Hi everybody, welcome to the Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be a look inside the brand new ocean unit study. So let's just go ahead and jump right in. The first page that you'll see will be your table of contents. Now this is all listed out in the product listing so I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time right there. Then you have your ocean sensory play. There are two different options. One is a water bead based sensory bin and one is Play-Doh Matts. There are numerous different Play-Doh Matts samples that your child can enjoy doing. Here is one that Emily did for you guys to see so there she made her starfish. Next we get right into the unit study resources. All of these are hyperlinked so you can click on any of them. These are not required, they're just extra supplements that would make great additions to this study. They would also be great in a morning, afternoon or bedtime basket so you have books, games, videos and hands-on activities and then we get straight into it. So each of the unit studies is gonna have a few components. Here we have the supplemental book list, again not required and these are specific to this topic. The YouTube playlist where you can either click, scan your QR code or copy and paste and then a hands-on activity. So here we're introducing to the ocean. There is a non-fiction reading summary along with discussion questions and then there are these beautiful posters. So here is the Five Oceans and activity page where your child will label the Five Oceans, match the Five Oceans based off of their definitions and then there are fun puzzles at the end like word searches, crossword puzzles or mazes. So here we have a word search and we get right into the next lesson. So history of oceanography and famous oceanographers. Again, we have that book list, the YouTube playlist, a hands-on activity, that non-fiction reading passage with discussion questions, original artwork coloring pages, time lines. Here is a worksheet where your kids can design their own exploration robot for exploring the ocean. Then we have a crossword puzzle, famous oceanographer, Sylvia Earle.  We get into ocean currents and tides with a very similar layout, ocean habitats with a very similar layout. And then when we get to the animals of the ocean, they are all set up the same. So let me get to the first one of those. All right, here we go, crustaceans. So each of the animals is set up in the same way. Crustaceans has a huge, all of the animals have a huge book list. There's non-fiction books and fiction books. Those are all hyperlinked. They have the YouTube playlist. They have a Pinterest board full of craft ideas. They have numerous reading summaries all with discussion questions. Most of them have multiple coloring pages for your kids to color while you're reading aloud or just for younger kids. These are all original artwork that Kevin has done for you guys. And then they have these anatomy pages that seriously I cannot wait to do it with Emily because they're so beautiful. So we have the anatomy of a lobster, like a poster, you could print it out, you can hang it up, you can do whatever you want with it. And then we have one for your children. Now what's super fun about these boxes is this time around I wanted to give away for the younger kids to be able to participate. So they can either write the words in here or in the appendix, there are labels. So if you have a younger kid, they can use these labels that you'll find right here for each of the animals.  And every animal is set up just like this. There's a research graphic organizer so they can pick a crustacean of their choice and research it further. And then there are mazes. In the back, after you get through all of the ocean animals, we have some writing prompts. There are multiple different writing prompts on here. Then we have figurative language exercises. These are ocean metaphors and similes. We also have some ocean idioms. Then these were those labels I was talking about in the appendix and an answer key. So we have an answer key for all of those pages. In addition to that, you will get some other fun things like pattern block pages. So there are multiples of these. They come in color and black and white so that you can have your younger kids or older kids do them. At the bottom, it says how many of each shape did you use? Then there are also color, cut, and paste crafts for many of the different sea creatures. Emily has been kind enough to do one here as a sample for us so that you have some other hands-on engaging ways to use this study with your kids. And we all know it wouldn't be a wall-deck way unit study if there weren't some principle games involved. So this is one of four games included. This is a ocean animal sort.  So that would be a crustacean, fish, mammal, reptile, et cetera. Next, we have a seashell matching. So you could either play this like a memory game where you would lay them all out and flip them over or you can just have them match them. But they would match the shell to the name as well as the definition. We have ocean animal bingo. So you would just pick the card, seahorse, and cover it up. The first one to fill a row would be the winner. And then last, we have a swimming with ocean animals trivia-based game. So it's really simple. You would roll the dice and then move that number of spots and then you landed on crustacean fish. So you would find one of those and you would read that and see if you could answer it. And then in case you don't have a dice or playing pieces, we have included a foldable dice with ocean playing pieces and all the rules. And then here are all of the answers for all of the questions that are included.


Well thank you again Christy for having me and thank you all for being here today. My name is Alejandra and I work for the San Francisco Environment Department as part of the green business program. So I'm going to just tell you all more about the program and I welcome your questions, comments, feel free to type them in the chat as well and I can get to them towards the end. So again thank you for having me and let's begin. There we go. All right. So yeah the green business program. It's a free program that works with small and medium-sized businesses from nearly all sectors to reduce their environmental impact and to reduce chemical exposure. And this is done through achieving a wide range of environmental best practices for the health of our communities and the planet. Businesses also save money and resources in the process which is great and we recognize them for their accomplishments through this program. As of right now and today there are over 400 green businesses recognized in San Francisco and over 4,000 within the network across the state of California. Yeah and so this work is also accomplished by partnering with community-based organizations like Renaissance and N2Action. Some of you may recognize and they have amazing ties to communities in the Bayview and the Fillmore which help us reach more folks. And so within the program one of the areas we look at is energy. As you all know energy can be a huge expense for businesses and homeowners. So switching to LEDs saves businesses a lot of money and are also better for the environment. They reduce pollution and don't contain those same toxic elements that fluorescent bulbs do. So this is a huge thing for a lot of businesses. But also energy consumption may come from other sources like refrigeration. So we look at energy saving strategies that work best for each specific business. And we also have lighting contractors that we partner with that can do free lighting audits and so there are no upfront costs to them. And another area we look at is pollution prevention. And through these measures we help businesses switch to less toxic cleaning products and we recommend products that have been certified as a safer alternative to those that can carry harmful ingredients or that are harmful to human health or ecosystems. For solid waste we help to maximize recycling and composting which in turn also saves businesses money. And as part of the program we give free waste trainings to businesses and their staff in addition to other resources that will help encourage proper waste sorting techniques. And the program also touches on transportation through helping businesses offer commuter benefits for their employees and their staff and through incentivizing, biking, walking and taking other sustainable modes of transportation. And we also work on water conservation to help businesses business owners save water which of course also saves money. And so what we do is we check water fixtures like your kitchen and bathroom sinks as well as your shower heads, toilets and urinals to ensure that each fixture is compliant with the SFPUC's commercial water ordinance. So essentially we'll make sure that the fixtures are not releasing more water than is necessary and if they are we work with you either right there on the spot by applying aerators with restrictive water flows to your faucet or if it's something that's a bigger scope we can refer you to the POC for consultation to receive free fixtures if for replacements if that's necessary. And finally the program's last section is about community and this is done through engaging our community and sharing the good work that we do. We focus on engaging employees, clients and the greater community at large by letting them know that truly we hold sustainability as a core value. As I mentioned the program is free we do offer up to $1,500 to provide funding for green purchases or lighting retrofits if they're necessary. So for example if a business does need to do a lighting retrofit to upgrade to LEDs we can go ahead and do that and provide some funding for that. Within the last two years we've distributed over $35,000 to 60 businesses so on average a business might use about $600 worth of rebates for their certification process and it's important to note that there are three different levels of recognition in the program. So the first one is the efficiency tier which is the entry level tier and here we focus on cost saving and resource saving measures that will help lower your utility bills like your water and your energy and your waste and also to reduce toxic exposure from potentially harmful cleaning products. And then at the middle tier the certified level this is where we help businesses take a deeper dive into their operations to become more sustainable. So some examples at this level could include creating an environmental policy statement for the business and this is essentially a document that outlines the ways that sustainability will be upheld in the business and a lot of businesses like to post this on their websites to kind of show their customers and their clientele you know what they're doing to be more green. More things that at this level are about using more environmentally responsible items and training your staff on proper waste sorting practices things of that sort. And finally at the innovator level at the highest tier the measures here go above and beyond. Here for example we can help businesses purchase 100% renewable energy and you know really these levels are a journey many of our businesses begin at the efficiency level and as time goes on they realize that more can be implemented with our help and they move on to become certified or even innovators. And an example of this is the African-American art and culture complex which I'm sure some of you may recognize. They started at the efficiency level and worked their way up to innovator and so just so you have an idea of like you know the timeline it takes for some businesses it took two months for them to complete the efficiency level and then four months to finish the certified level and then finally an additional two months to complete the innovator level. So I just want to outline the four steps that it takes to becoming a green business and so for the first step you would just start by registering your business online at the website after doing that you would schedule a site visit with the coordinator which should be either myself or one of my colleagues and this site visit just consists of about an hour an hour and a half one time visit to your business where we take a physical walkthrough of this space to really get a feel for what your business's needs are we'll take a look at your lighting at your water fixtures the things that I mentioned previously and then after that you would work with whoever is your coordinator and meet every few weeks it could be either by phone or virtually it doesn't have to be in person so it's flexible and during these meeting sessions you would just give them updates about how it's going if you have any questions send any documentation that's related to the measures and finally after meeting and finishing all of the items on the checklist you would submit any receipts or anything that pertains to receiving a rebate on the screen it says a pre-bate and just so you all know that where we pay for an item upfront versus a rebate is in reimbursement that we give to the business after certification process so we can either pay for things upfront or reimburse the business and that would be the last and final step to just get your money and become recognized and so here we talk about the benefits of becoming a certified green business so at the efficiency level businesses receive cost savings for reimbursements they're promoted on the green business facebook page and they're added to the green business directory and map and that's essentially a map where anyone can just type in a location or their zip code and see all the green businesses that are around them in case they're looking for something specific and so your business will pop up there at the certified level your business receives a certificate signed by mayor linton breed who will receive a green business decal sticker that you can put up front facing and a green business award plaque and the recognition lasts for four years and once those four years are up you can choose to get recertified and then you're good to go for another four years and so here we've just listed a few of the eligible expenses and that you can use your green business funds for so anything that will help you complete a green business measure is considered a qualifying expense so you could use it to get green less toxic cleaning products you could do use it to improve your hVAC you're deducting even getting energy efficiency computers like energy star rated so any of the things that will help you be more sustainable they're a part of the process is considered eligible to receive funding and so finally I just want to emphasize how impactful this work really is we really value every business efforts and you know the collective difference that you all make so I just want to extend the invitation to you all and I really look forward to expanding the green business community by inviting you all to take advantage of the resources that we have to offer I'm always happy to hop on a phone call or answer any of your questions so please I will be sharing my contact information and please feel free to reach out send an email call I love to answer questions and get to to know more about each individual business and so here I've just listed my contact information at the bottom as well as my two colleagues who also work on green business and so you can feel free to reach out to any one of us we're good with responsiveness and so just show us an email or give us a call and I'm happy to answer your questions and come out to the business yeah yeah of course if anyone has any questions or if there's something in the chat that I'm missing just feel free to to blurt it out okay do you want me to read the questions yeah sure okay there's a question from someone what does certification look like for a remote consultant and she has no staff and she's using a home office totally yeah so we actually started by home offices all the time it's not necessarily necessary to have a brick and mortar and so when that's the case that's totally fine as well we can either come to your home but if that's you know a little us and people are like COVID cautious and things like that we can also do virtual site visits and so you just walk around with like a zoom or a FaceTime call and we would essentially do the same thing we would look at your lighting at home you would look at your waste bins set up at home and try to implement those green measures inside of your home which is your working space to try to reduce your resources and save you money at home as well thank you totally um someone else wrote I am interested in learning about carbon credits do you have any recommendations on how to get started and information to learn more absolutely so um actually one of the elective measures on the checklist speaks to carbon credits and there's a whole list of different um entities that you can kind of take a look at to see what they're doing how they're investing their money um where you know those credits are going and so you can really get a feel for what you're supporting um additionally my colleague Kevin here whose email you can see on the screen um he's really familiar with kind of like more of this topic and so you're more than welcome to reach out to him who can provide you a little bit more information but um definitely the green business network um does have options to kind of do some research into looking at the carbon credits and if you want to participate okay thank you I did just put uh your email address and Kevin's email address in the chat totally perfect thank you does anyone else have any questions there is uh oh just a couple thank yous cool thank you all absolutely yeah thank you for having me and um again feel free to reach out um or give me a phone call I can also put my phone number in the chat as well okay um so I'm going to send a follow-up email um to everyone who attended with Alejandra's slides and the recording link if you want to watch it again but um I see a lot of thank yous in the chat thank you thanks for having me Christine okay yeah thank you Alejandra and um happy small business week everyone


A warm greetings everyone. Dear aspirants and viewers, at our academy every year around 25 physically challenged students are given free coaching under Shankar Memorial Trust. And we are very glad to inform you that one of the candidates who received this free coaching at our academy has successfully cleared the UPSC civil services examination for the year 2020. And he is Mr. D. Ranjit from Tamil Nadu who is a differently abled candidate with hearing disability. And we are also happy to inform you that he has secured the 750th rank in the UPSC civil services examination 2020 and our sincere apologies for stating that he received this free coaching under the free coaching scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. So now let's move on to our article discussion. These are the list of articles that we will be discussing in today's discussion and they are also provided along with the page numbers of different editions and also the link for the handwritten notes in period format as well as the time stamping are given below for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. So without wasting much time let us get into our discussion. Now our next news discussion is going to be based on this FAQ article. So this particular FAQ article talks about the toxicity of firecrackers and it also throws light on the steps that is taken by the Supreme Court in this regard so far. So this is the brief crux or the core idea of this FAQ article. So with that idea in mind let's approach this FAQ article and the syllabus covered by this article is given here. See firecrackers is something that each and every person knows right from LKG to grown and mature adults and this firecracker always brings her joy to most of us and because of which it is burst during celebrations and these firecrackers are made of chemicals and metallic agents. See firecrackers have got certain key ingredients say like that of fuel oxidizing agents reducing agents regulators coloring agents as well as binders. So now I will very briefly explain each of these key ingredients that is present in a firecracker. So the first comes a fuel see charcoal is the most common fuel that is used in firecrackers. I will repeat charcoal is the most common fuel which is used in firecrackers and this charcoal is also known as black powder. Now coming to the next ingredient that is the oxidizing agents. So when you take the oxidizing agents in firecrackers nitrates and chlorates are mainly used as oxidizing agents and the main purpose for using these nitrates and chlorates is to burn the mixture within the fireworks and to produce oxygen. Now next comes the reducing agents. So when you take the reducing agents they are used to burn the oxygen which is produced by oxidizing agents. So as I told you earlier oxidizing agents are employed to burn the mixture within the fireworks and also to produce oxygen. So in order to combat the oxygen that is produced reducing agents like sulphur, charcoal and etc are used because these chemicals they react with oxygen and form sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Now next comes the regulators see basically regulators are used to regulate the reaction speed of the above chemicals and it is also used as colouring agents. See these regulators are the ones that emit different colours when crackers are burnt. So some popular metals which are used as regulators includes metals like aluminium, titanium, copper, strontium, barium etc. So always have in mind metals like aluminium, titanium, copper, strontium and barium are used as regulators in the fireworks. So next online comes the colouring agents which is employed to give different colours to the firecrackers when burnt. And finally another key ingredient is the binders. See these binders are employed in the crackers mainly to hold the mixture of chemicals together. So these are the key ingredients or the key components in fireworks. See generally fire crackers contain combustible chemicals. So when I say combustible chemicals I refer to those chemicals which are able to catch fire and which are able to burn quickly and easily. So on that line the potassium chloride, powdered aluminium, magnesium and salts of barium, copper, sodium, lithium etc are the most popular combustible chemicals which is used in fireworks. See as you can see here the compounds produce different colours and they also have different purposes. Now say for example when you take barium nitrate they cause glittering green effects in the firecrackers. So by now I think you have a basic idea of firecrackers, the key compounds and ingredients. So now let us move on to see detrimental effects posed by the firecrackers. So let's see these effects one by one. So first of all on combustion the chemicals emit smoke and some of the chemicals that is used in firecrackers are also toxic when burnt.  And this smoke or this smoke has got potential to cause environmental as well as health impacts on children, aged people, animals and even birds. And the list of the hazardous or the kind of toxic nature of the ingredients in fireworks is given here. So aspirins can roughly go through it. Now coming back see remember that every year bursting firecrackers during Diwali and Dasara is a major cause of worsening the air quality of Delhi and NCR. See this is not a mere claim because it has got a legal backing and this legal backing is nothing but a report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board based on monitoring the air quality in Delhi on the pre and post Diwali and Dasara nights. Now let's very briefly see some of the findings of this report. See the report notes that during these days that is during the days of Diwali and Dasara there was an increased concentration of aluminium, potassium and barium due to the bursting of firecrackers and this increased concentration affected the air quality. Similarly the sulphur dioxide and also the particle matters 10 and 2.5 were found to be higher in post Diwali day when compared to that of pre Diwali and especially on the day of Diwali both the particulate matter 10 as well as the particulate matter 2.5 is found to have increased around 2 to 3.5 times and even the concentration of aluminium was found to be 4 to 6 times higher during such occasions. Now secondly bursting crackers not only causes air pollution but it also causes a lot of noise pollution because the combustion of chemicals which are used in the firecrackers produce a huge amount of sound depending on firecracker that we burn. See apart from all these the bursting of crackers also generate large amount of waste. So when viewed on all these aspects we can say that the bursting crackers have got many detrimental effects more than the positive ones but then this is just one side of the picture because on the other hand the Indian fireworks industry is an important part of our economy and it has got over 6000 crore annual turnover and apart from this it also provides employment opportunities directly or indirectly to over 5 lakh families. So on when seeing the other side of the picture we can understand that we can all simply ban the whole industry. So always have this view in mind. See in order to combat the kind of pollution or the kind of detrimental effects caused by the firecrackers a number of steps were taken by the government and also by the judiciary to address these detrimental effects and also to make further improvements in the firecrackers and one such initiative is the green crackers. Secondly the Supreme Court also gave directions in the matter in the 2017 case law namely Arjun Gopal and others versus the Union of India. So as per the directions only the improved crackers and green crackers were permitted to be manufactured and sold and for those who are not aware improved crackers refers to those with reduced emission and next comes the ban on the sale of other crackers and also ban on manufacture sale and also the use of joined firecrackers such as series crackers and the court also directed for the banning of barium salts in the fireworks and one of the major reasons why the court has come up with this direction is because the barium that is used in the fireworks is added only to give attractive green color and this is not essential for pyrotechnics and not just that barium salts they also emit poisonous gas which has got the capability to cause respiratory problem even though it is a short term exposure. So by now we have an understanding about firecrackers their key ingredients and also their detrimental effects and now let's see why this issue is in use. See one of the major reason for this issue to be in limelight is because the Supreme Court has found that many rules and above directions are being violated by manufacturers and an example for this can be the usage of the banned barium salts for the manufacture of fireworks. So with this we have come to the end of this FAQ discussion. So with these learned points in mind let's move on to the next news article. Now let's just take up this news article and the article here reports about the arrest of a priest in Kerala and this priest was arrested for trapping and killing the peacocks. So this is the news here. Now keeping the news aside let us focus on peacocks or the national part of India. Now first of all know that only the male bird is called as a peacock whereas the female is called a peahen but however they both together are classified as P-fouls. See these P-fouls are swan-sized birds and they are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and to be more specific they are indigenous to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. See the two popular peacock species are the blue peacock and the green peacock. When you take the blue peacock they live in India and Sri Lanka whereas the green peacock are found in the Java and Myanmar. Know that the peacocks are poly gammas in nature in the sense they typically have more than one mate and when you take the initial stages both the male as well as the female chicks are indistinguishable or in other words both the male and female P-foul chicks looks alike or it is real difficult to distinguish between them and these males they start to develop the distance of plumage early from two years of age and they mature at around four years only. So when you take the average lifespan of the Indian P-fouls we can find that they can live up to 15 years in the wild. See generally these birds prefer to live near water bodies and are found in low altitude areas and in the case of wild they inhabit a wide range of habitats say ranging from semi dry grasslands to moist deciduous forest and in fact they can also be spotted around areas of human habitations say like the say like that of farms villages and also in urban areas. CP-fouls are generally omnivorous in their feeding habits and they survive on insects, seeds, fruits and sometimes on even small mammals. So generally these birds forage or they search food on the ground in small groups which includes a single male and up to three to five females and they even roost as a group which usually happens on the upper branches of a tall tree and the major reason for choosing the upper branches of a tall tree is to escape the predators and even when these birds are agitated they usually prefer to flee by running and they rarely opt to take a flight. Know that the P-fouls has got a prominent place in Indian literature for example they have an iconic status as the carrier animal of the Indu god Kartikeya and even Lord Krishna was always depicted with a peacock feather in his headdress and when you take the Buddhist philosophy also the peacock represents wisdom and not just that even the peacock and its feather motives are prominent features in Mughal architecture and in fact the peacock and the peacock feather are still a popular motif which is found to be widely used in logos textile patterns as well as in multiple designs. Now coming to the threads towards the Indian P-foul, so usually the threads arise due to the demand for their beautiful feathers since they are used for a lot of decorative purposes and apart from that they are also hunted and killed by poachers for the purpose of meat as well and at times they are also killed for inhabiting nearby farms since they prefer to feed on crop gains which could actually cause losses to the farmers but however the Indian P-foul has been granted special conservation efforts due to its status as the national bird of India that is hunting of the national bird is illegal in our Indian country and apart from that they are also given full protection under the wildlife act of 1972 and when you take the conservation the international union for the conservation of nature or shortly known as IUCN Red List classifies the blue P-foul as a species of least concern but then the IUCN classifies the green peacock to be an endangered species and a main reason for this is because the population of the green peacock has declined significantly due to over hunting and also because of the destruction of a large part of their natural habitat. So these are some important points that we need to have in mind whenever we learn about peacocks so now let's get on to the next part of our hinder news analysis. Now look at this news article this article reports about an initiative that is taken by the American Institute of Indian Studies. So as a part of this initiative the ballads folklore and also the songs of the Langa Maganir artist are being preserved for the purpose of documentation as well as digitization. So this is the crux of the news year. Now based on this context let us know about Langa Maganir community which is in limelight in today's article. See the Langa and the Maganir communities are the original exponents of Sufi music which is the devotional music of the Sufis. So basically they are Muslim communities who lived for many centuries in the Tahr desert of western Rajasthan or to be more specific they primarily occupy the Barmer and the Jaisalmer districts of the state of Rajasthan and also in the villages along the border of Pakistan. I have in mind both these communities comprise of traditional musicians and they earn or they make their living by singing for high caste patrons and both these communities sing in the same dialect but then it is not thoroughly same that is their styles and repertoires that is the kind of themes or the dances or the various properties they use may differ based on the taste of their patrons that is the styles and repertoires of langa will be different to that of the Maganir and both of them are shaped by the demand or the taste of the patrons to whom they are singing for. So both these communities are famous for their classical folk music and in fact they represent the voice of Rajasthan. See when you take the langas they are patronized by the Muslim Sindhi Sipais and this Sindhi Sipai they belong to the family of Chandravanshe Rajputs and they form a large part of the Muslim Rajput populations of Marwa and Mewar. Now on the contrary when you take the Maganir community they mainly sing for Hindu patrons see I have in mind both these communities are made up of Muslim musicians but still the Maganir they opt for Hindu patrons and they sing songs in praise of the Hindu deities and they also celebrate festivals like Diwali and Holy and in fact they still sing for the Hindu judgements on auspicious occasions like Holy, Diwali and also on other auspicious occasions like that of weddings. Now talking about the musical instruments used by these communities see the langas main traditional improvement is the Sindhi Sarangi and when you take the Maganir's their principal instrument is the Kamayacha. See both this Sindhi Sarangi and the Kamayacha they are both stringed instruments with skin membrane sounding boards and they have many sympathetic strings and apart from this main instrument both the communities that is both langas and Maganir's they also sing and play the Dholak which is a double-headed barren drum then the Kartal which is the Odin clappers and the Murcham or the Jaws harp and also the harmonium during their performances. See an important point to note here is that the langa and the Maganir they sing a specific raga for a specific time of the day or the specific time of the year or even for different occasions say like that of weddings, birds and ceremonies. So these are some basic facts about the langa and Maganir's so with these long points in mind let's get on to the next news discussion. Now let us take up this news article so this article basically reports about two products from the Kerala state which is recently got the GI tag and they are the Edeur Chilli and the Kuryatur Mango. So in this context let us very briefly know about these two products see Edeur Chilli which is also called as Edeur is a local cultivar which is found to be cultivated in all these places. See now you may have a question that what does this word local cultivar means. See a local cultivar refers to a particular variety of a plant whose characteristics have been controlled by the people in the way it has been bred and when you take this chilli it belongs to the capsicum annum and the crop is traditionally cultivated in hills, hillocks and also in large retic fields. As per documents from the Edeur Grama Panjayat it is said that the cultivation of this chilli in this particular area has been in existence for at least 150 years that is since 150 years this particular chilli has been cultivated in this area. See from this Edeur where this chilli has been cultivated large quantity of this chilli will move to nearby markets and also to districts to be used for making Kondatum which is nothing but a sun dried curd chilli. So due to high passion for this fried Kondatum the chilli has become an integral part of each and every meal of this area and it is also considered to be a delicacy for the people of this and nearby regions and in fact each and every homeland in Edeur make sure they have a small garden of this cultivar. See one unique aspect of this Edeur chilli is that know that Edeur chilli is a chief cultivar of this area with least pungency. See here the word pungency means the condition of having a very strong and also a sharp smell or flavor. Now talking about the uniqueness of this chilli see all its uniqueness over to the genetic makeup of the cultivar the distant environmental condition of the cultivation area and also the traditional techniques which were employed in the cultivation all these aspects together contribute to the uniqueness of this particular chilli. Now let's move on to the next product which is the Curiatur mango. See this Curiatur mango is a popular and also a tasty traditional mango cultivar of Curiatur and also the nearby Gram panjayats of the Kannur district in North Kerala. So this mango has got a maximum spread in Curiatur panjayat and you can find the trees of this mango in every home school public institution and also in the road sides of Curiatur panjayat. So in other words and this reason makes Curiatur the mango village of Kannur. See even though this cultivar is most popularly known as Curiatur mango it has got other names as well and they are the Nambiar mango the Kannapura mango etc. So basically this mango is famous for its appearing color that is the orange yellow color of its flesh and also for the rind and excellent taste and the flavor which it possess. And apart from this another important speciality of this mango is that the ripe fruits do not show speckles or patches on the skin like that of the ordinary mangoes and this tendency makes it more appealing in the market. See the uniqueness of this Curiatur mango is further enhanced by the combination of specific environmental conditions of the area. Another major important advantage of this mango is the earliness in flowering. See the earliness in flowering spotted in these mangoes is another advantageous feature of the cultivar and this mango harvest it usually finishes before the onset of the southwest monsoon and this earliness actually announces the market value of this mango. Apart from these two some of the other products from the Kerala state which has got a geographical integration tag is given below for your reference so aspirants please go through it. So with this let's wind up this discussion and move on to the next news article. Now for our next news discussion I have chosen two major judgments that were passed by the two Indian highcoats namely the Delhi Highcoat and the Kerala Highcoat and both these judgments are related to the pendency of court cases in India. See I have chosen these articles mainly because you can make use of these points in your mains answers whenever you have a topic related to judicial pendency. So come let us move on to see both these judgments one by one. So for our first discussion let us take the judgment made by the Delhi Highcoat. Now this judgment is related to the juveniles who are accused of petty offenses. So in this judgment the court is ordered for the immediate release of those minors whose case inquiry remain inconclusive or whose case inquiry have not met with a judgment for a period longer than one year. Now this judgment has been made as a response to a submission which was filed by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Right. So in its submission the commission has highlighted that as on 30th of June 2021 around 1903 inquiries against the juveniles relating to petty offenses were found to be pending before the juvenile justice boards in the capital. So it is based on this submission only the court has come up with such a decision. Now having said that let us see the legal backing behind this decision of the Delhi Highcoat. See when you look at section 14 of the Juvenile Justice Act you can find that the act mandates for the automatic termination of inquiries against a minor who is alleged of criminal activities and this automatic termination is prescribed in situations where the probe remains inconclusive after four months and a maximum extension of up to two months from the date of the first production of the child before the juvenile justice board. So in simple words the act mandates for the entire inquiry to be completed within a maximum of six months and note that the four month period which is mentioned in section 14 of the act starts right after the date of the first production of the child before the juvenile justice board. See one major problem where the proceeding of cases related to juveniles is the act of age determination. So to understand better in order to begin an inquiry the concerned authorities have to first determine the age of the subject and this process of age determination itself takes a substantial time because of which matters remain pending before the juvenile justice boards for a period longer than the maximum six month period which is prescribed in section 14 of the concerned act. Now added to this difficulty in determining the age of the accused comes the prevailing COVID-19 situation. So all these reasons together they make it really difficult to produce the accused juveniles before the juvenile justice board. So as a result hundreds of matters including the petty offenses have been stuck at various stages for a period much longer than the prescribed four months. So on that line this decision which is made by the Delhi High Court is actually a welcome step because even the mere pendency of an inquiry against a child is certainly stigmatic and it is also worth the potential to highly impact the dignity of the concerned child. So these are the important takeaway points from this news article. Now let's move on to the next court judgment. Now coming to the next judgment see this is a judgment made by the Kerala High Court and this judgment is related to the persons with criminal records who are travelling abroad. So in its judgment the court held that the pendency of a criminal proceeding against a person shall not bar that particular person from obtaining a passport for travelling abroad. So that means in its judgment the court is directed that when the criminal proceedings are pending against a person the court shall grant permission for that particular person's period of travel or the period for which the passport can be issued to that person. Now see this is because as we all know criminal trials takes ages to complete and this has got even more worse with the corona pandemic because the pandemic is halted the trials in many courts across our country. So at such an instance instead of holding the passport or barring the person from travelling abroad it would be of great significance if the person is granted permission to travel abroad because such a move enables the process of balancing the fundamental right of a citizen to travel abroad as well as the need to ensure the presence of the accused during trial. But then however while considering the application the court held that it is really important for the magistrate to consider the stage of the criminal proceedings and also to take into account the duration within which the trial may take place and most importantly the criminal antecedents and the past conduct of the accused as well as the nature and the gravity of the crime should be looked into before arriving at a decision and this judgment of the Kerala High Court is also a significant move when it comes to the issue of judicial pendency in Indian courts. So these are the takeaway points here and now let's get on to the next news discussion. Now look at this news article. This article is about an incident of ammonia leak. So the news here is that yesterday there was an accident in an ice factory at Chennai and this accident led to the ammonia leak. So this is the context here. Now based on this context we will see some important points about the ammonia which is mentioned in today's news. It's various applications and also its harmful impact both in human body as well as in environment. So first of all we all know that the chemical formula for ammonia is NH3. So when I say NH3 it means that ammonia is made up of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms.  So whenever we hear about ammonia the first thing that comes to our mind is the kind of pungent smell which this gas contains. Yes ammonia has got a very strong smell and this smell is similar to that of urine and this unpleasant smell of ammonia helps in detecting the gas by most people even if it is present in small amounts. And another important fact about ammonia is that it is a non-flammable gas in the sense it is not capable of catching fire or burning that easily but however when it gets mixed with the hair at certain concentrations then there are high chances for it to explode if ignited. So that means at certain concentrations ammonia is flammable. See ammonia solutions are alkali and they can be corrosive. So when I say ammonia solutions it means that I refer to solution of ammonia in water and if you have noticed I said solutions of ammonia are alkali. So for those who are not aware of what this word alkali means see alkali are strong bases that has got the potential to turn the litmus paper from red to blue and these are also bases which has got the potential to react with acids in order to yield neutral salts. And similarly I also said ammonia can be corrosive. See corrosive is nothing but a substance which has got the capability to damage or to destroy other substances which comes into contact with that particular substance and it is able to cause the damage by means of a chemical reaction. So I will repeat ammonia solutions are alkali and they are also corrosive when concentrated. And know that ammonia solutions may also be called ammonia hydroxide and aqueous ammonia. So by now we have a basic understanding about ammonia its chemical composition and its properties. So now let us see the sources of ammonia. See ammonia is made by bacteria and decaying plants and animals and since the bacteria, plants and animals occur everywhere ammonia is found in water, soil and also in air. Apart from this ammonia is also produced by the body when the proteins break down. Now talking about its applications see this ammonia is actually a forerunner to various important nitrogen compounds that includes urea, phenol, amino acids, hydrogen cyanide, nitric acids, soda, ash and many more. And while doing our schooling we ourselves would have come across ammonia in our chemistry lab and as we all have witnessed in the laboratory the ammonia gas is changed into a liquid and then it is used for the purpose of research and studies. And likewise it is also used in industries for the production of various products say like that of polymers, fertilizers, synthetic fibers, explosives, refrigerants and also for cleaning agents. And additionally ammonia also contributes in a significant manner to the nutritional needs of the land organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. And it also serves as a building block for the synthesis of many pharmaceutical products. And when you take the household purposes see ammonium hydroxide which is also known as household ammonia is an ingredient which is found in almost all household cleaning products which we use to clean a variety of surfaces say like that of tarps, sinks, toilets, tiles etc. See one major reason why ammonia is being used in such cleaning products is because this ammonia gas has got the potential to evaporate quickly and it is due to this rapid evaporation it is used in a variety of cleaning products and in fact it is commonly used in the glass cleaning solutions in order to help avoid the streaking. As I said earlier ammonia is found to be in use across varied sectors and for varied purposes so or in other words there are high chances for us to come in contact with ammonia in our day-to-day life itself. In spite of finding applications in the day-to-day lifestyle scientists consider ammonia to be a toxic gas by inhalation. See to put it in better words these ammonia fumes they have a sharp and pungent odor and this odor has got the capability to cause irritation to the nose, eyes, skin and also to the mucous membrane and apart from this they can also damage our respiratory tract and also exposure to high concentration ammonia gas can even lead to permanent lung damage and death. So far we saw about the detrimental effects of ammonia on human beings so now let's see the impact created by ammonia on. See ammonia is toxic when it comes to aquatic organisms see if ammonia is directly spilled into a surface water or when a particular aquatic animal or an aquatic organism comes into contact with ammonia will be harmed. Similarly ammonia is also highly toxic to fresh water invertebrates and it is for this reason the water that is contaminated with the fertilizer ammonia should not be allowed to enter any storm drains, rivers, ditches, wetlands, lakes or any other water bodies. Similarly be aware that ammonia vapours are toxic given to dairy, swine and poultry livestock. When you take plants ammonia can have a direct toxic effect on vegetations or the changes in species composition because of nitrogen deposits and when you take in the case of atmosphere ammonia can bind to other gases to form ammonium which has particularly negative impacts on cardiovascular as well as on respiratory health systems. So with this let us wind up this news article. So in this article we saw about ammonia its sources, applications and also the detrimental effects it has on human beings as well as on our environment. So now let's move on to the next news discussion. Now look at this news article. So the news here is that the Indian bank has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the non-banking financial companies and this MOU was done to enable the priority sector lending. So this is the crux of the news here. Now based on this context we will now see as to what is a non-banking financial company and we will also see on how it is different from that of a bank. See a non-banking financial company is a company that is registered under the company's Act of 1956. So basically this non-banking financial company will be involved in the business of loans and advances and it is also involved in the acquisition of shares, stocks, bonds, debentures and also securities that are issued by the government or local authority or even other marketable securities of a like nature. Also know that even those companies whose principal business is to receive deposits under any scheme or arrangement either in one lump sum or in installments will also come under a non-banking financial company and generally such companies are classified as residuary non-banking company but always remember a non-banking financial company does not include any institution whose principal business is related to agricultural activity or industrial activity and also it doesn't deal with the purchase or sale of any goods other than that of securities. Similarly these non-banking financial companies is not related to any services or the sale purchase or construction of an immovable property. So always have this point in mind because UPSC can use this as a twisting statement to confuse the aspirants. Now talking about the difference between the banks and the non-banking financial companies see both banks and NBFCs they lend and they make investments. So when viewed in that perspective the activities of NBFCs are found to be closer to that of banks but then however there are three major differences between these two bodies which you should be knowing. So the first difference is that these non-banking financial companies cannot accept demand deposits and they do not form a part of the payment and settlement system. Secondly NBFC cannot issue checks which are drawn on itself and then the third difference is that unlike in the case of banks the deposit insurance facility of deposit insurance and the credit guarantee corporation is not available to the depositors of the non-banking financial companies. So these are some important and basic points that we need to have in mind whenever we come across the non-banking financial companies during our preparation. So always have these points in mind especially its functioning areas and also on how it is different from that of a bank. So with this we are done with our article discussion for today and now let us move on to the next segment of our Hindu news analysis which is going to be a practice question discussion. So for our first question discussion let us take this question which is related to the firecrackers topic. So the question goes like which among the following elements or metals and their compounds are prohibited in the manufacture of firecrackers. Statement one, strontium chromate, statement two, antimony, statement three, lithium, statement four, lead and statement five, barium salts. Note that the supreme court in July 2017 passed an interim direction which prohibited the use of compounds of antimony, lithium, mercury, arsenic and lead to the manufacture of fireworks. And this order was made absolute in September 2017. In the same order and the use of strontium chromate in the manufacture of fireworks was also prohibited. And finally in Arjun Gopal case about which we saw in our article the supreme court banned the use of barium salts as well. So that means all the five options which are given here are correct and that makes option D. That is one, two, three, four and five to be right here. Now look at this question. It gives us two columns. In one column there is a list of tribes and then in the next column we have the state to which they belong to. So the first pair is Irola's and Odisha and when you take the second pair it is Langa's and Rajasthan and the third pair is Mankidha and Bihar. So when you take the first pair this pair is incorrect because the Irola's are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka and not in the state of Odisha. So that means the first pair is wrong. The second pair which is Langa's and Rajasthan. See from our discussion itself we can infer that this pair is correct here because our old discussion was concerned about the Langa's community. Now thirdly comes Mankidha and Bihar. See the Mankidha are nomadic ethnic group of India who live in Odisha and not in Bihar. So that makes the third statement to be wrong as well. So since only the second statement is right here the correct answer here will be option B that is two only. Now look at this question. Consider the following statements with reference to the office of the controller general of patents designs and trademarks. Statement one this office uses GI tags in India. Statement two it comes under the ministry of statistics and program implementation. See the first statement here is right that is the controller general of patents designs and trademarks they issue the GI tags in India. So that makes the first statement right. But coming to the second statement see this controller general of patents designs and trademarks they are not under the ministry of statistics and program implementation but rather they come under the ministry of commerce and industry. So therefore the right answer here will be option A that is one only. Now look at this question related to ammonia. So the question goes like which of the following are the properties of ammonia. Statement one absence of color. Statement two lighter than hair. Statement three strong smell. Statement four alkali. Statement five corrosive nature. See from our discussion itself we can infer that all the five properties given here are exhibited by ammonia. So that makes option D that is option one two three four and five to be the right answer here. So with this we have come to the end of today's Indoor News Analysis and if you guys have liked my video then don't forget to like, comment and share and of course subscribe to Shankar Eye's Academy YouTube channel for more updates regarding UPSC civil services preparation. Thank you.


Hello everyone welcome back to another session on dentistry and most today's topic is oral lichen planus it is a immunological muco cutaneous lesions which can affect either skin or mucosa or both so it is not just confined to oral cavity it is present other parts of the body too what we are seeing about oral lichen planus in detail so now let's get into the details of oral lichen planus so oral lichen planus so lichen planus the word derived from the greek word lichen means trimose and also a latin word planus planus means flat so trimose or flat so it looks like a trimose and it is a flat lesion so that's why it got this name lichen planus it is a immunologically mediated muco cutaneous disease first described by wilson in 1869 it affects around 0.5 to 1 percentage of world population the condition can affect either the skin mucosa or both so it causes bilateral white striations papules or plaques on the buckle mucosa tongue and ginger so it is either papule or plaque or white striation can be seen on buckle mucosa tongue and ginger let's see it's a historical information that is it was first described by wilson in 1869 as a chronic disease affecting the skin scalp nails and mucosa with possible rare malignant degeneration and franco is henry reported the first oral lichen planus related cosinoma in 1910 and we come in 1895 described the characteristic appearance of whitish stray and punctuations that developed a flat surface papules so that is become stray which is a characteristic feature of oral lichen planus which was it was described first in 1895 so let's see the epidemiology of oral lichen planus so as I mentioned it was affecting around 1.5 population and the highest is 3.7 percent it is people with mixed oral habits and lowest is 0.3 percent in non users of tobacco okay so in mixed users it is around 3.7 and non users it is 0.3 percent so the annual age adjusted incidence rate was 2.12 2.5 among thousand men and women and the relative risk of oral lichen planus among smokers is 13.7 times greater than non smokers so smoking is a big contributing or predisposing factor for oral lichen planus so as per definition it is a common chronic immunological muco cutaneous disorder of striated squamous epithelium so etiological factors we don't know exact etiology but the most accepted and current data suggest it is a T cell mediated inflammatory disease in which there is a production of cytokines which leads to apoptosis apoptosis is nothing but cell death so T cell mediated problem there is cytokine production and it leads to apoptosis that is a etiology so other possible theories which includes genetic backgrounds where the weak association between HLA antigen and lichen planus so that also is there but it is commonly accepted one is T cell mediated cytokines apoptosis concept and allow to see the predisposing factors so genetic background could be a predisposing factor and infectious agents such as HPV virus that is human papilloma virus, epstein bar virus, human immunodeficiency that is HIV virus there are various habits which includes smoking, betel nut chewing and diabetes hypertension which are associated with oral lichen planus. Dental materials such as prostrate treatments in the oral cavity also identified as a triggering element of oral this lichenoid drug reaction okay and drugs this drug reaction may be triggered by systemic drugs including NSAIDs, beta blockers and sulfonyl urea so these are the predisposing factors of oral lichen planus now let's move on to the clinical features so clinical features oral lichen planus affects all racial groups and there is a female to male predilection that is 1.4 to 1 females having more diseases it is affecting oral cavity in a bilateral fashion it is always bilateral oral lesions usually involve the posterior buccal mucosa or less commonly the tongue and although any side can be involved palatal and sublingual lesions are very rare palatal and sublingual lesions age we can say middle aged or elderly people mean age is around fifth decade and it is rarely seen in young adults and children so lichen planus commonly affect 1 to 2 percentage of general population we discussed it already prevalence is around 0.5 to 2.2 percentage and the skin lesions so while coming to the skin lesions of lichen planus which appear as small angular flat topped papule flat topped papule only a few millimeter or diameter these may be discrete or gradually coalesce into large plaque so papule is different plaque is a correlated mass appearance plaque means hard surface so you know dental plaque so it is a hard tenacious appeared material so papule coalesce to form plaque each of which is covered by a fine glistening scale okay so the papules are sharply demarcated from the surrounding skin so early in the course of the disease the lesion appear as red but they soon take reddish purple or violet hue then later a dirty brownish color it will develop so the center of the papule may be slightly implicated so we know what is umbilical chord so the center of this papule it's like umbilical area it is slightly umbilicated its surface is covered by a characteristic very fine grayish white lines which is known as vicamstray so vicamstray is very very important it is a commonly asked question as a short note it is seen in oral lichen planus it is a white grayish white lines seen on the surface of this lesion and the lesion may occur anywhere on the skin surface but usually are distributed in a bilateral symmetrical pattern most often on the flexor surface of the wrist and forearms the inner aspect of knees and thighs and the trunk so i'm talking about the other parts lesions which is seen in the other parts not just in the oral cavity so in chronic cases hypertrophic plaques may develop especially over the shins and the primary symptom of lichen planus is severe pruritus that may be intolerable okay and in patients with oral lichen planus scalp involvement and nail involvement is rare actually so these are the clinical features so don't forget vicamstray okay now we are into oral manifestations so oral manifestation in the oral cavity the lesion consists of radiating white gray velvety thread like papules in a linear or annular and retiform arrangement forming a typical reticular patches rings and streaks so it is a tiny white elevated dot is present at the intersection of white lines which are vicamstray so when vicamstray is inter sector and these intersected areas will be little elevated dot so it is it could be linear annular or retiform arrangement and the most common site is buccal mucosa and it is usually asymptomatic and bilaterally symmetrical anywhere in the oral cavity so it can be seen mostly on buccal mucosa tongue lip ginjeva floor of the mouth palate and may appear weeks or months before the appearance of cutaneous lesion and in oral lichen planus we have various types that it is based on the clinical presentation so these are the clinical presentation types so we have basically six types one is reticular erosive atrophic plaque like popular and bullies oral lichen planus these are the clinical presentation different types of clinical presentation classification so let's see one by one first is a reticular type which is the most common type and commonly seen on posterior buccal mucosa and may not be seen on tongue less commonly in ginjeva and lips and even vermilion border they're usually bilaterally seen characteristic pattern of interlacing white lines that is vicamstray the stri often displays a peripheral erythematous zone which reflects the sub epithelial inflammation so there will be the vicamstrays associated with erythematous zone which indicate there is a sub epithelial inflammation and lines are wavy and parallel this is seen in reticular the name gives an idea reticular pattern we know what is how the reticular pattern of anything look like so this becomes stri the clinical presentation will be in a reticular fashion now we have erosive erosive are usually asymptomatic atrophic areas the erosion we know erosion or something is removed from the surface layer surface layer is getting removed so that is erosion so atrophic areas with central ulceration of varying degree periphery of these atrophic regions is usually bordered by fine white radiating stri and symptoms it could be if symptoms other it could be pain burning sensation bleeding and also d squammative ginjevatus so there will be a pseudo membrane covered covering ulceration with keratosis and erythema so there will be a pseudo membrane is covering on the erosive the third one is atrophic oral lichen planus it is characterized by a homogeneous red area smooth poorly defined erythematous area with or without peripheral stray okay the symptoms include pain and burning sensation and keratotic changes combined with mucosal erythema this could be with or without peripheral stray erosive has peripheral stray so when this atrophic oral lichen planus is present in buccal mucosa or in palate there will be peripheral stri present only on buccal mucosa and palate so always remember these stri are very common in reticular pattern because of the stri itself it's got this particular name reticular oral lichen planus now we have plaque type oral lichen planus which is homogeneous well demarcated white plaque seen but not always surrounded by stri which is very common in tobacco uses which could be single or multifocal plaques will be seen and the popular type so the popular type of oral lichen planus is usually present in the initial phase of the disease so it is clinically characterized by small white dots which in most occasions intermingle with the reticular form okay and sometimes these popular elements merge with stri as part of the natural course and the last one is bull's one vesicular bull's presentation combined with reticular or erosive pattern and rare form characterized by large vesicles or bull's and lesions usually develop with an erythematous base rupture immediately leaving a painful ulcer so this bulla will rupture and there will be a painful ulcer and usually these have peripheral radiating stray and are seen on posterior part of buccal mucosa and severe form of extensive degeneration and separation of epithelium from connective tissue also seen in bull's oral lichen planus so these are the six types of oral lichen planus what are they one is reticular erosive atrophic plaque like popular and bull's type most common one is reticular and the bull's is the very rare type so in histopathology so there are lots of features in histopathology the unique features the first one is hyper ortho keratosis or hyper parakeratosis can be seen in epithelium there will be thickening of granular layer there will be acanthosis of spinous layer there will be intercellular edema in spinous layer and there will be sore tooth retipics will be seen sore tooth retipics liquefaction necrosis of basal air that is max joseph clef space which is known as max joseph clef space and sevet bodies that is hyaline bodies or cytoid bodies are seen juxta epithelial band of inflammatory cells juxta epithelial band and an esophilic band may be seen just beneath the basement membrane and which represent fibrin covering of lamina propria so there are lots of histopathological features mainly sevet bodies or hyaline bodies sore tooth retipics max joseph clef space all are associated with oral lichen planus so let's move on to the management and treatment part of oral lichen planus so basically oral lichen planus the treatment goal or the management goal is to reduce the symptoms and speed healing promote the healing if symptoms are mild it may not need any treatment is a self-limiting disease so it will be over by around 8 to 12 months so mild cases we can use fluorinated topical steroids or it should include antihistamines medicines that calm down the immune system such as cyclosporin, lidocaine, mouth washes to namdana area and make the eating more comfortable topical corticosteroids can be applied like clobectosol or oral corticosteroids to reduce swelling and lower immune responses and vitamin a cream also can be applied and the we can use dressings over the skin to protect from scratching and ultraviolet therapy also is an option so pharmacological methods what we have seen and complication is what we are seeing is it could be become malignant that is all chances of oral cancer is there so let's summarize this by seven p's the letter p so it is a papillose squamous solution it is pruritic in nature it is plain topped it is polyangular it is purple colored it is papule and plaque formation and there will be pigmentation okay so oral lichen planus is an important question it will be asked in oral pathology and even oral medicine so you need to write maximum subcontent its introduction its histopathology clinical features oral manifestations the types the six types and its management its pharmacology etiology epidemiology and predisposing factors and all sub beddings you can include and don't forget few things which could be asked as short-term stress or toothed epics max Joseph cliff space and various types of lichen planus that is six types so i'll come over the new topic and industry thank you


The Sustainable Development Solutions Network is a global independent network that mobilises scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society and the private sector to achieve sustainable development. This is conceived in its four dimensions. Economic development, including the eradication of extreme poverty, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and good governance, including peace and security. In this context, SDSN promotes the pursuit of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations General Assembly. These were approved by the 193 member states in September 2015. In order to achieve its mission, SDSN activities focus on applied research on practical solutions for sustainable development, promotion and implementation of SDGs, education for sustainable development, including massive open online courses delivered by SDSN.edu, the SDSN Educational Platform. SDSN is a network of national and regional centres. SDSN Mediterranean is the regional network of SDSN for the Mediterranean area. Its activities are coordinated by the University of Siena, founded in 1240. This is one of the world's oldest universities. SDSN Mediterranean supports cooperation and joint research activities among Mediterranean countries, universities and businesses. Promotes the development of practical solutions to sustainability issues relevant to the future of the region. Access to the elaboration of SDG indicators for the Mediterranean area. Promotes networking among research centres, the diffusion of SDSN.edu education tools in the Mediterranean. And Euro-Mediterranean joint programming in the context of EU planning activities. For example, Plastic Busters is a project which aims to fight pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. We map the presence of microplastics and the effects of marine litter on sentinel organisms, thereby defining a number of sensitive areas. These data will be used to develop concrete preventative and corrective actions and to increase the awareness of stakeholders and overall sensitivity to these issues.


Cultures across the world have left behind extensive evidence in ancient texts, monuments, and megalithic structures, explaining that long ago advanced civilizations once existed on the Earth that were eventually destroyed by devastating global cataclysms. These lost civilizations understood the secrets of energy, consciousness, mathematics, and even the nature of reality itself. Just the Earth, ancient ruins and megalithic structures such as Saxei, Humana, and Peru, the Temple of Jupiter in Lebanon, or Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, have been proven to be far older than what our modern history books are willing to admit. The incredible megalithic site of Gobekli Tepe, located in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey, has been radiocarbon dated to be over 11,000 years old. Meanwhile, further to the west in Balbec, Lebanon, the ancient city of Heliopolis and the Temple of Jupiter containing enormous stone blocks that are in excess of 1,000 tons each. Yet at the same time, most mainstream experts will tell you that these megalithic sites were built less than 5,000 years ago by the Romans, or some nomadic hunter-gathered group using nothing more than Bronze Age tools. This evidence greatly contradicts what society has been taught about the timeline of human history and helps to paint a far different picture of our past. The most important question is, why isn't this information part of our education system? For far too long, society has based their understanding of the events of the past and present upon a small number of experts in their field and rarely choose to question or seek alternative theories. This conclusion may be hard for some to accept, but the fact is plain and simple. We've been lied to for a very long time. The truth is far more fascinating to learn about than the biased and mundane version we've been given. So now you may be wondering, what exactly have we been lied to about? One of the most significant of these deceptions revolves around the incorrect information that's been provided by many of the mainstream archaeologists about the true age and purpose of the pyramids of Giza, Egypt. We're told by many of these experts that the largest structures on Earth were built to honor the great pharaohs of Egypt. This lie is generally accepted by the majority of society, who is often too busy to take the time to research alternative theories for themselves. Yet today, not one pharaoh has ever been found in the pyramids of Giza or in most of the other pyramids located around the world. The objective researcher quickly discovers that the Egyptian pharaohs were buried more than 400 miles to the south in a place called the Valley of the Kings. Famous pharaohs throughout history, such as Ramses or Tutankhamen, were mummified and buried at the Valley of the Kings, surrounded by generations of older dynastic Egyptian rulers. So why have they deceived society about the truth and purpose of these pyramids? The answer to that question can be found by understanding the level of control that exists regarding the perception of history, which is fiercely guarded by powerful individuals and secret societies who hide the true age and sophistication of many of these ancient civilizations. That means that even today, with all the modern technology that we have available to us, we would still have trouble constructing the pyramids of Egypt. The design and alignments of these pyramids suggest that these ancient builders knew detailed information about both mathematics and the constellations of our galaxy. These spectacular achievements in engineering were only made possible because of a specific understanding of the precise ratio of the Earth, as well as the lay lines of energy that cross the planet. But how could they have known that more than 10,000 years ago? Evidence shows that the true purpose behind this intuitive design was to create a large structure that could focus and harness unlimited electromagnetic energy, as well as to act as a type of harmonic resonator to raise human consciousness. The real question is, what could they have needed all this energy for thousands of years ago? To me, the obvious answer to that question suggests that these ancient civilizations were much more advanced than our history books are willing to admit. Not only are the pyramids of Giza far older than what we've been told, but the dynastic pharaohs of Egypt were also incorrectly given credit for the creation. Evidence shows that these magnificent and precise structures were built by a lost civilization who disappeared from Earth's history during the last Ice Age. When looking at the positions of the constellations of Orion, Leo, and Canis Major, 10,500 to 12,000 years ago, and accounting for the processional changes that occurred to the Earth, it can be fascinating to learn that both the Great Pyramid and Sphinx perfectly aligned to these star constellations during that time period. For those who don't know, axial procession is caused by the slight wobbling of an astronomical body, which causes its orientation to change over time. This creates what is known as the procession of the equinoxes, or zodiac ages, which represents a cycle of approximately 25,700 years. This dating evidence also correlates strikingly well with the water erosion marks that have been found along the edges of the Sphinx enclosure, which strongly suggests that the true age of these structures is far older than what we've been told, based on the historical rainfall patterns for the region. The Egyptians realized the importance of transcending the physical world in order to progress along the path of enlightenment. They call this veil of the third dimension Ka, which represents the soul trapped in the physical body that's constantly blinded by illusions and deception. That's why transcending the physical world and breaking free of the chains of Ka is so guarded here, due in part to the law of free will and the predation of basic human urges. The human brain functions as a powerful organic computer, and like all computers, it can become infected with viruses that come in the form of polluting thoughts and negative associations. Those negative or false associations can build up over time within us and greatly affect the growth of consciousness. The challenge becomes how to heal and cleanse the mind and body to free it from the bondage of its accumulated burdens. To me, the great feat to accomplish in this life should not merely revolve around scaling the highest mountain or deepest canyon, but rather exploring the wonders and secrets within the human mind. I often compare the process of an individual expending their conscious awareness to the analogy of a dark forest that they must traverse. This dark forest contains many different pathways, each of them promising an easy way out of the darkness. Those who follow these easy paths often find out too late that they've been tricked and misled for not taking the more challenging route. Instead of an easy road to ascension, the path to reach higher states of consciousness and energy has been purposely made difficult and any shortcuts taken are severely punished along the way. The real question is, who created this system? If this information was released to the public, it would not only change our understanding of consciousness and energy, but alter the entire way we view human history. Cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, along with ice core samples from Greenland and geologic evidence from across the world, strongly suggest that a series of devastating cataclysms occurred on the Earth between 10,500 and 12,800 years ago, leading to rapid melting of the ice caps, global floods, and destructive climate changes. These cataclysms were likely caused by a large solar outburst from the sun or possibly a comet strike, which wiped out many of the ancient civilizations that were present on the planet, causing their existence and memory to become nearly lost to time. A great deal of their knowledge and advanced technology was destroyed in these cataclysms. However, some of the megalithic structures and pyramids they built still remain today. According to the famous philosopher Plato, a sophisticated civilization called Atlantis once existed somewhere southwest of the Straits of Gibraltar in Western Africa on a string of circular islands that formed a large central landmass. These writings, known as the Timmyus and Cridius, state that Atlantis was destroyed by a series of violent catastrophes that were so severe that little remained of it afterward. This information provided by Plato, describing these cataclysms that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, correlates strikingly well with Mesopotamian uniform tablets, ancient stories, biblical writings, and ice core data from Greenland, all of which provides a glimpse into what occurred long ago. These disasters led to the destruction of many of the pre-Diluvian civilizations that once thrived on the planet. Yet little about this information is ever discussed on an academic level and is still largely considered pseudo-archaeology by most mainstream experts. It's important to develop an understanding of how to objectively view facts and information accurately to develop logical conclusions. This is a necessary step for any good researcher to take who's searching for the truth. The famous detective, Arthur Conan Doyle, gave a profound quote that should act as a means for building this foundation of reason. He said,


Currently on Mount Hermon here it's actually my first time I've ever been here and we're going to take the cable car going up to the peak. As far as I know the highest peak in Israel you can also see into Syria and the Syria Hermon so apparently we read in on Facebook yesterday that there was a first snow of the season yesterday on the Syrian side of the mountain not on the Israeli side but from the top of the peak here we're probably able to see a great view in so I'm really looking forward to this. I've always heard about it. I haven't been up here yet. I think we're the only people on the cable car if that's possible. Pretty sure they just started it for us. Just getting near the top of Mount Hermon here and it's really really amazing inside really quiet. Obviously in the ski season there is snow apparently the first snow of the season was seen yesterday on the Syrian side of the mountain. Of course you can see into Syria it's going to be nice to see the top of Mount Hermon for the first time in other post-Aliya Milestone for me. Some pictures here showing the history of Hermon, the first kiosk and you can see what it looks like when there's snow. Not so many people. Tourism season is off here and it looks very very rocky up at the top. Cisunettos will instantly recognize the presence of a weather station and here there is a not sure this is like a historical tank. It doesn't look like anything even remotely current. It's kind of sitting here. Interesting it's got no sign this is kind of like hanging out here and there's all these interesting buildings that not clear exactly what they are what they're used for. This is a little bit further up the road again and you can read on Wikipedia about this and the second war on Mount Hermon which is part of the Yom Kippur war when the first one from what I understand Syria there's this was an IDF outpost that Syria captured. They repelled an Israeli counter attack and then finally Israel took it back in October. Why the views are spectacular so he's looking at the map and the border is actually a small bit north still of this point and that's that the border is officially demarcated by Undof Line Alpha which marks the Israeli side of the DMZ. Line Bravo's on the Syrian side so there's another few kilometers. The border is probably somewhere in open territory. You can actually see a couple of cars and I'm wondering if those are already in Syria quite possibly. I'll check the map again but the landscape appears really impressive. It's actually hard to believe this is really the highest point in Israel because you can just get up here you can see up on the right here there's a bunch of looks like kind of army intelligence probably some kind of listening post tons and tons of radar stations and stuff like that and just kind of open territory here beneath the mountain and there's a car coming down this road so you can go even even further north in this. I wonder if it's an open road to civilians or just the army with this one coming down here driving south and this building is interesting it's got a kosher certification it looks to be abandoned at least at the moment there's nothing up there and I'll be curious to read the history these afterwards these kind of a fortification like things up here with some rusty coils of barbed wire around them this is probably the closest I've ever come to experiencing complete quiet in Israel it's eerily quiet I pray the only thing you hear is like a back of beeper running a few kilometers away and besides that it's totally silent and in any event I've got my Femi Pam 2 up on a up on the Yulanzi MT-34 which is why I made the video before I left about all the different things I was going to try so I could just kind of show the different shots it can get so right now it's just kind of within arms length I'm just going to see if you can turn around during switch mode during operation I don't think you can oh you can amazing okay so this is now in the cameras facing forward it's on the Yulanzi and you can see I'm just kind of panning about now I'm going to go ahead and put this on full telescopic reach before you're doing and I just get it vertical it's not really a very big stick it's about a meter isn't going to go from the air here you can probably see my reflection I'm holding it now right one meter in the air and you can see what the stabilization looks like here now I have it in selfie mode but I'm holding it holding the base of the selfie stick so it's about kind of a meter for my body more or less and you can see how this looks and how the stabilization looks when the Femi Pam 2 is on a telescopic monopod final demo I'm going to do is put this into 90 degrees standing at eight standing the monopod now we can hopefully kind of get down really close to the grain


An explosion is heard more than 3,000 miles away from its source. A man is sentenced to hang himself. Another man goes to jail because he fried a steak. Yes, impossible as those statements sound, they're all true. And this is Lindsay McCary back with another session of Can You Imagine That. The proof of those statements made a moment ago will be forthcoming in just one and a half minutes. So, wait for us, will you please? The terrific volcanic explosion of the island of Krakatoa. It takes the prize for being the world's biggest and loudest noise and the most tragic. But before we tell you about it, we'll build up to it by telling you about other big noises. Our first is the dynamite explosion on the island of Novozembla in the Arctic one day in December 1933. The sound of it was detected in Berlin, Germany, more than 2,000 miles away. Can you imagine that? Then there was the noise caused by the landing of the Great Siberian Meteor on June 30, 1908. Which was heard over a distance of 400 miles. Not only that, it affected weather instruments in Europe. But those two big noises are pikers when it comes to the explosion of Krakatoa. Their sounds were merely detected while Krakatoa was actually heard by human ears more than 3,000 miles away in Rodriguez. Krakatoa was an island in the Sunda Straits between Sumatra and Java. I say was because after the explosion caused by volcanic disturbances only a cavity 1,000 feet below sea level was what remained of the island. But far more serious than the actual explosion was the effect. A succession of gigantic sea waves, some of them more than 50 feet in height was generated. The destruction caused by these waves was beyond all imagination. Harbors, villages, settlements and fishing fleets were wiped out by the inundations. 36,000 human beings were killed. But the most amazing fact in this story of cataclysm and disaster was that some of the waves generated by the explosion traveled to vast distances. Long waves generated at periods of more than an hour reached Cape Horn 7,818 miles away. And science tells us that probably some of them reached the English Channel at a distance of 11,040 miles. This runs the amazing and terrible story of the destruction of the island of Krakatoa in August 1883. Here's a story that will touch a deep chord of sympathy within any of us who have experienced the gnawing, imperious pangs of hunger. It was in the month of January 1915 that detectives Carlin and Kelly were passing the lunchroom of Sigmund Luft, 338 West Van Buren Street, Chicago. Hey, Carlin, take a look at that stake in the window of Luft's lunchroom.  Makes the guy hungry just to look at it. Well, standing here won't get anything done for us. Come on. About two hours later, detectives Carlin and Kelly again passed Luft's lunchroom. And this time, hey, Carlin, the stake's gone. Gone? That's funny. Luft has closed up for the night. Maybe he felt the same way we did about the stake and came back to get it. Come on, let's go. We gotta go. Hey, wait a minute. Listen, that's a steak frying. Smell it? Yeah. And take a look at the lock of the door there. It's been broken. Come on, take it easy. All right, you. Put him up. Come on, come on, bud. You're going to take a little walk with us. Oh, wait a minute, please. Come on, come on. No, wait, please. Let me finish the steak first. No, nothing to him. That steak's coming along with us for evidence. Come on. What's the idea of breaking in a place and eating all the... Still begging to be allowed to eat the steak. The burglar was led to headquarters. Once there, he told the desk sergeant, I just got here from Seattle two weeks ago. There wasn't any jobs, and our stone broke. I'd have busted open the vault of the national bank to get at that steak. That's how hungry I was. And so the burglar's ravenous appetite, plus his inability to wait until he found a safer place to fry the steak, got him in bad with the law. Can you imagine that? Speaking of the law, here's a case where one of its administrators practiced what he preached. It was in Knoxville, Tennessee that Magistrate John L. Minot was driving his car one day in February of 1931. He turned the street corner and... All right, what's the idea? You're the driver of this car. Yes, officer, I am. I turned the corner and crashed into this parked car. Oh, you did, huh? Well... Oh, I... I didn't recognize you, Your Honor. That's quite all right. I want you to issue a warrant, officer. Warrant? What's your honor? This car, you hit, is parked all right. I don't want you to issue a warrant for the owner of that car. I want you to issue it for John L. Minot. For...for yourself, Your Honor? Exactly. The charge is reckless driving. Yes, Magistrate John L. Minot issued a warrant for himself and in his court the next day... Case of John L. Minot charged with reckless driving. I find myself guilty and hereby sentence myself to a fine of $5 to be paid to the clerk. Here you are, clerk. Well, our hats are off to Magistrate John L. Minot who practiced what he preached and fined himself for reckless driving. I wonder if many of you know the origin of the phrase the 400 of society. Well, it was back in the year 1892 that Mrs. William Astor gave her renowned ball at her famous residence at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York. A man named Ward McAllister, who was the accepted arbiter of things social, managed the affair. Because of the limited quarters in which to give the ball, Mr. McAllister restricted his invitation list to just 400. And the reason? Well, said Mr. McAllister. I have restricted the invited guests to 400 in number simply because there are only 400 people who can be considered as being in society. So from that remark comes our term 400 as applied to the blue buds of society. Can you imagine that? Certainly one of the oddest things I have come across in my search for can you imagine that items is this one. This is the year 1672 in what is now New York City. Ben Johnson, not the Ben Johnson of literary fame, but another, was brought up for trial accused of theft. After deliberation the city court rendered a verdict on November 26, 1672. Said the presiding judge. Ben Johnson, we've heard all the evidence against and for you and it is now the judgment of this court that you die by hanging as a punishment for your thefts. Because you are the municipal hangman you must therefore hang yourself to pay your debt to society. I refuse to do that, Your Worship. You will carry out faithfully the sentence of this court, Ben Johnson. I won't. I refuse to hang myself. Then we'll get someone who will do it. Mr. Featherstone, will you...  You can't get anyone else to hang me because the law says that I'm the official hangman of this municipality and there ain't been a new one appointed. And you can't appoint a new one until I'm gone and out of the way. Well, I ain't gone and I ain't going to hang myself so I ain't going to be out of the way. I know me rights by the law and I'm staying tight to them. I... Well... You will stand there a moment, Ben Johnson. Mr. Featherstone... Okay, Mr. Fauston. Ben Johnson, your logic is admirable but your character is not. We find that we cannot sentence you to hang yourself. But we do hereby sentence you to 39 lashes with the catternine tails, the loss of one ear and banishment from this colony. And continuing with our studies and jurisprudence, I wonder if you can make a guess at who was the greatest policeman who ever lived. Well, some authorities say it was Jacob Hayes. Hayes was appointed the first and the only High Constable of New York. And why is he considered among the greats? Well, he was the first policeman to shadow a suspect. He was the first to use the so-called third-degree methods and he was the first to shock a confession out of a murderer by confronting a suspect with the body of the victim. He traveled alone and was always in danger of being killed by cutthroats and bandits who infested New York Harbor. He loved to place himself in some waterfront dive, sit there inconspicuously and size up the persons who entered. He had a photographic memory for faces. He could see a person once and ten years later recall the person's name, what the person was wearing, where he had been seen and he could even minutely describe identifying marks so small as to elude the ordinary observer. Can you imagine that? Well, comes now the time for our musical Can You Imagine That?  First, we're going to play Stridella Wampa from Verdi's opera Il Trovatore. Then you're to guess what famous old German song it reminds you of. Really? All right, here goes. Did you catch it? Well, in case you didn't, here's the song you've probably hummed or whistled at one time or another. At least you've heard it. Listen to it now and see how close Verdi came to this older song when he wrote Il Trovatore.  So until the next time we meet, this is Lindsey McCarrie saying goodbye now.