Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024💣💫

^^^^^A total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon's ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse (also Great American Total Solar Eclipse and Great American Eclipse) by some of the media.[1][2][3] A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs only in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.

Occurring only one day after perigee (perigee on Sunday, April 7, 2024), the Moon's apparent diameter will be 5.5% larger than average. With a magnitude of 1.0566, its longest duration of totality will be of 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds near the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango, (about 4 mi (6 km) north), and the nearby city of Torreón, Coahuila.

This eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse to be visible in the provinces of Canada since February 26, 1979,[4][5] the first in Mexico since July 11, 1991,[6] and the first in the U.S. since August 21, 2017. It will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st century where totality will be visible in Mexico, the United States, and Canada.[7] It will also be the last total solar eclipse visible in the Contiguous United States until August 23, 2044.

The final solar eclipse of the year will occur six months later, on October 2, 2024.

Cloud-cover prospects along the path:

April is a month of changeable weather along the eclipse path. The weather in Mexico and the southern United States include afternoon convective buildups, whereas northern regions are still immersed in late winter and early spring weather, with passing low-pressure disturbances (e.g., rain, snow). Of these disturbances, eclipse-day cloud cover is most likely, unless severe storms are present across the south or spring storms with blizzard-like conditions are passing in the north. Cloud patterns are simple: lowest average cloud coverage occur in the south, particularly in Mexico, whereas the highest amounts of coverage crop up in the northeastern United States and Canada.[16]

Along the eclipse path, various locations will encounter differing cloud coverage and thus different views. Cloud cover is measured by satellite and averages 25–35% along the axis of the eclipse track—from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, to Torreón, Coahuila—and begins a steady increase, rising above fifty percent along the U.S.-Mexico border. At Carbondale, Illinois, where the 2024 track crosses that of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, average cloudiness rises to sixty percent before it peaks at seventy-five percent in western Ohio.

The Great Lakes Erie and Ontario influence cloud cover along the eclipse central line, and the percentage of cover declines to 60–65% through Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY; and Rochester, NY. Through Vermont, Quebec, Maine, and New Brunswick, April cloudiness climbs to a maximum of eighty percent or more, before declining by about fifteen percent along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The community of Tignish, Prince Edward Island, enjoys the best cloud-cover prospects in the northeast due to its exposure to the Gulf, with average monthly amounts falling back to sixty-five percent. Farther across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, April cloudiness climbs again. Newfoundland, standing in the path followed most often by April storms, sees an average monthly cloud cover that peaks between 80 and 85%.

Maps of average cloud cover identify a few locations off the central axis of the eclipse where cloud cover is more favorable to the eclipse traveler. The western side of the track through Texas has sunnier skies than those on the eastern side. The same is true in Arkansas and Missouri, where average April cloud cover can be as much as 20 percent lower than on the east side, around Jonesboro. Through New York, Vermont, and Maine, heavier cloud tends to favor higher terrain, though the differences across the shadow path are not large, as these states already have a large average cloud cover in springtime.

#diamondring

What's so special about Bengal?

👉👉👉👉👉👉What's so special about Bengal?💜💜👈👈👈👈

If you are looking for ancient history, Bengal's achievements are clearly limited. The Indus Valley Civilization that immensely enriched the sub-continent in the third and second millennia BC hardly reached Bengal. No part of the Vedas and the Upanishads is known to have been composed in Bengal.

The great advances of mathematics in the first millennium that came from the works of Aryabhata and his successors covered a huge span of the country — from Kerala to Bihar — but Bengal was out of it all. When al-Beruni, the great Iranian mathematician, roamed around the sub-continent in the early eleventh century in pursuit of the current state of Indian mathematics, he did not bother to visit Bengal.

 

There is nothing in Bengal's history to match the ancient glory of Patna or Ujjain or Benares, or the medieval splendour of Agra or Delhi or Jaipur. Yet it is possible that being somewhat left behind over a long stretch of history has made it that much easier for Bengal to develop its peculiar combination of open-minded receptivity and cultural pride.

To cut a long story short, the pride that is taken in Bengali culture, which is very strong — sometimes distressingly so — is like that of a cook about the excellence of what she has cooked, not at all about the indigenous origin of every element of the cooking style or ingredient.

Rabindranath Tagore presented a spirited defence of receptivity in a letter to Charlie Andrews:

"Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin. I am proud of my humanity when I can acknowledge the poets and artists of other countries as my own. Let me feel with unalloyed gladness that all the great glories of man are mine."

The Hindutva movement that stormed over a huge part of India over the last couple of decades did not get any serious popular response at all in West Bengal. There are many different reasons for this (including the burying of the sectarian hatchet by the force of contemporary — intensely secular — Bengali politics), but the Hindutva movement's "localist" passion for claiming and glorifying indigenous roots of all Indian achievements had no significant resonance in Bengal.

 

Catholicity in this sense also has a bearing on the acceptance of people of many faiths, with varying backgrounds, some with religious ancestry in other countries. When Rabindranath Tagore told his Oxford audience, with some evident pride, at his Hibbert Lectures in the early 1930s that he came from "a confluence of three cultures, Hindu, Mohammedan, and British," this was both an explicit negation of any sectarian identification, and an implicit celebration of the dignity of being broad-based, rather than narrowly confined.

A similar catholicity can, of course, be seen, among other traditions, in the history of the entire sub-continent, as I have discussed in my book The Argumentative Indian. Plural tendencies have been widely present everywhere in the sub-continent. And yet the relative force and the propensity to use the respective tendencies have varied between different regions.

When Buddhism disappeared as a practice from much of India after a thousand years of dominance, it continued to flourish in Bengal up to the late eleventh century, with the Buddhist Pala kings representing the last bastion of Buddhist regal power in India. Between the end of the Buddhist rule and the Muslim conquest of Bengal — by the Pathans and the Turks — in the early thirteenth century there is only a thin slice of revivalist Hindu rule for less than two centuries.

 

As it happens, the early Muslim kings of Bengal, who had learned Bengali despite coming from elsewhere, were sufficiently impressed by the multi-cultural history of the region to commission good Bengali translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. This was in the fourteenth century. There are moving accounts of how one of these Muslim kings wanted to hear those old Sanskrit stories again and again every evening. They were not, of course, abandoning Islam in any way whatever, but they were also establishing non-religious affiliations in addition to their own religiosity, showing — seven hundred years ago — that a person's religious identity need not squeeze out every other aspect of a person's life and attachments.

The issue of multiple identity is quite central to understanding contemporary Bengal — on both sides of the border. Bengal did have its own share of terrible communal violence between Hindus and Muslims during the 1940s immediately before the partition. But within very few years of separation, Bangladesh, with its overwhelmingly Muslim population, burst into the celebration of Bengali language and culture, which would unite Muslims and Hindus, rather than putting them in warring camps.

If one reads the large circulation newspapers in Bangladesh today, like Prothom Alo or The Daily Star or Sangbad, one can see how the concerns of the ordinary Bangladeshis go far beyond religion into language, politics, secularism, and also embrace a kind of affirmation of borderless global identities that live side by side with Bengali, Muslim, and Bangladeshi identities.

In West Bengal in India, too, the recognition of multiple identities has been strong, but given the dominance there of parties on the left (West Bengal has the longest history of democratically elected communist government in the world), class and inequality have played the leading part in making religious politics look oddly dilapidated and medieval.

When Bengal's history is discussed, it is possible to point both to great records of multi-cultural tolerance and pride and to outbursts of bigotry and sectarianism. But the invoking of history is never quite independent of its contemporary relevance. The modern European or American looks for sources of the "Western tradition" in, for example, ancient Greece and Rome, and rather than searching "Western" ancient in the much longer history and larger spatial coverage of the rules of Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vikings, and others.

The choice from history is, in this sense, always selective, when the focus is on its contemporary relevance (rather than attempting to portray some kind of an aggregate picture of "what is was like then," or, for that matter, what would emerge from random selections from history).(1) What is relevant, therefore, is to see what was there that is of interest today, and this is the way the present secularist and tolerant culture in Bengal, on both sides of the border, has tended to draw on Bengal's long history. And that history does indeed offer a huge store of multi-identity interactions and creativity.

Before I end, let me refer quickly to one particular evidence of living multi-cultural integration, which is largely forgotten now, but has, in fact, a remarkably long history, in the form of the Bengali calendar, called the "San." It is the only extant calendar in India in which a remnant influence of Emperor Akbar's abortive attempt at establishing an all-India non-denominational calendar, the Tarikh-Ilahi, survives.

As the end of the first millennium in the lunar Muslim calendar, Hijri, approached in the late sixteenth century, Akbar wanted a multi-cultural calendar for India, that would be solar, like the Hindu or Jain or Parsee calendars, combined with some features of the Hijri in it. The zero year was fixed at 1556 (the year of Akbar's ascendance to the throne), which corresponded to 1478 in Hindu Saka calendar and to 963 in the Muslim Hijri.

The Tarikh-Ilahi never caught on, despite its use in Akbar's own court. But it influenced the traditional Bengali calendar which got renumbered at the zero year of Akbar's Tarikh-Ilahi, putting the clock back from the Hindu 1478 to the Muslim 963. However it remained solar as in the earlier Bengali calendar, so in the years since that time, the slow-moving Bengali San (as slow as the Hindu Saka calendar and the Christian Gregorian calendar) has moved rather less forward than the Muslim lunar Hijri calendar (with its year of 354 days, 8 hours, and 45 minutes in solar reckoning).(2)

It is year 1413 in Bengali San now. How do we interpret it, then? The answer is that it commemorates, in effect, Prophet Mohammad's move from Mecca to Medina, the origin of the Hijri calendar, in a mixed lunar-solar system of counting — Muslim lunar until 963 and Hindu solar since then to 1413 today.

A religious Hindu may or may not be aware of this link with the Prophet when he or she invokes this date in a Hindu ceremony (the San is important inter alia for these ceremonies as well), but this is inescapable given the integrated nature of Bengali traditions, going back many centuries.

I leave the large community of followers of Samuel Huntington's thesis of "the Clash of Civilizations" to figure out whether the Bengali San is a part of what he calls the "Hindu civilization" or of the "Muslim civilization," between which such a sharp dissonance is seen. History is, often enough, not as confrontational as it looks to cultural separatists.

References: 

1. I have discussed this methodological point in "Our Past and Our Present," Economic and Political Weekly, November 2006.

2. On this, see my The Argumentative Indian (Delhi and London: Penguin Books, 2005).

Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize in 1998. He is one of the world's foremost public intellectuals and scholars.

 

WHAT IS DEBATING? THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF DEBATING..

 WHAT IS DEBATING? A BEGINNER’S GUIDE  

A debate is an organised argument or contest of ideas in which participants discuss a topic – usually philosophical, social, and/or political in nature, and often a pressing matter in current affairs – from two opposing sides in a controlled, civil setting.  

At their best, debates teach us that the best way to address a poor or reprehensible argument is to put it on a platform and, using all the intellectual, forensic, and rhetorical skills at one’s disposal, expose its incoherence and/or dishonesty. The way to become accomplished at this is precisely to interact with positions, ideologies and worldviews different from one’s own, on the basis of what the Bible, of all places, calls ‘iron sharpening iron’. 

This is crucial firstly to enable anticipation of the other perspective – the better to rebut it – but also to enable a shift or modification in one’s own view, precisely by virtue of having been exposed to alternative arguments that challenge one’s own prejudices and presuppositions. That is the essence of what Socrates, according to Plato, called the ‘examined life’ – or of what we today call critical enquiry.  

Before we get into how you can hone your debating skills, let’s jump back in time and learn more about how debating came about. 

THE HISTORY OF DEBATING 

Debating in various forms can be traced back to intellectual sparring matches waged between the world-famous philosophers of Ancient Greece or the scholars of Ancient India. 

The Greek philosopher Socrates (c. 470-399 BC) sought to understand the world by teasing out the assumptions and principles that, often unwittingly, lay beneath the reasoning of his interlocutors, thus exposing self-interest, deception and false reasoning for the smokescreens they were. 

In 63 BC, the orator and philosopher Cicero was famed for his ability to detect weaknesses in contemporary Roman government, most famously in his blistering, unrestrained attack on the aristocrat Catiline. That said, debating can be a perilous intellectual pursuit: both men paid for such effrontery with their lives (see later section ‘Keeping It Civil’). 

Moving forward to 1858, the debates for an Illinois Senate seat between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were celebrated for their rhetorical skill and precision. Their verbal jousting inspired a whole form of modern debating, now a common sight in every election cycle across the world. 

Though the first televised debate was broadcast in 1956 between representatives for President Eisenhower and his Democrat challenger, Adlai Stevenson, the centrepiece debate before the 1960 US Presidential election is now more famous. Those who tuned in via radio thought Richard Nixon had won, while who watched on television believed the more charismatic John Kennedy had emerged victorious. Kennedy’s eventual triumph in the polls is often attributed to his charm and strength of character, proving the importance of body language when establishing an emotional connection with one’s audience. 

WHERE DEBATES TAKE PLACE TODAY 

Many people think that debates take place in traditional settings such as university chambers, boardrooms and the Houses of Parliament. They do, but they happen everywhere, from dinner tables to TikTok comment sections to, increasingly, primary school classrooms right across the world! 

Debating delivers a whole host of benefits including sharpening your critical thinking, improving your public speaking and boosting your self-confidence and teamwork, so there has never been a better time to get involved. 

ISN’T DEBATING JUST ARGUING? 

A debate resembles a game in that both involve teams, rules, and adjudication. Like sports, debates can be held competitively or more casually, and debaters require both training and practice to reach their full potential. 

That said, debating is not the same as arguing. Why? Because each side is given equal time to build their case, respect is the order of the day, and listening is just as important as speaking.  

Debaters know that however bombastic, intimidating, or fiercely intelligent the other opposition speaker may seem at first glance, every speaker will have exactly the same amount of time to deliver their case. So, take heart: your voice matters, and here’s how to use it. 

MOTIONS 

A debate is structured around a proposed statement, which, in debating terminology, is called a Motion. Fittingly, those who propose the Motion are called the ‘Proposition’ side, while those who oppose or disagree with it are the ‘Opposition’ side. 

Each team delivers a series of speeches, trying to convince the audience and judges that their side has made the most persuasive case. They do this by marshalling their points with skill and poise, sniffing out specious arguments in the opposing side, and using examples and evidence to support their ideas while working towards a cogent, coherent conclusion. 

Motions are usually structured in the format ‘This House believes that…’, ‘This House would…’, or ‘This House prefers…’, with the ‘House’ – a convention deriving from debates in Parliament – meaning the group of people in the room whom you are trying to convince. For example, ‘This House would support children striking on Fridays in protest against climate change’, ‘This House believes that pupils should elect their own Head Teacher’, or ‘This House prefers a world where it is impossible to tell lies’. 

POIS 

In ordinary life, it would be pretty rude to interrupt someone mid-speech by standing up and yelling ‘POINT!’. In debating, however, this is par for the course – in fact, it’s encouraged. Often shortened to ‘Point’ or ‘POI’ (pronounced pee-oh-eye), points of information are brief (10 seconds or less) interjections made by one speaker to any member of the opposing side, midway through their speech. 

Often phrased as questions rather than comments (i.e., ‘Hasn’t the speaker considered the economic impacts? Margaret Thatcher famously said that there’s no such thing as public money, only taxpayers’ money – it seems unjust to expect the hardworking electorate to fund such non-essentials…’), a POI tries to derail an opponent’s argument by pointing out a fatal flaw or addressing a key omission. 

Once a POI is offered, the main speaker must immediately say ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’, or ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ (or equivalent), whereupon the POI-maker gives their POI (or not). The speech then carries on as normal, with the speaker expected to respond directly to that POI. 

Don’t go overboard, though – give too many , or fail to wait a respectful number of seconds/minutes between your team’s POIs, and this is called barracking. 

Oh, and to misquote Napoleon Bonaparte, ‘Never interrupt your opponent when s/he is making a mistake.’ 

REBUTTAL 

Rebuttal is where you point out – and, most importantly, explain – the flaws in the opposing team’s argument. Key tips: 

– Attack any logical fallacies, e.g. red herrings or straw-manning, which is where a speaker attacks the weakest possible version of the other side’s argument, thus easily tearing it down. FUN FACT: The opposite of this is called steel-manning, a rhetorical technique whereby a speaker charitably constructs the strongest possible version of the counterargument, patching up any flaws or inadequacies, in order to improve the overall quality of the debate and illustrate that, even then, their own arguments stand up to scrutiny 

– If the Proposition proposes a change (e.g. legalising cannabis), a good starting-point for rebuttal is to ask precisely how this would be enacted in a practical sense, and why, if it’s so wonderful, it hasn’t been done already 

– Use reliable evidence, data, and statistics to support your position – and call out your opponents if what they are saying is hearsay, conjecture, or just isn’t backed up (like yours should be!) 

– For instance, if the other side argue that videogames increase violent behaviour amongst children, a good rebuttal could stress that vanishingly few peer-reviewed studies have proven a cause-and-effect relationship between the two. Mistaking correlation for causation would be erroneous .,

 

[convectional rainfall] Convectional rainfall occurs when the heated air from the earth's surface rises upwards along with the water vapour and gets condensed when it reaches a higher altitude. Here the clouds carrying the water vapour are not carried away by the wind and hence, it rains in the same place.

পরিচলন বৃষ্টি(Convectional Rainfall):

শরৎ এর শেষে প্রায় সময় আমরা দেখি হঠাৎ করেই নির্দিষ্ট একটা জায়গায় বৃষ্টি পড়ছে আশপাশে পড়ছেনা।যদিও আমাদের দেশে খুব কম এটা দেখা যায় তবে নিরক্ষীয় অঞ্চলে এ বৃষ্টি খুব বেশি হয়ে থাকে।

সূর্যের উত্তাপে ভূপৃষ্ঠের সমুদ্র, হ্রদ, নদী, পুকুর, খাল, বিল প্রভৃতি জলরাশি থেকে জল জলীয়বাষ্পে পরিণত হয় । সাধারণ বায়ুর তুলনায় জলীয়বাষ্প হালকা বলে জলীয় বাষ্পপূর্ণ বায়ু সোজা উপর দিকে উঠে যায় । উপরের বায়ুমণ্ডলের প্রবল শৈত্যের সংস্পর্শে এলে ঘনিভবনের ফলে জলীয়বাষ্প ক্ষুদ্র ক্ষুদ্র জলকণায় পরিণত হয় ও বাতাসের ধূলিকণাকে আশ্রয় করে মেঘের আকারে আকাশে ভেসে থাকে । জলকণাগুলি যখন পরস্পরের সঙ্গে মিলিত হয়ে বড় বড় জলকণায় পরিণত হয় তখন সেগুলি নিজেদের ভারে ও পৃথিবীর মাধ্যাকর্ষণ শক্তির প্রভাবে বাতাসে আর ভেসে থাকতে পারে না । তখন সেই মেঘ থেকে জলকণাগুলি প্রধানত জলের ফোঁটার আকারে ঝরঝর করে ভূপৃষ্ঠে পতিত হয় । এই রকম বৃষ্টিপাতকে পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত Convectional Rainfall বলা হয়।

 এই বৃষ্টিপাত হঠাৎ কেউ পর্যবেক্ষণ করলে তার কাছে মনে হবে এটা জাদুর মত কাজ করতেছে। 

এধরণের বৃষ্টি পাত ফোটা ফোটা পড়ার পরিবর্তে মগ দিয়ে আমরা মাথায় পানি ঢালার মত পড়ে।

নিরক্ষীয় অঞ্চলে পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত বেশি হওয়ার কারণ:- পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাতের জন্য:-

বায়ুমণ্ডলে যথেষ্ট উষ্ণতা এবং

এই উষ্ণতার সাহায্যে বাষ্পীভূত হওয়ার জন্য প্রচুর জলভাগের প্রয়োজন ।

পৃথিবীর নিরক্ষীয় অঞ্চলে পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত ঘটানোর জন্য প্রয়োজনীয় দুটি প্রধান শর্তই ভালোভাবে পূরণ হয়, তাই নিরক্ষীয় অঞ্চলে পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত বেশি হয়। উদাহরণ:- নিরক্ষীয় অঞ্চলে যেমন, কঙ্গো ও আমাজন নদীর অববাহিকায়, মালয়েশিয়া, ইন্দোনেশিয়া, সিঙ্গাপুর প্রভৃতি অঞ্চলে বায়ুমণ্ডলে জলীয় বাষ্পের পরিমাণ বেশি থাকায় এই অঞ্চলে সারা বছর ধরেই পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত হয় । প্রধানত অপরাহ্নের দিকে বজ্রবিদ্যুৎসহ প্রবল বৃষ্টিপাত হল পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাতের প্রধান বৈশিষ্ট্য ।

এছাড়া নাতিশীতোষ্ণ মণ্ডলে গ্রীষ্মকালের শুরুতে এবং ভারতীয় উপমহাদেশে সাধারণত শরৎকালে পরিচলন বৃষ্টিপাত হয়ে থাকে ।

☔⛈🌈

Red Sea💥💥

😊💥Red Sea, narrow strip of water extending southeastward from Suez, Egypt, for about 1,200 miles (1,930 km) to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects with the Gulf of Aden and thence with the Arabian Sea. Geologically, the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba (Elat) must be considered as the northern extension of the same structure. The sea separates the coasts of Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea to the west from those of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the east. Its maximum width is 190 miles, its greatest depth 9,974 feet (3,040 metres), and its area approximately 174,000 square miles (450,000 square km).

The Red Sea contains some of the world’s hottest and saltiest seawater. With its connection to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, it is one of the most heavily traveled waterways in the world, carrying maritime traffic between Europe and Asia. Its name is derived from the colour changes observed in its waters. Normally, the Red Sea is an intense blue-green; occasionally, however, it is populated by extensive blooms of the algae Trichodesmium erythraeum, which, upon dying off, turn the sea a reddish brown colour.

Climet

The Red Sea region receives very little precipitation in any form, although prehistoric artifacts indicate that there were periods with greater amounts of rainfall. In general, the climate is conducive to outdoor activity in fall, winter, and spring—except during windstorms—with temperatures varying between 46 and 82 °F (8 and 28 °C). Summer temperatures, however, are much higher, up to 104 °F (40 °C), and relative humidity is high, rendering vigorous activity unpleasant. In the northern part of the Red Sea area, extending down to 19° N, the prevailing winds are north to northwest. Best known are the occasional westerly, or “Egyptian,” winds, which blow with some violence during the winter months and generally are accompanied by fog and blowing sand. From latitude 14° to 16° N the winds are variable, but from June through August strong northwest winds move down from the north, sometimes extending as far south as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait; by September, however, this wind pattern retreats to a position north of 16° N. South of 14° N the prevailing winds are south to southeast.

Hydrology

No water enters the Red Sea from rivers, and rainfall is scant; but the evaporation loss—in excess of 80 inches per year—is made up by an inflow through the eastern channel of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Gulf of Aden. This inflow is driven toward the north by prevailing winds and generates a circulation pattern in which these low-salinity waters (the average salinity is about 36 parts per thousand) move northward. Water from the Gulf of Suez has a salinity of about 40 parts per thousand, owing in part to evaporation, and consequently a high density. This dense water moves toward the south and sinks below the less dense inflowing waters from the Red Sea. Below a transition zone, which extends from depths of about 300 to 1,300 feet, the water conditions are stabilized at about 72 °F (22 °C), with a salinity of almost 41 parts per thousand. This south-flowing bottom water, displaced from the north, spills over the sill at Bab el-Mandeb, mostly through the eastern channel. It is estimated that there is a complete renewal of water in the Red Sea every 20 years.

Economic aspects

Resources

Five major types of mineral resources are found in the Red Sea region: petroleum deposits, evaporite deposits (sediments laid down as a result of evaporation, such as halite, sylvite, gypsum, and dolomite), sulfur, phosphates, and the heavy-metal deposits in the bottom oozes of the Atlantis II, Discovery, and other deeps. The oil and natural gas deposits have been exploited to varying degrees by the nations adjoining the sea; of note are the deposits near Jamsah (Gemsa) Promontory (in Egypt) at the juncture of the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. Despite their ready availability, the evaporites have been exploited only slightly, primarily on a local basis. Sulfur has been mined extensively since the early 20th century, particularly from deposits at Jamsah Promontory. Phosphate deposits are present on both sides of the sea, but the grade of the ore has been too low to warrant exploitation with existing techniques.

None of the heavy metal deposits have been exploited, although the sediments of the Atlantis II Deep alone have been estimated to be of considerable economic value. The average analysis of the Atlantis II Deep deposit has revealed an iron content of 29 percent; zinc 3.4 percent; copper 1.3 percent; and trace quantities of lead, silver, and gold. The total brine-free sediment estimated to be present in the upper 30 feet of the Atlantis II Deep is about 50 million tons. These deposits appear to extend to a depth of 60 feet below the present sediment surface, but the quality of the deposits below 30 feet is unknown. The sediments of the Discovery Deep and of several other deposits also have significant metalliferous content but at lower concentrations than that in the Atlantis II Deep, and thus they have not been of as much economic interest. The recovery of sediment located beneath 5,700 to 6,400 feet of water poses problems. But since most of these metalliferous deposits are fluid oozes, it is thought to be possible to pump them to the surface in much the same way as oil. There also are numerous proposals for drying and beneficiating (treating for smelting) these deposits after recovery.

Lovebirds❤

Lovebirds are one of the most popular pet parrot species, and for those who are familiar with them, it's no surprise. Beautiful and intelligent, these little birds have been one of the most beloved types of African parrot for more than 100 years. However, there are a lot of myths out there about lovebirds, their behavior, and what it's like to keep them as pets. If you're interested in learning more about what lovebirds are like, then you should read on to discover basic facts about these feisty little birds.

They normally don't talk

Although they are a type of parrot, and they do have the ability to mimic human speech, lovebirds are not among those species that most would consider talking birds. This is because they very rarely decide to speak, and if they do choose to mimic a sound, more often than not they repeat simple noises such as whistles or household sounds such as doorbells and microwaves. It is not known why some lovebirds are more prone to mimicking speech than others, but it is widely believed that those who do learn to talk are taught from a very young age.

There Are Several Types of Lovebirds

There are many different types of lovebirds. There are nine separate sub-species of these little parrots, each carrying their distinct traits and characteristics. These include the masked lovebird, the black-cheeked lovebird, the Fischer's lovebird, the Nyasa lovebird, the Swindern's lovebird, the red-faced Lovebird, the Abyssinian lovebird, the Madagascar lovebird, and the beloved peach-faced lovebird. The peach-faced lovebird, which is the most popular, can be identified by the rainbow of yellow, green, and blue on their bodies as well as their bright peachy-pink faces. While the different types of lovebirds have differences in looks and temperament, on average, all of the lovebirds will live for up to 20 years in captivity.

Lovebirds Are One of the Smallest Parrot Species

While they are true parrots, lovebirds are one of the smallest members of the parrot family. On average, most lovebirds fall between 5 and 7 inches in length at maturity, when measured from the beak to the end of the tailfeathers. Their small size has worked to push their popularity among those who live in apartments and other small spaces. Many of these bird lovers have found it easier to house and care for these little birds instead of attempting to keep a larger parrot species such as a macaw or a cockatoo.

Lovebirds Are Not Always Best Kept in Pairs

It is a widely purported myth that you should never own a solitary lovebird and that if they are not kept in pairs, they will die of depression. While it is true that they are extremely social birds who thrive on interaction and must be socially stimulated, in many cases, bird owners should keep single lovebirds. This is because these birds breed readily in captivity, and most bird owners are not capable of caring for an entire family of parrots. It is also worth noting that birds kept in pairs tend to bond with each other and shun human interaction. Those who would like their bird to be affectionate and open to being handled by human hands have found that it's best to keep birds by themselves and devote as much time as possible to playing and socializing with them so that their needs are met.

Lovebirds Are Very Active

Like all parrots, lovebirds are extremely active birds that need quite a bit of exercise to stay in top physical condition. Those interested in adopting a lovebird must be willing and prepared to give their feathered friend a bird-safe place to play outside of its cage for several hours per day. This will allow the bird to exercise all of the muscle groups that it needs to stay healthy, as well as provide important mental stimulation that these very intelligent animals need.

#lovebirds💚💜

বসন্ত

💖❀✿✾ ফুল ফুটুক আর না ফুটুক আজ বসন্ত। বসন্ত আসলে চারিদিকে গাছে গাছে ফুলের সমারোহ দেখা দেয়। চারদিকে কোকিলের কন্ঠের কুহু কুহু ডাক শোনা যায়। বাংলাদেশে বসন্ত এক অন্যতম ঋতু। এই ঋতুর সবার মনে দোলা দিয়ে যায়। আপনি হয়তো পহেলা ফাল্গুনের অপেক্ষায় আছেন। অনেকেই আছেন যারা অনুসন্ধান করছেন এই বছর বসন্ত কত তারিখে উদযাপন হবে। আপনাদের কথা চিন্তা করে আজকের এই পোস্টে উল্লেখ করা হয়েছে পহেলা ফাল্গুন 2024 সালের কত তারিখ অনুষ্ঠিত হবে। ফেব্রুয়ারি মাসের ১৪ তারিখ বসন্ত ঋতুর প্রথম দিন যাকে আমরা পহেলা ফাল্গুন বলে থাকি।💛💚💮⁕

বসন্ত ২০২৪

বসন্ত বাংলা নববর্ষের ১ম দিন। এটি সাধারণত ফেব্রুয়ারি বা মার্চ মাসে পড়ে। বসন্তকে ঋতুরাজ বলা হয়, কারণ এটি বসন্তের আগমনকে চিহ্নিত করে। বসন্ত একটি রঙিন উৎসব। লোকেরা রঙিন পোশাক পরে ও একে অপরের দিকে আবির ছুঁড়ে। রাস্তায় রাস্তায় মিউজিক্যাল শো ও মিছিল হয়।বসন্ত প্রেমিক-প্রেমিকাদের জন্য একটি বিশেষ দিনও। তারা একে অপরকে ফুল উপহার দেয় ও একসাথে সময় কাটায়। বসন্ত বাংলা নববর্ষের প্রথম ঋতু। এটি ফাগুন ও চৈত্র মাস জুড়ে বিস্তৃত। বসন্ত ঋতুকে প্রায়শই প্রেম, সৌন্দর্য ও নতুন সূচনার ঋতু হিসেবে দেখা হয়।

বসন্তের কিছু বৈশিষ্ট্য

ফুল: বসন্ত ঋতু ফুলের জন্য বিখ্যাত। এই ঋতুতে, পলাশ, গাঁদা, শিউলি, জারুল, এবং আরও অনেক ফুল ফোটে।

কুকিলের ডাক: বসন্ত ঋতু কুকিলের ডাকের জন্যও বিখ্যাত। কুকিলের ডাক বসন্তের আগমনকে বোঝায়।

উৎসব: বসন্ত ঋতুতে অনেক উৎসব পালিত হয়। এর মধ্যে রয়েছে পহেলা ফাল্গুন, হোলি, এবং চড়ক পূজা।

বসন্ত বাংলাদেশের একটি জনপ্রিয় ঋতু। এই ঋতুতে, লোকেরা গ্রামে বেড়াতে যায় ও প্রকৃতির সৌন্দর্য উপভোগ করে।

পহেলা ফাল্গুন ২০২৪

তারিখ: ১৪ই ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০২৪

বার: বুধবার

৩ শাবান ১৪৪৫

পহেলা ফাল্গুন বাংলা নববর্ষের প্রথম দিন। এটি বসন্তের আগমনী বার্তা বহন করে। এই দিনে বাংলাদেশ ও পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বিভিন্ন রঙের পোশাক পরিধান করে, বসন্তবরণ উৎসব পালিত হয়। পহেলা ফাল্গুনের অন্যতম আকর্ষণ হল আবীর খেলা। এই দিনে সকলে রঙিন আবীর দিয়ে একে অপরকে রাঙিয়ে তোলে। বসন্তের আগমনকে স্বাগত জানাতে বিভিন্ন বসন্ত বরণ গান গাওয়া হয়। বিভিন্ন রকমের ফুলের প্রদর্শনী আয়োজন করা হয়। একে অপরকে ফাল্গুনের শুভেচ্ছা বিনিময় করা হয়।

পহেলা ফাল্গুন উদযাপন নিয়ে কিছু টিপস:

নতুন ঋতুর প্রথম দিনে বাঙালি সংস্কৃতি অনুসারে অনেকে বিভিন্ন ধরনের কাজের মাধ্যমে দিনটি পালন করে। তাই আপনাদের জন্য চলিত কিছু উদযাপনের কাজের ধারণা নিচে দেওয়া হয়েছে।

নতুন পোশাক: পহেলা ফাল্গুনে নতুন রঙের পোশাক পরিধান করতে পারেন।

আবীর খেলা: আবীর খেলার সময় সাবধানতা অবলম্বন করুন।

পরিবেশের যত্ন: আবীর খেলার সময় পরিবেশ দূষণ না করার চেষ্টা করুন।

পহেলা ফাল্গুন একটি আনন্দ-উৎসব। এই দিনে সকলে মিলে রঙিন আবহে বসন্তের আগমন উদযাপন করে।

পহেলা ফাল্গুনের কিছু ঐতিহ্যবাহী রীতিনীতি

বসন্ত বরণ: ভোরবেলায়, মানুষ ফুল দিয়ে বসন্তকে বরণ করে।

পহেলা ফাল্গুনের শুভেচ্ছা: মানুষ একে অপরকে পহেলা ফাল্গুনের শুভেচ্ছা বিনিময় করে।

রঙের খেলা: মানুষ একে অপরের উপর রঙ ছুঁড়ে খেলে।

নববর্ষের গান: বিভিন্ন সাংস্কৃতিক অনুষ্ঠানে নববর্ষের গান পরিবেশিত হয়।

নববর্ষের খাবার: বিশেষ নববর্ষের খাবার, যেমন পায়েস, পান্তা ভাত, ইলিশ মাছ, ইত্যাদি পরিবেশন করা হয়।

পহেলা ফাল্গুন বাঙালি সংস্কৃতির একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ অংশ। এটি ঐক্য, সংস্কৃতি ও প্রকৃতির সাথে সম্প্রীতির প্রতীক। তারিখ: ১লা ফাল্গুন, ১৪৩০ বঙ্গাব্দ (১৪ই ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০২৪) বার: বুধবার।

বসন্ত উৎসব: বাংলা নববর্ষের প্রথম দিন হিসেবে পহেলা ফাল্গুন উদযাপিত হয়। এই দিনটিতে, লোকেরা রঙিন পোশাক পরে, গান গায়। একে অপরকে আবির দিয়ে খেলা করে। পহেলা ফাল্গুন কে ভালোবাসা দিবস হিসেবেও পালিত হয়। এই দিনটিতে, প্রেমিক-প্রেমিকা একে অপরকে ফুল, কার্ড ও উপহার দেয়।

 Bangladeshi street foods❤

 

Fuchka: 

Panipuri is a street snack that is extremely popular in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal. Small in size, it consists of a hollow puri that is fried until crispy, then stuffed with a combination of flavored water called pani, tamarind chutney, chaat masala, potatoes, onions, hot chillis, and chickpeas.

In North India, panipuri is known as golgappa, gol referring to the crispy shell, and gappa referring to the eating process, since these small snacks are typically eaten one at a time. It is believed that panipuri originated in Uttar Pradesh and gradually spread in popularity throughout the country and outside of it. 

Paratha: 

Golden-brown in color, flaky and layered, paratha is a type of Indian bread that is typically consumed for breakfast. The name comes from a combination of words parat and atta (flour), referring to the cooked, layered dough. It consists of whole wheat flour that is baked in ghee (Indian clarified butter) and comes in round, triangular, square, or heptagonal shapes.

Parathas are often stuffed with ingredients such as boiled potatoes, cauliflower, garlic, ginger, chili, paneer, or radish. They are sometimes accompanied by pickles, yogurt, homemade chutneys, or meat and vegetable curries. In Punjab, paratha is traditionally paired with lassi, a popular yogurt-based drink. 

beguni:

Beguni is a simple dish consists of deep-fried eggplant slices. The variations may include dipping the slices in batter or coating them with various combination of gram flour and spices. The batter is usually prepared with rice and gram flour, while the typical blend of spices includes turmeric, chili powder, and cumin.

Beguni is a Bengali dish, eaten both in Bangladesh and India. It is usually served with a yogurt-based sauce or chutney on the side, and it is usually enjoyed as a snack or street food. A similar dish is known as begun bhaji, but the slices are mostly vertical and are rarely dipped in batter.

Jhalmuri:

Jhalmuri is a popular snack from Bangladesh and India prepared by simply tossing the selected ingredients together. A simple translation of the name reveals what it’s all about; jahl means spicy, and muri stands for puffed rice, which is also the main ingredient of the dish.

The recipe here is only a mere guideline, while the important thing is to balance the textures and flavors correctly. Apart from puffed rice, other ingredients include roasted peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, sliced onions, and various spices such as chaat masala and cumin powder. 

Jilapi:

Although it is believed to have its origins in Persia, zulbia or jalebi is an international dessert with variations that spread throughout the Middle East, India, and Asia. In its basic form, this sweet dessert is created by combining flour with yogurt or ghee, as well as baking soda or yeast to create a batter which is then poured in circular patterns directly into the sizzling oil.

The final result is a crispy treat that is then doused in a thick syrup, which can be flavored with rosewater, saffron, honey, orange blossom water, or cardamom. In both Iran and India, zulbia is served on special occasions, and it is usually sprinkled with chopped pistachios or saffron threads. 

Chotpoti:

This traditional Bengali dish consists of chickpeas and diced potatoes that are served in a tamarind-based sauce. Typical additions also include onions, boiled eggs, sliced green chili peppers, and fresh mint or cilantro, while the sauce is usually spiced with cumin and chili powder.

The whole dish is occasionally topped with cucumbers, boiled eggs, as well as crackers or crumbled puri (fuchka)—fried bread shells. Chotpoti is popular in Bangladesh and West Bengal, and it is typically associated with special occasions such as Eid, though it is also a favorite everyday snack and a common street food dish.💗💗

stars

 

A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 10²² to 10²⁴ stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye—all within the Milky Way galaxy.

A star's life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material largely comprising hydrogen, helium, and trace heavier elements. Its total mass mainly determines its evolution and eventual fate. A star shines for most of its active life due to the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core. This process releases energy that traverses the star's interior and radiates into outer space. At the end of a star's lifetime as a fusor, its core becomes a stellar remnant: a white dwarf, a neutron star, or—if it is sufficiently massive—a black hole.

Stellar nucleosynthesis in stars or their remnants creates almost all naturally occurring chemical elements heavier than lithium. Stellar mass loss or supernova explosions return chemically enriched material to the interstellar medium. These elements are then recycled into new stars. Astronomers can determine stellar properties—including mass, age, metallicity (chemical composition), variability, distance, and motion through space—by carrying out observations of a star's apparent brightness, spectrum, and changes in its position in the sky over time.

Stars can form orbital systems with other astronomical objects, as in planetary systems and star systems with two or more stars. When two such stars orbit closely, their gravitational interaction can significantly impact their evolution. Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, such as a star cluster or a galax,

Tuna fish.🐟🐟

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna, giant bluefin tuna [for individuals exceeding 150 kg ], and formerly as the tunny. Atlantic bluefins are native to both the western and eastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Wikipedia

Mass: 220 – 250 kg

Scientific name: Thunnus thynnus

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Scombridae

Kingdom: Animalia

Order: Scombriformes

Phylum: Chordata

Bluefins dive to depths of 1,006 m (3,301 ft). The Atlantic bluefin tuna typically hunts small fish such as sardines, herring, mackerel, and eels, and invertebrates such as squid and crustaceans. They exhibit opportunistic hunting in schools of fish organised by size. Their white skeletal muscle allows for large contractions which aids burst swimming to ensure prey capture.

The species is host to over 70 parasites although none have been yet described as causing harm to the species. The tetraphyllidean tapeworm Pelichnibothrium speciosum is one parasite of the species. As the tapeworm's definite host is the blue shark, which does not generally seem to feed on tuna,[citation needed] the Atlantic bluefin tuna likely is a dead-end host for P. speciosum.

Atlantic bluefin tuna are eaten by a wide variety of predators. When they are newly hatched, they are eaten by other fishes that specialize on eating plankton. At that life stage, their numbers are reduced dramatically. Those that survive face a steady increase in the size of their predators. Adult Atlantic Bluefin are not eaten by anything other than the very largest billfishes, toothed whales, and some open ocean shark species.

Orca🐋 The killer whale🐳🐋

 The orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale that is the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. It is the only extant species in the genus Orcinus. Orcas are recognizable by their black-and-white patterned body. A cosmopolitan species, orcas are found in diverse marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas.

Scientific classificationEdit this classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Artiodactyla

Infraorder: Cetacea

Family: Delphinidae

Genus: Orcinus

Species: O. orca

Synonyms

Delphinus orca Linnaeus, 1758

Delphinus gladiator Bonnaterre, 1789

Orca gladiator (Bonnaterre, 1789)

Orcas are apex predators with a diverse diet. Individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. This includes a variety of fish, sharks, rays, and marine mammals such as seals and other dolphins and whales. They are highly social; some populations are composed of highly stable matrilineal family groups (pods). Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviors, often specific to a particular group and passed along from generation to generation are considered to be manifestations of animal culture.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature assesses the orca's conservation status as data deficient because of the likelihood that two or more orca types are separate species. Some local populations are considered threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), capture for marine mammal parks, and conflicts with human fisheries. In late 2005, the southern resident orcas, which swim in British Columbia and Washington waters, were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.

Orcas are not usually a threat to humans, and no fatal attack has ever been documented in their natural habitat. There have been cases of captive orcas killing or injuring their handlers at marine theme parks. Orcas feature strongly in the mythologies of indigenous cultures, and their reputation in different cultures ranges from being the souls of humans to merciless killers.