The mayhem unleashed by the British troops on the unarmed civilians
during a peaceful gathering at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919
remains a defining moment in the history of the Indian struggle for
independence. Two Sikh historians compile accounts by 40 eyewitnesses,
who lived to tell the tale.
A woman who spent the longest night of her life sitting and crying
besides the body of her husband as hundreds others bloodied bodies lay
scattered around her; a father who struggled to find the body of his
13-year-old son who had gone out to play with friends but was shot in
the head; another man who saw a 12-year-old boy lying dead still holding
tightly a 3-year old boy, probably his younger brother, in his arms;
and a British missionary who was so shaken by what he saw that he felt
like “taking each Englishman to the site” and show them the mayhem that
the British troops led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer had unleashed
at the Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919.
These are among 40 testimonies of witnesses to the massacre and the
preceding riots in Amritsar that form the base of a new book,
“Eyewitness At Amritsar – A Visual History of 1919 Jallianwala Bagh
Massacre”, that two London-based Sikh historians are set to bring out.
The 244-page book by Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh, to be
released on the 100th anniversary of the massacre, also contains 80
photographs that are being published for the first time.
The compilation of the accounts by the eyewitnesses – who are now
dead but whose statements were recorded after the incident – and images
is significant because even after a century, the government does not
have the complete details of the victims, their next generation or other
survivors.
Speaking to The Indian Express
over phone from London, Madra said that the first-hand accounts and
images have been compiled from several sources which “weren’t in the
public domain”.
“There are at least 40 such accounts of eyewitnesses – people who
lost someone from their families or survivors who saw the massacre –
which are being published for the first time. These people were in or
around the Bagh when British troops led by Dyer opened fire at the
peaceful, unarmed gathering,” Madra said. “Some were in Amritsar city
and saw what was happening since April 10. There were massive protests
against British atrocities followed by riots in which some Britishers
were killed too. The British atrocities then grew manifold and Indians
were even made to crawl on roads to humiliate them. We cannot see
Jallianwala Bagh as an isolated event. The anger against British was
brewing in hearts of Indians. Though the people had convened in Bagh for
a peaceful protest, the British saw in it a 1857-rebellion like
situation. To suppress it, they unleashed mayhem and killed innocents,”
Madra said. He said the “book is unique as it is a visual journey through the massacre” with rare and unseen photos and accounts.
The book also includes testimony of Dyer. “He showed no remorse or
sympathy for what he did. He defended it as a ‘necessary police
action’,” says Madra. “The cover image of the book is of the narrow
entrance that Dyer too to storm into the Bagh,” he added.
The book also has contributions from Kim A Wagner, author of
“Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and Making of the Massacre”. The image
search was assisted by Jasdeep Singh, community curator at National
Army Museum in London.
The book, among others, also quotes Rabindranath Tagore on the massacre.
“The result of the debates in both Houses of Parliament (UK) makes
painfully evident the attitude of mind of the ruling classes of this
country towards India. It shows that no outrage, however monstrous,
committed against us by agents of their government, can arouse feeling
of indignation in the hearts of those from (amongst) whom our Governors
are chosen. The unashamed condonation of brutality expressed in their
speeches and echoed in their newspapers is ugly in its frightfulness,”
the Kabiguru had said. Mahatma Gandhi
had said, “No doubt the shooting was “frightful”, the loss of innocent
life deplorable. But the slow torture, degradation and emasculation that
followed was much worse, more calculated, malicious and soul-killing,
and the actors who performed the deeds deserve greater condemnation than
General Dyer for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The latter merely
destroyed a few bodies but the others tried to kill the soul of a
nation”.
The images in the book include the photograph of 13-year old victim
Madan Mohan; some images of local residents showing and inspecting
bullet-holes in southern wall; a visual representation of the massacre
created by artist Eduard Thöny for the German satirical magazine
Simplicissimus in January 1920 – believed to be the first such artistic
representation – and a German depiction of the massacre from 1939 under
the headline “One of the many disgraces of British colonial history: the
bloodbath of Amritsar” – all of them sourced from private collections.
Then there is also a rare Indian poster titled ‘ Punjab Bir Darshan
(Sacred Sight of Punjab’s Heroes)’ from the early 1920s depicting the
massacre. It shows Mother India blessing the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh
victims of the atrocity. Another poster hails the martyrdom of the
victims. The lines in Punjabi read, ‘Khaatir Apne Desh Di Hovan Jo
Qurbaan, Mardey Nahi Oh Jeundey Roshan Vich Jahaan; Jallianwala Bagh
vich hoya zulam apaar, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh kardey hahakar..’ Those who
sacrificed their lives for their country, live forever. Brutality
crossed all limits at Jallianwala Bagh, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh-everyone
cried in grief)
Noam Chomsky is
one of those rare & brave intellectuals who can call a spade a
spade. He had been under the CIA watch list for a long time because of
his anti-American (and anti-imperialist) views. He also named Israel along with USA in these
words, “The United States and Israel.
The two major nuclear states in the world. I mean there’s a reason why,
in international polls, run by US polling agencies, the United States is
regarded as the greatest threat to world peace by an overwhelming
margin. No other country is even close. It’s kind of interesting that
the US media refused to publish this. But it doesn’t go away.”
Since World War II, a period
some describe as a “a period of unprecedented peace,” the US war machine
has wiped out some 20 million people, including more than 1 million in
Iraq since 2003, engaged in regime change of at least 36 governments,
intervened in at least 82 foreign elections, including Russia (1996),
planned more than 50 assassinations of foreign leaders, and bombed over
30 countries.
Isabelle Kumar: “The world in 2015 seems a very
unsettled place but if we take a big picture view do you feel optimistic
or pessimistic about the general state of play?”
Noam Chomsky:
“In the global scene we are racing towards a precipice which we are
determined to fall over which will sharply reduce the prospects for
decent survival.”
Isabelle Kumar: “What precipice is that?”
Noam Chomsky:
“There are actually two, one is environmental catastrophe which is
imminent and we don’t have a lot of time to deal with it and we are
going the wrong way, and the other has been around for 70 years, the
threat of nuclear war, which is in fact increasing. If you look at the
record it is a miracle we have survived.”
Isabelle Kumar: “Let’s look at the environmental
issues, we have asked our social media audience to send in questions and
we have hordes of questions. We received this question from Enoa Agoli
who asks, when you look at this issue of the environment and you look at
it through a philosopher’s lens, what do you think about climate
change?”
Noam Chomsky: “The human species has
been around for maybe a 100,000 years and it is now facing a unique
moment in its history. This species is now in a position where it will
decide very soon, in the next few generations, whether the experiment in
so-called intelligent life will proceed or are we determined to destroy
it? I mean scientists overwhelmingly recognise that most of the fossil
fuels have to be left in the ground if our grandchildren are going to
have decent prospects. But the institutional structures of our society
are pressuring to try to extract every drop. The effects, the human
consequences, of the predicted effects of climate change in the not very
distant future, are catastrophic and we are racing toward that
precipice.”
Isabelle Kumar: “In terms of nuclear
war we see the prospect of this Iran deal has reached a preliminary
agreement. Does that provide you with a glimmer of hope that the world
could potentially be a safer place?”
Noam Chomsky:
“I’m in favour of the Iran negotiations but they are profoundly flawed.
There are two states that rampage in the middle east carrying out
aggressions, violence, terrorist acts, illegal acts, constantly. They’re
both huge nuclear weapon states and their nuclear armorments. And their
nuclear weapons are not being considered.”
Isabelle Kumar: “And who exactly are you referring to?”
Noam Chomsky: “The United States and Israel. The
two major nuclear states in the world. I mean there’s a reason why, in
international polls, run by US polling agencies, the United States is
regarded as the greatest threat to world peace by an overwhelming
margin. No other country is even close. It’s kind of interesting that
the US media refused to publish this. But it doesn’t go away.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“You don’t hold US President Obama in very high esteem. But does this
deal make you think of him in slightly better terms? The fact that he is
trying to reduce the threat of nuclear war?”
Noam Chomsky:
“ Well, actually he isn’t. He’s just initiated a trillion dollar
programme of modernisation of the US nuclear weapon system, which means
expanding the nuclear weapon system. That’s one the reasons why the
famous doomsday clock, established by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
has, just a couple of weeks ago, been pushed two minutes closer to
midnight. Midnight is the end. It’s now three minutes from midnight.
That’s the closest it’s been in thirty years. Since the early Regan
years when there was a major war scare.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“You mentioned the US and Israel in terms of Iran. Now, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obviously doesn’t want the Iran nuclear deal
to work, and he says…”
Noam Chomsky: “That’s interesting. We should ask why.”
Isabelle Kumar: “Why?
Noam Chomsky:
“We know why. Iran has very low military expenditures, even by the
standards of the region, let alone the United States. Iran’s strategic
doctrine is defensive, it’s designed to hold off an attack long enough
for diplomacy to start, and the United States and Israel, the two rogue
states, do not want to tolerate a deterrent. No strategic analyst with a
brain function thinks that Iran would ever use a nuclear weapon. Even
if it were prepared to do so the country would simply be vaporised and
there’s no indication that the ruling clerics, whatever you think about
the, want to see everything they have destroyed.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“Just one more question on this issue and it’s via social media, from
Morten A. Andersen. He asks, “Do you believe that the US would ever
strike a deal that would be dangerous to Israel in the first place?”
Noam Chomsky:
“The United States is carrying out constant actions which are dangerous
to Israel, very seriously. Namely supporting Israeli policy. For the
last 40 years the greatest threat to Israel has been its own policies.
If you look back 40 years, say to 1970, Israel was one of the most
respected and admired countries in the world. There were lots of
favorable attitudes to it. Now, it’s one of the most disliked and feared
countries in the world. In the early 70s Israel made a decision. They
had a choice and they made a decision to prefer expansion to security
and that carries with it dangerous consequences. Consequences which were
obvious at the time – I wrote about them and other people did – if you
prefer expansion to security it is going to lead to internal
degeneration, anger, opposition, isolation and possibly ultimate
destruction. And by supporting those policies, the United States is
contributing to the threats that Israel faces.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“That’s brings me to the subject of terrorism then. Because that is
really a global blight and some people, I think including yourself, will
say that this is blowback for US terrorist policy around the world. How
far is the US and its allies responsible for what we’re seeing now in
terms of the terrorist attacks around the world?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Remember the worst terrorist campaign in the world by far is the one
that’s being orchestrated in Washington. That’s the global assassination
campaign. There’s never been a terrorist campaign of that scale.”
Isabelle Kumar: “When you say global assassination campaign…?”
Noam Chomsky:
“The drone campaign – that’s exactly what it is. Over large parts of
the world, the United States is systematically, publically, openly –
there’s nothing secret about what I’m saying, we all know it – it’s
carrying out regular campaigns to assassinated people who the US
government suspects of intending to harm it someday. And indeed it is,
as you mentioned, a terror generated campaign, and when you bomb a
village in Yemen, say, and you kill somebody – maybe the person you were
aiming at maybe not – and other people who happened to be in the
neighbourhood – how do you think they are going to react? They’re going
to take revenge.”
Isabelle Kumar: “You describe the US as the leading terrorist state. Where does Europe fit into that picture then?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Well, that’s an interesting question. So for example there was
recently a study. I think it was done by the Open Society Foundation…
the worst form of torture is rendition. Rendition means you take
somebody you suspect of something, and you send them off to your
favourite dictator, maybe Assad or Gadaffi or Mubarak, to be tortured,
hoping that maybe something will come out of it. That’s extraordinary
rendition. The study reviewed the countries that participated in this,
well obviously the Middle East dictatorships because that’s where they
were sent to be tortured, and Europe. Most of Europe participated;
England, Sweden, other countries. In fact, there’s only one region in
the world where nobody participated: Latin America. Which is pretty
dramatic. And first of all Latin America has now become pretty much out
of US control. When it was controlled by the United States, not very
long ago, it was the world’s centre of torture. Now, it didn’t
participate in the worst form of torture, which is rendition. Europe
participated. If the master roars, the servants cower.”
Isabelle Kumar: “So Europe is the servant of the United States?”
Noam Chomsky: “ Definitely. They are too cowardly to take an independent position.”
Isabelle Kumar: “Where does Vladimir Putin fit into this picture? He’s painted as one of the greatest threats to security. Is he?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Like most leaders, he’s a threat to his own population. He’s taken
illegal actions, obviously. But to depict him as a crazed monster who is
suffering from brain disease and has Alzheimer’s, and is a rat-faced
evil creature, that’s standard Orwellian fanaticism. I mean, whatever
you think about his policies, they are understandable. The idea that
Ukraine might join a Western military alliance would be quite
unacceptable to any Russian leader. This goes back to 1990 when the
Soviet Union collapsed. There was a question about what would happen
with NATO. Now Gorbachov agreed to allow Germany to be unified and to join NATO. It was a pretty remarkable concession with a quid pro quo: that NATO would not expand one inch to the east. That was the phrase that was used.”
Isabelle Kumar: “So Russia has been provoked?”
Noam Chomsky: “Well, what happened? NATO instantly moved into East Germany and then Clinton came along and expanded NATO
right to the borders of Russia. Now, the new Ukrainian government, the
government established after the overthrow of the preceding one, now the
parliament voted 300 to 8 or something like that, to move to join NATO.”
Isabelle Kumar: “But you can understand why they would want to join NATO, you can see why Petro Porochenko’s government would probably see it as protecting their country?”
Noam Chomsky:
“No, no, no, no. That’s not protecting. Crimea was taken away after the
overthrow of the government, right. And this is not protecting Ukraine,
it is threatening Ukraine with major war. Now that’s not protection.
The point is, this is a serious strategic threat to Russia, which any
Russian leader would have to react to. That’s well understood.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“If we look at the situation in Europe though, there’s also another
interesting phenomenon that’s taking place. We’re seeing Greece moving
towards the East, potentially, with the Syriza government. We’re also
seeing Podemos, which is gaining power in Spain, also in Hungary. Do you
see that there is a potential for Europe to start shirting and aligning
itself more with Russian interests?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Take a look at what’s happening. Hungary is a different situation
entirely. Syriza came into office on the basis of a popular wave which
said that Greece should no longer subject itself to policies from
Brussels and the German banks which are destroying the country. The
effect of these policies has been actually to increase Greece’s debt
relative to its wealth production; probably a half of young people are
unemployed, probably 40% of the population is living under the poverty
line, Greece is being destroyed.”
Isabelle Kumar: “So should their debt be written off?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Yes, just like Germany’s was. In 1953, when Europe wrote off most of
Germany’s debt. Just like that, so that Germany would be able to
reconstruct from wartime damage.”
Isabelle Kumar: “But then what about all the other European countries…?”
Noam Chomsky: “ Same story.”
Isabelle Kumar: “So Portugal should have its debt written off, Spain should have its debt written off…?”
Noam Chomsky:
“Who incurred this debt? And who is the debt owed to? In part, the debt
was incurred by dictators. So in Greece it was the fascist
dictatorship, which the US supported, that incurred a large part of the
debt. The debt I think was more brutal than the dictatorship, and that’s
what’s called in international law, “odious debt” which need not be
paid, and that’s a principal introduced into international law by the
United States, when it was in their interest to do so. Much of the rest
of the debt, what is called payments to Greece are in fact payments to
banks, German and French banks, which had decided to make extremely
risky loans with not very high interest and are now being faced with the
fact that they can’t be paid back.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“I’d like to ask this question now, from Gil Gribaudo, who asks, “How
will Europe transform then, versus the existential challenges it’s
facing?” Because yes there’s the economic crisis, and there’s also a
rise in nationalism, and you’ve also described some cultural fault lines
which have been created across Europe. How do you see Europe
transforming itself?”
Noam Chomsky:
“ Europe has serious problems. Some of the problems are the result of
economic policies designed by the bureaucrats in Brussels, the European
Commission and so on, under the pressure of NATO
and the big banks, mostly German ones. These policies make some sense
from the point of view of the designers. For one thing they want to be
paid back for their risky and hazardous loans and investments, and the
other thing is that these policies are eroding the welfare state, which
they’ve never liked. But the welfare state is one of Europe’s major
contributions to modern society, but the rich and powerful have never
liked it and the fact that these policies are eroding it is good from
their point of view. There’s another problem in Europe, it’s extremely
racist. I’ve always felt that Europe is probably more racist than the
United States. It wasn’t as visible in Europe because the European
populations in the past tended to be pretty homogeneous. So if everybody
is blonde and blue-eyed, then you don’t seem racist, but as soon as the
population begins to change racism comes out of the woodwork. Very
fast. And that’s a serious cultural problem in Europe.”
Isabelle Kumar:
“I’d like to end, because we’re very short of time, with a question
from Robert Light on a more positive note. He asks, “What gives you
hope?”
Noam Chomsky: “ What gives me hope is a
couple of things we’ve talked about. Latin American independence for
example. That’s of historic significance. We’re going to see it right
now, in the Summit of Americas meeting in Panama. In the recent
hemispheric meetings, the United States has been completely isolated.
It’s a radical change from 10 or 20 years ago, when the United States
ran [Latin American affairs]. In fact the reason why Obama made his
gestures towards Cuba was to try to overcome American, US isolation.
It’s the US that’s isolated, not Cuba. And probably it will fail. We
will see. The signs for optimism in Europe are Syriza and Podemos.
Hopefully there is finally a popular uprising against the the crushing,
destructive economic and social policies that come from the bureaucracy
and the banks, and that’s very hopeful. Should be."
Isabelle Kumar: “Noam Chomsky, many thanks for being with us.”
Who is Noam Chomsky ?
Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, US
He began working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955
He is a famous linguist, philosopher and political activist
His work from the 1950s revolutionised the field of linguistics
He rose to prominence for his anti-Vietnam war activism
He opposes ruling elites and is a sharp critic of US and western foreign policy
With CIA-led &
Saudi-financed strong Wahhabi influence inundated during the Taleban
training to fight the Soviets, many Pakistani Sunni people have become
highly intolerant to Shia; as such until 3/4 years ago, they would
indiscriminately bomb Shia places of worship on Fridays. That trend
seems to be making a come-back! They are not counted as Muslims any
more; their blood is spilled at every opportunity.
Responding to the horrific bombing of an open-air marketplace in a
neighbourhood where many members of Shi’a Hazara community live in
Quetta that killed at least 16 people and wounded several others on the
morning of 12 April 2019, Amnesty International’s Deputy South Asia
Director, Omar Waraich, said: "This horrific loss of life is a painful reminder of the threats that Quetta’s Hazara community continues to face."
“This horrific loss of life is a painful reminder of the threats that
Quetta’s Hazara community continues to face. Targeted for their
religion by sectarian armed groups, they have suffered many such
tragedies over several years. Each time, there are promises that more
will be done to protect them, and each time those promises have failed
to materialize.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has made important
commitments to protect all religious groups in the country. Those
commitments must translate now into policies to effectively protect the
Hazaras of Quetta, ending more than a decade of bloodshed that has
scarred their community.”
Modern day people are not sleeping enough
extracted from Wired.com Tim Cook reportedly wakes up at 3:45am to start work. Barack Obama said he only sleeps about five hours. He's a "night guy." Donald Trump and Elon Musk both have said they sleep only a few hours a night. But Musk has also admitted to The New York Times that his work schedule was taking a toll on his mental health and whole life.
Sleep deprivation hurts people: it makes you dumber, more forgetful, unable to learn new things, more vulnerable to dementia, more likely to die of a heart attack, less able to fend off sickness with a strong immune system, and more likely to get cancer, and it makes your body literally hurt more. Lack of sleep distorts your genes and increases your risk of death generally, he said. It disrupts the creation of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and it leads to premature aging. Apparently, men who only sleep five hours a night have markedly smaller testicles than men who sleep more than seven.
"Sleep loss will leak down into every nook and cranny of your physiology," he said. "Sleep, unfortunately, is not an optional lifestyle luxury. Sleep is a nonnegotiable biological necessity. It is your life-support system."
Everyone is obsessed with sleep. And they know they're not getting enough—hence the growing demand for sleeping pills, the emergence of sleep-tracking devices (Walker wears an Oura Ring to track his), smart beds, Alexa integrations to put you to sleep, and mindfulness sleep apps. Arianna Huffington famously left journalism to found a company devoted to sleep and wellness.
What to do?
Don't drink caffeine or alcohol. Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning (even on the weekends). Sleep in a cool room. If you are lying awake in bed, listening to the litany of worries your brain is churning through, get up, go into a different room, and do an activity, then return to bed when you're ready.
You wouldn't sit at the dinner table waiting to get hungry, so why lay in bed waiting to get tired? Meditate to calm your nervous system and your mind. Don't default to sleeping pills, which are "blunt instruments that do not produce naturalistic sleep.
Sleep makes us better at everything
The disruption of deep sleep is contributing to cognitive decline, and even in healthy people. You need sleep after learning, to essentially hit the save button on those new memories so you don't forget. But recently we've discovered that you also need sleep before learning, almost like a dry sponge to suck up new information. Without sleep, the brain becomes essentially waterlogged.
The universe is full of things that are either too big or too small to see with the naked eye. It takes powerful imaging technology — huge telescopes or electron microscopes — to convert these objects into a size we can actually comprehend. That's why this image taken by David Nadlinger from the University of Oxford is so impressive. He took a picture of an atom using an ordinary camera, and the result is mindblowing.
Zoom In
What you're seeing is a single positively charged strontium atom (also known as a strontium ion) suspended in electric fields radiating from the metal electrodes around it. To get a sense of just how small this image is, the distance between the two needle-like tips you see is about 2 millimeters — roughly the width of a spaghetti noodle.
When ions like this are illuminated by the right color of blue-violet laser, they absorb the light particles and emit them right back. Nadlinger realized that if he set up his camera with a long enough exposure, he might be able to capture this fleeting moment of light emission in a digital image. He placed his tripod so the lens peered through the window of the ultra-high vacuum chamber that houses the ion trap, which in turn suspends the atom, and took his shot.
"The idea of being able to see a single atom with the naked eye had struck me as a wonderfully direct and visceral bridge between the miniscule quantum world and our macroscopic reality," he said in a press release. "A back-of-the-envelope calculation showed the numbers to be on my side, and when I set off to the lab with camera and tripods one quiet Sunday afternoon, I was rewarded with this particular picture of a small, pale blue dot." And the Winner Is ...
On February 12, 2018, Nadlinger's image won the overall prize in the fifth annual science photography competition held by the U.K's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/). The EPSRC is the main funding agency for engineering and physical science research in the U.K., and the competition included more than 100 entries from researchers receiving EPSRC funding. There are some breathtaking images among them.
"Every year we are stunned by the quality and creativity of the entries into our competition and this year has been no exception," said Professor Tom Rodden, EPSRCs Deputy Chief Executive. "They show that our researchers want to tell the world about the beauty of science and engineering." You can see all of the winners on the council's website (https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/single-trapped-atom-captures-science-photography-competitions-top-prize/).
We've all been there: You figure out a problem, then second-guess yourself only to figure out later that if you'd gone with your first hunch, you'd have been right all along. Albert Einstein was no different. His general theory of relativity was a breakthrough in our understanding of the universe, but his equations predicted something he didn't think could be right. So he changed them. Turns out that his original equations were right on the money, but what he added to them — what's known as the cosmological constant — has been useful all the same.
Reining in the Universe
In 1915, Einstein published his general theory of relativity. Its earth-shattering conclusion was that space and time are not absolute, but flexible, dependent on one another, and affected by the presence of matter. At the core of this great masterpiece are what's known as the Einstein field equations. They lay out the relationship between the curvature of space time and the amount of matter and energy moving nearby.
When Einstein applied those equations to the entire universe, something was fishy: They predicted that the universe had to be either expanding or contracting. But Einstein, and everybody else, "knew" that they lived in a static, unchanging universe. His equation had to be wrong. To fix them, he added a symbol — ?, or lambda — now known as the cosmological constant. It effectively put a limit on how much the universe could change by balancing the push and pull of its competing forces. Like a Vegas casino, it stacked the odds in favor of the house. But the universe doesn't care about the odds.
You're my Favorite Mistake
In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced that his study of nearby galaxies (plus some number crunching by a now-forgotten priest) showed that — oops! — the universe was actually expanding. At this point, Einstein is famously quoted as saying that adding the cosmological constant was his "biggest blunder." He probably never did (and anyway, we're willing to bet he felt a lot worse about suggesting the U.S. build an atomic bomb than adding an extra symbol to an otherwise monumental discovery) but it was certainly a big regret.
But hold on, Albert! All is not lost. Physicists haven't thrown out that little lambda; they've just repurposed it. See, the value Einstein gave the cosmological constant made it so the universe neither expanded nor contracted. But change that value, and you can show that the universe changes size again. Today, the cosmological constant describes the energy density of empty space, or basically the force that's making the universe expand. We still don't know what that force is, or why the universe's expansion is accelerating. But on our road to understanding those mysteries, the cosmological constant will be there to help — right where Einstein put it.
The blooming of Japan's cherry blossoms is not only a delightful welcoming of springtime — it's a national obsession. The country has a deep-rooted relationship with the sakura (aka, cherry blossom), and the island's population goes all-out when they start to flourish. This annual flower freak-out is known as hanami.
Stop and Smell the Sakura
Each spring, the sakura bloom to display pastel pink hues throughout the entire country of Japan. Viewing these flowers is the tradition of hanami, and it's a pretty huge deal. The word itself means to just view flowers (hana means "flower" and mi is "to look"). During hanami season, which lasts for a few weeks in March and April, people hold flower appreciation picnics under the cherry blossoms.
The annual event of enjoying beautiful flowers takes shape in many ways. Leading up to the festival, you can find convenience store items in shades of pink and special cherry blossom-flavored goodies (cherry blossom Pepsi, anyone?). No wonder — food and drink are a big part of hanami. When the trees are blooming, parks can be filled to the brim with people eating sakura mochi and drinking sake on picnic blankets. The festivities usually go late into the night, often illuminated by paper lanterns hung from the trees.
The Japan Weather Association even has an annual sakura forecast it broadcasts live. Not surprisingly, this broadcast prompts international travelers to book their flights and flock to the island for sakura time.
It's Not Just About the Flowers
The beauty of the sakura bloom is undeniable, but the festival represents more than just pretty plants. As early as the eighth century, elite imperial courtiers of Japan made it a point to take in the beauty of the blooming sakura with picnics and poetry. The whole tradition is itself a symbol of Japanese cultural and philosophical beliefs. The short-lived nature of the cherry blossoms stands for the fleeting nature of life. The spring bloom also coincides with the start of spring, and the financial and academic year in Japan. Sakura means new beginnings, and that's a good enough excuse to enjoy beautiful sights, idyllic weather, and lavish picnics as any.
