39 CHAPTER 31 THE DENIMON Curiosity was not, at this instant, the strongest passion in Belinda's mind. When the carriage stopped at Mrs. Delacour's door, her heart almost ceased to beat. But she summoned resolution to go through, with firmness and dignity the task she had undertaken. Clarence Hervey was not in the room when they entered, nor was Virginia. Mrs. Orman said that she had been extremely feverish during the night, and that she had advised her not to get up till late in the day, but Mrs. Delacour immediately went for her, and in a few minutes she made her appearance. Belinda and Lady Delacour exchanged a glance of surprise and admiration. There was a grace and simplicity in her manner, joined to an air of naivety that made an irresistible impression in her favour. Lady Delacour, however, after the first surprise was over, seemed to relapse into her former opinion, and the piercing looks which her ladyship from time to time cast upon Virginia as she spoke produced their effect. She was abashed and silent. Belinda endeavored to engage her in conversation, and to her she talked with ease and even with freedom. Virginia examined Miss Portman's countenance with a species of artless curiosity and interest that was not restrained by fictitious politeness. This examination was not peculiarly agreeable to Belinda, yet it was made with so much apparent simplicity that she could not be displeased. On the first pause in the conversation Mrs. Delacour said, Pray, my dear Lady Delacour, what is this wonderful present that you sent to me this morning which you desired that no one should see till you came? I cannot satisfy your curiosity yet, replied Lady Delacour. I must wait till Clarence have he comes, for the present is intended for him. An air of solemn mystery in her ladyship's manner as she pronounced these words excited general attention. There was dead silence which lasted several minutes. Some feeble attempts were then made by each of the company to start a fresh subject of conversation but it would not do. All relapsed into the silence of expectation. At last Clarence Hervey arrived. Belinda rejoiced that the universal curiosity which Lady Delacour had inspired prevented any one's observing the sudden change in Mr. Hervey's countenance when he beheld her. A pretty set of curious children you are, cried Lady Delacour's laughing. Do you know, Clarence, that they are all dying with impatience to see you engage their mente that I have brought for you? And the reason that they are so curious is simply because I had the address to say in a solemn voice, I cannot satisfy your curiosity till Clarence Hervey arrives. Now follow me, my friends, and if you be disappointed lay the blame not to me but on your own imaginations. She led the way to Mrs. Delacour's dressing room and all the company followed. Now what do you expect to see? said she, putting the key into the door. After waiting some moments for a reply, but in vain she threw open the door, and they saw, hung before the wall opposite to them, a green curtain. I thought, my dear Clarence, resumed Lady Delacour, that no present could be more agreeable to you than a companion for your Virginia. Does this figure? continued she, drawing back the curtain. Does this figure give you the idea of Paul? said Clarence. It is a naval officer in full uniform. What can your ladyship mean? Virginia, perhaps you'll know what I mean, if you'll only stand out for a way and let her see the picture. At these words Clarence made way for Virginia.  Take it coolly, said Lady Delacour. As she will come to her senses presently, young ladies must shriek at feint upon certain occasions, but men, looking at Clarence Hervey, need not always be dupes. This is only a scene, consider it as such, and admire the actresses I do. Actress! Oh, she is no actress! cried Mrs. Ormont. Clarence Hervey raised her from the ground, and Belinda sprinkled water over her face. She's dead! She's dead! Oh, my sweet child, she's dead! exclaimed Mrs. Ormont, trembling so violently that she could not sustain Virginia. She is no actress indeed, said Clarence Hervey. Her pulse is gone. Lady Delacour looked at Virginia's pale lips, touched her cold hands, and with a look of horror cried out, Good heavens! What have I done? What shall we do with her? Give her air, give her air, air, air! cried Belinda. You keep the air from her, Mrs. Ormont, said Mrs. Delacour. Let us leave her to Miss Portman. She has more presence of mind than any of us, and as she spoke she forced Mrs. Ormont away with her, out of the room. If Mr. Hartley should come, keep him with you, Mrs. Delacour, said Clarence Hervey. Her pulse is quite gone. No. It beats stronger and stronger, said Belinda. Her colour is returning, said Lady Delacour. There! Raise her a little. Dear Belinda, she is coming to herself.  Virginia came slowly to her recollection, saw Lady Delacour drawing the curtain before the picture, then fixed her eyes upon Clarence Hervey without uttering a word. All you better know, said he in a gentle tone. Oh, do not speak, do not look so kindly, cried Virginia. I am well, quite well, better than I deserve to be, and she pressed Belinda's hand as if to thank her for assisting and supporting her. We may safely leave her now, whispered Belinda to Lady Delacour. We are strangers, and our presence only distresses her. They withdrew, but the moment Virginia found herself alone with Mr. Hervey, she was seized with a universal trimmer. She tried to speak, but could not articulate. At last she burst into a flood of tears, and when this had in some measure relieved her, she threw herself upon her knees and clasped her hands exclaimed as she looked up to heaven. Oh, if I knew what I ought to do, if I knew what I ought to say, shall I tell you, Virginia, and will you believe me? Yes, yes, yes, you ought to say the truth, whatever it may be. But you will thank me the most ungrateful of human beings. How often must I assure you, Virginia, that I make no claim upon your gratitude? Speak to me, I conjure you, as you value your happiness and mine. Speak to me without disguise. What is all this mystery? Why should you fear to let me know what passes in your heart? Why did you shriek at the sight of that picture? Oh, forgive me, forgive me! cried Virginia. She would have sunk at his feet if he had not prevented her. I will. I can forgive anything but deceit. Do not look at me with so much terror. Virginia, I have not deserved it. My wish is to make you happy. I would sacrifice even my own happiness to secure yours. But do not mislead me, or you ruin us both. Cannot you give me a distinct answer to this simple question? Why did you shriek at the sight of that picture? Because, but you will call me perfidious and grateful, Virginia, because I have seen that figure. He has knelt to me. He has kissed my hand. And I, Clarence Hervey withdrew his arms, which had supported her, and placing her upon a sofa, left her whilst he walked up and down the room for some minutes in silence. And why, Virginia, said he stopping short, was it necessary to conceal all this from me? Why was it necessary to persuade me that I was beloved? Why was it necessary that my happiness should be the sacrifice? It shall not. It shall not. Your happiness shall not be the sacrifice. Heaven is my witness, that there is no sacrifice I would not make for you. Forgive me that shriek. I could not upfainting indeed, but I will be yours. I ought to be yours. And I am not perfidious. I am not ungrateful. Do not look upon me as you did in my dream. Do not talk to me of dreams, my dear Virginia. This is no time for trifling. I ask no sacrifice from you. I ask nothing but truth. Truth! Mrs. Orman knows all the truth. I have concealed nothing from her. But she has concealed everything from me, cried Clarence. And with a sudden impulse of indignation he was going to summon her. But when his hand was upon the lock of the door he paused, returned to Virginia and said, Let me hear the truth from your lips. It is all I shall ever ask from you. How? When? Where did you see this man? What man? said Virginia, looking up with simple expression of innocence and accountants. Clarence pointed to the picture. At the village, in the new forest at Mrs. Smith's house, said Virginia. One evening when I walked with her from my grandmother's cottage. And your grandmother knew of this? Yes. said Virginia blushing. And she was very much displeased. And Mrs. Orman knew of this, pursued Clarence. Yes. But she told me that you would not be displeased at it. Mr. Hervey made another hasty step toward the door. But restraining his impetuous temper he again stopped. And leaning over the back of a chair opposite to Virginia waited in silence for her to proceed. He waited in vain. I do not mean to distress you, Miss Hartley, said he. She burst into tears. I knew! I knew! cried she. Then you would be displeased. I told Mrs. Orman so. I knew you would never forgive me. In that you were mistaken, said Clarence mildly. I forgive you without difficulty as I hope you may forgive yourself, nor can it be my wish to extort from you any mortifying confessions. But perhaps it may yet be in my power to serve you. If you would trust me, I will myself speak to your father.  If you will in this last moment of our connection, treat me with sincerity, and suffer me to be your friend. Virginia sobbed so violently for some time that she could not speak.  You have always been my best friend.  But I am sure I never wished I never intended to deceive you. Mrs. Orman told me, Do not speak of her at present, or perhaps I may lose my temper, interrupted Clarence in an altered voice. Only tell me. I conjure you to tell me. In one word, who is this man, and where is he to be found? I do not know. I do not understand you, said Virginia. You do not know? You will not trust me. Then I must leave you, too, to Mr. Hartley. Oh, do not leave me. Oh, do not leave me in anger, cried Virginia, clinging to him. Not trust you? I not trust you? I not trust you? Oh, what can you mean? I have no confessions to make. Mrs. Orman knows every thought of my mind, and so shall you, if you will only hear me. I do not know who this man is. I assure you, nor where he is to be found. And yet you love him? Can you love a man whom you do not know, Virginia? I only love his figure, I believe, said Virginia. His figure? Indeed. I am quite bewildered, said Virginia, looking round wildly. I know not what I feel.  But that was only in a dream, and Mrs. Orman said, only a dream. But you meant him at Mrs. Smith's in the New Forest. That was only a picture, only a picture, but you have seen the original. Never, never in my life. And I wished to heaven I had never, never seen the fatal picture. The image haunts me day and night. When I read of heroes in the day, that figure rises to my view, instead of yours. When I go to sleep at night, I see it instead of yours in my dreams. It speaks to me. It kneels to me. I long ago told Mrs. Orman this, but she laughed at me. I told her of that frightful dream. I saw you, well-tering in your blood. I tried to save you, but could not. I heard you say, Perfidious ungrateful Virginia, you are the cause of my death. Oh, it was the most dreadful night I ever passed. Still this figure, this picture was before me. And he was the knight of white plumes, and it was he who stabbed you. But when I wished him to be victorious, I did not know that he was fighting against you. So Mrs. Ormont told me that I need not blame myself, and she said that you were not so foolish as to be jealous of a picture. But I knew you would be displeased. I knew you would think me ungrateful. I knew you would never forgive me. Whilst Virginia rapidly uttered all this, Clarence marked the wild animation of her eyes, the sudden changes of her countenance. He recollected her father's insanity. Every feeling of his mind gave way to terror and pity. He approached her with all the calmness that he could assume, took both her hands and holding them in his, said in a soothing voice, My dear Virginia, you are not ungrateful. I do not think you so. I am not displeased with you. You have done nothing to displease me. Compose yourself, dear Virginia. I am quite composed. Now you again call me dear Virginia. Only I am afraid, as I always told Mrs. Ormont, that I do not love you enough. But she said that I did, and that my fear was the strongest proof of my affection. Virginia now spoke in so consistent a manner that Clarence could not doubt that she was in the clear possession of her understanding. She repeated to him all that she had said to Mrs. Ormont, and he began to hope that without any intention to deceive Mrs. Ormont's ignorance of the human heart led her into a belief that Virginia was in love with him, whilst in fact her imagination, exalted by solitude and romance, embodied and became enamored of a phantom. I always told Mrs. Ormont that she was mistaken, said Clarence. I never believed that you loved me, Virginia, he parsed and carefully examined her countenance. To you yourself gave me reason to think so. Was it only a principle of gratitude then that dictated your answer to my letter? She looked at Resolute and at last, in a low voice, said, If I could see, if I could speak to Mrs. Ormont, she cannot tell what are the secret feelings of your heart, Virginia. Consult no Mrs. Ormont. Consult no human creature, but yourself. But Mrs. Ormont told me that you loved me, and that you had educated me to be your wife. Mr. Hervey made an involuntary exclamation against Mrs. Ormont's folly. How then can you be happy? continued Virginia. If I am so ingrateful as to say I do not love you, that I do not love you, oh that I cannot say, for I do love you better than any one living, except my father, and with the same sort of affection that I feel for him. You ask me to tell you the secret feelings of my heart. The only secret feelings of which I am conscious is a wish not to marry unless I could see in reality such a person as, but that I knew was only a picture, a dream, and I thought that I ought at least to sacrifice my foolish imaginations to you, who had done so much for me. I knew that it would be the height of ingratitude to refuse you, and besides, my father told me that you would not accept of my fortune without my hand, so I consented to marry you. Forgive me, if these were wrong motives, I thought them right. Only tell me what I can do to make you happy, as I am sure I wish to to that wish I would sacrifice every other feeling. Sacrifice nothing, dear Virginia. We may both be happy without making any sacrifice of our feelings, cried Clarence, and transported at regaining his own freedom. Virginia's simplicity never appeared to him so charming as at this moment. Dearest Virginia, forgive me for suspecting you for one instant of anything unhandsome. Mrs. Ormond, with the very best intentions possible, has led us both to the brink of misery, but I find you such as I always thought you, ingenuous, affectionate, innocent. And you are not angry with me, interrupted Virginia with joyful eagerness, and you will not think me ungrateful, and you will not be unhappy, and Mrs. Ormond was mistaken? And you do not wish that I should love you, that I should be your wife, I mean? Oh, don't deceive me, for I cannot help believing whatever you say. Clarence Hervey, to give her a convincing proof that Mrs. Ormond had misled her as to his sentiments, immediately avowed his passion for Belinda. You have relieved me from all doubt, all fear, all anxiety, said Virginia, with the sweetest expression of innocent affection in her countenance. May you be as happy as you deserve to be. May Belinda is not that her name. May Belinda. At this moment Lady Delacour half opened the door exclaiming, Human patience can wait no longer. Will you trust me to explain for you, dear Virginia? said Clarence. Most willingly, said Virginia, retiring as Lady Delacour advanced. Pray, leave me here alone, whilst you, who are used to talk before strangers, speak for me. Dare you venture, Clarence? said her ladyship as she closed the door. To leave her alone without picture, you are no lover if you be not jealous. I am not jealous, said Clarence. Yet I am a lover, a passionate lover. A passionate lover! cried Lady Delacour, stopping short as they were crossing the antechamber. Then I have done nothing but mischief. In love with Virginia I will not, cannot believe it. In love with Belinda cannot you, will not you believe it? My dear Clarence, I never doubted it for an instant. But are you at liberty to own it to anybody but me? I am at liberty to declare it to all the world. Oh, you transport me with joy! I will not keep you from her a second, but stay. I am sorry to tell you that, as she informed me this morning, her heart is not at present inclined to love, and here is Mrs. Margaret Delacour, poor wretch in this room, dying with curiosity. Curiosity is as ardent as love, and as good a claim to compassion. As he entered the room, where there were only Mrs. Margaret Delacour and Belinda, Clarence Hervey's first glance, rapid as it was, explained his heart. Belinda put her arm within Lady Delacour's, trembling so that she could scarcely stand. Lady Delacour pressed her hand and was perfectly silent. And what is Miss Foltman to believe? cried Mrs. Margaret Delacour. When she has seen you on the very eve of marriage with another lady, the strongest merit I can plead with such a woman as Miss Foltman is, that I was ready to sacrifice my own happiness to a sense of duty. Now that I am at liberty, now that you are at liberty, interrupted Lady Delacour, you are in a vast hurry to offer your whole soul to a lady who has for months seen all your merits with perfect insensibility and who has been notwithstanding all my operations stone-blind to your love. The struggles of my passion cannot totally have escaped Belinda's penetration, said Clarence. But I, like her, a thousand times the better for not having trusted merely to appearances. That love is most to be valued which cannot be easily won. In my opinion, there is a prodigious difference between a warm imagination and a warm heart. Well, we have all of us seen Pamela Mary Tata, let us now see Belinda in love, if that is possible. If, forgive me, this last stroke, my dear, in spite of all my railery I do believe that the prudent Belinda is more capable of feeling real permanent passion than any of the dear sentimental young ladies whose motto is all for love or the world well lost. That is just my opinion, said Mrs. Margaret Delacour. But pray, what has become of Mr. Hartley? Looking round. I do not see him. No. For I have hid him, said Lady Delacour. He shall be forthcoming presently. Dear Mr. Clarence Herbie, what have you done with my Virginia? Said Mrs. Ormont, coming into the room. Dear Mrs. Ormont, what have you done with her? replied Clarence. By your mistaken kindness, by insisting upon doing us both good against our wills, you were very near making us both miserable for life. But I blame nobody. I have no right to blame anyone so much as myself. All this has arisen from my own presumption and imprudence. Nothing could be more absurd than my scheme of educating a woman in solitude to make her fit for society. I might have foreseen what must happen, that Virginia would consider me as her tutor, her father, not as her lover, or her husband, that with the most affectionate of hearts she could for me feel nothing but gratitude. Nothing but gratitude! repeated Mrs. Ormont, with a degree of amazement in her countenance, which made everybody present smile. I am sure. I thought she was dying for love of you. My dear Belinda, whispered Lady Delacour, if I might judge of the colour of this cheek, which has been for some moments permanent crimson, I should guess that you were beginning to find out of what use the sun is to the dial. You will not let me hear what Mr. Hervey is saying, replied Belinda. I am very curious. Curiosity is a stronger passion than love, as I told him just now, said Lady Delacour. In spite of all his explanations, Mrs. Ormont could not be made to comprehend Virginia's feelings. She continually repeated, But it is impossible for Virginia or for anybody to be in love with a picture. It is not said that she is in love with a picture, replied Mrs. Delacour. Though, even for that, I could find you a precedent. My Lady Delacour, said Mrs. Ormont, were you explain to us how that picture came into your possession, and how it came here, and ensured all that is to be known about it? I explain, explain, my dear Lady Delacour, cried Mrs. Delacour. I am afraid I am grown almost as curious as my Lady Boucher. Explain, explain. Most willingly, said Lady Delacour, To Mariette's ruling passion for birds, you are all of you indebted for this discovery. Some time ago, whilst we were at Twickenham, as Mariette was waiting at a station as to bid her last adieu's to a bullfinch, a gentleman came into the shop where she and Bobby, as she calls this bird, were coquettting, and the gentleman was struck even more than Mariette with the bullfinch. He went almost distracted on hearing a particular tune which the bird sang. I suspected from the symptoms, that the gentleman must be, or must have been, in love with the bullfinch's mistress. Now the bullfinch was traced home, to the Seat of Arm, Virginia Saint Pierre, the present Miss Harley. I had my reasons for being curious about her loves and lovers, and as soon as I learned the story from Mariette, I determined, if possible, to find out who this stranger, with the strange passion for bullfinches, might be. I questioned and cross-questioned all those people at the stationers who were present when he fell into ecstasies, and from the shopman who had been bribed to secrecy. I learned that our gentleman returned to the stationers the day after he met Mariette, and watched till he obtained a sight of Virginia, as she came to her window. Now it was believed by the girl of this shop, who had lived for some time with Mrs. Ormont. Forgive me, Mr. Hervey, for what I am going to say. Forgive me, Mrs. Ormont. Scandal, like death, is common to all. It was believed that Virginia was Mr. Hervey's mistress. My stranger no sooner learned this than he swore that he would think of her no more. And after bestowing a variety of seamen's execrations upon the villain, who had seduced this heavenly creature, he departed from Twickenham, and was no more seen or heard of. My inquiries after him were indefatigable, but for some time unsuccessful, and so they might have continued, and we might have been all making one another unhappy at this moment, if it had not been for Mr. Vincent's great dog, Juba, Miss Annabella Luttonridge's Billedoo. Sir Philip Badley's insolence, my Lord Delacour's belief in a quack balsam, and Captain Sunderland's humanity. Captain Sunderland? Who is Captain Sunderland? We never heard of him before, cried Mrs. Ormond. You shall hear of him, just as I did, if you please, said Lady Delacour. And if Belinda would submit to hear me, tell the same story twice. Here her ladyship repeated the history of the battle of the dogs, and of Sir Philip Badley's knocking down Juba, the man for struggling in defence of Juba, the dog. Now, the gentleman who assisted my Lord Delacour in bringing the disabled Negro across the square to our house was Captain Sunderland. My Lord summoned Mariette to produce Lady Boucher's infallible balsam that it might be tried upon Juba's sprained ankle, whilst my Lord was intent upon the balsam. Mariette was intent upon Captain Sunderland. She recollected that she had meant him somewhere before, and the moment he spoke, she knew him to be the gentleman who had fallen into ecstasy in the shop at Twickenham above the bullfinch. Mariette hastened to me with the news. I hastened to my Lord, made him introduce Captain Sunderland to me, and I never rested till he had told me all that I wanted to know. Some years ago, just before he went to see, he paid a visit to his mother, who then lodged with a widow Smith in the new forest. Whilst he was there, he heard of the young beauty who lived in the forest with a grandmother, who was not a little particular, and who would not permit anybody to see her. My Captain's curiosity was excited one day. Unseen by the Dwayner, he obtained a distinct view of Virginia, watering her roses and tending her bees. Struck with her uncommon beauty, he approached carefully to the thicket in which the cottage was enclosed, and found a layer where he concealed himself, day after day, and contemplated at leisure the budding charms of the fair Woodnymph. In short, he became so enamoured that he was determined to gain admittance at the cottage and declare his passion. But to his honour be it told, that when the history of the poor girl's mother, and the situation and fears of the old lady, who was her only friend, were known to him in consideration of the extreme youth of the ward, and the extreme age of her guardian, he determined to defer his address till his return from the West Indies, whither he was shortly to sail, and where he had hopes of making a fortune, that might put him in a situation to render the object of his affections independent. He left a bullfinch with Mrs. Smith, who gave it to Virginia, without telling to whom it had belonged, lest her grandmother might be displeased. I really thought that all this showed too nice a moral sense for a young dashing lieutenant in the Navy, and I was persuaded that my gentleman was only keeping his mistress's secret, like a man of honour. With this belief I regretted that Clarence Hervey should throw himself away upon a girl who was unworthy of him. I hope, interrupted Clarence, you are perfectly convinced of your mistake. Perfectly, perfectly! I am convinced that Virginia is only half mad, but let me go on with my story. I was determined to discover whether she had any remains of affection for this captain. It was in vain, he assured me, that she had never seen him. I prevailed upon him, to let me go on my own way. I inquired whether he had ever had his picture drawn. Yes, he had for his mother. Just when he first went out to sea, it had been left at the widow's mitts. I begged him to procure it for me. He told me it was impossible. I told him, I trampled on impossibilities. In short, he got the picture for me, as you see. Now, thought I, if he speaks the truth, Virginia will see this picture without emotion, and it will only seem to be a present for Clarence. But, if she had ever seen him before, or had any secret to conceal, she will betray herself on the sudden appearance of this picture. Things have turned out contrary to all my expectations, and yet better. And now, Clarence, I must beg you, will prevail on Miss Hartley to appear. I can go on no farther without her. Lady Delacour took Virginia by the hand the moment she entered the room. Will you trust yourself with me, Miss Hartley? said she. I have made you faint once today, by the sight of a picture. Will you promise me not to faint again, when I produce the original? The original, said Virginia. I will trust myself with you, for I'm sure you cannot mean to laugh at me, though perhaps I deserve to be laughed at. Lady Delacour threw open the door of another apartment. Mr. Hartley appeared, and with him, Captain Sunderland. My dear daughter, said Mr. Hartley, give me leave to introduce you to a friend, to whom I owe more obligations than to any man living except to Mr. Hervey. This gentleman was stationed some years ago at Jamaica, and in a rebellion of the Negroes on my plantation he saved my life. Fortune has accidentally thrown my benefactor in my way. To show my sense of my obligations is out of my power. Virginia's surprise was extreme. Her vivid dreams, the fond wishes of her waking fancy, were at once accomplished. For the first moment she gazed as on an animated picture, and all the ideas of love and romance associated with this image rushed upon her mind. But when the realities by which she was surrounded dispelled the illusion, she suddenly withdrew her eyes and blushed deeply, with such timid and graceful modesty as charmed everybody present. Captain Sunderland pressed forward, but was stopped by Lady Delacour. Ev'en, thou real lover, cried she. None but the shadow of a man can hope to approach the visionary maid. In vain has Meriton forced his way through the bushes and briars. In vain has he braved the apparition of the lion. There is yet phantom barrier apparently impassable between him and Mrs. Yarotilda. For he is in the world of shadows. Now mark me, Meriton. Hurry not this delicate spirit, or put chance you frighten and lose her, for ever. But have patience, and gradually, and gracefully, she will venture into your world of realities. Only give her time. Time? Oh yes! Give me time! cried Virginia, shrinking back. My dear Miss Hotley, continued Lady Delacour. In plain prose to prevent all difficulties and embarrassments, I must inform you that Captain Sunderland will not insist upon prompt payment of your father's debt of gratitude. He has but one quarter of an hour to spend with us. He is actually under sailing orders, so that you will have time to compose your mind before his return. Clarence, I advise you to accompany Captain Sunderland on this cruise, don't you, Melinda? And now, my good friends, continued Lady Delacour. Shall I finish the novel for you? If your ladyship pleases, nobody can do it better. Said Clarence Irving. But, I hope you will remember, dear Lady Delacour, said Belinda, that there is nothing in which novelists are so apt to air, as in the hurrying things toward the conclusion, in not allowing time enough for that change of feeling, which change of situation cannot instantly produce. That's right, my dear Belinda, true to your principles to the last gasp, fear nothing, you shall have time enough to become accustomed to Clarence. Would you choose that I should draw out the story to five volumes more? With your advice and assistance I can with the greatest ease, my dear. A declaration of love, you know, is only the beginning of things. There may be blushes and sighs and doubts and fears and misunderstandings and jealousies without end or common sense, to fill up the necessary space and to gain the necessary time. But if I might conclude the business in two lines I should say, you gods annihilate both space and time and make four lovers happy. Oh, that would be cutting matters too short, said Mrs. Margaret Delacour. I am of the old school, and though I could dispense with the description of Mrs. Harriet Byron's worked chairs and fine china, yet I own. I like to hear something of the preparation for a marriage, as well as of the mere wedding. I like to hear how people became happy in a rational manner, better than to be told in the huddled style of an old fairy tale, and so they were all married, and they lived very happily at all the rest of their days. We are not in much danger of hearing such an account of modern marriages, said Lady Delacour. But how shall I please you all? Some people cry. Tell me everything. Others say that Le secret d'ennulier est loué d'etudier. Something must be left to the imagination. Positively I will not describe wedding dresses or a procession to church. I have no objection to saying that the happy couples were united by the worthy Mr. Morton, that Mr. Percival gave Belinda away, and that immediately after the ceremony he took the whole party down with him to Oakley Park. Will this do? Oh, we may conclude, if you like it better, with a characteristic letter of congratulation from Mrs. Stanhope to her dearest niece Belinda, acknowledging that she was wrong to quarrel with her for refusing Sir Philip badly, and giving her infinite credit for that immurable management of Clarence Hervey, which she hopes will continue through life. Well, I have no objection to ending with the letter, said Mrs. Delacour. For last speeches are always tiresome. Yes, said her ladyship. It is so difficult, as the critic says, to get lovers off upon their knees. Now, I think of it, let me place you all in proper attitudes for stage effect. What signifies being happy unless we appear so? Captain Sutherland, kneeling with Virginia, if you please, Sir, at her father's feet. You in the act of giving them your blessing, Mr. Hartley. Mrs. Ormand clasps her hands with joy. Nothing can be better than that, madame. I give you infinite credit for the attitude. Clarence, you have a right to Belinda's hand, and may kiss it too. Nye, Miss Portman, it is the rule of the stage. Now, where's my Lord Delacour? He should be embracing me to show that we are reconciled. Ha! Here he comes! Enter, Lord Delacour, with little Elena in his hand. Very well. A good start of surprise, my love. Stand still. Pray you cannot be better than you are. Helena, my love.  They're quite pretty and natural now. Lady Delacour, to show that she is reformed, come forward to address the audience with a moral, a moral. Yes. Our tale contains a moral, and no doubt you all have wit enough to find it out. March 2011, End of Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth.


to a close and it has been a doozy, but then so is 2021 and 2020 for that matter. Today we're going to run down the top stories from a low-tech perspective and explore what is, could and should be happening to get society to transition to a more sustainable future. This is the Low-Tech Podcast. Hello and welcome, I'm Scott Johnson from the Low-Technology Institute, your host for podcast number 62 on December 30th, 2023, coming to you from Hoth Ice Base. No, just kidding. It's Low-Tech Recording Booth in Cooksville, Wisconsin. Thanks for joining us today, we're reviving our tradition of a year-end news roundup. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter, our handle is at low underscore techno. Like us on Facebook, find us on Instagram, subscribe to us on YouTube and check out our website, lowtechinstitute.org, there you can find both of our podcasts as well as information about joining and supporting the Institute and its research. Also some podcast contributors, but ads on podcasts, unless you hear me doing the ad, someone else is making money on that advertising. While all of our podcast videos and other information are given away freely, they do take resources to make. If you're in a position to help support our work and be part of this community, please consider becoming a monthly supporter for as little as $3 a month through our Patreon page, patreon.com slash low-techinstitute. Another way to support is to donate your used car. Anyone in the US can contact us and your used car will be picked up, sold and the proceeds come our way. If you're interested in helping us out, get in touch with us at info at lowtechinstitute.org. If you'd like to sponsor an epitode directly, please get in touch with us through our website, lowtechinstitute.org. This year has a lot going on and we're going to cover the Russian invasion of Ukraine, COP 27, the continued COVID pandemic and others like monkeypox and RSV, humankind returning to the moon, the so-called fusion breakthrough, Elon Musk inflation, climate related disasters and then we'll wrap up with a cute animal story. We are not going to cover some of the most talked about stories like the Uvaldi shooting, the overturning of Roe versus Wade, queen dying, anything related to former President Trump or other minor events. And I say minor even though these are really big deals, but compared to the existential crisis the world is facing, these simply rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic as the saying goes. In other words, I don't care about what Elon Musk does with Twitter, but we will talk about other work as it is relevant. After months of preparations, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has launched a major military operation against Ukraine. In the spring, Russian invaded Ukraine to increase its land holdings after annexing Crimea and parts of the disputed Donbas region. Surprising the world, Ukraine stood up defenses, at first comprised of their standing army, hasty conscripts and improvised tactics. When it became clear that Ukraine would hold, much of the world began providing military aid to help the independent country remain independent. This invasion has ramifications for people around the world as Ukraine and Russia were huge suppliers of wheat, corn and fertilizer. You can hear more about this on episode 48, where I discuss this impending problem with William Mosley. Since that May 27th interview, the cost of fertilizer has come down from its high point in early 2022, but ammonia is still double or triple what it was January 2021. Although supply from Russia is an issue, the more strongly tied correlate is natural gas prices, which have risen steadily since last winter. By July, wheat prices had dropped from a high of almost $13 a bushel down to a hover in the $8 range for much of the rest of the year, and although better, this is still higher than in the previous year. But what does this mean for a low-tech future? It points to the need to decentralize production of staples. Depending on the long-distance transportation network of staples is inherently dangerous. We've only done it because of the dirt cheap mobility due to oil. As the future has less of this available, we'll have to be sure that we can produce staples close to home and in a variety of locations, so that if something catastrophic happens in one location, it won't mean widespread hunger. We need all hands on deck for faster, bolder climate action. A window of opportunity remains open. COP 27 was held in Egypt this past summer, and aside from all the attention on dignitaries flying on private jets and the notable lack of protesters in this restricted environment, the nation did have a few tangibles. On the negative side, no real movement away from fossil fuels could be agreed to, but on the plus side, loss and damage reparation funds for developing countries has become a realistic goal. But then, carbon markets remain voluntary, and larger emitters are not pulling their weight. The biggest headline is that countries still largely support the 1.5-degree Celsius target, but now our most are looking at adaptation instead of mitigation. Countries have agreed the climate change express has left the station and it's too late to stop it. Unfortunately, this outcome was heavily influenced by the more than 600 fossil fuel representatives taking part. Instead of promising to phase out their use as climate scientists recommend, they're now going to be quote-unquote phased down. For a low-tech future, meetings like these are largely window dressing. We face a global systemic problem with climate change and the continued use and dependence on oil. Although the best solution would also be a large-scale systemic one in line with the creation of the problem, we are not going to see enough change from the top to make this needed difference. Unfortunately, as the world continues to exist in a mode that forces people to participate in using fossil fuels to engage with the world, it makes it incredibly difficult to transition away from fossil fuels without huge individual costs. This is why we always talk of creating parallel support systems for yourself, your household or your community, alongside your existing way of life. That makes the transition to the new support system smoother and easier than if we were forced to make a radical change immediately. We can't control what national or international bodies do, even if we advocate with them for the changes we want. Most of us will create more positive change where we are and within our communities by doing something tangible and at a human scale. A so-called tridemic is threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems across the country. COVID and other pandemics continue to sweep through the nation after a year of almost no illness in the family and our own family due to isolation. Then a year of on again, off again, colds and COVID. Now we're just in a cycle of continuous stuffy noses around the house and we're pretty average, it seems. This year, Omicron made COVID more transmissible, but less deadly and Monkeypox, now known as Mpox, gained great media attention while only infecting a small number nationally. And then all at once RSV hit many young kids who had not been exposed to it before creating a tsunami of risk, of sick munchkins in the hospitals. And although much of the current so-called tridemic is just media hyping up infectious disease numbers because we've all become more aware of them in the last two years, we are in the midst of early winter, cold flu and everything else season. And as it gets colder, we stay inside and we insist on spreading germs by sharing turkeys and gifts with one another. I'm mostly joking because after years of isolation, it is nice to get sick without having to worry about risking the lives of grandparents to see them this holiday season. A low-tech future will also see pandemics. One downside is that our current medical system depends so heavily on single use, centrally produced and long distance transported goods for everything from syringes to PPE. And without redundant local sustainable production, healthcare will have to pivot hard. On one hand, it would take longer for diseases to spread across the globe if people are reduced to slower travel methods and volumes. As long as our communication system is maintained, we can be prepared and weather pandemics, which will continue to crop up and surprise us. The better we deal with problems, we can see coming, like climate change and fossil fuel transition, the better we will be able to deal with unforeseen disasters because we'll have that extra bandwidth. The agency is currently targeting, no earlier than Monday, August 29th, for liftoff of the Space Launch System rocket that will propel the Orion spacecraft on its mission around the moon and back to Earth. Humans are returning to the moon. This year, Artemis-1 already went up and around the moon, splashing down in December. In 2024, a crewed flight will circle the moon, followed in 2025, by a crew landing on the moon for a week-long mission. The total cost of this is estimated at $93 billion and is seen as a stepping off point for a mission to Mars. I honestly go back and forth on space missions. Having a focused and serious goal, plus the funds to achieve it can create really wonderful scientific discoveries, both in the targeted research and through happy accidents in the process, including smartphone cameras, truck fairings, baby formula, Lasik, temper foam, the bow flex, solar panels, and more. It's something special to see the combined effort and hundreds of thousands of hours of work that go into putting a person on the moon. NASA and supporters point to the surprise discoveries as an additional point towards this investment. The $93 billion to go to the moon is a drop in the federal budget. Almost $700 billion are spent on defense each year. A year of universal health care would cost us about, sorry, $450 billion, and we spend about $513 billion on it right now with our private system. Amazon will likely be spending $1 billion on making the Lord of the Rings rings of power series. So how do we compare all these things? I'm not really sure, $93 billion. So a low-tech future, though, is unlikely to finance moon shots. We can make accidental discoveries by spending a lot of money on other projects, projects that solve real-world problems that could have a lot of money dumped into them instead, creating small distributed energy systems or developing a low-input crop that would be useful in a localized future. Just at the end of the year, we had the so-called fusion breakthrough where a fusion reaction generated more energy than was put into it. The headline is that about 3.1 megajoules were produced with just 2.05 megajoules of applied laser energy. That's about enough energy to power my refrigerator for about three hours, or really about 0.875 kilowatt hours. But this really isn't the whole picture. A friend of mine who will remain anonymous used to work in the fusion project at the local university. He pointed me to the fact that 300 megajoules were needed to power the lasers to create that two megajoules of light to make the reaction go. So the true ratio of energy in to energy out is nowhere near even. So the question is, is fusion the future for a low-tech world? The sci-fi fan in me says, if we could make little fusion reactions that are fail-safe and could fit in a shed on each block, that'd be a great way to power our future. But like I commented on Twitter, we're already using fusion power here at the institute. We have these panels on our roof that capture radiation from the big fusion ball in the sky and create electricity. Recently, we created five times the amount of energy of the breakthrough. And that was on the winter solstice on a cloudy day. The realistic part of me says that wind turbines and other equipment that a regular handy person could build and maintain would be a better long-term option for power than depending on fusion. I could be wrong, but until that happens, I'm putting my eggs in the DIY basket instead of the one marked science will save us. In a historic vote last month, California state regulators agreed to ban the sale of any new-powered gasoline cars by 2035. Lately, Elon Musk has been in the news for his takeover of Twitter, but that's beyond the scope of what we spend time talking about here. Again, it makes no difference who owns Twitter unless it has bearing on how seriously people begin to take the transition. Now, the point of talking about Elon Musk is really to bring up electric cars. I've talked about how we can just switch everything to electric and continue as usual. Check out episode 53 for more on this. And while places like Europe are already set up with a better public transit infrastructure, the U.S. is special in that it has prided itself on its reliance on the use of private vehicles. But I'm not gonna opine on the morality of this. And while I think a robust electric light rail network connecting cities, suburbs, towns, and villages would cover the transit needs of many of us, if we think about the practicality of it, the U.S. is a big country with a dispersed population. Some areas are just gonna have to have individual vehicles. So is the electric vehicle the way to go? Is that what our future holds for us? Especially for those of us that are obligate drivers like us here in the country. For us, a low tech solution is one that a handy person could build, repair, and maintain in a reasonably equipped shop. Obviously, some machines need specialty tools and knowledge and the high end of low tech would be something that could be repaired in a community shop, perhaps with the help of another. Now in that scenario, could I build a lithium battery? No way. Are there other options? Absolutely. Right now, this very second, we could create biodiesel from underutilized resources. If we're making fuel from carbon that's in the active carbon cycle right now, we're not gonna be contributing to global warming. Climate change is driven by digging up sequestered carbon and putting it in the atmosphere. Turning algae into diesel and then burning it is just releasing the carbon absorbed by that algae that would have been released as CO2 when the algae died anyway. Better might be to create a biodigester and turn compost and other so-called waste materials into the equivalent of natural gas, a methane, and use that to power vehicles, which is reducing the emission of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. But that requires more complex machinery and know-how. What about, and stay with me here for a minute, hydrogen to power vehicles. Hydrogen has a terrible name because of the Hindenburg airships explosion, and well, it may seem dangerous to drive around with a tank of hydrogen just to consider that people already drive around with propane tanks and gallons of gasoline right now. Fuel contains a lot of energy, no matter how it's stored and any accident carries risks regardless. So aside from the safety perception, hydrogen is a great alternative. It's easy to make through electrolysis, which is basically two bare wires in a tank of water with current running through it. Bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen form on each lead as H2O separates into its constituent parts. The hydrogen can be collected and plugged into a modified internal combustion engine. The only exhaust from this vehicle is water vapor. People have built such systems in their own garages so this passes the low-tech test. Hydrogen cells could be swapped out at service stations, requiring less time than filling with conventional gasoline. But then, if we have light rail systems reaching far into the communities surrounding cities, we'd only need to drive to the nearest station, hop on our long-distance rail system, and long-distance drives would be less appealing than high-speed rail. And these can also be run by hydrogen cells, by the way. Inflation in the U.S. is the highest it's been in four decades. And new numbers out today give no reassurance it will let up soon. This year was also dominated by inflation, where a nonprofit and we do not take partisan sides on any issue. We point out facts related to things going on and can take positions, but we cannot, and I don't want to, advocate for any politician or party. Generally speaking, the right has argued that inflation is due to the government's spending and aid programs. The left blames the war in Ukraine for raising oil prices and by extension everything else, as well as supply chain issues such as China shutting down factories amid COVID outbreaks. A helpful article from NPR also points out that corporate profits have gone up at record rates throughout the price hikes, meaning that as costs rise for consumers, companies see it as an opportunity to raise their margins. Now, I am not an economist, but I do enjoy thinking and learning about these things. And it could be the case that everybody is right. Inflation is when too many dollars chase too few goods. So not only has the government spending added dollars to the equation, the war in Ukraine and Chinese factory shutdowns have made fewer goods available. It's both. What then is the low-tech answer to inflation? The more you can do for yourself at home, the better. Here's why. Imagine growing and canning tomatoes to put in your basement to eat over the winter. You have a quart of generic organic crushed tomato costs $2.49 at Madison's Whole Foods last February, but now it costs $3.39 each quart you canned is valued at almost a dollar more each. And obviously you're not gonna solve every economic woe in this way, but this is just to illustrate that as prices rise, the value of doing it yourself goes up. But, and this is the important part, it costs you the same amount of labor or work to do whatever it is you're doing. I didn't come up with this understanding. This is a guy named Ralph Borsodi, an economist who fled New York after the crash in the 1930s and took up homesteading. Hear more about him in Low-Tech Podcast, episode 25. We concentrate on growing the high value difficult to transport foods here in our own home, which means when costs go up, they hit those foods first. So we haven't really been affected by rising prices on meat, eggs, and other items. Honestly, of the products we do buy, it's just dairy products that have gone up noticeably for us. This does extend beyond food. The more you can take care of for by yourself, the less buffered by costs you'll be. From scorching heat waves to heavy flooding, extreme weather events have caused widespread upheaval with thousands of people killed and millions more displaced. The warming world was certainly felt this year. Europe experience is worse drought in 500 years, over two thirds of the continent. And China also had to shut down factories on the Yangtze Basin. Record flooding and wildfires were too common. What does this mean for a Low-Tech future? A changing climate means we have to be ready for greater variability in our planning. Instead of worrying about a drought every decade, it might be every few years. Areas with high rainfall might become drier and vice versa. Most areas will become warmer, which is especially true the farther north one travels. In 2018, Matt Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science put out a map projecting your current location forward 60 years into the future. I've linked to it in the show notes. Madison, Wisconsin, for example, in 2080, we'll feel like today's Kansas City, which is almost seven degrees warmer and 16% wetter. Each region will have to come up with a different approach, but overall that means abandoning some plants and varieties that don't grow well in the new regime and adopting new ones that can thrive. This likely means learning new skills and recipes to go along with the new plants. Our homes will likely need to be more resilient and for many of us built with cooling in mind as well as heating. We hope to talk about earth tubes in the future, which can cool a house in many places with just the use of a box fan, which draws much less energy than an AC. Dry areas can think about evaporative cooling and everyone can consider building architecture that is passively heated and cooled by its design rather than power. But I don't talk much about climate change explicitly for a few reasons. You can hear the whole argument in episode 43, but basically it's hard to motivate people for the vague threat of a few degrees warming in 50 years. Instead, people should think about how we're going to massively change our energy sources in the next 25 years, namely no longer using oil and gas. That has a palpable effect that people can imagine. Additionally, making systemic and individual changes now can help mitigate climate change. So really, we're after two birds with one stone, even though we focus mostly on the obvious bird about to hit us sooner. Governor of 1890 or wrote a letter saying that he was landed in 1882 fully grown and fully grown is about 50 years of age. Let's not end on a down note. Jonathan, the Seychelles tortoise turned 190 years old this year. He is the oldest living animal on the planet. In 1882, already 50 years old, Jonathan was brought to St. Helena where he continues to live on the grounds of the governor's mansion. Although blind and unable to smell, he happily ambles along with his mate, Emily. During his lifetime, practically every aspect of humans' lives have changed from chattel slavery and the U.S. ending through the entire reign of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II to World Wars, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union and much of the industrial and all of the digital revolution. Think about his life in this way. He lived before fossil fuels were a huge mode of power. Coal was just used in factories, but electricity was practically non-existent. He may well live past the end of the use of fossil fuels. If oil is no longer tenable in 25 years and we sunset natural gas and coal by coming to our senses, even if that takes 50 years, he'll still only be 240 years old, which is still 15 years shy of what may have been the longest-lived tortoise or any animal that we know of. It seems like changes on a large scale take forever, but I guess that's just the view from the short 70 to 80 years we as humans have on this planet. Or just enough, that is to see a third of Jonathan the tortoise's life. That's it for this week. The Lotech podcast is put out by the Lotech Knowledge Institute. The show is hosted and co-produced by me, Scott Johnson, and co-produced and edited by Hina Suzuki. This episode was recorded in the Lotech recording room in Coachville, Wisconsin. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, Stitcher, and elsewhere. We hope you enjoyed this free episode. If you'd like to join the community and help support the work we do, please consider going to patreon.com slash Lotech Institute and signing up. Thank you to our forester and land steward level members, Sam Brown, Mahill, and Scarfaud, and the Hambuses for their support. The Lotech Knowledge Institute is a 501c3 research organization supported by members, grants, and underwriting. If you'd find more information about the Lotech Knowledge Institute, membership, and underwriting at LotechInstitute.org. Find us on social media and reach me directly from Scott at LotechInstitute.org. Our inter music was lost on the freeway off the album, Lost by Hallezana. That song is in the public domain, and this podcast is under the creative comments, attribution, and share like license, meaning you're free to use and share it as long as you give us credit. Thanks, take care, and happy New Year.


Hey fam right you fear and today I'm at ahs gym And I wanted to give you a little tip of something I like to do to take some of my workouts to the next level So especially for chest a but I'm doing bench press I love to do a drop set and so that's basically where I put as much weight as I can on the bench press Do as many reps as I can then quickly change the weight Just lighten it just a little bit and then do as many reps as I can until I'm fatigued and keep dropping a little bit of weight at a time not stopping very much in between and just really fatigue the muscle and that's going to activate and Utilize muscle fibers that normally wouldn't get used and help your muscles grow even faster


Add perlite, sand, pumice, and ore stones to your potting mix. This will make your mix more porous and increase the drainage. You can also use a pot with drainage holes. The drainage holes will help you get rid of the excess water when you water your plants. And very important, bottom water. Fill up a container with water and stop marinating your plant. You can leave it there for 10 to 15 minutes. And once you're done, check it out so the excess water can drain down through the drainage holes. That way you keep the soil moist but not wet. Okay, see you in the next one!


id underline no problem but don't do lot of scribbling works here ok whatever you want to do do it in the loose sheets here ok in the margin in the margin maybe 1 or 2 roman letters or star whatever you feel like you can put ok and again very important I don't know how many of you practice this 15 10 this is the pattern of questions we are following anything may come 12.5 hour lamp 10 hour lamp 20 question 30 mark question can also come we don't know every 2 to 3 years UPSC changes the pattern so be prepared for the change also don't go with the mindset that it will be 10 marks only it is a 50 marks only just change the if when you saw question paper based on the marks just adjust accordingly ok that's it all the best you will have science will take science question so first Nithya Yoke with respect to the e vehicles so Nithya Yoke with respect to the e vehicles what is the question which is given in sense to evaluate critically evaluate the need to have the presence of electrical vehicles in India so first when it come for critical evaluation we need to speak with context what is given over there so Nithya Yoke is planning something what is planning in sense anyway by the year of 2030 they aim to have a 100% replacement that's the word Nithya Yoke aims to have 100% replacement of existing petroleum and diesel vehicles with the help of electrical vehicles so we need to have a cross check whether this 100% replacement is possible or not that's the reason we went for critical evaluation and once you are started to move towards electronic vehicle electrical vehicles in sense on the other hand we can able to have a reduction with respect to oil import so like that you can able to speak something about the recent recommendations given with the Nithya Yoke initial and after that for speaking about some 2 to 3 lines directly you can jump for the critical evaluation part critical evaluation the first thing is that in order to combat the environmental problems as well as to meet the target given by INDC so what is the thing given over here in sense transportation is one among the major important sector in India which consumes more amount of oil resources now in that case it has been estimated that once the whole country is going to have the presence of electrical vehicles by 2030 now what you can able to minimize in sense 67% is the report is saying that 67% of fuels can be saved along with that 37% of carbon dioxide emissions can be minimized so this is the promise what we have under the INDC so in order to meet the promise what we have under the INDC along with respect to the minimization of the fuel we need to go for the electrical vehicles that is the need positive what is the negative in sense the negative arises in the form of batteries because electrical vehicles purely they depend upon the batteries for their operation when come for a battery plenty of sizes is being available so lithium ion battery, lead acid batteries and cadmium batteries plenty of batteries available which is comfortable they can able to prefer for it but lithium ion is the most preferable one but you have other options also so now there comes a challenging task with the batteries what is the challenging task with the battery in sense with respect to the batteries recyclable huge question mark arises in the form of recycling huge question mark arises in the form of recycling without having the recycling simply if you are promoting with the electrical vehicle in sense it creates environmental problem e wastage so now since wide range of batteries is available all the batteries is not 100% recyclable natural lithium ion battery is 100% recyclable except lithium ion battery the other batteries lead acid and other things can't be have 100% recyclable so in that case the question mark arises in the form of recyclable negative what is the evolution is being done the evolution where the recycling and here you need to speak with respect to the steps what the government had taken in the aspect of missions or programs or the schemes so what is the step government had taken in sense under the mission innovation government is planning to establish recyclable centers government is planning to establish a recyclable centers in the major cities first they are going to establish the recyclable centers so once you are facing with respect to the non usage of the battery so in that case government itself taking a step to go for recycle already we have plenty of recyclable centers to be there but what is the problem with the recyclable centers in sense the recyclable centers is ready to go for recycling for the lead acid batteries and other batteries but where comes the problem in sense they are not ready to go for lithium ion batteries the reason is that the amount what they need to spend to recycle the lithium ion batteries will be 5 times more cost layer when compared to the purchasing of lithium in the form of a raw material itself raw material of lithium is cheaper rather than comparing with respect to recycle lithium and that is the reason the recycle centers is not ready to go for a recycling of lithium even though lithium ion batteries are 100% recyclable the amount what they need to venture for recycling is extreme so they cannot be able to go for the recycling with lithium they are preferring to utilize the raw material of lithium itself so now instead of defining the private players if government is taking a step to establish some recyclable centers in sense that could be the solution positive negative along with the solution here we are spoken and aspect of environment second what you can say in sense with respect to the make in India program make in India program so here as a part of make in India program what you can able to say in sense we are opening the doors for the new kind of automobile sectors new type of automobile sectors positive where comes a negative in sense already the existing automobile companies is being in the stressful condition so what is the stressful condition in sense they need to switch over to the bar stage 6 by 2020 that's the fastest they need to convert into the bar stage 6 by 2020 already the government had given the target now all the fund what they have in the hand had been invested to have a proper manufacturing of the stage 6 vehicle they had invested a lot now on the other hand if you are suggesting that the whole country need to have the presence of electrical vehicles by 2030 in sense all the companies will be in a condition not to lose their scope in the market anyhow they want to retain their name in the market so now they need to invest something in the R&D to manufacture the electrical vehicles when come for investment they don't have the fund now where they will be depending they will be depending upon the bank loans whether bank loans will be ready to provide them because already we have huge hike with respect to the NPA issues so even though the government is giving an opportunity to open the new kind of sector in the automobile sector they need to have setting up a capital amount to invest their R&D because the government is stressing them in two aspects one in the aspect of bar stage 6 on the other hand they need to go for the electrical vehicles too much amount of stress will be there in the case of the financial sector for the automobile companies what can be the critical evaluation sense setting kind of international banks like soft bank located in Japan this is a classic example soft bank which is located in Japan is providing the loan to the automobile companies who work for the eco friendly technology so now government of India need to channelize the fund from the soft bank and other multinational banks in order to promote the electrical vehicle technology in our country they are ready to offer the loan only to the eco friendly technology so now the government of India need to channelize this kind of a fund so now rather than depending with the Indian bank they can depend with respect to foreign banks also in this entire second point we are spoken in the aspect of economics first point we are spoken in the aspect of environment second point we are spoken in the aspect of economics with respect to the e-vehicles variety of batteries is being available among the different varieties of battery lithium ion battery the most preferrable one the reason is that volumetric capacity gravitational capacity volumetric capacity is more gravitational capacity is more discharge in time most important factors in this charging time this charging time is least so based upon this even though we are blessed with plenty of batteries lithium ion battery is the most preferrable one positive but where comes a negative insence The scope for producing lithium-ion battery in a domestic manner is a challenging task. The scope for producing the lithium-ion batteries in the domestic sector is a challenging task. So, if you cannot be able to produce this battery, the reason is that the entire vehicle, the entire vehicle 40 to 45 percentage of the vehicle cost will be bear by the battery. 40 to 45 percentage of the vehicle cost will be bear to the battery. In that case, rather than having a domestic production, simply if you are going to import this battery in sense, vehicle cost will be too high, it will not be an affordable price. So, that is a negative. What can be an evaluation? Go with respect to the recent budget, 2019 budget, what are they are given? Investment eco-friendly business, investment linked eco-friendly business will have a tax exception. So, complete tax exception is given if you are going to promote eco-friendly technology. So, positive, negative along with an evolution is there. So, now the companies and the startups who is planning to promote the eco-friendly technology can be focused with respect to the government initiative.  Third point we have spoken in the aspect of science. The Bloomberg finance report says that if the domestic production is getting increased, then the cost of electrical vehicles would be cheaper in Indian market when compared to the other countries in the world. This is the report is saying. So, whenever you are quoting setting up a thing, the production is getting less or the other things is getting cheaper, you need to quote from where you have been taking these kind of inferences. So, now electrical vehicles, what is the meaning conveyed over here in this, electrical vehicles would be cheaper in India when compared to the other companies, other countries in the world. The reason is that increase with the domestic production. So, now what happened in sense, vehicles is cheaper whether to be in an affordable condition in sense with respect to India, the affordable cap with respect to India if you are looking with respect to the per capita income, the per capita income is very less so that the electrical vehicles would not be in affordable portion for the public to purchase it. They can able to ready to purchase with respect to the other vehicles, but at the same time what happens in the per capita income is less. So, now at the rate of the per capita income, they would not be in a condition of affordable range. The affordability need to be compared with respect to the per capita income. By comparing you can able to say that what is that in the negative. What is an evaluation given over here, what is the GST for the electrical vehicles, 12 percentage, 12 percentage is the GST, on the other hand if you are moving for the luxurious vehicles for the petroleum and diesel vehicles, what is the GST, 43 percentage and you do not have a sales charge. Suppose if you are purchasing an electrical vehicle and you are going to involve in a commercial business, as a matter of promoting the commercial business, you need to move towards multiple states in the country. So, here government had offered in order to promote commercial business via electrical vehicles, national permit will be given and free of cost. The fourth point we are addressing the form of socio-economic condition, political condition. Let us go with the respect of political. In the aspect of a political condition, in order to meet the, we can able to have a synergize, national solar mission. We can synergize with the national solar mission. What is the target we have as per the national solar mission by 2022, 100 gigawatt. In order to meet this condition, what can be recommended in sense, electric vehicles batteries can be used for trapping the solar energy. So, rather than depending with the commercial power, they can able to depend with respect to the solar energy for the recharging, positive. So, what is the negative over here in sense, the negative is there in the form of infrastructure, lack of infrastructure. So, what is that infrastructure is required, integration of power obtained from the renewable energy resources to the national grid is the infrastructure required. So, you can have the plenty of renewable energy resources. Those kind of a power obtained from the renewable energy resources need to be interconnected with respect to the national grid. Do we have any such a kind of an infrastructure, right now, we are lacking with the infrastructure. What is the scope, what is an evolution? In order to fasten the green energy corridor project. We are fastening the green energy corridor project. Already we have kickstarted this project. It is happening, but not yet completed. We are estimated to complete with respect to this project by 2018. But unfortunately, it takes about some three more years. So, this project aims to interconnect the renewable energy resources with respect to the renewable power obtained from renewable energy resources with the national grid. So, this fifth point is addressed in the aspect of political. So, almost in the question you can able to find the diversification. Social point is there, technical point is there, political point is there, socio-economic is there. Further, if you want to speak in the aspect of commercialization marker, commerce point also you can able to take as a matter of addressing with the same India scheme, which aims to provide employment opportunities. There you can able to connect with the support of the green transport urban scheme. Even I can present it, but space won't be there. Sixth, the aspect of commerce you can able to speak with respect to the same India scheme, as well as with respect to the national automobile policy, 2026, which aims to provide 65 million job opportunities only in the EV sectors, positive is there. A negative as well as with respect to the evolution can be touched with respect to the transport scheme. One among the desired objective mentioned under this green urban transport scheme is that, it comes under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which aims to concept E-highways, E-highways. And recently, Ministry of Road Transport announced India is going to have the first E-highways, which will be running from Mumbai to Delhi. Still, if you have some amount of space to be left out, even you can able to extend your answer in the next dimension in the form of commerce. The next question with respect to the cyber-physical systems, cyber-physical systems. So, what is the cyber-physical system? Any idea? Interconnecting of three technologies, interlinking of three famous technologies known as cyber-physical system. What are those three technologies? Interconnection of IoT with big data, yes, AI is also there, big data along with AI. In general, CPS is claimed to be called as 3C technology. What are those three C stands for? Computational, communication, cognition. Computational will be related to big data, communication will be related to IoT, cognition will be related to AI. So, for this question, what they ask in sense, what is cyber-physical system? This explanation is more than enough. Suppose, if the question is being something different, explain cyber-physical system in sense, here need not to go for an explanation, this information is more than enough. Suppose, if the question is an explanation in sense, you need to speak about the file levels. Not recommend for this question, but in future try to know that, file levels is there with respect to the cyber-physical system. What are the file levels in sense?  So, you can use these levels, if the question seems to be in the form of explain. The question seems to be explain the cyber-physical system in sense, you cannot able to give it, you need to go with the file levels. So, here we do not have this word explain, simply what cyber-physical system? Okay. Further, we need to speak about the national mission of interdisciplinary cyber-physical system. So, what is the first thing said under the national mission on interdisciplinary cyber-physical system? It aims to establish 15 technological innovation hub. It aims to establish 6 application innovation hub and 4 technology translation research and scope is given in the aspect of technological development, skill development, business development, international collaborations. So, these are the four scopes what we have under the national mission on interdisciplinary cyber-physical system. So, first we are saying about what is cyber-physical system? Two lines is more than half. And slightly we need to touch up about the national mission on interdisciplinary cyber-physical system. Simply if you are speaking about these four, four to five point is more than half. So, hardly half of the page will be getting over. Still we have the presence of some amount of pages. So, one of pages will be there. In that case where we can able to use in sense, we can able to speak about the challenges and opportunities which is kept in front of this cyber-physical system in Indian society. So, what is opportunity? When you come for opportunity, you can able to go with the sector based opportunities. The agriculture sector, you can use CPS where you can able to have the presence of CPS. First of all, then only we can able to go for the opportunities. Wherever you have the condition to meet with the feedback loop mechanism, wherever you have setting up an application. The application need to have a feedback loop based operation. So, wherever you are expecting with the feedback loop based mechanism, there you can able to go with the application of CPS. Even with respect to the filling of our overhead tank, it is a kind of a feedback loop mechanism. So, once the tank is getting empty, what are need to be getting turned on? Once the tank is getting completely filled, what are need to be getting turned off? Like that wherever you have a scope for implementing the feedback loop mechanism, there you can able to suggest for the CPS. The thing is getting clear? So, now in case of an agriculture, you can able to go for the precision farming. So, plenty of technique is there with the precision farming. Whichever is comfortable, you can able to go for it. Second, with respect to the transportation, automatic traffic control system going to be there in India by 2025. Source, Ministry of Road Transport. Third, with respect to energy sector, smart meters, whether it came into life. Even in Chennai, Tinagar, we have the presence of smart meters. Already the test trail is happening. Go for the implementing CPS for the energy sector, health sector, precision diagnostics and treatment. You can have a regular monitoring condition of the passion. The passion might be present in some remote location, doctor might be there in the urban area. Without having a physical contact with the doctor and the patient, now the doctor can able to monitor the condition of the patient on a timely basis. So, precision diagnosis and treatment will be there. Like that we have plenty of scope. So, you can able to go with the sector based approach. And next thing what we have done this question is that challenges. What will be the primary challenge? Since all the three technologies is getting interconnected, definitely one challenge you can able to contribute. Data leakage, data leakage is happening. It gives a question mark for privacy. Further, the second thing is that computational arbitrations. So, what is computational arbitration instance? Before having the connectivity of three technology, first of all the technology need to observe what is happening in the physical condition. If you want to develop a setting of CPS in order to regulate the operation of AC in this room in sense, first it need to sense what is this temperature, what is the current temperature that we have in India. Because the temperature what we have in India won't be similar to the other countries. So, it need to sense with respect to global parameters, it need to sense with respect to other countries rather focusing with the global parameters. So now, computational arbitration is the next challenge. We don't have a uniform range of distribution of temperature throughout our whole country. That comes as second task. Third, technological barrier. So, what is required for CPS instance? We need to have an ad hoc networking system. We need to have an exclusive ad hoc networking system for the CPS. Fourth, it comes in the form of consistency. So, what you can able to address for the consistency instance, the data speed, power source, fifth problem arises in the form of human interaction. The inside of whom where you won't have second of abnormality with the human being interaction. But if you are opening for a, if you are opening the doors for a large scale areas application of CPS in the roadside for automatic traffic control system, application of CPS in the field of, in the battlefield there will be having more amount of human intervention. So, if you are applying this kind of technology in the battlefield, first you need to identify whether the person who is standing in front of the system is a kind of an enemy or is a kind of a friend. Otherwise, what will happen and since automatic firing will be happening. There comes a huge question mark for the military ethics. So, like that, these are the challenges. Like plenty of challenges there, nearly about some 10 challenges there. You have to go for all the 10. Five is more than a half. Proton therapy versus what is the current treatment we are having, conversion therapy x-ray. So, you have to go for comparative analysis. Just explain your concept in a correlated manner. So, proton therapy, what is happening in sense, we send only the proton beams. But over here we send pulses of x-rays. Proton therapy, why we need to speak about this therapy first of all, any kind of feature is there?  That is immunotherapy in noble price. Proton therapy in noble price. Exactly. India's first proton therapy center came into life in Chennai Akula hospital. Only 16 countries in the world is having this proton therapy. India's one among the 16 countries to have this technology. And the inauguration was given by our vice president. So, we cannot be able to consider as a simple news. It should be a kind of personal news. Since we are one among the country to have this technology. And along with the inauguration was done by the vice president. It is a special news. So, proton beams will be used. That we will be using with the x-rays. So, since the proton beams is used, how the approach will be there in sense, approach will be there in the form of targeted approach. Here we will be having the generalized approach, generalized approach. In case of a targeted approach, which cells alone will be getting targeted in sense, only the cancer cells alone will be getting targeted. But over there, cancer cells along with the healthier cells, both will be getting targeted. And next, in case of a proton therapy, what won't be witnessed, what won't be witnessed in sense, in case of proton therapy, apart from the cancer cell, it won't attack the other healthier cells. You need to contribute the reasons. The reason is that it follows a technique which is called as a Bragg's Curve Technique. Means that if you have a cancer cell, the proton beam will be projected towards a cancer cell. It will be targeting the particular site which is present, the tumor site. And even after penetrating into the cell, it won't come outside. So since it is not coming outside, along with the Bragg's Curve Technique, one more point also you can generate. What is generated in sense? No exit direct condition. So it will penetrate into the cancer cell. Even after having penetration into the cancer cell, it won't come outside. But over here, in case of an X-ray technique, we don't have this technique. No curve-based techniques as well as exit radiation will be more. In case of proton therapy, you won't have the possibility to develop the secondary cancers. So when we'll be supposed to have the secondary cancer? After the treatment. After the treatment, under the proton therapy, possibility to have a secondary cancer is not there. But in case of an X-ray treatment, possibility is there to have the development of secondary cancers. So almost this will be consuming about some own pages. The rest of the page you can be able to deal with is for the another treatment which is mentioned in the question. The name is immunotherapy. The reason to have this immunotherapy is that noble place was Abarak. The same X-ray therapy. You can use with respect to the previous point what we have spoken. But I can able to substantiate some points for the immunotherapy. X-ray therapy need not repeat one second. So what is happening in the immunotherapy incident? Under the immunotherapy, it aims to boost our own immune system. It boosts our own immune system. How our own immune system is getting boosted in sense as a matter of activating the T cells. So once this T cells is getting activated, what will happen is T cells is capable to bind the unwanted antigens. Now when you come for a treatment from the particular patient's body itself, you can able to take the antigens from his cancer cells. Antigen will be taken from cancer cells. And this antigen will be having a co-stimulation. We will have a co-stimulation with the T cells. So once it is going to have a co-stimulation with the T cells, now what happen? All the cancer cells which is present in your body will be getting destroyed by our own immune system. So once it is going to have a co-stimulation with the T cells, what will happen? We will have a co-stimulation with our own immune system. What is an estimative value instead? Single T cell will be in a position to destroy 10 lakh cancer cells. Single T cell will be in a position to destroy 10 lakh cancer cells. The T cells is a kind of immune cell what we have from the lymphatic nodes. Further, on the other hand if cancer cell is trying to attack the T cells, we need to have the precautionary step also. So during the type of treatment, during the time of treatment itself, the doctor will be advising the patient to intake immune inhibitors. These immune inhibitors will protect the T cells from the attacking of the cancer cells. So now who is possible to have a destruction sense?  In return, cancer cells won't be in a position to attack and destroy our T cells. The reason is that protection is given in the form of immune inhibitors. Some protein drug will be given. That protein drug will act as an inhibitors. So what is the major advantage over here? Radiation is not required. Radiation is not required. Even with the proton technique also, we can't be able to expert for 100% curing. But here 100% curing will be there. The reason is that treatment is given simply by boosting our own immune system. 100% curing is there. And third, no artificial drugs. Even the protein inhibitor is taken from his own body. And the treatment won't be a kind of a prolonged period of treatment. Treatment will be there for about 10 to 15 days. Hospitalization is required only for about 10 to 15 days. Instead of if you are going for a radiation technique and for a regular time period, you need to administer further radiation. But here 10 to 15 days is more than enough. Initial investment cost, since the technology is new, initial investment will be more. But once it is getting flurries, the rate of cost will be much cheaper when compared to other techniques.