Oh, yeah. How is everyone this fine Friday and or Saturday, depending on where in the world you are. I just found out that Antarctica, or at least the place my friend Craig is stationed in Antarctica, goes on New Zealand time. Not Australia time. Not Argentina time. New Zealand time. I have to ask him why. I did not ask him that yet, but it will. Good day, Clinton. Magandangumaga Oremand. Hi, Zoe. So I'm doing a couple of things right now. One is prepping the special Gotham Heights. What's up? Press prepping the special fiction book. I'm going to have to start saying fiction post for Hungry Earth on the substack, freetomnewsletter.com. And then, Clinton, I really hope it turns out you're you, but we just can't know until you get a letter. Yeah. So Hungry Earth is fiction. It's a novel that I'm serializing at freetomnewsletter.com. And so I need to figure, I need to schedule the post for tomorrow, which is what I'm doing right now. Chapter six. Ralph Lean back in his chair and grunted. Wait, that's chapter seven. Chapter seven. Ralph Lean back in his chair and grunted again. Actually, that's not. Hey, look, Chuckie. You drove from Illinois. Robert said aghast. I drove from Texas. Arturo interrupted annoyed. Why is it so hard to believe you drove from Illinois? Man, I might put three chapters in this one. Let's just see. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I'm going to put chapters six, seven and eight in this post. Can I change my clock at the end of March? Yeah.  That doesn't mean everyone else will. I know it's so annoying. Annoying that we don't that we change our clocks at all is annoying, but that we don't all change them at the same time. Extra annoying. Extra annoying. I'd like to view this post. I've already I edit the actual chapters earlier in the week. So today I'll have to do a schedule it, but then I have to put like all the links to the chapters at the top and head go ahead at the previous one and say. Next chapter coming soon. All right. I think that's everything though. This is for paid subscribers only hungry earth send to paid subscribers publish without preview. Goodbye. Your post is public.  I published it. I wasn't supposed to publish it. It was supposed to be scheduled for tomorrow. Oh, well, it's not the end of the world. Oops. I forgot what I was doing. Oh, good. Don't and then I need to go edit the previous post and put chapters six, seven and eight. Hello. Wabbit magic. Hello. Zoe brings bacon. Hello. Adam 12. The books will not be published until later this year because it's not. I'm not this is nonfiction, which is different than fiction, meaning that it is not done. It is not done actually being written. I haven't written it all yet. I've written large parts of it. So don't worry. It will happen. But yeah, I would I would assume shipping comes later this year when I did hitchhiker's guide through unbound. It was it was quite a while between funding and and receipt of the book. Hey, Howard. What's up? And thank you for doing that. I appreciate that. I think it's worth pointing out how many of you know that I have the tech newsletter that goes out every every day. So I'll do a little preview of that case. Some of you don't know that it's there. Let me present that share of the screen is. So here's today's the idea with this is if you want to get my takes unfiltered, not just the takes on the on the show where I'm playing more of a moderator and it's not like I don't give my takes on the show. But if you want my takes unfiltered, you look at this for example, we've got the reaction to Apple backflipping in Europe and saying, well, hold on. If you're going to investigate us, maybe we will let Epic have their developer account. My take on that in the newsletter is. Keep an eye on this because as soon as Epic doesn't properly dot an I across a T, they're going to get revoked as long as Apple thinks they have a legally justifiable reason. I think they realized they were on shaky ground when they just revoked it with on the idea of like, well, you need to give us more reassurance and Europe rightly said, I don't care what the court decision was in America. This isn't America. And so I think that it will, it'll be interesting to watch what Apple does to revoke Epic's developer account, which I think there's like an 87% chance of happening. Got good coverage of Huawei and SMIC and how you should not have counted Huawei out. That company is impressive. It's amazing that any company could bounce back when they were targeted as directly as they were by the United States. ZTE caved ZTE survives because ZTE caved in while we did not cave in and they have doubled down on the domestic market and they are killing it in the domestic market. China's China's economy is not great right now and smartphone shipments in general are declining, but Huawei's winning by leaps and bounds played a little bit on on patriotism, but but also just making very good machines. They were always good at making machines. That hasn't changed. And I think they're they're doing a good job of finding other markets. I would keep an eye on particularly African markets. I don't know how successful they can be in India, but I'd keep an eye on that. Certainly Southeast Asia. So take a look at that. Also, I'll be doing this one on DTNS today. The fact that the total eclipse in the US will be a problem for the power grids in a way it never has before because we have so much solar power involved in the power grids and also why an eclipse affects wind power. And then it just goes on from there. You know, the my take on the Trump claim against tic-tac, the Microsoft attack, the attack on Microsoft, VisionOS update, Reddit, Launch and Pro, etc, etc. Anyway, if you like that, you know what you can do? You can get it in your inbox every day. Actually, you can get it free once a week on Thursdays or every day if you want to pay a little for a subscription. Oh, right. This is what I'm working on mostly. Hey, Bill Meeks. What's going on? This is what I'm working on mostly today. Sinked, understand technology and make it work for you.  We'll be doing our production meeting, but this is this is taking up a lot of my my focus. Because the idea with this is that we fund it, then I finish writing it, then we publish it. So anything you can do and I know a lot of you have preordered it. Thank you so much for doing that. That's the biggest thing you can you can do to help. I guess I guess it's one of the biggest things you can do to help. Obviously, if you could, if you didn't preorder it, but you could convince four other people to preorder it, I guess that would be bigger. But yeah, I'm really excited about this. I've never done anything like it. I've done some tech history books, but never anything that was like, here, let me explain open AI here. Let me explain PGP. Let me let me help break through the foot so that that people can actually understand their technology. It's going to be good. It's going to be fun and there's some perks. So you get to send a question that would be featured on DTNS. There'll be a virtual meetup. There's some signed options, stuff like that. We might even roll in some other things down the line just to kind of get it over the get it over the 50 yard line. But yeah, I don't know. Apparently they say in the first 48 hours, having 8% funded is pretty good. They don't they don't follow the kicks. Unbound doesn't seem to follow the Kickstarter bell curve of like lots of people at the beginning and then low people and they they say they follow a more even pace throughout so that this is this is definitely on pace. But it makes me nervous not to see it closer to a hundred, you know, but that's just the way it's going to be at this time anyway. Yeah. Tom's new book.com. If you need the URL. This is this is me as in full shill mode as I get because man, I want this to succeed. I want this to work. So bad. All right. Let's get ready for. And any questions about the book or anything else? Let me know. Smata baby Smata Smata baby Smata. Uh, let's see management options. Enter prizes have wanted including support enterprise support for email context counter by you set it up and also the avatars should look better. Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan. The book has been powered by mostly coffee, some bacon. Thank you, Zoe. That's an excellent question. Yes. Firelighter 70, 24 pounds UK, not a 24 pound book. It is not that heavy, but it costs 24 pounds because unbound is a UK publisher. So that's why the price is in pounds sterling. Yeah, it would have been a very heavy. It would have been a very heavy book. If if that was not the case, there's a link missing in my newsletter and just noticed that to mitigate the attacks, mitigate, try not to hate. Don't suffocate. No, their book plate signings Howard. Good question. I don't have to go to the UK to sign the books. They will send me book plates. I will sign the book plates and then I send the book plates back. Then they put the book plates in the book Ernesto. Good luck on your homework. I hope it hope it all turns out A's or Outstandings or however they grade your homework. Happy Friday. Comedy is having a renaissance, but not necessarily just because people are funny. Variety reports that Netflix specials, COVID streaming numbers and social media in general have all been boons to modern comedians who formerly relied on comedy clubs, sitcom gigs or occasional specials on HBO if they were lucky to build their names. Today, comedians have other options to get the jokes out, so to speak. I'm sure Sarah will not read it like that. It'll be an ink signed copy. Firelighter. I mean, I'm probably misunderstanding what you're saying. I will sign the book plate with ink. It won't be stamped. It's just that the book plate will then go in the book if that makes sense. So I will hand sign. I will make each signature distinct and unique from the others. Um, but yeah, if you're like, what you mean is like, can you get one where I signed the actual page of the book instead of the book plate? There's not anything set up for that at this point. There might be, but there's not not yet. Thank you, Howard. I do appreciate you. I'm not going to lie. I tried to lobby for like, well, if you want to fly me out for an in person thing, I'd be willing. Yeah, they're like, yeah, that's a great idea. They were very nice about it. I very much enjoyed working with them so far and I didn't push it too much. Adam 12. The book is at Tom's new book dot com. Tom's new book dot com. Firelight or 70. I figured that's probably what you meant. Uh, so yeah, no, I mean, it's personally, again, it's personally signed. I will personally sign the book plate, but if I know what you mean, like having me sign your copy of the book directly, um, not an option for that yet. There's, it's really kind of a distinction without a difference. Cause I'm sent when I signed the book plate, it's the same exact thing as if I signed the page. It's just that it's not the book isn't in my hands at that point. And apparently this is Derigur for signed copies these days in the publishing world. Los mundos de publicados. Del publicados. Anyway, Delos publicados. I don't know. I'll say. I think let's see. Oh, I didn't do a, uh, on this episode of DTNS. The solar eclipse reveals solar power is prominence. That's a, that's a solar pun for those who get it. Why the solar eclipse reveals solar power is prominence. Ooh sang. That's a great idea. I'll try to remember to do that. Yeah. I'll, I'll live stream while I sign the book plates. That'd be great. I love that. Um, and Patrick Norton is here. Tell us how to avoid wasting money on GPUs in multiple ways. All right. Uh, okay. So there we go. That's that. That's yeah. Okay. I'm going to do the Thomas top five. I'm going to do get rid of four consideration. Oh yeah. Let me look at Patrick's notes. He's putting in notes right now. It looks like, uh, GPUs are flowing as in gosh darn. I remember when the island microcenter had two boxes. Now there's ton of, ton of inventory. Uh, MSRP is no longer a fantasy, but it's getting more rare. Um, most folks still game at 1080p. Using it good 1080p, build a relatively cheap 1080p machine. All right. Yep. The mail bag. Uh, what might we put in the mail bag? Who, who emailed? Raise your hand if you emailed. You know what? I think I might put Eric's email in here about getting a, a cast plus because I think a lot of people don't know that we have a cast plus. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. All right. Yep. I think that's good. That's going to be the mail bag. Did the template get out of whack for the mail bag? I feel like maybe yeah, it did. And definitely did. It's so weird. All right. And Kay, thanks to Lynn Peralta. Thanks to Patrick Norton. It's Friday quiz time. Get ready movie buffs. We see if you can recall the movies debuted these ground breaking computer generation animation technologies. This Tom Hanks movie was the first feature link film to you CGI to digitally composite Tom Hanks into a real person. Previously, Tom Hanks was merely an imaginary person. I'm gonna come out as a Tom Hanks and Denier on DTNS today. All right. I think that does it for me. I got to go to our production meeting. Any last questions? You got 30 seconds. Shoot PC Milesy. You just made it right at the end. Five. Is Joey Votto back? The former MVP is reportedly agreed to a non roster deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. More coming from Apple news. What if I do the entire show in that voice? Yay or nay? I'll wait. Korea and October C spawn September is hot. I've been there twice in September. Why did we go back in September? Cause it was Jungkook's birthday boat. Hot. Very hot. And the Yays have it. I will do the entire show in that voice. Maybe. Maybe I won't. We'll see. All right. Thanks everybody. I will talk to you in just about an hour. I leave you with this. Oh yeah. I could do the forties. Coming up on daily tech news show. Bye.


A nomination comes to the National Park Service. We are bound by federal regulation in how we handle nominations. A nomination is date stamped in, and we have 45 days to act upon that nomination. By acting on the nomination, we have a number of things that we can do. We can list the property as submitted. The nomination has come in complete. It has no technical problems. It has a good substantive argument for why the property is important. We list it. We can return the nomination to the nominating authority. If that property, if that nomination itself has technical problems or substantive problems. Let's say they have cited two national register criteria, but only defended one in their nomination narrative. We can send that back. We believe that the nomination or the property is eligible, but the nomination is not adequate. We can reject the nomination. The property that is submitted may not meet the national register criteria. It may not have sufficient historic integrity to reflect its importance. The rejection of nominations is very rare. The nominating authorities, states, federal offices and tribes are very good about weeding out properties that don't obviously meet the national register criteria. So it's very rare for us to outright reject a nomination. The final thing that we can do is determine a property eligible formally. So it is not listed, but the keeper of the national register has said that the property meets the criteria for listing. This often happens when owners or majority of the owners of a property object to its listing. When a nomination is prepared and submitted to a state, all owners are notified of this action and all owners are given an opportunity to comment, concur or object to the listing. If a majority of the private property owners object to the listing of that property, the process continues. We still review the nomination, but we do not list the property. In the future, if new property owners or those objecting property owners lift their objection, the property then can be listed.


In this module, we shall continue with our discussion on investing in shares and we would like to use a generic model of an Islamic equity fund to explain certain issues. We would not be going into a lot of details of Islamic equity fund management, but a rough sketch of what should be done to develop an Islamic equity fund or what fund managers do to set up a Sharia compliant equity fund. The first step is to identify an Islamic universe. Islamic universe of stocks. In case of Pakistan, for example, PSX publishes a list of Sharia compliant stocks listed on PSX. That is what we mean by an Islamic universe. So if a fund manager is looking to set up Pakistan Islamic equity fund, the relevant Islamic universe for that fund manager would be the Sharia compliant stocks listed on PSX. So you have to identify an Islamic universe. If it's a global equity fund, then the fund manager can pick up one of the universes identified and developed by MSCI, S&P Dow Jones or some other index providers in the domain of Islamic asset management. So it all depends what you want to do. Second is you have to decide on your Islamic investment criteria as well as your other financial investment criteria. In many ways, if you have already identified an Islamic universe, if it was PSX Islamic universe, then you have already agreed with the Sharia screening methodology as adopted by PSX. So you don't have to worry about an Islamic investment criteria. This is already there. So you would be focusing on only financial investment criteria. So what kind of approach you want to take for the management of the stock. Then comes stock portfolio. So this Islamic universe might have 50 stock or 100 stock or in case of a global universe, it could have 50,000 Sharia compliant stock. As a fund manager, you are going to pick only a handful of stocks to be put into your fund. So based on your investment criteria, you would pick up stocks. The stocks which you think are going to be good for your profitability i.e. the profitability of the fund. So you would do stock picking. This is called stock picking. When you adopt a benchmark, a backtrack performance, so you have a benchmark. For example, you say this is Pursi Global Islamic Equity Index. This is your benchmark. What does this mean? You are telling the investors that I am attempting to emulate the performance risk return profile of this benchmark. Either I am going to emulate it or I am going to beat it by few basis points. Always my performance is a little better. And then you backtrack performance of your portfolio. In order to convince the investors, you actually get the historical data on those stocks. And for example, if you have 15 years backtrack performance, you will be using 15 years data on those stocks and to see what would have been the performance of your portfolio. And whether this was better than your benchmark or not. If it was better, you can always say that had I constructed this portfolio 15 years back, my performance would have been this much today, i.e. if I had offered this fund to you 15 years ago and if you had invested $1 with me, your this $1 would have become $15 for example. So this is step number three. Step number four is now you have done all your homework. You have identified your portfolio. You have done backtrack performance. Then you would go to a big investor for seed investment, a big investor who might be willing to pay 15 to put $15 million into your fund, $30 million normally for a global equity fund, a minimum is about $30 million US dollars into the fund in the form of seed investments to ensure that the portfolio generates some return. And once you have got the seed investor, then you start marketing this to general public. Anyone you would like to sell this fund to when I say sell this fund to shares into this fund, you will be starting marketing of your fund. And if you are lucky, you will get quite a few good investors. And it may very well be the case that you have got quite decent AUM assets under management, which is also called the size of the fund. In case of Pakistan, there are certain banks which have started which which offer Islamic funds, and they are managing a lot of money for wealthy and institutional investors in Pakistan in a Sharia compliant way.


Across sections of students' leaders in Oregon State have appealed to Governor Dacoab Yodon to rescue them from attacks, alleging that the governor's aid on students' affairs, Adeyemi Aziz, assaulted them during a meeting in Abelkuta, the state capital. The students' leaders disclosed that Adeyemi stormed the venue of their meeting with a large number of fogs who inflicted various degrees of injuries on them and damaged their cause. The essay on student matters to the governor, Prince Dr. Dacoab Yodon, has turned himself to Maima, has turned himself to killer of dreams and he has be shazing us up and down in the state. We could recall that last year, one of the student leaders, Comrade Sam Rich, was kidnapped at Agawoye. This event was traceable to no one than Comrade Adeyemi Aziz, the essay to the governor on student matters. We could also recall vividly, Comrade Bikou of Taishula College of Education, sometime in 2002 years ago, was also kidnapped at Abuja Nance Convention. All efforts made by all quarters to hear out these plagues that Comrade Adeyemi Aziz is spoiling the name and the good work of our dear governor. Two days ago, the governor addressed the elderly statement of the state that he has declared autism, gangsterism and tuggery as a terrorist act in Ogustate, but the first is the case if the essay to the governor is still abhorring cultists at the state legislative quarters


Hey, this is Brett and this 2015 Chevy Silverado 3500 Crew Cab Long Box Dual Rear Wheel LTZ is stock number 13775Z. I am here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. You're new and used heavy-duty truck headquarters. This 2015 Chevy Silverado has the 6.6 liter Duramax diesel engine. It is the LML engine, which puts out 397 horsepower and it's paired up with the Allison heavy-duty 6-speed automatic transmission. This truck has been fully-safetyed and inspected by our service shop has a fresh oil and filter change. All the fluids have been checked and topped off and it is 100% ready to go. I'm going to go all the way around on this vehicle inside underneath. Start it up and take a look under the hood to give you the most accurate representation possible. Tungsten Metallic is the color and I show all my videos in 4K and if you like the video, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is youtube.com slash summit auto. Click the bell notifications. You'll get updates on the videos I do each and every day as well as access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walk-arounds on YouTube. So that's really neat. It comes with the polished aluminum wheels and it has Michelin LTX tires. These are LT 235 ADR 17s and they have, I would say, probably about 80 to 90% of the tread left on them. Frame and underbody, other than a little bit of surface rust on there, not too bad. Front fender is in great shape. It has insinidense or dings in there. It comes with the factory fog lights, chrome bumper, front bumper parking sensors. You get the chrome trimmed grille as well and the hood is in fantastic condition as well. I didn't see any dents on there. Passenger side front fender looks really good too and the passenger side front wheel, no major scuffs or scrapes on there. As you go down this side of this 2015 Chevy Silverado 3500, take note of how clean that body is, how reflective and mirror-like that paint is. I take these HD videos, so if you are far away or even if you're close by and you just cannot make the trip down, but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle, you can see the truck, hear the truck and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here, there's absolutely no surprises and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at. If this video helps you make that buying decision, let your salesman know that you saw the video, that it was helpful and that Brett sent you and then I can keep doing these videos for all of our amazing customers. Back wheels in nice shape and the back tires have, I would say, just as much tread as those front tires. Frame and underbody is in really nice shape. Whenever you're looking at trucks, you always want to look at the box rails, which are those things right there and those are in great shape. Didn't see any corrosion on them. Has the factory exhaust, nothing's been altered, so that's good and for the most part looks really good underneath. Lower rocker's cab corners are in nice shape as well. Comes with the factory chrome step bars. Dualy tub is in pretty nice shape. I didn't see any major dents or dings on it coming around to the back. The rear bumper is in great condition. You get the backup parking sensors. Full towing package, which includes a receiver hitch, four pin end, seven pin wiring and the tailgate is in fantastic condition. Didn't see any dents or dings on there. It does come with a very nice drop-in bedliner, goose neck hitch and seven pin wiring back here. That bedliner goes onto the tailgate as well, which is nice and that shuts nice and solidly. Coming around the driver's side, dualy tub looks good, no dents on there and for full disclosure, there's back wheel just as nice as the rest. Down the rest is side of the truck, doors, cab, all look really good. Didn't see any dents, didn't see any dings, paint is in nice condition. Comes with the telescopic tow mirrors built in directional signals, LED side lights, they telescope out like that. They fold in like that.  No rips, no tears on the seats, they are in fantastic condition. Just a little bit of wear on there, but nothing too bad. Power driver seat and both these front seats are heated. You get the factory all-weather floor mats, auto headlamps turned out four-wheel drive, factory brake controller, tilt, telescopic steering wheel, power windows, locks and mirrors and memory driver seat. These mirrors do power fold in. I always like showing both sides so that you know that both sides are working properly. You also get that nice wood grain trim and it does have the Bose premium sound system. The back seats are just as clean as front seats, no rips or tears back here. It does have the latch child safety system for any child car seats you may have. Power sliding rear window with built-in rear defrost. These seats fold up like so and the carpeting and floor mats are in fantastic condition back here. Inside and bottoms of the doors, no corrosion on them all look really really good. I wanted to show you the VIN sticker as well as the tire and loading information sticker. We'll hop inside, check out the miles, video and everything that this truck has to offer on the interior. You can see that this one has 55,654 miles. You get the digital speedometer, compass display and the instrument cluster is very nice and clean. Comes with the heated leather wrap steering wheel, Bluetooth and information center controls on the right, cruise controls and heated steering wheel controls on the left. Audio controls in the back of the steering wheel and it comes with the Allison six-speed automatic transmission with the optional tap shift. This one comes with the Chevy MyLink radio. You get AM, FM and Sirius XM radio capabilities as well as your CD player right there. Dual climate controls, heated seat buttons, power pedals, stability control that's for your cargo lamps. It's also how you turn on those LED side lights in the mirrors. Parking sensors, factory exhaust brake, three USBs, two 12-volt power points and 110 volt, 150 watt plug-in. Smells very clean inside this truck by the way as well. And dual glove boxes, passenger side format and seat are in fantastic condition. I didn't see any rips or tears on there and the headliner is in nice condition too. You do get map lights, home link buttons for your garage door security systems and lane systems and power sliding rear window button. You also have on-star and SOS buttons in the mirror. We'll start it up and take a look under the hood. Starts right up, no check engine lights or anything like that other than that my hood's open. Really a nice truck for a 2015 LED side lights on those mirrors are super bright and I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today and hopefully from this HD video you've been able to verify the quality condition options and of course cleanliness of this truck all the way around inside and out. Under the hood we have the 6.6 liter Duramax diesel engine. It is the LML engine, 397 horsepower engine base, very clean, runs very smooth. Once again this truck has been fully safe to inspect by our service shop as a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off and it is 100% ready to go. I would highly recommend this truck from a quality and condition standpoint considering the age of miles on it and to see more pictures of this truck or one of our other 550 new new cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, wranglers, half tons, two-quarter tons, one tons, you name it, you got it. Go to that website right there summitauto.com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle all at summitauto.com and if you'd like to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash sundado click the bell notifications you'll get updates on the videos I do each and every day as well as access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walk-arounds on YouTube. In fact in a second you will see a link to subscribe my YouTube channel the upper left a link to more Chevy Silverado 3500 truck videos like this from the upper right link to this vehicle on our website and lower left and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos and lower right click those check us out and we're super excited to help you with this ultra clean 2015 Chevy Silverado 3500 crew cab longbox duly LTZ and tungsten gray metallic thanks again for checking out the video remember to like subscribe and share on the YouTube channel I really appreciate it thanks again


Climate change poses a serious threat to the agricultural sector worldwide, particularly in Pakistan where it has been observed to be highly exposed to extreme events and with limited adaptive capacity. Farmers are the most vulnerable stakeholders in the country, being directly affected by climate change. This study examined the perceptions of Pakistani farmers regarding climate change and how they adapt their farming practices in response. It was found that 58 percent of the farms surveyed had adopted some form of adaptation measure. Factors such as education, farm size, tendency status, access to market information, and access to irrigation water were identified as influencing farmers' decisions to adopt adaptation measures. Additionally, the study revealed that farmers' adaptation strategies are constrained by lack of resources, information, and access to irrigation water. These findings highlight the need for greater investment in farmer education and improved institutional setup for climate change adaptation to improve farmers' well-being. This article was authored by Emma Bidd, Jay Sheffrin, UA Schneider, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


All right Well, I'm not gonna get into the schematic stuff that that I'll that will probably tweak here You know won't be any major changes. I mean you're in the middle of the season and like every team You're dealing with injuries and things that come up. We've clearly got to play better.  Well, which we had done most of this season But we didn't start and you know even start in the game backed up And then you know the game that in a game like that the way it was in played We didn't take advantage the third and one You know the execution of that to go back and the ripple effect going back, you know And then having said all that you still have your chances late in the game in the fourth quarter You know AJ makes the play. You don't have a chance to get down there and Excuse me in the third quarter But you know, we didn't and credit to the Patriots. Well, we didn't play very well situationally We just got to play a lot smarter than we have the last two weeks Yeah, I went back and did all of the study on the last 27 possessions too And uh drive starts was the issue Seven in a section Yeah, it's pretty pretty accurate there D led, um, you know and a lot of it You say you go back to situational football, right this first two drives of the Dallas game You got a chance to to put points on the board You don't I mean we kick a field goal, right the first possession Second possession and then you go a couple three and outs and we don't handle the end of the half with the pump block And then you know coming out drops. I mean you name it D led I mean these all sound like excuses and it's just you know lack of execution.  Well, we knew it was going to be tough. It's a good defense If I make you earn everything and then when you had our spot, we had our spots It was a you know, we didn't execute very well situation You said everything would be on the table Offensive why are you willing to go forward with this group or are you considering That we're gonna see how the week plays out. We'll see how the week plays out everything everything's on the table Is macanone possibly One of those options at this point is he's still far away or I'm not doctor. I don't have any update on him. I don't have any update on on calvin either. So When you do look at what you said some of the stuff that you were going to evaluate I know D led kind of asked something was there were there certain things that in your head going in you said I expected kind of see this Or I spent or and Conversely, was there anything that from washing your leg? Well, yeah, I missed this Yeah, it was a pretty good idea, you know, and then Obviously when I talked to you guys on friday, I mean you watched the tape a couple times too. So to say that was like no You know preconceived notions. I mean, I mean right after the game I mean, you know, you know, you have a pretty good idea what happened a couple other things You may see in the film, but by time I thought to you guys friday. I mean a very crystal clear understanding Of things we got to fix so and we will fix it. I mean, it's a you know, we're a temporary obstacle There's a lot of things to say a lot about your mindset and a lot about people But the reality is we have a great opportunity this week We're not where we want to be you got to own it or four and six We deserve to be but we're still in the mix with a big game down in jacksville's week Are there the things that you say it's temporary A lot of these things fixable this season or is this more of a global You know, you got you got to look at this over the next eight nine months type situation in terms of what? I guess personnel and Any kind of some of the issues that you all have been having maybe in certain position groups Well, I mean there's certain things you can do, you know schematically you're gonna have to deal with and that's part of the adjustments I mean, we've got to be better Situationally, you know and some of maybe some of the things we're asking guys to do Certainly that's fair. That's that could be a short term fix right some of the things and again Eliminate some of these self-informed the wounds so you're not behind the count because you become obvious I don't care who you've got back there when you're in way too many obvious drop backs More times than not it's it's not a great day at the office and there's always exceptions. I understand that Now long term on this is a continued, you know, there's we change schemes There's certain things. I mean we understand where the you know the salary cap restrictions And there's a long-term plan too But every team around the league you look on our league whether they had a great Long-term plan that they came into 21 and they felt really good about it They're all dealing everybody's dealing with injuries certain things that come up and that's part of the the challenge of a 17 game season an 18 week season So then the day We're four and six With a game with a very really important game for us this week And so we've got to do everything we can we'll see as the week goes on who's healthy Who's up and we got to put together a good plan and we got to go down there and execute it How much of this Honestly, did you anticipate or because of the issues that you knew maybe you guys had well some of them But I mean some of them You don't you know, but that you've got to expect you unexpected sometimes in this job and You can only control things that you know, there's some things out of your control It's all had things like anything in life like You can't get caught up yet temporarily something, you know, like Of course, you don't wish them the things happen they do but then you got to get over and you got to move on You got a problem solved so You got to stick with it. I mean control things you can control and what we can control is You know this week going forward to put the plan in See if there's anything else whatever we got to do to win this game and go down there and practice and execute on sunday You're not gonna put those words Look like We understood exactly what What the job entailed there's things that come up along the way and you have to adapt and like I said as bad as The last two games have felt the reality What the reality is we're four and six And if we can play better and find a way to go win sunday, you're not out of it This year and we'll see where it goes. Maybe you get some guys back. You're healthier Who knows what you want to be able to write with our current situation Where we are today is to go whatever we have to do to find a way to go win this game down in jacksville And we'll see what goes on from there Um But yeah that we we understood exactly what the long term issues were so we'll see this I mean the story hasn't been it's not already written for this season It's not over. We got seven games ago and an important one this week Sure You know It's a 13 point game for you know all the way to the middle part of the right the fourth quarter And that's a that's a hell of an effort from the defense You know for an offense that was scoring a lot of points coming in Obviously, we didn't like what happened down in dallas and they stepped up and I thought the defense played really well I mean the other reality.  We didn't put together a complete game because the defense I thought played really well But and that's kind of been It's part of the other reason why we're four and six. We haven't put together a complete game We played at times good enough to win. I guess four games, but Not enough to be where the other side of 500 Just to follow up on that it's talking about playing a complete game And I've been thinking about the the idea of playing consistency playing consistently through all three phases of the game I feel like there have been moments, but they've been not full games. What what moments can you point to that you look at and you're like That's when we play. Yeah, they know the Giants game You know time in the in the Jets game, you know And plenty plenty of times, you know for moments in that Saints game, I mean you're really going back to some of those wins I mean even Washington You know for for at least a half And that's and that's the probably the frustrating part, right? We're four and two and one possession games And obviously the you know four of our losses have Not been called, you know, we're we're have a chance late to go win it I guess you could argue this one The wingland you're in two possession game for most of the four quarter and then they they kick the field goal, which Still, you know made it two, but it's you know two touchdowns to two-point conversions. So It depends on where you look at it, but We have improved there in the one possession games. We've got to play way more consistent But the good news is we have another opportunity this week Well, you're also playing a short week, I mean is there assuming Put it this way there's there's always strategy We feel there's pretty good depth right now in the D line room the kind of game It was going to be on thursday night Where we felt overall matchup wise some of the guys that have played sunday And then, you know, maybe throwing some fresh bodies on there on thursday That was a thought so it wasn't like hey somebody got benched. We're down on this guy It was more about this strategic matchups and I'd argue that it was for the most part on the defense it worked But that was and that that's the flexibility you have now With the 16 person practice squad and then some of the elevations that I like it It allows you especially if we're playing 17 games. I think teams are getting a lot of use out of it Any other than involved that that was all it was Yeah, coach you you play against them twice a week in the south Yes, um defensively, uh mouse jack has been a guy that's been playing football for a while now Yeah, yeah, he's been a good player for them since he's been there so they drafted him out of UCLA He flies Well, they've been Like like everybody, you know, they've been dealing with Everybody during the season. It's a long season They changed their schemes Joe Cullen, I think is doing a really good job. You can see that things as they start to evolve Some of the elements of places where he's been You know, whether you go down to some of the four down stuff or really, you know You could see some of the baltimore influence as well Um, I know this they're gonna be flying around They're competitive as you you know, just a couple weeks ago. That's why I said you it's it's funny If you look at it the week to week narratives in the NFL, I mean they they go down and buffalo guys down there I mean, it's what it is. I mean look at the league yesterday That's why it's professional football and everybody's dealing with something but we expect that they'll be ready to roll He'll have them ready to roll But miles is a is a terrific football player and has been and he's been a pain You know when I was in Tennessee and he'll be a pain on sunday force and I say that in the highest compliment Do you talk, I mean Michael Walker We talk about a lot of things Michael and so A lot of private conversations. There's things that come up. There's life outside this building. That's real everybody In this organization, you know, they deal with with things. We're here to support everybody But we talk about a lot of things and with everything we can do to help anybody that works here With the Falcons are certainly the players of the staff. We'll help in any way we can I want to go back to the the offense line. This just might be another you know chapter in the consistency You had a three-week stretch there where you only keep up two sacks total across three weeks What's been the biggest difference from you know, that stretch and things are going so well to the last few Well, I think a lot of it we became obvious You know in certain situations you get down a certain number of possessions or you know, we're strategically where you may have to go to win that game and There's several factors to it But we can stay balanced and stay on track It certainly makes the job of the offense line easier And that's the thing if you go back and you look at the history of the run and shoot offenses that put up prolific numbers Um, I don't have a stat I don't top my head, but I know this is always ironic You know and talking to Mike Munchek and Bruce Matthews you go back to those running shoot years They gave up these double hall of fame linemen they had inside and they gave high volume sack numbers Just a number of drop back attempts So that's one factor you know some of the maybe match up too, but We're trying to get We've got to play smarter and we've got to stay on track and we've got to we've got to Do better Do a better job in the run game to become more efficient to allow you to stay on track So there's several factors. It's never just one thing, but it's certainly when You're playing against a really good pass rusher or a pass rushing team Or maybe you have a premier pass rusher over there if you're if you're giving them too many shots on goal where they know right now Playing the odds and they know the situation of the game if you're down to any possessions that That that's another part that leads to to more sacks Anything else to go ahead? Ah, I expected more from you today All right, thank you


Today we're talking about three reasons that your foundation doesn't look smooth. Let's get into that video right now so that you can have smooth, flawless-looking foundation every time. Hi, girlfriends. Let's talk about one of those things that just drives us all crazy is when our foundation doesn't look smooth on our face. And a lot of times we think, well, I don't like this foundation.  Well, that might be the case in some instances, but it also could be the way that you're doing your foundation. And I'm going to show you all kinds of cool things to be able to help you with getting the most smooth, beautiful, flawless canvas that you can possibly get. Before we get started, let me just show you my outfit of the day of a red blazer on with jeans, red boots, and a beige belt, which is super cute. And then I also have a white bodysuit on underneath it. I'll leave all of the information for that below for you guys. So the first thing that I want to talk about is it's so important to have your prep. Your prep includes lots of things. First of all, for me, my prep includes exfoliation and taking away any and all peach fuzz. This is a big deal, because anytime you put that liquid foundation, cream foundation, whatever you're using on top of peach fuzz, the peach fuzz is still going to rise. It's still going to be there. It's going to create texture. My favorite thing to use is the tinkle razors. And I get them like this. There's a ton of them on Amazon. They're very inexpensive. And I'll show you a single one. This is just a straight razor. I love this. And I'm not going to demonstrate this for you today, but I do have a video where I completely demonstrate it and I will refer you to that. It is actually another flawless foundation video where I actually do show you how to do this. So that not only takes away the peach fuzz, but it also does some exfoliating. Now in between using these, I don't use this every day. I use it maybe like every 10 days, two weeks, something in there where I'm just taking the peach fuzz off my face. So I'm not using this as an exfoliator, but you might need to use an exfoliator. I love a double duty product. And this is the cleanser that I use in the morning. This is from Eminence and it's organic skincare. It's Manoy Age Correcting Exfoliating Cleanser. This is extremely gentle. And that's what I absolutely love about it. It has little microbeads in it. It doesn't tear up the skin. It doesn't cause too much exfoliation or irritation. It doesn't really cause any irritation at all. I use it with a wash rag and the wash rag helps with the exfoliation as well. So this is really great. I use it all the time and it's so important to me to make sure that I exfoliate. And then you can use a deep exfoliation if you want to in between there. That's completely up to you. I do have several that I like very much that are chemical exfoliants that I use kind of every other day or whenever I need it, I might do a deeper one. So there are a few chemical exfoliants and I am happy to list those down below for you. The other thing about prep is you must make sure that you have enough moisture on your face. Moisturizer plumps up that skin. So anything that we put on afterwards is going to go across smoothly because we have those wrinkles and kind of, you know, fine lines, the pores all plumped up. And I know I preach about this all the time, but I never do my makeup without using two products and that is the Sukiyaki Suhara. This is an essence and then the eye cream. The eye cream to me is key for this under eye crypt keeper situation I have going with all of my wrinkles under there. So this is key for plumping that up. It is super hydrating. It's just absolutely the most hydrating thing that I've ever found along with this lotion as well. It's called a lotion, but it's actually an essence because you can see how watery it is. You can use this anytime during your skin prep. Now you can even use this after you've let your SPF sink in. So your SPF needs to sink in for about 20 minutes before it's really active and getting you good protection. But you can use this before that. You can use it as your first step. You can use it anywhere in your skincare that you want to. Just make sure that you're using it and that you're patting it into your skin really kind of deeply. That's kind of my key to everything. It's pushing it into the skin and allowing it to sit on there long enough to be able to plump the skin up and give me a really nice canvas. Onto the second reason that you may not have the smoothest canvas possible. And that is because you're not using a good primer. Primer is so important. Lots of people feel like, well, I don't necessarily need a primer because I don't need to have my makeup last a long time.  Primer was actually built with silicone and dimethicone in it originally to go into the pores and the wrinkles and the crevices and smooth them out. Any time you see dimethicone on a primer, on a foundation, that's what it's built for, is to help our skin just look as smooth as it possibly can. So today I used two of my very favorites. I mixed them together, Revlon Prime Plus Perfecting and Smoothing Makeup Skin Primer. And then I used the L'Oreal Lumi Glossian in Light and I mixed them together and I just put them across my face and I really took time to push them into my skin.  So primers are very, very important. Look on your ingredients. You don't necessarily need to go out and buy these new, but look on your ingredients and see if your primer has dimethicone, silicone, anything like that in it and you're going to have a smoothing primer. Most of them will unless they say that on the label that they don't. So these are amazing. This actually, the L'Oreal Lumi Glossian gave it a little bit of a dewy glow, which I love as well. All right, the last thing is choosing a really good foundation. Now there are a ton of drugstore foundations and I love them. I absolutely love the Mountain Poorless from Maybelline. I love the new Catrice one. I think it's true skin. I get these all jumbled in my head a little bit. I'm a huge lover of the number seven one. That has been my ride or die one for years. I think it is so beautiful on mature skin. I chose to try the KVD Beauty, this new one, their Liquid Foundation as opposed to their cream.  Cream foundation to me, I just think it is the bomb for a woman that is mature because it's got that really creamy texture and it's not going to dry you out at all during the day. I think a lot of people don't like a cream foundation or a pot foundation because they use too much. And that's what it's built to do is you just use a tiny bit and then if you need more coverage, use your concealer to just spot conceal. But a cream foundation is fantastic. Now this new one, I really did enjoy using today and putting on. I will tell you that it does not feel dewy but it does not feel super matte. It's like a semi-matte or kind of in between a satin and a matte. I think it's a beautiful foundation and it did really well on my face today. And again, I took a ton of time to press it into my skin. If you are someone that uses a brush to put on your foundation, that is not a problem because you want to continue to kind of stipple, you're pushing it in and really work with it to push it into the pores, into your skin. That's how you're going to get a nice canvas as well. After you've done that though, go back with a dampened beauty sponge. I always dampened my beauty sponge and I do spray it. Today I used a little bit of the Tower 28 spray. They did send me this and so I'm kind of testing it out a little bit. But I spray my sponge with it just lightly, maybe one or two pumps and then I go in and I'm really dabbing as I go along. I'm really stippling and making sure I'm pushing in and I took a lot of time to do this today. People want a super fast makeup routine and that's fine. You can get a beautiful canvas doing a five minute, 10 minute routine, but if you want something that is like for a special occasion or you just have not been liking your foundation at all, try taking more time with really working and pushing it into your skin because that is truly the secret. If you ever sat in a makeup artist's chair, they're going to take time to really make the foundation the very best that it can be and that is with application and really working with it. Okay, the next one you're going to go, Melissa, I cannot do that. I totally get it. I was somebody that swore off using powders for years myself and for some reason in my mess that's in front of me as I was doing today's makeup, I cannot find the powder that I used. That was a wet and wild powder. I will make sure I list it down below.  Well, I do it a little bit differently. I have learned through the years that it's better to take time with powder too. And the reason is, is because the powder is going to take down extra shine, it's going to really blur your pores out. And so what I do is I'll go in on one side of the brush. This is a huge Sonia Kashuk brush. I've had it forever. I think that the handle has changed, but this is a really good brush. So I'll go in on one side and I pick up quite a bit. But what I do is I will take it and I'll kind of pounce it on the side of my hand just to get off a little bit of excess and then I'm going to tap it just a little bit.  And what happens is because you have so little powder on your brush, you're going to find that a little tiny bit goes a long way and just buff it. And the reason is is because if you're buffing like this and you're kind of using the light hand, but you're buffing and you're really going around each place, it just really seems to be able to make the makeup just look flawless. Now, if you're somebody that is super dry like me, after you do that, you're going to feel like I am so sad that I did that because it just made me even more dry looking. Go back to that sponge. I love a makeup sponge. I'm a makeup sponge junkie, but these sponges are so inexpensive. They're from Beakley. I'll make sure that I list them. They are every bit as good as a beauty blender. I think they're even more soft and they perform, they don't fall apart. They just really are good sponges. Now, just take any sort of a setting spray or even you don't even have to have a setting spray, you could have a primer spray, whatever spray you use, but I want it to not have alcohol in it. And not necessarily unless you want a dewy look, you don't want anything with a glow in it. You don't want anything that says luminous. You can have something that says dewy. If you like that look, as a matter of fact, what I can do instead of using, I was going to use my Benefit, the professional super setter, but instead I'm going to go in and I'm going to use the Makeup, oh, sorry, the Milani Make It Last dewy setting spray. Okay, so I'm just going to spray some on my sponge. My sponge feels pretty wet at this point. So again, I always pat it off, make sure that I'm not getting too much in any one place.  What we're trying to do here is melt everything together and that's what it does. Now it's going to look a little bit dewy because I have found that this one for Milani doesn't look super dewy. So I'm not going to look greasy, but at the same time, it's just going to look pretty and it's going to give me that perfected canvas. So that's the end of number three of why your makeup might not be looking the most flawless it can look. Now I'm not saying that you need to do all of these steps every single time you sit down. For me, it takes very little time because I've had, I got it down. I just pick up the product and I go across my face and it's very quick for me. The only thing that takes more time when I'm doing my makeup is really buffing in the foundation and my mascara and brows, they take up a lot of time. So the makeup that I do myself when I do a full face of makeup, it really only takes me about a half an hour and that might seem like a lot, especially if you're somebody that has a job that's outside the home, you need to get out the door, you want quick, quick, quick. So I would just say, you know, do what you feel like you want to do, but if you really want a very flawless canvas, it's gonna take a little bit of time to do. And I think that's where we get a little bit tripped up, especially as a mature woman. For me, makeup is so cathartic. It really is my therapy, it's my happy place. It's what makes me feel good about myself. And if I have my face done up, then I feel like I can conquer anything for the day. I hope that you did enjoy this video. I will leave in the comment section what I thought about this. This is the second time that I'm using the KVD New Foundation. Not in the comments, sorry, down in the description box next to this foundation. I will tell you how it wore throughout the day and what I'm thinking about it. I think it covered really beautifully today, but I'll let you know what I think about that for sure. So down in the comment section, please tell me what you think about this, how you maybe do your foundation. I love to hear that input. It helps me out so much. And you guys are fabulous about giving me great ideas and you have such good tips and tricks. And I love hearing them from you. So I hope everybody is happy, healthy, doing well. And even if you're not, hopefully this brought a smile to your face today because I know so many of you are struggling. I hear you, you write to me and I feel for you. I know that things are hard right now. Please come back around very soon. We'll be together in another video. I love you so much. Goodbye, my dear friends.


Good evening aspirants, welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankara IS Academy for the date 3rd of April 2022. These are the list of articles we will be discussing today. Now let us take up the first article. Look at this article here. It is about the presence of kangaroo in Baikunthpur forest division in West Bengal. Can you believe it? No, right. Like us, the forest officials also did not believe first. Because these animals, that is the kangaroos, they are not native to Asia. But they found three kangaroos in the narrow forested patches, bordering Darjeeling in Jalpaiguri district of the state. The carcass of another kangaroo was found in the nearby area, taking the number of these Australian marsupials that are recorded in North Bengal to 4. Now, what is this term marsupials? See, mammals can be generally classified into three broad groups. They are egg-laying monoterms, marsupials and placentals. A marsupial is a mammal that raises its newborn offspring inside an external pouch at the front or underside of their bodies. In contrast, a placental is a mammal in which the complete embryo development happens inside the mother. In mammals, while inside the mother, the embryo is nourished by an organ called a placenta. So, both marsupial and placental mammal groups give birth to live young ones. Placental mammals account for the majority of modern mammal species that are alive today. Most marsupials can be found in Australia and South America, although the fossil record shows that they were once more widespread. See, mammals and marsupials belong to the same phylum. Both mammals and marsupials are warm-blooded. Here warm-blooded means the blood temperature of both mammals and marsupials does not change if the temperature of the surroundings change. That is, their blood temperature is independent of the surrounding temperature. Furthermore, mammals and marsupials are chordates, meaning they all have backbones, unlike most of our politicians. In addition, they have body hairs and fur. Moreover, both are air-breathing animals that give birth to young ones instead of laying eggs. Only monoterms lay eggs, which we discussed earlier. The most common example of monoterm is platypus. Now, coming back, mammals and marsupial females produce milk for the nourishment of their young ones. The distinctive character of marsupial is that they give birth to an undeveloped young one. Here note that, while all marsupials give birth to undeveloped young ones, only some marsupials have poach. Marsupials like wombat, kangaroo have poach, while short-tailed opossum, which is also a marsupial, does not have poach. So, note that. Now, coming back to the article. The forest officials have rescued animals that were being smuggled through the corridor that starts from the northeast of India to north Bengal. The rescued kangaroos had been handed over to the Bengal safari zoo in Siliguri. And this is the crux of the article given here. In this context, let us learn about kangaroos and their habitat and their conservation status also. Kangaroos are large famous marsupials native to Australia. Kangaroos are large marsupial, which means they have a poach to carry their young located in the lower abdomen. The kangaroo's poach is technically called a marsupium and it performs a number of functions. The female kangaroo's breast, which she uses to nurse her young, are inside her poach. The poach also functions similar to an incubator to allow a joey. Joey is a baby kangaroo to fully develop. Lastly, poach has a safety function in that it helps to protect the female's young from predators. Kangaroos are usually between 3 to 7 feet in height. They can weigh up to approximately 200 pounds. Other physical characteristics of kangaroos are their relatively small heads with their large and round ears. Due to their hopping ability, they can leap over long distances. Some males can leap to almost 30 feet in one leap. Now that we have a basic understanding about the physical characteristics of a kangaroo, let us move on to see about the habitat. Kangaroos live in Australia, Tasmania and surrounding islands in a variety of habitats such as forest, woodlands, plains and savannas. The musky rat kangaroo likes to nestle down in little nests on the floor of the rainforest in northeastern Queensland. On the other hand, grey kangaroos like the forests of Australia and Tasmania. The antelopean kangaroo can be found in the monsoonal, equiliptus woodlands of extreme northern Australia. The tree kangaroos live in the upper branches of trees in the rainforests of Queensland as well as the island of New Guinea. Now let us get to the important part, which is the conservation status for kangaroos. See, according to IUCN's red list of threatened species, 16 species of tree kangaroos and rat kangaroos are listed as either near threatened, threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The desert rat kangaroo and nular barred dwarf betong are considered extinct. Now coming to the conservation status for kangaroos in India. In India, there is no provision for protection of kangaroos in Wildlife Protection Act 1972. Why? Think about it and post your answers in the comment section. Now that's all regarding this discussion. Before concluding the discussion, let us do a quick recap. In this discussion, we support what is a marsupial, basic characteristics and the difference between mammals and marsupials. Then we saw about kangaroos, its habitat and its conservation status. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this FAQ article. This FAQ article talks about India's deal with Russia for fuel and defense. The article also discusses about the issues The issue is the swift sanctions imposed on Russia. These sanctions on Russia might become an issue for India because the supplies of fuel or any material traded may be stopped. See, India has started buying Russian oil. In the last few days, India has bought about 3 to 4 days of our total needs worth of Russian oil. This is despite the fact that the United States has warned about the consequences of trading with Russia. See, in addition to this, India and Russia still have several new defense deals in addition to the oil deals. See, some of the recent defense deals in the pipeline includes 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft and 21 MiG-24 fighter jets for the Indian Air Force. Now, what will Russia do to handle the troubles caused by these sanctions? For this, we need to know about what is swift and how it works. So today, let us see in detail about all the above mentioned questions. Then, we will see the impacts of swift sanctions on Russia and finally, we will see some alternatives available for Russia to tackle the troubles caused by the swift sanctions or the dollar route. Okay? First, the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here. You can go through it. Now, let us start the discussion. First of all, what is swift? See, the Swift system stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. See, Swift is a cooperative company under Belgian law and it is owned and controlled by its shareholders that is financial institutions. Okay? It is a secure platform for financial institutions to exchange information about global monetary transactions such as money transfers. While, Swift does not actually move money, it operates as a middleman. The purpose is to verify information of transaction by providing secure financial messaging service. So basically, Swift is a financial messaging service. The primary focus here is to ensure that Swift has effective control and processes in terms of security and resilience. This is to avoid posing a risk to financial stability and to the soundness of financial infrastructures. Okay? Here, the service is provided to more than 11,000 banks in over 200 countries. Swift is based in Belgium. It is overseen by the central banks from 11 industrial countries. Just look at this image to know what are all the 11 countries. Okay? Now, what does Swift sanction mean? See, now the United States and the European Union are cutting off a number of Russian banks from the main international payment gateway which is the Swift. This is known as Swift sanctions. Now, what does the move aim to achieve? See, excluding Russian banks from the Swift platform is expected to hit the country's economy hard. Also, it will make the country, that is Russia, rely on telephone or fax machine to make payments. This is because cutting off a country's from Swift in the financial world is equivalent to restricting internet access of a nation. Okay? The decision to paralyze the assets of Russia's central bank is mainly to stop Kremlin from using its varchest. Here, what does varchest mean? Varchest means the forex reserves that Russia has been building. Look at this graph here. President Vladimir Putin has been preparing for a standoff with the West. President Putin has built up his country's forex reserves to the tune of over $640 billion to insulate the Russian economy. What happens when war breaks? When war finally takes place, the countries will stop trading with the country at war. To act as a buffer in case of such an event, Russia has been building up its forex reserves. This is evident from this graph. But to use the forex reserve, Russia must rely on the Swift system. The United States, the European Union and their global partners announced the plan to ban some Russian banks from Swift network after the 24th February Russian invasion of Ukraine. This ban will make it difficult for Russia to effectively use its forex reserves. See, the ban from Swift will make it difficult for Russia to pay its outstanding debt. Once Russia fails to pay its outstanding debt, Rubel will further lose its value. So, the Swift ban is nothing but the Western countries weaponizing an international payment system to give a crippling blow to the Russian economy. So, these are some of the impacts of the Swift sanctions on Russia. Now, let us see what are all the alternatives preferred by Russia to these Swift sanctions. See, as we saw, Swift is nothing but a secure messaging service to ensure international financial transaction. But Swift is dominated by Western democracies. So, this is why the United States is using Swift ban to counter Russia. There are alternatives to Swift also. One such is the system for transfer of financial messages that is SPFS. SPFS is developed by the Russian Central Bank. The downside of SPFS is that it has very little international presence. Currently, international services are limited to countries such as Armenia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. So, in theory, Russia can use SPFS to circumvent the Swift ban. So, this is how this will work. Say, for example, India is importing oil from Russia. Currently, India cannot pay Russia via Swift transactions. Then, what will India do here is, India will send money to Turkey using the Swift system. Turkey will then transfer the money to Russia through the SPFS system. Although this method is little costly and time consuming, in theory, Russia can use this as an alternative to overcome the Swift ban. This is the first alternative available for Russia. Now, let us look at the second alternative. The alternative available for Russia here is the Rubel route. See, US dollar is a hard currency and almost all global transactions are made in dollars. So, through the Swift system and the dollar route, the United States has a global monopoly. To counter this, Russia can shift to the Rubel route. Here, for example, if India is buying oil from Russia, India can pay for the oil by depositing the equivalent amount in rupees in a Russian bank. This will then be converted into Rubel at a fixed exchange rate. Likewise, when Russia is importing Indian wheat, Russia will deposit an equivalent amount in Rubel in an Indian bank. This will later be converted into rupee. Like this, the dollar route can be circumvented and be replaced by a rupee-rubel route. But this also has a limitation. This will only work when both the countries have negligible trade deficit. In case of Russia and India, there is a huge trade deficit in favor of Russia. That is, Russia is exporting more to India than India is exporting to Russia. So, this will only be a temporary solution. It can't go on for a long time. See, these are the two alternatives that are available for Russia. So, that's all regarding this news article discussion. Before concluding, let us do a quick recap. See, in this discussion, we saw what is Swift and how it works. Then we saw the impacts of Swift sanctions on Russia. And finally, we saw some alternatives that are available to Russia to tackle the trouble caused by Swift sanctions or the dollar route. With this, let us conclude this discussion and take up the next news article. Look at this news article. The article states that there is a disruption in wheat supplies across the globe because of the Russian-Ukrain War. So, the author of this article suggests that India can use this opportunity to fill the void created by the war. This is because India is the second largest producer of wheat in the world, but exports only two percentage of what it produces. In this context, we will discuss about the important points mentioned in the article. Then we will revise about some of the basic facts about the wheat crop. See, Russia and Ukraine account for about 25% of the world's wheat exports. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions against Russia have curtailed the wheat supplies drastically. As a result, many countries which were sourcing wheat mainly from these two countries are now in an urgent need for an alternative. See, between 2017 and 2021, Russia exported 183 million tons of wheat and Ukraine exported 91 million tons of wheat. But India exported just 12.6 million tons in the same period, that is between 2017 to 2021. Note that India is the second largest wheat producer in the world. Here, wheat supply includes production, existing stocks and imports. India's wheat supply stood at 613 million tons. And 80% of this is used for domestic consumption alone. India exported only 2%. The remaining 18% are stored in FCA Goodones, that is, Food Corporation of India Goodones. In contrast, take the other leading exporters. For instance, the United States. The United States exported 31% of its 404 million metric tons of supply in 2017 to 2021 period. Canada exported 60.5% of its 186 million metric tons, while Australia exported 57% of its supplies of 1.46 million metric tons. So, we can understand from this data that India exports very minimum quantity of wheat when compared to the rest of the world. See, many countries in Africa, West Asia and South Asia rely heavily on Russian and Ukrainian wheat. Now, the supply is disrupted because of the war. So, APEDA, that is Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority Chairman, said that India is now focusing on exporting wheat to these nations. See, India's wheat harvesting season that is from March to May coincide with the wheat supply crunch. That is, between March to May, in the global wheat market, there is a slump in wheat supply. Know that a bumper harvest of wheat is expected this year also. So, India currently is well poised to step in and fill the void created by the Russia-Ukraine War. However, food security campaigners want that India should not lose focus on domestic needs while exporting surplus wheat. So, ensuring the stability of prices in India and availability of grain for internal consumption should be of the top priority of the Indian government. See, these are some of the points mentioned in the article. Having seen about the article, now we will revise about the basic facts about the wheat crop. See, wheat requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and bright sunshine at the time of harvest. The wheat crop thrives best in the well-drained loamy soil. Wheat is grown exclusively in the United States of America, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India. Wheat is the second most important cereal crop in India after rice. India produces about 12.8% of the total wheat production in the world. It is primarily a crop of temperate zone. Hence, wheat cultivation in India is done during winter, that is the raw by season. About 85% of the total area under wheat crop is concentrated in the northern central region of our country, that is mainly in the Indo-Gangetic plain, Malwa Plateau and in some places of Himalayas up to 2700 meter altitude. Being a rabbi crop, it is mostly grown under irrigated condition. But it is a rain-fed crop in Himalayan highlands and parts of the Malwa Plateau in Madhya Pradesh. About 14% of the total crop area in our country is under wheat cultivation. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are the leading wheat-producing states. The yield level of wheat is very high, that is above 4000 kg per hectare in Punjab and Haryana, whereas Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar has very moderate yields. States like Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammun Kashmir are growing wheat under rain-fed conditions and they naturally have very low yield. So these are all some of the points regarding this news article and some points about the wheat crop. Now with this, let us conclude this discussion and move on to the next news article. Look at these two news articles. These articles state that India and Australia signed an economic cooperation and trade agreement yesterday. The agreement was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The agreement has the aim of doubling bilateral trade to $50 billion in five years. One of the main features is easing movement of people, goods and services across borders. The agreement will also facilitate zero-duty access to over 96% of Indian exports. India in turn will offer preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines on goods imports. Know that this is the first deal which includes a compulsory review mechanism after 15 years. This is the essence of these news articles. In this context, let us discuss about India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement and its significance. Before getting into the discussion, I have highlighted here the syllabus regarding this discussion. You can go through it. Now let us start our discussion. See, India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement is the first trade agreement of India with a developed country after over a decade. The agreement encompasses cooperation across the entire spectrum of bilateral economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries. The agreement covers areas like trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, dispute settlement, movement of natural persons, telecom, custom procedures and pharmacutical products. See, this economic cooperation and trade agreement provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries. The economic cooperation and trade agreement between India and Australia covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India and Australia respectively. India will benefit from preferential market access provided by Australia on 100% of its tariff lines. This includes all the labour-intensive sectors of export interest to India such as gems and jewelry, textiles, leather, foodware, furniture, food and agricultural products, engineering products, medical devices and automobiles. On the other hand, India will be offering preferential access to Australia on over 70% of its tariff lines. This includes line of export interest to Australia which are primarily raw materials and intermediaries such as coal, mineral ores and wines. And with respect to trade in services, the agreement covers key areas of India's interest like information technology, information technology enabled services, business services, health, education and audiovisual. Some of the key offers from Australia in the services space include four key areas that is quota for chefs and yoga teachers, post-study work visa of 2 to 4 years for Indian students on reciprocal basis, mutual recognition of professional services and other licensed and regulated occupations and work and holiday visa arrangement for young professionals. On the other hand, India will offer market access to Australia in sectors such as business services, communication services, construction and related engineering services and so on. Both sides have also agreed to enable fast-track approval for patented generic and biosimilar medicines. See, growth of India-Australia economic and commercial relations will contribute to the stability and strength of a deepening bilateral relations between the two countries. We know that India and Australia have been each other's important trading partners. These excellent bilateral economic and commercial relations have continued to enhance and deepen work time. For instance, Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia's ninth largest trading partner. India's bilateral trade for both merchandise and services is valued at $27.5 billion in 2021. India's merchandise exports to Australia grew by 135% between 2019 and 2021. India's exports consist primarily of finished goods. India's merchandise import from Australia mainly consists of raw materials, minerals and intermediate goods. Also, India and Australia are partners in the trilateral supply chain resilience initiative agreement along with Japan. Know that supply chain resilience initiative seeks to enhance the resilience of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region. Further, India and Australia are also members of the recently formed Quad, which includes the United States and Japan to further enhance cooperation and develop partnership across several issues of common concerns. So, the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement will further cement the already deep close and strategic relations between the two countries. It will enhance bilateral trade in goods and services, create new employment opportunities, raise living standards and improve the general awareness of the people of the two countries. That's all regarding these news articles. See, this is a very recent development. In the coming days, more editorial will be based on this development. We will wait for a few days and provide you with a complete analysis of the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. So, with this, let us conclude the news article discussion session and take up the practice prelims questions. We have three practice prelims questions today. Let us see them one by one. Let us take up the first question. See, this question is in reference to marsupials. Three statements are given. We have to find the incorrect statements. Let us take up the first statement. Marsupials are found only in Australia. See, this statement is incorrect because most extant marsupials are found in Australia and South America. Okay, so in South America also some marsupials are found. Let us take up the second statement. Kangaroos are large marsupials and are native to Australia. This statement is correct. We saw in our discussion itself that kangaroos are marsupials and they are native to Australia. Let us take up the third statement. IUCN status of gray kangaroos is vulnerable. See, this statement is incorrect because the IUCN status of gray kangaroos is least concerned. So, since in the question they have asked us to find the incorrect statement, the correct answer is option C 1 and 3 only. Now, let us take up the second question. Cross border interbag payment system or CAPS recently seen in news refers to. Four statements are given. We have to find the correct statement. The first statement is a settlement and payment clearing system for transaction to boost the international use of Chinese currency in trade settlements. The second statement is a cooperative company under Belgian law. The third statement is a regional development bank of united states. And the fourth statement is payment system used in India to make international transaction. See, of the four, the correct answer here is option A. CAPS is a settlement and payment clearing system for transaction to boost international use of Chinese currency in trade settlements. See, CAPS is nothing but another variant or another alternative to Swift system. So, it is a China based financial messaging service used to settle international transactions. So, the correct answer for second question is option A. Now, let us take up the third question. A description of a crop is given. We have to find which is the crop that is being described. Now, let me read out the question. This rabai crop requires moderate temperature and rainfall during growing season and bright sunshine at the time of harvest. It thrives best in well-drained loomy soil. Here, the crop prefers to. See, this is a pretty straightforward question. From our discussion, we know that the crop that is being described here is wheat. So, the correct answer is option B, wheat. The main question based on today's discussion is here. Write your answers and post it in the comment section. If you like today's discussion, like, comment and share it with your friends. For more updates regarding UPSC preparation, subscribe to Shankarayesh Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.


Titanium dioxide, TiO2, nanofluids have been widely studied due to their unique thermal and electrical properties. Various synthesis techniques have been developed to prepare TiO2 nanofluids, including single-step and two-step methods. In nature, TiO2 exists in three crystal forms, anatase, brucite, and rutile. These forms are not commonly used in heat transfer applications, making it difficult to develop stable and cost-effective nanofluids. Researchers have focused on producing nanosized solid particles by using various techniques, such as mechanical milling, sol, gel, hydrothermal, and chemical vapor deposition, CVD, before dispersing them into base fluids. The particle size and cost of the heat transfer device depend on the working fluid's properties, so scientists have made great efforts to formulate stable and cost-effective nanofluids with enhanced thermophysical properties. This article was authored by Hafeez Muhammad Ali, Hamza Babur, Tayyab Raza Shah, and others.