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What are the five literary classics that had the most uninspiring original titles?

First Impressions

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a story that gives the readers a detailed account of life and liberty in the Regency Era. Published in 1813, it is a social satire that has remained relevant for centuries in its exploration of themes like economic anxiety, class, and the desire to go up the social ladder.

Scholars say that this novel of manners was written as early as 1796-97 and was initially called First Impressions.

The Dead Un-Dead

 Dracula is the most infamous vampire name by far, but did you know that this character was originally going to be called Count Wampyr? That is, until Bram Stoker came across the story of Vlad II of Wallachia and the surname of his descendants, “Dracul”, while doing some research. Before he found the name Dracula and assigned it to his character and book, the working title of the 1897 novel was The Dead Un-Dead.

Tomorrow is Another Day

 Gone With the Wind was the only novel author Margaret Mitchell wrote in her lifetime. Published in 1936, this book marks an important moment in American culture when it was on the cusp of the old and the new. The novel focusses on love, civil war, slavery, and immigration among other things through the experiences of an Irish immigrant family that has come to the U.S. and settled in the south where slavery was a thriving institution. This Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War epic continues to be a hit among the masses. But the lesser-known fact about this classic is that it almost went to print under the name Tomorrow is Another Day. However, the author changed it to what it is, drawing inspiration from a poem by 19th-century French poet Ernest Dowson.

The Last Man in Europe

The original title for George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four published in 1949, was The Last Man in Europe. A couple of months before the manuscript was to be published, Orwell wrote to his publisher, Fredric Warburg, stating that he could not decide between “The Last Man in Europe” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Warburg suggested the latter, as he felt it was a more commercial title.

Atticus

American author Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was a literary sensation when it was first published in 1960. The Chicago Tribune called it “a novel of strong contemporary national significance.” The novel’s title is taken from a conversation between Scout and Atticus where the latter states that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” However, this was not the original title of the book. The beloved classic was supposed to be called Atticus until Lee decided that it put too much focus on a single character.

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How border wall affect wildlife?

Barriers of any kind affect movement and migration of animals. For instance, the wall could come in the way of an animal’s search for water and food nearby. It could also stop animals on their long-distance migratory paths.

When he was the U.S. President, Donald Trump set off the expansion of the border wall between the U.S. and its neighbouring country Mexico. While he’s not the country’s President any longer, the incomplete construction stretching miles on end stands today, silently bearing testimony to human prejudice. It divided people on both sides physically and emotionally. But it appears to have affected more than just humans as with barriers anywhere globally, it has affected wildlife too.

Wildlife has no concrete borders, created singularly by and for humans. When humans introduce these barriers, wildlife struggle, to put it mildly. It has come to light that the case is no different with the U.S.-Mexico barrier. According to Cuenca Los Ojos (CLO), a transfrontier wildlife organisation, “camera trap photos and the conservationists own observations have revealed deer, mountain lions and black bears pacing along the border wall, confused and unable to access their former ranges”. “One family of boars spent five hours trying to get past the wall in search of water, according to CLO. Barriers of any kind affect movement and migration of animals. For instance, the wall could come in the way of an animal’s search for water and food nearby. It could also stop animals on their long-distance migratory paths.

Apart from animals, such walls can harm birds too. When these barriers are lit up at night, it can disorient both nocturnal birds and those on their long migratory journeys. While it is easy to presume that birds can effortlessly cross such barriers in daylight, the reality is different. A few birds are low-fliers, and different types of interferences in a natural landscape can leave them trapped in one place due to their inability to fly from it. According to research conducted a few years ago on the U.S.-Mexico border, “not only large roadways but also big agricultural fields and other types of landscape disturbance and segregation” affected the movement of ferruginous pygmy owl, a low-flying bird.

Erecting walls or barriers is not new. However, with the natural world already under threat from climate change, these human structures, especially in places rich in biodiversity, are likely to put further pressure on wildlife.

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What is flex fuel?

India has unveiled its first flex fuel hybrid sedan, kicking off the government’s pilot project to push automakers towards adopting clean fuels. Flex fuel vehicles are already popular in the US, and several countries in Europe and other places.

What are flex fuels

The flex fuel vehicles can run on either 100% petrol or 100% bio-ethanol or a blend of both. While bio-ethanol contains less energy per litre in comparison to petrol, the calorific value, which is the energy contained in the fuel, of bio-ethanol will be at par with petrol with the use of advanced technology. These vehicles allow users to switch engine fuel from petrol to ethanol

How is ethanol produced?

Most of the ethanol is made by fermenting the sugar in the starches of grains such as com sorghum, and barley, and the sugar in sugarcane and sugar beets, In the US. maximum ethanol is produced from com kernel starch. Brazil, the world’s second-largest consumer of fuel ethanol after the US..uses sugarcane to produce ethanol.

Pros

As ethanol is much cheaper than petrol in India, the fuel price will be lower.

This technology also reduce India’s dependency on the import of petrol. This is in line with the government’s target for self-sufficiency in energy by 2047.

The most important benefit of using flex fuel vehicles is that the use of ethanol blending will sharply lower harmful pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur, and carbon and nitrogen oxides.

Cons

With the higher of ethanol, the manufacturing costs will increase and that in turn will hike up the cost of vehicles.

Besides, the auto parts that come in contact with higher ethanol content will need to be replaced with a compatible product to avoid corrosion.

Another major problem with the higher use of ethanol is the spike in the prices of sugarcane. As India will be using sugarcane molasses to produce ethanol, the mass production of flex fuel may lead to an increase in the prices of the crops.

Also, a big-scale cultivation of sugarcane will be requiring a huge amount of land that can otherwise be used for different purposes.

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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Meltdown’?

Meaning: The word meltdown is used to denote a disastrous collapse or breakdown. It is also used to refer to an accident in a nuclear reactor in which the fuel overheats and melts the reactor core or shielding.

Origin: The word meltdown was arrived at by bringing the words “melt” and “down” in the 1630s. The word was used to refer to “an act or the process of melting metal” by 1922. By 1956, it was also used in reference to the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor. The metaphoric extension of the word to imply “breakdown in self-control” is attested since 1979.

Usage: The COVID-19 pandemic led to multiple major meltdowns in the global financial systems.

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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Cloying’?

Meaning: This adjective means disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess. It also means excessively sweet or sentimental.

Origin: Cloying derives from the verb cloy, which now means “to supply or indulge to excess”, but which once meant “to clog”, and earlier “to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing”. Cloy itself traces via Middle English to Anglo-French encloer (which also meant “to prick a horse with a nail in shoeing”) and ultimately to Latin clavus, meaning “nail”.

Usage: The sweet was rich and tasty without being cloying.

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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Spiel’?

Meaning: A noun, spiel is a fast speech. It is most often a speech that has been rehearsed well before and is used to convince someone to buy something or agree with something.

Origin: The word traces its origin to its German root, spielen. It is also used as a verb that means “to play music” which is the word’s original meaning if we go by its German root.

Usage: The morning was just breaking and the salesman was already there at our door, ready with his opening spiel.

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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Usher’?

Meaning: Usher is used as a verb and a noun. As a verb, it means to show someone where they should go. As a noun, it refers to the person who guides people to their seats in a theatre. It also means to herald something when the term is followed by in.

Origin: The term usher comes from Latin ostiarius meaning doorman or guard posted at the entrance of a building, from ostium meaning ‘door’. It is said to have entered late Middle English (denoting a doorkeeper) from Anglo-Norman French usser, which in turn came from medieval Latin ustiarius.

Usage: When we showed our tickets, the usher helped us to find our seats in the dark in the cinema.

Beautiful cherry blossoms usher in spring.

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What is meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Cadence’?

Meaning: This noun is used to refer to various rhythmic or repeated motions, activities, or patterns of sound. It can also be used to describe a falling inflexion of the voice.

Origin: This word comes from Middle English borrowed from Medieval Latin’s own cadentia which means rhythm in verse.

Usage: Stephanie relaxed at the beach, listening to the cadence of the surf.

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What is OPEC?

OPEC nations have agreed to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day. Following OPEC’S announcement of supply reduction, crude prices have been soaring across the world. But what is OPEC and what are its functions? Let’s find out.

OPEC is an organisation of countries that produce oil, with OPEC being the abbreviation of  the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Set up in 1960

An intergovernmental organisation, OPEC was created at the Baghdad Conference held in Iraq in September 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. The establishment of OPEC took place against a background of great change in the world with decolonisation and the rise of many independent countries in the developing world.

Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, from 1965 (earlier it was in Geneva), the OPEC cartel is responsible for setting the price of oil on the world market and managing the supply. In other words, it develops a common petroleum supply policy for its member states and foxes price. This is to avoid fluctuations in oil price that might affect the economies of oil producing as well as purchasing countries. According to the OPEC website, “It adopted a Declaratory Statement of Petroleum Policy in Member Countries in 1968, which emphasised the inalienable right of all countries to exercise permanent sovereignty over their natural resources in the interest of their development.”

Its head and members

OPEC refers to a group of 13 of the world’s major oil-exporting countries- Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Its membership is to any country that is a substantial exporter of oil Haitham Al Ghais of Kuwait is the current Secretary-General of OPEC.

If you wonder what OPEC+ is, it is OPEC plus other oil producing countries such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan. In 2016, when oil prices were low, OPEC joined these 10 oil producers to create OPEC+ to have greater control over the global crude oil market. Here it is important to note that some of the largest oil producers in the world, including China, and the United States, are not members of OPEC.

Impact of the cut

Demand for oil dropped drastically during the COVID pandemic. Hence OPEC countries decided to cut down production to prevent a supply surplus. Besides there was a price war going on between Russia and Saudi Arabia, leading to a slump in oil prices. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict which broke out in February pushed up oil prices around the world, raising concerns that the sanctions against Russia could lead to an oil shortage. The Saudi- and Russian-led production cut which will take effect in November 2022, will further hike petrol prices. The idea behind cutting production seems to be to boost demand by lowering supplies. This energy crisis is also driving up global inflation. The production cut threatens a global economy which is already destabilised by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Over 80% of crude oil reserves are located in OPEC countries.
  • OPEC nations produce around 30% of the world’s crude oil and OPEC+ group produces 40%.
  • Saudi Arabia is the largest single oil producer within OPEC producing more than 10 million barrels a day.
  • Russia, which is not a member of OPEC also produces more than 10 million barrels of oil a day.

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