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- Scientists exploring the sea floor off the coast of central California for deep-water coral and sponges instead found an unprecedented sight: Hundreds of octopuses tucked between rocks with their tentacles inverted and covering groups of white eggs, a posture that is common among brooding females.
- The cluster of more than 1,000 gray octopuses latching on to clean, dark rock was found last week in the Davidson Seamount, an underwater extinct volcano in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Chad King, a marine biologist at the sanctuary, said 30Oct.
- A submersible's camera found the creatures on October 23 nearly 3 kilometres below the surface during the first dive by the Nautilus, a vessel exploring the sanctuary and livestreaming its findings.
- "This is certainly the largest cluster of brooding deep-sea octopuses that has ever been spotted," added King, who is also the chief scientist aboard the Nautilus, a research vessel with a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the nonprofit Ocean Exploration Trust.
- It was the first time scientists have seen a cluster of Muusoctopus robustus octopuses off California's coast, King said.
- This kind of aggregation of deep-sea octopuses has been reported only once before, when earlier this year a smaller group of about 100 were spotted brooding eggs in warm ocean water off the Central American nation of Costa Rica, the nonprofit said.
- The octopuses lined up in the cracks of the clean rocks near shimmering fluid seeps that looked "kind of like a heat wave off the pavement on a hot day," which suggests warm water, King said.
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- The Statue of Unity, a 182-metre giant structure built in honour of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was dedicated to the nation on 31Oct. by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- The imposing monument, touted as the world's tallest statue, is twice the height of Statue of Liberty and is built on an islet, Sadhu Bet, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada district.
- After PM Modi unveils the statue, three IAF planes would fly past and create the tricolour in the sky by emitting saffron, white and green colours, said an official release 30oct.
- Earlier PM Modi inaugurated a 17-km-long Valley of Flowers, a tent city for tourists near the statue and a museum dedicated to the life and times of Patel.
- PM Modi would also inaugurate the 'Wall of Unity' (a monument defining India's unity) near the statue. At that time, three Jaguar fighter jets would fly past the structure at a low altitude, said the release.
- After inaugurating the Wall of Unity, PM Modi would offer floral tributes to Patel, whose birth anniversary falls on October 31. At the same time, two MI-17 helicopters would shower flowers on the statue, it said.
- On the occasion, cultural and musical programmes will be performed by the bands of Gujarat Police, armed and paramilitary forces.
- A viewing gallery at a height of 135 metres has been created inside the statue to enable tourists to have a view of the dam and nearby mountain ranges.
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- India is known for its diversity and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had ensured that the country remains united with its uniqueness, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said 31Oct.
- Flagging off the 'Run For Unity', organised on the occasion of 143rd birth anniversary of Patel, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been working relentlessly with the country's first home minister's objective of making India strong and keeping it united.
- "Sardar Patel is the symbol of India's unity. He had brought the country's 562 principalities under the fold of the union and had achieved this task within a very short span of 70 days through a bloodless revolution," Singh said.
- Asserting that Patel could achieve this success due to his political acumen, indomitable zeal and farsightedness, the home minister said, "Otherwise we would have to go to these places with visa and passport
- Singh also administered the national unity pledge before flagging of the 'Run For Unity', which was participated by several thousand people.
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- India has leaped 23 places in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings. India is now 77th from 100th in the previous rankings.
- There have been improvements in Six out of 10 indicators, and India has jumped 65 places in the last four years, but the Government is not resting on its laurels. The Prime Minister wants India in the top 50.
- Indian economy continues to surge ahead and at the same time, the country is taking giant leap in the ease of doing business index.
- According to the latest Doing Business Report of world bank ,India has recorded a jump of 23 positions against its rank of 100 in 2017 to be placed now at 77th rank among 190 countries assessed.
- India's leap of 23 ranks in the Ease of Doing Business ranking is significant considering that last year India had improved its rank by 30 places, a rare feat for any large and diverse country of the size of India.
- India has improved its rank in 6 out of 10 indicators. But, the most dramatic improvements have been registered in the indicators related to 'Construction Permits' and 'Trading across Borders'.
- The World Bank has recognized India as one of the top improvers for the year.
- This is the second consecutive year for which India has been recognized as one of the top improvers.
- As a result of continued performance, India is now placed at first position among South Asian countries as against 6th in 2014.
- As a result of continued efforts by the Government, India has improved its rank by 53 positions in last two years and 65positions in last four years.
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- The robotic car company created by Google is poised to attempt a major technological leap in California, where its vehicles will hit the roads without a human on hand to take control in emergencies.
- The regulatory approval announced 30oct. allows Waymo’s driverless cars to cruise through California at speeds up to 65 miles per hour.
- The self-driving cars have travelled millions of miles on the state’s roads since Waymo began as a secretive project within Google nearly a decade ago. But a backup driver had been required to be behind the wheel until new regulations in April set the stage for the transition to true autonomy.
- Waymo is the first among dozens of companies testing self-driving cars in California to persuade state regulators its technology is safe enough to permit them on the roads without a safety driver in them.
- An engineer still must monitor the fully autonomous cars from a remote location and be able to steer and stop the vehicles if something goes wrong.
- Waymo contends its robotic vehicles will save lives because so many crashes are caused by human motorists who are intoxicated, distracted or just bad drivers.
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- Country’s high population makes it vulnerable to an ecological crisis, says World Wide Fund for Nature
India’s soil biodiversity is in grave peril, according to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas prepared by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
- The WWF’s ‘risk index’ for the globe indicating threats from loss of above-ground diversity, pollution and nutrient over-loading, over-grazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion, desertification and climate change shows India among countries whose soil biodiversity faces the highest level of risk.
- Coloured red on the Atlas, these include Pakistan, China, several countries in Africa and Europe, and most of North America.
- Soil biodiversity encompasses the presence of micro-organisms, micro-fauna (nematodes and tardigrades for example), and macro-fauna (ants, termites and earthworms).
- “A key aspect of this year’s report is the threat to soil biodiversity and pollinators [such as bees],” Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF-India, told reporters at an event marking the report’s release.
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- Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai is being honoured by Harvard University for her work promoting girls' education.
- Harvard's Kennedy School says Yousafzai will be awarded the 2018 Gleitsman Award at a Dec. 6 ceremony.
- Yousafzai became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 when she was recognized for her global work supporting schooling for all children.
- As a teen in Pakistan, she survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban. She later founded the non-profit Malala Fund to support her work.
- Harvard officials say her story has inspired a generation of boys and girls to follow in her footsteps. Now 20, Yousafzai is a student at Oxford University in England.
- The Gleitsman Award provides $125,000 for activism that has improved quality of life around the world.
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- Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer SS Deswal has been appointed as the Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
- The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved Deswal's name for the post for a period up to his superannuation on August 31, 2021, said the statement issued by the Ministry of Personnel on 31oct.
- He has been appointed in place of R K Pachnanda, who superannuated 31oct.
- Deswal, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre, is currently working as Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
- ITBPF was raised in 1962 and works under the command of the Union Home Ministry. (ANI)
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- Actor Anupam Kher resigned as chairperson of the Film and Television Institute of India on 31oct, saying that it would not be possible for him to discharge his responsibilities due to his professional commitments in the U.S.
- He is playing former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a film based on a memoir written by Sanjaya Baru, a former media advisor to Dr. Singh. The film is expected to be released before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
- In his resignation letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Mr. Kher said he will be stationed in the U.S. for “nearly nine months between 2018 and 2019 and then for a similar period for a minimum of three years more” due to his commitment to the NBC series New Amsterdam.
- “Given this assignment (the show), it would not be fair to me, the students and management team, for me to hold a position of such responsibility and accountability, without being actively involved in the operations,” he said in his letter.
- His resignation letter, dated October 30, has been accepted by Mr. Rathore, who thanked Mr. Kher for his services to the premier institute, the I&B Ministry said in a statement here.
- Mr. Kher had replaced Gajendra Chauhan, who had a controversial tenure as the head of the prestigious institute, in October last year.
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- Growth of eight infrastructure sectors slowed down to 4.3% in September, the lowest in the last four months, as production of crude oil and natural gas declined.
- Previously, the lowest growth rate was in May 2018, when the core sectors expanded at 4.1%.
- Infrastructure sectors of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity grew by 4.7% in September 2017.
- During April-September 2018, the core sector growth was 5.5%.
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- Scientists have developed a web-based tool to help monitor the prevalence of fake news on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- Developed by researchers at the University of Michigan in the US, the tool uses a Platform Health Metric called the Iffy Quotient, which draws data from two external entities: NewsWhip and Media Bias/Fact Checker.
- NewsWhip, a social media engagement tracking firm, collects URLs on hundreds of thousands of sites every day and then gathers information on which of those sites have engagements on Facebook and Twitter.
- Iffy Quotient queries NewsWhip for the top 5,000 most popular URLs on the two social media platforms.
- Then the tool checks to see if those domain names have been flagged by Media Bias/Fact Check, an independent site that classifies various sources based on their reliability and bias.
- The first report issued by the researchers confirms what was suspected about the 2016 US presidential election: the Iffy Quotient increased dramatically on both Facebook and Twitter during the election.
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- After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets more planets even than stars NASA's Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.
- NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.
- "As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
- Kepler has opened our eyes to the diversity of planets that exist in our galaxy.
- The most recent analysis of Kepler's discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars visible in the night sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky, planets similar in size to Earth, and located within the habitable zone of their parent stars.
- That means they're located at distances from their parent stars where liquid water a vital ingredient to life as we know it might pool on the planet surface.
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