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Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is around 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere. While its total emissions (6%) are less than those of carbon dioxide (76%) and methane (16%), nitrous oxide remains a powerful greenhouse gas that lingers in the atmosphere for around 114 years before disintegrating. Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate that three quarters of nitrous oxide emissions come from agriculture. Agricultural soil, especially because of the world's use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, is the principal culprit.

Nitrous oxide is not just a greenhouse gas, it is a very good indicator of a grower’s efficiency in his farming practices and how he manages the nitrogen he applies to his crop.

For every kilogram of nitrous oxide emitted, there are other nitrogen gases (e.g. di-nitrogen or N2) that are lost in far greater amounts, from 2-70 kilograms. These other gases have no impact on our atmosphere (which is already 78% di-nitrogen), but they are equivalent to lost production and ultimately lost income to a farmer.

Nitrogen fertiliser is not cheap. Every tonne of nitrogen costs the grower more than A$1,000, but it is critical for meeting the demands of a rapidly growing world population.

Australian farmers collectively apply nearly 1 million tonnes of nitrogen every year. If (conservatively) 25 kilograms is lost to the atmosphere for every tonne applied, that is $25 million dollars each year shaved off the economy.

Credit : The Conversation 

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Dubai is the world's first government to turn 100% paperless. The move is said to have saved 336 million papers, 14 million hours of labour and 1.3 billion Dirham (US$350 million). The need for paper documents and transactions will be removed for all employees or customers of the Dubai Government. Its DubaiNow app will connect users to more than 130 "smart" services of the city in a bid to make the city 100 per cent digital.

Earlier, the US, UK, Europe and Canada have already been expressive of their plans to digitize government operation on a larger scale, which encompass government procedures and citizen identifications. However, sceptics have always argued about such a step's vulnerability to cyber-attacks.

The Dubai Crown Prince stated that the government plans to implement advanced strategies to create and enhance digital life in Dubai over the next five decades.

He added that the new phase of Dubai's digital journey will enable and empower future governments to meet the expectations of the residents of a thriving smart city and provide them with renewed opportunities for prosperity, sustainable development, and happiness.

Credit : India Times 

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Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France was wrapped in lustrous fabric from September 18 to October 3, as part of a posthumous installation by Bulgarian-born artist Christo and French artist Jeanne-Claude. The monument was covered in 25.000 sq metres of silvery blue fabric and 3,000m of red rope, costing nearly 14 million pounds. Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude were known for their larger-than-life installations where they wrapped many famous monuments and places. The temporary artwork was titled L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped and was completed on Christo's request.

The project was initially slated for April 2020 but was delayed, first to accommodate the kestrel falcons who nested in the monument and then because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Work began in mid-July, and the full installation will be on view from September 18 to October 3. It’s fitting Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s first posthumous project is being staged in the City of Lights, where the pair met in the 1950s and where they staged their first “public intervention”: In 1962’s Wall of Oil Barrels - The Iron Curtain the pair blocked off a narrow street in the 6th arrondissement with 89 oil drums as a protest against the then-new Berlin Wall.

The first public building they wrapped was the Kunsthalle art museum in Bern, Switzerland, in 1968, followed in 1969 by the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. That same year Christo and Jeanne-Claude shrouded a 1.5-mile stretch of Sydney’s Little Bay in a million square feet of plastic fabric. In the decades that followed they draped Paris’ Pont Neuf bridge, the Reichstag building in Berlin, a section of Rome’s Aurelian Walls, King's Beach in Newport, Rhode Island, and other locations.

The idea for covering the Arc de Triomphe predates all those works, though—Christo first sketched it out in 1961, when he lived nearby in a rundown apartment—but it wasn’t formally proposed until 2017, eight years after Jeanne-Claude’s death and three years before Christo’s.

Credit : Architectural Digest

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The oldest known animal cave painting was discovered in Indonesia in the Leang Tedongnge cave in a valley in Sulawesi. The painting is that of a Sulawesi wild pig and is thought to have been painted about 45,000 years ago. Maxime Aubert, a dating specialist, identified a calcite deposit formed over the painting and used Uranium-series isotope dating to determine the age of the painting. The painting provides the earliest evidence of human settlement in the region.

The researchers noted that the Sulawesi warty pig painting, dated to at least 45,500 years ago, is part of a rock art panel located above a high ledge along the rear wall of Leang Tedongnge.

“It shows a pig with a short crest of upright hairs and a pair of horn-like facial warts in front of the eyes, a characteristic feature of adult male Sulawesi warty pigs,” Mr. Brumm said.

“Painted using red ochre pigment, the pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs,” he added.

The previously oldest dated rock art ‘scene’ at least 43,900 years old, was a depiction of hybrid human-animal beings hunting Sulawesi warty pigs and dwarf bovids.

It was discovered by the same research team at a nearby limestone cave site.

Credit : The Hindu

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UNESCO has conferred the title of ‘City of Literature’ on Lahore Pakistan. It is the first city in the country to receive the title. To celebrate the same, the government declared 2021 as the year of literary activities.

UNESCO's City of Literature programme is a part of its Creative Cities Network programme launched in 2004. As part of the Creative Cities Network, member cities are conferred titles in one or more of seven creative fields based on their history and culture. The seven creative fields are Literature, Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Media Arts, and Music.

Alhamra Executive Director Dr Aslam Dogar and Unesco Country Head for Pakistan Patricia McPhillips signed the MoU at a ceremony.

Provincial Minister for Culture Khayal Ahmed Kastro, Parliamentary Secretary for Culture Nadeem Qureshi, Alhamra Chairperson Moneeza Hashmi, Public Relations Director General Saman Rai, veteran architect Nayyar Ali Dada, artist and writer Amna Pataudi, Kinnaird College for Women Principal Rukhsana David, artist Ayesha Shahnawaz, singer Waris Baig and others were also present on the occasion.

Minister Kastro said the Punjab government was making significant achievements in literature and culture.

Ms Hashmi called the signing of the MoU significant, saying Alhamra was currently the largest institution in Punjab working on culture and followed the same mandate as the UN organisation. These institutions will work together to promote and project the culture of Punjab globally, she added.

Ms McPhillips said that signing of the MoU was a happy moment and it will have positive effects.

Dr Dogar said the agreement with Unesco was a historic moment, and hoped it would prove to be a milestone in the field of art and culture as both organisations shared a common goal.

Participants of the ceremony commended the initiative of Alhamra that they said will further improve the image of the country. Souvenirs were also exchanged at the ceremony.

Credit : Dawn 

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On December 14, 2021, UNESCO inscribed Arabic calligraphy a key tradition in the Arab and Islamic worlds on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A total of 16 Muslim-majority countries, led by Saudi Arabia, had earlier presented the nomination to UNESCO, "Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting Arabic script in a fluid manner to convey harmony, grace and beauty.

The practice, which can be passed down through formal and informal education, uses the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet written in cursive, from right to left. Originally intended to make writing clear and legible, it gradually became an Islamic Arab art for traditional and modern works. The fluidity of Arabic script offers infinite possibilities, even in a single word, as letters can be stretched and transformed in numerous ways to create different motifs, according to UNESCO.

Abdelmajid Mahboub from the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society, which was involved in the proposal, said calligraphy "has always served as a symbol of the Arab-Muslim world".

But he lamented that "many people no longer write by hand due to technological advances", adding that the number of specialised Arab calligraphic artists had dropped sharply.

The UNESCO listing "will certainly have a positive impact" on preserving the tradition, he added.

According to UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage "is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalisation".

Its importance "is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next".

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In October 2021, Geographical Indication (GI) tags were issued by the Chennai registry for 51 new products, including a German beer (Muncener Bier). Italian veined blue cheese (gorgonzola), plant resin (Chios Mastiha) from Greece, and a variety of seed cone (zatecky chmel) from the Czech Republic. As many as nine products in the latest list, including Banaras hand block print and Manu saree were from Uttar Pradesh. Kumaon chyura oil and Ringal craft were from Uttarkhand.

Meanwhile, five products in Tamil Nadu earned the GI tags- Kanyakumari clove. Thanjavur Netti works. Karuppur Kalamkari paintings, and wood carvings of Arumbavur and Kallakurichi Kuttiattoor mango and Edayur chilli from Kerala, and Lahauli knitted socks and gloves, and Chamba chappal from Himachal Pradesh too were part of the list. Others included telia rumal of Telangana, Sojat mehndi of Rajasthan, Manjush art of Bihar, Sohrai-Khovar painting of Jharkhand, Mizo ginger of Mizoram, and Dalle Khursani of Sikkim.

Kuttiattoor Mango, Edayur chilli is on the list from Kerala while Lahauli Knitted Socks and Gloves and Chamba chappal got GI tag from Himachal Pradesh.

Other new entrants to the GI club include Telia Rumal of Telangana, Sojat Mehndi of Rajasthan, Manjush Art of Bihar, Sohrai-Khovar painting of Jharkhand, Mizo Ginger of Mizoram, Dalle Khursani of Sikkim, among others.

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