A TO Z OF NEWS Haruki Murakaminie-images.s3.amazonaws.com/gall_content/2019/7/2019_7$file31_J… ·...
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A TO Z OF NEWS “If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.” Haruki Murakami 03 News...To The Today, in order to comment, debate or even opinionate, one needs to dig deep and know the A TO Z of news. Starting with letter A, TIMES NIE takes you on a news-ical journey, explaining most names, places and contexts associated with it Why we are talking about it? Pakistan opens air space for all P akistan has reopened its airspace to all civilian planes after months of restric- tions, following Indian Air Force’s airstrikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot earlier this year. Air India flight AI 184 — from San Francisco to Delhi — became the first to fly over Pakistani airspace recently. Figure out how it would affect economics. AIR SPACE SHARING ALEXA, WHO CREATED YOU? What the closure brought The closure, which came into ef- fect from February 27, had re- sulted in flights between South Asia — including North India — taking longer detours on the routes. ❚ This led to an increase in flying time by anywhere up to three hours; adding fuelling stops on direct India-US non-stops of Air India; cancelled flights of airlines like United on India-Newark sec- tors and a sharp hike in operat- ing costs for airlines. Fact Indian carriers together lost over `550 crore due to Pakistan’s air- space closure. Consider this: Air India (whose West-bound flights include Eu- rope, US, Gulf, Saudi Arabia) bled the most, with `491 crore in loss- es till July 2. It was followed by SpiceJet (Gulf, Saudi Arabia), In- diGo (Gulf, Istanbul, Saudi Ara- bia) and GoAir (Gulf) losing `30.7 crore, `25.1 crore and `2.1 crore, respectively, ac- cording to a parliamen- tary reply by Aviation minister HS Puri on July 3. There is no interna- tional agreement on the VERTICAL EXTENT OF SOVEREIGN AIRSPACE, with suggestions ranging from about 30 km – the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons — to about 160 km — the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has established the Kármán line — at an altitude of 100 km — as the boundary between Earth's atmos- phere and outer space, while the US consid- ers anyone who has flown above 80 kilometres to be an astronaut! TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW AIRSPACE is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its terri- tory, including its territorial waters. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the gen- eral term for Earth's atmos- phere and the outer space in its vicinity. INTERNATIONAL LAW: A state “has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its terri- tory”, which corresponds with the maritime definition of territorial waters as being 12 nautical miles (22.2 km) from a nation's coastline. FLIGHT INFORMATION REGION: A country may, by international agreement, assume responsibility for controlling parts of interna- tional airspace, such as those over the oceans. Why talk about it? Ed Sheeran dumps Bieber for Alexa E d Sheeran, the ginger-haired Englishman, who collaborated with Justin Bieber for one of the biggest billed songs, ‘I don’t care’ from his new album, decided to dump Bieber for Amazon’s Alexa for the new version of the song. What’s Alexa up to? Like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana, Alexa is an intel- ligent virtual assistant – with a com- puter generated, rather than human, voice. Critics say that the new song sounds very strange, because he is so honeyed and she is so monoto- nic. But strangeness is dependent on people’s taste, and even Be- liebers are giving Alexa a listen. Today Alexa is making headlines by singing. The oth- er day she was creeping out people by laughing ran- domly, when they didn’t even know she could laugh. Like melody or art, laugh- ter has long been seen as an essentially human attrib- ute. In the Star Trek fran- chise, this is why Spock and Data just don’t get humour. Neither do they sing. So until now, it hasn’t seemed possible that arti- ficial intelligence could script the Kapil Sharma show or Gol Maal – surely only humans can be Shakespeares and Beethovens? How the name ‘Alexa’ came up Many people who worked at Lab126, Amazon’s hardware division, hated the name, according to two former employees. Chief Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, was strongly in favour. And there was another worry. A core feature of the device is a “wake word” that cues it to begin taking voice com- mands when spoken. One of the two words being considered was “Alexa.” Be- zos thought the best word would be “Amazon.” This pre- sented a challenge, be- cause people say that word a lot. The speakers would wake up on hearing Amazon ads on TV and com- mence buying random stuff from the internet. This is when it was zeroed on Alexa. ➤ Amazon created Lab126 in 2004 to build the Kindle e-read- er. The lab’s name is a reference to the alphabet, with 1 rep- resenting the letter A and 26 repre- senting Z. ➤ There was talk that Amazon is setting up Lab126, its secretive consumer devices develop- ment arm, in Mumbai, as the company grows its portfolio of devices in India, its fastest growing market, according to Factor Daily in 2017. ➤ Lab126 is behind Kindle e-readers, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets and smart speaker Echo. BORN IN LAB126 Why we are talking about it Storm Area 51, new rage on FB T he truth is out there, but it’s probably not at Area 51, the secret US military base in the Nevada desert – a target of the alien conspiracy theories for decades. Now, people have signed up for a Facebook event called “Storm Area 51,” planned on September 20, 2019. What is the plan? The creators of the page have stated their plans: “We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry. If we ‘Naruto run’, we can move faster than their bul- lets. Lets see them aliens.” NARUTO RUN: For anyone who isn’t well-versed in anime-lingo, a Naruto run is a style of running in which a person or character runs lean- ing forward with their arms stretched out behind them. Who is running? They’re internet jokesters. The meme has spread to several social media platforms and spawned many jokes. Are there aliens? Unlikely. What you would see is some benign government build- ings surrounded by barbed wire. Aliens are far less likely. Douglas Vakoch, president of Messaging Extraterrestrial In- telligence says, “I’m not convinced that the aliens are here, or that they ever were.” AREA 51 ➤ It’s a real military base, run by the US Air Force and used for flight testing stealth planes. The projects there have long been held secret, and the first official mention of its existence came only in 2013, when the CIA de-classified a report on the history of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane. ➤ The testing of spy planes possibly led to numerous reports of UFOs in the area, though none have been confirmed to be of extraterrestrial origins. The name comes from a convention of naming the plots of land on the base. There are other numbered areas, desig- nated by the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission. WHAT IS AREA 51? What is it? With the NRC deadline nearing, families stranded in Assam floods don’t want to be rescued I n minority-dominated areas of Assam, home and land are tangible markers of identity in a state that is days away from the July 31 deadline for publication of the final National Register of Citizens (NRC). Recently, the Centre and state admitted that the NRC exercise in Assam has been a total mess. ASSAM’S NRC DISASTER ■ NRC is a register containing names of all genuine Indian cit- izens. The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India. ■ The NRC is now be- ing updated in Assam to include the names of those persons (or their descendants) who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24th March, 1971 or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to the midnight of 24th March, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before 24th March, 1971. The update process of NRC started in 2013. THE PROBLEM The mess was not totally unexpected. In a country with a weak culture of documentation and inef- ficient bureaucracy, ask- ing people to produce papers and legacies going back more than 40 years is ridiculous. Why talk? HK exposes chinks in China’s ‘Asian values’ thesis L arge-scale protests in Hong Kong over an unpopular extradition bill that would have allowed fugi- tives to be sent from the territory to mainland China, turn several assump- tions on their head. First, the vigorous protests by Hong Kongers show that they continue to value freedoms of expression, thought and choice which are unavailable on the mainland. The protests arose over concerns that such legislation would blur the demar- cation between the legal systems (also known as “one country, two systems”) in Hong Kong and mainland China, sub- jecting Hong Kong residents and those passing through the city to de facto ju- risdiction of courts controlled by the Communist Party of China. ASIAN VALUES THESIS One country, two systems "One country, two systems" is a constitutional principle for- mulated by Deng Xiaoping, the Paramount Leader for the re- unification of China during the early 1980s. He suggested that there would be only one China, but distinct Chinese re- gions such as Hong Kong and Macau could retain their own economic and administrative systems, while the rest of Chi- na uses the socialism with Chi- nese characteristics system. ASIAN VALUES? The theory goes that Asian civili- sations prize order, social cohesion and a strong but benev- olent govern- ments over democracy. Thus, Asian nations ought to singu- larly focus on growth and power instead of demo- cratic freedoms. Democracy, in this view, is colo- nial baggage. Photo: Getty images Photo: Getty images Photo: Getty images Photo: Getty images Photo: Getty images
Transcript of A TO Z OF NEWS Haruki Murakaminie-images.s3.amazonaws.com/gall_content/2019/7/2019_7$file31_J… ·...
A TO Z OF NEWS“If you can't understand it without an explanation,you can't understand it with an explanation.” Haruki Murakami 03
News...To The
Today, in order to comment, debate or even opinionate, one needs to dig deep and know the A TO Z of news. Startingwith letter A, TIMES NIE takes you on a news-ical journey,explaining most names, places and contexts associated with it
Why we are talking about it? Pakistan opens air space for all
Pakistan has reopened its airspace to allcivilian planes after months of restric-tions, following Indian Air Force’s
airstrikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror campin Balakot earlier this year. Air India flight AI184 — from San Francisco to Delhi — becamethe first to fly over Pakistani airspace recently.Figure out how it would affect economics.
AIR SPACESHARING
ALEXA, WHOCREATED YOU?
What the closure broughtThe closure, which came into ef-fect from February 27, had re-sulted in flights between SouthAsia — including North India —taking longer detours on theroutes. ❚ This led to an increase in flyingtime by anywhere up to threehours; adding fuelling stops ondirect India-US non-stops of AirIndia; cancelled flights of airlineslike United on India-Newark sec-tors and a sharp hike in operat-ing costs for airlines.
Fact Indian carriers together lost over`550 crore due to Pakistan’s air-space closure. Consider this: Air India (whoseWest-bound flights include Eu-rope, US, Gulf, Saudi Arabia) bledthe most, with `491 crore in loss-es till July 2. It was followed bySpiceJet (Gulf, Saudi Arabia), In-diGo (Gulf, Istanbul, Saudi Ara-bia) and GoAir (Gulf) losing ̀ 30.7
crore, `25.1 crore and `2.1crore, respectively, ac-cording to a parliamen-tary reply by Aviationminister HS Puri onJuly 3.
Thereis no interna-
tional agreement onthe VERTICAL EXTENT
OF SOVEREIGN AIRSPACE,with suggestions ranging from
about 30 km – the extent of thehighest aircraft and balloons — to about 160 km — the
lowest extent of short-term stable orbits.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale hasestablished the Kármán line — at an altitude of 100
km — as the boundary between Earth's atmos-phere and outer space, while the US consid-
ers anyone who has flown above 80 kilometres to be an
astronaut!
TERMS YOUSHOULD KNOW
AIRSPACE is the portion ofthe atmosphere controlledby a country above its terri-tory, including its territorialwaters. IItt iiss nnoott tthhee ssaammee aassaaeerroossppaaccee,, wwhhiicchh iiss tthhee ggeenn-eerraall tteerrmm ffoorr EEaarrtthh''ss aattmmooss-pphheerree aanndd tthhee oouutteerr ssppaaccee iinniittss vviicciinniittyy..INTERNATIONAL LAW: Astate “has complete andexclusive sovereignty overthe airspace above its terri-tory”, which correspondswith the maritime definition of territorialwaters as being 12 nauticalmiles (22.2 km) from anation's coastline. FLIGHT INFORMATIONREGION: A country may, byinternational agreement,assume responsibility forcontrolling parts of interna-tional airspace, such asthose over the oceans.
Why talkabout it? EdSheeran dumpsBieber for Alexa
Ed Sheeran, the ginger-hairedEnglishman, who collaboratedwith Justin Bieber for one of
the biggest billed songs, ‘I don’t care’from his new album, decided todump Bieber for Amazon’s Alexa forthe new version of the song.
What’s Alexa up to?Like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant andMicrosoft’s Cortana, Alexa is an intel-ligent virtual assistant – with a com-puter generated, rather than human,voice. Critics say that the new songsounds very strange, because he isso honeyed and she is so monoto-nic. But strangeness is dependenton people’s taste, and even Be-liebers are giving Alexa a listen.
Today Alexa is makingheadlines by singing. The oth-er day she was creeping outpeople by laughing ran-domly, when they didn’teven know she could laugh.Like melody or art, laugh-ter has long been seen as anessentially human attrib-ute. In the Star Trek fran-chise, this is why Spock andData just don’t get humour.Neither do they sing. So until now,it hasn’t seemed possible that arti-ficial intelligence could script theKapil Sharma show or Gol Maal –surely only humans can beShakespeares and Beethovens?
How the name‘Alexa’ came upMany people who worked atLab126, Amazon’s hardware
division, hated thename, according to two
former employees. ChiefJeff Bezos, on the other
hand, was strongly in favour.And there was anotherworry. A core feature of
the device is a “wakeword” that cues it to
begin taking voice com-mands when spoken.
One of the two words beingconsidered was “Alexa.” Be-zos thought the best wordwould be “Amazon.” This pre-
sented a challenge, be-cause people say that
word a lot. The speakerswould wake up on hearingAmazon ads on TV and com-mence buying random stufffrom the internet. This iswhen it was zeroed on Alexa.
➤ Amazon created Lab126 in 2004 to build the Kindle e-read-er. The lab’s name is a reference to the alphabet, with 1 rep-resenting the letter A and 26 repre-senting Z. ➤ There was talk thatAmazon is setting up Lab126, itssecretive consumer devices develop-ment arm, in Mumbai, as the companygrows its portfolio of devices in India,its fastest growing market, accordingto Factor Daily in 2017. ➤ Lab126 isbehind Kindle e-readers, Fire TV stick,Fire tablets and smart speaker Echo.
BORN IN LAB126
Why we are talking about it Storm Area 51, new rage on FB
The truth is out there, but it’s probably notat Area 51, the secret US military base inthe Nevada desert – a target of the alien
conspiracy theories for decades. Now, peoplehave signed up for a Facebook event called“Storm Area 51,” planned on September 20, 2019.
What is the plan?The creators of the page have statedtheir plans: “We will all meet up at theArea 51 Alien Center touristattraction and coordinate ourentry. If we ‘Naruto run’, wecan move faster than their bul-lets. Lets see them aliens.”
NARUTO RUN:For anyone whoisn’t well-versedin anime-lingo, aNaruto run is a styleof running in which aperson or character runs lean-ing forward with their armsstretched out behind them.
Who is running?They’re internet jokesters. Thememe has spread to several socialmedia platforms and spawnedmany jokes.
Are there aliens?Unlikely. What you would see issome benign government build-ings surrounded by barbed wire.Aliens are far less likely. Douglas Vakoch, president ofMessaging Extraterrestrial In-telligence says, “I’m not convincedthat the aliens are here, or thatthey ever were.”
AREA 51
➤ It’s a real military base, run by the US Air Force andused for flight testing stealth planes. The projectsthere have long been held secret, and the first officialmention of its existence came only in 2013, when theCIA de-classified a report on the history of theLockheed U-2 spy plane.➤ The testing of spy planes possibly led to numerousreports of UFOs in the area, though none have beenconfirmed to be of extraterrestrial origins. The namecomes from a convention of naming the plots of landon the base. There are other numbered areas, desig-nated by the now-defunct Atomic Energy Commission.
WHATIS AREA
51?
What is it? With the NRC deadlinenearing, families stranded in Assamfloods don’t want to be rescued
In minority-dominated areas of Assam,home and land are tangible markers ofidentity in a state that is days away from the
July 31 deadline for publication of the finalNational Register of Citizens (NRC). Recently,the Centre and state admitted that the NRCexercise in Assam has been a total mess.
ASSAM’S NRCDISASTER
■ NRC is a registercontaining names ofall genuine Indian cit-izens. The register wasfirst prepared after the1951 Census of India.■ The NRC is now be-ing updated in Assamto include the namesof those persons (ortheir descendants)who appear in theNRC, 1951, or in any ofthe Electoral Rolls upto the midnight of 24thMarch, 1971 or in any one of the other admissibledocuments issued up to the midnight of 24th March,1971, which would prove their presence in Assam orin any part of India on or before 24th March, 1971.The update process of NRC started in 2013.
THE PROBLEM The mess was not totallyunexpected. In a countrywith a weak culture ofdocumentation and inef-ficient bureaucracy, ask-ing people to producepapers and legaciesgoing back more than 40years is ridiculous.
Why talk? HK exposes chinksin China’s ‘Asian values’ thesis
Large-scale protests in Hong Kongover an unpopular extraditionbill that would have allowed fugi-
tives to be sent from the territory tomainland China, turn several assump-tions on their head. First, the vigorousprotests by Hong Kongers show thatthey continue to value freedoms ofexpression, thought and choice whichare unavailable on the mainland.
The protests arose over concerns thatsuch legislation would blur the demar-cation between the legal systems (alsoknown as “one country, two systems”) inHong Kong and mainland China, sub-jecting Hong Kong residents and thosepassing through the city to de facto ju-risdiction of courts controlled by theCommunist Party of China.
ASIAN VALUESTHESIS
One country, two systems
"One country, two systems" isa constitutional principle for-mulated by Deng Xiaoping, theParamount Leader for the re-unification of China duringthe early 1980s. He suggestedthat there would be only oneChina, but distinct Chinese re-gions such as Hong Kong andMacau could retain their owneconomic and administrativesystems, while the rest of Chi-na uses the socialism with Chi-nese characteristics system.
ASIAN VALUES?
The theory goesthat Asian civili-sations prizeorder, socialcohesion and astrong but benev-olent govern-ments overdemocracy. Thus,Asian nationsought to singu-larly focus ongrowth and powerinstead of demo-cratic freedoms.Democracy, inthis view, is colo-nial baggage.
Photo: Getty images
Photo: Getty images
Photo: Getty images
Photo: Getty images
Photo: Getty images
