green bonus for the eco-system services it provides, lifting the ban on construction of hydro-power projects in the State and scrapping the 100-km area along the Bhagirathi river which has been notified as eco-sensitive zone, were among the requests that Chief Minister Harish Rawat placed at the first meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog in New Delhi on Sunday.

He said that the Centre must help the Uttarakhand government with policies that would help in swapping forest land needed for the rehabilitation.

Mr. Rawat added that the Central government must allot all projects with a funding that would be paid for in a ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the State.

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Rawat seeks Centres help

The Big Trip: Little bit of Perth and it’s Beaches – Travel Vlog #26 – Video

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The Big Trip: Little bit of Perth and it #39;s Beaches - Travel Vlog #26
Our few days visiting the West Coast of Australia. Visiting friends and the amazing beaches of Perth. Lots of photos in this one as I lost my voice!! Music: Parasail - Silent Partner.

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The Big Trip: Little bit of Perth and it's Beaches - Travel Vlog #26 - Video

Mauritius wildlife holiday: beyond the beaches and luxury hotels

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We spent our first week on the edge of the Black River Gorges National Park. Being so sheer and thickly wooded, it is still a wilderness. Up here, there were lichens and stupendous ferns not seen anywhere else on the planet not to mention pink pigeons. I even managed a six-mile hike through the gorge without seeing another soul. This wasnt how Id imagined Mauritius, and nor had our daughter. Lucy, aged nine, was enchanted by this peculiar world; by the bike rides through the lava; by the avenues of mango; and by the great gingery fruit bats that flopped lazily overhead. Theyre the greatest survivors of all, the islands last endemic mammal.

We never had to go far, to be in the thick of the wildlife. Our hotel, Lakaz Chamarel, included 12 acres of luxuriant gardens, and was built on a ridge, high above the sea. Everything liked to congregate here. At breakfast, thered be a carnival of birds: pic-pics, weavers, mynas and the ridiculous bulbuls with their conical hats and bright red knickers. Then there were the geckos, which would sometimes join us at our private pool, in their wacky colours. It seems that even they like a little chic. At night, the forest would be magically transformed into an opera, a million love songs belted out in frog.

A pink pigeon (Photo: Alamy)

At the end of the drive was an African village. Many people here were descended from slaves, brought during the French period (1715-1810). Although nowadays the big business is singing (Chamarel is famous for its seggae), some of the villagers have kept their old slave names. Here you can find M Engenu (Mr Handy) and Assiette (Plate). Our favourite character was Rico LIntelligent, who ran a little eatery called Palais de Barbizon. Top of his menu was octopus curry, served with papaya.

Before heading north, we descended to the sea. In Tamarin Bay, a boat took us out to the dolphins. There, we found ourselves snorkelling among a school of 50 spinners. It was like being rushed by a wall of enormous blue sausages. As if that wasnt enough, I then climbed the great promontory that marks the tip of the island: Le Morne. Just short of the summit (1,820ft), a deep gully appeared. In 1810 it was reported that, on the other side, there was a community of runaway slaves. I never got to see their redoubt but I did come face-to-face with a tropicbird. This exquisite whip-tailed creature must be the only seabird that is hunted by monkeys.

Chamarel waterfall (Photo: Alamy)

It would be nice to think this landscape is untainted by humankind. But it isnt true. The ebony has all gone, and a lot has been introduced (including giant snails, to feed the slaves). To know what it was all like pre-1598, you need to go to Ile aux Aigrettes. There, they are busy turning back the clocks, rooting out acacia and killing all the rats.

Its an extraordinary islet: we came across olive white-eyes (now down to their last 100 birds) and Telfairs skink (a sort of snake with feet), which exists only here. We were also shown trees (Bois de boeuf) that have vanished elsewhere, and others (oxwood) that can make themselves look poisonous. Then there were Lucys favourites: 20 giant tortoises. They were reintroduced from the Seychelles, to help spread seeds. It was a brilliant idea, proposed by a brilliant man: Charles Darwin.

Heading north, I thought we had seen the last of wild Mauritius. The landscape rolled away in an endless savannah of sugar cane. It was magnificent in its way: a luminous lime-green plain, prickled with old chimneys and churches. The roads felt like tunnels through the cane and, in places, the slaves had gathered up huge pyramids of lava. But this was no place for the islands delicate fauna. Twice a year, this scenery is hacked back to the roots, and occasionally burnt.

A macaque monkey (Photo: Alamy)

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Mauritius wildlife holiday: beyond the beaches and luxury hotels

Astronomy – Ch. 4: History of Astronomy (7 of 16) Ancient Structures: Wurdi Youang, Australia – Video

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Astronomy - Ch. 4: History of Astronomy (7 of 16) Ancient Structures: Wurdi Youang, Australia
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will explain how the Wurdi Youang stone arrangements celebrate summer and...

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Astronomy - Ch. 4: History of Astronomy (7 of 16) Ancient Structures: Wurdi Youang, Australia - Video

Sullivan South student working on path to astronomy career

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February 8th, 2015 5:52 pm by Rick Wagner

KINGSPORT A future Carl Sagan or two may come from the ranks of local high school graduates in years to come.

But these future astronomers, would-be hosts of something like the late Sagans PBS television series Cosmos, are unlike astronomer and author Sagan was in at least one way.

They are females.

Sullivan South High School senior Kayla Jenkins and astronomy teacher Thomas Rutherford recently presented some of their NASA-commissioned research at a national astronomy conference in Seattle.

The research anoutgrowth of a project started in 2013 is using the red shiftin light from a type of black hole called an active galactic nuclei. That is among the brightest of objects in the universe.

Using a color magnitude measurement graphing color versus brightness from quasars and type 1 Seyfert galaxies, the research examined about 11,000 objects.

Jenkins did another project on seeking to calculate the distance to an open star cluster. A third project, still underway with a friend, is to measure the distance from the earth to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy using globular clusters,

The red shift research is for a NASA-funded program called NITARP, which stands for NASA/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center Teacher Archive Research Project.

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Sullivan South student working on path to astronomy career

Davos 2015; A Brave New World and Advances in Artificial Intelligence – Video

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Davos 2015; A Brave New World and Advances in Artificial Intelligence
Davos 2015; A Brave New World and Advances in Artificial Intelligence The content of any articles published on the Websites (Articles) is representing the ...

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Start-up looks to redefine artificial intelligence

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We can proudly say we are entirely a made in Madras product, says Ashwini Asokan, co-founder and CEO of the curiously-named Mad Street Den, a city-based start-up that works on the premise of redefining artificial intelligence (A.I.) and computer vision.

From Vellore

But we do have one engineer from Vellore Institute of Technology, Anand Chandrasekaran, co-founder of the company and Ashwinis husband, corrects her.

But Vellore is not all that far away. It is almost a part of Madras, she laughs. Spirits are high at Mad Street Dens office in Abhiramapuram.

Mad Street Den? It is sadly not as interesting as you might think, Ashwini intercepts. MAD stands for Mind Abled Devices. We are into computer vision and artificial intelligence after all. Mad Street Den just had a good ring to it.

The start-up was in the news last month for having received funding to the tune of US $1.5 million (roughly Rs. 9 crore) from two venture capital firms.

Anand is a neuroscientist, whose research was related to how the brains visual system wires itself up. He also has technical expertise in neuromorphic engineering translating neural algorithms into hardware design. Before he came to Chennai, he was consulting on neuroscience and machine learning projects.He drives the creation of a computer vision platform that currently has five modules, and more are being planned.

Ashwini has worked for Intel in several roles and business groups and her expertise is in driving new product categories and experiences out of mobile technologies. She diligently drives the product and applications of the A.I. modules.

In one of the proof of concept demonstrations the couple shows, the photo of a persons shirt is captured by a smartphone, and it is shown how the A.I. engine can help an e-commerce website show search results of shirts that have similar colours or patterns.

Ashwini and Anands vision for the company takes it beyond just specialising in one or two specific A.I. components.

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Start-up looks to redefine artificial intelligence

Benefits of Balance the Gut Microbiome Using Novel Prebiotic Bacteriophage Biotherapeutics – Video

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Benefits of Balance the Gut Microbiome Using Novel Prebiotic Bacteriophage Biotherapeutics
Benefits of Balance the Gut Microbiome Using Novel Prebiotic Bacteriophage Biotherapeutics Sharon McQuillan, MD Get this presentation and more like it at htt...

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Benefits of Balance the Gut Microbiome Using Novel Prebiotic Bacteriophage Biotherapeutics - Video

Picture for Live News NATO Legion in Ukraine 29 01 2015,Ukraine War News Today – Video

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Picture for Live News NATO Legion in Ukraine 29 01 2015,Ukraine War News Today
UKRAINE WAR LAST NEWS TODAY(the best new and hot vidio) Subscribe to the channel!!!THANK YOU War in Donbass - fighting on the territory of Donetsk and Lugans. UKRAINE WAR LAST NEWS ...

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Picture for Live News NATO Legion in Ukraine 29 01 2015,Ukraine War News Today - Video