When you get a lot of people together and you start collaborating and working together and feeding off of each other, that's when really great success stories happen. As far as Charleston and as far as Gravel to be here this morning, it's just great. It's just the way for us to collaborate and show the importance of women entrepreneurship and the importance of sisterhood. Women-owned businesses are the fastest-growing segment of businesses in the country. What we want to do at the City of Columbia is make sure that we have the environment that supports those businesses, their growth, so that not only are they doing business in and with the City of Columbia, but that they are able to grow their businesses throughout the state and throughout the nation and throughout the world. Businesses are doing amazing here in South Carolina, especially when we find a passion we're relentless in making sure we see things through. We feel like, you know, we are taking care of other people and that's kind of our job, so we don't really understand or sometimes don't acknowledge that we can be very successful, powerful women in business as well as all the other things that we want to do. Two and a half years, we've had 32,000 new jobs and companies from all over the globe are looking at South Carolina to call home. Hey there, Mayor Steve Benjamin here. Thanks for watching this video. Make sure you give it a like right below the video and don't forget to subscribe. Also, while you're here, be sure to check out one of our other videos or follow on our social media platforms. Thanks again and remember, we are Columbia.


If you were somehow able to use detailed information about the future to make a ton of money, even if you donated it all to charity, I think that you still technically have to list yourself as being for profit. Stephen Hawking made several famous public wagers on various topics in astrophysics and cosmology during his career. He bet Kip Thorne that a source of x-rays in the constellation Cygnus wasn't a black hole. Which it was. He bet physicist Gordon Cain a hundred dollars that nobody would find evidence of the Higgs boson, which he ended up paying in 2012 when Cern announced their findings. The stakes were never really life changing, but Hawking was infamous for his willingness to put some stakes on scientific speculation. That's kind of a rare thing, which is odd considering how much time we spend making guesses about the future. Think about it. Every conversation about politics, every debate over where we should go for dinner, every argument about when to use the Oxford comma is essentially a dispute about what will happen in the future. Electing that person will have negative consequences. A meal at this restaurant will hit the spot. If you don't use the Oxford comma, people will be more confused. With so much prediction happening in everyday discourse, you might expect that we'd have a ton of respect for those folks with especially accurate mental models who are regularly right about what's going to happen. But Hawking's definite public declarations of his guesses are the exception, not the rule. Usually we're content to simply state or overstate our opinions, often using language that vastly oversells our confidence in them for rhetorical purposes. How many times have you heard someone claim to be 99% sure of something? Usually it's just a bit of hyperbole. They're pretty certain, but not positive. If that estimate of their confidence was literal, there's a wager that they should be willing to accept. If the prediction turns out to be true, they win a dollar. If it's not true, they have to pay 99 dollars. How many people do you think would be willing to take that bet? Prediction markets are essentially exchanges that operate on exactly that principle, basically functioning as stock markets or, if you like, casinos for forecasters. Rather than speculating on stock in a company or placing bets on hands of cards, prediction markets allow people to put money down on assertions about the future, or contracts. Contracts are a little different than stocks in that their value is determined as a probability distribution rather than a cash value, and when you invest, you buy in at a certain percentage. You might buy something like computer program passes Turing test by 2025 at 65%, meaning you're about 65% certain that that will happen. Or you could clean up suckers money on vaccines cause autism by putting as much cash as you can spare all the way down at 1%. The value of the contract changes in a very similar fashion to the value of a stock price. If a lot of people bet on something happening, its percentage value goes up. If they bet on it not happening, the value goes down. This causes a similar process of market value equilibrium, where speculators who think a contract's current percentage value is much higher or lower than it ought to be will invest according to that belief, shifting the curve in that direction. When the contract closes, everyone's final bids are locked in, and when the event either transpires or doesn't, it pays out according to their level of investment. If you were one of the only people to bet on an outcome that everyone else thought was impossible, you can make bank if it actually happens, or not. The upshot of this whole process is that the distribution of the contract price is a real-time index of the investor's certainty that is correct, not their cavalier conversational speculation, but what they really think in their heart of hearts. After all, it's a numbers game. If they guess right, there's money to be made, and money to be lost if they screw up. That means that the probability distribution of a contract represents an incredibly accurate crowd-sourced guess about its likelihood, often a much more consistently correct guess than even experts with access to tons of data can manage on their own. That's useful information. So useful that many large companies like Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm use internal prediction markets to inform business decisions. Of course, no market is perfect, and there are problems with blindly trusting the wisdom of the crowd to accurately forecast everything. Prediction markets attract a certain kind of person, and that selection bias can manifest as skewed results. There's also the problem of specificity when defining a contract. It's fairly easy to buy and sell shares of a company at a particular price, but determining whether a particular event has actually come to pass can be a fussy process. And just as with stock markets, there are numerous devious ways to exploit prediction markets to make a quick buck, or worse yet, to influence the real world. After all, if you've got 20 large writing on some political leader being assassinated in the next year, but research into these prediction markets has led to an interesting development in the psychology of accurate forecasting. In 2011, a group of researchers funded by a US intelligence initiative started something called the Good Judgment Project, a study which asked several thousand people to take their best guesses on a set of geopolitical and economic events, and use those results to offer amazingly accurate projections of the future. Weirdly, while there were crunching numbers, the researchers discovered that a subset of their study participants were significantly better at guessing than the vast majority of people. These so-called super forecasters weren't mega-geniuses or prophets, but they did consistently better on their predictions than most, even better than some government analysts with access to top-secret information. Of course, the Good Judgment Project will happily sell you the secret sauce to be a better forecaster in their workshops or online training courses, but the general gist is outlined in the book Super Forecasting, written by two of the project's leads. It seems that most of the mental apparatus that super forecasters have in common are forms of debiasing, psychological tools and balances that allow them to compensate for the usual suspects that make human estimates more a matter of wishful thinking than rigorous analysis. Oh look, a whole video on debiasing! Crazy, right? What are the chances? Along with the study's findings came the idea of using the mojo that powers prediction markets and refining it with individual track records, using statistical techniques to weigh certain guesses more or less depending on the past performance of the guesser in question. The recreational online prediction market, Metaculous, uses such an algorithm to calibrate a prediction engine that operates parallel to the public market and has astounding accuracy, nailing its guesses more than 90% at the time, better than even super forecasters can manage. But hey, maybe you think you can do better. Metaculous is one of several online prediction market games that you can play with virtual currency, seeing how you stack up against other forecasters without actually gambling.  If you're an opinionated person who regularly makes pronouncements about what's certain to happen next, maybe try taking a page from Hawking's book and putting some stakes on that opinion. Hopefully you do better than he did. Out of four publicly stated scientific bets, he only ever won once. Do you think that prediction markets are useful for forecasting future events? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to blah, blah, subscribe, blah, share, and don't stop thunking.


here 10 of all the trade? It's going overseas or something passes through that canal How many times has this happened? One I've we've ever heard of that we've ever heard of so whatever it is. It can't be that big a deal I think I think what it must come down to is that you know, there's the wind. There's the speed There's the how heavy or how big it is somebody screwed up Yeah Yeah Operator error it could have been pushing forward when they should have waited or whatever But yes, you're right. Somebody screwed up if that many other ships have managed to get through all the time and never wedged themselves in there It's not a canal design issue stop blaming the weather There's been all the weathers and there've been ships going through there. It's been fine.  They just wanted to create a situation for the best memeable photographs Mm-hmm Oh Eric and alaska, uh, just shared A marketplace about a columbia river bar pilot in our in our chat um But then also asked did you see the story about the anchorage cosco where the ravens are raiding people's shopping carts Hmm Girls The ravens are like give me your food. Wait, where is this? Anchorage, alaska ravens They're stealing people's i mean cosco you've got those big unwieldy shopping carts parking lot and it's the Crazy parking lot and you probably got your six kids in tow on your way to your minivan And you're just like Then the raven comes in it's also because you're trying to like you're trying to uh You're trying you're holding the the drink that you got at the little And the hot dog, right? Yeah, but the I don't know if anybody else says is the lids that they give you at the cosco Don't actually stay on the top of the cup And so you're trying to balance this thing in the shopping cart because You got it and you should have just eaten there, but it was so busy.  You know, it's not going to make it. Wow tm tn Amazing Gigantic uh Shout out. We need a what is that thing called the shofar? What the? One of those kind of sounds we need a sound effects crew for this thing Tn with the 500. Wow, that's gonna go a long way. That's gonna take this show on the road That's getting this partway to one of those those road trips where we get to go out and And visit people in the in the country Where we're someday Really want my rv to work someday It's russian currency. Okay, whatever russian currency. No, whatever it still works I don't know what the army quarves trying to figure it out. Oh, it's real Somebody's saying is it brazilian or just real? Real Thank you. We can talk about things. Thank you so much. Thank you Yeah, talk about Costco ravens. I mean they know how the supersize packages work There's a lot of packaging impact in costco stuff though So how do they get through it all sometimes it's like a bag in a bag in a box No, no, no, no, no, that's the thing about costco is they don't bag anything No, these boxes to stack everything So they're just swooping down and taking yeah, you're right. It's like a 20 pound bag of almonds So yeah, these must be For example, like cheese is like bulk. It's it's 10 bags of cheese in a bag in a box It's true Yeah, so I I don't know Um, I bought a laughing cow like the creamy swiss there Um recently and it so it's three individual wheels Inside of a box and inside each wheel are the foil wrapped Pieces of cheese. I was like this is this is too much You got done yourself today. It's really intense. Wait, what ravens can open doors? Eric They're not that big No No, I don't want to I do not want to subscribe to the Anchorage Daily News But you're not gonna let me in Okay, nobody nobody do the math on Tian's donation I think it's fine to put it in a currency that makes the number look the biggest I'm all for that. I'm it's much more exciting. It's amazing. We got it.  Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah Okay, you guys So in Tillamook they have the Tillamook Creamery and they also have a Tillamook crematorium Please explain this is too close I'm sorry, I came for a tour of your cheese making facilities. I think I'm in the wrong place Yeah, yeah, you know won't you any won't touch the uh the pre shredded cheese Because she won't explain it exactly but she knows to me, but she knows or maybe she's tried to explain it to me and I just But she knows how it's how it's made to stay looking fresh It's in a giant shredded No, there's more There's chemicals involved. Yeah There's a lot of preservative to make the shredded cheese look fresh Uh, so yeah, I'm off shredded cheese. That's interesting. You can shred your own cheese It doesn't take that long.   I'll eat the chemicals Just get the glove and then you can do that with the immunity. You can't even it's just I went to the tillamook creamery um this on monday on monday I went to the creamery and Kai wanted ice cream and they sell ice cream and luckily they have like an outdoor little ice cream booth so it was outdoor totally fine, but there was a line of people Many of them not wearing masks to get indoors to their gift shop and the tour and We had at first thought hey that could be fun to go tour the creamery facility and then we saw all that we went Oh, no Oh, no, no, no So we just got out today, huh? We got we got ice cream and then we went and we sat in our car and we ate it This week in science is sad to announce the passing of kirsten sanford Uh, it started when she tried to get ice cream Uh in a in a line of people who weren't wearing masks And basically that's the whole story. Uh, that's the whole yeah, not worth it. Not Worth it There's so much else the With the rest of the you know, not worth it Yeah, I was just I was like wow there were a lot there were a lot of people wearing masks But many who were not and it was just very It's like oh interesting. Oh, so me and uh, my little list went to the zoo This weekend nice zoo There were uh For the most part it's limited you have to buy tickets online They have limited people going into the zoo all the whole thing wear masks I saw about a half a dozen adults who were just wandering around without the mask once they were inside And I wanted to kick them all out, but I was like I I I don't have I'm not the person who should confront people In these situations because I'm Too aggressive verbally Yeah, um, but but they have a new exhibit Uh, uh, uh Gosh, what is it called? Akapai what is it called? It's like they have a copy They're having a copy. They have two It is the first time I had ever seen one in person They have two of them at the back end of a zebra The head of a giraffe that's kind of like a deer meets and then the body of a moose So I have seen pictures of a copy copy Ocopy Ocopy and we saw ocopy in baltimore, justin. Okay. I don't remember. I think I missed them I think I missed them. We saw them at the maryland zoo I think I missed it because ocopy in my mind is like, uh Uh a small deer I've seen the pictures a million times and I don't know why what reference point I ever had for it But I've always pictured them like being the size of a small deer like very Very kind of smallish foresty type creature, savannahish creature, whatever they are This thing is like big as a moose. They're huge They are they are giraffes out the long neck. They are closer really right at your giraffe. They got the little giraffe What are they called antenna? How many, how many, how many? Ossicones Ossicones, they got the little Ossicones The giraffe antenna They got the long purple tongue thing Right and then they've also got the prehensile lippity stuff And then yeah, they have like full on zebra stripes on the rear course, which I've seen the pictures But I had no they were there were five six times bigger than I had uh had them place held in my in my head They're on my spot list of favorite animals for sure. Um, they are essentially rainforest giraffes Rainforest. Oh, yeah, that's right. It did tell us that there were rainforest creatures. That's right So, yeah, so they have the shorter neck and they have the um the striped rear to kind of help with um Camouflage in a thick forest because you have like the the strands of light coming through right but Um, yeah, they're wild. I love them. They're critically endangered Uh, I've just done an update animals. I've just gotten an update. It's uh, this is specifically the uh the shredded cheese to avoid is the parmesan cheese that's already pre-shredded And it's be it's for it not to clump up again Is why they do it Hi, yana Somebody's watching Um, that's interesting Huh Um, yeah, oh copies are great. I didn't know the sacks. You've got those two got two except they're not uh, they're not together because apparently they're very uh anti-social creatures Um, they're solitary for sure, but also um, they probably are uh, I could imagine they may be waiting awaiting a breeding recommendation to put them together If there's a male and a female Who I was reading about ravens in Costco parking lot. Oh, yo copies and then there was there was this really terrifying moment Where I looked into this cage that normally have these little wolf monkey given thing I don't know what they are these tiny little cute Wolf monkeys.  They run around as a whole family that lives in this one enclosure Okay I don't remember the name wolf gibbon. Is that a thing? No No, no It'll just be like and Justin gives a tour through the zoo Are you talking about a wolf? Making up names of animals Gannon, that's why you're getting is again. I'm saying gibbon. I'm saying gibbon. Yeah. Yes. Okay. That's a real thing Hello everybody Justin's tour is actually more accurate than he thought I was just close. It's close. It's close to the right answers Anyway, I looked into this exhibit and there's this giant eagle thing In there and I'm like, oh my god an eagle got in and ate all the wolf gannon It ate all the little monkeys Apparently the genins are just on vacation and while they're away the I don't think they're gonna let an eagle in to eat all the all the babies also primates are animals that are often Put into exhibits with other species because primates are pretty good at Defending their space. So I would also guess this was big tally Yeah, but I feel like an eagle might not go for a monkey with giant also canines These are tiny monkeys with venomous canines Oh, maybe I don't know. All right. Let's not try here. Look at the genins But they weren't in there together. They look like they need venom I like how google's like did you mean wolf spider? No That's not what I meant. I got the wolf in the monkey part, right? I just had a gibbon instead again Did you guys hear about the Nemo jumping spider? No, what's named this week? Oh, cute Like Nemo dude. Yeah, I love jumping spiders Which is pretty funny considering. You don't like spiders generally, right? But I love jumping spiders Because they have so much personality. They really do When it's always I'm having a fun time waving Woo I love them Merit emeritus Nemo He's pretty cute Fun fact about clownfish spider If the matriarch the head female disappears Uh, the lead male will turn into a female a female Yeah, we talked about on the show. Yeah, it would have been a very different story if they followed nature Yes, yes marlin should have turned into a female Yeah, and then You know somebody made that decision at some point, you know, there was somebody like well, you know about these fish This is what happens and somebody was like, yeah, no, we're not gonna Also, uh, clownfish aren't monogamous. So That's the other thing. There would have been several so Marlin wouldn't have been the only Deadie in the area and disney could you just please stop killing off all the parents? You're putting ideas in the heads of the kids So there is an interesting, uh, interview between pete davidson and glenn close Oh, yeah Yeah, and in it she talks about playing cruella de vil and she um She has this she has this moment of talking about how when she was little she used to watch disney movies all the time and along the way realized that For the story to happen That what happens is that The child has to have something bad happen to them And then be saved have you know in order to have something good So that's their how their story arc has to happen And nothing bad can happen to the child as long as the mother is there And so all the disney movies have they get rid of the mom in one way or another there's an there's There's right, but the the dad might be in the picture somewhere, but he's like not there really He's not paying attention or he had to go away for some reason You know, yeah, bambi the dad is off somewhere doing something else, you know He's being the king of the forest. It's an important job Yeah, yeah, so it wasn't interesting the dad is still there in snow white. He just It's like he's not in the picture. He's off doing no snow white. The dad died Did he died because he's because it's the stepmother.  So yeah, it's just really interesting the way that the stories put together Silverman's character and Wreck-It Ralph at some point Uh, the turning point is when they they stare at important water The princess has to look somebody has to look at important water And then for some it's looking into a well For some it's a fountain for some it's a still pond for There's a weird thing Where all the princesses have their sort of Transitional moment that usually turns into song After staring into like a reflection or bubbles underwater if you're already underwater like aerial That's some sort of weird water moment And that then becomes the transformative moment uh to inspire them onward I stared into important water and my life has never been the same since Yeah, thunder beaver and heavy metal bands and fans are the ones who get blamed for the whole kill your parents thing, right? Disney seriously Mulan the whole thing because it centers around a reflection song. Absolutely I think it's snow white has the Looking into a well or something Identity four you have to wake up at five That's early Oh, it is after 11. Yeah identity. How is it after 11? I already noodle says keep it going Eric this yes, this quote is so good Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Hello, monty python But if that's not then what is because really I feel like that might be an improvement some days um, I watched they have a um They have a documentary on netflix now a six-part Um documentary on the history of monty python Oh, really? It's really good. Yeah, I watched it all in one day. Wait. Wait a second. Wait a second. Where is this? What is netflix? Okay, I've seen this then but I don't know which one I've seen because I think it came out like a weeks ago or a month ago movie. I don't know. Okay, so then it's old because I've seen one since Monty python Must have more documentaries about A three-year show And and some movies that came after but they have more there are more monty python documentaries Then there are works by monty python at this point It's really fascinating Hey, listen if they can keep riding that train. I don't blame them Um, and each time they're like this is the last time we're gonna tell these old stories So I'll just tell you the stories that Maybe it's hard to learn a dozen times before because we're kind of running out of stories at this point But they always have more and more great I would love to watch actually all of the monty python Documentaries in order to watch them age over the course of three days What I have noticed from these documentaries is that as time goes on They are more brutally honest about one another So in this one They clearly did they no longer cared about being nice and they just told the Pretty unpolished truth about each other and about their relationships throughout the thing which was very Interesting and like you could tell there was no hard feelings at all They were just like we're too old to like pretend that we were happy with one another about this one thing Yeah, and so it's Like they talked It wasn't like angry there wasn't like vitriol behind it But it definitely was very matter of fact of like john cleese talking about like how he and terry jones did not like each other And so fun fact by the way A lot of people found their tumors, but it really hurts to get hit in the face with a fish It really it is not comfortable. I did not like that scene. I know it's popular amongst the fans But it really hurts to get it stings they have scales and it stings to get hit in the face with a fish like Stop it. No at some point they're just making stuff up making me laugh, sir Like I've got no more stories, but if you dig deep and come up with something We can pay give you another paycheck for sitting down and babbling Semi-coherently into a camera for half an hour. All right, let's give it a go. So I've I've read several, um Biographies and stuff about them. You might be right gaurav And um, there's definitely like john cleese is someone who I think has Never sugar coated things too much. No, it's always been a little bit crass. Yes Yes, but other people have and I think that it was really interesting this time to say like Uh, yeah terry jones and john cleese didn't really like each other and actually they're uh The fact that they would debate about the status of sketches and things like that They were kind of the opposing sides and then the rest of the team would Um, kind of make the decisions and break the tie on a lot of things and so when john cleese left There was this weird power vacuum, which was like, you know, that kind of stuff is pretty interesting um But yeah, just hearing both of them kind of talk about that. Hey, do you guys want to start Do you want to scrap this whole science thing and do like a sketch comedy show because I would really like that Can we do that? It would be a lot of fun. I think I think we've done enough I mean, I feel like we've gone far enough with this genre I think we should just start doing a sketch comedy show. We should put together a troop You know and tour the country doing like uh Live sketch comedy. We need a juggler also actually we need a juggling monkey. Can you train a monkey to juggle blur? We just need to get one of those rabbits Now blaze amazing Hand walking rabbits. How does she train them? How do they do it folks? Ladies and gentlemen Dispel all disbelief as you watch the wonder of the hand walking rabbits Oh, yeah, uh, what was this wait? Yeah, uh, uh, Twists episode 1000 is going to be the host yelling swear words at each other You just missed the you just got you guys missed the pre show. We never started airing that yet So we we we slightly talked about what's coming on the show and then it's like oh more neanderthals great Oh, yeah, no, that's what because that's what we talked about. Isn't it in the last meeting we talked We need another neanderthal story. Justin. That's what we talked about, isn't it? Well, no, but this one was just particularly interesting because it has like yeah, yeah something about neanderthals. Yeah All right. Okay. Well player. What do you got? I don't want to say come on player. What do you have?  Oh my god Oh I haven't we worn out that is there anybody who's missing another one of those stories. Okay fine. Okay. Save us kiki Save us kiki. What what have you got? What have you got? Something complicated about a pathway in the brain Okay, it's gonna be one of those nights, isn't it? All right. Well Let's just get through this one. Let's do a tight 90 and be out and then we'll call it next week. We'll come up with something I've done before That's pretty much how every pre-show goes Yeah Oh, that's funny That's that's funny. Justin. That's talking about maybe that we have a pre-show and we don't Uh You do have another joke that you got to hear was the idea that we ever talk about the show before we do the show I mean we have the show notes. We have we have a a set thing that we have to bring But we don't vet each other or Storyboard or standard do any of that stuff I have once in a while I try to like if I can get there early enough if it well If you guys have stories or we have a guest and it's all there early enough. I might try to like Taylor the disclaimer a little bit to the show or the guest Uh, if it's uh, if it's all Showing up last minute. I might even still try to do that But for the most part that becomes its own isolated thing that could happen I should just take like a week off and just write like the next 52 disclaimers And then but you wouldn't You will then also they're not as topical. No, they have to be slightly every once in a while.  Yeah, totally Did did you see the meme of uh about the Suez canal and beavers? No, okay Frumpy bee says we should do more shows. Huh interesting We should just do more shows apparently uh Drunk on water and high on life Tight 90 oh my gosh Yeah, we should absolutely. I mean if we if we keep doing what we're doing for the next 40 minutes we can do an april fools day show We all do need to get some sleep. You're right It would be good Where's trying to find a joke that she meant to tell Five minutes ago and it's still struggling to find the material. I can't find it. It was just basically We'll fix it in post. It's it's big.  That's all that's all You know the beavers comes because the the ever given It's like a dam I have I have material. I have material already for the sketch comedy show physics police I'm I'm ready to rock. I've got like at least one episode Locked and loaded ready to go I'm a little afraid Yeah, you should be It's good. It's good stuff. It'll make you laugh But you can't bring your whole family to see it. Yeah That's the problem I made that one Oh boy, that was one I I memed I made a meme. That's hilarious. Oh Oh Sad because it's true It's already april 1st somewhere Oh, jeez. Okay. Well before it's april 1st here anybody hear about the congressperson when the house voted 180 uh 118 to 1 And the senate was also was completely unanimous in favor of passing a strict sex trafficking law that that one person who voted against was a congressperson who's now under investigation for sex trafficking Ah Can't write that that just happened That just happened the one congressperson who voted against the sex trafficking bill Is being investigated for sex trafficking, which I'm just now assuming That's what started the investigation Identity four says I need to end the short to show now Okay, say good night Say good night identity four Say good night Blair. Good night Blair. Say good night, Justin. Good night, Justin Good Good night, everyone We won't be back We'll be back next week to talk about beavers I hope you join us because it's going to be sciencey and awesome. Have a wonderful week Stay safe. Stay well


Russian Army launched offensives in multiple directions in Donetsk. Russia said it launched attacks on multiple fronts and shot down Ukrainian drones, while Ukraine said it had repelled rounds of Russia's offensive in Bakhmut according to the official briefings of the two countries on April the 3rd. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Russian Army launched offensives in multiple directions such as Kupyansk, Liman and Donetsk. Russian air defense forces intercepted multiple rockets and shot down multiple drones. The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a battle report that the Russian Army continued to attack Bakhmut and try to gain a complete control over the region. The Ukrainian Army repelled dozens of attacks by the Russian Army in Bakhmut. In the past 24 hours, Ukrainian artillery units struck targets including concentration areas of Russian manpower and equipment, command posts and air defense system positions. Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Gens Stoltenberg, said Monday that since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, NATO member countries have provided more than 65 billion euros in military support to Ukraine. The alliance will also discuss a multi-year support program for Ukraine, which will be on the agenda of the meeting of NATO foreign ministries on April the 4th to the 5th, Stoltenberg said.


Welcome to Owensfield Park where the City of Columbia has created a pump track. Today we are going to explore this park with you and provide some insight on the project. Before we get started I would like to recognize a few of our partners. First I would like to thank our funding partner of South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism who provided a grant through the Recreation Trails Program. I would also like to acknowledge our consultant team of American Ramp Company, Velo Solutions and Progressive Bike Ramps who provided the expertise to design and build this pump track course. As we begin the tour, for those of you who may not know what a pump track is, it is a bicycle course that features rolling hills and berms that vary in height and frequency. Depending on your skill level you can ride the entire course without pedaling your bike. You simply pump up and down as you roll through the berms, but if you have to pedal that's okay too. The pump track is located off the main entry of the park on approximately one acre. There is adjacent parking that is buffered by a split row fence. You enter the park at the trailhead and before you enter you'll notice our roll signage. Pay careful attention to the rolls before you use the park. As you enter the trailhead you'll notice a large seating bench, a water fountain and a fix-it bike station. There's trash receptacles, bike racks and landscaping. There's plenty of room for both people and bikes to maneuver as you get ready to ride the course. The fix-it station is great if you need to repair your bike before you ride the course ahead also. The track itself is designed for all skill levels. It will challenge beginner to intermediate riders while still providing an enjoyable course for more expert riders. The track surface is asphalt, this was chosen for the longevity and maintenance considerations, and one lap on the course equals .2 miles. You begin the ride in a counter-clockwise direction and you start out on a burn turn. The burn turn is great you can keep your momentum and ride through the turn sharply up the side of the wall or you can take a break on the ledge at the top. After the burn turn you go through a series of rollers that vary in height and frequency which leads to your first junction transfer area.  Some riders will do tricks here such as jumps and also when the course is not busy they may change directions and ride the course clockwise here. After this feature you continue to ride over a series of rollers to an optional wood roller corner. These are great for practicing your balance. If you want to bypass this you just continue to go to the left of it and continue over more rollers to another transfer junction area. If you continue through that transfer junction area you'll continue counter-clockwise through this junction over a set of larger rollers that leads to your second burn turn. You will use that burn turn to turn sharply and have an optional A-frame ramp that you can choose or you can bypass that ramp to the right and then that leads you to the main transfer area in the park. You continue counter-clockwise through the turn over more rollers to your third burn turn which leads to a straightaway where you can get a lot of speed over a series of large rollers that takes you to our composite wood burn turn that's a little higher than the asphalt burn turns and with the speed you gain from the straightaway you can get a little higher on this feature and that turns into more rollers which takes you back to the main transfer area on the course to either relax or keep riding in a counter-clockwise direction over more rollers back to the beginning of the course to complete your .2 miles. The landscape areas feature side on the steep slopes to help with erosion but the majority of the landscape is more natural. The interior areas of the track are seeded with wildflowers which are dormant now but will feature many blooms from summer through fall. The trees planted are native and will help provide future shade while landscaping at the trailhead is mostly native requiring less maintenance and this planting also slows down and filters water from the impervious track surface and the landscape complements the native landscape work that the Rosewood community is providing throughout the park. We hope you enjoyed the tour and can visit soon to give it a try. It's a very fun course for the whole family.


A very good evening aspirants, welcome to Hindu newspaper analysis brought to you by Shankarae's Academy for the date 10th of March 2022. As you all know Shankarae's Academy has launched an app, see it is a multi-faceted application. In this app current of his materials and notes are available. If you want to make use of it, download this app and if you want to take a quiz also after studying the materials you can do that and if you want to watch the Hindu newspaper analysis videos or the toppers videos or special videos that the Shankarae's Academy releases, you can do that also in the app and you can get information such as admissions for online courses, pre-booking and if you want to get the study materials of the Shankarae's Academy, you can do that also through this app. So it is a very useful app, download it and make use of it. And with that note let's take a look at the articles that we are going to discuss today. These are the list of articles, we will discuss them one by one and without any delay let's get straight into the article discussion. See this news article here, it is from the text and context page. See it talks about the new UPI payment solution for the feature phone users. Here UPI means Unified Payments Interface. See this solution was launched by RBI on 8th of March 2022. In this context let us briefly look at what is UPI and then let us see the difficulties faced by the feature phone users and what is meant by a feature phone. Following that we will see the earlier digital transactions platform used by them and finally about the new UPI payment solution that is launched. Also we will see some of its pros and cons. But before that the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all let us see what is meant by UPI. See Unified Payments Interface is a system. This system powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application. This may be of any participating bank. Here it merges several banking features then helps in seamless fund routing and merchants payments into one hood. It also caters to peer to peer collect request. See interesting thing that you have to note here is that the payment can be scheduled and paid as per the requirement and convenience. Now let us see the benefits the customers are enjoying using this UPI. See the first one is it is available 24-7. The second benefit is that single application is used for accessing different bank accounts. The third benefit is the use of virtual ID which is more secure and the fourth benefit is single click authentication and the fifth benefit is you can raise complaint of any issues are there through the mobile app itself. See although this UPI which was introduced in 2016 has become one of the most used digital payments platforms in the country. The difficulty faced by the feature phone users in this should be addressed. This is because there are more than 40 crore feature phone mobile subscribers in the country. Here let us take a detour and find out what does a feature phone mean. See a feature phone is a type of mobile phone that has more features than a standard cell phone but it is not equivalent to a smartphone. See using feature phones we can make and receive calls and we can send text messages also but it lacks the advanced functionality of a smartphone. For your better understanding see this picture here this is how a feature phone looks like. Now let us see what are all the difficulties faced by the feature phone users. Firstly the need of internet facility for using UPI. Secondly the unavailability of scanning facility for scanning QR code or the QR based payments. We have all used GPay or Paytm or PhonePay or Beemapp right. What we do in that we scan the QR code and we make the payment. So people who are using the feature phones find it difficult because they don't have the scanning facility in their phones right. See when I talk about these kind of facilities you may say that they have the national unified unstructured supplementary service data or the NUUP. This is a USSD platform. So what does this mean. See this USSD platform is a mobile banking service. See through this financial and non-financial transactions can be done without the internet. This is popularly called as star double nine hash by the national payments corporation of India that is NPCI. Now if you want to know more about star double nine hash see the analysis of January 4 2022. In that analysis we have discussed elaborately about this star double nine hash which is the offline payment. See we saw there is a facility of making payment without internet which is this star double nine hash. So what is the necessity of this new UPI payment solution. That's because there are certain drawbacks of this star double nine hash. We'll see what is that. See this USSD based process is considered cumbersome. Cumbersome means difficult because users are required to send multiple messages and they are charged for the same. Also note that it is not supported by all the mobile service providers. So this is exactly why new UPI payment solution is launched by the Reserve Bank of India. Now let us see about the new UPI payment solution. See as a payment solution for the feature phone users RBI has taken an initiative. This initiative is called as UPI one two three pay. Now how will it facilitate financial transactions without the internet connectivity. See with this UPI one two three pay. Firstly they have to undergo an onboarding process. Here they have to link their bank account to their feature phone. Secondly they have to set a UPI pin using their debit card for authenticating the transactions. Once they have completed this initial process users will be able to use the new UPI facility for person to person as well as merchant transactions. This is done through one of the four distinct payment options. We'll see what they are. But before that remember the main advantage here is that the payment does not require an internet connection. Now coming back to the four options to make payments without the internet connectivity. The first one is interactive voice response that is the IVR. In this uses would be required to initiate a secured call from their feature phones to a predetermined IVR number. Then they can complete the UPI onboarding formalities to be able to start making financial transactions like money transfer, mobile recharge, EMI payment, balance check etc. Now moving on to the second one. The second one is app based functionality. Through this app several UPI functions available on the smartphones can be done in the feature phone also. Here the exception is these can and pay feature which is currently not available for the feature phone users. Other than that everything can be done through feature phones also. Third option is missed call facility. This option allows the users to access their bank account and perform routine transactions such as receiving, transferring funds, regular purchases, bill payments etc. by giving a missed call on the number displayed at the merchant outlet. The customer will receive an incoming call to authenticate the transaction by entering the UPI pin. We saw previously right we have to create the UPI pin using the debit card. So once you make the missed call you will receive a call during which you have to enter your UPI pin to authenticate the transaction and this is how a payment is completed. Now moving on to the final option. See the fourth option is proximity sound based payments. This uses sound waves to enable contactless offline and proximity data communication on any device. We'll see more about it once this UPI 123 pay comes to regular use. So these are all the four options through which payment can be done without internet connection. Thus the launch of UPI 123 pay makes facilities under the UPI accessible to the section of society which was so far been excluded from the digital payments landscape. In that way it is promoting great amount of financial inclusion in our economy. So that's all about this article discussion. We'll have a quick recap. We saw what is UPI. It is a system which powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application. We all have used GPay or Beemaprite. It is a single application through which many bank accounts are integrated and we moved on to see about the benefits the customers are enjoying which is round the clock availability, single application for accessing different bank accounts, virtual ID, single click authentication, complaint through mobile app and after that we moved on to see about the feature phone. It is nothing but a phone which has more features than a standard phone but it is not equivalent to a smartphone and after that we saw the difficulties faced by the feature phone users which are the need of internet facility and the unavailability of scanning facility and we saw about the unified unstructured supplementary service data USST which is a mobile banking service through which financial and non-financial transactions can be done without internet. This is popularly called a star double nine hash by the National Payments Corporation of India and after that we saw the drawback of this star double nine hash and we finally moved on to see about the new UPI payment solution. In that we saw it is an initiative taken by the RBA and it is called as UPI123Pay. We saw the procedure under the UPI123Pay which is undergoing an onboarding process and setting a UPI pin using debit card for authenticating transactions and after that we saw the four options to make payments without internet connectivity. The first one is interactive voice response. The second one is app-based functionality. The third one is missed call facility and the fourth one is proximity sound-based payments and with these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. See this open article here it is about one of the rarely discussed topics which is the geriatric care. On those lines the author discusses the issues faced by the geriatric community and the interventions needed to make their lives better. See these kind of articles are very important. I'll show you a question that was asked in the year 2020 in the GS2 mains paper. The question is this in order to enhance the prospects of social development sound and adequate health care policies are needed particularly in the fields of geriatric and maternal health care. Discuss. So the points that we are going to discuss under this article discussion will be helpful for you if such a question is asked in the mains. So pay close attention to it. In this discussion we are going to see what is geriatric care. It's need issues in it and the way forward but before that the syllabus relevant to the article is given here for your reference. Please go through it. First of all the geriatric care means elderly care or the care of elders. So the word geriatric indicates elder people. Here elderly would be persons of age 60 and above. This care of elders encompasses the care at the individual level as well as at the community level. Further the geriatric or the elder care is a broad term that encompasses everything from assisted living and nursing care to adult day care, home care and even hospital care. See here the word encompasses means it includes everything. Now we'll see why do we need it. See today we may be youngsters but tomorrow we'll also become elder people right? So at that time the aging affects the health. There will be physical problems, cognitive and emotional problems. Cognitive in the sense mental related issues. Particularly health will decline as various diseases and physical limitations accompany old age. This increases their need for enhanced health care in all levels. That is exactly why geriatric care is important. Now let's move on to the second reason. See aging people have economic deprivations. This can't be more true right? Because now we are categorized among the working population but once we age we cannot be economically independent. That is financially independent. This is because aging people will either be retired or not be earning at that point of time. Moreover they may not be in the right health to make a living. So geriatric care is of great value around the world particularly in India. To understand why we are going to take the help of a data here. See India is poised to become home to the second largest number of older persons in the world. Actually as per 2011 census elderly population was 8.6 percentage of the total Indian population which is around 103 million. But projection studies indicate a rapid increase. They state that the number of 60 plus in India will increase to 198 million in 2020. And this is expected to increase further. And this is according to the World Population Prospects 2019 which is released by UN Population Division. And the prospect says that the share of the elderly population in India is projected to further rise by 2050. It will increase to 19.5 percentage of the total Indian population which will be 319 million. You can see the increasing gap in the graph here. And now let's see about the aging index. See the aging index also does not hold any promises. See the aging index refers to the number of elderly persons aged 65 years and above per 100 children. These are the children in the age group of 0 to 14 years. The aging index for India was 8.4 in 1950. And it is expected to increase to 74.5 by 2050. See the drastic difference. And this shows a rapid pace of aging. See additionally India's elderly population have some distinct features. First one is around 80 percentage of the elderly population in India are in the rural areas where the service delivery is already a challenge. And the second feature is that more than 50 percentage of the elderly population is female. So there is feminization of elderly population. And the third one is the increase in the number of older old. Older old means older amongst the elderly population particularly persons above 80 years. And the last feature is a large percentage of elderly that is around 30 percentage of the elderly people are below the poverty line. These are the features of Indian elderly population. So all these necessitates the need for geriatric care in India. But in the nuclear family era the geriatric care is not managed by families. One of the reasons behind this is our homes are not elderly friendly structures. Many of us live in apartments or cannot stay around the clock to take care of the elderly. This is where the professionals come into play that is the geriatric care is managed by voluntary organizations or NGO or even by religious organizations. We know they provide the care through the old age care homes or the retirement homes or the assisted living homes. These are the places that are called as residents where elders get nursing and care in a clinical setting. So often they provide paid services. Some organizations also provide free or subsidized service. But unfortunately only a smaller number of elderly populations are willingly residing in these homes and the others are forced to stay by their own families. Even though these homes offer timely services they still lack in many areas. See the quality of service depends on whether it is paid or not. This is due to the fact that there is no proper regulatory mechanism or established standard operating procedures in these homes. So many a times they only offer informal healthcare. This again affects the mental health of those who are residing in these homes. So author has suggested that there is a need for a formal approach in managing these homes for the elderly. These homes should be linked to the public health facilities so that the screening, diagnosis and prognosis of any illness could be taken care of and timely support could be given. This should also include assessment of mental health and the government can open private or public hospitals to provide these services. Only if government interferes we can take care of the elderly in a cost effective way. And overall this mandates a proper planning and policy by the government that is focused on the support for the homes for the elderly. And that's it for the article discussion. We'll have a quick recap. What all we saw? We saw about geriatric care which is elderly care or care of elders and elderly people are the persons of age 60 and above. Why do we need geriatric care? Because aging affects health, it creates physical problems, cognitive and emotional problems and aging people have economic deprivations. And after that we saw India is going to be the home to the second largest number of older people in the world. As per 2011 census elderly population was 8.6 percentage which is one or three million and it was expected to increase 198 million in 2030. And after that we saw about the world population prospects 2019 released by UN population division and according to which there will be 19.5 percentage increase in the elderly population in India. And we saw about the aging index and according to it India is expected to increase to 74.5 by 2050. And we saw some distinct features of India's elderly population which is 80 percentage of them are in the rural areas and 50 percentage of them are female that is feminization of elderly population. And there is a larger number of older old which is older amongst the elderly population particularly persons above 80 years. And the large percentage of the elderly are below poverty line. And after that we saw that geriatric care is managed by voluntary organizations or NGOs and they provide care through old age care homes, retirement homes, assisted living homes. And finally we saw the need for a formal approach in managing these homes for the elderly. We saw that the home should be linked to public health facilities and we saw the mandate for a proper planning and policy by the government that is focused on elderly for supporting the homes. With these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Have a look at this news article As per the article an e-waste refinery is being set up by Ramke Enviro engineers. See Ramke Enviro engineers is a leading waste management company with a new brand identity called resustainability and it is expected to be ready in two months. So this is the crux of the news article given here. In this context let us quickly go through what is e-waste and composition of e-waste. Firstly what is e-waste? See e-waste refers to all trash generated by electronic and electrical appliances that have reached the end of their useful life or they are no longer suited for their original purpose and they are designed for recovery, recycling or disposal. Therefore e-waste or electronic waste broadly refers to loosely discarded, surplus, old or malfunctioning electrical or electronic devices. See it is nothing but the electrical appliances which are of no use any longer. Now talking about its composition as I already said electronic waste refers to abandoned and end-of-life electronic items. It actually ranges from computers, information and communication technology equipment, home appliances, audio and video products and all of its accessories. So the composition of e-waste is diverse and if we classify e-waste based on the hazardous nature e-waste can be classified into hazardous and non-hazardous categories. See the non-hazardous category consists of ferrous, non-ferrous metals, plastics, glass, wooden plywood, printed circuit boards, concrete, ceramics, rubber and other items. Among them iron and steel constitute about 50 percentage of the waste followed by plastics which constitute 21 percentage and non-ferrous metals which constitute 13 percentage and other constituents. Note that here non-ferrous metals consist of metals like copper, aluminium and precious metals like silver, gold, platinum, and so on. Now on the other hand the presence of elements like lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants beyond threshold quantities make e-waste hazardous in nature. It includes about 1000 distinct components many of which are poisonous and when disposed of it causes significant pollution. See among the e-wastes outdated computers post the greatest environmental and health hazard. Now that's it for the composition of e-waste. Now let's see its management. See after knowing its hazardous nature just to regulate the generation of e-waste the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued e-waste management rules 2016. This rule replaced the previous e-waste management and handling rules 2011. For the first time the rules brought the producers under the extended producer responsibility which is nothing but the EPR along with the targets. See EPR is a policy approach in which the manufacturers are assigned significant financial and physical responsibility for the treatment and the disposal of post-consumer products. In simple terms producers have been made responsible for the collection of e-waste and for its treatment and exchange. See state governments have also been tasked with ensuring the safety, health and skill development of workers involved in dismantling and recycling activities. Apart from this a provision for a penalty for rule violations have also been added. So with this we have come to the end of our discussion. Now let's have a quick recap. What all we saw? We saw about e-waste which is nothing but trash generated by electronic electrical appliances that have reached the end of their useful life or they are no longer suited for their original purpose. And after that we saw about composition. See electronic waste refers to abandoned and end-of-life electronics and it ranges from computers, information and communication technology equipment, home appliances, audio and video products. So from this we can say composition of e-waste is diverse. It means it includes many things and after that we saw about different categorization of e-waste. Under that we saw about the non-hazardous category which consists of ferrous, non-ferrous metals, plastics, glass, wood and plywood, printed circuit boats, concrete, ceramics, rubber. And we moved on to see about the hazardous e-waste which includes elements like lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants. See these components they are hazardous because they are poisonous and they cause pollution which eventually lead to environmental and health hazard. And finally we saw about the management of e-waste. See the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued the e-waste management rules 2016. The rules brought the producers under the extended producer responsibility EPR. See it is nothing but producers have been made responsible for the collection of e-waste and its treatment and for its exchange. With these key takeaway points let's move on to the next article discussion. See this news article here it talks about a new form to monetize land assets. See the cabinet has approved for setting up of National Land Monetization Corporation as a special purpose vehicle. This is for undertaking surplus land monetization. In this context let us discuss about what does it mean by monetization. Then we'll see about NLMC which is National Land Monetization Corporation. Also we'll see about the National Monetization Pipeline. First of all what is this monetization? See monetize refers to the process of turning a non-revenue generating item into cash. In many cases monetization looks to novel methods of creating income from new sources. The term monetize also refers to liquidating an asset or an object for cash. Now what is monetization of land? Firstly asset monetization is a process of creating new revenue sources. This is for the government and its entities. This is done by unlocking the economic value of unutilized or underutilized public assets. And when the asset is a land it is called land monetization. Now let us see a brief about National Monetization Pipeline. See the union finance minister launched the asset monetization pipeline of central ministries and public sector entities. This is called as National Monetization Pipeline. This was then developed by Niti Ayog in consultation with infrastructure line ministries. This was done based on the mandate for asset monetization under the union budget 2021 to 2022. Now we will see what is the estimated potential of this national monetization pipeline. The aggregate value for four-year period that is from financial year 2022 to financial year 2025 is rupees 6 lakh rupees. And the top five sectors include roads followed by railways, power, oil and gas pipelines and telecom. Roads constitute 27 percentage, railways 25 percentage, power 15 percentage, oil and gas pipelines 8 percentage and telecom 6 percentage. Now let us finally see about the national land monetization corporation. See in the pursuance of the budget announcement for the year 2021 to 2022 the NLMC that is the National Land Monetization Corporation is established as a wholly owned government of India company with an initial authorized share capital of 5000 crore. See at present the CPSCs that is the central public sector enterprises they hold considerable surplus unused and underused non-core assets in the nature of lands and buildings. So what this NLMC will do? It will support and undertake the monetization of these assets. This will also enable productive utilization of these underutilized assets to trigger private sector investments, new economic activities, boost local economy and generate financial resources for economic and social infrastructure. See also NLMC is expected to own, hold, manage and monetize surplus land and building assets of CPSCs which are under strategic disinvestment. See this will speed up the closure process of CPSCs and smoothen the strategic disinvestment process of government owned CPSCs. See NLMC will have necessary technical expertise to professionally manage and monetize the land assets on behalf of CPSCs and other government agencies. The board of directors of NLMC will comprise senior central government officers and eminent experts to enable the professional operations and management of the company. See a chairman and non-government directors of the NLMC will be appointed through a merit-based selection process and also note that NLMC can hire private sector professionals with expertise. Thus the government would be able to generate substantial revenues by monetizing unused and underused assets from these. And that's all about this article. What all we saw in this we saw about monetization which is a process of turning a non-revenue generating item into cash. And after that we saw about monetization of land. See asset monetization is the process of creating new revenue sources and when the asset is a land it is called land monetization. And after that we moved on to see about national monetization pipeline. And after that we saw the potential of national monetization pipeline which is 6 lakh crore and we saw the top five sectors which includes roads, railways, power, oil and gas pipelines and telecom. And finally we saw about the national land monetization corporation which is a wholly owned government of India company and it will support and undertake the monetization of non-core assets in the nature of lands and buildings which are the assets of the central public sector enterprises. And these are considered to be surplus unused or underused non-core assets. See we saw that NLMC will speed up the closure process of CPSCs and smoothen the strategic disinvestment process of government-owned CPSCs. And with these points in mind let's move on to the next article discussion. Take a look at this news article as per the news article United States have described the reason conflict between Russia and Ukraine as a military biological program. So in turn on Wednesday Russia had demanded the United States to explain to the world why it had supported such description. This is the crux of the news article given here. Now we are not going to get into the details of the issue but instead let us use this opportunity to know about biological weapons. So what are bio weapons? See biological weapons or weapons which disseminate disease causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants. To be specific biological weapons or microorganisms like virus, bacteria, fungi or other toxins that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants. Apart from this biological agents such as anthrox, butulinum, toxin and plague can pose a serious public health problem by killing a huge number of people in a short period of time and they are very difficult to contain. See bioterrorism attacks could also result in an epidemic. Imagine using Ebola virus as the biological agents. It will obviously result in epidemic right? See these biological weapons they are a part of a larger class of weapons known as the weapons of mass destruction. They also include chemical, nuclear and radioactive weapons. Remember these biological weapons generally consist of two parts, a weaponized agent and a delivery mechanism. Here agents considered for the weaponization are known to be weaponized as known as the weaponized agent. The delivery mechanism means the method by which the virus spreads itself. So that's all about the biological weapons. Now let's see what are all the applications of it. Talking about its application, they have strategy called tactical military applications. Biological weapons can be used for political assassinations. The infection of livestock or agricultural produce to cause food shortages and economic loss. The creation of environmental catastrophes and the introduction of widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public. Don't worry to combat these ill effects of the biological weapons. The biological weapons convention BWC or the biological and toxin weapons convention BTWC came into existence. It is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans biological and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use. Having entered into force on 26th March 1975, the BWC was the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. The convention is of unlimited duration. As of January 2022, 183 states have become party to the treaty. But what is important here for us? Yeah, exactly. See, India is a party to this treaty and it has ratified it also. And with this we have come to the end of a discussion. What all we saw? We saw about biological weapons which disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals and plants. They include microorganisms like virus, bacteria, fungi or other toxins. See, they are a part of larger class of weapons known as the weapons of mass destruction. They also include chemical, nuclear, radioactive weapons.  And we saw about the applications which include strategic tactical military application, political assassination, infection of livestock, agricultural produce, food shortages, economic loss, environmental catastrophes, widespread illness, fear and mistrust. And finally, we ended our discussion with the Biological Weapons Convention. It is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans biological toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use. And we saw that India is a party to this convention and it has ratified this convention also. With these points in mind, let's move on to the next part of a discussion that is the practice prelims question discussion. See here, today we have four prelims question for us to practice. We'll see them one by one and I have a one quiz question for you as usual. Now the first question, consider the following statements with reference to Unified Payments Interface UPI. Statement one, new UPI payment solution supports only merchant transactions. The statement is incorrect because in our discussion we saw that new UPI payment solution supports both peer-to-peer transactions as well as merchant transactions. Now the second statement, new UPI payment method UPI123Pay requires internet facility. The statement is also incorrect. See the entire initiator is to promote transactions without internet facility. So the statement is also wrong. So the correct option here will be option D neither one nor two. Now moving on to the second question, extended producer responsibility sometimes seen in news is with reference to waste management, defense sector, exports and imports, agriculture sector. See this is a very easy question. The answer here is waste management. We saw in our e-waste discussion, right? We saw that EPR refers to the approach in which manufacturers are assigned significant financial or physical responsibility for the treatment, disposal of post-consumer products. Producers have been made responsible for the collection of e-waste treatment and its exchange. So the correct option here will be option A, waste management. Now moving on to the third question, this is the quiz question for you guys. Question 3 is the quiz question. Consider the following statements with reference to national monetization pipeline NMP. Statement 1, it estimates aggregate monetization potential of rupees 10 lakh crore. Statement 2, top five sectors having estimated potential in the national monetization pipeline are roads, railways, defense, oil and gas pipelines and power. So which of the following statements given here is or are incorrect? The aspirants, you have to be very careful. The question is asking us to find the incorrect statements. So accordingly try to attempt this question post your answer in the comment section. Now moving on to the final question, consider the following statements with reference to biological weapons convention BWOC. Statement 1, India ratified the convention. The statement is true. We saw in our discussion itself. See India signed the convention on 15th January 1973. It ratified the convention on July 15 1974. So obviously India is a part of the convention. Now the second statement, the state parties review the operations of this treaty at the review conferences. See the implementation support unit is responsible for the administration of official BWOC meetings that is the biological weapons convention meetings. One such meeting is the review conference. During the review conference the state parties review the operations of the treaty. So far eight review conference has been held. So here the statement 2 is also correct. See the question asked us to find the incorrect statement. You have to be very careful while attempting a question like this. See both the statements are correct. So what will be the answer here? Yeah exactly. The option is option D neither one nor two because both of the statements are correct. There are no incorrect statements in this question. I have given a main question for your practice or interested aspirants. Write it and post it in the comment section. And don't forget to attempt the quiz question. Try to attempt it and post the answer for the quiz question also in the comment section. And if you have any queries related to the articles that we discussed today, post that also in the comment section. And with this we have come to the end. If you find the video useful, like, share and comment. And do subscribe to Shankara A.S. Academy's YouTube channel for further updates. Thank you.


So, I bet this is a question you might have. With all the changes of the laws lately regarding marijuana, you might think, hey, I have my own medical marijuana card, I'm good, I don't need to worry about it. Maybe you came down here from a state where even recreational marijuana was legal. I'm here to tell you you have to be careful. Number one, even though certain states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, as I talked to you today, it is still illegal at the federal level. Technically, passing through state lines results in a federal, potentially a federal offense. Moreover, federal government could still prosecute you, even if you're in possession of marijuana in a state where, in theory, it's legal. Florida, of course, is not one of those recreational marijuana states, but we do allow for medical marijuana. I caution you, do not assume that just because you have a medical marijuana card, your possession of marijuana, medical or otherwise, is perfectly legal. When you're in a car, it has to be in a sealed container as you drive. Smoked marijuana will always get you in trouble when you're in a car, regardless of your licensing status.  I promise you that that's a bad no-no. So be careful, just because marijuana is increasingly legal in this country doesn't mean it's legal outright all the time, and especially in Florida. Carlson Meisner, Hart and Hazelett, protecting your rights since 1971.


Hey guys, it's Monica. I am going to talk to you about my eyelashes. So if you're interested, stay tuned. Eyelashes. So this is usually the my second best topic aside from retinette. I do use an eyelash serum and many of you know that and so this is going to actually be a giveaway for the eyelash serum that I use which is Blink. This is unfortunately open continental US only and to enter you have to be 18. I'm going to use Raina Picker.com. I will select one of you. You need to leave me a comment. You need to thumbs up the video and you have to be sure that you are subscribed to my channel. I will double check that. If you have not hit that subscription button you're not going to be able to. If your name is drawn you won't be able to get the product. But I use Blink eyelash serum. There's many other eyelash serums and I know there's some people that are anti this because it is quite serious. So I have used an eyelash serum I think for about almost three years now. I've used Careprost. I use Blink. I use many many other different variations. The one that I've stuck with the most is Blink. Initially I received Blink complimentary in a PR package to try. I tried it. I liked it. It was more affordable for me at that point in time than the Careprost was so I ordered some. After I started to use this and talk about this the company sent me some more Blink and I've done a few different giveaways with it. So I thought I would revisit how I'm treating my eyelashes and what I'm doing for them. I have very light eyelashes. I don't have good eyelashes. I do not wear false eyelashes. Other than in the early 60s, mid 60s, back in the you know roaring 60s at one point or another when I was in high school I did glue on eyelashes. I think maybe once or twice to kind of try to look cute. It didn't help. Anyways when I started using Blink, I started to use Blink three times a week. It does come with a little applicator, a little brush and there's a little indent in the cap and this is how I've always done it. I take the indent and I make sure that I sanitize this carefully but there's indent in the cap will hold one drop. So I put a drop in the cap and then I take my clean little applicator brush. You can use any brush you want. You can use an eyeliner brush but you want to make sure it's clean and sanitized and I take that and I dip it in and I apply the solution just like I would an eyeliner right near at the base of my eyelashes. That's how I do it on both eyes. The solution will give me more than enough to cover one drop to cover both eyes. Sometimes I dip it twice in each eye and then what's left over I'll do in my eyebrows. So I when I started this I was doing like three times a week. I probably do it about the same thing now years later but I had stopped for about maybe two months and I stopped when my dad got really really sick and then he passed away. So July and August basically. I just went through a whole sorts of turmoil. My lashes got really awful. They were thin. I wasn't using the solution. I went back to it mid-August so I've been back using my care pros for a month and oh what a difference it has made to my lashes. I kicked myself ahead and stopped using it for that short period of time but you know what in that short period of time I stopped doing a whole lot of stuff.  Along with using that I use black castor oil. Castor oil I have. I don't have it in here to show you.  You can get it in all in Amazon. You can get it really anywhere.  Little glass containers that has like a mascara applicator that you can put in and I put it in there. I dip it in and I actually cover my eyelashes with it and massage it into my eyelashes when I'm not using the blink. So that's on the alternate night that I'm not using the blink. It's sort of like it conditions my lashes. It makes my lashes stronger I think. It just conditions them really nicely and then I also take that black castor oil and I do it in my brows you know above my brows and kind of condition my brows with it. So yeah I'm loving my blink. I think my eyelashes are starting to come back to where they were before I stopped using them and I've never had any any side effects from it at all. Some people have. If you have really light blue eyes some people say it can change the color of your eyes. So if you're thinking of doing something like this whether it's a blank or another product and you know do your research make sure that you carefully you know what you're doing and all that. But like I said I've had no ill effects with this at all. The caution that I have to when you're applying it is on the nights that I'm going to use my blink I make sure that I use a non oily cleanser to remove my mascara, my eye makeup because if you have any kind of a oil rigged residue say from using that type of a cleanser on your lashes this isn't going to do its job. It's sort of the oil sort of acts as a barrier so you don't want that there. So on those nights I make sure if I have used an oil cleanser to remove my mascara that I've cleaned that off really well. So this works best without an oil cleanser and you can use it three nights a week. Monitor your progress take before and after pictures but I love having lashes and there's sometimes I look at my lashes and I go oh it looks so much better if I had really nice big you know lashes but I realize the women that I see with those lashes they're wearing false lashes and nothing against false lashes it's just that I don't want to wear false lashes I'm afraid of the glue I'm afraid that it's gonna harm my lashes yeah so maybe that's the trade-off that that I do but this it has been really really super awesome for me so yes I'm still using the blink yes I still use it about three times a week now I'm back on track for about two months I wasn't but every year I normally take about a month break anyways but it's usually in February around my birthday and I didn't do it in February this year so this year for me it was July and into August but other than that I've been pretty consistent with it and monitoring my eyes and loving the fact that I could have lashes and you know at 66 I'll take it I'll take it so I love it and if you want to try it if you want to enter into my contest my giveaway I think I'm gonna let this go for a week I'm not sure whether it's gonna be published but I'll put all the information in the description box below the rules are pretty simple thumbs up the video comment be sure you have subscribed and I'm gonna give you a fourth condition if you belong to any other social sites if you could share this video that would be awesome so I don't have any way of tracking that obviously but if you do that would be super awesome so bare minimum thumbs up the video comment and subscribe when I use random picker it's only gonna choose from those categories so if you've not hit that subscribe button and you'll look at it and see it if you're just seeing this randomly in your stream be sure to subscribe you're gonna love this stuff and whoever the winner is is gonna win three bottles of this that's to me a year of supply three so anyways thank you and good luck and I'm not gonna reply to any comments I'll probably heart all your comments but I'm not gonna reply to any comments in this video if you have any questions and I'll go to my previous video and leave me a question there I'll get notification and I'll answer your question


Today, I took the first step in protecting myself against COVID by getting vaccinated. To protect my co-workers on the front lines fighting the pandemic. To protect my loved ones at home. Waiting for this to end. To uphold my oath to defend my country. From an enemy that cannot be seen. Join the fight. Get vaccinated. We are one people. One country.