India’s surge hits southern states, prompts more lockdowns – The Washington Post

Indians line up to receive the vaccine for COVID-19 at a medical college in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, May 8, 2021. Two southern states in India became the latest to declare lockdowns, as coronavirus cases surge at breakneck speed across the country and pressure mounts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to implement a nationwide shutdown.  (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Indians line up to receive the vaccine for COVID-19 at a medical college in Prayagraj, India, Saturday, May 8, 2021. Two southern states in India became the latest to declare lockdowns, as coronavirus cases surge at breakneck speed across the country and pressure mounts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to implement a nationwide shutdown. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

At over 300,000, Karnataka’s capital of Bengaluru has the highest active caseload of any Indian city. But experts warn the worst is still ahead as India’s third-largest city buckles under oxygen shortages, overrun hospitals and crowded crematoriums. In Tamil Nadu state, the lockdown announcement followed a daily record of more than 26,000 cases on Friday.

Source: India’s surge hits southern states, prompts more lockdowns – The Washington Post

Myanmar Junta Suspends Over 1,600 Educators for Refusing to Work (Me: Junta at war with all of Myanmar)

According to the lists acquired by The Irrawaddy, a total of 339 educators and administrative staff were suspended at Yangon University, 392 at Mandalay University of Arts and Science, 149 at Mandalay University of Foreign Languages, 60 at Myitkyina Technological University, 72 at Taungoo Technological University, 137 at Yangon University of Education, and 45 at Myanmar Maritime University.

Other institutions affected include universities of Computer Studies in Pathein and Taungoo, Sittwe University, Maubin University, and technological universities in Taunggyi, Hpa-an, Pathein and Kengtung.

Source: Myanmar Junta Suspends Over 1,600 Educators for Refusing to Work

Revista Fórum: 56 mil hectares destruídos: desmatamento na Amazônia em abril bate recorde da série histórica para o mês – Mágica Mistura✨

“What is already bad, can get worse with Ricardo Salles working against the environment,” says a Greenpeace spokesman on new data released by Inpe.

Data released on Friday (7) by the System Deter (Detection of Deforestation in Real Time), the Institute of Space Research (Inpe), indicate that deforestation in the Amazon in April hit record and is the largest in the historical series for the month.

“O que já é ruim, pode piorar com Ricardo Salles trabalhando contra o meio ambiente”, diz porta-voz do Greenpeace sobre novos dados divulgados pelo Inpe. Dados divulgados nesta sexta-feira (7) pelo sistema Deter (Detecção de Desmatamentos em Tempo Real), do Instituto de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe), apontam que o desmatamento na Amazônia em abril bateu recorde…

Source: Revista Fórum: 56 mil hectares destruídos: desmatamento na Amazônia em abril bate recorde da série histórica para o mês – Mágica Mistura✨

Robin Nest Build

Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Our backyard robins returned this year. Pam, remembering the “miss” they made on her roses, tore down the first bits of nest on our carriage light. They persisted and I implored her to “have a heart,” agreeing to look after their mess. Here she is in the second day, note how she shimmies to form the nest bowl.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved, Michael Stephen Wills

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Saturday Surprise — Musical Roads???

Filosofa's Word

I came across something last night on the Amusing Planet website that I thought you might enjoy reading about … musical roads!

A Japanese engineer by the name of Shizuo Shinoda was digging with a bulldozer when he accidentally scraped some markings into a road with its claw. Later when he drove over the markings, he realized that the vibration produced in his car can be heard as a tune. In 2007, a team of engineers from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute refined Shinoda’s designs and built a number of “melody roads” in Japan. These roads have grooves cut at very specific intervals along the road surface. Depending on how far apart the grooves are and how deep they are, a car moving over them will produce a series of high or low notes, enabling designers to create a distinct tune. The closer the grooves are, the higher the pitch…

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COVID in our free world

(We need to change how we work and live or we will facilitate or bring on a new pandemic through ignoring the impact of humans on the environment. Going back to old normal is not a winning option.)

themacbit

COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the work culture of the entire human population. We are working remotely during the pandemic. The interesting observation is, we are shifting away from the culture of working a fixed number of hours a day – usually called 9 to 5 workday. In this article, we understand how this work culture is not something completely unknown to human history.

Before the Industrial Revolution, people were paid based on the products/services they delivered. People worked in their towns and sold the products in cities. With the Industrial revolution came factories and offices. The concept of 9 to 5 job was born. People started to get paid for working a fixed number of hours a day. Today, COVID-19 killed the concept of working together in an office. We are back to the point where we started. People are working in their hometowns, delivering products and services remotely. The…

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