China plans to launch its own ‘artificial moon’ by 2020
BEIJING: China is planning to launch its own ‘artificial moon’ by 2020 to replace streetlamps and lower electricity costs in urban areas, state media reported on Friday. Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing “illumination satellites” which will shine in tandem with the real moon, but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily. The first manmade moon will launch from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, with three more to follow in 2022 if the first test goes well, said Wu Chunfeng, head of Tian Fu New Area Science Society, the organisation responsible for the project. Though the first launch will be experimental, the 2022 satellites “will be the real deal with great civic and commercial potential,” he said in an interview with China Daily. By reflecting light from the sun, the satellites could replace streetlamps in urban areas, saving an estimated 1.2 billion yuan ($170 million) a year in electricity costs for Chengdu, if the man-made moons illuminate an area of 50 square kilometres. BERLIN: Researchers have identified a new species of piranha-like fish that lived in the sea about 150 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs.
The bony fish, described in the journal Current Biology, had teeth like a piranha, which the researchers suggest they used to bite off chunks of flesh from other fish.
The victims were other fish that had apparently been nibbled on in the same limestone deposits in South Germany where the fish was found, researchers said.
“We have other fish from the same locality with chunks missing from their fins,” said David Bellwood of James Cook University in Australia.
“This is an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but the fins of other fishes. It’s a remarkably smart move as fins regrow, a neat renewable resource. Feed on a fish and it is dead; nibble its fins and you have food for the future,” Bellwood said.
The newly described fish is part of the world famous collections in the JuraMuseum in Germany. It comes from the same limestone deposits that contained Archaeopteryx.
Careful study of the fossilised specimen’s well-preserved jaws revealed long, pointed teeth on the exterior of the vomer, a bone forming the roof of the mouth, and at the front of both upper and lower jaws, researchers said.
There are triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges on the prearticular bones that lie along the side of the lower jaw.
The tooth pattern and shape, jaw morphology, and mechanics suggest a mouth equipped to slice flesh or fins, the researchers said.
The evidence points to the possibility that the early piranha-like fish may have exploited aggressive mimicry in a striking parallel to the feeding patterns of modern piranha. NEW DELHI: Rare vintage postcards of the Indian subcontinent, some of them dating back to the 1890s and capturing an era gone by, are on display here as part of an ongoing month-long exhibition.
Titled Globetrotters: Early Postcards from the Indian Subcontinent, the exhibition, that kicked-off on Wednesday, charts the evolution of postcards in the country, with a dazzling display of about 200 original postcards, bearing some of the rarest images of major cities in India and neighbouring countries.
“The period spans from 1890s to 1950, and the theme ranges from exotic, touristy material to plain documentation of events as they happened. In post-colonial era, some of the postcards depict the celebration of Independence or material produced by political parties,” curator at the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, Rahaab Allana, said.
The exhibition, organised by the Foundation has been hosted at Art Heritage Gallery in Triveni Kala Sangam, and curated by Us-based collector and author Omar Khan in consultation with Allana.
The exhibition also has a companion publication called Paper Jewels: Postcards from the Raj, authored by Khan. “It was first hosted in Mumbai, and now we invite people in Delhi to take a peek into the romantic feel of the postcards. The oldest postcards date to 1890s, like those produced by sewing machine firm, Singer Manufacturing Company,” he said.
The exhibits are drawn from collections of Khan and Alkazi Foundation for the Arts.
Allana said original technique used for making postcards was press lithography, and later half-tone and collotypes imagemaking techniques were used.
A member of the Foundation said the collections can be broadly classified into categories, viz, city scape and architectural views; Indian community documentation; and material produced for purveying political thoughts.
Rare images of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), Madras (now Chennai), Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Karachi (in Pakistan) are sure to trigger a sense of wonder in them.
The iconic Delhi Durbar image of 1903, Old Delhi’s Town Hall; Lord Curzon and Lady Curzon on a postcard bearing image of Kashmere Gate, Calcutta’s Chowringhee Street, Nobel Laureate Rabindranth Tagore, freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu, daily lives of a washerman (‘dhobi’), cotton cleaners, domestic help attending to his master, are some of the rarest images on postcards on display.
“All the postcards are so beautiful, a part of our heritage. I think the most interesting image on a postcard, was a domestic help giving bath to his master, and one can see the details of the bathtub used in that era and other paraphernalia, truly rare,” said Sho Kan, a visitor.
According to organisers, While printing technologies like rapid press lithography were being exploited by small workshops and artisans in European and Indian cities, the very first advertising postcards of the subcontinent were apparently published by the Singer Manufacturing Co. in 1892 for the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Probably the earliest from an Indianbased publisher is the postcard ‘Greetings from India’, seen in the exhibition by W Rossler in Kolkata from around 1897.