Gorkhali samachar

On Oct. 12 EDT (Oct. 11 PDT), a small asteroid designated 2012 TC4 will safely pass by Earth at a distance of approximately 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers). This is a little over one tenth the distance to the Moon and just above the orbital altitude of communications satellites. This encounter with TC4 is being used by asteroid trackers around the world to test their ability to operate as a coordinated international asteroid warning network. 2012 TC4 is estimated to be 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) in size. Orbit prediction experts say the asteroid poses no risk of impact with Earth. Nonetheless, its close approach to Earth is an opportunity to test the ability of a growing global observing network to communicate and coordinate its optical and radar observations in a real scenario. Oct. 11, 2017 movie of asteroid 2012 TC4 using the 1.0-meter Kiso Schmidt telescope in Nagano, Japan. Credit: Kiso Observatory, the University of Tokyo This asteroid was discovered by the Panoramic Su...

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using VIIRS data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. You have probably heard or read that it has been rather smoky out West this year. Dozens of large wildfires have raged through forests in British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, and other states this fire season. Intense blazes are lofting up so much smoke that huge plumes have been blowing across the country—and even turning up in Europe. We checked with a few scientists who specialize in studying wildfires for an update on what is going on. EO: How does this fire season compare to past years? The western fire season has been quite active this year. British Columbia has surpassed its greatest burned area in the modern era. While its unlikely that this season will be record-breaking in the western U.S., it is above normal relative to the past decade, which has seen abundant fire activity. — John Abatzoglou, University of Idaho EO: Is climate ...

This summer, Florida beachgoers watched in astonishment as more than 70 strangers spontaneously formed a human chain that extended out into the whorls of a vicious riptide. Together they rescued 10 swimmers from drowning, including two young boys, their parents, and their grandmother. Among the rescuers was Jessica Simmons, 29, who, upon hearing the swimmers' screams, told herself, as she later recalled to the Panama City News Herald: "These people are not drowning today... It's not happening. We're going to get them out." And they did. With her husband Derek, Simmons swam out to the end of the human chain, then repeatedly left its safety to haul the drowning swimmers back to safety, one by one. Such acts of altruism — defined as costly or risky acts performed to benefit someone other than the altruist — are among the thorniest puzzles of human nature. For someone to risk her own life to save a stranger seems to violate basic tenets of biology and economics, ac...

Over the past three decades, the forecasting of a hurricane’s track—the path a storm will take across the ocean and where it will make landfall—has gotten significantly better. However, progress has lagged in accurately forecasting the intensity of a storm’s winds. Forecasting direction is relatively straightforward because the track is mostly controlled by upper-level “steering winds.” In contrast, how much a storm will intensify is dependent on several factors—some of which are much smaller in scale, more complex, and difficult to represent in forecasting models. Rapidly intensifying storms—with winds increasing by at least 35 miles per hour (55 kilometers per hour) in a 24-hour period—are particularly problematic. Unexpected strengthening before a storm makes landfall can increase the risk of deaths, injuries, and property damage. In 2017, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria all underwent rapid intensification. The images above show how Maria developed from a somewhat disorganized ...

The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average of eight hours of sleep per night for adults, but sleep scientist Matthew Walker says that too many people are falling short of the mark. "Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain," Walker says. "Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it." Walker is the director the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He points out that lack of sleep — defined as six hours or fewer — can have serious consequences. Sleep deficiency is associated with problems in concentration, memory and the immune system, and may even shorten lifespan. "Every disease that is killing us in developed nations has causal and significant links to a lack of sleep," he says. "So that classic maxim that you may [have] heard that you can sleep when you're dead, it's actually mortally unwise advice fr...

Dashain might be over but the celebrations, in various names, still continue in Nepal, where festivals even outnumber the number of days in a year. Every celebration, in many Nepali homes, is incomplete without the local brews and traditionally cooked meat, recipes for which have been passed down from one generation to another. The most popular among local alcohols in Nepal is c hyaang or thon, sometimes referred to as the ‘Himalayan Beer’ or the ‘Nepali Beer’. Chyaang is a fermented rice beverage, similar in appearance, taste and production method to the unfiltered varieties of Japanese sake. It is believed that a Chinese princess, who tied the knot with a Tibetan king during the seventh century, brought the brew to the kingdom as part of her dowry, and later on it was adopted as a welcome drink of the courts. However, according to another Sherpa belief, Guru Padmasambhava was the first one to drink c hyaang and hence the Tibetans present it as an offering to him....

Oscar Kneppers, Founder of Rockstart, a startup accelerator which also has a programme in Nepal, created the first Dutch internet magazine ‘Net Magazine’ in 1994. He was also behind the successful technology channel Webwereld (1995). In 1998 Kneppers started his first business and launched Emerce, a magazine, and website on e- business, marketing and technology. Emerce is still considered the most prominent Internet and e- commerce media brand in the Netherlands. After launching and selling off more media ventures in preceding years, Kneppers founded Rockstart to helps startups through funding, mentorship, community and office space and relevant startup events. In Nepal Rockstart Impact has accelerated 29 companies, and received FDI pledges for 21 of them ranging from €100–500K. Onlinekhabar recently talked to Kneppers about the programme in Nepal. Excerpts from an interview: Is this your first time in Nepal? Yes, this is my first time in Nepal. I came in yesterda...